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MIke Yoder/AP
Jet Turk, 5, center, drops his mother's ballot in the box as his mother Erika Turk takes a photo during Republican caucuses in Lawrence, K. Saturday.
Cruz and Sanders victorious in Kansas presidential caucuses
JOHN HANNA
Associated Press
Kansas voters embraced challengers in presidential caucuses, giving Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders big victories to boost their campaigns against Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic leader Hillary Clinton.
Voters on Saturday defied leading Kansas voices who had endorsed Clinton for the Democrats and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the Republicans. The GOP opted instead to stay on the right of the political spectrum in backing Cruz, the Texas senator, while Democrats moved left to embrace Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist.
Both Cruz and Sanders won by 2-to-1 margins over Trump and Clinton, with Rubio a distant third in the Republican count.
Cruz touted his strong conservative record on social issues and in opposing President Barack Obama's federal health reform law to secure votes from the state's large conservative Christian community. Some voters said the Texas senator was more
in tune with their views and backed him, even though billionaire businessman Trump is leading the national race and had a last-minute rally in Wichita.
"God bless Kansas," Cruz declared while campaigning in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after the result.
"The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington D.C., is utter terror at what we the people are doing together," he said.
Sanders supporters clearly outnumbered Clinton backers at caucus sites in Wichita, Lawrence and east Topeka. At a union hall in Wichita, they were so numerous that they had to congregate outside so their numbers could be counted.
"People used to ask, 'What's the matter with Kansas?'" Sanders said in a statement from Warren, Mich., where he was campaigning. "It turns out that there's nothing the matter with Kansas when you give people a clear choice and involve them in the democratic process."
The state GOP said more than 81,000 people sought to cast ballots at 103 sites, though more than 8,000 remained unaccounted Saturday
night. That exceeded party officials' most optimistic projections. Turnout for the 2012 caucuses was about 30,000.
The Democratic Party said about 40,000 participated in the caucuses at 47 sites. That exceeded the 33,000-plus who caucused in 2008 — another bad day for Clinton, as Barack Obama supporters overwhelmed caucus sites to give him a resounding victory then.
Sanders supporters were enthusiastic about the self-declared democratic socialist.
"I have never felt so confident in a candidate in my life," said Gina Searle, a 35-year-old sales associate in Wichita, a single mother.
Thirty-three Democratic delegates were at stake in Saturday's caucuses, and Sanders captured 23, and Clinton, 10. The state has another four party leaders who are designated as superdelegates and can support any candidate. One of them has declared for Clinton.
On the Republican side, Cruz captured 24 of the state's 40 delegates and Trump, nine. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio won six and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one.
Rubio finished third in Kansas results, despite having endorsements from Gov. Sam Brownback and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts.
Most of the Kansas GOP's establishment was wary of Trump and were instead split between Cruz and Rubio. Trump told thousands of supporters in Wichita that he had been scheduled to attend an annual gathering of national conservative leaders Saturday but backed out to attend the Kansas rally.
Trump voters said they're fed up with American politics or saw their support for him as a way to send a message to GOP leaders.
Backers of other candidates split over whether they could support Trump as the GOP nominee.
While at least a few GOP voting at Olathe South High School said they could, Matt Murphy, a 30-year-old cigar sales representative from Gardner and a Cruz supporter, said "absolutely not."
Associated Press writer Roxana Hegeman in Wichita and Melissa Hellmann in Lawrence contributed to this report.
Edited by Cele Fryer
Cost of education Understanding student loan debt
▶ TANNER HASSELL
@thassell17
Every year millions of students across the United States head off for college. They bring all of the usual amenities with them: clothing, gadgets, etc. Many students also bring along silent passengers: student loans.
Student loan debt rears its head in the form of quarterly interest notices from the government. It is not intrusive and it does not demand attention until graduation, but the debt gets bigger every school year.
According to the Department of Education, 41.6 million students received student loans during the fourth quarter of 2015, which is over $1.21 trillion in aid. The Department of Education also reported 3.3 billion students received parent PLUS loans which totaled $71.1 billion.
Jeffery Heppler, senior peer educator with Student Money Management Services at the University, said the average amount of debt for University students is around $30,000.
"I have around $80,000 in student loans right now," Bachynski said. "It sucks being an out-of-state student, but as long as I can go out and use what I've learned here, it should be worth it."
For Nathan Bachynski, a junior from Dover, Penn., that number is a great deal larger.
