The Iola Register, Sept. 14, 2023

Sheriff seeks jail repairs

By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register

Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy asked commissioners to replace an aging heating and cooling system at the jail.

The HVAC system is 20 years old, exceeding its recommended lifespan of 15 years.

The system also uses an obsolete refrigerant that is in short supply. Newer units will meet more stringent energy efficient standards, which should reduce costs.

Murphy submitted two bids, one from Design Mechanical of Kansas City for $106,133 and one from CDL Electric Co. of Pittsburg for $143,461.

Murphy said he preferred to go with the company that installed the previous system, Design Mechanical, which was also the low bid.

School board sells land parcel

By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register

Commissioners supported Murphy’s request but wanted to know where he would find the money. Murphy said he wanted to use about $70,000 from an ac-

A piece of property near Iola Elementary School is expected to be sold to Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center.

USD 257 board members agreed to sell the property for a small profit but their intention was more about finding a better use for the land.

SEKMHC owns neighboring property to the south and

east, with plans to eventually build on the site. Their portion is a little less than 3 acres with U.S. 54 frontage.

The district purchased a little less than an acre just south of the new school for $35,000. The property included an older 40-by-100 ft. metal building. The district considered multiple uses for the metal building, such as turning it into a maintenance facility,

but a review of the structure showed it needs to be torn down.

That prompted Superintendent Stacey Fager and other administrators to consider alternatives, including the possible sale of the land.

“We wondered if the property would be more beneficial to someone else,” Fager said.

SEKMHC was the only enti-

Frenemies? Mosquitoes sought to fight disease

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras

(AP) — For decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more effective way to control the disease — and it goes against everything they’ve learned.

Which explains why a dozen people cheered last month as Tegucigalpa resident Hector Enriquez held a glass jar filled with mosquitoes above his head, and then freed the buzzing insects into the air. Enriquez, a 52-year-old mason, had volunteered to help publicize a plan to suppress dengue by releasing millions of special mosquitoes in the Honduran capital.

The mosquitoes Enriquez

unleashed in his El Manchen neighborhood — an area rife with dengue — were bred by scientists to carry bacteria called Wolbachia that interrupt transmission of the

Humboldt Council urged to aid ACARF

By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register

HUMBOLDT — Gary McIntosh, an avid animal-lover, informed Humboldt Council members Monday evening that Nov. 28 is known as the National Day of Giving and proposed the council consider a gift to the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility.

The benefit of waiting until Nov. 28 is that Your Community Foundation, a local foundation, will match the city’s gift, “up to $70,000,” he said with a smile.

McIntosh reminded Humboldt leaders that many community and county bodies regularly support animal shelters and noted their many services, such as res-

cuing abandoned pets and preventing the spread of diseases.

“Franklin County, for instance, gives $3,500 a month to its animal rescue place,” McIntosh said. “But whatever you can give, would be much appreciated, and by partnering with Your Community Foundation, that’s a powerful way to help.”

IN OTHER business, council members approved the city’s 2024 budget, which keeps the same property tax rate — estimated at about 93 mills — as used for the 2023 budget.

Members approved a payment of $119,785 to BG Consultants for the engineering

disease. When these mosquitoes reproduce, they pass the bacteria to their offspring, reducing future outbreaks. This emerging strategy for battling dengue was pio-

neered over the last decade by the nonprofit World Mosquito Program, and it is being tested in more than a dozen countries. With more than half the world’s population at risk of contracting dengue, the World Health Organization is paying close attention to the mosquito releases in Honduras, and elsewhere, and it is poised to promote the strategy globally.

DENGUE DEFIES TYPICAL PREVENTION

Scientists have made great strides in recent decades in reducing the threat of infectious diseases, including mosquito-borne viruses like malaria. But dengue is the exception: Its rate of infection keeps going up.

Models estimate that

around 400 million people across some 130 countries are infected each year with dengue. Mortality rates from dengue are low — an estimated 40,000 people die each year from it — but outbreaks can overwhelm health systems and force many people to miss work or school.

