The Iola Register, Oct. 5, 2023

County receives request for road work

By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register

County road crews have had a busy summer and next year looks to be just as packed, so commissioners are reluctant to commit resources for an electric line project.

NextEra Energy is working on its Transmission Southwest project, connecting a substation near Wolf Creek to the Blackberry substation in Missouri. The line cuts through multiple southeast Kansas counties, including diagonally through Allen. Some of the county’s roads will need to be improved to accommodate the heavy equipment needed for the transmission line project. The im-

See

ICT offers swashbuckling fun

By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

With a wink and a nod, the Iola Community Theatre has turned a classic fairy tale on its ear as it brings “Robin Hood and His Merry Men: A Comedy in Two Acts” to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center this weekend.

While most are familiar with the standard Robin Hood folklore — a rebellious archer steals from the rich and gives to the poor, much to the chagrin of the fiendish Little John and his key enforcer, the Sheriff of Nottingham — there’s plenty to keep the audience in stitches (and suspense) with the ICT version.

In this version, King Richard is away fighting in the crusades, leaving his brother, Prince John, in charge.

And the prince is more than willing to see things done his way, including decrees that citizens pay weekly taxes or face the

Humanity House scrambles for funds

By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register

When the needs are so great, not everyone’s requests can be filled, admitted Georgia Masterson, interim director of Iola’s Humanity House.

Masterson learned in early September that a grant application to Health Forward,

a Kansas City-based foundation that has previously supported Humanity House, was denied.

The application requested $100,000 a year for two years and would have covered the salaries of a full-time director, a part-time staffer and food subsidies.

Masterson volunteers her time at the non-profit located

at 110 East st. Masterson now has four grant applications of varying amounts “in the pipeline,” to keep the organization afloat. A local fundraiser in mid-September raised $1,300, of which all was used to stock its food pantry. For more information, call Humanity House at 620-3806664.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is serving as the acting speaker of the House of Representatives upon the ouster of Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday . DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Rep. McHenry leads the House, at least for now

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) —

As Kevin McCarthy got pushed out of his job as House speaker, in part by colleagues who helped put him on the dais nine months ago, one of his top lieutenants stepped in to preside — at least temporarily.

which hasn’t been held since 2019, is returning this holiday. Here, director Jan Knewtson leads a 2019 rehearsal. REGISTER FILE PHOTO

Vespers to return for Christmas 2023

By RICHARD LUKEN The

Iola Register

A cherished part of Iola’s Christmas season will return in 2023. The annual Christmas Vespers concert, which hasn’t been held since 2019, is planned for Dec. 10 at Iola’s Wesley United Methodist Church.

“We’ve missed it,” said Jan

Knewtson, who returns to direct the choir. “I’ve heard people say, it’s not Christmas without Vespers.”

Rehearsals begin Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center choir room. Every Wednesday is designated as practice time, starting at about 8:15 p.m., until the last week before the concert, when extra rehearsals will be held.

Accompanying the concert is pianist Roberta Wilkes of Yates Center.

“She’s a very accomplished musician,” Knewtson said.

Dr. Jeffery Anderson, head of the Allen Community College music department, will provide pre-concert music as well.

As in years past, the Ves-

North Carolina GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry took the gavel after Tuesday’s vote to oust McCarthy — a historic first for a House speaker.

According to House rules, McHenry was picked from a list McCarthy was required to keep and will serve essentially as the acting speaker — known as speaker pro tempore — until the chamber figures out who will be the next leader.

For McHenry, who stands out with his signature bow ties, the interim job marks his most public position to date during his 10 terms in the House. But he had already risen

in stature and prominence within the House. McHenry was one of McCarthy’s closest allies, and helped him win the speaker’s contest in January and negotiate the debt limit deal that McCarthy made with President Joe Biden earlier this year. He helped McCarthy keep his fragile majority together until it came apart following the decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown. He gave a floor speech Tuesday supporting McCarthy.

Dee Stewart, McHenry’s longtime political consultant and his first chief of staff on Capitol Hill, said it doesn’t surprise him that, for now, his close friend is presiding over one of the world’s most important legislative bodies.

“He’s demonstrated a tremendous acumen as a

Iola’s Christmas Vespers,

Mike Marsh is the eponymous Robin Hood in the Iola Community Theatre production of “Robin Hood and His Merry Men,” which runs Thursday through Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. Here, Marsh rehearses a scene with Wayne Stephens as Friar Tuck and Lucas Hurlock as Kevin. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

Prairie Dell 4-H Club installs new officers

By LIZZY MICHAEL Prairie Dell 4-H Club

The Prairie Dell 4-H Club met on Monday, Oct. 2. Roll call was answered by members’ birthdays.

The 2023-24 officers were installed. They are President Halle Klotz, Vice President Lainey Church, Secretary and Reporter Lizzy Michael, Council Representatives Halle Klotz, Lainey Church, and Lizzy Michael, Parliamentarian Luke Wicoff, and Recreation

Evergy, regulators near deal on rates

By ALLISON KITE Kansas Reflector

Leader Kai Griffeth.

4-H Week is October 1-7 and the club banner is in the window at Deep Creek. Prairie Dell and Square B will have a table at the SAFE BASE Blue Plate Special/Title Night to promote 4-H on Oct. 19. Prairie Dell agreed to ring the bell at Walmart for the Salvation Army.

The next Prairie Dell meeting will be on Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Southwind Extension District office in Iola.

Thousands of health care workers

LOS ANGELES (AP)

— Some 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers, who say understaffing is hurting patient care, walked off the job Wednesday in multiple states, kicking off a major health care strike amid an extraordinary year for U.S. labor organizing and work stoppages.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the country’s larger insurers and health care system operators, with 39 hospitals nationwide. The nonprofit company, based in Oakland, California, provides health coverage for nearly 13 million people, sending customers to clinics and hospitals it runs or contracts with to provide care.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon

strike

and Washington, and for one day in Virginia and Washington, D.C. In the pre-dawn hours outside Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, workers cheered as the strike deadline arrived.

The strikers include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in radiology, X-ray, surgical, pharmacy and emergency departments.

Doctors are not participating, and Kaiser says its hospitals, including emergency rooms, will remain open during the picketing. The company said it was bringing in thousands of temporary workers to fill gaps during the strike. But the strike could lead to delays in getting appointments and non-urgent procedures being rescheduled.

Girl found, man arrested

MOREAU, N.Y. (AP)

— A 9-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in upstate New York was “safe and in good health” Monday after a massive two-day search ended with her rescue and the arrest of a person suspected in her abduction, police said.

Charlotte Sena disappeared while riding her bike early Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded area some 35 miles north of Albany.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night during a news conference that investigators

Evergy is close to a deal with state regulators that would reduce electric rates in the Kansas City area and raise costs for the company’s other Kansas customers.

If the deal is approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission, Evergy’s Kansas Central territory — including Topeka, Manhattan and Wichita — would see rates increase by 4.05%, about $4.64 per month. Customers on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro would see a 4.75% decrease, or about $6.07.

The deal, announced late Friday, is a major departure from the rate increases Evergy requested: a 9.7% increase for Kansas Central and a 1.95% increase for the metro.

“This settlement is a very strong result for our customers,” Evergy’s president and CEO, David Campbell, said in a news release.

Evergy serves 1.6 million electric customers in Kansas and Missouri. It formed from the merger of Kansas City Power & Light, which supplied energy to the metro area, and Westar, which covered most of the rest of eastern and central Kansas, in 2018.

Since then, it has been

under a rate moratorium as a condition of the merger. This rate case, filed with the Kansas Corporation Commission in April, is the first in five years.

In its April filing, Evergy requested rate increases in both of its Kansas territories that would bring in a combined $218 million to the company.

For Kansas Central customers, Evergy’s request would have increased bills by $14.24. Kansas City-area customers would have seen bills jump by $3.47.

But staff of the Kansas Corporation Commission said Evergy’s request was too steep.

