The Iola Register, Jan. 6, 2023

Thrift store expansion starts

By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register

Construction of a new building for the Iola Senior Citizens Thrift Store is expected to begin within weeks.

Crews are already setting up a pad for the building, with a gravel base installed earlier this week. A crew with Yutzy Construction in Garnett will use rebar and concrete to nish the pad before work begins on the metal building. Work on the pad will take place over the next few weeks.

The building work is likely to begin in early March. The structure will be 30-feet by 40-feet and will alleviate crowding in the main building.

“We’re very excited. It’s getting closer,” board member and spokesperson Dimity Lowell said.

A door will be cut into the

See THRIFT STORE | Page A4

Groups decry political violence

By GARY FIELDS The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Dozens of military veterans on Wednesday hand-delivered letters to top Republicans in the U.S. House, calling on them to publicly condemn political violence as the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol approaches.

Former Metropolitan Police O cer Michael Fanone wrote the letter, which was signed by more than 1,000 military veterans, active duty members, law enforcement o cers and military

SEK lawmaker resigns

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Re ector

TOPEKA — A conservative Republican from southeast Kansas plans to resign from the Kansas Senate one day before start of the 2023 legislative session.

Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, R-Baxter Springs, who joined the Senate in 2017, informed the Kansas secretary of state’s

o ce that he intended to step down Sunday. He was elected in 2020 to the Senate and was in the middle of a fouryear term. The GOP in the 13th Senate district will be responsible for selecting his replacement.

Hilderbrand, 53, said in a brief email to Secretary of State Scott Schwab that he

Walmart details sales tax snafu

Walmart customers in Kansas are advised to check their receipts if they’ve purchased food items from the retail giant since New Year’s Day.

In a Facebook post Thursday, the company acknowledged some customers were mistakenly charged twice on sales taxes.

Starting Jan. 1, the state cut back its food sales tax rate from 6.5% to 4%.

However, a computer

glitch meant food items were assessed both tax rates. (Receipts indicate how much customers were charged with the respective rates.)

Those who were overcharged are asked to take their receipts to their local Walmart store for a refund.

As an aside, Gov. Laura Kelly has reiterated her desire to see the food sales tax rate eliminated altogether. Such a move would require legislative action.

Mustang pageantry

Iola High School will crown its Winter 2023 Homecoming King and Queen after the Mustang basketball teams host Wellsville Jan. 13. The queen candidates are, seated from left, Cali Riley, Hallie McDermeit, Olivia Tremain, Carly Dreher, Jess Kroenke and Kinzey Wilhelm. King hopefuls are, standing from left, Eli Adams, Jarrett Herrmann, Cody Wille, Travis Wanker, Drake Mathew and Jesse Taylor. The theme for the Winter Homecoming is “Masquerade.” REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

Iola Senior Citizen Thrift Store representatives stand on a gravel pad that will become the foundation for a new metal building to serve as an addition for the store. A door will be cut into the building (behind the women and to the right), which will line up to a door from the new building. From left are Joyce Adair, board president; Donna Stoll, treasurer; Dimity Lowell, public relations, and Jody Hood, member. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS

Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Republican from Baxter Springs, plans to resign Sunday one day prior to opening of the 2023 legislative session. KANSAS REFLECTOR/SHERMAN SMITH

Washington Metropolitan Police Department o cer Michael Fanone, shown testifying in 2021 on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, is part of an e ort asking GOP leaders to publicly condemn political violence. ABACA PRESS/ANDREW HARNIK/TNS

Obituaries

‘Woody’ Wood

Gordon L. “Woody” Wood, 92, retired electrical engineer, died Monday, Jan. 2, 2023.

Rosary will be at 10 a.m. and funerall mass at 10:30 Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Church of the Magdalen Catholic Church.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Mary Lou (Tilford) Wood; wife, Rita (Hoag) Wood; son, Randall (Janie) Wood; daughter, Danette Marie Baker; sister, Dolores (Tommy) Thomas. Survivors include his sons, Gary Wood and Alan (Sharon) Wood; son-in-law, Ed Baker; brother, Ronnie (Linda) Wood; four grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Memorials have been established with Church of the Magdalen Catholic Church, 12626 E. 21st St. N., Wichita, KS 67206 and The Lord’s Diner 520 N. Broadway, Wichita, KS 67214.

Services in care of Downing & Lahey MortuaryEast Chapel, www.dlwichita.com

Lois Heisler

Lois Irene Heisler, 90, Humboldt, died Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, at Diversicare Nursing Home, Chanute. Irene was born June 24, 1932, in Pawnee, Okla, to William P. Martin and Opal (Manley) Martin.

She and Clifford Heisler were married April 10, 1951, in Perry, Okla. He preceded her in death.

Irene is survived by her children, Shirley (Jeff) Peck, Max (Beverly) Heisler, Beth (Rick) Queen, Ken (Laura) Heisler; 11 grandchildren; 31 great-grandchildren; and other relatives.

The family will greet visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Venue at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, 1883 U.S. 54, Iola. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral chapel. Interment will follow in Mount Hope Cemetery, Humboldt.

Memorials, in lieu of flowers, are suggested to Redbud Canyon Assisted Living, which may be left with the funeral home.

Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

8 found fatally shot in Utah home, including 5 children

ENOCH, Utah (AP) —

A southern Utah community was struggling for answers on Thursday after police found eight people from one family, including five children, shot to death in the small town of Enoch.

Police sent officers to check on them on Wednesday and found the family dead from gunshot wounds. Officials did not immediately say why they went to the home.

“At this time, we do not believe there is a threat to the public or that there are any suspects at large,” officials said in a press release, without providing details

Enoch is a small town of about 8,000 people located 245 miles (394 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City and about equally distant from Las Vegas.

Enoch City Manager Rob Dotson said the community was sent reeling by news of the eight bodies and that the deceased — all members of one family — were well-known in the town. Little was immediately released to the public about

the family. In most of Utah, the predominant religion is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church.

“Many of us have served with them in church, in the community and gone to school with these individuals,” Dotson said Wednesday night. “This community at this time is hurting. They’re feeling loss, they’re feeling pain and they have a lot of questions.”

“We all can pray that their families and the neighbors and all will come to an understanding of what happened in this place, probably in a day or two, or maybe longer,” he said.

The five children attended schools in the Iron County School District, officials said in a letter sent to parents.

Enoch, off Interstate 15 in rural Utah, just north of the city of Cedar City and about 80 miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park, had major flooding in 2021 that damaged hundreds of homes.

Ham radio program among library events

A number of activities are set at the Iola Public Library this month, coinciding with the library’s new expanded hours.

The library opens daily at 9 a.m., Monday through Saturday and is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Weekly Monday night programs, chess club at 6 o’clock and In Stitches crochet classes at 6:30, return. Crochet instructor Jen Tarter recommends newcomers bring a skein of yarn and an “I” hook. The current project is a long scarf.

LIBRARY LITTLES story time returns at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Youth services librarian Lesa Cole will offer up stories with a winter theme. Youngsters will create a winter scene using shaving cream afterward.

On Wednesday, Jan.

11, at 2 p.m., the library introduces a new monthly support group for caregivers of individuals with Alzheimers or other dementia. Melissa Smoot, IPL’s public services librarian, will facilitate the group to help participants develop informal mutual support and social relationships.

