From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 3, 1987:

• Rodger Oroke, Kansas University’s Director of Support Services, said this week that the KU power plant had switched from low-grade fuel oil to clean-burning natural gas. Residents near the area were expected to get relief from the smoke and odd smells that had plagued the area in recent months.
• Many local residents had noticed that the needles had been falling from their Austrian pine trees. George Osborne, Lawrence’s parks and forestry superintendent, said that the trees were suffering from a fungus called diplodia blight. The fungus, common to Austrian pines, had become particularly widespread in Lawrence in the last three years.