From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 6, 1989:

• About a month had passed since the installation of a portable metal detector in a hallway of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, and the device appeared to be garnering praise for the extra safety it was providing for people visiting the Division 3 courtroom. However, Douglas County Sheriff Loren Anderson pointed out, the detector did have an effect on the staff of his office. “Two deputies, four hours a day,” he said, explaining the personnel required to operate the detector. “I might have to ask for more deputies from the (Douglas County) Commission.”
• Kansans were to be prohibited this year from buying skyrockets that were placed on sticks or wires due to a new interpretation of an existing state law banning bottle rockets. The skyrocket ban was not expected to make a big difference in Douglas County, where fireworks distributors had already been operating under a stricter interpretation of the law.
• Estimates of this year’s Kansas wheat crop had been slashed to below 200 million bushels as a result of the drought, according to Kansas Farm Bureau analysts. “The drought situation has become more critical and is having a major impact on the Kansas livestock industry,” said Warren Weibert, president of the Kansas Livestock Association, in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter this week.