Good news on the unemployment front isn’t in store for this holiday season. You’ve probably seen the national news of an uptick in joblessness recently, after a turnaround appeared to be in process. Now, we have state and Lawrence numbers that show the same is happening here. The unemployment rate in Lawrence rose to 5.3% in November, up from 4.8% in October. Looking back to a year ago, the numbers are ...
It would be inaccurate to say there is not a dime’s worth of difference between living in Lawrence and Joplin, Mo. One is home to a major university and in a growing corridor just minutes away from somewhat cosmopolitan Kansas City. The other is in an isolated area of southwest Missouri and may be best known for fighting back from a devastating 2011 tornado. But it would be accurate to say there is not $10 ...
Lawrence Memorial Hospital will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines this afternoon, LMH leaders were told this morning. The first vaccinations are expected to begin about 1:30 p.m. at the hospital, but members of the general public shouldn’t travel to the hospital expecting to get a vaccination. The first vaccinations will be limited to health care workers and first responders. Members of the general ...
As leaders at LMH Health look ahead to 2021, they expect the pandemic to have eased greatly by the second half of the year and for finances at the not-for-profit hospital to be on an upswing. But they aren’t expecting it to be a year without threats. LMH will be on the lookout for competitors from the both the east and west to get more aggressive in the Lawrence market. “The past practice of being able ...
Certain parts of Lawrence love a good Thomas Fritzel question. My phone started ringing after The Kansas City Star earlier this month published an article raising questions about the propriety of a $9 million federally backed, pandemic-related loan that was given to a little-known company tied to the Fritzel family. I’ve been looking into the issue too. The Star’s article is definitely interesting, and the ...
It is easy to predict that the economic tally for Lawrence in 2020 won’t be pretty. It also is a good bet that the final analysis will show the 2020 downturn was fueled, in part, by tough times in the city’s rental market, as the pandemic caused hundreds — if not thousands — of students to decide they don’t need a local apartment to attend online classes. But a new set of federal numbers suggests ...