The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that most commonly spread dengue have been resistant to insecticides, which have fleeting results even in the best-case scenario. And because dengue virus comes in four different forms, it is harder to control through vaccines.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are also a challenging foe because they are most active

Music concert highlights Moran Day

MORAN — Saturday’s Moran Day celebration will remind festival-goers that “there’s no place like home.”

The 2023 fall festival will sport the “Wizard of Oz” theme through several of its activities, which begin at 8 a.m. with the annual rummage sale at Moran Methodist Church.

The parade begins at 11, but not before competitors line up for the traditional chariot race, which commences at 10:45.

From there, the setting shifts to the Moran City Park, with vendors and food trucks, games and a merchant drawing. A corn hole tournament begins at 1 p.m.

The afternoon wraps up with a free bean feed at 4 o’clock.

A pony pull begins the evening festivities west of

the softball fields.

Kaleb McIntire, singer-songwriter who grew up near Joplin, will provide live music at the park beginning at 7. Those wishing to imbibe may do so in the concert’s beer garden.

MCINTIRE’S story originated in Diamond, Mo., a stone’s throw from Jplin, where he grew up playing gospel. He began playing the

See MORAN | Page A3

Iola USD 257 school board members agreed Monday to sell this parcel of land and dilapidated outbuilding to the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, which may soon build a new facility nearby. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS

Kaleb McIntire will perform as part of Moran Day’s festivities on Saturday. KALEBMCINTIRE.COM

Sheriff Bryan Murphy

Program on Iola band airs Friday

The Iola Municipal Band will be featured on an episode of “Positively Kansas” at 8 p.m. Friday on Wichita’s PBS Station, KPTS Channel 8. Chris Frank, a senior producer for PBS, was in Iola over the summer to interview several long-time musicians and second-year band direc-

tor Jenna Morris.

While the station’s signal likely isn’t strong enough for Iolans to watch live, Frank said the broadcast will likely be posted to the station’s website, kpts. org, within the next few days.

The video also will be posted on the KPTS YouTube page.

Crews in Morocco help recover bodies

IMI N’TALA, Morocco (AP) — The stench of death wafted through the village of Imi N’Tala high up in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains four days after a deadly earthquake struck, slicing off a chunk of mountain, killing residents and razing the hamlet to the ground.

Bulldozers, rescue crews and Moroccan first responders work around the clock trying to dig through the wreckage to unearth the eight to ten corpses still underneath.

“The mountain was split in half and started falling. Houses were fully destroyed,” Ait

Ougadir Al Houcine said as rescuers worked on recovering bodies, including his sister’s. “Some people lost all their cattle. We have nothing but the clothes we’re wearing.”

The scene in Imi N’Tala, which mainly houses herders and famers and where 96 residents perished in Friday’s earthquake, mirrors that of dozens of places situated along the treacherous mountain roads south of Marrakech: Men in donated djellabas neatly arrange rugs atop dust and rocks to pray after looking for open space and solid ground.

Hope Unlimited and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers partnered Monday to honor local First Responders for 9/11 Day of Remembrance. Above, from left, volunteer coordinator Lori Echavez, AmeriCorp volunteer Betty Stich, firefighters Casey Weast, Zachary Wilper, EMS director Michael Burnett, Brogan Nicholas and Sage Shaughnessy, and AmeriCorps volunteer Carol George. Middle, AmeriCorps volunteers Betty Stich, from left, Carol George, Bob Droessler of the Iola Police Department and Hope Unlimited volunteer coordinator Lori Echavez. Bottom, Sandy Haggard, NCCC AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP Director, left, along with Patrick Cash, Haley Donovan and Lisa Sears with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department and AmeriCorps volunteers Carol George and Betty Stich. COURTESY

Toll from devastating floods in Libyan city passes 5,100 dead

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Search teams combed streets, wrecked buildings and even the sea for bodies in a devastated eastern Libyan city on Wednesday, where authorities said massive flooding had killed at least 5,100 people, with the toll expected to rise further.

