Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Locally owned since 1867
Humboldt hoops shooter a state star
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Humboldt grocery store work stalls By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
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Detective novelist in Iola Thursday
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Trump spurns Sessions for Senate PAGE A3
Principal hired at MV
“The grocery store — they’ve pretty much stopped work on it,” said Cole Herder, Humboldt city administrator, during Tuesday’s meeting of Allen County Commissioners. Herder noted that proprietors Scotty and Amy Welch had invested upwards of $20,000 of their own money in the project so far. One factor, Herder said, was waiting to hear if funding would be available through the Kansas Healthy Food Initiative, an entity that helps, in part, rural areas retain local markets.
Humboldt City Administrator Cole Herder, left provides an update to Allen County commissioners on the status of the proposed grocery store in Humboldt, Our Hometown Market. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG
As spring nears, timing becomes an issue as well, explained Herder, with regard to hiring contractors during a busy time of year.
One possible alternative to help the store may come by way of the local health and wellness nonprofit Thrive Allen County, which recently
BLAST LEVELS FARMHOUSE
See COUNTY | Page A5
Medicaid expansion:
Protestors block Senate entrance
By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
MORAN — A Chanute principal will take over the helm of grades 7-12 at Marmaton Valley starting with the next school year. B r i a n Brian C a m p b e l l , Campbell who currently serves as Chanute High School principal, was hired by the USD 256 Board of Education at their meeting Monday. Current junior high and high school principal Kim Ensminger will take over duties as superintendent and elementary school principal next year, with the retirement of Ken McWhirter. Campbell was selected from a pool of several applicants, Ensminger said. “We had some very good candidates that applied for the position but we felt his knowledge and his rapport would be a good fit for Marmaton Valley,” Ensminger said.
gave a national organization a tour of the county’s markets in hopes of attracting funding for Humboldt’s. Efforts to start the store in Humboldt have also captured the attention of Kansas State University, said Herder, mentioning that he’d been asked to speak at a conference on how communities work together to create services for the common good. Despite being in limbo, “We’re still excited about what’s going to happen,” Herder said. With regard to the store project, commissioner Jerry Daniels added “We’ve gotten a
By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
Kenneth Sprague was injured this morning after his house was leveled in an explosion northwest of Moran. Sprague was in the house near the intersection of 3600 Street and Texas Road, according to Allen County sheriff’s deputies. Neighbors heard the explosion and raced to the home to find Sprague inside. He was taken to Allen County Regional Hospital for what deputies said were nonlife-threatening burns and smoke inhalation. Moran volunteer firefighters responded to the call. The cause of the explosion has not been determined. The house was about a mile from the scene of another house explosion that injured Max Houk in November. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG
Flu vs. coronavirus: Similar but different By MARILYNN MARCHIONE The Associated Press
Is it the flu, a cold or the new coronavirus? Patients and doctors alike are parsing signs of illness to figure out who needs what tests or care and how worried they should be.
“You have three different major viruses floating around at the same time,” causing somewhat similar symptoms — but different levels of concern, said Dr. Gary LeRoy, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. So what’s the biggest dan-
ger? And why are we responding to them so differently? FAMILIAR FOE
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is a flu-like illness that has killed a small fraction of the number of people that the See VIRUS | Page A6
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Several dozen protesters chanted, laid down on the floor and blocked the Kansas Senate’s main entrance Tuesday, hoping to pressure it into taking a vote on a bipartisan plan to expand Medicaid. About 50 people protested at the Statehouse for almost three hours. Capitol police removed 23 protesters from in front of the Senate chamber in an attempt to clear the area. Their cases will be forwarded to the local district attorney for potential prosecution on criminal trespassing or disorderly conduct charges, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol, which oversees the police. The protesters began by gathering around the rail of the third-floor rotunda and chanting “What do we want? Healthcare! When do want it? Now!” See MEDICAID | Page A5
Joe Biden has another big primary night
Breakfast chatter First Presbyterian Church was the site of this week’s Lenten breakfast. From left, Bill Mentzer, Marjorie Mentzer and Sharon Whitworth visit before the start of the breakfast. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden decisively won Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory there, as well as in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, dealt a serious blow to Sanders and substantially widened Biden’s path to the nomination. Biden again showed strength Tuesday with working-class voters and African Americans, who are vital to winning the Democratic
nomination. Sanders won North Dakota and awaited results from Wa s h i n g t o n state. Washington’s pri- Joe Biden mary was too early to call, and because all votes there are cast by mail or by dropping them off in a ballot box, many ballots were marked for candidates who have since dropped out of the race. The six-state contest Tuesday marked the first time
voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. And the first four states on Tuesday went to Biden, a dramatic reversal for a campaign that appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Now it is Sanders, whose candidacy was ascendant so recently, who must contemplate a path forward. Addressing supporters in Philadelphia, Biden noted that many had “declared that this candidacy was dead” only days ago, but “now we’re See BIDEN | Page A6
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