Sports: Red Devil softball advances See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Monday, May 2, 2016
Legislators shift budget responsibility to governor By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators approved a plan early this morning to dump most of the work of balancing the state’s budget on Republican Gov. Sam Brownback while telling him he can’t cut aid to public schools. The measure passed by divided GOP supermajorities in both chambers assumes the
conservative governor foll o w s through on plans to delay major highway projects and cut higher education spending. It also anticipates him making $92 million in further cuts during the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, that could touch state Medicaid health coverage for the
poor and disabled and other social services. Senator Caryn Tyson (RParker) and representatives Kent Thompson (R-LaHarpe) and Adam Lusker (D-Frontenac) voted against the measure. The state would delay $96 million in contributions to public employee pensions due this spring, but the bill approved by lawmaker blocks Brownback from touching aid to public schools. Kansas had
been facing shortfalls totaling more than $290 million in its current budget and the one for the next fiscal year. “Everybody’s sufficiently uncomfortable, but that’s generally what it takes to get compromise,” said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican. The Senate approved the bill, 22-18; the measure had appeared initially to be failing, but several GOP sena-
tors switched their votes. The House had approved it earlier Monday morning, 63-59. Brownback’s chief spokeswoman has said the governor believes he can sign it. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since the GOP lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging in an effort to stimulate the economy. The push to have the See BUDGET | Page A4
Banquet a showcase for young authors Lawmakers
OK limits on local power
By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
There’s an easy cliché, broadcast with unthinking frequency, which says that books are a thing of the past, that today’s kids, their vocabularies crippled by “text speak,” have swapped their chapter books for iPads, and that the bright gadgetry of now has swept away the old values of deep attention and imagination. And so on. But to have attended the 17th annual Allen County Young Authors’ celebration dinner Friday night is to encounter evidence of a very different kind. According to the program’s chairman, elementary school librarian Deb Greenwall, this year’s Young Authors season was in many ways the most fruitful. The program, launched in 1999 on the wings of a grant from the Sleeper Family Trust, invites elementaryand middle-grade students — with the help of participating teachers, of course — to write, illustrate, edit, assemble and “publish” books born of their own imagining. The books are then judged, awarded and, eventually, feted at a banquet at which two nationally recognized children’s authors are invited to speak.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators tackled issued that included abortion and preventing cities and counties from regulating arteryclogging restaurant meals or sugary snacks as the worked on balancing the state’s next budget. Legislators passed and sent Gov. Sam Brownback multiple other measures Sunday before adjourning early Monday morning. ANTI-ABORTION SURES
Humboldt Elementary School principal Staci Hudlin reads with her daughter, Brystal, at a banquet celebrating the 17th annual Allen County Young Authors’ program Friday night. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY “This is our 17th year and we have never had statistics like this,” said Greenwall, with a grin strung ear to ear. “We have never had 92 percent of our students participating in this program and, in all of our 17 years,
we’ve not had 100 percent of our teachers in this. It is just outstanding. There were 772 books written this year...and 13,211 books written since the time we started.” A
SAMPLING
of
year’s catalog was arrayed on a long table at the back of the recital hall — thin, bound books with laminated fronts and plastic spiral bindings with titles like “The Purple See YOUNG | Page A4
this
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Two anti-abortion proposals won approval from legislators. They’re likely to become law: Brownback is a strong abortion opponent who has signed every piece of anti-abortion legislation sent to him since he took office in January 2011. One measure approved Sunday night explicitly prohibits midwives from performing abortions or administering abortion-inducing drugs. The proposal was part of a comprehensive health care regulation bill that inSee LAWMAKERS | Page A2
Student’s talents recognized in contest By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
Fun in the park
Aiden Fraker found kick ball to his liking during May Day activities in Riverside Park Sunday afternoon. Colton Womack, 2, and his brother, Nathan, 7, took a break to munch on free hot dogs and chips. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 131
Japheth Rutoh, 10, may never have sat atop a bulldozer, but it’s not for lack of imagination. The fourth-grader’s depiction of the giant-sized machine was drawn to a T, including its tread belt, smoke stack and front-and back-end loaders. Japheth’s crayon drawing was awarded honorable mention among fourth-graders from across the state. Japheth represented Allen County in the annual Safety Poster Program competition sponsored by Kansas Farm Bureau. The competition’s goal is to instill safe practices around large equipment. Written above Japtheth’s bulldozer is the admonition, “Always Turn Off Heavy Equipment!” Japheth said he likes to draw, but ranks reading as his favorite pasttime. The “Harry Potter” series is his favorite. He also enjoys playing bas-
Japheth Rutoh, 10 REGISTER/SUSAN LYNN ketball and soccer. Japheth said he likes learning. His teacher is Mary Ann
“Books, the children of the brain.”
Regehr at Lincoln Elementary School in Iola. He is the son of Sarah and Luka Kapkiai.
Hi: 63 Lo: 41
— Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist 75 Cents
Iola, KS
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