From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for April 5, 1973:

• Lawrence residents were evenly divided on the issue of traffic lights on Massachusetts Street, but the city’s downtown merchants were hoping for stop lights instead of stop signs, and the public works department was to begin installing the lights early next week. Among the reasons given for opinions on both sides of the debate were unsightliness, safety, and traffic flow. One respondent objected to stop signs, saying that they made Lawrence look “like a country town, not a city,” while another preferred them for that reason, saying they added “a homey atmosphere and a slower pace” downtown. The signals were planned for Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and 10th streets and were to cost a total of $32,000.
• Commercial zoning for 20 acres at the southeast corner of 31st and Iowa streets was recommended for approval this week by the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. The corner was to be used by K mart Discount Stores. Commissioners voted to defer a request for commercial rezoning for 48 acres to the south of the K mart site. Opponents to the rezoning said that not enough planning had been done in the area. “The issue is — will Iowa Street be commercial all the way down to the flood plain,” said one local resident. The land in the second rezoning request was under option by Turner Chevrolet and Jim Clark Motors.
• In Florida, spacecraft Pioneer 11 was scheduled for launch this evening from Cape Kennedy. The craft was to follow the same path as Pioneer 10, launched just over a year ago, heading on a 20-month journey toward Jupiter. Both crafts were to take readings of the atmosphere, radiation, temperatures, magnetic fields, and chemical composition of the giant planet.