Authorities were still struggling to get aid to the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna after Sunday night’s deluge washed away most access roads. Aid workers who managed to reach the city described devastation in its center, with thousands still missing and tens of thousands left homeless.

“Bodies are everywhere, inside houses, in the streets, at sea. Wherever you go, you

Men walk past debris of buildings caused by flash floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on Sept. 11, 2023. Flash floods in eastern Libya killed more than 2,300 people in the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna alone, the emergency services of the Tripoli-based government said on September 12. (AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/TNS)

find dead men, women, and children,” Emad al-Falah, an aid worker from Benghazi, said over the phone from Derna. “Entire families

were lost.”

Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many towns of eastern Libya on Sunday, but the worst-hit

was Derna. Two dams outside in the mountains above the city collapsed, sending floodwaters washing down the Wadi Derna

Fishing vessel in Greenland will try to free cruise ship

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A fishing vessel owned by Greenland’s government will attempt to use high tide to pull free a Bahamas-flagged luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people that ran aground in the world’s northernmost national park, authorities said.

Capt. Flemming Madsen of the Danish Joint Arctic Command told The Associated Press that the passengers and crew on the ship stranded in northwestern Greenland were doing fine and “all I can say is that they got a lifetime experience.”

The scientific fishing vessel was scheduled to arrive later Wednesday and would attempt when the conditions were right to pull the 343-foot long and 60foot wide MV Ocean Explorer free.

The cruise ship ran

aground above the Arctic Circle Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park. The park covers 603,973 square miles, almost as much land as France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet, according to the Visit Greenland tourism board.

Alpefjord sits in a remote corner of Greenland, some 149 miles away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 870 miles from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Ocean Explorer’s crew made two failed attempts to get the ship to float free on its own during high tide.

In a statement, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, which operates the ship, said the passengers and crew members were safe and

well and that there was “no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel, or the surrounding environment.”

“We are actively engaged in efforts to free

the MV Ocean Explorer from its grounding. Our foremost commitment is to ensure the vessel’s recovery without compromising safety,” the statement said.

river and through the city center, sweeping away entire city blocks. Waves rose as high as 23 feet, Yann Fridez, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya, told broadcaster France24.

Mohammed Derna, a teacher in the city, said he, his family and neighbors rushed to the roof of their apartment building, stunned at the volume of water rushing by. It reached the second story of many buildings, he said. They watched people below, including women and children being washed away.

“They were screaming, help, help,” he said over the phone from a field hospital in Derna. “It was like a Hollywood horror movie.”

Derna lies on a narrow coastal plain on the Mediterranean Sea, under steep mountains running along the coast. Only two roads from the south remain usable, and they involve a long, winding route through the mountains. Aid teams with some supplies managed to get in that way, while authorities in eastern Libya worked Wednesday to repair the faster coastal access routes.

PHOTOS

Moran

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piano at 6, then moved onto drums and eventually the guitar.

After high school, his jobs included working on a drill rig and later a security expert for rock music legend Ted Nugent.

McIntire’s first public performance was as an Elvis Presley impersonator in Branson. He released his first album, “Scars,” in 2012 before embarking on a European tour.

A devastating car crash later that year slowed, but didn’t stop his musical pursuit, even though McIntire underwent five surgeries as he recovered from a broken back, cracked ribs and a nearly severed arm.

McIntire moved to Texas in 2015, after steadily building on his musical repertoire, his 2019 album “Still Kinda Crazy” was chosen as the Country Album of the Year in the Texas Country Music Awards.

McIntire lives in Texas with his family.

Mosquitoes: May fight off dengue fever

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during the day — meaning that’s when they bite — so bed nets aren’t much help against them.

SCIENTISTS SURPRISED

BY BACTERIA

The Wolbachia strategy has been decades in the making.

The bacteria exist naturally in about 60% of insect species, just not in the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Around 40 years ago, scientists aimed to use Wolbachia in a different way: to drive down mosquito populations. Because male mosquitoes carrying the bacteria only produce offspring with females that also have it, scientists would release infected male mosquitoes into the wild to breed with uninfected females, whose eggs would not hatch.

