WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

City to consider one-time amnesty program for frequent parking offenders; after that may come the parking boot

In the category of carrots, people who have racked up a lot of parking tickets in downtown Lawrence soon may get a chance to wipe those tickets off their record for a reduced fee. In the category of sticks, future and frequent parking offenders in downtown may have a parking boot slapped on their wheels, making their vehicles immobile until they pay their fines. Lawrence city commissioners at their Tuesday ...

KU submits request to raise tuition, fees by 5%, on average, next school year; increase would be higher than most in the state

Many students at the University of Kansas likely will see a 5% increase for tuition and fees next school year, as the Kansas Board of Regents received additional details about cost proposals Wednesday. As reported earlier, KU presented a request for a 3.5% increase in tuition rates for the 2024-2025 school year, which placed KU in the middle of the pack in terms of what other state universities were seeking. ...

KU says faculty, staff underpaid by about $27M per year when compared to private sector, peer schools

Employees at the University of Kansas — from professors to custodians — are underpaid by more than $27 million a year, according to a recently completed report by KU leaders. A KU leader announced the number Wednesday morning to a fiscal committee of the Kansas Board of Regents. Chief Financial Officer Jeff DeWitt said the wage gap will mean that KU needs to continue to provide cost-of-living increases to ...

Grant Township, businesses, individuals file lawsuit seeking to overturn county approval of solar project

Story updated at 11:55 a.m. May 14, 2024 A fellow government entity and more than 20 businesses and individuals have filed a lawsuit against Douglas County challenging its approval of a massive solar energy project. Grant Township — the rough equivalent of a city council for the rural area north of North Lawrence — is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that contends Douglas County commissioners violated the ...

Past comments create new questions about why 2020 stormwater rules aren't being applied to solar project

In late 2020, Douglas County commissioners were told by their engineer it would be “tough” for big development projects to meet new, special stormwater regulations created for the rural area north of North Lawrence. Now, less than four years later, that very area is the proposed site for the Kansas Sky Energy Center project, which with nearly 8 million square feet of solar panels on 600 acres is the ...

KU graduate teaching assistants' demands for nearly 10% raise rejected; KU moves to impose new contract

Graduate teaching assistants at the University of Kansas are set to get a pay increase — and a reminder of the balance of power between labor unions and KU administration. The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday is set to approve a 2.5% pay increase for GTAs. That increase is about a quarter of what the GTA labor union had been seeking in months of negotiation, plus KU has rejected several other demands ...