In a filing in August, the commission’s staff recommended only a 1.66% increase for Kan-

Public notice

(Published

sas Central and a 7.32% drop for the Kansas City metro. Under staff’s recommendation, Evergy would have seen an overall decline of $40 million.

The settlement deal filed with regulators last week lands in the middle.

The deal —supported by Evergy, the commission staff and numerous consumer, environmental and business groups — still has to be approved by the commission.

If approved, the rate changes in the deal would bring in another $41 million for Evergy, less than one-fifth of the revenue it hoped to bring in from customers.

In a filing in support of the negotiated deal,

T & E Company, PO Box 35 , Iola, KS , 2436.76 Tara Gardens Inc., 122 N. McKen-

Justin Grady, who works in the utilities division of the Kansas Corporation Commission, said the compromise includes “just and reasonable rates, is in the public interest and is supported by substantial competent evidence in the record.”

Noting the wide variety of interest groups that signed onto the deal, Grady wrote, “the fact that these varied interests were able to collaborate and present a unanimous resolution … strongly indicates the public interest standard has been met.”

The three-member Kansas Corporation Commission is expected to hold a hearing about the deal Monday and decide whether to approve it by December.

were able to identify a fingerprint from a ransom note allegedly left by the suspect she identified as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47.

“What happened was extraordinary,” she said.

She said while the rest of Charlotte’s family remained at the campground where she had gone missing, police watching their home saw someone drop a note in their mailbox at 4:20 a.m. Monday. State police pulled fingerprints off the note and the second one matched Ross, who was in a database from a 1999 DWI case, Hochul said.

66.16 Linde Gas & Equipment Inc., 10 Riverview Dr., Danbury, CT, 426.28 Linde Gas & Equipment Inc., 10 Riverview Dr., Danbury, CT, 414.48 McEndree, Charlie, 3243 Idaho Rd., Elsmore, KS, 67.12 Murray, David , 1771 1600th St., Iola, KS, 72.60 Pate, Tera, PO Box 203, Gas, KS, 90.22 Patton, Nathan & Scott Patton, 515 N. Walnut St., Iola, KS , 70.06 Peterson, David, 305 Kennedy Ave., Iola, KS , 73.28 Rayburn, Kyle, 508 S. Harrison Ave., LaHarpe, KS, 69.64 Redlinger, Charles , 1803 N. Main St. Apt. L, Copperas Cove, TX, 155.38 Riebel, Kendall, 1671 2600th St., LaHarpe, KS 66751, 63.96 Sellman, Jeremy, 2052 Nebraska Rd., Iola, KS, 310.60

TX, 157.86

Bartlett, Doris, 1415 Johnson St. , Lockport, IL, 71.92

Blue Star Energy LLC, 11704 Aberdeen Rd., Leawood, KS, 412.98 Blue Star Energy LLC, 11704 Aberdeen Rd., Leawood, KS, 135.32

Blue Star Energy LLC, 11704 Aberdeen Rd., Leawood, KS, 218.76

Bluerock Energy Capital II, 134

Vintage Park Blvd., Houston, TX, 380.50 Boeken, Christopher, 15094 County Rd. 458, Amazonia, MO, 69.62

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd., Baldwin City, KS, 198.28

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd., Baldwin City, KS, 63.86

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd., Baldwin City, KS, 424.72

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd.,

Baldwin City, KS, 329.74

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd.,

Baldwin City, KS, 119.22

DB Energy, 1476 N. 200th Rd.,

Baldwin City, KS, 103.62

Delanda, Beth, 1045

Evergy’s Flat Ridge Wind Farm, near Medicine Lodge, is one of the utility’s sources of renewable energy. The utility has reached a tentative agreement on customers’ electric rates. SUBMITTED TO KANSAS REFLECTOR

UK prime minister wants to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes

LONDON (AP) — U.K.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday proposed raising the legal age that people in England can buy cigarettes by one year, every year until it is eventually illegal for the whole population and smoking will hopefully be phased out among young people. Setting out his plan at the annual Conser-

vative Party conference, Sunak said he wanted to “stop teenagers taking up cigarettes in the first place.”

It is currently illegal for anyone to sell cigarettes or tobacco products to people under 18 years old throughout the U.K.

Sunak’s office said the incremental changes would stop children who turn 14 this year

ICT: Brings

Continued from A1

penalty of death, courtesy of the dastardly Sheriff.

And, as power hungry titans are wont to do, Prince John quickly bores of seeing his pockets filled, and must have more. So, he sets his sights on marrying Maid Marian. (Whether she wants to marry him is irrelevant, he argues, because it’s his official decree, and thus must happen.)

But a downtrodden populace has learned of Robin Hood, a noble hero whose strength and bravery are seemingly legendary. (With an emphasis on seemingly.)

Naturally, as Robin Hood’s legend grows, Prince John and the Sheriff hatch a plan or two to capture Robin Hood and his band of merry men (who are mostly girls, by the way.)

Can Robin save Maid Marian from Little John’s clutches? Will the sheriff and his henchmen foil the incoming insurgency?

Find out at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday in the Bowlus Auditorium. Tickets sell at the door for $10 for adults and $5 for students.

MIKE MARSH shines as Robin Hood, who notes from the outset his mythical reputation may not quite live up to expectations. You see, Robin isn’t quite the ruggedly handsome and swashbuckling type they envisioned. (Even Prince John mistakes him for Peter Pan when they first meet.)

Nevertheless, the quick-witted Robin has a few tricks up his sleeve to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Speaking of Prince John, the incomparable River Hess takes great pleasure in portraying a sadistic vil-

and those younger than that now from ever legally being sold cigarettes in England. If Parliament approves the proposal, the legal change would only apply in England — not in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“People take up cigarettes when they’re young. Four in five smokers have started by the time they’re 20,”

he said. “Later, the vast majority try to quit ... if we could break that cycle, if we could stop the start, then we would be on our way to ending the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our country.”

The government said that smoking won’t be criminalized, and the phased changes mean that anyone who can legally buy cigarettes

now won’t be prevented from doing so in the future.

The number of people who smoke in the U.K. has declined by two-thirds since the 1970s, but some 6.4 million people in the country — or about 13% of the population — still smoke, according to official figures.

Britain’s government raised the legal age of

‘Robin Hood’ production to Bowlus

ing ahead in the script. (Of course, the last page of the script is missing, so the ending remains a mystery to them as well.)

Overseeing it all is Fees, whose direction keeps the story moving at a brisk pace, even with missed cues aplenty, and redoing scenes if they’re not up to the performers’ satisfaction — yes, on purpose. Heck, there’s even a slow-motion fight to enjoy, twice.

sale for tobacco from 16 to 18 in 2007. That succeeded in reducing the prevalence of smoking among 16 and 17-yearolds by 30%, Sunak’s office said.

Health experts welcomed the prime minister’s plan to steadily increase the legal smoking age. A similar measure was approved in New Zealand last year.

Vespers

Continued from A1

pers concert is free to the public, as a musical Christmas gift to the community. A reception for the singers and community will follow the 3 p.m. show.

lain, with just a hint of oafishness.

Likewise, “Scowling”

Stacie Smail is equally brilliant as the brutal, intimidating Sheriff of Nottingham, cracking the faintest hint of a smile only when she knows she has the upper hand on her enemies.

And Rhi Jordan brings plenty of leading-lady panache as Maid Marian, who swears she has fallen in love with Robin Hood as she learns of his plans to rescue her — even if she hasn’t actually seen him yet.

DIRECTOR Alison Fees has a sterling supporting cast at her disposal as well.

Wayne Stephens and Jacob Cooper are uproarious as Friar Tuck and Little John as they quickly bond with Robin Hood over a duel, not by swords or arrows, but with a thumb war.

(Yes, really!)

Katie Jo Knoblich is brilliant as Matilda, whose allegiance to the sheriff is frequently tested by an over-sized crush on Robin.

