Chris Conde

Douglas County is home to numerous parks to toss a Frisbee but these parks have dedicated disc golf courses for a real challenge and for competitions. In Lawrence • The city’s 18-hole disc golf course resides in the center of Lawrence at Centennial Park, 600 Rockledge Road. It’s easy enough to find if you keep […]

If you’re heading east out of Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10, you might have noticed a little patch of water just off the highway with a ramp sticking out of it and a sign that says “Crown Lake.” If you blink, you’ll miss it. But the lake and its resident, MoKan Ski Club, have been […]

A young woman has been charged with arson in connection with an incident that allegedly led to a shooting at a Lawrence residence by the woman’s mother. The woman charged with felony arson, Jayda Renae Kelly Neal, 20, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is the daughter of Natasha Renae Neal, 45, who faces charges in the […]

Two women have been charged in connection with a shooting in downtown Lawrence in April that damaged the windows of a local business. The women, Demetria Myerick Warner Wooden, 30, of Lawrence, and Lakeisha Breeann Warner Bass, 36, of Raymore, Missouri, are each charged with one misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm within the city […]

An Oskaloosa man was ordered to stand trial on Wednesday in Douglas County District Court after a 15-year-old girl testified that he contacted her on social media and asked her to be his “sugar baby” before he took her to a hotel in Lawrence to sexually assault her. Kenneth John McClelland, 30, is charged with […]

Two Lawrence patrol service dogs placed at the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office K9 Games on Sunday in Topeka, and a Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman said they “had a blast” performing for the crowd. The second annual K9 Games featured 11 teams, each consisting of a dog and their law enforcement handler, from northeast Kansas law […]

Lawrence police arrested a man on Tuesday after a disturbance initially reported as an assault with an AR-15 style rifle. The weapon turned out to be a paintball gun, police determined. Just before 1 p.m. on Tuesday, officers rushed to the parking garage next to the Lawrence Public Library, in the 700 block of Vermont […]

A man who refused to surrender his hatchet last year when entering The Village and who terrorized staff by smashing an office window was sentenced to two years of probation on Wednesday. The man, Jesse Lee Green, 39, was originally charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of aggravated robbery, one felony […]

Mary Kay Howe has been typing out the record in Douglas County courtrooms for nearly 50 years now. But there was a time in the ’70s when it looked like she’d be leaving the profession in record time instead. Howe, who retired from Douglas County District Court this past week, told the Journal-World about her […]

A Lawrence woman has been charged in Johnson County with distributing a drug that allegedly caused a 53-year-old woman’s death. Ellana Nicole Graham, 23, is charged in Johnson County District Court with one felony count of distributing a controlled substance causing death. The charge is in connection with the death of Cherie Williams, 53, of […]

Douglas County’s sheriff said it was both inaccurate and unfair for the county to be labeled a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants by the federal government last week. But Sheriff Jay Armbrister said he also is continuing with his practice that immigration enforcement is the job of the federal government and not local jurisdictions. He […]

While west Lawrence lost a space to shop for groceries when the Hy-Vee store near Sixth and Monterey Way closed in 2019, nearly five years later the big space has helped Lawrence enter the world of major, private sports facilities for youths and adults alike. Or, put another way, you can’t get pickles there anymore, […]

An Oskaloosa man who was previously convicted of soliciting sex from a child was charged on Friday with human trafficking and a sex crime against a teenager. The man, Kenneth John McClelland, 30, faces one felony count of aggravated human trafficking and one felony count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, according to charging […]

For graduate students in the University of Kansas’ architecture school, the final exam isn’t just a couple of hours long, and you’ll need more than a pencil and paper to take it. As a last step to earning their degrees, the students in the master’s program spend a year in the school’s Studio 804 capstone […]

A new eco-friendly house on New York Street designed and built by University of Kansas architecture students will be open for the public to view on Saturday. The house at 1040 New York St. was built by graduate students in the architecture school’s Studio 804 capstone class, which is intended to give students hands-on practical […]

A Lawrence man was charged on Wednesday with two counts of rape and other sex crimes. Travis Lee Turner, 36, is charged in Douglas County District Court with two counts of rape by force or fear and two counts of aggravated sodomy, all felonies, according to charging documents. The charges are in connection with an […]

Access to fireworks in Kansas just got a lot easier with the legislature approving a measure providing for year-round sales from permanent retailers and an extended seasonal retail time frame. Governor Laura Kelly signed the measure, SB 199, into law on April 8, setting parameters for new firework sale time frames as well as requiring […]

Updated at 3:35 p.m. Friday, May 9 A dog who was involved in a “bizarre” arrest at a Lawrence gas station, as police described it, is recovering at the Lawrence Humane Society, and the suspect who is alleged to have bitten the dog has been prohibited from having animals in the home if he bonds […]

Updated at 3 p.m. Friday, May 9 A speech pathologist accused of child sex crimes at a Lawrence elementary school is competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Thursday in Douglas County District Court, and a prosecutor indicated that additional charges would be forthcoming. The defendant, Mark Elliott Gridley, 61, is facing one count of […]

A Lawrence man was sentenced on Tuesday to just under five years in prison for biting a Douglas County corrections officer on the leg. The man, Cetewayo M. Ragins, 43, was convicted by a jury in February of biting the officer in June of 2024 after he was arrested on another charge. Judge Amy Hanley […]