WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

LMH starts to see finances improve as pandemic restrictions ease; big changes on tap for emergency room doctors

LMH Health is starting to see a small change in its finances as surgeries and other procedures have started occurring again after pandemic-related restrictions have begun to ease at the hospital. But on the change front, it is the hospital’s emergency room that may soon see a large one. Members of the hospital’s board of trustees were meeting Wednesday, largely in a closed door executive session, to ...

LMH reaches tentative deal to shake up management of emergency department and other doctor staffing

Updated story - June 19 — LMH Health ‘pressing pause’ on controversial decision related to emergency room doctors The company overseeing the care at Lawrence’s only emergency department is set to go from a Lawrence-based company to a large, national firm. LMH Health announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative deal to end its more than 25-year partnership with a local physicians group that ...

Lawrence home sale totals tumble in May, but prices rise; selling prices up 10% from a year ago

It might be impossible for me to buy a new home right now. By the time I figure out how to unmute myself on the Zoom call negotiations, the house already would be sold. A new report shows Lawrence home sales fell in May as fewer homes were on the market. But those that did come to market sold exceedingly quickly. How quickly? The latest report from the Lawrence Board of Realtors found that the median number of ...

Cheese shop with a classic sandwich menu opens in downtown Lawrence

The phrase “say cheese” has ruined many a photo. Rather than smile, I bolt to get a flask of wine and a bag of tortilla chips (just in case it turns into a nacho party.) If cheese also excites you, there is a new shop in downtown Lawrence to take note of. Pedestrian Cheese has opened at 845 Massachusetts St. — the former home to Luckyberry — in recent weeks. Patrons have multiple ways to enjoy cheese ...

New downtown coffee and frozen custard shop will have an edge to it; small diner won't reopen after pandemic

A new downtown shop that sells coffee and frozen custard is not a big corporate operation. If it were, I sure would like to meet the manager who signed off on naming the business after a heroin-addicted punk rocker who also got tied up in a murder allegation. (Submit your expense accounts to that manager.) But, no, Sid and Nancy’s, 947 New Hampshire St., is not about being corporate. It is about a lot of ...

Car buyers allege that loan scheme ensnared hundreds at local dealership; dealer says 'errors' were not widespread

Sasha Jefferson last fall drove all the way from her southeast Kansas home in Pittsburg to get what she thought was a good deal on a used BMW at Lawrence Kia. That luxury car instead has taken her to a place she never expected to be: the center of an alleged loan scheme. The auto division of the banking giant Wells Fargo has determined that the income listed on Jefferson’s loan application was overstated, ...