Kansas University: World population authority to present honors lecture

An internationally known expert on world population issues will speak April 8 at Kansas University.

Werner Fornos, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Population Institute, will present the annual Sigma Xi Honors Lecture at 8 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The lecture title is “Gaining People, Losing Resources  Searching for Solutions.”

Fornos has been named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in development and environment by the Earth Times newspaper.

The KU chapter of Sigma Xi, national scientific research society founded in 1886, was the group’s fourth and organized in 1889.

Achievement: Four KU students earn Goldwater Scholarships

Four Kansas University students have won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, which are national awards given annually for students majoring in science, engineering and mathematics.

The scholarships provide $7,500 for tuition, fees, books and room and board for up to two years. There were 309 awarded to juniors and seniors nationally this year.

Winners from KU were:

 Ryan Kinser, Oklahoma City senior in mathematics and philosophy.

 Adam Kraus, Grantville senior in astronomy, physics and mathematics.

 Bonnie Sheriff, Lawrence senior in chemistry.

 Ian Tice, Tecumseh senior in mathematics and physics.

Twenty-nine KU students have received Goldwater scholarships since their inception in 1989.

Stull: Property owner ordered razing of abandoned church

The abandoned church on the hillside above Stull Cemetery didn’t spontaneously cave in Friday afternoon.

John Haase, the rural Lecompton resident who owns the land on which the church sits, adjacent to the cemetery, said Saturday that he had arranged for the church’s demolition.

The stone church’s eastern wall had been down for years. Its western wall gave way a few weeks ago after a windstorm.

“The Sheriff’s Department called us several days ago and expressed their concern that the remaining two walls were very unstable and posed an attractive nuisance,” Haase said Saturday. “We felt there was really no other choice than to push those two walls in to avoid any future catastrophe.”

He said the church’s proximity to the cemetery, which has been vandalized time and again by people curious about occult legends surrounding the church, made the building’s demolition doubly important.

“If the church was not so closely located to the cemetery, and if it wasn’t such a dangerous stretch of road, it might have been fun to preserve the church and let things go on,” he said.

Gasoline prices: Pump Patrol seeks best deal

The Journal-World has found a Lawrence-area gasoline price as low as $1.32 at several Lawrence service stations.

If you find a lower price, please call us at 832-7154. Be prepared to leave the name and address of the business and the price. Or go to www.ljworld.com/section/gasoline to join our Pump Patrol board.