Museum curator to talk on dinosaur evolution

Did birds evolve from dinosaurs? Kansas University dinosaur expert Larry Martin says a new discovery in China is the best proof yet they did not.

Martin, senior curator at the KU Natural History Museum, will discuss the finding during a speech at 8 tonight at the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union. The speech, sponsored by the Sigma Xi honor society, is free and open to the public.

The talk will focus on a four-winged animal dating from 248 million to 65 million years old. Some scientists have said the feathered creature — called a Microraptor — helps prove dinosaurs evolved from birds.

But Martin said certain characteristics of the Microraptor, including feathers on the foot and a claw on the second toe, show it was closely related to maniraptorian dinosaurs, which are flightless birds. Maniraptorians can be traced back to a lizardlike creature, meaning birds and dinosaurs may both have come from the same ancestor — instead of birds developing from dinosaurs.

Play’s content focuses on clergy misconduct

A play by Lawrence playwright Preston Ransone will be performed at 8 p.m. Wednesday as a staged reading by the Kansas University theater department.

“Man of the Year” deals with a topic that has been making headlines for several years: sexual misconduct of clergymen with young men in their congregations. The play looks at the problem from a Protestant viewpoint.

The free performance is open to the public at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave.

County readies for road repairs

Douglas County shouldn’t have any problems getting all the rock and pavement needed for road repairs in rural areas this year, officials said Monday.

County commissioners agreed to buy asphalt pavement from Lawrence-based LRM Industries, the lone bidder for the contract.

LRM will charge the county $22.15 a ton, up $1 — or 4.7 percent — from a year ago. The county plans to spend up to $260,000 this year for the surface material.

Commissioners also accepted bids to buy gravel for repairing roads and adjacent shoulders from Hunt Midwest Inc. The county will use much of the “road aggregate” to maintain 30 miles of gravel roads cared for by county crews; the remaining 600 miles of gravel roads are the responsibility of township crews.

The county plans to spend up to $100,000 this year for road rock.

Conference planned for history teachers

History teachers from across the state will gather in Lawrence next month for a conference.

The 76th conference of the Kansas History Teachers Assn. will run April 4-5 at the Kansas Union at Kansas University. The association includes members from high schools, junior colleges and universities.

Topics will include religious beliefs, gender and nationalism in Europe; African immigrants in Kansas, essays from Kansas History magazine, individuals and communities in Kansas history, and the foreign policies of the United States, Mexico and Cuba.

To register, visit www.kuce.org/app/khta or call 864-5823.

Film on Cesar Chávez will be aired at KU

A Kansas University organization will watch a documentary about Cesar Chávez this month.

The event, planned by the Hispanic-American Law Students Assn., will be at 6 p.m. March 31 in Room 203 of Green Hall.

The documentary, “Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chávez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle,” focuses on the labor leader’s life, his success in organizing workers, and his fight for farmworkers’ issues, such as contracts, pesticides and union recognition.

The U.S. Postal Service will mark the 10th anniversary of Chávez’s death by issuing a postage stamp April 23.

For more information, contact Raymundo El– Rojas at 749-2455.

Sponsors needed for summer program

The Summer Food Service Program provides nutritious meals to 2 million hungry children nationwide during the summer.

School districts, local government agencies, churches and nonprofit agencies all help sponsor the program by offering meals at central locations such as parks, schools or community centers.

The program is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services at a national level and by the Kansas Department of Education. These departments provide payment to sponsors for documented meals.

Organizations wishing to sponsor or participate in the program should call Dot Smith or Peggy McAdoo at (785) 296-2276.