Locally owned since 1867 www.iolaregister.com
Football: College honors former Iola standout See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Tuesday, October 22, 2013
NATIONAL
Teacher hailed as hero in shooting Two dead, one injured in Nevada school killings
By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Students at a Nevada middle school were filing off buses and reuniting with friends on the playground after a weeklong vacation when the pop of gunfire shattered the morning calm. Children fled the campus for their lives before the first bell rang. Police said a Sparks Middle School student was the lone gunman who injured two young classmates, killed himself and took the life of an 8th-grade math teacher who tried to stop the rampage. The teacher, former serviceman Michael Landsberry, 45, was being hailed for trying to protect students from a shooting that was witnessed by 20 or 30 children. “We have a lot of heroes today, including our
children ... and our fallen hero, an amazing teacher,” Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. Authorities did not provide a motive for the shooting, and it’s not known where he got the gun. The 12-year-old wounded students were listed in stable condition. One was shot in the shoulder, and the other was hit in the abdomen. Parents clung to their teary-eyed children at an evacuation center, while the community struggled to make sense of the latest episode of schoolyard violence to rock the nation less than a year after the massacre in Newtown, Conn. Sparks, a city of roughly 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, lies just east of Reno. A family takes a photo of a memorial after a shooting at Spark
See SHOOTING | Page A3 Middle School in Sparks, Nev., on Monday. HECTOR AMEZCUA/SACRAMENTO BEE/MCT
STATE
Horse owners deal with high hay prices
Dan Dellinger, American Legion national commander, visits with Iolans Stanley Dreher, right, and Bob Burns before speaking at a breakfast meeting at Post 15 Monday morning. REGISTER/BOB
JOHNSON
A legion of support
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
“It’s a shame Congress isn’t doing what it’s there to do,” Dan Dellinger said here Monday morning. Dellinger, from Vienna, Va.., is national commander of the American Legion. He was at Iola American Legion Post 15 for a breakfast meeting, attended by about 30 local and state legionnaires. Congress should concern itself with passing a budget, not shutting down government and threatening to throw the country into default on its financial obligations, Dellinger
said. “I was in Flagstaff, Ariz., two weeks ago when I got a call to come to Washington,” Dellinger recalled. When he arrived, there was a fence “in front of the World War II memorial and the gates were closed,” an outcome of the federal shutdown. “The memorial always should be open, it’s there to honor veterans.” Memorials should be immune from politics, he continued. “Those who put on uniforms shouldn’t be pawns.” He noted “the G.I. Bill made the United States what it is today.” See LEGION | Page A3
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some Kansas horse owners are being forced to thin their herds because they can’t afford the rising cost of hay, while others are buying lower-quality hay or cutting back on how much they are feeding their animals. Careen Cain, founder and president of Wakarusa-based Shooting Star Equine Rescue, told The Topeka CapitalJournal she hears from people five to 10 times a month who are looking for new homes for their horses. The most common reason people cite for giving up a horse is that they can no longer take care of the animal, she said. Often that’s because of problems such as lost jobs, personal medical bills — and the rising cost of hay, she said. Large round bales of hay that cost $35 to $40 each in 2011 peaked last year at $115 to $120 before falling to the current price of $40 to $60 apiece. Drought conditions are largely to blame for the crippling price hikes over the past two or three years, said Marty Bloomquist, who runs Dancing Star Ranch near Te-
cumseh with her husband. A lack of moisture meant less hay was grown, cutting sharply into the region’s supply, she said. Bloomquist, whose land on her ranch has produced significantly more hay this year than last, said she is having no trouble feeding the 15 horses on her property. “You won’t see any ribs here,” she said. Still, pastures in the area need time to recover, she said, noting that rising hay prices seem to have put the most pressure on horse owners who can least afford them. Bloomquist said she saw four horses get progressively thinner this year as they were kept in a lot east of Topeka, and she was sure their owners didn’t have enough money to pay for hay. The owners eventually gave up one of the horses, a former thoroughbred racehorse that was getting particularly thin, Bloomquist said. He came to live at her ranch, where he was brought back to health and now is being ridden at a ranch in the Flint Hills.
‘Ring of Fire’ to ignite Bowlus stage By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Actors perform a number during the “Ring of Fire”- at an earlier performance. The musical is at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center Saturday. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the Bowlus, or at the door. COURTESY PHOTO
Quote of the day Vol. 115, No. 253
“The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.” — Unknown 75 Cents
The national tour of “Ring of Fire — The Music of Johnny Cash” will make its way to the Bowlus Fine Arts stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The musical features a company of performers that takes audience members through Johnny Cash’s life. Cash is not impersonated, but actors portay his achievements, including his performances at the Grand Ole Opry. “Ring of Fire” was originally See BOWLUS | Page A3
Hi: 67 Lo: 36 Iola, KS