But along the way, O’Neill’s team made a

surprising discovery: Mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia didn’t spread dengue — or other related diseases, including yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya.

Since O’Neill’s lab first tested the replacement strategy in Australia in 2011, the World Mosquito Program has run trials affecting 11 million people across 14 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Fiji and Vietnam.

The results are promising. In 2019, a largescale field trial in Indonesia showed a 76% drop in reported dengue cases after Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were released.

Still, questions remain about whether the replacement strategy will be effective –and cost effective – on a global scale, O’Neill said. The three-year Tegucigalpa trial will cost $900,000, or roughly

$10 per person that Doctors Without Borders expects it to protect.

SPECIAL MOSQUITOES BRED IN COLOMBIA

Many of the world’s mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia were hatched in a warehouse in Medellín, Colombia, where the World Mosquito Program runs a factory that breeds 30 million of them per week.

The factory imports

Jail: Sheriff seeks HVAC system replacement

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count collected by charging out-of-county inmates for room and board, and from another inmate fund that has about $25,000. That leaves a gap of about $31,000. Commissioners said they wanted to take another week to consider the matter, particularly to determine where the money might come from.

Murphy said he might have an option, as he has requested $33,000 for reimbursement from the state under a new program that com-

pensates law enforcement $100 per day for inmates who are waiting for a mental health evaluation at Larned State Hospital.

Kansas legislators passed two laws regarding reimbursement during the last session. The laws also provide reimbursement for the time patients are in a hospital and for transportation costs.

In 2022, the ACLU sued the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services (KDADS), citing wait times as long as 13 months for competency evaluations and treat-

ment for people facing criminal charges. Some inmates spend more time waiting for an evaluation or treatment bed than they would face in prison if convicted.

IN OTHER news:

An open house for the Allen County Regional Airport is scheduled for 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 30. Coffee and doughnuts will be served. The airport has undergone numerous improvements over the past year, and this is a chance for the public to see the changes.

Public Works Director

Mitch Garner submitted bids to replace doors at the airport. The doors were damaged in storms and the county received about $109,000 from insurance.

Garner wants to replace them with hydraulic doors that will better withstand wind.

He submitted two bids, with the low bid from S & S Powerlift Hydraulic Doors LLC of Spivey, for four 14-by-48 ft. doors at a total cost of $113,574.68.

Road and Bridge director Mark Griffith reported crews will soon arrive to paint road

lines. He plans to paint the old highway from Iola to Humboldt, and from Humboldt to the county line.

A machine used in the chip-and-seal process has gone down and crews borrowed one from Anderson County. However, with delays from storm damage and equipment repair means crews are unlikely to complete as many projects as planned, Griffith said.

The work must be completed before cold weather, which is likely to put an end to projects in a matter of weeks.

School: Parcel goes to Mental Health Center

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ty that expressed an interest, submitting a proposal for $40,000.

Nathan Fawson, executive director for SEKMHC, recently said plans to build a new facility along U.S. 54 were put on hold with the acquisition of Ashley Clinic in Chanute this summer. The mental center provides services to 14 school districts, including those at Iola Elementary School. Fager noted it could be helpful to have the SEKMHC facility next door.

The board approved the sale of the land by 5-1, with John Wilson voting against. Board president Jen Taylor recused herself from the discussion and vote, as she works for SEKMHC.

There’s a slight hitch in their plans, though.

Under a new law passed by the Kansas Legislature in the previous session, the district first must offer the property to the state.

The new law gives the state the “right of first refusal” on schoolowned facilities. Fager said an attorney recommended he contact the state about the sale, even though the property in question was

never used for school purposes. Fager said he does not anticipate any issues with the district’s plans. The property likely will need to be remediated. Similar to the IES site, it is located near the site of former zinc smelting and brick foundry plants about 100 years ago, which left lead in the soil.

