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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
STATE
VOLUME 121 ISSUE 85
Spending concerns may end the death penalty
BY ERIN BROWN
ebrown@kansan.com
THE BUSINESS OF CHARITY
The state budget crisis has forced Kansas legislators to re-evaluate state spending,leading some lawmakers to review the cost and effectiveness of the Kansas death penalty law.
The Kansas legislature is reviewing Senate Bills 208 and 375, both of which would abolish the death penalty in Kansas. Senate Bill 208 was introduced and debated last year, but no action was taken on the bill.
After three days of hearings, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 375 Friday. Sen. Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence), said.
"The major concern that brought this topic up again was looking at the cost," Francisco said. "Obviously we are in a tight budget situation."
A death penalty prosecution can cost as much as a million dollars, she said, while a life sentence without parole could save taxpayers half a million dollars or more for each case.
According to Senate Bill 208, the median cost of a non-death-penalty murder case was approximately 70 percent less than the median cost of a death sentence.
SEE BILL ON PAGE 3A
According to the National Center for State Courts' website, Kansas has 10 inmates on death row. As the bill now stands, the
Read The Kansan's editorial about the death penalty on page 5A.
Kansas re-enacted the death penalty in 1994, but has not carried out an execution since 1965, according to Senate Bill 375.
Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS Shoes, spoke at an SUA-sponsored event Tuesday night at the Lied Center. TOMS Shoes sends a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes so
Turning out for TOMS
BY ROSHNI OOMMEN
roommen@kansan.com
Fifteen minutes before the doors opened for Blake Mycoskie's lecture, Julie Louvau, Tory Putnam and Anne Neck were waiting in the lobby of the Lied Center, looking forward to the philanthropist's speech.
"We were really excited." Putnam, a senior from Omaha, Neb., said. "We'd been waiting for this since break."
As soon as the doors opened, Neck, a sophomore from Chicago, said, the girls sat down in the front row, Louau, a
sophomore from Overland Park, was so excited that she jogged to the seats. The girls, who met on their alternative winter break trip to Florida, found out about their shared passion for TOMS shoes when Putnam wore her pair on the trip.
Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS Shoes, presented a lecture to an audience of students, faculty and members of the community Tuesday night. Mycoskie said he hoped to show students how the face of business was changing, especially the business of giving.
"I was just a guy — with no experience
in shoes — who had an idea. Mycaskee said. "It just started with a simple idea."
TOMS Shoes is a company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of its signature canvas slip-on purchased. This business model, which Mycoskie calls "One for One," has allowed the company to donate more than 400,000 pairs of shoes to children in need.
Four years before he started TOMS, Mycoskie and his sister, Paige, were on the 2002 season of the television show
SEE TOMS ON PAGE 3A
THE NAME
See a TV story and audio slideshow at kansan.com/videos
TOMS isn't an acronym or someone's name. When Blake Mycoskie first started the company, he planned on calling it "Shoes for Tomorrow," then changed the name to "Tomorrow's Shoes." But when he was making the labels for the first batch of shoes, he realized "Tomorrow" wouldn't fit on the label, so he wrote "TOMS" instead.
Natural History Museum hosts first monthly science cafe discussion
BY SAMANTHA FOSTER
sfoster@kansan.com
Members of the Lawrence community learned about hydroelectricity Tuesday at the first Science on Tap event coordinated by the Natural History Museum.
The new discussion series, which will be held monthly at the Free State Brewing Co., 636 Massachusetts St., is modeled on a concept called a science cafe. Tristan Smith, director of visitor services at the Natural History Museum, said the format would allow people from the community to get involved in the discussions.
“This is not a lecture, not a presentation,” Smith said. “It’s more
Sarah Hill-Nelson, the owner and operator of Bowersock Mills & Power Co., spoke at Tuesday's event. Hill-Nelson spoke about the importance of hydroelectricity to the city of Lawrence. She said 50 percent of the city's daily water supply came from the Kansas River.
Smith said the idea behind the event was to make the museum's presence stronger in the Lawrence community by showing that science wasn't just in a museum on campus. He said the museum's series was the only science cafe in the area.
of a conversation. Think of it as a dinner party."
"As far as I know, we're the only one between Fort Hays State and St. Louis," Smith said.
Ryan Callihan, a graduate student from Lenexa and president of KU Environs, said he decided to attend the event when he heard that the discussion involved alternative energy.
Hill-Nelson also talked about Bowersock Mills' proposal to expand its power plant to the north side of the river. She said the additional powerhouse would not have a significant environmental effect and would provide a more consistent water level for the city.
Dave Van Hee, a Lawrence resident, said he attended the event because he had heard a similar discussion at the Lawrence Public
"I wanted to hear more details about power extension," Callihan said.
Library and wanted to know if he had heard the correct information.
"I wanted to see if it was for real."
Van Hee said.
Smith said that people who wanted to ask questions about hydroelectricity or Bowersock Mills had the option of shouting out questions or e-mailing them before or during the event.
The next event, "Trilobites, Evolution and Extinction" will be held Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. The third event, "DIY Science: Tap into the Sun and Lower Your Energy Bill" will be held March 23 at 7:30 p.m. Both events are at Free State Brewing Co.
Sarah Hill-Nelson speaks about Lawrence's relationship with hydroelectricity. Hill-Nelson is the owner and operator of Bowerscholl Mills & Power Co.
Edited by Kirsten Hudson
Howard Ting/KANSAN
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