Weather cancellations are few — so far

The threat of nasty weather today resulted in just one early cancellation Saturday evening.

The Rev. Jeff Sherpardson of the Eudora Methodist Church called off today’s services in anticipation of the weather.

Look for cancellation updates at www.ljworld.com and Sunflower Broadband Channel 6, where live weather coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. today.

For updated road conditions across the state from the Kansas Department of Transportation:

• Check the KDOT Web site, www.kanroad.org.
• Call the Kansas road condition hot line at (800) 585-7623.

Head Start researcher to speak at KU

A researcher whose work has been used as a basis for Head Start curriculum will speak Monday at Kansas University.

Susan H. Landry, professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of developmental pediatrics at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, will speak at 2 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The topic of her speech is “Promoting Cognitive Readiness in Ways that Support the Whole Child.”

Landry’s work on early child development and education includes helping to implement Head Start. She was a featured speaker at Laura Bush’s White House summit on cognitive development in 2001.

Sen. Daschle scheduled for KSU lecture series

Manhattan — The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate will be in Manhattan to deliver a Landon Lecture Monday at Kansas State University.

Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., will deliver the lecture at 9:30 a.m. Monday in McCain Auditorium.

Daschle’s lecture, “Can We Talk: Free Speech and Civil Discourse in Turbulent Times,” will focus on Congress’s reaction to Sept. 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For more information, call (785) 532-6221.

Officials urge Japan to keep K.C. consulate

Kansas City, Mo. — Area leaders are pushing Japan to keep open its consulate general office in Kansas City.

Because of budget cuts, area officials fear Japan is considering closing its consulate general office in Kansas City, along with its office in Anchorage, Alaska. The Kansas City office opened in 1979.

In a letter to Japan’s minister of foreign affairs, Rep. Karen McCarthy, D-Mo., and 15 other members of Congress from Missouri and Kansas urged the Japanese government not to close the office.

Japan is the biggest market for Kansas grain exports and the third-biggest for Missouri, McCarthy said, making Kansas City an ideal site for a consulate general office.