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            Kendra Caspers, Topeka senior, never leaves her belongings unattended anymore.  Just last semester Caspers was working on a paper for her Urban Planning class in Anschutz Library and went to take her usual cigarette break.  She was gone no more than ten minutes when she came back to the table and was aghast at what she saw; her computer was gone.

"I never thought it could happen to me," Caspers said.  "Now, looking back, I can't believe I was so stupid.  I definitely think twice before leaving any of my things alone now."

Caspers is among the 267 thefts and larceny reported to the University of Kansas Public Safety Office in 2008, according to KU Public Safety Campus Crime Statistics, a 13 percent increase from the 237 reported thefts and larceny in 2007.  

Sergeant James Anguiano of the University of Kansas Public Safety Office said that the number one crime on campus is theft and larceny, which is where statistically KU saw the greatest increase from 2007 to 2008.

 

            "In any University setting theft is the number one crime that's committed," Anguiano said.  "I refer to the crime as 'a crime of opportunity.'  A lot of times it's unoccupied property that's taken, or somebody goes to the Rec Center for instance and puts their stuff in a cubby hole instead of going downstairs and locking it up."

            Sgt. Anguiano is in charge of community education and training for new police officers and said that KU's public safety office usually has a staff of 26, with 22 officers on the streets.

            Although the extensive bulk of students at the University are rarely the victim of a crime in their years on campus, the University of Kansas, from 2007 to 2008, has the fastest rising crime rate of its three neighboring Big-12 Universities - Missouri, Colorado and Iowa.

            KU's Campus Crime Statistics show that there was 723 criminal offenses reported in 2008, a nine percent increase over the 664 criminal offenses reported in 2007.

            Sgt. Anguiano said that the numbers in theft rose because of two particular, individual cases.

            "In one case we had a member of Facilities Operations that had stolen a lot of property," Anguiano said.  "And in the other case, a person was stealing property at the Ambler Student Recreation Center.  Those two cases were significant in the rise of our numbers."

In comparison to other college campuses KU had a similar number of overall crime rate to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which, between the University of Iowa and the University of Colorado at Boulder, had the number two highest reported overall crime rate in 2008 according to the Missouri Uniform Crime Reporting Program for the University; a total of 739 criminal offenses reported in 2008.

 

The University of Iowa's Criminal Incidents Report indicated that it had the highest number of overall criminal incidents reported in 2008, among these four other Universities, with 1,578 incidents reported.  The Crime Reports and Statistics from the CU-Boulder Police Department had the least amount of reported criminal offenses with 544 incidents accounted for in 2008.  KU ranked third with 723 crime reports in 2008.

Although KU ended up with the third order in the overall crime rates reported, it had the highest increase in crime reported from 2007 to 2008; specifically theft and larceny and burglary.

The most frequently reported crime amid these Universities was, as Sergeant James Anguiano said, theft and larceny; CU had the top number of occurrences of theft and larceny in 2008 with 446 reports and KU ranked number three, reporting 267 accounts of theft and larceny.

 

Number two was burglary, where KU had the highest rate compared to the other Universities reaching to 123 reported burglaries in 2008, a 26 percent increase from 2007.  In 2008, MU had the least amount with 23 reports. 

Sergeant Anguiano said that KU Public Safety is trying its best to pay close attention to the problems on campus concerning burglary and theft.  Specifically, calling for more patrol in areas and providing students with more information about securing their property.

"We did numerous follow-ups dealing with the two crucial cases we saw in theft and larceny," Anguiano said.  "The investigations led us to identify and arrest two suspects and are clearing a lot of cases because if it."

Sergeant Anguiano has been working at the Office of Public Safety for 19 years and throughout those years has seen such severe cases as sexual assault, suicidal subjects and some pretty bad cases of simple assault and battery; the number three-reported crime among these college campuses.  He said aggravated assault and battery has occurred on and around their jurisdiction: the campus areas, scholarship halls and the bounding areas in their locality. KU Public Safety and the Lawrence Police Department have a written agreement that states if anything occurs within a KU officer's presence, not in their jurisdiction, they can respond and react to it.

