WRITER: Kim Callahan

City of Lawrence characterizes railroad as inhumane for not letting campers stay on its property for winter

Updated at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9 After the BNSF Railroad gave notice late last week for campers to vacate its eastern Lawrence property by Sunday — a move strongly criticized by the city — several people remained Monday morning in a wooded landscape dotted with tents and debris. The homeless camp just east of Eighth and Delaware streets has grown after the City of Lawrence closed a sprawling camp on ...

Lawrence man gets 4.5 years in prison for child sexual abuse; woman details yearslong trauma to court

A 57-year-old man looked away Friday as a young woman described to a Douglas County judge how he had stolen her childhood with years of sexual abuse. “You’re so mature for your age,” she said Scott Waisner told her when she was just 14 years old — a statement that she later realized was the calling card of a groomer. “Was I?” she asked the court, or was that just a way for Waisner, then in his 40s, ...

'He literally saved my life': Free State teacher grateful for student's quick action in rescuing him from choking to death

Forty-two-year-old art teacher Jacob Lewis is acutely aware that he would have died in August if it weren’t for his student Lucas Fearn. “He literally saved my life that day,” Lewis said of the Free State High School senior who is also his teaching assistant. It was the second week of school, which had gotten out early that day, and the two were alone in Lewis’ ceramics studio, talking about this and ...

Who can construct Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in 6 weeks from pure imagination? Theatre Lawrence's handyman can

Backstage, Theatre Lawrence is a bit like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory; but instead of industrious Oompa Loompas whipping up candies there’s a small army of volunteers building, painting, decorating, sewing — putting in thousands of man hours to create an extraordinarily short-lived confection: the set for a few hours of live theater. Since the end of October, longtime technical director and designer ...

At Transgender Day of Remembrance, Lawrence community urges strength and solidarity in face of fears

A common take on this year’s presidential election is that a focus on “boutique” or “exotic” issues such as transgender rights alienated most American voters. “Americans who identify with a gender other than the one they were born with represent a minuscule part of the population,” syndicated columnist Froma Harrop wrote in her post-mortem of the Democratic election loss, echoing many a ...

Douglas County judge won't allow key evidence in man's shooting trial as sanction for state's violation of his rights

Updated at 3:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18 A district judge on Monday sanctioned the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for not turning over potentially exculpatory evidence to a criminal defendant — a sanction that prosecutors intend to appeal. The sanction by Judge Amy Hanley in the case of Dominic Sanders, whose constitutional rights were violated, consists of prohibiting any evidence and argument ...