From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 31, 1986:

• In Houston, President Reagan spoke at an outdoor memorial service for the seven Challenger astronauts. Bidding farewell to “our seven star voyagers,” Reagan promised that the U.S. would continue with a space program that was “effective, safe and efficient but bold and committed.”
• Unless some rain or snow were to fall in the evening hours, the waning month was set to go down into the record book as the driest January ever recorded in the Lawrence area. The only precipitation had been a trace amount recorded on Jan. 18.
• A report from the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation said that “passive” or secondhand smoke constituted a real danger to nonsmokers and that tougher restraints were needed. The office’s staff director said that evidence was mounting that “involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke” was a leading environmental source of death. Some scientists disagreed, saying that the findings were based on “seriously flawed studies.”