WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

New nonprofit opens furniture store that teaches young people in foster system work, life skills

Forrest Gump can spout all he wants about life being "like a box of chocolates,” but a new Lawrence nonprofit thinks a box of unassembled furniture may be more apt. In a small warehouse in North Lawrence, a group of about 10 “transitional youth” — kids typically 16 to 24 years old who have been or are in the foster care system or the juvenile justice system — await a truck to pull up to the overhead ...

Chancellor says KU targeting 5% pay increase for employees; tuition increase not yet off the table

Many KU employees are likely to get a 5% raise in the next school year, and the question of whether students will see a tuition hike is still an open one, according to the university’s chancellor. University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod said he expected the average merit wage increase at KU to be at or near the 5% level when the new fiscal year begins in July, even though Kansas lawmakers haven’t ...

KU Innovation Park receives nearly $1 million federal grant, hopes to receive word on $50M grant this summer

A project to make KU’s West Campus a larger center for pharmaceutical and technology companies received almost $1 million in additional funding on Thursday. The University of Kansas’ Innovation Park project received a $957,500 grant through the federal Small Business Administration to add a small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing facility to a technology incubator building that is under construction on ...

Lecompton will be full of Lincolns — the president, not the car — on Saturday; national association to visit historic sites

At first blush, having a couple dozen Abraham Lincoln re-enactors attend a play sounds a bit risky, but it really won’t be. It won't be that fateful and tragic play at Ford's Theatre, but it will be unique. And it also will be nearby, in Lecompton. Approximately 30 Abraham Lincoln re-enactors — plus some re-enactors of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln — will be in the small, northwest Douglas County community ...

Kansas higher education funding to grow by at least $108M next year; what that means for KU raises still being determined

State funding for higher education in Kansas — including for the University of Kansas — will grow by at least $108 million next year, now that Gov. Laura Kelly has signed the state’s main budget bill. While the increase is historic in size, it is not enough to answer all the questions surrounding the state’s universities, including how much of a raise university employees might receive now that state ...

New events venue along Kansas Turnpike plans to have everything from concerts to car shows

I used to think Tuesdays were only good for tacos, but now there’s a new local business that says it's good for two-stepping as well. Yes, Two-Step Tuesdays are a thing now in Lawrence. But, no, I don’t have news of a new country bar opening in Lawrence. A bar would be too narrow of a definition for what Chase Westheffer and his family have opened along the Kansas Turnpike in North Lawrence. Instead, ...