Sports: Red Devil women end skid See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Thursday, January 7, 2016
World stocks slide as China trading halted after plunge NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks opened sharply lower as worries intensify about China’s economy and dropping oil prices. China’s main stock index plunged again today, triggering the second automatic halt in trading this week. The price of oil sank to its lowest level in 12 years as traders worried that a slump in China, the world’s second-largest economy, would mean lower global demand for energy. Oil and gas companies again fell more than the rest of the market as energy
prices continued to plunge. Investor anxiety over economic weakness and a possible glut of unwanted shares flooding the market have complicated Beijing’s efforts to withdraw emergency controls imposed after Chinese stock prices collapsed in June. Today, trading halted for the day after a stock index fell 7 percent a half-hour into the trading day. It was this week’s second daylong suspension after a plunge in prices Monday tripped See CHINA | Page A5
Taking flight Thousands of Canadian snow geese prepare for landing near Colony recently. The geese are a common sight locally this time of year. PHOTO COURTESY OF PHYLLIS LUEDKE
Sheriff to refuge occupiers: pick up and go home BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Cheers erupted at a packed community meeting in rural Oregon when a sheriff said it was time for a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to “pick up and go home” The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. Authorities have
not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan. The group also objects to a lengthy prison sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson. “I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday
evening. Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in this small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert country and tensions have risen. Ward told the hundreds gathered at the meeting he hoped the community would put up a “united front” to peacefully resolve the conflict. Group leader Ammon Bun-
dy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals. Several people spoke in support of Bundy and his followers at Wednesday’s meeting. “They are waking people up,” said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resiSee STANDOFF | Page A5
Contractor’s ‘livelihood’ destroyed in garage fire By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
Iola firefighters were called to a garage fire at the home of David Greathouse southwest of Iola Wednesday morning. REGISTER/ RICK DANLEY
A heavy blanket of snow lay across the fields in rural Iola Wednesday morning. Not long after 7 a.m. David Greathouse emerged from his isolated farmhouse southwest of town to see two columns of smoke billowing out of his nearby garage. Earlier that morning, Greathouse, in an effort to heat the outbuilding, fed a small amount of hedge into a small wood burning stove. He had a row of chainsaws
laid out in the garage, which he planned to sharpen in preparation for a day of cutting timber with a few friends. “I came out and the smoke was already rolling,” said Greathouse, on Wednesday, as he watched the flames from the mostly contained fire climb up into the lower branches of a towering, century-old hardwood tree. “I got inside the building. I have a molding rack in there, up above, and there were a couple of pieces of that that See FIRE | Page A5
State launches mentor program By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas launched a new program Wednesday to provide interested welfare recipients with volunteer mentors who can teach them life skills, with plans to expand it this summer to foster children nearing adulthood. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who faced heavy criticism last year for championing new restrictions on welfare recipients, said the mentoring program is part of Kansas’ ongoing effort to move people from social services into meaningful employment. First lady Mary Brownback was the first person to sign up to serve as a mentor. The Kansas Department for Children and Families plans to pay for the new See MENTORS | Page A5
Families return to bring gospel music to Bowlus Two families will bring their gospel talents Saturday to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The Whisnants, whose roots in gospel music date back to sitting around an old upright piano in their Appalachian home in North Carolina in 1970, will perform along with the Taylors, a contemporary brother-sister group. The concert, sponsored by the Southeast Kansas Christian Artists Series, begins at See SEKCAS | Page A2
The Taylors, above, and the the Whisnants will perform at a gospel concert Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center as part of the Southeast Kansas Christian Artists Series.
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 48
“A gem cannot be perfected without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman statesman 75 Cents
Hi: 46 Lo: 40 Iola, KS