Sports: U.S. women roll to World Cup title
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, July 6, 2015
Troubles elsewhere boost wheat prices
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By ROXANA HEGEMAN The Associated Press
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Market concerns about the quantity and quality of the U.S. winter wheat crop being harvested and the dry conditions in other wheatproducing nations have sparked an unexpected run up in recent weeks to wheat prices. Normally, the flood of new grain coming in at harvest time drives down crop prices, and with prices already low when the harvest began, farmers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas were worried. That hasn’t happened this year, though, and wheat prices have actually risen since mid-June, said Dan O’Brien, an extension specialist in grain markets at Kansas State University. This is welcome news for those farmers still bringing in their crops. Wheat grower Vance Ehmke said cash prices at his local elevator in the western Kansas community of Dighton dipped as low as $4.50 a bushel last month but have risen to about $5.50 a bushel. “And that, in my opinion,
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Tuneful Tidds The six Tidd siblings served up a special moment during Thursday’s Iola Municipal Band concert as they performed together publicly. Their mother, the late Julie Tidd, was music instructor and former Municipal Band director. With the older Tidds having moved elsewhere, such performances are a rarity. The Tidds are, front from left, Jonathan, Jennifer and Jessica; and second from left, Josh, Joel and Jason. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
Chanute’s Applewood to close By DAVE RANNEY KHI News Service
CHANUTE — The co-owners of a 45-bed nursing facility here that cares for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses have decided to shutter the business. “We just got our rate-setting form from the state, telling us
that our per-day reimbursement would be going down by $4.96 per person, per day,” said Mary Harding, director of nursing at Applewood Rehabilitation, Inc. “That equates to about $7,000 less a month,” she said. “We’ve been barely breaking even for a while now, so we made the choice that we had to
Coach: Culture of ‘good enough’ curbs enthusiasm By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
In the movie “The Departed,” Jack Nicholson as Irish mob boss Frank Costello says, “I don’t want to be a product of the environment, I want the environment to be a product of me.” Doug Kerr, Iola High football coach, has taken the quote to heart and wants to apply it to his program, he told Iola Rotarians Thursday. Rather than have his
athletes accept cultural backgrounds that may limit their possibilities, Kerr wants them to reach higher and “take the next step.” The culture of “good enough” destroys enthusiasm, Kerr said, to the point he thinks it may well have been responsible for last year’s school bond election failure. A turning point, he thinks, for the team can be a revamped and improved See KERR | Page A4
Greece looks to reopen bailout talks; finance minister resigns ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece and its membership in Europe’s joint currency faced an uncertain future today, with the country under pressure to reach a bailout deal with creditors as soon as possible after Greeks resoundingly rejected the notion of more austerity in exchange for aid. With Greek banks running out of cash and facing the danger of collapse within days without new aid, the government in Athens is racing against the clock. In an effort to facilitate negotiations on a new aid program, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who had
clashed with European officials in the bailout talks, announced his resignation today. But Greece and its creditors, who will meet again Tuesday to discuss how to keep the country in the euro, remain far apart on key issues, particularly the notion of debt relief. The negotiations are complicated for the European creditors by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ triumph in Sunday’s referendum. More than 61 percent of Greeks backed his call to vote “no” to budget cuts the creditors See GREECE | Page A4
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 168
make, and that was to close.” The decision comes on the heels of state officials announcing last month that Osawatomie State Hospital had reached its maximum capacity and had begun putting would-be patients on a waiting list. See CLOSES | Page A4
was a gift from God — it will certainly help a lot more people get into the breakeven range,” he said. “That will help a lot.” The reasons behind this year’s low wheat prices and the more recent price bump, however, probably have less to do with divine intervention than with global grain markets. A weak market for U.S. wheat exports has driven down prices this year. On July 1 of last year, central Kansas elevator terminals around Hutchinson were paying cash prices of between $6.80 and $7.04 a bushel for wheat, O’Brien said. As of Wednesday, they were paying $5.68 to $5.82 per bushel. The recent price hike — generally 60 to 80 cents since mid-June — reflects market concerns about U.S. wheat production and dry conditions in other wheatproducing countries caused by an El Nino weather pattern, O’Brien said. Global wheat production is moderately lower than was expected two or three months ago, causing prices to rise. What is far more difficult See WHEAT | Page A4
Humboldt clerk: Fountain of knowledge By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — In his 13 months as Humboldt administrator, Cole Herder has lost track of how many times he’s asked: “Jean, what can you tell me about this?” Tuesday will be the last day Herder will have at hand the luxury of what he refers to as a walking encyclopedia of Humboldt city business. City Clerk Jean Flores will be honored at a public retirement reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall. Her retirement date is Sept. 1, but with accrued vacation, she will walk away from City Hall at closing time Tuesday afternoon. Flores, 61, began her career in downtown Humboldt as utility billing clerk in October 1993. Part-time stints as a typist at home and with the Market Place, a Humboldt weekly newspaper, preceded her public service, which became her only long-term commitment other than raising two daughters. “I was a stay-at-home mom for a long time,” Flores said, to nurture and raise Sara and Ann, both of whom live in Kansas City suburbs, along with Sara’s 14-year-old son, Anthony. A native of Chanute, Flores moved to Humboldt in 1973 when she married her husband Chris, now retired four years from Monarch Cement. See FLORES | Page A4
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Jean Flores’ last day as Humboldt city clerk is Tuesday. REGISTER/
BOB JOHNSON
“A forest bird never wants a cage.”
— Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet 75 Cents
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