photo by: Richard Gwin

Jacob Gillespie, 12, shapes a clay vessel at the Lawrence Arts Center in a Sculpting with Clay class in this Aug. 2011 file photo. Gov. Sam Brownback on Thursday proposed providing $200,000 for the arts, but arts supporters said the measure was inadequate and didn’t make up for his veto of arts funding last year.

photo by: Nick Krug

Traffic and pedestrians move about Massachusetts Street in this Aug. 2011 file photo. Businesses began filling up vacant spaces in many parts of Lawrence in 2011, but downtown Lawrence wasn’t necessarily one of them. A new study by the Lawrence office of Colliers International found the city’s overall retail, office and industrial vacancy rates all fell in 2011, and all were significantly less than national averages.

photo by: Alex Garrison

Students from Sunflower Elementary School's choir, lead by music teacher Paul Gipson, perform at the district's annual Martin Luther King Day celebration Jan. 12, 2012 at Free State High School.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Second-graders at Quail Run School flex their muscles as they participate in Body Venture Thursday at the school. Body Venture is a traveling exhibit that takes students on an 11-stop tour of the body, primarily focusing on teaching healthy lifestyles.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Lee Crane, from Ottawa, braved the frigid temperatures Thursday on an outing to view bald eagles in the area. Six men accompanied Jen Radar, from Prairie Park Nature Center, on the tour that started at Clinton Lake, where the eagle at top was sighted, and then to Perry Lake. Along with the eagles, the group also saw some of their nests like this one at right at the entrance to Bloomington Park on the west side of Clinton Lake.