All-league volleyball: Iola, area players honored See B1
The Weekender Saturday, November 12, 2016
Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Budget gap projected at $349 million (and growing) By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas faces a $349 million shortfall in its current budget and even bigger gaps in the near future after officials issued a new, more pessimistic fiscal forecast for the state. The forecasters slashed the state’s previous projections for tax collections through June 2017 by 5.9 percent, or $355 million. They also issued
the first projections for the two fiscal years beginning in July 2017 and kept their estimates for revenue growth
conservative. Legislative researchers projected budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019, based on current legal requirements for spending. The state’s annual spending is $15.5 billion. The state’s fiscal woes come amid a national debate over taxes. President-elect Donald Trump promised big income tax cuts while campaigning. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget after slashing
personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 in hopes of stimulating its economy, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback touted the experiment as a national model. Brownback blames the state’s ongoing budget woes on slumps in agriculture and energy production that have also affected other states. The new fiscal forecast — replacing one issued in April — assumes that the sluggishness continues for the next two
years. “I don’t think with some of the struggles that we’ve seen, that we’re going to see much of anything turn Shawn Sullivan around in a year or two,” Shawn Sullivan, Brownback’s budget director, See STATE | Page A6
Dear candidates:
Girls share their views By MARTHA IRVINE The Associated Press
THE MOVE for districts to place additional emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is rooted in the effort to better prepare students for the workforce, Sternfeld-
For many girls and young women across America and beyond, there was a hope this week that they would see history made with the first woman elected president of the United States. Now, for some, there are tears and disappointment — but a desire, too, to reach out. “To all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams,” Democrat Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech after Republican Donald Trump was declared the president-elect. This week, a number of girls have pulled out their pencils and keyboards to write letters and blog posts — not just to Clinton but also
See CREATIVITY | Page A6
See LETTERS | Page A2
Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn teaches music at Wichita State University. He says teaching students of all trades about the importance of creativity is essential to making a person better at their craft. He will further elaborate Tuesday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. WICHITA EAGLE/TRAVIS HEYING/TNS
Bowlus speaker makes case for creativity By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
T
he world of education is changing as dollars get tighter, AlekSternfeld-Dunn
sander notes. Too often, he contends, rural schools and colleges scale back fine arts classes, or cut them altogether, be-
cause those classes are seen as “luxury items.” Even Iola’s USD 257, with its rich history in fine arts (in no small part because of the district’s affiliation with the Bowlus Fine Arts Center) has taken a harder look at how the district can afford to maintain that relationship. School board members have asked for a court’s opinion on the implications
of it pulling classes from the Bowlus. Sternfeld-Dunn takes the opposite view. “I see a lot of potential here,” he told the Register this week in a telephone interview. Sternfeld-Dunn will make “A Case For Creativity” for the public at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Creitz Recital Hall in the Bowlus. He’ll also speak with a number
of Iola High School instructors and other educators during the day Tuesday and Wednesday.
Issues lie in wait for president-elect, GOP
Super supermoon A rare event that hasn’t happened at any point in the last 68 years will occur Monday night. It will be the biggest moon so far of the 21st century; the moon won’t come this close to Earth again until Nov. 25, 2034.
By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The budding new alliance between Donald Trump and congressioSee related nal Repubstory A3 licans hides a tougher reality: Even with unified GOP control of Washington, the president-elect’s priorities may have trouble getting through Congress. And in some cases Republicans themselves might be the barrier. Building a border wall and restricting immigration from terror-stricken nations? Don’t count on Senate Democrats to go along, and they will effectively wield veto power in many cases. Repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law? That looks likely to happen in some way, shape or form, but a number of states that accepted that law’s expansion of
APOGEE Furthest point
SUPERMOON A supermoon is when a full moon is at its closest point to the earth in its elliptical orbit ...
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., in their first public step toward a transition of power. ABACA PRESS/OLIVIER DOULIERY/TNS the Medicaid health program for the poor are represented by Republicans. It will take painstaking and potentially lengthy negotiations to come up with a solution. And then there are Trump’s protectionist views on trade, skepticism about internation-
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 13
al treaty organizations and promises to protect Social Security and Medicare. All that flies in the face of Republican Party orthodoxy — and the list goes on. Still, all that seemed like a See TRUMP | Page A6
“Forever is composed of nows.” — Emily Dickinson 75 Cents
... when this happens, the moon can appear 14% larger than a normal full moon
+14%
PERIGEE
Closest point
A FULL MOON ... occurs each month when the sun, Earth and moon line up,
SUN with the moon on the side of the Earth opposite to the sun.
30% brighter
Source: NASA, earthsky.org Graphic: Staff, Tribune News Service
Hi: 57 Lo: 37 Iola, KS