Thursday, March 5, 2020
Locally owned since 1867
A thriller in 3 parts
iolaregister.com
Love for local lumber By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
Mustangs avoid disaster in overtime victory
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Russian social media sowing discord — again
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Emerging from the barn next to a massive blue log-skidder, George Hawley grins beneath his cap as he surveys several enormous slices of timber that litter the nearby field. The 75-year-old Hawley is undaunted by the difficulty of his work, given a passion he describes as “a fire in the belly.” “How do I explain where my heart is?” he later asked. Hawley said he got involved in the lumber trade “almost by accident” when a logger caught sight of him cutting some fence posts and asked if he would fall some timber for him. More than 55 years later, George considers himself an advocate “for Kansas logs and Kansas lumber,” exhibiting a unique enthusiasm for native See HAWLEY | Page A6
George Hawley of rural LaHarpe stands in front of a tall stack of recently felled and planed Kansas lumber. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG
Health experts warn: Stop touching your face (and here’s how) By RONG-GONG LIN II Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — We all touch our face. With this new coronavirus outbreak, how do we stop? Touching our faces is a real health risk. So in this new world, not only is nose picking thought to be gross, but so is nose scratching, mouth touching and eye rubbing. All it takes is just one virus to hitch a ride on a contaminated finger and slip into the
body through a nostril or a wet part of the face. Then the virus can latch on, finding a human cell in the throat, nose or sinuses to hijack and destroy it, flooding the body with even more copies of itself. In critical illnesses, that one careless touch from an unwashed finger can begin a process of destroying lungs and kidneys and, in a worst-case scenario, trigger septic shock, multiple organ failure and make it impossible to breathe on your own.
And yet. It’s still so, so hard to stop touching our faces. Much of time it’s spontaneous, and we aren’t even aware of it. One study caught medical students in class touching their faces 23 times per hour on average. “It’s human nature to want to touch your face,” said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious diseases expert at UCLA. There’s a reason for that. Touching our faces may actually be related to negative feelings — a feeling when
we’ve failed to achieve a goal or aren’t satisfied, according to a research article published in the journal PLoS One. Face touching can help us deal with anxiety and discomfort, and may be comforting, the report said. We might think we want to touch our faces because of a perceived itch or to groom ourselves, but research suggests we’re actually doing it because we’re somehow uneasy or unSee TOUCHING | Page A5
Be careful not to touch your face, specifically your mouth, eyes and nose. DREAMSTIME/TNS
Senator’s comment on Supreme Court draws rebuke
Jessica McGinnis Drug Free Community coordinator, talks to Marmaton Valley High School Students Haylee Meiwes, from left, Rachel Shaffer, Kira Stahl, Cadence Cook and Kamryn Boyd about conducting a survey of the school campus for evidence that the campus is tobacco-free. The group found only one small “No Smoking” sign. PHOTO COURTESY OF KELCI BOTTS
MV students take lead on anti-smoking endeavor By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
MORAN — Signs. Signs. Nowhere, a sign. A group of Marmaton Valley High School students searched high and low on the campus last fall, looking for a sign of the district’s tobacco-free policy. They checked the football stadium, and found a large
collection of discarded cigarette butts not far from the bleachers. They checked the restrooms, and found places where it would be easy for a student to hide and “vape.” They checked the entrances to the building and parking lots, and realized how easy it would be for someone to sit in a car and smoke or vape despite numerous cameras around the campus.
Finally, on the door to the district office, they found a faded, 3-inch by 3-inch sign that said, “No smoking.” “It looks like it came from the 1980s,” one of the students remarked. That one little sign is the only physical indication of the district’s policy that designates the school campus as tobacco-free. The student handbook, which students and parents are supposed to
Vol. 122, No. 91 Iola, KS 75 Cents
read each year, outlines the policy. But there’s no way for visitors, such as those who come to watch sporting events or other activities, to know that tobacco use is prohibited. As a result of the students’ survey, two local organizations plan to ask the state to provide signs to educate the students and general public See SMOKING | Page A6
WASHINGTON (AP) — Çhief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday criticized as “inappropriate” and “dangerous” comments that Senate D e m o c r at i c leader Chuck Chuck S c h u m e r Schumer made outside the Supreme Court earlier in the day about Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Roberts was responding to Schumer’s remarks at a rally outside the court while a high-profile abortion case was being argued inside. “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go See SENATOR | Page A5
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