Newcomer to the ICT scene Logan Belknap,

likewise, offers plenty of comic relief as Kevin, Prince John’s henchman.

Lucas Hurlock, another newcomer, is worth a laugh or three as Duncan, who is itching for an adventure alongside Friar Tuck and Little John.

Dan Davis plays two roles with aplomb, primarily as narrator, where he occasionally has to prod the actors from scene to scene, and later as King Richard, whose return from the Crusades comes at the thrilling conclusion.

Making full use of their time on stage are Shellie Barnett, Tiffany Hurlock, Amanda Belknap, Piper Jordan, Monica Gayle Wright and Amanda Easley as Robin’s band of Merry Men Women, or as various ladies in other scenes, while Shannon Simpson and Sandy Hardwick sparkle as Nottingham citizens.

Last, but not least, young Winston Jordan gets plenty of stage time as the production’s “stage manager.” He’s eager to help move along the narration, and to remind the audience

of pending scene changes. The play is set up so actors frequently break the fourth wall, and occasionally learn of plot twists alongside the audience by simply read-

The legend of Robin Hood has been around for centuries, and remains culturally relevant still today, whether it’s from the Errol Flynn era, through the prism of a Disney cartoon, to more recent renditions offered up by Kevin Costner or Taron Egerton.

The Iola Community Theatre’s presentation, too, warrants a spot on the pantheon of legendary performances — at least in this neck of the Sherwood Forest.

THE IOLA Music Club started Vespers in 1955. It became an annual tradition, even after the Music Club folded, until the COVID-19 pandemic prompted organizers to cancel the 2020 concert.

KNEWTSON is recruiting singers for the choir to present the collection of religious and secular Christmas music. New tunes will be performed along with the traditional standards.

For more information, contact Knewtson at (620) 380-1711.

74% of Americans believe it is important to have a local

Newspapers define the culture of a commmunity.

Rhi Jordan is Maid Marian, River Hess is Prince John and Logan Belknap is Kevin, the prince’s henchman, in the Iola Community Theatre production of “Robin Hood and His Merry Men,” which runs Thursday through Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

Study: More are moving into high flood zones, increasing risk

By SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press

Far more people are in harm’s way as they move into high flood zones across the globe, adding to an increase in watery disasters from climate change, a new study said.

Since 1985, the number of the world’s settlements in the riskiest flood zones has increased 122%, compared to 80% for the safest areas, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature by researchers at The World Bank. The authors looked at settlement extent and expansion using satellites instead of population, with the world’s built-up regions growing 85% overall from 1985 to 2015.

“People are on a search for better lives and better jobs and then sort of get stuck in bad lands because that’s what they can afford,” said study co-author Stephane Hallegatte, a World Bank senior climate adviser and expert on disaster economics. He said they know it’s dangerous when they arrive.

The problem is driven by middle- and low-income countries, the study found. Richer countries like the United States and parts of Europe are seeing more growth in safer areas than flood-prone ones and the poorest nations

haven’t quite developed as heavily in flood-prone areas, it said. China and Vietnam both saw their settlement extent more than tripling in the past 30 years, increasing far more than their dry land areas. Most countries, especially in East Asia, saw more settlements in regular flood zones and ultra high flood zones than in dry areas. Libya, which suffered

from devastating flooding last month, had an 83% increase in settlement extent in the worst flood zones. Pakistan, also the victim of catastrophic flooding both last year and this year, had an 89% increase. What’s happening is that as a nation grows a bit wealthier there’s a change from rural to urban and people leave the country to go to cities, which are often near waterways that

County: Road work requested

Continued from A1

provements include replacing several culverts and bridges, Mark Griffith, the county’s road and bridge director, told commissioners on Tuesday.

NextEra will pay for those improvements. Griffith said his crews could do the work and the county would be reimbursed. County Attorney Bob Johnson is working on an agreement with NextEra.

Commission Chairman David Lee, however, said he is hesitant to pull county crews away from other projects to do the work. Some projects planned for this past summer were pushed back because of delays caused by a July 14 wind storm and equipment issues.

“You’re taking on a lot of responsibility we don’t necessarily have time for,” Lee said.

Commissioner Jerry Daniels asked if it was possible to hire a subcontractor. Griffith and Johnson said that could be an option, but the county still needs someone to oversee the work.

“They’re our roads, so we’ll need someone out there inspecting the integrity of the roads,” Johnson said.

“I’d rather give up one guy than a crew,” Lee responded.

Griffith said up to seven locations would be affected, including one larger bridge. Some of the roads are asphalt and some are gravel.

Johnson and Griffith told commissioners they would continue to work through the legal details. It will still be some time before Next Era is ready to begin.

Griffith also discussed a request from Monarch Cement at Humboldt to repair a section of Delaware Road near 1600 Road. The area gets a lot of traffic from heavy cement trucks, damaging the road.

Monarch offered to supply the concrete if the county does the

(Storm sirens are) for farmers or people who are outdoors working in their gardens, who may be away from a television or radio, or who haven’t signed up for Code Red and may not hear the emergency alert. This is a mechanism for those people to hear the sirens if they are outdoors.

— Jason Trego, Allen County Emergency Management director

work. The county and Monarch have cooperated in similar ways on other projects, Daniels said.

He also suggested county crews work on one lane at a time to allow the concrete to cure, rather than closing the entire section.

Storm sirens

Jason Trego, the county’s emergency management director, addressed a common misconception about storm sirens during a discussion with commissioners on Tuesday.

Storm sirens are an outdoor alert system and are not intended to be heard from inside a building, Trego said.

“It’s for farmers or people who are outdoors working in their gardens, who may be away from a television or radio, or who haven’t signed up for Code Red and may not hear the emergency alert. This is a mechanism for those people to hear the sirens if they are outdoors.”

The issue arose during a discussion about severe weather alerts. Chairman Lee asked about a siren near Mildred. He has received complaints that it doesn’t work and when it does, it still can’t be heard by Mildred residents.

Lee suggested the siren might be in a poor location and should be moved closer to Mildred residents.

Trego said he’s not sure if the siren is working and he has contacted a repair company. He then reminded commissioners that storm

sirens are meant for outdoor alerts.

Trego also gave commissioners an update on recent training and conferences he and dispatchers have recently attended.

A dispatcher recently retired but three have been hired, bringing the department to full staff.

IN OTHER news, commissioners:

• Recognized county employee Jimmy Skaggs, who retired after 39 years. Commissioners read an email they had received from a citizen thanking Skaggs for a project he recently completed at their property.

• Heard from Arlyn Briggs, who wants to purchase the former Moran health clinic building. Commissioners advised him to talk to the hospital facilities committee, who oversee county-owned healthcare buildings.

• Heard about a meeting on Nov. 7 to discuss new floodplain maps issued by the state. Terry Call, zoning director, said those affected by changes to the map can attend the meeting for more information. He notified 237 property owners who are affected.

• Heard an update from Mitch Garner, Public Works director, who said the landfill is still waiting on permits to establish separate collection areas for tires and batteries. The landfill continues to collect batteries and keeps them separate from other garbage until that area is established.

flood in places, said study lead author Jun Rentschler, a World Bank economist.

“What we’re trying to do with the study is to track the process of urban development over time,” Rentschler said. “What you would expect is that initially you settle in a safe space, but as the city expands, it’s more likely to grow into areas that it previously avoided, flood zones for in-

stance.”

Then comes the issue of is it cheaper to fortify these dangerous areas or better to move people out, the study authors said.

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, is a poster city for this problem, they said. It boomed from a fishing village of about 83,000 people in 1950 to more than 7 million people now, according to World Population Review.

On the other hand, the United States saw dry settlements increase 76% and the highest flood settlements go up only 46%. Other countries with more dry settlements than ultra-wet include France, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Japan, Canada and India.

“It is an important paper that compiles data on both developed areas and assets exposed to flooding as never has been done before,” said Columbia University climate scientist Klaus Jacob, who wasn’t part of the research.