She recently completed special training through the Alzheimer’s Association and can also provide information and help care-

givers develop methods and skills to solve problems. In addition, she notes, the association’s Heart of America chapter operates a 24/7 help line at 800-2723900. To register for the support group, participants should call that number.

HAM RADIO is alive and well, says Stan Grigsby, president of Iola Amateur Radio. Grigsby is guest speaker for Radio Waves, a program Saturday, Jan.

14 at 2 p.m. Ham radio uses the radio spectrum for communication, for non-commercial exchange of messages. It’s a popular hobby, Grigsby says, and need not break the budget. It also can be fun for kids and he encourages those age 10 and up to attend the program.

Amateur radio has been around since the early 1900s. Grigsby’s experience spans half a century, including a stint as a volunteer communication officer with the Red Cross in Kuwait in 1991. The transceiver he used is part of a display now on view in the library lobby. Also shown is a simple Morse Code transceiver and key which he says can be put together for about $30; he will explain.

His presentation will cover amateur radio history and its importance to emergency services, technology development and scientific study.

Faithful mourn Benedict XVI at funeral

VATICAN CITY (AP)

— Pope Francis joined tens of thousands of faithful in bidding farewell to Benedict XVI at a rare requiem Mass Thursday for a dead pope presided over by a living one, ending an unprecedented decade for the Catholic Church that was triggered by the German theologian’s decision to retire.

Bells tolled and the crowd applauded as pallbearers emerged from a fog-shrouded St. Peter’s Basilica and placed Benedict’s simple cypress coffin before the altar in the square outside. Wearing the crimson vestments typical of papal funerals, Francis opened the service with a prayer and closed it by solemnly blessing the casket and bowing his head.

In between, Francis made only fleeting reference to Benedict in his homily, offering a meditation on Christ instead of a eulogy of his predecessor’s legacy before the casket was sealed and entombed in the basilica grotto.

Heads of state and royalty, clergy from around the world and thousands of regular people flocked to the ceremony, despite Benedict’s request for simplicity and official efforts to keep the first funeral for a pope emeritus in modern times low-key.

Many mourners hailed from Benedict’s native Bavaria and donned traditional dress, including boiled wool coats to guard against the morning chill.

“We came to pay homage to Benedict and wanted to be here today to say goodbye,” said Raymond Mainar, who traveled from a small village east of Munich for the funeral. “He was a very good pope.”

Ignoring exhortations for decorum at the end, some in the crowd held banners or shouted “Santo Subito!” — “Sainthood Now!” — echoing the spontaneous chants that erupted during St. John Paul II’s 2005 funeral.

The former Joseph Ratzinger, who died Dec. 31 at age 95, is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest theologians and spent his lifetime upholding church doctrine. But he will go down in history for a singular, revolutionary act that changed the future of the papacy: He retired, the first pope in six centuries to do so.

Francis has praised Benedict’s courage in stepping aside, saying it “opened the door” for other popes to do the same. But few, including Benedict himself, expected his 10-year retirement to last longer than his eight-year pa-

pacy, and the prolonged cohabitation of two popes in the Vatican Gardens sparked calls for protocols to guide future resignations.

Some 50,000 people attended Thursday’s Mass, according to the Vatican, after around 200,000 paid their respects during three days of public viewing.

Only Italy and Germany were invited to send official delegations, but other leaders took the Vatican up on its offer and came in their “private capacity.”

They included several heads of state and government, delegations of royal representatives, a host of patriarchs and 125 cardinals.

Among those attending was Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was given special court permission to attend the funeral. Zen was detained in May on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under China’s national security law after he fell afoul of authorities over his participation in a now-silenced democracy movement. His passport was revoked when he was detained.

Benedict’s close confidants were also in attendance, most

prominently the former pope’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein. He bent down and kissed a book of the Gospels that was left open on the coffin before the ceremony began.

After it ended, the coffin was brought to the basilica grotto, placed first into a zinc casket, sealed, then placed into an oak one.

A choir’s hymn echoed in the crypt as the casket was lowered into the ground, featuring Benedict’s papal coat of arms, a cross and a plaque noting in Latin that it contained his body: “Corpus Benedicti XVI PM,” for “pontifex maximus” or “supreme pontiff.”

Woody Wood

Stan Grigsby, president of Iola Amateur Radio, will give a presentation on ham radios on Jan. 14 at the Iola Public Library. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Police: Idaho suspect’s DNA found at crime scene

BOISE, Idaho (AP) —

The DNA of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene and cellphone data shows that in the months before the attack, he was in the area of the victims’ home multiple times, an investigator said in court documents unsealed Thursday.

The affidavit written by Brett Payne, a police corporal in Moscow, Idaho, was made public minutes before Bryan Kohberger, a 28-yearold criminal justice doctoral student at nearby Washington State University, was due to appear in court after being extradited Wednesday

from Pennsylvania, where his parents live and where he was arrested.

He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary in the Nov. 13

uments, traces of DNA from a lone male later determined to be Kohberger were found on the button of a leather knife sheath found in the rental home where the victims were killed. A knife with a U.S. Marine Corps insignia on it was also found at the scene, though there’s no record of Kohberger having served in the military.

man, whom she didn’t recognize, walked past her and toward a glass sliding door, the police investigator wrote. She then went back into her room and locked the door.

Beijing out of bed space

BEIJING (AP) —

attack, which befuddled investigators for weeks and struck fear into the small college town on the Idaho-Washington border.

According to the newly unsealed court doc-

A woman who also lived at the house told police that she awoke to the sound of crying during the predawn attack and opened her bedroom door to find a masked man dressed in black, according to the court filing.

She said she stood in “frozen shock” as the

Surveillance footage captured near the home showed a white sedan — later identified as a Hyundai Elantra — drove by the home three times in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, returning a fourth time at about 4:04 a.m. The car was next spotted on surveillance cameras leaving King Road 16 minutes later “at a high rate of speed,” Payne wrote. The same car was later spotted on a different camera headed toward Pullman.

Evacuations ordered as California storm knocks out power

SAN FRANCISCO

(AP) — Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people.

The storm was expected to dump up to 6 inches of rain in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area where most of the region would remain under flood warnings into late Thursday night. In Southern California, the storm was expected to peak in intensity overnight into early Thursday morning with Santa Barbara and Ventura counties likely to see the most rain, forecasters said.

“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at a news conference that the city was “preparing for a war.” Crews cleared clogged storm drains, tried to move homeless people into shelters and passed out emergency supplies and ponchos to those who refused to go.

The city distributed so many sandbags to residents that supplies temporarily ran out.

Powerful winds gusting to 85 mph or more

forced the cancellation of more than 70 flights at San Francisco International Airport and downed trees and power lines. Firefighters rescued a family after a tree fell onto their car. The fire department reported “large pieces of glass” fell off the Fox Plaza tower near the Civic Center, although no injuries were reported. It was “highly possible” the damage to the skyscraper was wind-related, the department tweeted.

The new storm left more than 100,000 customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast without power.

The storm is one of three so-called atmospheric river storms in the last week to reach the drought-stricken state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to allow for a quick re-

sponse and to aid in cleanup from another powerful storm that hit just days earlier.

