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THE IOLA REGISTER Monday, November 4, 2013
Women’s ties to foundation key for healthy county By STEVEN SCHWARTZ The Iola Register
Gena Clounch and Mary Ann Arnott have committed their time to aiding others in Allen County; and aren’t afraid of taking on more. Both are members of the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City. Clounch is a board member and Arnott is a member of its Community Advisory Committee. HCF is a non-profit organization that serves a distinct area in Missouri and Kansas, including Allen County. The founda-
tion was formed after Health Midwest (which owned 11 hospitals in the area) was bought by the Hospital Corporation of America in 2002. The transaction included a non-profit organization, Health Midwest, being purchased by a for-profit organization, HCA, Clounch thus creating a trust foundation. Overall, 80 percent of the funds ($400
million) went to HCF, and the remaining $100 million went to the REACH Healthcare Foundation — both of which include Allen County in their service regions. Clounch said the dollars, awarded through grants, are meant to improve the Arnott lives of those living in the represented counties. “There have been a lot of grants
awarded,” Clounch said. “It’s very important, when you see the list of grantees.” Clounch and Arnott met with The Register to outline their involvement with the foundation, and how its work needs to be recognized now more than ever. “We do have a community of all ranges” of needs, Arnott said. “Healthy living is so important to everyone.” HCF has given grants to multiple See FOUNDATION | Page A4
ACC basketball opens at home
STATE
Kobach seeks gun opinions TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has asked Attorney General Derek Schmidt for a ruling on whether a new state law allowing concealed carry in most public buildings includes polling places. Polling sites in Kansas are often found in places where guns are not usually allowed, such as churches, schools, universities and charity organizations, The Wichita Eagle reported. Guns have also been prohibited as a general rule from polling places to prevent voter intimidation or interference with elections, Kobach said. But there is “some ambiguity in the law” over whether Kansas polling places would be considered “leased” property under the new concealed-carry law. If they are, the law says licensed gun owners must be allowed to carry their weapons on the premises, unless the county files a detailed security plan for each site and provides protective measures such as metal detectors and guards to run them. “We’ve invited the attorney general to weigh in before we issue any guidance to the counties,” Kobach told the newspaper. Public officials can request an attorney general’s opinion on legal questions that haven’t been decided by a court. The opinions aren’t considered law but can be used as guidance until an issue is tested. Brad Bryant, elections director in the Secretary of State’s Office, gave election commissioners and county clerks from around Kansas an update on the issue during a recent convention in Wichita. “Our understanding right now is that a building, a facility, that is owned or leased by a municipality, including for a polling place, would be subject to the (concealed carry) law,” he said. “When you lease a private property, it becomes a municipal property on Election Day, that’s our understanding.” Rep. Tom Sawyer of Wichita, ranking Democrat on the House elections committee, said there could be difficulties in finding polling sites if weapons have to be allowed. He said some churches and nonprofit groups that open their property for voting sites may have second thoughts if they have to allow guns. “It’s hard enough as it is to come up with a building that’s going to be open all day and that’s handicapped-accessible,” he said.
A HIGH-FLYING RED DEVIL DEBUT Allen Community College’s basketball teams got off to a roaring start Saturday with a doubleheader sweep at home against Hesston. Above, Allen’s Ben Uno goes up for a shot against the visting Larks in the ACC men’s 100-62 victory. At right, the Red Devils’ Nicole Salazar drives past a Hesston defender in Allen’s 85-61 victory. Full details of the victories are on B1. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Schodorf to use voter ID in campaign By JOHN HANNA Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former state Sen. Jean Schodorf is running for Kansas secretary of state on the simple premise that incumbent Kris Kobach must go, but she launched her campaign last week with a complex message on a key issue that could prove problematic. Kobach, a conservative Republican, is the architect of a state law requiring new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering. The registrations of about 17,200 people were on hold last week — making them ineligible to vote — because they hadn’t yet presented a birth certificate, passport or other papers confirming citizenship. A Democratic challenger like Schodorf faces addressing the proofof-citizenship law early in the campaign because it’s the most visible issue surrounding the secretary of state’s office. Schodorf said last week that the state must fix the “voter registration mess.”
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 7
Schodorf said she’d support efforts by legislators to repeal the law, but she also said that she’d work to make its administration go more smoothly. Her message is complicated further by her vote in the Senate in favor of the proof-ofcitizenship policy now on the books. “You’re getting this hodge-podge of an answer from her,” said House Elections Committee Chairman Scott Schwab, a con- Schodorf servative Olathe Republican who helped Kobach win passage of the proof-ofcitizenship law. “That doesn’t win elections.” Democratic legislators and party leaders portray Kobach as an extremist who advocates election policies that suppress voter turnout. Schodorf served 12 years in the Senate as a moderate Republican before conservatives unseated her in the GOP primary in 2012, later switching parties. Backers of Schodorf, a Wichita resi-
“True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.” — Edward F. Halifax 75 Cents
dent, believe she’ll pick up support from both unaffiliated voters and disaffected Republican moderates. “We have a strong candidate,” said Randy Rolston, a Mission Hills businessman who was running for the Democratic nomination but dropped out last week for family reasons and endorsed Schodorf. Kobach made combatting election fraud the main issue of his successful campaign for secretary of state in 2010. In the past, even GOP election officials have said voting irregularities were not an issue, but Kobach received 59 percent of the vote. Legislators approved a package of election proposals from Kobach in 2011, including the proof-of-citizenship law and another statute requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The photo ID law was in effect for the 2012 elections, but lawmakers delayed the start of the proof-of-citizenship rule until this year because some of them feared the state wouldn’t be ready sooner to administer it effecSee SCHODORF | Page A4
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