Vandals again hit barbecue restaurant

The owners of Vermont Street BBQ are starting to wonder if someone is out to get them.

Early Friday, someone used a newspaper rack to smash a window at the restaurant’s new location, the recently closed Paradise Cafe, 728 Mass. It’s the second time in the restaurant’s short life that it has been victimized.

Shortly after the business opened in fall 2002 at 805 Vt., someone threw a tree stump through a glass door, took meat out of a refrigerator and threw it into the alley, and smeared baked beans and pickles on the floor and windows.

About $1,000 worth of food had to be discarded then. This time, damage was estimated between $300 and $400.

Co-owner Shad Woodworth said he didn’t know whether the two incidents were related.

“We don’t have any personal enemies that we can think of,” he said. “It could be completely random, or it’s business-related. It’s just hard to tell.”

Free State students top blood donations

Free State High School students prevailed this week in the battle of the blood.

FSHS students donated 77 pints of blood Thursday, 15 more than Lawrence High School students donated Tuesday.

The blood benefits the Community Blood Center, which provides blood to hospitals in the Kansas City region.

The campaign fell short of its goal of collecting from 80 donors at each school. Last year, LHS had 83 donors, while FSHS had 66 donors.

KU official named to Hispanic committee

Topeka — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Friday named Steve Ramirez of Lawrence to the Kansas Advisory Committee on Hispanic Affairs.

Ramirez is assistant director of the Equal Opportunity Office at Kansas University.

Sebelius also selected Rodrigo Bonilla, a social worker from Salina, and Itzel Stewart, a grant coordinator at Garden City Community College, to the panel.

The advisory council works on issues of education, employment, housing, health and culture.

KU cancer institute named to honor donor

Kansas City, Kan. — The Kansas University Medical Center’s cancer research organization has been renamed to honor a foundation that recently pledged $20 million toward the program.

The institute is now the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute, KU announced Friday.

The Topeka-based Kansas Masonic Foundation’s donation will help the institute move toward its goal of being a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Ottawa University elects new trustees

Ottawa — Five new members have been elected to the Ottawa University Board of Trustees, university officials announced Friday.

Each will serve a three-year term.

Newly elected are Janice Wissman, Manhattan, associate dean of the College of Education at Kansas State University; Richard Jackson, mayor of Ottawa; Henry Scherich, Durham, N.C., president and CEO of Measurement Inc.; E. Earl “Sonny” Hays, Phoenix, a retired council director for Boy Scouts of America; and Warren Smith, Tulsa, Okla., senior pastor at Community Baptist Church.