In Southern California, evacuations were ordered for those living in areas burned by three recent wildfires in Santa Barbara County, where heavy rain forecast for overnight could cause widespread flooding and unleash debris flows.

County officials did not have a firm number for how many people were under evacuation orders, but Susan Klein-Rothschild, a spokesperson in the county’s emergency operations center, said sheriff’s deputies went door-to-door and contacted at least 480 people.

Among the towns ordered to evacuate was Montecito, where five years ago huge boulders, mud and debris swept down mountains

through the town to the shoreline, killing 23 people and destroying more than 100 homes. The town is home to many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.

“What we’re talking about here is a lot of water coming off the top of the hills, coming down into the creeks and streams and as it comes down, it gains momentum and that’s what the initial danger is,” Montecito Fire Department Chief Kevin Taylor said.

Elsewhere, a 45-mile stretch of the coastal Highway 1 running through Big Sur was closed Wednesday evening in anticipation of flooding and rock falls. Further north, a 25-mile stretch of Highway 101 was closed due to several downed trees.

Drivers were urged to stay off the roads unless

absolutely necessary, especially with heavy snow expected in the mountains.

The storm came days after a New Year’s Eve downpour led to the evacuations of people in rural Northern California communities and the rescue of several motorists from flooded roads. A few levees south of Sacramento were damaged.

Evacuation orders were in place in Santa Cruz County’s Paradise Park along the swiftly moving San Lorenzo River, as well as in areas along the Pajaro River. Residents who fled wildfires in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2020 were packing their bags as the towns of Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond and Felton were all warned they should be prepared to evacuate.

Sonoma County authorities issued an evacuation warning for a string of towns along the Russian River, which was expected to reach flood stage on Thursday.

The storms won’t be enough to officially end the state’s ongoing drought, now entering its fourth year. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed that most of California is in severe to extreme drought. Since the state’s major reservoirs are low, they have plenty of room to fill with more water from the storm, officials said.

Mostly older men and women wearing masks rested on cots in hallways, while others slept upright in crowded waiting rooms with numbered chairs. Many received fluids intravenously, while others were given oxygen. The sound of people coughing — and of new patients arriving on gurneys — was steady.

At the Chuiyangliu hospital in the east of Beijing on Thursday, signs of the COVID-19 outbreak stretching public health facilities in the world’s most populous nation were on full display.

Beds ran out by midmorning at the packed hospital, even as ambulances brought more people in. Hard-pressed nurses and doctors rushed to take information and triage the most urgent cases.

The crush of people seeking hospital care follows China’s abandonment of its most severe pandemic restrictions last month after nearly three years of lockdowns, travels bans and school closures that weighed heavily on the economy.

The outbreak appears to have spread the fastest in densely populated cities first. Now, authorities are concerned as it reaches smaller towns and rural areas with weaker health care systems. Several local governments began asking people Thursday not to make the trip home for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, signaling lingering worry around opening up.

Overseas, a growing number of governments are requiring virus tests for travelers from China, saying they are needed because the Chinese government is not sharing enough information on the outbreak.

Vehicles are submerged in floodwaters after severe storms this week in northern California. HECTOR AMEZCUA/TNS

Moscow, Idaho, Police Chief James Fry speaks at one of the news conferences after the Nov. 13 killing of four University of Idaho students. Police, prosecutors and defense attorneys are now all under a gag order in the case against Bryan Kohberger. ANGELA PALERMO/TNS

Thrift store

Continued from

main building that lines up with the door to the addition, with a short walkway between them. The addition will feature garage doors to accept large donations such as furniture.

Crews also moved two small storage buildings to the west side of the lot. Even with the new building, storage remains a concern. A third shed is being sold.

THE THRIFT store is owned by the county.

Thrift store board members hoped the county would pay for an expansion and remodel, but commissioners were reluctant as cost estimates came in higher than expected. The structure of the main building, particularly the roof, makes it di cult to build onto the structure.

Board members then came up with their own solution. Using funds they’ve collected from sales, they realized they could buy a metal building. Because of building codes, it can’t be connected directly to the main structure.

Both the Senior Citizen Thrift Store at 223 N. State St. and the Senior Center congregate meal site at 204 N. Je erson Ave. are owned by the county, although they are separate groups.

The Thrift Store group typically donates proceeds to other area organizations. However, in recent years they have kept those proceeds in order to build the addition.

LOWELL said the group also has seen evidence of attempted theft when part of the fence that surrounds the thrift store property was removed for construction.

She said someone apparently drove onto the property and attempted to steal equipment. Items were moved but nothing was stolen.

The incident has been reported to police.

Biden announces new migrant restrictions

WASHINGTON (AP) —

The Biden administration on Thursday said it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, a major expansion of an existing e ort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the U.S.

Instead, the administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and o er the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. These four a ected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

“Do not, do not just show up at the border,” Biden said Thursday. “Stay where you are and apply legally from there.”

It was Biden’s boldest move yet to confront spiraling arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico, a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the U.S. Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows American authorities to turn away

asylum seekers.

The president has seen the numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rise dramatically during his two years in o ce; there were more than 2.38 million stops during the scal year that ended Sept. 30, the rst time the number cracked 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of the Trump administration.

That’s resulted in relentless criticism from

Republicans who say the Democratic president is ine ective on border security, and the newly minted Republican House majority has promised congressional investigations.

The new policy could result in 360,000 people from these four nations lawfully entering the U.S. in a year, a huge number. But currently, far more people from those countries are attempting to cross into the U.S. on foot, by boat or swimming. Migrants from those four countries were stopped 82,286 times in

November alone.

“This new process is orderly,” Biden said. “It’s safe and humane, and it works.”

Biden planned a trip to El Paso, Texas, this weekend, his rst trip to the southern border as president, before a planned trip to Mexico City to meet with North American leaders on Monday.

Mexico has agreed to accept each month from the four countries up to 30,000 migrants who attempt to walk or swim across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the White House.

Violence: O cers, military leaders approach lawmakers

Continued from A1

families. Fanone, who was beaten and tased during the attack on the Capitol, delivered a copy to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s o ce. While the GOP leadership remains unsettled, the groups behind the e ort consider the Georgia representative one of the de facto leaders of the new Republican majority in the House.

Veterans also delivered letters to GOP Reps. James Comer of Kentucky, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Elise Stefanik of New York and Kevin McCarthy of California, who is trying to become House speaker.

Wednesday’s visit to the Capitol was organized by the groups Common Defense and Courage for America to bring attention to violent rhetoric they say remains a threat to American democracy. They want top Republicans in the House not only to condemn political violence but to hold accountable those who spread violent and hatelled messages.

The visits come at a tumultuous time on Capitol Hill. A core of conservative House Republicans has rejected McCarthy’s attempts to be named speaker on multiple votes Tuesday and Wednesday. The

GOP’s failure to elect a new speaker has put House business on hold, including the swearing in of its members and naming of committee chairs.

In the letter, Fanone calls on House Republicans to issue a public statement condemning all forms of political violence and “promise to hold members of your conference accountable for endorsing violence or espousing violent rhetoric towards those who disagree with them politically.”

