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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
PAGE 9A
Startup Weekend comes to Lawrence
MARISSA KAUFMANN
@mariss193
Startup Weekend, a weekend-long conference for entrepreneurs, is coming to Lawrence this weekend for the first time. Startup weekends offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to put their ideas to the test and see if they are viable. The conference will start at 5 p.m. on Friday and continue throughout the weekend to 9 p.m. on Sunday at the Lawrence Public Library.
Startup Weekend is a non-profit organization started in Seattle with staff in 200 cities worldwide including Mongolia, South Africa, London, Brazil and now Lawrence, according to the company's website.
Startup Weekend has done over 1,500 events in 726 cities, created over 13,000 startups and had over 123,000 entrepreneurs involved according to its website.
"Things have changed. Two or three guys with a few hundred or thousand dollars can go out there and build a product that can turn out a billion dollar company," Eugene Woo, entrepreneur in Startup Weekend's video, said.
The organizers are Devon Bull, a senior from Denton, Texas, and past president of KU entrepreneurship club, Jacob Vollfeld, a junior from Lawrence and current president of KU entrepreneurship club, and former University of Kansas students, Joe Jarvis,
founder of Tall Grass Legal, and Beth Mckeon, founder of Kids Calendar.
"I think everyone has ideas, I think everyone to some degree is an innovator."
RONAN LEVY
Ex-lawyer
Von Feldt said after attending Startup Weekends in other cities, Startup Weekend organizers Jarvis and Mckeon decided last spring to bring the event to Lawrence. They contacted Bull and Von Feldt to help organize their event as soon as planning commenced to further the event's entrepreneur and university connections, Von Feldt said.
The weekend is geared towards people who have business ideas and are interested in peer feedback. The weekend starts with sharing ideas and, from there, the top ideas have teams that naturally form around them. Teams then will spend the rest of the conference planning their final presentation given to local entrepreneur leaders, event attendants and other observers. The final presentation is open to the public who would like to purchase a ticket on the event registration website. A $10 ticket includes dinner and a seat to watch the final presentations.
Out of the attendants, 13 to 14 University students will be attending. Von Feldt said. The attendees include entrepreneurs across the Lawrence area, people who own their own businesses, who code or design, or who are involved in the startup scene, Von Feldt said.
"I think everyone has ideas, I think everyone to some degree is an innovator. But an entrepreneur is someone who takes that idea and acts upon it and tries to execute upon it," Ronan Levy, ex-lawyer in the Startup Weekend Video, said.
The teams will be judged by three judges from Lawrence who have a comprehensive background in business and currently run a startup or serve as a startup consultant, according to the event website. The judges are Michele Weigand, founder of Focused Perspective, Suman Saripalli, founder of KalScott Engineering, and Will Katz, director of University of Kansas Small Business Development Center.
Eight coaches will also be attending the startup weekend to give advice to teams along the way. The coaches come from wide backgrounds such as strategic marketing, social media, engineering, design, software development, business and law.
To register for presentation views, go to http://lawrence.startupweekend.org/
Edited by Logan Schlossberg
Schlossberg
Erotica chain to sell goods to pay back taxes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The sale is being held so the owner of five adult stores can pay off a tax debt to the state.
TOPEKA — An online sale of sex toys could give Kansas a boost of revenue.
The Kansas Department of Revenue seized items in July from the stores — operated by United Outlets LLC, under the name Bang — for failure to pay sales, income and withholding taxes of $163,986, spokeswoman Jeanine Koranda said. Two stores were in Topeka and one each was in Junction City, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas.
Koranda said the assets were released back to the owner to auction the property.
Senate Minority Leader
Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, used the auction to make a dig at Gov. Sam Brownback, saying the Republican leader was "so desperate to fill the massive hole in the state budget caused by his reckless income tax cuts that the state of Kansas is now in the porn business."
Brownback faces a strong challenge from Democratic challenger Paul Davis because of concerns about whether tax cuts are boosting the economy or potentially ruining the state's finances. Brownback and his supporters insist his policies — particularly aggressive income tax cuts — have helped to create nearly 55,000 new private-sector jobs since he took office in January
2011. The Legislature's nonpartisan research staff is predicting a $238 million budget shortfall by July 2016.
Eileen Hawley, the governor's spokeswoman, defended the sale, saying the same process has been use in previous administrations.
"While we do not agree with the type of business involved here, it was nonetheless a legal business that was closed due to failure to pay taxes." Hawley said in a news release. She went on to say the state can't legally destroy property and that returning it would have rewarded the business that violated state tax law.
United Outlets owner, Larry H. Minkoff, of Prairie Village, didn't have a listed phone number.
