From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 6, 1987:

• In town to shoot the movie “Kansas,” actor Matt Dillon said that he had done a couple of weeks of research before filming started, wanting to get a feel for the dark side of his character in the movie. “I went up to the Lansing State Penitentiary and I talked with some of the cats up there,” Dillon said. He added that he had visited the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County Jail as well as talking to people in a few local bars, “going to the masses, and finding out what they are…. You realize that Lawrence is a pretty relatively quiet town, but there are its darker elements.”
• Lawmakers in Topeka were admitting themselves hopelessly stalemated at the conclusion of their special session. The session had adjourned after failed attempts to make a compromise that would enable the enactment of a comprehensive highway improvement project. Gov. Mike Hayden blamed the House Democrats in general and House Minority Leader Marvin Barkis specifically for the collapse of the special session, the first that had been called for 21 years. Lawrence legislators said that the session may have been “doomed from the outset” but that the highway issue would reappear during the regular session.