The letter notes several incidents of politically motivated violence, including the attack on an FBI o ce in Ohio following the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and the attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as threats and comments calling for her execution.

Fanone was one of dozens of law enforcement o cers injured during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when a mob marched to the Capitol at Trump’s urging and attacked it in an attempt to halt the certi cation of the 2020 presidential election.

Fanone told the House committee that investigated the insurrection that the assault on him, which stopped only when he said he had

children, caused him to have a heart attack.

IN AN interview, Fanone said he had been looking for an organization that expressed his values and concerns over the future of the country, and that led him to Courage for America, a progressive group created after Republicans won the House majority in November. Common Defense, a progressive grassroots organization of veterans, was formed during the 2016 election.

“I think we’re still in grave jeopardy,” Fanone said, despite this year’s midterm elections in which a number of Trump acolytes were rejected by voters. “I was like, yeah, Democracy won — by a fraction of a percent in a lot of places.”

Although many candidates who denied the results of the 2020 presidential election were defeated, “a lot of those races were a hell of a lot closer than they should have been,” he said.

Lies about the 2020 election have spread widely and penetrated the Republican electorate. As recently as October, 58% of Republicans did not think President Joe Biden’s election was legitimate, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public A airs Research

poll.

Veterans who have joined the groups share Fanone’s concerns about extremism in the U.S. and believe it creates a situation “that is really opposition to the oath that we took in enlisting in the military,” said Naveed Shah, an Army veteran who is the political director for Common Defense and spokesman for Courage for America.

“The insurrection was neither the end nor the beginning of this kind of slow-moving coup,” he said. “I’m not going to try predict what’s going to happen in the future, but what I can say is that you know political violence of all forms needs to be condemned.”

Once the groups nish in Washington, Shah said members will travel the country to talk to representatives in their districts about the need to condemn political violence and the language that stokes it.

Dozens of people charged in the Capitol attack have military backgrounds, including some associated with far-right extremist groups who are facing the most serious charges. Others arrested in the riot include an Army reservist who wore a Hitler mustache to his job at a Navy base and an active-duty Ma-

rine Corps o cer seen on camera scu ing with police and helping other members of the pro-Trump mob force their way into the Capitol.

Alex Babcock, an Army veteran from Florida, started out as a Republican, but what he saw during the 2016 election — when Trump was claiming widespread fraud even before his victory over Hillary Clinton — led him to Common Defense.

He said veterans have a strong voice in defending American democracy because they have been willing to sacri ce their lives for it. He said it was important to call out politicians who try to cloak their messaging.

“There aren’t a lot of people that are outright saying, ‘I want to go hurt that guy,’” Babcock said. “But there are people who speak a language that is clear enough if you’re listening.”

Blaidimar, 8, from Venezuela with another migrant, warm themselves with burning trash over a log on the banks of the Rio Grande River in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on Dec. 21, as migrants stand in line for the opportunity to ask for asylum on the U.S. side of the border. THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS/LOLA GOMEZ/TNS

A nightmare of Kevin McCarthy’s own making

The tumult in Congress over choosing the next House speaker goes far beyond the radical right’s distrust of Rep. Kevin McCarthy. For all the controversy the far right has generated in recent years, its leaders have correctly identified McCarthy as a chameleon who would promise anything to get the speaker’s job. In Washington politics, that’s hardly new or noteworthy.

But the radicals and McCarthy have made a fundamental miscalculation about what Americans want to see out of this Congress, and therein lies the conundrum that the rest of the House must try to solve regardless of who becomes speaker. The extremely tight margin by which Republicans won control of the House — and failed to win the Senate — on Nov. 8 is not a mandate for hardline Republicans to force a course change. Americans chose this course with Joe Biden’s presidential election in 2020 and reaffirmed it on Nov. 8. The current balance of power is voters’ message to both sides to move to the middle and find ways to compromise.

The nomination speeches for McCarthy by various Republican leaders Tuesday made it sound as if Americans had voted resoundingly for radical change. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, launched into the same kind of political diatribe that Republicans campaigned on before the November election, attacking Democrats and Biden over inflation, immigration and Biden’s “horrible energy policies.” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, added an attack on the recent, bipartisan approval of a $1.7 trillion

spending bill.

Perhaps they were not convinced by the GOP’s dismal election results that Americans are tired of this divisiveness. While they dug in on this failed strategy, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell accompanied Biden on a trip to Kentucky on Wednesday to demonstrate the bipartisan bridge-building — literal and figurative — that Americans want to see.

For all his flaws and personal scandals, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, nailed it when he said, referring to McCarthy: “Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad. Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of himself for more than a decade to get it.”

Sadly, the Republicans who control the next steps are in no mood to move their party toward the moderate middle, no matter what message American voters have sent. Those Republicans would rather empower a tiny, radical faction that wants to shut down the government and automatically reject any solutions the Democrats or centrist Republicans offer.

Blind obstructionism is not leadership. It’s not a plan, and it won’t solve America’s problems. By refusing to stand up to the cultivators of chaos after the Capitol insurrection, McCarthy brought this rebellion upon himself. History is replete with examples of why placating extremists can only lead to disaster. McCarthy seems intent on repeating that history nonetheless.

— St. Louis Post-Gazette

Linking football tragedy to vaccine beyond the pale

The full-contact sport of football is one that is rife with risks. The public and the players have for some time known the dangers posed to the brain by the forceful blows to the head that occur during regular gameplay, leading first to concussions and then commonly and devastatingly to conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Yet every part of the body is at risk in such a physical violent sport, including the heart, a fact that was made agonizingly evident Monday night as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered an apparent cardiac arrest after a relatively routine tackle in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals and then collapsed on the field. He was administered CPR and a defibrillator treatment and then rushed to the hospital.

It’s not altogether clear exactly what happened, though some medical professionals have speculated Hamlin suffered a relatively rare condition known as commotio cordis, caused by a blow to the chest at a critical moment in the cardiac cycle. The uncertainty is natural in an evolving medical situation, yet that hasn’t stopped

unscrupulous conspiracists from exploiting this painful event for their own nauseating agenda.

Dimwits like perennially wrong right-wing operative Charlie Kirk hadn’t even waited for Hamlin to be taken off the field before they began spinning yarns about the supposed culpability of the COVID vaccine, without any evidence and before even the paramedics on the scene could ascertain definitively what was happening. In their zeal to be reflexively contrarian for political gain and profit, these cretins will latch onto anything to insinuate that the life-saving vaccines are sinister or even deadly, pitting their know-nothing word against that of countless medical professionals and researchers.

The thing they always glide over is that no one wants us to take ineffective and dangerous treatments, and in fact we have whole regulatory agencies dedicated to ensuring that; yet the vaccines have been exhaustively tested and studied, and saved many millions of lives worldwide. Some more would be saved if these agitators would drop their reprehensible act.

— New York Daily News

How to recharge your battery

By ELISSA EPEL Los Angeles Times/TNS

My phone is showing that little red low-battery bar, and I need to plug it in immediately or lose my connection. What if I didn’t recharge — no, that would stress me out. But what if, in addition to recharging my phone, I took a few minutes to recharge myself?