FAGER then asked the board for permission to explore options to build a maintenance facility on other district-owned property.

He suggested a possible site might be near the tennis courts at Iola High School. Perhaps such a facility could include restrooms that could be utilized during tennis matches or middle school football games.

Board members Dan Willis and Tony Leavitt said they prefer to hold off on any such plans until the district completes the transfer of three former elementary schools. The district entered an agreement with BNIM, a Kansas City developer, to convert the three buildings into apartments. BNIM has another year to secure funding for the

Let me slow you down. Until we get our three elementaries taken care of, let’s not look at any more facilities.

— Dan Willis

project.

“Let me slow you down,” Willis said to Fager’s suggestion. “Until we get our three elementaries taken care of, let’s not look at any more facilities.”

Fager suggested next summer might be a better time, as BNIM is likely to have a better idea of their funding by then.

“I’d be a lot more amenable then,” Leavitt said.

Building trades

Expect to see exterior construction work ramp up at a house near Iola Middle School.

Don Settlemyer, building trades instructor at the Regional Rural Technical Center, gave board members an update on the project.

The house was moved from its previous home near the Bowlus Fine

Arts Center to a new location at the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Colborn Street about two years ago.

Remodel plans have been slow, as Settlemyer’s class has just an hour or two each day during the school year to work on the house. They’ve also had other projects to fill their time.

However, he expects crews will soon start building a front porch and back deck.

With that work, decisions will need to be made about the house’s color scheme. He wants to use composite decking material, which comes in specific colors. He also asked permission to seek bids for a traditional shingle roof, a metal roof or metal shingles.

Board member John Masterson suggested Settlemyer allow students to pick the colors.

Board member Robin Griffin-Lohman also suggested he contact a realtor to find out if a metal roof or metal shingles would increase the expected sale price.

Settlemyer said exterior work will include new windows and replacing some of the asbestos shingles with

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concrete shingles.

IN OTHER news, Griffin-Lohman recognized a recent breakfast with grandparents event at the elementary school. “I like seeing community engagement.”

Fager said new IMS assistant principal Scott Brady wants to organize “field trips” for middle school athletes. He wants to take the football and volleyball teams to watch games in Pittsburg between Pittsburg State University and Emporia State University, and wants to take the middle school cross country team to a high school meet at Rim Rock outside of Lawrence. He’s securing donations for the trips.

Fager also reported the district received money from the Patterson Family Foundation, which also paid for utility upgrades at the RRTC two years ago. This time, the foundation donated $150,000 for professional development and $91,000 for career and technical education programs. Some of the money is earmarked for an embroidery machine for Family and Consumer Sciences classes.

dried mosquito eggs from different parts of the world to ensure the specially bred mosquitoes it eventually releases will have similar qualities to local populations, including resistance to insecticides, said Edgard Boquín, one of the Honduras project leaders working for Doctors Without Borders.

The dried eggs are placed in water with powdered food. Once they hatch, they are allowed to breed with the “mother colony” — a lineage that carries Wolbachia and is made up of more females than males.

A constant buzz fills the room where the insects mate in cube-shaped cages made of mosquito nets. Caretakers ensure they have the best diet: Males get sugared water, while females “bite” into pouches of human blood kept at 97 degrees.

“We have the perfect conditions,” the factory’s coordinator, Marlene Salazar, said.

Opinion

Fans content to look the other way

Maybe the beginning of a new football season isn’t the best time to consider the damage that football does to players’ bodies. In fact, if you’d rather not think about it, turn the page. Otherwise, consider this:

The American football player’s stock-in-trade is his body, and every game demands that players be willing to sacrifice a part — great or small — of their physical and mental capital. Football is an inherently violent sport; those unwilling to risk their health won’t last long in the modern game.

In short, football’s violence consumes its players. And just as players must be willing to sacrifice themselves for the game, so its many fans must be willing to sacrifice the players who make the game possible.