Kobach seeks to intervene in Kansas Senate dispute
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach jumped Wednesday into a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled voter seeking to force Kansas Democrats to name a new U.S. Senate nominee in hopes of speeding the resolution of a legal dispute shadowing a race with possible national implications.
Kobach filed a motion to intervene in Shawnee County District Court and a request for a decision by Oct. 1, saying quick action is necessary so ballots can be printed in time for people to begin voting in advance on Oct. 15. Kobach, like the voter, argues that a state election law requires Democrats to replace ex-nominee Chad Taylor, who earlier this month dropped out of the race against three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.
Some Democrats pushed Taylor out, seeing independent candidate Greg Orman as the stronger rival for Roberts — and they don't want a new nominee, fearing a major split of the anti-Roberts vote. Many Republicans are pushing for a new Democratic candidate to increase the chances of Roberts holding the seat and the GOP recapturing a Senate majority.
The voter who sued the Kansas Democratic Party and three top officials is David Orel, 57, of Kansas City, Kansas. His son works for the re-election campaign of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback who, like Kobach, serves on Roberts' honorary campaign committee. But the elder Orel has been a registered Democrat at least since 1999 and voted in the Democratic primary this year, voter regis-
Kobach said in an interview that he wants to intervene because, as the state's top elections official, the court might want to order his office to take some action. A three-judge panel will hear the case.
"In this particular case, the wheels of justice have to grind quickly, not slowly," Kobach said. "We're just trying to pave the way for the court to do whatever it wants to do quickly and efficiently."
tration records show.
ASSOCIATED PRESST
Police Chief Tim Longo gives an update on the search for missing University of Virginia student Hannah Elizabeth Graham during a news conference Sept. 21 in Charlottesville, Va. Graham was last seen early Saturday, Sept. 13. A man authorities believe is the last person seen with Graham before she disappeared is being sought on arrest warrants charging him with reckless driving. Authorities also said they want to talk to him about Graham.
Man captured in case of missing university student
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. — A man charged in the disappearance of a University of Virginia student was captured in Texas on Wednesday, a day after police announced they had probable cause to arrest him.
Police believe Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. was the last person seen with Hannah Graham, an 18-year-old sophomore who went missing on Sept. 13. Authorities obtained a felony warrant for his arrest late Tuesday. He has been charged with abduction with intent to defile.
Matthew had sped away from a police station Saturday after coming with family members to ask for a lawyer. It's not clear whether the longtime area resident knew Graham, who was last seen in an area lined with shops and restaurants where police believe she went into a bar with him.
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo announced Matthew's capture at a news conference Wednesday night. He said Matthew was in custody in Galveston, Texas, and would be extradited to Virginia.
Longo added that police were still searching for Graham.
"This case is nowhere near over," said the police chief, who did not take questions from reporters. "We have a person in custody but there's a long road ahead of us."
A dispatcher at the sheriff's office in Galveston referred questions about the arrest and timing of Matthew's extradition to Charlottesville police, who did not provide details at the news conference and did not immediately respond to telephone messages afterward.
Adam S. Lee, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Richmond, said at the news conference that "the real hero of today is an employee, a deputy with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office."
"So wed like to, on behalf of the FBI, thank them for their very effective police work today."
The case has spread fear through the quiet community about 70 miles west of Richmond. Authorities have increased patrols and a late-night transportation program for students, who also have begun walking in pairs at night and are paying closer attention to their surroundings.
According to police, Graham met friends at a restaurant for dinner on Sept. 12 before stopping by two parties at off-campus housing units. She left the second party alone, police have said, and sent a text message to a friend saving she was lost.
While police continued searching for Graham and struggled to make sense of what led to her disappearance, a vigil was scheduled Wednesday evening at her alma mater, West Potomac High School in northern Virginia. Graham was an alpine skier and alto saxophone player who had earned straight As six years in a row, according to family members and police.
Surveillance videos showed her walking, and at some points running, past a pub and a service station and then onto the Downtown Mall, a seven-block pedestrian strip where police believe she entered a bar with Matthew.
The university said he's been employed at the University of Virginia Medical Center since Aug. 12, 2012, as a patient technician in the operating room.
The charges against the 6-foot-2, 270-pound Matthew surprised Dave Hansen, who first met him about 11 years ago when Hansen served as an assistant pastor at an area church.
"I always thought he was a gentle giant, just a nice guy," Hansen said. "He seemed genuine with his faith and spirituality. ... I don't see him
doing this at all, but that's usually the case, I guess."
ransen said he's only kept up with Matthew through Facebook, but ran into him at the university's medical center within the last year. He said the soft-spoken Matthew greeted him in an elevator with a high-five.
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