We have an energy crisis, not just the burning of fossil fuels ravaging our ecosystems. Inside, we are burning up energy like a wildfire with our chronic stress. And it’s exhausting.

The 2022 American Psychological Association annual survey on stress showed a flashing red alert: More than a quarter of U.S. adults are feeling overwhelmed by stress — paralyzed, even numb. No wonder we are communally fatigued — stress uses a tremendous amount of energy. We have fatigue from work, the long shadow of COVID and much more to contend with.

We often relive our stress each day in a dystopic routine of unease. Like clockwork, we confront the same situations and worries that can squeeze the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol out of our adrenal glands, making us feel agitated and ineffective. It’s a rhythm we need to break.

After 25 years of studying stress and health, I’m convinced that one of the best things we can do to improve our mental health — and not feel like a fast-draining battery — is break our daily stress routine.

The organic compound adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, is our body’s fuel, produced by our mitochondria. It’s at the core of our well-being. ATP is needed to fight aging and repair our cells each day from the damage accrued by simply living and especially when under stress. When we are on overdrive, we rely on ATP to mount a super-energized stress response.

OUR BODY has limited energy and carefully triages how it’s used — it will always prioritize stress emergencies over repairing cells. Repair comes last, when everything feels safe and orderly. So it’s critical to have restorative breaks from stress, to allow time for cellular repair and prevent accelerated biological aging.

Working with mitochondrial expert Martin Picard of Columbia University

• To put a problem in perspective, ask yourself: “Is this situation really going to affect me in a year?”

• Create breaks within the day to unplug and focus on something

and others, our team of researchers at UC San Francisco found links between the emotions we feel and the energy level in our cells over long periods of time. Our results suggest that when people are under chronic stress for years, our mitochondrial enzymes weaken and have less capacity to create ATP. Our cells become prematurely aged and inflamed.

The good news is, when we feel positive emotions daily, our mitochondria are revved up, producing lots of energy each day. Here are a few ways to create that positivity and tame the beast of chronic stress:

— TELL YOURSELF the truth. Our primitive, automatic stress response is often exaggerated, overestimating a threat, burning up our ATP and mobilizing too much glucose. When something stressful happens, we often can’t control that initial “gasp” response. But we control what happens next, with our beliefs and thoughts. Asking yourself “Is this situation really going to affect me in a year?” can give a truthful and calming perspective. It’s possible to work with, rather than against, the stress response. Thank it and remind yourself of its function: “My body is excited, generating energy to help me cope.” If you can make that pivot, you are changing the message to your adrenal gland from survival threat to positive challenge. You are providing more oxygen to your brain so you can problem-solve better and recover more quickly, burning up less ATP.

— Redirect attention from threat to joy. We can also shape our environments to protect us from constant red alerts. Our attention gravitates to threatening information, as our screens so frequently deliver. To protect your precious attention and energy stores, turn off unnecessary alerts on your devices. Create spacious breaks within the day to unplug and focus on some-

restorative.

• Help your body metabolize stress with exercise.

• Get outside. Nature calms our minds and bodies, allowing us to recharge our batteries.

thing restorative. Shift your attention to being present, to what you can feel grateful for, to connection with others. Smiling can reduce stress. Joy recharges us. Plant something in your day that you look forward to.

— Build stress fitness. You might think all your emotions reside in your brain, but the truth is, we feel them with our whole bodies. Helping your body metabolize stress can change how you feel. Short bursts of aerobic exercise can create a positive stress response (a type of hormetic, or beneficial, stress) and reduce depression. It also increases the number of mitochondria in our body, which means we can create more ATP. Early research suggests that heating up (as in a sauna) and cooling down (with cold showers or cryotherapy) may relieve anxiety and depression.

— IMMERSE IN GREEN

Being in crowded and busy places sends our bodies signals of danger. People who live in cities tend to have exaggerated amygdala threat responses. Nature facilitates the opposite, calming our minds and reducing amygdala activity. Thus we can recharge our batteries with green space time — seek a park, gardens or plants for sensory immersion that signals safety to our bodies. (Yoga, meditation or slow breathing, even for a few minutes, are also potent ways to recharge.)

The bottom line is that we can break our daily stress habits and create more energy. We can feel ease, contentment and balance by letting go of embodied and unconscious stress. Life is short. It’s even shorter living on half a battery.

About the writer: Elissa Epel is a professor and vice chair in psychiatry at UC San Francisco and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is an author of “The Telomere Effect” and the newly released “The Stress Prescription: 7 Days to More Joy and Ease.”

Time outdoors is one of the ways we can reset in an over-stressed world. Visitors at dusk at the Mt. Wilson Observatory on July 13, 2019, in Mt. Wilson, California. (GINA FERAZZI/LOS ANGELESTIMES/TNS)

McCarthy speakership stalemate continues

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Pressure mounting, the speaker’s chair of the U.S. House sat empty for a third day Thursday, as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed anew on the seventh of an excruciating string of ballots to win enough votes from his party to seize the chamber’s gavel.

One of McCarthy’s steadfast critics, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, even cast his vote for Donald Trump, a symbolic gesture, but one that highlighted the former president’s in uence over the Republican Party.

The seventh vote for speaker turned out no di erent from the others, with McCarthy well short of the required majority.

McCarthy emerged from a morning meeting with colleagues at the Capitol determined

to persuade Republican holdouts to end the stalemate that has blighted his new GOP majority.

Despite endless talks, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any other in recent political memory, the path ahead remained highly uncertain. The

day started as the other two have, with Republican allies nominating him for now a seventh time to be speaker.

Republican John James of Michigan put McCarthy’s name up for a vote, with a nod to history.

“My family’s gone from being slaves to

the oor of the United States House of Representatives” in ve generations, said James, a newly elected lawmaker to be, who is Black.

He said that while the House Republicans were “stuck” at the moment, McCarthy, who has failed to seize a majority to become speaker, would ultimately win.

Democrat Hakeem Je ries of New York was re-nominated by Democrats.

Republican party holdouts again put forward the name of fellow Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, assuring the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics would continue.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as a future party leader and counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jef-

Resigns: Lawmaker lled vacancy

Continued from A1

was honored to serve constituents in southeast Kansas and appreciated “the trust they placed in me to be their voice in Topeka.”

He was appointed to the 13th District seat in the Senate when it was vacated in April 2017 by Jake LaTurner, who was appointed state treasurer by Gov. Sam Brownback. LaTurner was chosen to ll the void left by resignation of Treasurer Ron Estes, who was elected to the U.S. House in the 4th District of Wichita. Subsequently, LaTurner was elected to Congress in the 2nd District of eastern Kansas.

Hilderbrand had

chaired the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, but will be replaced by Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Republican from Eudora.

Hilderbrand was among the Legislature’s leading critics of Kansas’ election process in terms of security. He sought passage of bills designed to limit what he perceived to be the threat of fraud.

In 2022, he inserted into a bill a requirement election o cials in all 105 counties verify chain of custody on every ballot or risk felony prosecution. He said motivation for the measure was his belief, not proven, that ballots

were shredded in Cherokee County in 2010.

“Any time we can secure and insure fair elections, that every vote legally cast is counted, we owe it to our constituents,” Hilderbrand said.

