From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 16, 1987:

Telecommunications with the folks back home were proving difficult for a few area officials traveling in the Soviet Union this week. Kansas Atty. Gen. Robert Stephan, Lawrence Mayor Sandy Praeger, City Commissioner David Longhurst, and Meeting for Peace chair Bob Swan had left for Moscow on the previous Tuesday to attend an international forum called “Toward a Nuclear Weapons-Free World.” The local group was joining about 1,000 delegates from 80 countries at the three-day meeting. Nothing had been heard from them since their departure except for one lone telegram from Longhurst which had been received over the weekend, leaving a phone number for local media to call at 2 p.m. However, the initial attempt to use the phone number was unsuccessful, as an international AT&T operator said that lines to the Soviet Union were all busy and would not be open until 10:30 p.m. It was actually 9 1/2 hours before the media were able to get an operator to dial the number, which then, unsurprisingly, did not answer. Family members of some of the travelers were not expecting to hear from them until the group arrived back in Washington.