25 years ago: KU law student Phill Kline enters politics

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 10, 1986:

  • A few last-minute filings had added some new faces to the race for Kansas House seats. Lawrence Republican and fast-food restaurant employee Stan Eckert, 31, had beat the noon filing deadline by less than 10 minutes to enter the race against U.S. Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan. Phill Kline, a 26-year-old second-year law student at Kansas University, had filed for the office on the previous day.
  • A Leavenworth County District Court jury was still deliberating in the arson trial of Thomas Black Sr. of San Diego, Calif. Black had owned the former Royal College Shop, 837 Mass., which had been gutted by fire on Feb. 3, 1982. Clark Bricker, a professor emeritus of chemistry at KU, had been called by the defense to testify about the chemical traces found in the remains of the store. Bricker had testified that the chemical traces came from shoes, not from deglazing fluid as authorities had alleged. Black had been convicted in 1984, but the Kansas Court of Appeals had overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Defense attorneys had prevailed in their request for a move to Leavenworth County, saying that Black couldn’t receive a fair trial in Douglas County because of the case’s publicity.