¢ Disappointment in the way the Eugene, Ore., city council handled an issue tied to a new police auditor led Dennis Taylor, the city manager there, to apply for the city manager job in Lawrence, the Eugene Register-Guard reports. He is one of the finalists for the Lawrence position, and city officials in Eugene were surprised to learn of his candidacy._Taylor was disappointed that his name was shared with the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper. He said the job recruiter told him his name only would be released if he was hired.__After Taylor received a call Sunday night from a Register-Guard reporter, he sent Piercy and councilors an e-mail to inform them that he had applied for the job. “I apologize for the awkward way you were notified,” Taylor told councilors._¢ Taylor also is the subject of an editorial in the Register-Guard._Is Dennis Taylor hoping to go to Kansas, or is he hoping to get away from Eugene? It could be a little of both. But if Eugene’s city manager is offered the same position in the city of Lawrence and accepts the job, it ought to be for the right reasons. Perceived slights at the hands of the Eugene City Council shouldn’t be among them.__Taylor’s status as one of three finalists for the top administrative job in Lawrence was reported Sunday by the Lawrence Journal-World. News that Taylor was applying for the position hadn’t reached Eugene City Hall before then. Taylor’s interest in moving comes as a surprise; at age 60, Taylor had spoken of retiring in Eugene._¢ Meanwhile, the Reading (Pa.) Eagle writes that another finalist for the Lawrence city manager position, Reading Managing Director R. Leon Churchill Jr., says his interest in both the Lawrence job and a similar position in Dayton, Ohio, goes back to “personal, professional and family needs.”_”Lawrence has the makings of being one of the best places in America, and I think they need a talented city manager to achieve that,” Churchill said._¢ Caleb Stegall, an attorney from Perry, asks how George Will can defend Wal-Mart in this letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News._ As Mr. Will sees it, the liberal war on Wal-Mart in the name of the common man is really a war on the preferences of the common man. By couching his arguments in terms of “consumer sovereignty” and the “preferences of ordinary Americans,” Mr. Will undermines liberal objections to Wal-Mart by co-opting the historically liberal defense of unconstrained freedom of individual choice. This is effective for puncturing the pretensions of liberal elites, but it’s a curious position for an avowed conservative._¢ Dr. Jeanne Drisko, a professor at the KU Medical Center, says a surge in enzyme-based supplements is coming despite a lack of federal funding. She’s quoted in a story on MSNBC.com._The reasons (for the surge) include growing distrust in pharmaceutical safety, baby boomers with bad colons and a natural products industry that is shedding its “snake oil salesman” reputation._¢ A Kansas University professor advocated a new method of researching rivers at a conference in Australia, according to this story in the the Border Mail, an Australian newspaper.._Jim Thorp, from the University of Kansas in the US, spoke of a new conceptual theory called the “river in ecosystem synthesis”.__”It is a way of looking at rivers from the headwaters to the mouth of the larger rivers and it’s a research framework and a new approach to how we monitor rivers,” he said. Prof Thorp said Australia would provide one of three international sites for a research model in a study that would extend over the next three to five years._¢ Janet Hamburg, a KU professor who uses exercise to help Parkinson’s patients, is quoted in a [New York Resident][7] story about the benefits of dance for Parkinson’s sufferers._Janet Hamburg, dance professor at the University of Kansas who created her own exercise method for people with Parkinson’s, said music stimulates the same part of the brain as dancing, because “the rhythm, timing and phrasing of the choreography are inherent in the music.”__Although the benefits of dance have not been scientifically proved, students, teachers, spouses and caregivers say they have noticed significant improvement in the students’ flexibility and posture._ [7]: http://70.47.124.114/node/226