Mark Fagan / LJWorld.com

Staff

Mark Fagan (Transportation reporter)

I’ve been a reporter and editor at the Journal-World since 1992, and have been turning stories and other content for LJWorld.com since before media convergence was considered cool.

While I now concentrate on transportation news, I’ve been known to dip into matters ranging from business to bioscience to Kansas University basketball.

For a story, I once drove a former Winston Cup car for 10 laps around Kansas Speedway, apparently at speeds reaching 165 mph (that’s what they told me; the car had no speedometer, not that I would have chanced looking at it anyway).

I say roundabouts make sense both on paper and in practice, although I have many friends who constantly try to convince me otherwise. And bacon is the greatest meat on Earth.

I also drive a Honda Odyssey minivan, and am darned happy about that — I figure its well earned family-wagon appearance has helped me avoid at least a few tickets, compared with the citation-magnet red Civic I used to drive.

Recent photos

Members of the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group — including, center row, left to right, Mike Myers, Chris Lempa and Chuck Epp — will have until Feb. 15 to come up with recommendations for the Lawrence school board. Monday night, Myers, Lempa, Epp and several other members secured from the board another two weeks to finish their work, which began in September. The group's next meeting is 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

Josh Davis, a member of the Central and East Lawrence Consolidation Working Group, categorizes condensed options previously forwarded by representatives from six schools identified as candidates for potential consolidation: Cordley, Hillcrest, Kennedy, New York, Pinckney and Sunset Hill. Davis, a representative from New York School, was among more than two dozen group members who met Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, at Lawrence school district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

Representatives of Pinckney School on the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group gather to discuss upcoming meetings. Seated, from left, are David Unekis, Stacey White and Karla Hughes. Standing, from left, are John Wilkins, an architect hired by the Lawrence school district to assist with the group's deliberations, and Pinckney teacher Alison Nye.

Terri Durgan, right, an elementary teacher who favors use of standards-based grades in school, listens as members of the Lawrence school board receive a report at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive. In the row behind her are Megan King, left, and Jill Patton, two parents who have been critical of the Lawrence school district's use of standards-based grades for sixth-graders, now in middle schools. Folks on both sides of the issue listened intently Monday night as board members reaffirmed the district's use of standards-based grading.

Dawn Shew, a member of the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group, points out a potential new boundary — which would be Ninth Street to the North — for a new school that would combine the bulk of Kennedy and New York schools at a site near the former home of East Heights School. Shew made the presentation during the Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 meeting of the working group, advocating for a new school. "If we are going to be consolidated, this would be ideal for us," she said.

Full photo list