My guess is that the average fan doesn’t spend much time thinking about the toll football takes on its players. Of course, games are paused when a player can’t leave the field under his own power. Teams drop to a knee and spectators murmur worriedly while trainers determine the severity of the injury.

An injured player who gives the crowd a thumbs up as he is carted off the field garners a great cheer from the fans, reflecting either their gratitude or their relief at the illusion that everything is fine and the game can go on. Which it soon does.

But most of football’s damage is invisible to the fan in the stands. It occurs among the thousands of unseen players who sustain injuries of various severities, many of which will affect them for their lifetimes. Some

John Crisp Tribune News Service

players are paralyzed and a few die every year. These stories don’t linger on the sports pages. And in recent decades we’ve learned about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the unsurprising consequence of hard blows to players’ fragile brains or of repetitive sub-concussive blows. Some evidence indicates a staggering prevalence of CTE in professional football players, which results in life-devastating effects long after the fans have moved on to other players. We rationalize the damage that football does to its players in various ways: They choose to play the game. They’re well paid. They love football.

But these dubious pretexts ignore our complicity in the creation of the incentives that motivate football players to risk their lives and health, and they dodge the issue of whether the players’ willing participation in the game absolves us of the damage they suffer.

In fact, football requires from its fans considerable denial about the harm the game does to its players.

That’s why Matthew Walther’s column in the New York Times last week was a refreshing dose of candor. Walther argues against a new National Football League rule that permits any

player to fair catch a kickoff between the goal line and the 25-yard line. The hope is that the rule will result in fewer kickoff runbacks and therefore less damage to players during one of football’s most dangerous plays.

Walther calls this “a terrible idea” that threatens “the ethos of blue-collar toughness that once defined this great game.” He argues the virtues of the kickoff and minimizes the dangers it presents for players. He agrees with Cardinals fullback Ron Wolfley that football “by definition cannot be safe.”

Walther evokes “our classical inheritance,” picturing football as “stylized warfare between city-states” and endorsing its “encouragement of a quasi-pagan fatalism in the face of defeat.” He says that Homer “captured the spirit of the N.F.L. when he dismissed mortality as beneath the concern of the great-souled.”

Homer said: “Even as are the generations of leaves, such are those also of men. As for the leaves, the wind scattereth some upon the earth.”

I’m not persuaded by Walther’s overwrought evocation of the classic tradition — after all, football is just a game — but I appreciate his honesty. Homer seems to be saying that we humans are all just leaves; eventually we’ll all fall off the tree. If some leaves are scattered by the wind more quickly than others, so what?

One wonders if this casual dismissal of the value to each individual life is too fatalistic. But we’ll think about that after the game. Or not.

Childhood poverty will tank the economy

At the end of this month, states are expected to run through the last of $24 billion in additional federal funding for child care, implemented as part of the overall pandemic relief efforts. We’ll all be worse off for it. Rarely has a single policy choice managed to advance so many worthwhile goals at once, nor does its expiration threaten so many.

Child care keeps the economy running. We don’t need fancy statistical modeling to explain that the economy (and our continued survival as a species) depends on people continuing to have children, and already there are alarm bells ringing from a long-term decline in U.S. births. It also, of course, depends on moms and dads being able to enter and remain in the workforce.

Yet the unavailability and extremely high cost of available child care means people either don’t have children — bad for them and bad for the economy — or have them and then drop out of the workforce to take care of them — bad for them and bad for the economy.

While there’s a lot of hand-wringing about young

people’s supposed disinterest in having kids, research has established the obvious, that people don’t necessarily want fewer kids than they have in the past few decades, but the logistical and financial challenges seem increasingly insurmountable. A huge part of that is child care, the costs of which have risen almost double the inflation rate over the past year. That landscape is tough enough as is, but the federal funding was a lifeline. Now, according to a recent report by The Century Foundation, its expiration could lead to the closure of 70,000 child

care programs nationwide and 3.2 million children losing out on their current child care spots. The shuttering of these centers will alone mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, before you even consider what it will mean for the millions of parents whose only feasible way to participate in the workforce will evaporate practically overnight. All in all, the think tank estimates families will lose out on a cumulative $9 billion in earnings per year. This is not about “free money” or whatever other inane attack on public funding for the public good. Every

A look back in t me. A look back in t me.

serious study on this matter has concluded that it carries significant return on investment, producing increased economic activity and saving on other costs; the main disagreements are around just what multiple we get back of every dollar spent.