Bachynski said knowing how much debt he acquires is a priority.
"All of the loans I have are in my name, so I've been keeping track of it pretty regularly," Bachynski said. "It's easy to get stressed out about, but having the loans in my name has really forced me to be aware and to actually do something with my education and not waste it."
Heppler said students who do not understand
their financial aid situation can take advantage of resources like Student Money Management.
Heppler said when a student comes to Student Money Management Services they have them log into Enroll and Pay to view their financial aid package.
"We try to empower students by helping them understand their situation and develop a plan," Heppler said. "You need to understand your financial aid because you'll have to pay it back, and you'll have six months after graduation to figure out how you're going to do that."
"For any federal loans
"It sucks being an out-of-state student, but as long as I can go out and use what I've learned here, it should be worth it."
Nathan Bachynski Junior
we have students use national data bases like NSLDS.ed.gov to see what types of loans they have and how much interest has accrued so far," Heppler said. "Then we try to set up a strategy or plan for how they are going to pay it all back."
Heppler said a big factor for a student to consider when repayment is thought about is how much income they expect to have upon graduation.
"You'll be expected to pay around one percent of the loan back per month." Heppler said. "So we want people to be mindful about how much of their potential income will be going towards paying back the loans."
- Edited by Cele Fryer
Alumni bring Breakout Lawrence to Mass. Street
▶ MADDY MOLONEY @m604m256
Breakout hosts a live-action puzzle game for teams of four to eight. It is located at 727 Massachusetts Street.
When senior Adam McArthur from Tallahassee, Fla., entered what he described as a "Y2K bunker," he was intrigued.
In his time spent willingly locked in a room with five strangers, McArthur took the next hour to search the room for clues that would allow him and his team to escape.
Breakout Lawrence, 727 Massachusetts Street, is an interactive puzzle where teams of four-to-eight people are "locked" in a room and must use clues to discover the code to unlock the door. The business is expected to open in early March, owner Luke Thompson said.
McArthur, who was helping test the room before the official opening, said he already talked to his friends about going back to try a new room. The facility has four rooms, which were designed by owners and University alumni Thompson, Ryan Henrich and Matt Baysinger. Baysinger and Thompson are both owners of another Lawrence business, Mass Street Soda, which opened in 2014.
"I didn't really know what it was going to be like so I was kind of nervous," McArthur said. "Like I didn't know what the setup was going to be or how hard it was going to be. That's another thing I was concerned about, if it was going to be super easy or crazy hard."
Paige Stingley/KANSAN
McArthur said the experience was challenging, but not too difficult.
Breakout was developed in Japan in 2007 and moved to the U.S. in 2014, Thompson said. After Thompson, Henrich and Baysinger participated in breakouts in Kansas City, Mo. and Honolulu, they decided to create a local experience.
"Our drive wasn't to make millions of dollars," Thompson said. "Our drive was to open something up that was unique and make Lawrence a cooler town."
Breakout offers four unique rooms each with a different narrative and theme. It will cost $28 per person to participate in a one-hour breakout.
The themes for the Lawrence location are a Y2K New Year's party, a Civil War-themed room, a stock exchange room and a rules of basketball room. Thompson said most of the room ideas originated from late night texting conversations between the three owners.
Unlike similar businesses, who franchise their puzzles and narrative, the Breakout rooms contain completely original stories and clues.
However, beating the rooms is no easy feat. Combined, Breakout rooms have an average success rate of about 30 percent. Only about one in five groups make it out of the Y2K room in under the one-hour time limit, Thompson said.
"The main goal is to provide, we think there is a lack of quality entertainment for families (and) friends," Thompson said. "The great
thing about it is we have kids that are six come in with their grandparents who are in their 70's and they are able to work together and put down their cell phones and have a completely interactive experiences with each other."
Thompson added: "It's not sitting here playing video games or sitting on their cell phones playing whatever app game is cool right
now. It's team building together to solve a puzzle."
"I think it would be something people would enjoy doing," McElwain said. "And also for out-of-town visitors, for example mother's weekends and father's weekends and thing like that, where they can get
CEO of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, Larry McElwain said Breakout is beneficial for the city.
in competition with groups and friends trying to solve the questions [and] the puzzles."
Thompson said many of his customers who have finished all four rooms at the Kansas City location are looking forward to traveling to Lawrence for the four new rooms, which he said will bring more business to surrounding Lawrence restaurants and shops.