WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

KU wins changes to admission policy; standardized tests won't be required, and 2.0 GPA will suffice in some cases

Soon, incoming freshmen at the University of Kansas won’t have to take a standardized test — like the ACT or SAT — to get admitted to the university. But those students who do decide to take a test now will have a path to get into KU with a high school grade point average as low as 2.0. The Kansas Board of Regents approved both changes to KU’s freshman admission policies at a meeting earlier this ...

Credit union to expand with new location on south Iowa Street; grant program to fund outdoor workout centers for Kansas cities

Of course you can do banking remotely these days. (I’ll admit there was an unfortunate incident with a Sharpie and my iPhone when I tried to electronically endorse a check.) For those reasons and others, there are still plenty of people who want to go to a brick-and-mortar banking location. One credit union in particular is betting that is still the case in Lawrence. Envista Credit Union has reached a deal ...

Number of Douglas County residents eligible for vaccine to surge next week; LMH plans 5-day-per-week clinic

At least 11,000 Douglas County residents will become newly eligible for COVID-19 vaccines next week, and LMH Health is working to open a clinic that would provide 2,000 new shots per week for local residents. Brian Bradfield, associate vice president for ancillary services at LMH, told hospital board members Wednesday morning that Douglas County residents who are in the state’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 categories ...

Latest job numbers show Lawrence still not bouncing back as much as the rest of the state

At first glance, it looks like Kansas’ job market has largely rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest numbers from the state’s labor department. But there are dark corners in the state where that’s not true, and you’ll find Lawrence in one of those corners. The positive headline number for the state is that the unemployment rate was down to 3.5% in January, according to a recently ...

Local taco stand, Mexican grocery reaches deal to move into much bigger space; Raven bookstore gets national attention

If you have ever stood behind me in line at a Mexican restaurant, you know there is a word I love to use with all Mexican food: grande. It makes everything better, and now fans of a local taco stand and Mexican grocery store will get to see how. The Lawrence tienda La Estrella has reached a deal to get much bigger in a new location. There are actually two pieces of news to pass along about La Estrella. The ...

Publicly traded tech firm taps downtown for satellite office; executive thinks Lawrence has advantages to attract more

Alarm.com is a publicly traded company that has quietly opened an office in downtown Lawrence. It provides a lot of the technology that makes smart homes — remote control of everything from lights to door bells — possible. But I wonder if the company knows anything about smart offices. Its Lawrence office is located above an ice cream shop. I wouldn’t call that smart. I would call that freaking ...