Sam Littman, Chicago senior, and Danny Nordstrom, Cedar Rapids, IA. sophomore, didn't see it coming.  They were minding their own business, sitting on the front porch of Littman's house at 1300 Ohio Street near campus, when they were assaulted and battered by eight guys.

"It was a late night and we were having a few beers, having a good time and good conversation," Littman said.  "And all of the sudden this group of guys came up to my front porch being super aggressive, yelling at us and trying to start a fight."

Sam Littman revisits his old porch where he and Danny Nordstrom were jumped.

Littman was the oldest one there, Nordstrom was a freshman at the time, and he tried to talk to them peacefully and asked them to leave.  Before he could finish his sentence, one of the guys who were standing next to him took a swing and punched Littman square in the face.  Immediately after that another guy on the other side of Littman swung at him again and knocked him to the ground.

"Sam and I didn't know these kids and we hadn't seen them at all earlier in the night," Nordstrom said.  "Once Sam hit the ground they circled around him and started taking turns kicking him in the face until he was knocked unconscious."

This is the first time Nordstrom and Littman have been battered by someone, let alone a group of kids, but this is not the first time they have seen this happen.

            As the client, she welcomes you into the salon with a warm, gregarious smile, as if she was welcoming you into her home. You receive a refreshment of your choice and proceed to follow her into the room and begin hearing the light resonance of nature in the background as you put a terry cloth robe on.  You lay on the table, under the covers, and a steamer begins to spray moist air onto your face.  The next steps are done with precision and consist of facial cleansing, exfoliation, a light extraction, a massage on your face, neck, shoulders, arms and hands and a finishing touch ending with reflexology, a form of massage in which pressure is applied to certain parts of the feet and hands in order to promote relaxation and healing.

            This is the facial that Karin Kloog, a recent self-made esthetician, specializing in the study of skin care, at Dash Salon and Spa gives on a daily basis.  She genuinely likes what she does and it is apparent in the way she attends to her clients. 

            "I like that I'm providing a service to people," Kloog said.  "It's a good feeling to see my clients relax for an hour and allow me to renew and help their skin."

            Kloog, just 37 years old, has managed to pave her own path to a life she is overjoyed about.  She can't seem to contain her excitement when she talks about her job, family and future.

Karin at work.

She grew up in Ottawa, KS. just Southwest of Lawrence and now lives in Lawrence, KS. with her husband of eight years, Mike, and her 6-year-old son, Aiden.

Even as a child she wanted to be in some field of cosmetology as a career.  Janice Craft, Kloog's mom, said that when Karin was just two or three years old she wanted to be a hairstylist.  Always having been drawn to beauty, she later decided that she wanted to be a makeup artist.  Estheticians are trained in makeup and that was when she decided to go to school and went through a six-month long professional training program in the field of skin care in Olathe, KS.

            Kloog's dream has always been to own her own salon, or at least work independently in a salon, but she knew it wasn't going to be a one-step process.

"That is all I was thinking about when I was done with school," Kloog said.  "But I didn't have the means to start anything like that so I kept it on the backburner and continued on, knowing that that was where I had to end up."

            She found a job at Salon Di Marco on Massachusetts Street where she really excelled in her profession and was actually able to build-up her clientele.           

"I had regulars that would call Di Marco and ask specifically for me," Kloog said.  It was great."

            But the sun wasn't shining for Kloog as long as she had hoped.  By this time she had had her son, Aiden, and was given difficult hours to work around and her boss was not pleasant to work with; sometimes even the clients were difficult.  But, in the end, the negative experiences she encountered at Salon Di Marco happened to be a good thing.  It taught her how to conduct herself with her clients and co-workers in those types of circumstances.

Besides her son, Kloog's most proud of her decision to leave Salon Di Marco and work for herself at Dash Salon and Spa.  She found out about Dash from one of her clients at Salon Di Marco who said that they had a new owner that Karin would really get along with.  She knew this was her chance.

Kloog said that leaving was not a difficult transition but she had her reservations.

