Commissioners seek Sunday sales input

City commissioners want to hear your views on the continued sale of alcohol on Sundays.

City staff members have created a section on the city’s Web site – www.lawrenceks.org – to solicit input on whether the city should adopt an ordinance allowing Sunday sales to continue.

A state law requires all cities that had previously agreed to allow Sunday sales to pass a new ordinance. Commissioners said before they did that, they wanted to hear from liquor store owners and the public.

The city will accept comments via the Web site until July 20. The feedback will be tallied and presented to commissioners at their weekly meeting July 26.

As part of the new state law, any city that permits Sunday sales of liquor must also allow sale of cereal malt beverages at grocery stores on Sunday. Currently that is not allowed in Lawrence.

Written comments also can be sent to: City Manager’s office, City Hall, 6 East Sixth Street, Lawrence, 66044 by July 20.

Bingo

Benefit to help with medical bills

A benefit dinner and bingo game tonight in Tonganoxie will help a local police officer deal with medical expenses related to a liver transplant.

Lt. John Putthoff, a 15-year veteran of the Tonganoxie Police Department, was diagnosed in 1998 with Hepatitis C and had to receive a liver transplant in May. He faces thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs, though the exact amount so far is unknown.

The benefit begins at 6 p.m. with a taco dinner at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds. For $5, people can get a taco salad, a drink and a dessert.

The bingo game starts at 7 p.m. It costs $10 to play all night. There will be prizes and an auction of a painting and a signed Kansas University basketball.

People who want to donate can send it to First State Bank and ask that it be deposited in the “Friends of Johnnie” account.

Driving

Great Race riders finish in third place

Lawrence Auto Club members driving cross-country in a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air ran the last long stretch Friday in the Great Race. There will be a short stretch to the finish line today.

The team includes 13 Lawrence area students and graduates. They are vying for the $10,000 prize. They started Friday’s leg in third place in Walla Walla, Wash., and ended in third place in Puyallup, Wash.

“They’re just now getting in their comfort zone, and it’s almost over,” said Dave Tenpenny, a Lawrence High auto instructor.

The team has averaged 350 miles per day in recent days. They faced adversity when their support bus broke down.

The transcontinental race covers about 4,200 miles and began June 25 in Harrisonburg, Va.

Topekan cited for littering in Lawrence

A Topeka man learned a hard lesson recently: When it comes to littering, don’t mess with Lawrence.

On the afternoon of June 27, Lawrence Police received a call from a local man who said he had seen someone throw a Pepsi can out a car window near 31st and Iowa streets. The caller had recorded the vehicle’s description and license plate number.

An officer came to the scene and collected the can. About an hour and a half later, a different officer found the vehicle downtown, made contact with the occupants and gave the 46-year-old Topeka man a notice to appear in municipal court.

Crime

Former KU student sentenced for arson

A former Kansas University student suspected of setting fire to Watson Library and two local businesses has been sentenced to six years and four months in prison for similar arsons in Johnson County.

David Ryan Jay, 25, received the maximum possible sentence Thursday from Johnson County District Court Judge Peter Ruddick, who said the penalty was warranted by the huge amount of damage – one fire at a senior center under construction was valued at more than $7 million – and extraordinary efforts required from fire and law enforcement.

Jay was found guilty at trial of one count of aggravated arson and 12 counts of arson for fires set in March 2004 throughout Johnson County.

During trial, a psychologist testified that Jay suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and set the fires to fight “the new world order” he believed would enslave poor people.

Jay has not yet been charged with the fires in Lawrence, which included a fire at a garden center and a dentist’s office.

City wins lawsuit

The city has won its latest round in an ongoing legal battle with a convicted felon known for videotaping police while spewing profanities at them.

After a nearly weeklong civil rights trial in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., jurors on Friday found in favor of the city and against Dale E. McCormick, 34.

McCormick had sued three Lawrence Police officers seeking more than $50,000 in damages, alleging they violated his Fourth Amendment rights by searching his car without a warrant in a Dec. 12, 2001, traffic stop.

McCormick, who represented himself at trial, alleged he suffered damages in the form of “wrath, anger, stress, consternation and oppression.” But he failed to prove to jurors that it was more likely than not officers violated his rights.

McCormick received a 17-year prison sentence in April 2004 after being convicted of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated intimidation of a witness. Jurors convicted him of breaking into the home of a woman who claimed he’d been stalking her.