Tickets for Dean rally to go on sale today

Tickets for the Howard Dean rally at Liberty Hall, 644 Mass., will go on sale at noon today, according to state Democratic officials.

Dean, a former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor, recently elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is scheduled to be in Lawrence on Friday for the rally.

Doors for the Liberty Hall rally will open at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The rally is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets, priced at $5 each, will be sold first-come, first-served.

“Gov. Dean is responsible for bringing many new active Democrats to our party. He knows how to build the party from the grassroots up, and we are thrilled he chose Kansas as the place to start,” said Larry Gates, chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party.

NAACP fund-raiser

Soul Food Dinner on the menu for March

The Lawrence branch of the NAACP will hold its annual Soul Food Dinner from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 19 at the First Baptist Church, 1330 Kasold Drive.

The dinner is held to benefit the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Scholarship Fund.

The menu for the dinner includes smoked brisket, fried chicken, red beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, corn bread, rolls, peach cobbler, sweat tea and coffee.

Tickets for the event cost $7, and can be purchased from any NAACP branch member. For purchase information, contact Bessie Walker at 841-0030.

Elections 2005

Another chance to meet the candidates

The League of Women Voters and the Voter Education Coalition has organized one more Lawrence City Commission candidate forum before the March 1 primary.

The groups will sponsor a question-and-answer forum at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s auditorium.

The question-and-answer portion of the program is expected to last until 2:30 p.m. Candidates are expected to mingle with visitors until 3 p.m.

Nine candidates are vying for three at-large spots on the commission. The March 1 primary will narrow the field to six. The general election will be April 5.

Schools

Panel to discuss teen alcohol abuse

The Lawrence High School Prevention Staff and Lions’ Pride, the LHS parent teacher organization, will sponsor a panel discussion this week on the dangers of teen alcohol abuse.

“A Wrong of Passage” will be held in the LHS Auditorium from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.

Local law enforcement officers and legislators will be among those on the panel. The event is open to the public, and parents are encouraged to attend.

KU seminar to explore pop culture, media law

“Popular Culture and Media Law” will be the focus of a seminar in April organized by the Kansas University School of Law and KU Continuing Education.

The seminar will use legal experts to examine how movements in popular culture manifest themselves in media law and how the media influence the nation’s cultural wars.

Topics will include celebrity trials; the Federal Communication Commission’s crackdown on indecency; parody, satire and humor in the context of defamation and intellectual property rights; and whether traditional media freedoms are in danger.

The seminar will be held at the Fairmont Kansas City at the Plaza, 401 Ward Parkway in Kansas City, Mo. For more information or to register, call 864-4871, e-mail kuce@ku.edu or visit www.kuce.org/programs/ml.

KU lecture series to look at globalization

A lecture series this spring at the Kansas University Edwards Campus in Overland Park will focus on globalization and imperialism.

The Empire Lecture Series, organized by the Hall Center for the Humanities, features three lectures that begin at 7:30 p.m.

Lectures scheduled are:

• Tuesday, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire,” by Tara Welch, assistant professor of classics.
• March 10, “Ecological Imperialism,” by Donald Worster, professor of American history. He will address the roles of non-native plants, animals and disease on gaining control of a native society.
• March 31, “Churchill and His Forty Thieves,” by Victor Bailey, professor of modern British history and director of the Hall Center. He will discuss the actions of the League of Nations that created Iraq. For more information, call 864-4798.