"I was nervous about being broke," Kloog said.  "I know it's a slow process though, and I won't be making the same I used to for at least a year but I absolutely don't have any regrets.  Now that I work for myself I'm much happier and more relaxed.  Aside from being your own boss and making your own money, you have so much more control over how you want to handle things."

She managed to take about 50 percent of her clients with her from Salon Di Marco and considers all of her clients to be her friends. 

Karin attends to one of her many clients.

Jessica Smith, Topeka Senior and one of Kloogs' clients that followed her to Dash, has been seeing Karin for waxes for about two and a half years and she won't go to anyone else.

"When I first went to Karin at Salon Di Marco I made sure to request to have her all the other times I went back," Smith said.  "When she told me she was going to be working for herself I was so excited for her and was glad to go wherever she ended up.  She is so good at what she does."

Kloog focuses her practice on waxing, but she also offers services such as makeup, facials and body wraps.

"My favorite is waxing because with facials and body wraps you want your clients to relax," Kloog said.  "What I enjoy most is talking and laughing and joking around with my clients."

"My favorite part about going to Karin are the great conversations we have," Smith said.  She is such a personable woman, how could you not look forward to seeing her."

Along with her clients, Kloogs' number one fan is her mom, Janice Craft, who is bursting with wonderful things to say about her daughter.

"I'm very proud of her independence," Craft said.  "She is frugal, careful, intelligent and most of all she's a really fantastic mom."

Craft said Karin gives her facials all the time as well as tests new styles of facials she is starting to offer to her clients.

Even if she has the life she has always wanted and is content with where she has ended up, she admits that she isn't anywhere near settled.

"I'm in the midst of starting my own skin care line," Kloog said.  "So far I've found a manufacturer that makes organic skin care and I'm picking out five to six different products."

One of the major plans for the future that Kloog is thrilled about is starting her own business with her husband.  Her husband, Mike, is currently in school for massage therapy and they eventually want to combine forces and make something together.

"It's been a dream of ours for sometime," Kloog said.  "When he does get out of school he's going to work at a couple places first to build up his clientele and get used to it." 

After successfully going through the process of marriage, motherhood and family, Karin Kloog has managed to go even farther and work for herself as an independent esthetician and couldn't be happier with her life at the present moment.  With more goals planned for her and her families' future, she looks forward to what lies ahead.

"I'm nowhere near settled down," Kloog said.  "I have so many ideas and aspirations I want to fulfill.  But life's not a race, I want to run with what I'm doing for the time being because I'm happy where I am right now."

When residents drive across the bridges crossing the Kansas River they are passing over a piece of history. 

            The Bowersock Dam was established in 1874 and supplies a basis for waterpower to the Lawrence community.  Although this structure is a landmark in history, it hasn't had major upstream repairs in 30 years.  The condition that the dam is in has become a cause for concern among regulatory agencies.

            According to Bowersock Mills and Power Co. if the Bowersock Dam were to fail, streambed degradation would cause the river water level to lower which would make it difficult for both the Kaw Water Treatment Plant and Bowersock Mills and Power Co. to function properly.

            Matt Scherer, Program Manager for the Division of Dam Safety Water Structures, said that the Bowersock Dam has prevented the degradation in the Kansas River thus far and a potential long-term issue, if the dam were to fail, would be major degradation.  They are also concerned with the long-term damage to bridges upstream and the cities water supply.

            "Dam's are a little like people when they get old," Scherer said.

            A City Commission Meeting was held on March 3 and the Bowersock Dam was on the agenda to discuss possible maintenance and funding options.  The decision the city commissioners came to will occur in two stages, short-term and long-term.

Birds eye view of the Bowersock Dam; courtesy of the Kansas Geological Survey

Bowersock Mills and Power Co. recommended building a cofferdam to fix the short-term repairs to facilitate more detailed, long-term, repairs.

            Mike Amyx, City Commissioner, said that building a cofferdam hasn't been done in over 60 years but he believes the construction of this one is necessary.

            "This truly will give us an opportunity to allow us to have a look at the dam from a safety standpoint without the water around it," Amyx said.

