Sports: Jayhawks fly off with a win See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, January 5, 2015
Iola man declared dead in accident
Steve Johnson, from left, Jeremy Bulk and Nobby Davis chat about what to do next with the new clubhouse at Humboldt’s golf course. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
Humboldt gets clubhouse By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — About three years ago the Humboldt Men’s Golf Association was on the verge of imploding. Membership had dwindled to half a dozen. Looking at a bleak future, younger men were encouraged to join and steadily membership was rebuilt. Today it stands at 45 and when the bell rings to convene league play on Wednesday evenings, 35 or more answer. As with most organizations, “if you don’t have young people involved” there is danger of hearing the death knell, said Nobby Davis, Humboldt’s mayor and one of several always willing to help with com-
A rural Iola man was declared dead after the minivan he was driving struck several items before crashing in a parking lot along North State Street Friday afternoon. Edward Bush, 66, was northbound on State Street when he apparently suffered a medical episode that caused him to lose control of his vehicle. The minivan he was driving struck a sign on the right side of State Street, near the New Greenery, before crossing the road and striking several objects on the left, including a mailbox and electric pole at the Kansas De-
partment of Transportation building before eventually coming to rest near Orscheln Farm & Home. Evidence from the wreckage indicates Bush was incapacitated before the accident, Iola Police Chief Jared Warner said. It did not appear that he attempted to brake, for example. Ambulance personnel took Bush to Allen County Regional Hospital, where he was declared dead. The broken light pole triggered a breaker at Iola’s Oak See ACCIDENT | Page A4
Falling oil prices problematic for state, local governments munity projects. To help secure membership, Davis said the idea of a clubhouse soon followed. It got started last summer when Steve (Johnson) and I were sitting in a boat on Grand Lake,” Davis said. “We got to talking about it (clubhouse) and thought maybe we could move in a double-wide or one of those construction trailers.”
Joe Works, owner of B&W Trailer Hitches, had construction going on and the two men approached him, thinking he might know of a construction trailer. Not so quick, was Works’ response. If a trailer were refitted, it would be above ground. A structure at ground level See CLUBHOUSE | Page A4
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — In Kansas and elsewhere, state and local governments that receive taxes from the production of oil and natural gas could face budgetary challenges as prices plunge. Issues arise with two taxes tied to oil and gas prices and production: severance and property taxes, the Lawrence Journal-World reported Saturday. The severance tax is a state levy on minerals extracted from the ground in Kansas, while property taxes
are also collected by the state and most local governments on oil and gas wells. “We may not have anticipated the full extent of the drop in crude oil prices and possible production cutbacks that we are currently seeing,” Revenue Department spokeswoman Jeannine Koranda said. “Thus, we may possibly miss the estimate on severance tax revenues.” All told, severance taxes generated about $126 million See OIL | Page A4
More Obama in the crosshairs of GOP leaders women, minorities in new Congress By DONNA CASSATA Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 114th Congress that convenes Tuesday will count more minorities and women than ever, although lawmakers remain overwhelmingly white and male in the Republican-controlled House and Senate. A record 104 women will serve in Congress, and for the first time, African-American members of both genders and representing both parties will be among the ranks on Capitol Hill. The number of female lawmakers is up slightly from 100 at the close of the last Congress, but represents about 20 percent of the total in Congress. It’s far less than the nearly 51 percent of the U.S. population. A total of 96 racial minorities will serve in Congress, about 18 percent. See WOMEN | Page A2
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Congress convenes Tuesday with Republicans in control of the House and Senate as a formidable counterpoint to President Barack Obama in his final two years in office. The GOP is intent on upending the president’s policies, including his 5-year-old health care law, his recent immigration actions sparing millions from deportation, and environment and business regulations. Unnerved by the prospect of a negotiated deal with Iran over its nuclear program, several Republicans, with some Democratic help, plan a pre-emptive strike of tough new sanctions on Tehran. Obama has the power to veto legislation, an action he’s taken only twice in six years. Expect plenty more in the next 24 months in showdowns between the Democratic president and the GOP-led Congress. Five things to know about the new Congress in the year ahead:
MIDCOURSE CORRECTION
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ployment are down while economic growth and consumer confidence are up as a once-stagnant economy is humming. Will the so-called Obama recovery force a GOP Congress to recalibrate, abandoning the 2011 budget pact and its across-the-board spending cuts that took a significant chunk out of the deficit? No. Even though the $483 billion deficit for 2014 was the smallest since President George W. Bush’s last full year in office, the GOP is determined to cut spending and rein in the reach of the federal government. Even the
desire to secure more money for the military is unlikely to undo the reductions that will last through 2021. “I’d like to have more money for defense,” incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “What I want is the overall cap to stay in place if possible. And it’s a challenge because to restore money on defense, the Democrats are going to want to restore money on the domestic side. So it’s a big challenge.” The new committee chairmen in the House and Senate will use the annual spending bills to push for even deeper
“The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.” — Salvador Dali 75 Cents
budget cuts. BOEHNER’S CHALLENGE
House Speaker John Boehner will have a comm a n d i n g majority, the largest for the GOP in 84 years. A prolific fundraiser and relentless John Boehner c a m p a i g n e r, Boehner helped elect 44 new Republicans, many of them business-oriented and more amenable to U.S. Chamber of Commerce priorities than to See CONGRESS | Page A4
Hi: 32 Lo: 27 Iola, KS