Monday, March 9, 2020
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GOP leader’s Medicaid expansion move roils Statehouse By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Jim Denning once symbolized what for Medicaid expansion supporters was wrong with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. Now, the Kansas Senate majority leader is an expansion champion who’s under fire from some GOP lawmakers he’s supposed to be leading for working with the state’s Democratic governor. Denning recently faced
criticism from Republicans for appearing at events with Gov. Laura Kelly to promote an expansion plan that she and Denning drafted. Some GOP lawmakers worry that he’s undercutting their strategy of holding Medicaid ex-
pansion hostage to pressure fellow lawmakers into moving forward with their top priority: an anti-abortion measure. Some also see his efforts as a calculated ploy for voter support in his suburban Kansas City district. Less than a year ago, Denning’s face appeared on protest signs and leaflets, and banners hung briefly in the Statehouse rotunda proclaimed him among the GOP leaders with “blood on their hands.” His opposition to an expansion bill Kelly favored
was key to preventing its passage. Denning’s shift shows how efforts to expand Medicaid under the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act can get bipartisan support even in the last red states to consider them. It also demonstrates how President Donald Trump’s loss of support in suburban areas can scramble state and local political calculations in ways not related to the president’s re-election bid or control of Congress. “It is something that’s a lit-
Sen. Jim Denning tle bit unexpected,” said April Holman, executive director of the pro-expansion Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. “But it’s See DENNING | Page A4
Plundered
Piper thumps Iola for substate title
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First coronavirus case reported in KS PAGE A2 An intricate sandstone dam stretches into the distance at Woodson State Fishing Lake, known to locals as Lake Fegan. REGISTER/ TREVOR HOAG
Trouble on Lake Fegan No matter how many times I ford the low-water crossing near Lake Fegan dam, I hold my breath.
Trevor Hoag Just Prairie Doesn’t matter the water is only two inches deep, though it gurgles and babbles as it rolls over the concrete slab of road. Perhaps that’s why I stopped just before the aforementioned spot on the pretense of snapping photos of the dam’s ornate sandstone pillars. I was clicking away, looking for angles, when I saw someone approaching in the distance, who just happened to be the now-former Sheriff of Woodson County in a gunmetal gray truck. Wayne Faulker was once a member of the Kansas Highway Patrol, and from his silver-gray buzzcut, looks like a military man as well — somewhat reminiscent of the infamous drill sergeant from the film “Full Metal Jacket.” “Trouble?” he asked. As William Least-Heat Vol. 122, No. 93 Iola, KS 75 Cents
Atop one of the many segments of the dam at Lake Fegan, shadows are cast by native stones arranged as a sundial. Moon points out in “Prairyerth,” it’s a familiar refrain to the outdoor writer-explorer, code for “Are YOU trouble?” He mentioned my Virginia license plate, but didn’t seem to care much, especially after I mentioned my name, who I’m related to, and who he knows, along with rattling off a few historical details about the lake. “This place was named after Ben Fegan, who owned this land in the ’30s.” After awhile you get used to the test questions. Striking up a conversation, Faulker seemed proud
of the fact that he took presidential candidate Bob Dole on a 16-county tour of Kansas, though slightly miffed when I mention Dole’s adversary, former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Faulker recalled being impressed by the courthouse at Cottonwood Falls in Chase County while on his tour with Dole, though doesn’t bite when I suggest the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that built Fegan in the 1930s — one of FDR’s “New Deal” programs — is a shining example of how large-scale government programs can be successful.
AFTERWARD, I was sitting just north of the dam at a decaying picnic table, trying to decide whether or not it felt comfortable out: one minute the cool breeze was pleasant, invigorating, but when it stopped and everything held breathlessly still, it became stifling. That Sunday morning, the complexion of the water matched that of the sky, an almost identical blue separated by a band of pearl horizon and the olive-green of innumerable post oaks. It hardly seemed possible the lake had been recently drained now that its waters had returned, which is a testament to how historical and environmental changes can occur suddenly yet seem as though “things were always this way.” When it comes to places like Lake Fegan and its cobalt water turned to waves in the breeze, such relatively sudden transformation is benign; when one considers the “disappearance” of people and places due to atrocities, such haste is chilling. “Trouble?” Though I’d wanted to dwell upon dwelling there, pay close attention to the brown See FEGAN | Page A4
Boyfriend throws her under the bus PAGE B3
Trading halted after 7% plunge NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks plunged 7% on Wall Street this morning, triggering a trading halt for 15 minutes. The steep drop followed similar falls in Europe after a fight among major crudeproducing countries jolted investors already on edge about the widening fallout from the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Indexes in London and Frankfurt dropped by more than 7%. The benchmark for Italy, where the industrial and financial heartland was put in lockdown, fell 11%. Oil prices are down about 20%, deepening a rout that began when Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers failed to agree on cutting output. Bond yields sank to new lows.
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