Hilderbrand expressed frustration in 2021 with a legislative committee’s discussion of a report indicating Black women in Kansas su ered 14% of pregnancy-related fatalities but were responsible for 7.1% of births in the state. He said no one should consider the statistics evidence of systematic racism.

“That terminology of racism is being thrown around way, entirely

too much,” he said. “If you’re going to accuse somebody of being racist, I want a speci c instance.”

In 2020, Hilderbrand was among senators who discounted the potential health risk of COVID-19. He pressed the Legislature to strip local health directors and the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment of authority to require people to wear masks or be subject to contact tracing.

Prior to serving in the Senate, Hilderbrand was a member of the Cherokee County Commission and worked in the insurance industry.

fries, who is the rst Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress, on track himself to become speaker some day.

“We could have elected the rst Black speaker of the United States House,” said conservative Republican Dan Bishop of North Carolina who re-nominated Donalds on Thursday.

Democrats jumped to their feet in applause, as Je ries is, in fact, closest to the gavel with the most votes on every ballot so far.

What started as a political novelty, the rst time in 100 years a nominee had not won the gavel on the rst

vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.

McCarthy is under growing pressure from restless Republicans, and Democrats, to find the votes he needs or step aside, so the House can open fully and get on with the business of governing. His right-flank detractors appear intent on waiting him out, as long as it takes.

“We’re having good discussions and I think everyone wants to nd a solution,” McCarthy told reporters shortly before the House was prepared to gavel into session again.

U.S. Rep.-elect John James delivers remarks alongside House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House Thursday. GETTY IMAGES/CHIP SMODEVILLA/TNS

Wools enjoys stellar senior season

Humboldt High senior Karley Wools was instrumental in leading the Lady Cubs to a stellar volleyball season. The Cubs won the Tri-Valley League and scored 30 victories.

Wools has been a part of the volleyball team at Humboldt since she was a freshman and made quite the mark in her senior season, leading the team with 158 kills. She also knocked 5.9 kills per set and was second in hitting percentage, a 0.111 mark.

The senior was one of the top offensive players in the Tri-Valley League but also prided herself on defense. Wools stood second on the

team this past fall with 14 total blocks.

“I’m very committed to the sport and the team,” said Wools. “I would say passing is one of my better skills and then hitting but it depends on the day. Offensively, I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Kenisyn (Hottenstein), our setter, for getting the set up and then me just being able to make contact and practicing it over and over again.”

The Humboldt native puts her teammates before herself every time on the court because she realizes how much of a team sport volleyball is. If there was nobody to set the ball up, Wools wouldn’t be able to make

a smashing hit to give her team an advantage.

If there was no defensive backline to set up a play, Wools and her teammates wouldn’t be able to score on the opposing team.

“To me it’s about the team.

I’m passionate about sports but just the team bonding and getting close with everyone and being able to play together means the most to me,” said Wools. “Volleyball is a team sport, you can’t do it all by yourself.”

The Lady Cubs finished their season with a 30-6 overall record. Humboldt was solid all around offensively, ripping 9.3 kills per set, almost a whole kill higher than the national average of kills per set.

Wools was also a threat at the serving line, serving as one of the leaders on Humboldt with 37 aces and 1.4 ace serves per set.

When asked how her teammates would describe her, Wools replied: “As a leader. I was a team captain and they definitely looked up to me. I was always the one encouraging the girls to work harder.”

Karley credited her two older sisters as an inspiration. Kelci Sigg set a school record for most points scored in basketball and played softball at Allen Community College.

A multi-sport athlete, Wools said she enjoys volleyball the most compared to basketball and softball.

“It felt nice to go out with a good team. We had a lot of team bonding outside of school with team dinners and stuff which really helped. We really worked well together.”

Wools is planning on attending Pittsburg State in the fall and will major in biology. She is not planning on playing collegiate sports and is looking forward to a new challenge in college.

Darelle Revis, Joe Thomas among HOF finalists

By JOSH DUBOW The Associated Press

Joe Thomas, Darrelle Revis and Dwight Freeney are finalists in their first year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2023.

The 15 modern-day players who will be considered later this month by the selection committee include returning finalists DeMarcus Ware, Patrick Willis, Zach Thomas and Andre Johnson.

Six other returning finalists were announced Wednesday with Jared Allen, Willie Anderson, Ronde Barber, Devin Hester, Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne getting back to this stage.

Defensive backs Albert Lewis and Darren Woodson made it to this stage for the first time with Lewis having reached the semifinal stage in 2013 and Woodson getting there six times.

A maximum of five modern-day players can be elected for enshrinement in August to the Canton, Ohio, hall. The inductees will be announced on Feb. 9 at NFL Honors, the prime-time TV program during which The Associated Press reveals its individual award winners for the 2022 season.

The committee will also consider former Chargers and Cardinals coach Don Coryell in the coaching category and three senior candidates: Super Bowl V MVP Chuck Howley and All-Pro defenders Joe Klecko and Ken Riley.

Joe Thomas was one of the top tackles in the league over a durable 11year career that saw him selected first-team All-Pro six times and second team two other times. He had a streak of 10,363 consecutive plays while playing for the Browns his entire career.

Revis, who also came out in the 2007 draft, moved around much more, spending time with the Jets, Tampa Bay, New England and Kansas City.

His best stretch came in New York where he was a first-team All-Pro from 2009-11 and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2009 when he repeatedly shut down top receivers by sending them to “Revis Island.”

Tabor Bound

“I’m more committed to my studies and want to focus on that,” said Wools. “It definitely will be challenging.”

Wools and the Lady Cubs basketball team tips off against Fredonia Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Revis spent one year in New England, helping the Patriots win the Super Bowl in the 2014 season.

Freeney spent most of his 16-year career in Indianapolis, where his speed off the edge and dominant spin move led to 125 1/2 career sacks. He anchored a defense that complement-

Marmaton Valley High track and field standout Kaitlyn Drake has signed a letter of intent to attend Tabor College on a track scholarship. Taking part in a December signing ceremony are Drake and her parents Clint and Lindsey; and Dave Kroeker, standing at left, Tabor track coach, and Stephen Smith, MVHS track coach. Drake is hoping to build on her successful high school junior season, which ended with her narrowly missing out on medaling in the high jump at the Class 2A State Track Meet in Wichita. Drake’s top height of 4 feet, 10 inches, was 2 inches short of winning a medal.

PHOTO BY HALIE LUKEN

Humboldt’s Karley Wools goes for a kill in the fall. REGISTER/QUINN BURKITT

Benefits program:

Director of Talent Search Project Salary: $35,000 - $40,000

Director of Development Salary: $50,000 - $60,000

Assistant Director of Residence & Student Life Salary: $23,000 - $28,000

STARS Math Specialist Salary: $30,160 - $34,600

Safety Officer Part-time Minimum starting wage: $15.50

Assistant Spirit Coach Salary: $21,000

Police: Suspects called 911 for burglary help

ORLANDO, Fla. (TNS) — Two alleged bumbling burglars were arrested over the weekend after one suspect dialed 911 intending to ask for help moving stolen goods and a ride to Orlando International Airport.

also charged with burglary of the residence.

“And then came Liz’s surprising admission … ,” the sheri ’s ofce wrote in its Facebook post, referring to Roldan-Oscacio.

