WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

Lawrence receives poor grade in report ranking student debt burdens across the country

I’m not sure who is more excited about Sunday’s University of Kansas Commencement, the graduates or the many financial services firms that soon will start collecting on student debt. Whatever the case, excitement will be high in Lawrence because the community has a lot of graduates and a lot of student debt. A new report from the financial services firm WalletHub found that Lawrence might be the capital ...

Telling the 'unvarnished' stories of addicts is key to battling the drug crisis, national author tells local crowd

Sam Quinones is neither a doctor nor a scientist, but he’s seen and talked to enough addicts that he has a piece of advice that he wishes the groups Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous would heed. “I think they need to lose that second word,” Quinones told a local audience Wednesday at the Lawrence Public Library who had gathered to hear the author and journalist discuss his latest book on the ...

Dillons to close longtime 23rd Street store, will build larger store as part of KU West Campus project

Updated at 3:04 p.m. Tuesday, May 7 Dillons plans to replace its longtime grocery store on 23rd Street with a larger store on Iowa Street that will be part of a major new commercial development on KU’s West Campus. Dillons and KU Endowment — the owner of the West Campus property — announced the plans Tuesday morning after the Journal-World began inquiring about speculation surrounding the project. The ...

Spring came, but a surge in city sales tax collections did not; look for parking lot projects at both Walmart stores

Let’s look at some news and notes from around town: As spring sprung, both dandelions and dollars began to sprout in communities across the state. In Lawrence, the dandelions appeared to be the more active of the two. The April report from the Kansas Department of Revenue shows sales tax collections in Lawrence grew, but only slightly and at a rate far below most of the other major retail communities in ...

3 years ago, Douglas County approved stormwater regulations for site of solar project, but then never added them to the County Code

Updated at 3:51 p.m. Friday, May 3 In the fall of 2020, there was an urgency in the Douglas County Courthouse about flooding. A building roughly the size of a football field — home to the offices of a sod shop — had been built in the rural area north of North Lawrence, sparking concerns that other big buildings would follow and that the flat ground would become even more flood-prone than it already is. ...

Palestine solidarity group occupies lawn of Fraser Hall at KU; group issues demands to university administration

Updated at 4:04 p.m. Wednesday, May 1: A crowd of nearly 100 supporters of Palestine occupied the lawn in front of KU’s Fraser Hall on Wednesday, saying there “will be no business as usual on our campus until there is justice in Palestine.” The group yelled chants, including “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” and “Israel, Biden, you cannot hide, we charge you with genocide,” and ...