So here we have a funding stream that creates new jobs, preserves existing jobs, keeps women in particular in the workforce, grows the economy, incentivizes people to start families as birth rates decline and generally produces excellent returns, and our decision is to get rid of it right as surprisingly strong post-pandemic economy begins to cool. Why? There really are no rational economic reasons to do so, and so we must once again look to politics.

Some GOP members of Congress certainly don’t see the pushing of women out of the workforce as a downside, and others are simply committed to cutting anything that looks like a social program, regardless of merit. Yet the party that so claims the mantle of pro-family, they should be made to explain such an anti-family position.

— New York Daily News

30 Years Ago September 1993

Oma Lautenschlager of Iola has made 84 coats for flood victims in Halstead. She finished the huge project this week.

*****

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks is asking residents of Allen County to submit suggestions for the name of the 50-mile recreation trail from Ottawa to Iola.

*****

The USD 257 Board of Education approved a lease agreement with the City of Iola for the district’s use of the football stadium and community building in Everett Shepherd Park. The district will pay the city $300 a month for 10 years to use the facilities.

*****

Iola Commissioners voted to change the name of Everett Shepherd Park to Riverside Park, a name it carried for a century before it was changed in 1975.

Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson writhes on the turf after he was hurt against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 29, 2022. He suffered a lacerated kidney. (MONICA HERNDON/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS)

Teacher Elidia Villagomez works with 2- and 3-year-olds in Chicago. The nonprofit serves more than 650 children. (VASHON JORDAN JR./CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS)

Humboldt: City Council hears street updates

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work required to overhaul the city’s water distribution system. The $13 million project is being financed by a loan through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“This is the year of engineering,” Cole Herder, city administrator, said.

Herder also mentioned news of the new Bilateral Infrastructure Law that will distribute an estimated $1.2 billion across the next 10 years and that he has scheduled a meeting with Thrive Allen County to discuss whether the city qualifies to tap those funds.

A $592,763 project, including a recent $21,695 change order, to repair several streets throughout town is ongoing. The extensive reclamation work requires several steps including a 20day wait period before a second layer of chip and seal can be applied.

Streets affected in-

clude 12th, Charles, Second and Pecan. Herder went into a detailed discussion about some hiccoughs with the project, including the discovery of a concrete base below two blocks of Pecan Street between Ninth and 11th Streets, but said the issue had been resolved

Wrong Mentzer

and things remain on track.

The city is also preparing streets to be chip and sealed with the county’s help, but a hitch in the delivery of oil may delay things, Herder said.

The Oct. 9 Humboldt City Council meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

A photo in Wednesday’s Register misidentified Miles Mentzer as his brother Nathan during a celebration of Allen Community College’s 100th birthday. We regret the error.

Sports Daily B

Crest cruises in Three Rivers play

PLEASANTON — The Crest Lady Lancers opened Three Rivers League play by winning two of three matches at Pleasanton Tuesday night.

The Lady Lancers (11-5) defeated Pleasanton and Northeast Arma and fell to Jayhawk-Linn.

“Our team’s serve receive passing numbers were not the best, but we will take the wins,” Crest head coach Abigail Hermreck said. “Jayhawk passed well and is pretty solid all the way around. We competed, but we’re definitely disappointed with the loss. We will continue to focus on the fundamentals, working together as a team, and our mental toughness.”

Crest took down Pleasanton, 25-19 and 25-14.

Senior Kayla Hemreck led Crest with a teamhigh 29 kills and record-

See CREST | Page B3

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Mustangs swept at Burlington

tangs with a team-high 14 kills while Rio Lohman had nine kills. Alana Mader had two aces while Kaysin Crusinbery added 25 assists and Elza Clift had 18 digs.