“Especially the data on differentiating the countries by income levels is of importance and provides interesting socioeconomic insights.”

Populations growing into flood zones doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t a major problem, the study authors said. In fact, they are intertwined, Rentschler said.

South Africa culls million of chickens in effort to contain bird flu outbreaks

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa has culled about 7.5 million chickens in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two separate strains of avian influenza that threaten to create a shortage of eggs and poultry for consumers, the government and national poultry association said Tuesday.

At least 205,000 chickens have died from bird flu in at least 60 separate outbreaks across the country, with more than half of those outbreaks in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria. Some grocery stores in Johannesburg were limiting the number of

eggs customers were allowed to buy this week — in some cases to one carton of six eggs — and the government acknowledged there were “supply constraints.”

The government announced approximately 2.5 million chickens bred for their meat had been culled. The South African Poultry Association said another 5 million egg-laying chickens had been culled. The 7.5 million birds represented about 20-30% of South Africa’s total chicken stock, South African Poultry Association general manager Izaak Breitenbach said.

The government was moving to fast-track new import permits for companies to bring in eggs from other coun-

tries “to ensure sufficient supplies for consumers,” Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza said. Her ministry is also considering embarking on a vaccination program to halt the bird flu outbreaks and said the number of farms with cases was increasing. Neighboring Namibia has banned chicken meat and egg imports from South Africa. The outbreaks are hitting an industry already struggling due to an electricity crisis. Breitenbach said South Africa has had three major bird flu outbreaks in recent years, and the latest ones were “by far the worst,” already costing the industry losses of at least $25 million.

for a community forum on the proposed renovations to the Allen County Courthouse

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. • Allen County Courthouse

6:30-7:30 p.m. - Tours and presentations by panelists 7:30-8:30 p.m. - Q&A with audience

Panelists:

Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy

Dina Morrison, Chief Clerk Administrator

Kevin McGuffin, Chief Court Services Officer/Executive Director of Community Corrections and Juvenile Services

Vince Haines, Architect, Gravity Works Architecture

Tad Johnson, Construction Manager, Crossland Construction Company, Inc

Gregory Vahrenberg, Managing Director, Raymond James Bob Johnson, Johnson Schowengerdt, PA

Dan Creitz, Chief Judge of the 31st Judicial District

Sponsored by:

Please call 620-365-2111 for more information. This event is free and open to the public.

A person attempts to walk along a flooded sidewalk on Coney Island Avenue amid a coastal storm on Sept. 29, in New York’s Flatbush neighborhood. MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES/ TNS

~ Journalism that makes a difference

House GOP’s threat to defund Amtrak will hurt rural Kansas

What happens in Washington may seem far, far away, but decisions by Congress can and do affect people out here on the High Plains. And if House Republicans have their way, our region could lose its trains, or find them next to worthless.

Amtrak, the government corporation that operates the nation’s rail passenger trains, faces around a 50 percent budget cut under proposals in the House Commerce Committee.

It seems the House Republicans have resurrected the old myth that passenger trains can make money. That hasn’t happened in the U.S. in three-quarters of a century, and it’s not likely now.

Rail passenger service does not make money in any country in the world that we know of. Amtrak loses about the same amount of money on both its national network and the vaunted Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.

Its service has value to many, however, despite all the problems the system faces. In the Northeast, air and motor traffic would face gridlock if trains stopped running. Out here, “national network” trains serve a lot of towns with no other viable public transportation.

No one complains about vast federal subsidies for rural airline service used by a few people a day, but every few years, someone in Congress decries the cost of subsidizing trains.

The myth that Amtrak will someday make money originated back in the Nixon administration, when the White House wanted to relieve struggling for-profit freight railroads of their passenger-train losses. Despite all the evidence, it keeps coming back.

The question is not, “do we want trains to make a profit?” No form of passenger transport makes money, airlines included. The air-traffic system gets billions of city, state and federal aid for airports, air traffic control and safety; trucks could not move freight without federal and state road spending;

and water transportation (which moves a lot of grain to ports) is possible only because of federal spending.

The question is, do we want and need trains, and what is their role?

Out here, the answer ought to be yes.

You can, for instance, catch a flight from McCook to Denver — if a plane came in the night before, if the airline has a crew available, if the weather is good. Even if they get out of town, however, many become stranded when the evening flight back does not go.

Otherwise, you can drive four hours to Denver, spend three hours at the airport, pay for tickets and parking, and get to, say, Chicago by mid afternoon.

Or, you could drive to McCook, park for free at the depot, catch the midnight train and be in Chicago by mid afternoon without all the hassle of parking security, hurrying through the airport and all the rest.

Flying is no fun these days. Riding a train can be relaxing.

Amtrak has its problems, to be sure. It’s been underfunded by Congress for years, and saddled with incompetent, anti-train (yes, really) managers. Freight railroads and aging equipment conspire to make trains late, but that problem could be solved.

And often, trains are said to be “sold out” when really, spare coaches and sleepers sit idle in yards or in shops not being fixed, because Amtrak makes more by running short, sold-out trains at higher prices, and management doesn’t care about service.

If the House Republicans have their way, however, trains might quit running out here, or maybe worse, carry just a couple of coaches with no dining or sleeping cars, no food, outmoded equipment and failed air conditioning. Just like on some private railroads back in the day.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. We should tell our congressman and senators the House plan is not what we want or need in rural America.

— Steve Haynes, Nor’West Newspapers, Oberlin

Kobach’s threats of China usurping Kansas property a famililar scare tactic

By JOEL MATHIS Special to the

City Star

Take a guess: How much Kansas land does China own?

It’s probably not a lot — you probably would have heard something about it if so — but it can’t be nothing, right? American right-wingers have spent much of the last year raising alarms about Chinese communists buying up farmland across the country and passing laws against foreign ownership, so there’s got to be a there there. Right?

So: Is it 10,000 acres? Or maybe just 1,000 acres. Or even just 100?

Try a whopping halfacre.

A pair of Kansas State University economists made that assessment back in April, based on the results of a Freedom of Information Act inquiry with the federal government. That half-acre is located in Riley County, purchased in 2018.

Doesn’t sound very scary, does it?

Nonetheless, it probably won’t surprise you that Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach — a man who never met a xenophobic McCarthyite panic he didn’t wholeheartedly embrace — is now pushing for a state law to greatly restrict foreign ownership of Kansas land. And China is the reason he’s offering.

“U.S. citizens and companies must control our own land,” Kobach wrote Wednesday on social media, echoing comments he made the previous day before a legislative committee. “It’s a hedge against the threat China and other foreign bad actors pose to

our supply chain and our food security.”

That does sound scary! Especially if you don’t know that China, again, owns just a half-acre of Kansas land. Or that — according to a recent NBC News report — Chinese buyers have purchased just 1,400 acres of land across the entire United State over the last year and a half.

“In fact,” NBC reported, “the total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%.”

Maybe there isn’t a there there, after all.

U.S. citizens and companies must control our own land. It’s a hedge against the threat China and other foreign bad actors pose to our supply chain and our food security.

— Kris Kobach, Kansas attorney general

Kobach’s own numbers, according to his legislative testimony, suggest that China controls about 383,000 acres of American farmland. That number might be an undercount, he said, and at any rate is growing too quickly.

“There is no question that China’s acquisition of agricultural land throughout the Midwest is increasing faster than that of other countries,” his spokesperson told me by email.

But we’ve been down this road before with Kobach, haven’t we? The attorney general just loves

to wage war against imaginary foreign enemies.

Back in 2012, when he was Kansas secretary of state, he indulged the false notion that then-President Barack Obama wasn’t really an American citizen and suggested the state needed more information before allowing the president a spot on that year’s election ballot. “I don’t think it’s a frivolous objection,” he said at the time.

It was, in fact, a frivolous objection.

