Negotiators for firefighters and the city of Lawrence reached terms on a new two-year work agreement, including a 9 percent cost-of-living raise in the first year of the pact.

A phenomenon which occurs only once every 17 years was very quietly beginning – emergence of the 17-year locusts. But the relative silence was not likely to last long. Eventually the din from the arrival of the magicicada septendecim was to be deafening in some sectors.