Amyx said that under a capital improvement plan they have $1.1 million and that they want to take care of the short-term emergencies that have been needed first.  Based on the estimates so far, the price for repairs is proposed to be $750,000 and the cofferdam will cost about $350,000.

 

            Bowersock Mills and Power Co. presented some potential solution repair costs to the city commission.  Filling the eroded concrete areas would cost around $100,000 and repairing the failed shotcrete would cost $20,000.  The proposed long-term repair where they would have to seal the upstream face of the dam would have an estimated cost of around $7,500,000.

Scherer said that although there is an estimate, no one would really know the exact costs of the long-term phase of repairs until the city engineers look at the dam and evaluate what needs to be done.

Lisa Taylor, the Director of Communications for the Division of Water and Resources said that the Department of Water Resources has to approve repairs on the dam and that there are other organizations and agencies involved such as the U.S. Army Core of Engineers, one of the biggest dam building organizations in the U.S..

 

The 135-year-old Bowersock Dam has seen better days and the city is trying to avert any sort of lasting damages to the area.

 

Boecker said that the direction at this point is to go ahead and proceed with the short-term repairs and get a report back regarding when we can get the long-term underway.

As we are confronted with an economic uproar, consumers get used to potential changes in their standard of living.  Businesses are having difficulties keeping their establishments afloat.  Although, it seems one business in particular still can see the light of day.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the gross sales for beer, wine and liquor stores, in 2007, has raised $9.5 billion since 2002.

What could be better than an ice-cold beer at the end of the day?

In the midst of a recession, are consumers indulging in happy hour?  Local liquor stores are saying yes.

A trend has begun among certain liquor stores; while all sorts of companies try and pull through during a time of financial crisis, these stores are making more than they thought.

Michael Myers, owner and manager of Mom and Pop's Liquor Store on Massachusetts Street, said that the recession hasn't affected his store much.

"This is going to sound strange but, if anything it may have helped," Myers said.  "It's cheaper to buy alcohol and take it home than go out to a bar or restaurant."

Myers said his store is doing great and that sales have improved.  His gross income from January 2009 has gone up compared to January 2008; way more than he expected.

Diane Spurling, owner of Diane's Liquor on Massachusetts Street, said that her overall sales have done better since the downturn of the economy.  Spurling, who has owned Diane's Liquor for 15 years, said that even though sales are doing better, she has noticed that her customers have changed their spending habits.

"The person that used to buy 30-packs are now buying 12-packs," Spurling said, "that's where you see them downsizing."

Cory Nelson, Overland Park senior and an avid customer at Diane's Liquor said that he has cut back on his usual alcohol purchases.

"I would say that I have been going for the cheaper beer these days," Nelson said.  "I know I don't want to stop buying it, so I figure, with the slump that we're in right now, I'll cut the corners a little."

Larry Johnson, manager of the Cork and Barrel on Mississippi Street has also noticed his customers going for the less expensive items.

On a different note, some customers just can't let go of their more expensive tastes of alcohol.  Danielle Littman, Chicago senior, said that she still buys what she wants at liquor stores.  Her favorite brand of beer is a Craft beer brewed in Colorado.

"I love New Belgium Brewing Company," Littman said.  "But when I have a lot of people over or a party, I definitely go for 'Bud heavy' [Budweiser] because it's cheaper."

Budweiser, along with other brands of beers like Michelob, Busch and Natural, is produced by one of the major brewer's in the United States, Anheuser-Busch.  And, just like these community liquor stores, they have had increased revenues and sales during the recession.

According to iStockAnalyst.com, "The Commercial Appeal" by Jane Wardell, Anheuser Busch has had more earnings in the latest quarter even with concerns of increasing prices of raw materials.

Reports from Hoover's, Inc. showed that in December of 2007 Anheuser-Busch's Net Operating Cash Flow showed an 8.5% increase from December 2006.  Their total revenue from 2005 to 2006 was $681.4 million and since the last report in 2007, the total revenue raised by $287.2 million, leaving them with total revenue of $968.6 million in that year.