More famously, Kobach was behind a state law requiring voters to prove their citizenship — this despite the fact that there wasn’t much proof of foreign residents rushing to vote in Kansas. During the ensuing lawsuit in 2018, Kobach said just 129 noncitizens had registered or attempted to register to vote in Kansas since 2000. The law, meanwhile, ended up blocking an estimated 35,000 Kansans from voting.

“The 129 is just the tip of the iceberg … we know the iceberg is much larger,” he said.

A judge disagreed. Kobach lost the lawsuit — and, embarrassingly, was ordered to take remedial law classes.

And of course, Kobach helped lead Donald Trump’s commission that set out to prove foreign voters gave Hillary Clinton the popular vote lead in the 2016 election. (Trump won the presidency via the Electoral College but wasn’t content to leave it at that.) The commission came up empty-handed.

Put it this way: Kobach has a real “boy who cried wolf” problem on this kind of stuff. Why should we believe him this time?

According to Kansas State University economists, less than 1 acre of Kansas property is owned by China. UNSPLASH/JEN WEWER

Kansas

President Joe Biden, (Democrat)

Humboldt royalty

Humboldt High School will celebrate its fall homecoming this Friday as the undefeated Cubs take on Osage City. The crowning ceremony will be at halftime; kickoff is at 7 p.m. Queen candidates are, front row from left, Rylan Covey, Kinley Tucker, Kenisyn Hottenstein and Nastassya Goforth. King candidates are, from left, Landon Bauer, Mateo Miller, Sam Hull and Garren Goodner. COURTESY PHOTO

House: McHenry

Continued from A1

member of Congress and is widely respected by most everyone who deals with him,” said Stewart, who first met McHenry in 1996 at a convention of the North Carolina Federation of College Republicans.

One of McHenry’s first acts in the temporary position was to oust Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi from her honorary office at the Capitol while she was away in California to pay tribute to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Pelosi called the eviction “a sharp departure from tradition.” But she added: “Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to be important to them. Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important for the American people.”

McHenry, who will turn 48 later this month, grew up around the Charlotte area. He went to North Carolina State University before graduating from Belmont Abbey College, a small Catholic school just west of Charlotte.

While still in college, he ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat in 1998, but he won four years later at age 27. McHenry had worked for a Washington-based media consulting firm, for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, and as a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

McHenry served just one term in the General Assembly, where he witnessed a historic stalemate over who should be the chamber’s speaker. The fight ended with a Democrat and a Republican sharing the job, with each gaveling in sessions on alternate days.

But McHenry was looking ahead, and in 2004 he pulled off a Republican primary victory for the seat in the blue-collar, manufacturing-focused 10th Congressional District seat being vacated by the retiring GOP Rep. Cass Ballenger. He advanced to a runoff, where he defeated a popular local sheriff by just 85 votes out of 30,000 cast to win the party nomination.

Aides credited McHenry’s grassroots campaigning — Stewart said they knocked on 60,000 doors — for defeating rivals who were nearly twice his age and outspent him heavily.

Biden announces more student debt relief

WASHINGTON (AP)

— President Joe Biden announced another round of federal student loan forgiveness on Wednesday as borrowers brace for payments to restart after a three-year pause that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Democratic president’s latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing relief programs. In total, 3.6 million borrowers will have had $127 billion in debt wiped out since Biden took office.

“President Biden

has long believed that college should be a ticket to the middle class, not a burden that weighs on families,” the White House said in a statement.

Biden was scheduled to make a formal announcement at the White House in the afternoon.

He promised to help alleviate the burden of student debt while running for president, and he’s been under pressure to follow through even though his original plan was overturned by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Italy launches probe after tourist bus crashes

One of Patrick McHenry’s first acts in the temporary position was to oust Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi from her honorary office at the Capitol while she was away in California to pay tribute to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

After defeating the Democratic nominee in 2004, McHenry entered Congress as a hardline conservative willing to speak against leadership. He broke against GOP leaders by upholding a campaign promise to vote against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

But over time McHenry rose up the GOP leadership ladder, becoming the Republicans’ chief deputy whip in 2015, and a key part of McCarthy’s team. This year he’s been the House Financial Services Committee chairman.

McHenry “really earned his stripes by (being) willing to take on tough issues in a vocal way during his first couple of terms,” Stewart said, adding that he was granted more responsibilities as he “demonstrated his loyalty to the conservative cause.”

Former Speaker John Boehner told Politico in 2017 after leaving office, “McHenry’s going to be the speaker one day.”

Stewart was careful about whether McHenry could become the permanent speaker, saying Stewart was “taking a wait-and-see approach.”

McHenry has won reelection by comfortable margins, a reflection of Republican dominance in rural western North Carolina. Married to a U.S. government economist and father to three children, McHenry lives on Lake Norman within the 10th District.

Known for his deadpan jokes, McHenry can also have a fiery side.

While on the dais Tuesday, he read carefully from a paper saying it would be “prudent” to recess the House so that party caucuses and conferences could meet “to discuss the path forward.”

McHenry then slammed the gavel down very hard — and the footage went viral on social media.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venetians stopped in dismay Wednesday to pay respects to the 21 foreign tourists who were killed when an all-electric shuttle bus crashed through an overpass guardrail and fence, plunging more than 10 meters to the ground.

It’s a road they had traveled many times and considered safe but now stopped to inspect the aging guardrail and rusted fence.

The bus, which was just a year old, crashed to the ground and landed upside down on Tuesday night. The 40-year-old driver was among those killed and 15 people were injured.

The driver, who had an untarnished record, had just started his shift shuttling tourists from Piazzale Roma, at the edge of Venice’s famed canals, to a four-

star campground on the mainland offering bargain accommodation.

A video shows the city-owned bus disappear from the frame, as another larger bus traveling behind it continued along the elevated road. Prosecutors said the shuttle bus scraped against the guardrail for at least 50 yards before its fiery crash to a surface road opposite the Venetian borough of Mestre’s train station.

The guardrail was bent to the pavement; the fence ripped open and the front of the bus completely crushed.

“Inexplicable,’’ said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who added that he had driven on the overpass hundreds of times. Regional Gov. Luca Zaia said the circumstances suggested the driver may have been sudden-

ly taken ill.

Investigators hope that video from the scene will reveal the dynamic of what happened.

Five Ukrainians and one German were among those killed. Two of the dead were children. The rest of those who perished have yet to be identified.

The injured includ-

ed at least four Ukrainians, part of a larger group that included a 3-year-old girl who suffered serious burns, as well as visitors from Spain, Austria, France, Croatia and Germany. Nine were being treated in intensive care for trauma, including burns and fractures. Survivors included a young Austrian brother and sister.

Firefighters work on the site of a bus accident on Tuesday, in Mestre, near Venice, Italy. (MARCO SABADIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/TNS)

Vote for September top athletes

By QUINN BURKITT The Iola Register

Allen County athletes provided an abundance of sports action across the area in September. Here are our Athlete of the Month nominees.

Crest emerges victorious in Moran

By QUINN BURKITT

MORAN — The Crest High volleyball team swept their competition at Marmaton Valley on Tuesday night.

Crest beat St. Paul and Marmaton Valley to finish off an exciting night of volleyball.

“There’s a chance to tie last year’s record for the most wins in school history and they’re really playing for each other,” Crest head coach Abigail Hermreck said. “It’s fun for our school

because Crest’s girls sports team have not had a lot of success the past few years and all of the sudden we’re having success. We’ve got to keep pushing forward.”

With five games left this season, the Lancers have won 22 games; last year’s record was 27-7.

THE Marmaton Valley Wildcats opened up play by defeating St. Paul in two sets, 25-16 and 25-15.

Payton Scharff scored a team-high seven points in the first set and Marie Forero recorded a team-high six

points in the second set.

Crest also took down St. Paul in two sets, 25-16 and 25-13. Kaelin Nilges registered a team-high 10 points in the first set for the Lancers and Brooklynn Jones had a teamhigh 14 points in the second set.

