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Doctors worry about hospital capacity WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Doctors are worried about hospital capacity in the Wichita area amid the latest surge in virus cases and the ongoing staff shortages. The high number of COVID cases along with other patients who need hospital care is leading to long waits in emergency rooms across Kansas' largest city. “You’ve got people waiting for days in emergency departments, sleeping on the floor or sitting in a chair for two days until a bed becomes available,” said Dr. Tom Moore, the lead physician in Wesley hospital’s COVID-19 unit. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Kansas has risen over the past two weeks from 1,674.14 new cases per day on Dec. 17 to 2,001.29 new cases per day on Friday. Dr. Sam Antonios, Ascension Via Christi’s chief clinical officer, told the Wichita Eagle that the surge is also leading to unusually high wait times at St. Joseph and St. Francis hospitals. “We have nearly 100 patients receiving care for
Gary Hawk visits with a classmate, Leah Tomson, at a reception honoring his work at the Buster Keaton Celebration in 2016. FILE
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Local art legend Gary Hawk dies By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
Gary Hawk left the world much the same way he entered it: on a holiday, during a winter storm. In between, though, came a lifetime of art, invention and adventure that included two trips to the White House and global acclaim for his artwork that celebrated a rural way of life. Hawk died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, Jan. 1, surrounded by his family and friends as a winter storm dropped freezing rain, ice and snow. He was 89. He was born under very similar conditions, on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1932, on the family homestead, a sharecropper’s shack, in Oklahoma. “His birth story is something of a legend in our family,” daughter Deborah Smail of Iola recalled. That winter storm also
Gary Hawk works in his studio in the 1980s. FILE PHOTO brought freezing rain, ice and snow. Gary’s father couldn’t get the car out, so he hitched up the horse and buggy in search of a doctor. His mother didn’t like one of her options, so she told him, “If you can’t get that doctor, don’t bring the
other one. Just bring me the vet.” The family moved to Allen County in 1940, on a farm near Carlyle. Gary grew up with older brother, Dale, and younger brother, Bob. Another brother, Rex, died in infancy. Gary graduated from Iola High School in 1950 and soon followed Dale into the Navy, where he served from 1953 to 1955. He and Beverly were married on Aug. 29, 1954. For the next 67 years, he would call her “my bride.” After his discharge from the Navy, Gary attended Kansas State University and then the Kansas City Art Institute. A career in the corporate world followed. Daughter Deb, the oldest, said she and her two sisters, Susan Hawk of Iola and Lora Obermueller of Lincoln, grew up with different versions of their father. “I grew up with a corpo-
rate dad. But my sisters grew up with an entirely different background.” Gary started working at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, where he led special projects and worked directly for JC Hall. That job offered opportunities to meet and work with important people, including Hall’s friend, Walt Disney. “Kids love it when their dad comes home with neat stories from work,” Deb recalled, and told one of her favorites. Gary was an inventor, and Hallmark patented one of his ideas to create a kite out of a greeting card. At the time, “punch-out” cards were popular. They could be turned into things like paper crowns or toys. Gary created a punch-out kite. He came home one day and told Deb he had spent a delightful afternoon on top of the Hallmark building, flying See HAWK | Page A4
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Biden out to prove that democracy still works WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has gotten the same troubling questions from worried world leaders, ones that he never thought he would hear. “Is America going to be all right?” they ask. “What about democracy in America?” While Biden has tried to offer America’s allies assurances, he has only occasionally emphasized the gravity of the threat to democracy from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the repeated lie from the man he defeated, Donald Trump, that the 2020 election was stolen. Now, as the anniversary
Vol. 124, No. 64 Iola, KS 75 Cents
of that deadly day nears, the president is being urged to reorder priorities and use the powers of his office to push voting rights legislation that its adherents say could be the only effective way to counter the rapidly emerging threats to the democratic process. The tension in Biden’s approach reflects his balancing of the urgent needs of Americans to make progress on the highly visible issues of the coronavirus pandemic and Supporters of President Donald Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol in the economy and the less visi- Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (YURI GRIPAS/ABACA PRESS/TNS) ble, but equally vital, issue of preserving trust in elections liver a speech on Jan. 6 fo- part of the remarks but will and government. cused on sustaining democ- be the topic of another speech The president plans to de- racy — voting rights won’t be soon, White House aides said.
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In his recent commencement address at South Carolina State University, Biden’s tone on the need for voting rights legislation took on added urgency. “I’ve never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote. Never,” Biden said, adding, “This new sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion, it’s un-American, it’s undemocratic, and sadly, it is unprecedented since Reconstruction.” And the world is taking notice. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also See BIDEN | Page A4
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