From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 22, 1990:

• The Douglas County Commission this week re-emphasized its support for a public vote on a bond issue to help finance the proposed south Lawrence trafficway and scheduled a meeting with the Lawrence City Commission to discuss the project. During the meeting, city and county officials were expected to discuss the timing of the bond election and the wording of the ballot question. “It’s important that the public understand we will have a referendum,” said Mike Amyx, commission chair. Commissioners Louis McElhaney and Nancy Hiebert also said they were committed to a public vote on the bonds.
• Federal geologists said this week there was a risk of the Great Plains returning to a desert which would stretch from Texas to Canada. They said new evidence indicated that huge sand dunes underlying much of the Great Plains could easily resurface. Global warming threatened to accelerate the process by killing sparse vegetation that anchored the dunes, geologists said. “This was a major desert. It could happen again,” said Tom Ahlbrandt, who had led investigations earlier this month by a team of 13 geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey.