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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Monday, January 4, 2016
Saudi Arabia scales back ties with Iran Chanute TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Allies of Saudi Arabia followed the kingdom’s lead and today began scaling down their diplomatic ties to Iran in the wake of the ransacking of Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic, violence that was sparked by the Saudis’ execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. The tiny island kingdom of Bahrain announced it would sever its ties completely from Iran, as Saudi Arabia did late on Sunday. Within hours, the United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade its own diplomatic ties to Tehran, bringing them down to the level of the charge d’affaires and would from now on focus entirely on the business relationships between the two countries. The Saudi decision to halt diplomatic relations came after the mass execution Saturday of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others — the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades — laid bare the sectarian divisions gripping the region. Shiite protesters took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan while Arab allies of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia quickly lined up behind the kingdom.
Prison staffing shortage at ‘crisis’ level By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
ELLSWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Unemployment is down and wages are up in Kansas — except for corrections officers. They are leaving state prisons in droves because of low pay, creating a public safety crisis that legislators will have to deal with on top of plugging a budget hole. Their starting pay is about 33 percent less than the state’s average hourly wage of $20.20, and overall wages are about a quarter lower than the national average. The annual turnover rate is up to nearly 30 percent. Things are so bad that the state is hiring 18-year-olds to manage hardened criminals, despite some prison leaders’ misgivings. “You don’t pay me enough to get urine or feces thrown at me by an inmate,” said Bruce Martin, who left his job at the state’s oldest prison in Lansing in September, even though he was earning a relatively good-for-Kansas wage of about $18 an hour. Kansas cut spending on prisons and juvenile justice programs during the Great Recession, and the current spending is still below the See PRISONS | Page A4
Al-Nimr was a central figure in the Arab Springinspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. Bahrain enjoys particularly close relations with Saudi Arabia, which like Bahrain’s leadership is suspicious of alleged Iranian efforts to destabilize the is-
land nation, which has a tiny Shiite-majority but is Sunniruled. Riyadh, along with the UAE, sent tanks and troops to Bahrain in 2011 to quell widespread anti-government protests spearheaded by Bahrain’s Shiite majority. Bahraini officials have blamed Iran for training
militants and attempting to smuggle arms into the country, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. In October, Bahrain ordered the acting Iranian charge d’affaires to leave within 72 hours and recalled its own ambassador from Tehran after alleging Iran sponsored “subversion” and “terrorism” and funneled arms to militants. The UAE, a country of seven emirates, has a long trading history with Iran and is home to many ethnic Iranians. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the cut in Riyadh-Tehran relations late Sunday and gave Iranian diplomatic personnel 48 hours to leave his country. All Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran have been called home. The move could affect the annual hajj pilgrimage. Lawmaker Mohammad Ali Esfanani, spokesman of the Judicial and Legal Committee of the Iranian parliament, said security issues and the fact that Iranian pilgrims wouldn’t have consular protection inside the kingdom made halting the pilgrimage likely, according to the semiSee IRAN | Page A2
teen, 15, dies
CHANUTE — Funeral services are Wednesday for Carlie Sue Almond, 15, a Chanute High School sophomore who died of a sudden illness Thursday. The Cha- Carlie Almond nute Tribune reported Almond had not been feeling well for several days and had been diagnosed with bronchitis earlier in the week and given medication. Her mother, Amy Almond, told the newspaper that Carlie’s condition had not improved when she attended a basketball practice session earlier Thursday. A teammate took her home from practice because Almond was feeling so poorly. The same teammate then took her to Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center’s emergency room. “They did everything they could,” Amy Almond told the See TEEN | Page A4
Nuns help inmates get a fresh start By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (TNS) — The morning is cold and dark when Sister Rose McLarney comes out of the old brick building on Beacon Hill and opens the gates to the street. She then goes back inside and, there in the warm kitchen with coffee almost ready, the women who live upstairs come down to talk. Big things, little things. McLarney, 75, a sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, listens, the women’s ease and candor settling in more each day since they arrived at the new Journey House — dates they can cite immediately. “Because that’s the day we got out of prison,” said Sher Bialczyk, 53. For years, the Catholic nuns here lived in the quiet peace of a convent. Now they share a home with 15 younger women who have been stabbed, beaten, molested, hooked on drugs and served time. “I don’t think the sisters knew what they were getting in to,” one of the women said. “I’ve seen them go count to 10.” The idea of Journey House — viewed at first as a crazy idea by four old nuns, a take the nuns did not totally reject — is that they would help the women with job searches, life skills, rehabilitation and health care while keeping them off the streets and out of trouble.
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 46
Journey House opened in Kansas City, Mo., as a place for women released from prison to have a place to live. Nuns also live in the house and help the women get on their feet and stay out of trouble. The facility is a former residence for priests in training. Here, residents share a meal; Georgia Walker, center, executive director of Journey to a New Life, talks with the women. KANSAS CITY STAR/JILL TOYOSHIBA/TNS
The sisters quote Scripture; the women speak something else. But these two groups have come together, an embrace of one’s need for help and the other’s will to give it. That goes both ways. The nuns say the women gave them new purpose, stoking hearts that answered a calling long ago. A few times that calling has come in the middle of the night from a woman needing a ride home. The nuns pull on their robes and head out. “I’ve seen parts of this city I didn’t know existed,” said
“We pass through this world but once.”
Sister Gabrielle Smits, at 72 the youngest of the group. The oldest, Sister Martha Niemann, 87, smiled and said: “I like it here — there’s always something going on.” GEORGIA Walker, a former nun and executive director of Journey to New Life, the organization that opened the house, has a rap sheet herself. She’s been arrested more than once for trespassing at the Honeywell plant in Kansas City and Whiteman Air Force Base to protest nuclear weapons.
— Stephen Jay Gould, American scientist
75 Cents
In January, Walker, 68, became a Catholic priest, sort of. Catholic canon law rejects women priests. Walker rejects canon law. Niemann has a gambling problem. “Addiction is very lonely,” she said. A lot of sharing goes on at Journey House. The women from prison say the place is the closest thing to a home they’ve had in years. “I don’t really have family See NUNS | Page A4
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