Jury selection began in the first of 13 civil lawsuits to come to trial in connection with the 1977 natural gas explosion in downtown Lawrence that killed two men. The blast also destroyed the Pier 1 Imports store at 747 Mass. along with wiping out the overhead apartment in which the men lived.

Kansas University officials were predicting a decline in summer school enrollment, the first such drop in more than five years. Inflation and the sagging economy were listed as the main culprits.

Officials reversed the report that said a Baldwin man, Brent Walking Eagle, 24, was dead when he was struck by a car while lying in the road. The man, whose body was partially obscured, apparently was killed when he was hit by the car, but no charges were to be filed. It had been thought he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident and had been left lying in the road. The incident occurred during darkness following a storm that had left debris lying near where Walking Eagle’s body was found.