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Index

Advice/Crossword ..... 7BClassified .................. 9BComics ..................... 8BDaily Record .............. 8ADeaths/Funerals ..... 10AOpinion ..................... 4APolice news ............... 8ASports ....................... 1BTV ............................. 7BToday ........................ 2A

FootballJust one day after

linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then himself, the Chiefs defeated the Carolina Panthers 27-21.

Sports, Page 1B

HanukkahDiscover the origin

behind serving some form of cheesecake during the Jewish holiday celebra-tion.

Wednesday in Flavor

Tree giveawayAbout 850 Christmas

trees were given away at Penwell-Gabel Funeral Homes and Cemetery’s fourth annual event.

Today, Page 2A

Going bowlingCoach Bill Snyder’s

Kansas State Wildcats will take on the Oregon Ducks on Jan. 3 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Sports, Page 1B

Inside today

Coming up

dailydeals.cjonline.com

$20 worth ofHomegrown Poinsettias

for just $10!

Senator wants to develop decrepit KCK property

Behind on taxes, pursuing subsidy

Grad rates down in 501

By Celia Llopis-JepsenTHe CapiTal-Journal

New nationwide data on four-year high school graduation rates put Kan-sas in the top quarter of states, but statewide figures show schools in ur-ban Topeka are lagging behind.

Statewide, Kansas graduated 85 per-cent of students last year. Yet in greater Topeka, gaps between the urban schools and surrounding areas per-sisted, with Topeka Unified School District 501 graduating about 68 per-cent of students and Auburn-Wash-burn USD 437, Shawnee Heights USD 450 and Seaman USD 345 graduating 90 or more percent.

Those rates count students who complete high school within four years.

Topeka superintendent Julie Ford said the district is hopeful that ongoing changes will help more students finish school. Those efforts include tracking individual student performance and using an early warning system to identify children at risk of dropping out by monitoring their suspensions, tru-ancies and other correlating factors.

"It's no secret that the district has challenges," Ford said. "That's no ex-cuse, but we almost have to approach it on an individual level."

Ford also said the district had worked on shrinking class sizes at schools with higher numbers of strug-gling students, and the district was of-fering credit-recovery options after school for high school students who fall behind.

Please see GRAD, Page 12A

By Andy MarsoTHe CapiTal-Journal

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Two Kansas City, Kan., police officers swept their flashlight beams back and forth in the dim light of a va-cant, crumbling building on a re-cent Saturday morning, broken glass crunching under their feet.

When they rounded a corner and their lights hit Marlon John-son, he immediately threw his hands in the air.

“I’m just gonna move on,” John-son said.

But the bedroll next to him and the makeshift curtain in the corner suggested he would be back.

Johnson said he had been homeless for a year after a fire de-stroyed his apartment complex. Since then he has spent his days at the Frank Williams Outreach Cen-ter and wandered from place to place at night, looking for some-where to unroll his blankets.

Lately, Johnson has slept in the abandoned building at 3500 N.

27th St., which is little more than a shell, with walls ripped out, wires hanging loose and floors littered with debris.

It is like other places Johnson squats in, except it is co-owned by Johnson's legislative representa-tive, Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City.

Haley is pursuing public funds to help develop the property in Kan-sas City's historic African-American Quindaro District. Meanwhile, Ha-ley and his partners are behind on property taxes, and their building has become a blight on an already-struggling neighborhood.

Haley said he has spoken with Joe Reardon, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte Coun-ty and Kansas City, Kan., about the project and also is prepared to leverage his state government connections.

“We, Village East, are fully pre-pared to partner with any public

Please see HALEY, Page 12A

ANDY MARSO/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Marlon Johnson, 32, packs up his things before heading to the Frank Williams Outreach Center. Johnson, who has been homeless for about a year, has lately been squatting in a building co-owned by Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City.

Kansas tied for 12th in u.S. comparison of high school figures

red Kettle donations ‘way down’By Phil Anderson

THe CapiTal-Journal

He won’t say how far down Red Ket-tle Campaign donations are so far this year — at least not yet — but Topeka Salvation Army Maj. Daniel Burris clearly is concerned.

“Kettles are way down,” said Burris, who is in his first year as the corps offi-cer of the Topeka Salvation Army, 1320 S.E. 6th. “They were averaging $6,000 a day last year — something like that. We’re at $2,200 a day right now.”

The Topeka Salvation Army’s 2012 Christmas campaign goal has been set at $550,000, up $12,000 from the $538,000 that was collected a year ago.

Of the $550,000 goal, the Salvation Army is hoping for $270,000 from kettle contributions and $280,000 from a di-

rect-mail appeal.Burris said the Salvation Army has

kettles up and running at 35 locations in the capital city. Among them are Dil-lons, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kmart, Hy-Vee and Walgreens.

“Hopefully,” Burris said, “it’ll pick up as we approach Christmas.”

Paid bell ringers have been the mainstay of manning kettle locations so far this holiday season.

Burris said more community volun-teers are needed to fill open slots. And, he said, it would be nice if those volun-teering to ring bells would take shifts that are longer than 2 hours.

Shorter shifts put a strain on Salva-tion Army workers, who drive vans to

Please see KETTLE, Page 10A

POliCY MATTERS

Sculptures highlight

downtown proposal

By Tim HrenchirTHe CapiTal-Journal

An astronaut, a vice president and two members of the rock band “Kan-sas” are among noteworthy Topekans

suggested to be subjects of sculp-tures in downtown Topeka.

Private dona-tions would pay all costs to produce the

sculptures and implement other “bells and whistles” for a proposed revitaliza-tion project being considered by the Topeka City Council. The effort would improve S. Kansas Avenue between 6th and 10th streets.

The city will outline plans for the project’s proposed second phase and hear public comments during a meet-ing at 6 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers at 214 S.E. 8th. The meeting will be televised on City4, the city’s ca-ble TV station.

The council then plans on Dec. 11 to consider approving a Phase 2 project budget in the amount of $8,448,032.

Please see DOWNTOWN, Page 11A

PHIL ANDERSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Topeka Salvation Army Maj. Daniel Burris said he is growing concerned about the lack of donations so far this year in the agency’s annual Red Kettle Campaign.

ONLINEView a list of 20 potential sculpture subjects.

CJOnline.com

ONLINEView a video of Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, as he discusses Village East LLC and the property he owns in KCK.

CJOnline.com

POLICY MATTERS

Coming Tuesday: A House member covertly seeks to help his wife’s business.

Third in a series of 15 articles.CJOnline.com/policymatters

2012 FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, is seeking public funds to develop a property he and four partners co-own in a historic district of Kansas City.