Monday, January 6, 2020
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Tensions mount in Mideast
Taps open again in Trump ups Humboldt rhetoric;
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — Humboldt’s on-again, off-again water issues continued through the weekend, with the city once again suspending operations at its water treatment plant Saturday because of evidence of contamination within the Neosho River. The suspension was lifted and the water plant reopened Sunday afternoon, when subsequent testing along the Neosho found no more traces of the contaminants, stemming from a fertilizer plant fire in Iola early Wednesday. “You may resume normal water use without restriction,” the city announced in a press release. “All water in our towers, distribution and our water plant meets federal standards and is safe for consumption.” The problems began when See HUMBOLDT | Page A4
Red Devils knock off Huchinson CC
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Kansas schools give 2020 wish lists
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Iranians vow revenge WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that Iranian cultural sites were fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official. Trump’s comments came amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force. Iran has vowed to retaliate and Iraq’s parliament responded by voting Sunday to oust U.S. troops based in the country. Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he returned to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions. “They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said. The targeted killing of Soleimani sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Iraq, where more than 5,000 American troops are still on
Mourners carry the coffins of slain Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and eight others inside the Shrine of Imam Hussein in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, during a funeral procession Saturday. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/MOHAMMAD SAWAF/TNS
the ground 17 years after the U.S. invasion. Iraq’s parliament voted Sunday in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the expulsion of the American forces. Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t leave without being paid for its military investments in Iraq over the years — then said if the troops do have to withdraw, he would hit Baghdad with economic penalties. “We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame,” he said. “If there’s any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq.” He added: “We’re not leaving until they pay us back for it.” The administration has scrambled to contend with the backlash to the killing of Soleimani. Though he was responsible for the deaths
of hundreds of Americans, the targeted American strike marked a stark escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. military may well strike more Iranian leaders if the Islamic Republic retaliates. He tiptoed around questions about Trump’s threat to attack Iranian cultural sites, a military action that likely would be illegal under the laws of armed conflict and the U.N. charter. Pompeo said only that any U.S. military strikes inside Iran would be legal. “We’ll behave inside the system,” Pompeo said. “We always have and we always will.” Trump’s warnings rattled some administration officials. One U.S. national security official said the president had caught many in the administration off guard and prompted internal calls for others in the government,
including Pompeo, to clarify the matter. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the issue, said clarification was necessary to affirm that the U.S. military would not intentionally commit war crimes. Oona Hathaway, an international law professor at Yale and a former national security law official in the Defense Department’s legal office, said Trump’s threat amounted to “a pretty clear promise of commission of a war crime.” The president’s threats to Iran did little to quell Tehran’s furor over the death of Soleimani. Iranian state television reported that the country would no longer abide by any limits of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the United States and other world powers. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018 and stepped up economic sanctions on TehSee TENSIONS | Page A4
Report: Kansans deal with out-of-network health care costs By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN Kansas News Service
KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Chris Costantini lay in a cold sweat, his shoulder dislocated after slipping on a porch in Kansas City, Kansas. He’d been out alone, knocking on doors and rustling up voters for the upcoming midterms in October 2018. Now he waited for an ambulance, full of anxiety about how the injury could hinder his next performance at the Kansas City Ballet. “I’m not afraid to admit it was the most pain I’ve ever been in,” Costantini recalled. “The shoulder was out of the socket for about 45 minutes.” A different anxiety only began later, when the bills rolled in. That ambulance, it turned out, didn’t fall in his insurance network. So Costantini
A student practices surgery techniques at Washburn Tech in Topeka. KANSAS NEWS SERVICE/CHRIS NEAL/KCUR.ORG found himself on the hook for a $900 bill. Americans frequently get slapped with costs for outof-network services in situations where they never had
the chance to shop for an innetwork option. But research suggests Kansans may be especially vulnerable. A Kaiser Family Foundation study put Kansas in the
Vol. 121, No. 303 Iola, KS 75 Cents
five worst states for how often patients ran into out-of-network providers in 2017 during emergencies or for inpatient care at in-network hospitals. The extra bills that land in their mailboxes often come as a surprise, and pile onto in-network medical costs that already have patients’ heads spinning. Costantini’s emergency led to more than $6,000 in innetwork charges alone, for the hospital and doctor. His insurance company’s pre-negotiated rates knocked those charges down to less than $2,000. He tackled that and the ambulance in more manageable monthly increments, counting his blessings that he could afford it. “Perversely, I feel lucky,” Costantini said. “You would think that we wouldn’t have to feel lucky.”
The ‘black box’
Kaiser tapped a database with claims for 19 million people nationwide who got their health insurance through large-employer plans. Nearly one in five emergency care visits meant running into a doctor or someone else outside a patient’s network. The situation was only slightly better for inpatient care at in-network hospitals. But those figures mask a more complex picture: The situation varies widely by state. While Kansas fell at the bottom of the pack, neighboring Nebraska rose to the top. What explains higher outof-network rates in Kansas? Experts aren’t sure. Hospitals and billing are “very much a black box,” said See HAMMERED | Page A4
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