From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 23, 1988:

• Local attorney Eugene Riling had begun collecting signatures on a petition calling for the Lawrence City Commission to repeal and discontinue the city’s Business Improvement District. The ordinance establishing the district had required fees on business owners to pay for services and projects intended to make downtown Lawrence more attractive. “I started it because a lot of merchants don’t want it. I know I don’t,” said Riling of the petition. Earlier, Riling’s downtown law firm had been joined by 48 other downtown businesses in a suit in Douglas County District Court to have the ordinance overturned, but District Judge Michael Malone had ruled against the group, saying that the BID was both legal and fair.
• “Like a giant black insect creeping across a desert valley” was a national news service writer’s description of the new Stealth Bomber which was rolled out of its secret hangar today during its public debut. The B-2 bomber, said to be one of the costliest and most controversial weapons systems in Pentagon history, had also drawn comparisons to a “monster bat, “a huge boomerang,” and “Darth Vader in shoulder pads.” With its flying-wing design and radar-absorbing synthetic skin, this particular bat was a significant technological achievement. The bomber represented “a stabilizing system in time of crisis and an essential component of our strategic nuclear forces as we progress down the path of nuclear arms reduction,” said Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge Jr.