College scammer mastermind sentenced

BOSTON (AP) — The mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scheme that ensnared celebrities, prominent businesspeople and other parents who used their wealth and privilege to buy their kids’ way into top-tier schools was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison Wednesday.

The punishment for Rick Singer, 62, is the longest sentence handed down in the sprawling scandal that embarrassed some of the nation’s most prestigious universities and put a spotlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the rich.

Prosecutors had sought six years behind bars, noting Singer’s extensive cooperation that helped authorities unravel the entire scheme. Singer began secretly working with investigators in 2018 and recorded hundreds

of phone calls and meetings that helped authorities build the case against dozens of parents, athletic coaches and others arrested in March 2019.

Those sent to prison for participating in the scheme include “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Hu man. Coaches from schools including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and UCLA admitted to accepting bribes.

“The conduct in this case was something out of a Hollywood movie,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins told reporters after the sentencing.

Singer also was ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution to the IRS and forfeit millions more in money and assets to the government.

Deputies initially responded to a burglary call at a Dollar General in Poinciana at 1 a.m. on Dec. 31, where “multiple items were stolen,” according to a post on the Polk County Sheri ’s O ce Facebook page.

Deputies reviewed Dollar General’s video surveillance tapes and recognized one of the suspects whom they identi ed as Martin Gonzalez-Garcia. Police searched the area for Gonzalez-Garcia, 23, but could not locate him.

Later that same day, Polk County 911 received an emergency call from a private residence but nobody responded when the dispatcher spoke.

Deputies arrived at the home to do a welfare check but realized the house was empty. However, they found Gonzalez-Garcia and Gonzalez-Garcia’s girlfriend, Ashializ RoldanOscacio, 22, neither of whom had “ties to the house,” according to authorities.

Gonzalez-Garcia was arrested for allegedly burgling the Dollar General and the residence. Roldan-Oscacio was

“She said she called 911 for the purpose of having law enforcement assist her and (Gonzalez-Garcia) with moving their belongings from the house (the one they were burglarizing), and they were trying to get a ride to the airport, because they wanted to go to New York for the weekend,” authorities alleged.

“Deputies DID help them with their belongings, and DID give them a ride, but it wasn’t to the airport. It was to the Polk Pokey. And they are welcome to stay there all weekend long. The Polk Pokey is much better than New York anyway,” the sheri ’s o ce wrote in its Facebook post.

Gonzalez-Garcia allegedly told authorities “he did commit the burglary at the Dollar General because he needed to get items to sell it to make money,” according to the arrest a davit.

Gonzalez-Garcia also “stated he knew what he did was wrong, but needed the money (and) stated he knew the residence was not his and did not have permission to be in, but had to get inside to get out of the cold.”

BY JAY BOBBIN

Melissa is an insurance investigator who sees something that looks a little fishy, so she comes and ruf fles some feathers to tr y to get to the truth of what’s going on.

All of my scenes are with Taylor Kinney (alias the show’s Lt. Kelly Severide), and it was so much fun to work with him. He’s got really great energy on the set, and even when we weren’t filming, it was fun to have the of fcamera banter and then get serious in the scenes. He’s an absolute sweethear t.

Did you have much time to be around others on the “Chicago Fire” staff?

The crew is really awesome. You can see why they’ve been around for so many seasons, because they’re great. It’s a well-oiled machine, and ever yone is really nice.

This was presented to me as maybe a recurring role, so I’m hoping that she’ll come back around. At the ver y end, she says, “We might see each other again” so we’ll see. I would love that! It would be a dream to come back, because it was such a great experience.

Were you looking to do a guest shot on an established series, or did this just happen to come along?

It just came along. I’m always looking for things, and I decided to audition for this and give it my best and when I got the call, I was so excited. I filmed for four days, and it was during the holidays, so I was kind of back-and-for th.

I haven’t had a vacation in a year, and I was supposed to be in the Bahamas for my bir thday, then I got the call about this. My agents were like, “Well, good news: You booked ‘Chicago Fire.’ Bad news: You’re going to have to cancel your trip.’ But it’s all good. I got to go home and see the family so it was cool.

ou do a now-rare series guest-star turn the Jan. 11 episode of “Chicago Fire.” Who do you play?

PIXABAY.COM

Widower seeks role models for young daughter

Dear Carolyn: I’m a widower with a nearly 6-year-old daughter; my wife died when “Emma” was 2. Since I started dating a few years ago, I’ve exclusively dated men. (I’m bisexual.) It just seems less painful somehow.

Because of this, I’m worried that my daughter doesn’t have, and might never have, a close female presence in her everyday life. My parents cut me out of their life years ago because of their biphobia, and most of my extended family went with them. My brother is the one great family presence in my life, but he isn’t married.

My mother-in-law was wonderful after my wife died; she provided day care and helped in raising Emma, but they moved away and now we only see them four or five times a year.

Emma does FaceTime with them every week. She had a female kindergarten teacher, and I signed her up for gymnastics at a place that has all female coaches.

There’s a family who moved in across the street that is a single mom and two daughters; one of the girls

Carolyn Hax Tell Me About It

is about Emma’s age. Should I let the relationship develop in a natural fashion, or should I be more proactive in trying to arrange play dates and explaining things to the mom?

Is there anything else I should be doing to provide Emma with a positive female role model? Should I ask Emma directly whether she feels there is something lacking in her life, or will that just plant the idea in her head?

— Widower Dad Widower Dad: Kids need love. You love your kid. You are enough. She will be okay.

I think it’s great that you’re mindful of Emma’s having women in her life as examples, but these bonds must grow organically. Sometimes even moms aren’t the right example for their kids, remember. Focus on the love and on giving your daughter the things she needs that are within your power to give, and trust the universe (and endless human variety) for the rest.

That might be hard for you given the twin traumas of losing your family and your wife, so maybe a more productive place for your energy right now is to look into therapy, if you haven’t done so already. That can help you rebuild, for yourself and for Emma, after all you’ve been through.

Re: Dad: I agree with Carolyn, except that Emma may need someone female to help her as she approaches puberty.

— Anonymous Anonymous: Thanks, yes. The cultivating that might make sense here is not specific to role models, but general, where the dad makes sure he counts women among his own friends. That is a form of role modeling, too.

Dear Carolyn: I recently bit the bullet to enable my husband to do an out-of-town assignment he wanted to do. It meant a lot of extra solo work with the kids and housework, all while working myself.

The thing is, his thank-you has all been stuff he gets to do, too, such as baseball games. Don’t get me wrong, I like those things, and it’s not like he got me a bowling ball with

“Homer” on it, but it rings a little hollow. Is this a mean thought to have?

— Favor Returnee Favor Returnee: Figure out what you want, then say: “This is what I would like as a thankyou.” The rest is just various life stages of resentment.

If there are deeper roots to that resentment, though, then you’ll need to address the bigger imbalance. And soon.

MUTTS

MARVIN

ZITS by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman BEETLE BAILEY by Mort Walker HAGAR THE HORRIBLE by Chris Browne BLONDIE by Young and Drake

by Patrick McDonell

by Tom Armstrong HI AND LOIS by Chance Browne

MAADDI

By

For Damar Hamlin’s teammates, peers and everyone in the NFL community, going back to work is not business as usual.