“During practice this week we know the postseason is coming up so our focus is to win and not just rely on the other team to make mistakes. We’re going to focus on what works. We want to win on our side and not rely

on the other team.”

Crest defeated Marmaton Valley in two sets, 25-13 and 25-17.

Kayla Hermreck led the Lancers in the first set with a team-high 11 points while Marmaton Valley’s Forero had a team-high five points. In the second set, Crest’s Jones scored a team-high nine points while Wildcat Kylah Sander had a teamhigh five points. The Crest and Marmaton Valley volleyball teams are in Uniontown on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Iola sweeps competition at Prairie View

By QUINN BURKITT The Iola Register

LA CYGNE — The Iola High volleyball won their matches at Prairie View Tuesday.

The Mustangs (16-9; 5-3 Pioneer League) knocked down Burlington with ease in two sets before taking down Prairie View in three sets. Iola has gone 10-3 in the past two weeks since their second-place finish at the Burlington tournament in mid-September.

“I knew once this team got a couple wins everything was going to click,” Iola head coach Amanda Holman said. “Right now we’re starting to show that with all the experience we’re only getting better. This year we’re making our big run.”

Iola defeated Burlington in two sets, 25-14 and 25-14.

Alana Mader led the Mustangs offensively with a team-high eight kills while Curry had a team-high three aces. Defensively, Mader recorded a team-high six blocks while Elza Clift had a team-high 10 digs.

“We started off strong and pretty much dominated the first game,” Holman said. “We’re learning how to win now. It’s the best season we’ve had in a while. Taking care of those close games has been key and the Prairie View win was a big one.”

The Mustangs took down Prairie View in three sets, 25-15, 16-25 and 25-23.

Mader led Iola again

offensively with a teamhigh 15 kills while Mariah Jelinkek and Mader each had a teamhigh three aces. Defensively, Mader recorded a team-high seven blocks while Reese Curry registered a teamhigh 23 digs. Clift also added 21 digs. The Mustang wins since their second-place finish at the Bur-

We’re learning how to win now. It’s great to be playing your best ball toward the end of the season. The girls have good chemistry.

lington tournament have been against Prairie View, Eureka, Santa Fe Trail, Fredonia, Southern Coffey County, McLouth, Osawatomie, Wellsville and Burlington twice.

— Iola coach Amanda Holman

“It’s great to be playing your best ball toward the end of the season. A lot of things are going well right now and we’re finding our groove,” said Holman.

“The girls have good chemistry and they’re translating that to the court. They now know each other’s strengths.”

So far this season, Curry has led Iola with a teamhigh 3.2 kills per set while Clift has recorded a teamhigh 6.9 digs per set. Crusinbery has averaged 5.6 assists per set.

“She’s (Crusinbery) really found her groove this year. She was thrown into being a varsity setter her freshman year and now has really taken on that role.”

Iola has a home meet next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Vote for your favorites on the Register’s website. The poll is currently live and will remain open until midnight Monday. We’ll announce the winners Tuesday in both our print and online editions. You can also vote by bringing in the graphic, found on today’s page B3, or by calling our office at 620-365-2111.

BOYS

Cole Moyer

Moyer has been a standout for the Iola Mustang cross country team since the first race of the season, when he finished 21st place in 19:33 in the 5K race at Garnett. Then in Fort Scott, Moyer improved his time, coming in 12th place with a finish of 19:15.

Moyer has seen continued improvement across the season. The Mustang stepped up his game at the Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence when ran the 5K in 18:50, good for a 76th place finish among 327 contenders. And most recently, Moyer finished with a time of 18:30, good for

See SEPT. | Page B3

Humboldt VB at top of league

NEODESHA — The Humboldt High volleyball team remained undefeated in league play when they swept Neodesha and Caney Valley on the road Tuesday.

The Lady Cubs (235-1) advanced to 3-0 in Tri-Valley League play.

“We came out ready to play against Neodesha and we really played well,” Humboldt head coach Terry Meadows said. “Our serve was aggressive and we kept them out of system. We were able to pass pretty well and get good swings. They played with great energy last night.”

Humboldt defeated Neodesha in two sets, 25-18 and 25-22.

Skylar Hottenstein led the Lady Cubs from the serving line with two aces while Shelby Shaughnessy had a teamhigh 18 kills. On defense, Shaughnessy led Humboldt with a lone block

See LADY CUBS | Page B3

The Iola Register

Marmaton Valley’s Brooklynn Adams, left, sets up a hit against Crest Tuesday. At right, Crest’s Aylee Beckmon goes for a hit against Marmaton Valley. REGISTER/QUINN BURKITT

Iola’s Elza Clift goes for a hit at Burlington earlier this season. REGISTER/QUINN BURKITT

Invitation to Bid 2023 CFP HVAC MODERNIZATIONS AT SCATTERED SITES FOR THE IOLA HOUSING AUTHORITY

For

concerning the

contact Zingre’

Associates, P.A., @ (620) 223-6030. Bid packages may be purchased by contacting Zingre’ and Associates, for a non-refundable purchase of $50.00 (make checks out to Zingre & Associates, P.A.). The plans are also available by email for free.

The contract will be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bid if reasonable, and if it is in the best interest of the Iola Housing Authority to accept it.

The Iola HA is an EOE.

Bids shall be valid for 45 days.

Suspect behind rapper’s 1996 shooting appears in court

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A

self-described gangster who police and prosecutors say masterminded the shooting death of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996 made his first court appearance Wednesday on a murder charge.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, stood shackled, wearing a dark-blue jail uniform and plastic orange slippers. He was scheduled

to be arraigned on the charge Wednesday, but the hearing was cut short after he asked District Judge Tierra Jones to postpone the hearing while he retains counsel in Las Vegas. Jones rescheduled Davis’s arraignment for Oct. 19.

Davis was arrested last week during an early-morning walk near his home in suburban Henderson. A few hours

after his arrest last Friday a grand jury indictment was unsealed in Clark County District Court charging him with murder.

Grand jurors also voted to add sentencing enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and alleged gang activity. If Davis is convicted, that could add decades to his sentence.

Los Angeles-based attorney Edi Faal told

The Associated Press in a brief phone call after the hearing that he is Davis’ longtime personal attorney and is helping him find a Nevada lawyer. Davis denied a request from The Associated Press for an interview from jail where he’s being held without bond. Davis had been a long-known suspect in the case, and publicly

admitted his role in the killing in interviews ahead of his 2019 tellall memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

“There’s one thing that’s for sure when living that gangster lifestyle,” he wrote. “You already know that the stuff you put out is going to come back; you never know how or when, but there’s never a doubt that it’s coming.”

Oklahoma-Texas highlights Week 6 games

By ERIC OLSON The Associated Press

Oklahoma-Texas is the main attraction in Week 6 of the college football season and one of three games matching teams in the AP Top 25. The No. 12 Sooners and No. 3 Longhorns will meet for the 95th consecutive season in Dallas on Saturday but the last as members of the Big 12. Both move to the Southeastern Conference next year. It will be the first time since 2011 that both teams are undefeated entering the game. No. 23 LSU visits No. 21 Missouri in only their second meeting giving up 706 yards in games: Maryland at and they’ve won each

The Crimson Tide lost in College Station two years ago.

Washington State visits a UCLA team it hasn’t met since 2019, when the Bruins won 67-63 in Pullman in that season’s highest-scoring Bowl Subdivision game.

BEST GAME No. 12 Oklahoma (50, 2-0 Big 12) vs. No. 3 Texas (5-0, 2-0), in Dallas, Saturday, noon ET (ABC) Don’t expect a repeat of last year’s fiasco at the Cotton Bowl Stadium, where Quinn Ewers threw for four touchdowns in a 49-0 Texas victory that went down as the Sooners’

passing yardage, total offense, touchdown passes, completion percentage and passer efficiency rating.

