The City Commission moved to broaden the Lawrence Human Relations Code. An ordinance approved on first reading would outlaw discrimination because of age or handicap, extend protection to employees of companies with only two part-time workers and require recipients of industrial revenue bonds to meet all affirmative action standards. Tom Moore was vice chairman of the Human Relations Commission.

A Lawrence woman, Carol Lynn Wooderson, 31, was awarded $4.75 million by a Sedgwick County District Court jury in a suit alleging the use of a birth control pill caused the woman to lose her kidneys. The suit alleged that Ortho Pharmaceutical Co. should have listed the possible side effects of Ortho Novum, the company’s birth control pill. Attorneys for the defense claimed the drug carried sufficient warnings, which had been disregarded by the plaintiff.

Jack Wright of the Kansas University theater faculty was notified that “Buried Child,” a Sam Shepard Theater effort he had directed, had advanced to national competition in the American College Theatre Festival. “Everyone around here is on Cloud 9,” Wright said.