KU students take race car to competition

Kansas University engineering students will put thousands of hours of work to the test this week in Pontiac, Mich.

The students are taking their race car to the Society of Automotive Engineers Formula Car Competition. They left Tuesday for Michigan. Above, suspension team leader James Cronin, Topeka senior, left, and Clint Carrier, Wichita senior, make steering adjustments to the car.

Eighteen seniors and a handful of volunteer underclassmen have worked on the design since August, with production beginning in January. The car uses a Honda F41 motorcycle engine and can go from zero to 90 mph in less than five seconds.

There are 140 teams scheduled to participate in the competition. KU has placed in the top 25 in three of the past four years.

Law enforcement: Kansas uses Amber Alert

Topeka — Kansas’ first use of the Amber Alert worked Tuesday, but the wrong people were found.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies were looking for a man who was suspected of taking a girl Monday in Stillwater, Okla. Someone called the KBI Tuesday afternoon reporting that the two had been seen at the Topeka Travel Plaza.

The KBI later found the man and girl and identified them as relatives traveling together.

Monday, the state of Oklahoma put out an Amber Alert and requested Kansas’ help in watching for Shawnda Marie Cheney, 10, and Presley Earl Hood, 56. They were last seen Saturday in Stillwater, Okla., and are thought to be heading to Branson, Mo.

Hood was thought to have been driving a 1991 white, four-door Buick with Missouri license plates 027RPG.

City: Board suggests renaming creek for Beat author

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Tuesday said the city should rename a creek in eastern Lawrence for the late Beat generation author William S. Burroughs.

The city could rename the “ATSF Ditch” on its own, board members said. But they urged city officials to seek a federal designation — the creek currently has no official name on federal maps, they said.

The creek runs through the Barker and Brook Creek neighborhoods, including near Burroughs’ former house at 19th Street and Learnard Avenue.

Burroughs, author of “The Naked Lunch,” lived the last years of his life in Lawrence. He moved here in 1981 and died in 1997.

Emergency response: Malfunction causes fire at Westar Energy plant

Firefighters put out a fire early Tuesday morning at Westar Energy Inc.’s Lawrence power plant.

The fire started shortly before 4:30 a.m. when oil dripped out of a bearing inside an air heater at the company’s Lawrence Energy Center, 1250 N. 1800 Road. Workers on the scene initially sprayed the area with fire extinguishers but called firefighters when the air heater kept flaming up, plant manager Mark Yates said.

Firefighters from the Wakarusa and Kanwaka townships and Lecompton responded.

Yates said the fire caused little damage. No customers lost power.