The Longhorns are a 6 1/2-point favorite this time, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

HEISMAN WATCH Southern California QB Caleb Williams, with six touchdown passes at Colorado, took another step in his bid to become the first repeat Heisman Trophy winner since Archie Griffin in 1975. Williams has thrown for a nation-leading 21 TDs against just one interception. He’s averaging 11.4 yards per attempt and 320.6 per game while complet-

them rushing. Ellis is second on the team in carries behind quarterback Brayden Lawson and has averaged 90 rushing yards per game in the fast eight-man football style of game.

GIRLS

Kaysin Crusinbery

Iola’s Crusinbery passed a volleyball milestone when she notched a career-1,000 assists at the Burlington tournament. She leads her team with 432 assists this season alone and has played a team-

blew everyone out of the water when she came in third place with a time of 20:05 in the girls 5,000-meter run at the Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence. She also ran well at Fort Scott, where she came in second place with a time of 20:54 in the 5,000-meter cross country meet.

Walter began her season at Garnett finishing with a time of 21:20 and has trimmed over a minute off her 5,000-meter run time in a very short time.

Cubs: Unbeaten in TRL

Continued from B1

while Skylar Hottenstein had a team-high 15 digs.

Kenisyn Hottenstein recorded a team-high 26 assists.

The Lady Cubs then took down Caney Valley in two sets, 25-18 and 25-18.

Skylar Hottenstein led Humboldt with a

team-high four aces.

Shaughnessy registered a team-high eight kills while Kenisyn Hottenstein had a team-high 14 assists. Defensively, Skylar Hottenstein and Shaughnessy each had a team-high nine digs.

Humboldt hosts a home meet on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on during the second half of the annual Red River Showdown football game against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. SMILEY N. POOL/DALLAS MORNING NEWS/TNS

Swift-Kelce may be distracting for fans, but ... enjoy Vahe Gregorian

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

— Take a surreal merger of disparate worlds, a fusion of compelling forces at the zenith of their games and fame, and you get the sensory overload that was Week One of the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce saga.

Transport the spectacle to the media capital of the world, or mere miles from it in New Jersey, and you step into a portal to another dimension.

Already an international sensation in about any language you can conjure, the budding relationship between the pop icon and the Chiefs’ superstar tight end engaged the full hysteria treatment: paparazzi on the stakeout at the Chiefs’ hotel and Swift’s New York City townhouse, local media outlets chasing down their whereabouts all weekend, gossip from exclusive unnamed sources.

(No, as a matter of fact, Kelce didn’t violate curfew and didn’t spend the night at her place.)

Yes, we were there to write about the Chiefs, but processing this dynamic has become entwined with that now. And figuring an essential part of this job is to take you where you don’t get to go and, perhaps loftily, write the rough drafts of history, this has morphed into something more than just incidental background.

The out-of-body experience was amplified on Sunday with NBC contouring its ChiefsJets broadcast production to the legion of socalled Swifties tuning in at MetLife Stadium,

where Swift arrived with friends including Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Considering Kansas City’s own Paul Rudd was there, too, that meant the beautiful people in the audience included at least three former People magazine “Sexiest Man Alive” selections.

That’s a stray realization that I can’t believe I just typed. But as I find myself drawn into sorting out what this means and where it’s all going, that got me thinking ... this: Perhaps a future candidate is a certain hip-swiveling Saturday Night Live host with an infinitely popular podcast — the only place he’s spoken publicly in recent weeks.

Certainly, the Swift-infused clamor has made him the current center of attention for the Chiefs. One minor but telling example: When he was warming up before the game near Patrick Mahomes, cameras on the field were zooming in not on the two-time NFL and twotime Super Bowl MVP but on Kelce.

Honestly, I didn’t want or mean to start getting consumed with this. In one sense, it’s a mere sideshow from what we’re following.

Also, about all I’ve known about Swift to this point is she’s a cul-

Prep football standings

It’s pretty cool that everybody suddenly is into something you were onto before. Maybe some Chiefs fans are experiencing that sort of conflicted feling now. Still, here’s the thing when you get down to it: What’s not to enjoy about this?

tural icon as a 12-time Grammy award winner who performs amazing marathon shows. But I sure appreciate how she resonates with so many and the curiosity and energy this cross-cultural relationship sparks.

Turn on a computer, or turn on the TV, and chances are it’s coming your way in 3-2-1 some way or another. It certainly was in New York.

Not just in obvious hot spots such as the back cover of the New York Post, which summed up the Chiefs’ 23-20 victory as a “Cruel Bummer” and added, “Heartbreak for valiant Jets as Taylor looks on.”

Heck, in the cab on the way to LaGuardia Airport on Monday morning, a CNBC video about Swift and Kelce and his through-the-stratosphere jersey sales suddenly popped on.

A woman next to me on the NYC subway the other day was scrolling and

scrolling through her phone for something, anything, about them.

And at the airport on Monday, my wife, Cindy, overheard a Chiefs fan skeptically asking another just how long she’s been a Chiefs fan and wrote on Facebook, “So it’s come to this.”

Indeed, it’s not hard to understand how the delirium might inspire some competitive fandom.

Or perhaps even annoyance over the space this is taking up relative to the Chiefs per se.

To that end, I like another parallel thought Cindy had about the mixed feeling of your favorite indie or otherwise under-the-radar band getting discovered and lighting up the charts.

It’s all relative, of course. It’s not like the Chiefs were some secret before.

So for me this tracks a bit with the feeling of seeing Bruce Springsteen go from rock star to megaforce with the Born In The USA release

and tour.

Suddenly, everybody wanted to be a part of something Springsteen fans kind of liked having more to ourselves.

Then again, well, it was pretty cool that everybody suddenly was into something you were onto before.

Maybe some Chiefs fans are experiencing that sort of conflicted feeling now.

Still, here’s the thing when you get right down to it: What’s not to enjoy about this?

However long it might last or whatever direction it goes, there is something simply fun and appealing about what it is right here, right now.

No doubt the radiant Swift’s connection with the widely appealing Kelce is inspiring a new frontier of interest in the Chiefs — and surely in Kansas City itself. And it comes at a fascinating time in the evolution of the city.

Among other signs of a city on the move in the wake of the new KCI terminal opening a few months ago, the 2026 World Cup looms and the KC Current are building the first dedicated professional sports stadium for a women’s team scheduled to open in early 2024.

Some kind of synergy comes from all that stirred in with the pul-

sating image forged these last few years by the Chiefs and Mahomes, himself an internationally renowned figure, as they now aspire to become the first NFL team to win backto-back Super Bowls in nearly two decades.

If the Chiefs, as we’ve written before, already were the “it” team in the NFL, the multiplier impact from the Swift factor is practically unfathomable in terms of television ratings, social media engagement, ticket interest and pricing and, to be sure, page views around the world.

Maybe that’s why I’ve heard from skeptics who dismiss this as a marketing ploy and from others who assume some disruptive distraction for the team bubbling up from this.

Call me naive, but I don’t believe this is contrived or concocted. Or that the Chiefs under Andy Reid are susceptible to internal issues stemming from this: As outsized as Kelce’s personality can be, he also respects Reid’s authority and all he’s done to set him on this track.

Plus, well, after Swift’s appearance at the Bears game, Reid (playfully) said he was the one who set them up.

On his “New Heights” podcast with brother Jason last week, Kelce said Reid had met Swift’s family when he was coaching the Eagles. As for the setup premise, Kelce joked, “Who knew Cupid was so big?”

Who knew, too, that this would become so big? But that’s entertainment — a galaxy they share more than ever even if they come from different worlds.

Singer Taylor Swift and Actor Ryan Reynolds talk prior to the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. GETTY IMAGES/ELSA/TNS

2023

Invitation to Bid

CFP HVAC MODERNIZATIONS AT TOWNHOUSE WEST APARTMENTS FOR THE IOLA HOUSING AUTHORITY

The Iola Housing Authority will receive sealed bids until the date and time stated above for the HVAC modernization project referenced above. The work includes replacement of fan coil units, related piping, valves, replacement of the chillers, and other items as indicated on the drawings and specs. Bids are to include all necessary labor, materials and equipment.

