mimblr.com

Eudora voters will have a choice in November to vote for both representatives in the Kansas Legislature.
The race for the 38th District Kansas House seat will pit two-term incumbent Republican Anthony Brown of Eudora against Democratic challenger Stephanie Kelton of Lawrence.
Brown and Kelton differ on key issues but both said they were motivated to run because they recognize the need to make tough decisions in hard economic times.
Kelton, an economic professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City with affiliations with two public policy research institutes, said she was running with hope of more directly influencing public policy.
“I am an economist; we have a economy teetering on the brink of recession,” said Kelton. “As important as some of these programs are we can’t say we’re going to have to increase taxes to keep them going. Families are strapped.”
“We are getting into an area where the economy is tight,” Brown said. “State revenues are down $81 million. We’re going to be forced into tough decisions.”
Brown said he was equipped to make those decisions because he understands the people of the 38th District, which snakes along Kansas Highway 10 from western Lenexa, western Shawnee, through northern Olathe, De Soto, Eudora and neighborhoods in southwest and northern Lawrence.
“We do have to have people (in Topeka) who are engaged in the community,” he said. “I’m someone who is willing to answer phone calls and e-mails and meet people.”
As an economist, she has written numerous public policy papers on health care, taxation, energy policy with the hope they would influence policy makers, Kelton said.
“After doing that for the last decade, I’m hoping to do that on the next level,” she said.
Brown and Kelton differ on two prominent issues of the last two legislative sessions. Kelton said she would have voted for the third year of the school finance plan approved in the 2007 session and wouldn’t have voted to grant permits for two coal-fired electrical plants in Holcomb that Brown voted for this year.

eudoranews.com

Some students carpooled, stayed with friends or packed hotel rooms with others to save some money on a trip to the Final Four game. Those not saving money include students who bought tickets from scalpers near the Alamodome and the River Walk.
SAN ANTONIO — The banner under the scoreboard in the Alamodome read “The road ends here.” How appropriate for the Kansas fans who made the 12-hour, 780-mile road trip to San Antonio to see the Jayhawks in the Final Four.
Many Kansas fans took the long drive down Interstate 35 through Oklahoma and parts of Texas to get to San Antonio despite gas prices.
“Gas was definitely our biggest expense,” said Grant Buffington, St. Louis junior. Buffington was one of the winners in the Kansas Athletics student ticket lottery for the Final Four. His and all other lottery winners’ tickets cost $170.
Many fans hit the road in groups to cut down the cost. Buffington traveled with seven friends in two cars. He estimated that each car took “a little over $100” in gas to get to San Antonio. His group also saved money by staying at a friend’s house near San Antonio.
“He didn’t come to the Final Four, but he was willing to make the trip back and let us stay with him at his place,” Buffington said.
Megan Daniel, Long Beach, Calif., sophomore, said her group cut the cost of a hotel by packing a room.
“We have about eight people in one room, so it’s going to cost about $14 each for a night,” Daniel said.
Kansas benefited from having one of the shorter drives compared with other Final Four schools. UCLA fans who made their road trip were difficult to find in the crowd.
“Everyone I know flew here,” said Zoe Thompson, UCLA junior. “Nobody wants to drive 19 hours, especially with gas prices being so high.”

kansan.com

Memphis 78, UCLA 63
Kansas 84, North Carolina 66
Kansas holds a special place in Roy Williams’ heart.
During the summer, Williams tells children attending his basketball camp they are allowed to wear apparel from just two schools: North Carolina and Kansas.
When fans shout, “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk” at Williams in an airport, he responds: “Go KU.”
“I loved that place, will always love that place,” Williams said of Kansas.
But as he prepares to coach North Carolina against Kansas in today’s NCAA semifinals in San Antonio, Kansas fans are divided on how to treat him.
After he turned down a chance to return to his home state and alma mater in 2000, some Jayhawks fans believed he would coach Kansas until he retired. Dean Smith is a Kansan who coached 36 years at North Carolina.
Why couldn’t Williams do the same in reverse?
Three years later, those fans were stunned when Williams left for North Carolina after coaching Kansas to four Final Fours in 15 seasons.
The five years that have passed have mended some of the wounds, especially now that coach Bill Self has Kansas back in the Final Four where fans believe the Jayhawks belong.
Jon Amyx, owner of the Downtown Barbershop in Lawrence, Kan., said some students who come in for a haircut don’t realize Williams coached at Kansas because he was gone before they enrolled.
Amyx keeps his huge poster of Williams in an unceremonious place at the back of his shop. When Williams was considering returning to North Carolina, Amyx moved it from the wall to the front window, where he also placed a giant question mark to represent fans’ uncertainty.
After Williams left, some patrons wanted Amyx to throw the poster in the trash. Instead he put it in the rest room facing the toilet.

charlotte.com

SAN ANTONIO - Now the animosity for Roy Williams from the Kansas fans who once adored him can be buried. Much as the Jayhawks shoveled an endless pile of dirt on North Carolina with an incredible first-half explosion that left the Tar Heels frantically, and with much futility, digging out.
They never did, though they tried mightily, and Kansas won 84-66 Saturday night at the Alamodome.
This is the sweetest taste for Kansas since Danny and the Miracles led the Jayhawks to a national championship 20 years ago. Never mind that KU still has to play Memphis in Monday night’s title game. That’s the icing, this is the cake.
It’s hard to say what KU coach Bill Self, who started this postseason needing once and for all to prove he had the goods, said to his team before the first-half massacre turned into a second-half nail biter. It’s doubtful the name of Williams was mentioned; he insists it hadn’t been in the days leading up to the game. But make no mistake, no matter what Self said publicly in the past week, with the matchup against Carolina and Williams looming, he shifted his emotions into another gear.
Williams and Self aren’t buddies; they hadn’t even talked in the five years since Self took over for Williams at KU. That doesn’t mean they’re enemies, but you can rest assured Self’s biggest challenge has been to create his own identity at Kansas, something Williams was able to do so well.
Self was right when he said all the hard feelings about Roy from many KU fans were nothing more than the feelings of a jilted lover. I’m sure it’s the fans who once felt the most respect for Williams who have had the toughest time getting past his departure.
Williams has proven he’s a great coach. Now Self has proven he is, too, regardless of what happens Monday night. And after watching Memphis take apart UCLA in Saturday night’s other national semifinal, don’t think that one will be as easy as handling North Carolina.

kansas.com