WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

Organizers hope to attract more than 1,000 cyclists to Lawrence on Halloween for major bike race — and waffles

There’s a good chance the most popular Halloween costume in Lawrence this year will be a bicyclist. (Mine will be fully accurate, complete with defibrillator attached to my chest.) I say that because planning is well underway to host a bike race that is expected to attract more than 1,000 riders to Lawrence this Halloween. “That probably would be the biggest bike event to ever happen in Douglas County,” ...

Lawrence Public Library will forgo property tax rate increase in 2022, but also will have to scrap plan for employee raises

An odd tax story is taking shape in Douglas County this year, and the Lawrence Public Library is one of the first organizations to get a reading on it. The oddity: Home prices are soaring in Lawrence as the city suffers a shortage of available homes. Normally those rising home prices would mean the county’s overall tax base would take a significant jump too, which normally leads to local governments getting ...

Plans filed to add more housing near Bob Billings and SLT interchange; idea of grocery store at site dims

There have been hopes by some west Lawrence residents and developers alike that a large grocery store would locate near the Bob Billings interchange on the South Lawrence Trafficway. But those hopes are dimming as owners of the property have filed plans to change the zoning on much of the vacant land from commercial to residential uses. If you were a fan of the grocery store idea, consider it another victim of ...

Natural gas bills in Lawrence would jump by 22% a month for next 5 years under plan to deal with polar vortex costs

There was a time during February’s polar vortex when I thought it might take me five years to feel my fingers again. Instead, it may just take me five years to pay off the gas bill from the historic winter storm. That’s not hyperbole. Black Hills Energy, the largest natural gas provider in Lawrence, has announced its plan for charging people for the large amounts of expensive natural gas that were used ...

KU loses some funding, faces a looming $50 million maintenance bill; Girod tells Regents plan is 'irrational'

It was a day of lost funding and future budget threats for the University of Kansas, so much so that KU’s chancellor at one point told the Kansas Board of Regents it was acting irrationally. KU got unwelcome budget news on both the short-term and long-range levels at Thursday’s Kansas Board of Regents meeting. For the next school year, KU unexpectedly lost $325,000 in state funding that it once appeared ...

KU says it won't use policy that would suspend tenure of faculty members

University of Kansas leaders are pledging to not use a controversial policy that would have allowed them to suspend tenure protections for faculty members. KU Chancellor Douglas Girod told the Kansas Board of Regents on Thursday morning that he was confident the university would not have to suspend tenure of any faculty members at the Lawrence campus or the medical center campus in Kansas City, Kan. The ...