Players returned to practice with heavy hearts on Wednesday, two days after Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field during Buffalo’s game at Cincinnati.

Hamlin, the 24-yearold Bills safety, remains hospitalized in critical condition, but his teammates are set to play the Patriots on Sunday, and all games for Week 18 remain on schedule.

Some players across the league have expressed concern about playing this weekend because they’re still processing what happened to Hamlin. Many were in tears watching him receive medical attention on the field. They’re praying for his recovery and are dealing with emotions they’ve never experienced playing a sport.

“I’m sure if you polled the locker room there would be mixed votes on that,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said about playing against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. “Personally, I think playing is going to be tough. But there’s people that want to play, and there’s people that don’t. Personally, I probably want to play. I think getting back to as normal as you can as fast as you can is how I deal with these kind of things. But like I said, everybody has a different way of dealing with it.”

The league and the NFL Players Association have shared with teams, players and coaches the mental health-related resources available to them. Each team has a licensed behavioral health clinician on staff, as well as a pain management specialist.

The players’ union makes a directory available to all players to help them locate a clinician near them, be it a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker or counselor.

“I think it is certainly key that we acknowledge how great a strain this places on everyone involved,” said the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills. “Certainly, the teams, the medical care providers, the staffs — and this is not just for Buffalo and Cincinnati — but across all our teams. ... We have resources at each of our clubs, and we’ve emphasized preparation in this way. Our clubs have deployed those resources with their counselors and their mental health professionals. And that support extends throughout the entire NFL family, and it will be an ongoing need. This is something that will continue and it’s something we will continue to emphasize.”

The Bills held team meetings and a walkthrough practice without any media availability on Wednesday. They are scheduled to resume practice on Thursday, with coach Sean McDermott and some players expected to speak to reporters.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox said he couldn’t play this weekend if Hamlin was his teammate.

“That’s too hard, man,” Cox said. “You think about this game, you think about all the guys that were right there when it happened. You always think about those guys. What’s going through their mind. You know that those guys are going through it. Everybody that was right there seeing what was going on, they’re going through it.”

Cleveland Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II said it will be challenging to play the season finale in Pittsburgh — Hamlin grew up in the area — given the extraordinary circumstances.

“It’s definitely going to be tough to finish out this last game and just go on the field knowing that there’s somebody out there that is in a life-or-death situation,” Newsome said before practice Wednesday. “It’s definitely going to be very tough and hopefully that’s why we got our guys around us and we can all talk through it and things like that, but it’ll for sure be tough.”

The New Orleans

when they gathered for a meeting Wednesday.

“It’s OK to admit if you need a little help,” coach Dennis Allen said.

Allen experienced firsthand the death of a teammate. He was a safety at Texas A&M in 1991 when kicker James Glenn died of heart failure on the field while warming up for practice.

“It still sticks with you to this day. Any time you have somebody that’s, especially a young guy, that in every other sense, you expect is fully healthy, and to see something like that happen, it’s hard to deal with,” Allen said. “I know what kind of effect it had on our team. So, I can only imagine the guys that were on the field at that point in time, how that emotionally affects them.”

Ready or not, the Bills, Bengals and 30 other NFL teams are returning to the field this week. Players must be mentally prepared for action in a sport that requires full attention.

“You can’t compartmentalize it,” Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb said.

“That was really tough to watch. It was really difficult to see. ... You always prepare your mind for how physical and how violent of a game it is. It’s a tough sport we play, but I never thought I would see or witness anything like that. I can’t help but just think about him and his family and hope that they are holding up well and pray that he comes out on the other side of it and comes back and is in full health.”

Durant in All-Star voting

NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets might be headed toward yet another NBA All-Star Game rematch.

James is the overall leader so far in All-Star balloting, and Durant leads all Eastern Conference players in early voting returns — putting them on track to be All-Star captains for the third consecutive year.

James had 3,168,694 votes entering Thursday, topping the list of Western Conference frontcourt players. Denver’s Nikola Jokic is second (2,237,768) and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis is third (2,063,325).

Durant leads Eastern Conference frontcourt players with 3,118,545 votes. That’s just ahead of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (2,998,327) and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (2,226,712).

Golden State’s Stephen Curry leads all guards in the balloting

with 2,715,520 votes. Dallas’ Luka Doncic has the No. 2 spot among West guards with 2,388,502 votes.

Among East guards, Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving leads with 2,071,715 votes, and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell is second with 1,637,374.

The top three frontcourt players and top two guards in each conference will be chosen as starters, with the leading overall vote-getters from each

Fan voting counts for 50% of the starters balloting, a media ballot counts for 25% and the ballots turned in by NBA players count for the other 25%.

James has been a captain in all five previous uses of that process, going 5-0 in AllStar Games. His team beat a Durant-picked team in 2020 and 2021, beat teams picked by Antetokounmpo in 2018 and 2019, and beat a team picked by Curry

ed a high-powered offense led by Peyton Manning and helped the Colts win the Super Bowl following the 2006 season.

Ware, a four-time AllPro, led the Cowboys in sacks for eight seasons, led the NFL in sacks twice, and won a Super Bowl with Denver following the 2015 season. He finished with 138 1/2 sacks and made the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s.

Johnson twice made the All-Pro team during a strong time for wide receivers. He led the league in receptions and yards receiving twice. He finished his career with 1,062 receptions for 14,185 yards and 70 receiving touchdowns.

Two of his contemporaries, Holt and Wayne, also are in the finals.

Holt was selected to NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s and won a Super Bowl with the 1999 Rams. Wayne retired as NFL’s second all-

time leading receiver in the postseason with 93 catches and won a Super Bowl with the Colts.

Zach Thomas and Willis were among the top linebackers of their time with each earning All-Pro honors five times.

Hester is the rare finalist who made his mark mostly on special teams. He opened the 2007 Super Bowl for Chicago with a 92yard kickoff return for a touchdown, the only time in Super Bowl history that has occurred. An All-Pro three times, Hester was a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s and one of two return specialists on the NFL 100 All-Time Team.

Anderson was considered one of the elite right tackles in the game for 13 pro seasons with Cincinnati and Baltimore, making three All-Pro squads.

Allen was a fourtime All-Pro who led the NFL in sacks twice (2007, 2011) while

playing for the Chiefs, Vikings, Bears and Panthers.

Barber was one of the league’s stingiest cover cornerbacks during his 16 seasons in Tampa, where he also played some safety. A key to the Tampa-2 defensive scheme, Barber was a three-time All-Pro and a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the

2000s. He led the NFL with 10 interceptions in 2001 and won a Super Bowl the next season.

Woodson was a threetime All-Pro safety who helped Dallas win three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s.

Lewis was a star cornerback for 16 seasons with Kansas City and the Raiders with two All-Pro nods.

more Tues. - Sun. 6 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Saints had the team psychologist present

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll wears a NY 3 hat during practice on Wednesday in East Rutherford, N.J. The hat is in support of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who is hospitalized in critical condition after he went into cardiac arrest while playing Monday Night Football earlier this week. TNS

Kevin Durant (7) of the Brooklyn Nets (JACOB KUPFERMAN/GETTY IMAGES/TNS)