Energy

New wind farm project planned for Kansas

By the end of the year, 50 to 75 giant wind turbines could tower above the western Kansas landscape near Leoti under a deal announced earlier this week.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Renewable Energy Systems said Monday that preliminary construction work on a plant just east of Leoti could begin as early as May if the project is approved by Rural Utilities Service and the Kansas Corporation Commission.

The project is expected to create 100 to 150 construction jobs, and as many as 10 permanent jobs once it goes into operation. Sunflower Electric, a Hays-based energy company, will buy much of the plant’s power.

Education

Wichita law school faces financial crisis

The President’s College School of Law, which opened in 1994 to serve mostly nontraditional students, has told students it might close after May 31.

School officials said the school does not have the money needed to make changes necessary to gain accreditation by the American Bar Assn.

Dixie Madden, dean of the college, said that board consultants have told her the school needs to raise about $25 million during the next five years to make changes and improvements required to achieve accreditation.

Madden said the school has enough funding commitments to operate until May 31.

If the school is unable to get financial support beyond then, “we will have no choice but to wind down and discontinue operations,” Madden wrote in a recent letter to students, faculty and staff members.

The school was largely a project of late Wichita businessman Willard Garvey.

“I continue to be hopeful,” Madden said, “because I think this is a very worthy project.”

Aviation

United outlines its plan to regain profitability

United Airlines said Wednesday it planned to return to profitability through reducing costs, launching a low-cost carrier and using more regional jets.

In the most extensive comments yet on its new strategy in bankruptcy, United told its employees it needed its own discount carrier to become more competitive in the leisure travel market.

It defended the plan to create a separate, low-cost airline — which has been assailed by unions and questioned by industry experts since it was first disclosed in December — saying it will entail a new business model that “has learned from the industry’s past mistakes.”