For all construction and equipment contracts over $25,000, the bidder shall be required to submit with the bid a negotiable bid guarantee not less than five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid.

Instructions to Bidders is contained in HUD-5369 “Instructions to Bidders for Contracts - Public and Indian Housing Programs”.

For information concerning the work, contact Zingre’ and Associates, P.A., @ (620) 223-6030. Bid packages may be purchased by contacting Zingre’ and Associates, for a non-refundable purchase of $50.00 (make checks out to Zingre & Associates, P.A.). The plans are also available by email for free.

The contract will be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bid if reasonable, and if it is in the best interest of the Iola Housing Authority to accept it.

The Iola HA is an EOE.

Bids shall be valid for 45 days.

Homecoming shooting injures 5

BALTIMORE (AP) — A shooting interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Baltimore’s Morgan State University on Tuesday, wounding five people and prompting an hourslong lockdown of the historically Black college.

Students hunkered down for several hours, as police went room to room looking for suspects. No arrests were made.

Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four men and one woman, are between the ages of 18 and 22. Their injuries were not life-

threatening, he told reporters at a news conference early Wednesday.

Morgan State Police Chief Lance Hatcher said four of the victims are students at the university. The police did not release information about a suspect or suspects, and Worley said that investigators didn’t know how many shooters were involved. The shooting happened shortly after the coronation of Mister & Miss Morgan State at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, as students were heading to a campus ball. A police news release said officers responded to a report of the shooting around 9:25 p.m.

Konnor Crowder, a sophomore from Baltimore, said he and his friends had been waiting for the coronation ball to start when they saw people running.

“First I was wondering what they were running for, then I was wondering where we should go,” he said.

Worley said police heard gunshots and several dorm windows shattered, so officials initially thought there was an active shooter on campus and acted accordingly.

He said they ended the shelter-in-place order around 12:30 a.m., after SWAT officers cleared a building where a suspect was feared to be hiding.

by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman BEETLE BAILEY by Mort Walker HAGAR THE

by Chris Browne BLONDIE by Young and Drake

MARVIN

by Tom Armstrong

by Chance Browne

MUTTS by Patrick McDonell

Phillies beat Marlins 4-1 in MLB Wild Card matchup

PHILADELPHIA (AP)

— Flip that finger, Nick.

The ring one, of course. Nick Castellanos had no desire to turn his moment on second base into a NSFW moment in the postseason.

The All-Star slugger did — with millions briefly confusing the gesture for the obscene finger — direct his ring finger toward a joyous Phillies dugout, sending a message that the defending NL champions are chasing the World Series ring they were denied by Houston last year.

“That’s why we’re playing this month,” Castellanos said.

Zack Wheeler struck out eight in a sensational effort, José Alvarado preserved the lead with a pivotal strikeout and Philadelphia opened a resolute postseason push with a 4-1 win over the Miami Marlins in the opener of their NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday night.

“As soon as I stepped foot out of the dugout to go stretch out there in the bullpen, the crowd went nuts and I got chills,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler quickly started dealing and got the run support needed to put the Marlins on the ropes.

Led by Kyle Schwarber’s 47 homers, the Phillies had six players in the Game 1 lineup with at least 20. But they didn’t need the Schwarbombs and Alec Booms to get the job done, as every starter had at least one hit, without a home run.

Castellanos added an RBI double in the eighth inning to score Bryce Harper — who knocked off his helmet as he steamrolled past a stop sign — and the Phillies moved within a victory of an NL Division Series matchup against Atlanta.

“Bryce does that all

World Series. YONG KIM/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS

the time and he’s miraculously safe more often than not,” Castellanos said with a laugh. Wheeler allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings.

Craig Kimbrel worked a scoreless ninth for the save.

Phillies fans held signs that read “Un-phinished Business” and they were downright delirious when injured slugger Rhys Hoskins fought back tears and threw the ceremonial first pitch.

Castellanos did, too. He wore Hoskins’ No. 17 on the side of his cap this season in tribute to the first baseman who spiked his bat on a home run last season in an NLDS victory.

“He symbolizes Philadelphia, honestly more than any of the signees that have come here after the fact,” Castellanos said.

The Phillies won 11 postseason games last season, two shy of the ultimate goal and their first World Series title since 2008. The theme of unfinished business — as it is for so many World Series losers — was a key element that permeated throughout the clubhouse this season.

“We’ve got to get back after it this year, and it’s

Spain, Portugal and Morocco to host WC

GENEVA (AP) — The 2030 men’s soccer World Cup is set to feature games in six countries on three continents in a unique format that will allow the tournament to celebrate its 100th anniversary in Uruguay.

FIFA reached an agreement Wednesday between soccer’s continental leaders to accept a bid spearheaded by co-hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco as the only candidate for the hosting rights. The agreement also includes staging games in South American countries Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, which had earlier promoted a rival co-hosting bid.

Those three countries will each host one match to start the tournament, which allows FIFA to stage the opening game in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, where the Centenario Stadium hosted the inaugural 1930 World Cup final.

The bid had started out as a joint venture between Spain and Portugal before expanding to include Morocco, in northern Africa, earlier this year.

All six host nations

a different team,” manager Rob Thomson said.

“I believe it’s a better team, to be honest with you.”

Here they are again, this time with star shortstop Trea Turner, playing big games in October — and with Wheeler in top form.

Wheeler, on the short list of great free-agent signings in team history, brought the heat from the start. He threw nine fastballs in the 97-99 mph range in the

first inning, the hardest a pitcher who struck out 212 batters has thrown all season.

The veteran righthander never backed down as 45,662 fans at Citizens Bank Park roared on every K.

Wheeler’s slider, nasty. His sinker, filthy.

Wheeler is simply grateful for another postseason shot a year after he was lifted with a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning of Game 6 in the World Series against

Houston. Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer off Alvarado later in the inning and the Astros soon clinched the World Series.

That was last season.

This time, Wheeler took a two-hit shutout into the seventh and was pulled after allowing consecutive infield singles with two outs, the second one by Bryan De La Cruz driving in Miami’s only run.

Alvarado struck out pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel with two runners aboard to protect a 3-1 lead. The left-hander

retired two batters in the eighth, and Jeff Hoffman got the third out of the inning.

The Marlins finished with seven hits.

“I think they know what’s at stake,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “They know what tomorrow means. We’re going to do the same thing we’ve always done.”

Wheeler threw only 46 pitches through four innings — while Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo labored through 90 over the same span.

Meet Declan!

Declan is a 5-month-old lab mix. He feels anxious around new people but will open up more as he is more comfortable with his surroundings. He enjoys tug-of-war and most activities involving water and the outdoors. Declan’s adoption fee is $150 which includes his neuter, up-to-date shots, deworming, ea treatment, bath, nail trim and a microchip.

Meet Alia!

will get automatic entry to the 48-team tournament, FIFA said. It is the first time the World Cup will be played on more than one continent.

“The centennial World Cup could not be far from South America, where everything began,” said Alejandro Dominguez, the president of South American soccer body CONMEBOL. “The 2030 World Cup will be played in three continents.”

The consensus reached by the continental soccer bodies also allowed FIFA to open bidding for the 2034 World Cup, with only member federations from Asia and Oceania eligible to bid for the hosting rights.

Saudi Arabia immediately entered that contest and Australia is also interested after successfully co-hosting the Women’s World Cup this year with New Zealand. Either way, the 2034 tournament will almost certainly be played in November and December — like last year’s World Cup in Qatar, in the heart of the European club soccer season.

Alia is a 2-year-old domestic short-haired cat who adores human a ection and attention. She’s litter box trained and gets along great with other cats. Alia’s adoption fee is $50 which includes her spay, up-to-date shots, deworming, ea treatment, nail trim and a microchip.

Phillies All-Star Nick Castellanos is relishing a chance to win this year’s