Iola earned the win in the second set, 25-19. The Mustangs jumped out to a big 14-3 lead before taking a 20-12 advantage. Prairie View brought the set within a 22-16 margin before Iola pulled away for the 25-19 victory.

“Normally we’re pretty strong passers and then we rely on a couple hitters to put the ball down and help us get going,” Holman said. “That second set we got some good momentum and let that carry us.”

BURLINGTON — The Mustangs’ mood matched Tuesday’s rainy skies after they came away on the losing end of their volleyball matches at Burlington.

The Mustangs (6-6) lost to Prairie View in three sets as well as to Burlington in two

sets.

Iola v Prairie View

Iola’s scores against Prairie View were 25-18, 25-19 and 2518.

The Mustangs showed life early in the first set, jumping out to a 10-5 lead before the Buffalo stormed back to take an 11-10 lead. From there, Prairie View quickly extended

their lead to 14-11 to a 25-18 victory. The Mustangs scored six straight at one point.

“What hurts us most are unforced errors. We can’t make back-to-back errors,” said Iola head coach Amanda Holman. “When things don’t go our way, we shut down. We have the talent, we just have to be more mentally tough.”

Reese Curry led the Mus-

The Mustangs dropped the third set, 25-18. Mader led Iola

Correction

In Tuesday’s Register, our article on Iola’s home volleyball invitational was incorrect. Iola did not win; Anderson County did. We apologize for the error.

Lady Cubs take first as team at Caney Valley

By QUINN BURKITT

The Iola Register

CANEY VALLEY — Humboldt High School’s girls cross country team earned first place as a team at Caney Valley Tuesday. Iola came in second place as a team.

The high school runners ran a 1.5-mile course and the middle schoolers a one-mile course.

Humboldt High’s McKenna Jones and Anna Heisler finished first and second respectively in the girls 1.5 mile race. Jones’ time was 10 minutes, 49 seconds and Heisler’s, 11:03. Iola’s Lynsie Fehr was third with a time of 11:19.

Mustangs Cole Moyer and Keegan Hill placed in the top five of the boys varsity race. Moyer came in second with a time of 8 minutes, 23 seconds; Hill’s time was 9 minutes.

The top time for the race was 8:17.

Mustang Mosiah Fawson came in second place in the

Humboldt’s Tori Melendez, No. 252, runs at Anderson

middle school boys race with a time of 6:04

“This is always a fun course and kids really enjoy the different distances,”

said Humboldt head coach Eric Carlson. “It allows us to work on speed for a week and gives us a break from the long distances we typical-

ly run. I knew our top three boys, Kreed, Colden, and Brigg would run fast and aggressively.”

Iola and Humboldt place-

ments for the girls 1.5-mile run were: 1. McKenna Jones, Humboldt, 10:49; 2. Anna Heisler, Humboldt, 11:03;

4. Lynsie Fehr, Iola, 11:19; 5. Mahalie Genoble, Iola, 11:29;

7. Tori Melendez, Humboldt, 11:33; 8. Mallory Sinclair, Humboldt, 11:44.18; 10. Danica Modlin, Humboldt, 12:07;

12. Sophia Barlow, Humboldt, 12:09; 15. Jo Ellison, Humboldt, 13:16. Iola and Humboldt placements for the boys 1.5-mile race were: 2. Cole Moyer, Iola, 8:23; 4. Kreed Jones, Humboldt, 8:50; 5. Keegan Hill, Iola, 9:00; 6. Colden Cook. Humboldt, 9:06; 9. Brigg Shannon, Humboldt, 9:17; 11. Brennen Coffield, Iola, 9:23; 15. Caden Coltrane, Iola, 9:48; 17. Maxtyn Mueller, Humboldt, 9:51.34; 20. Kaiden Vega, Iola, 9:54; 21. Thatcher Mueller, Humboldt, 9:58; 22. Jack Works, Humboldt, 9:59; 24. Landon Bauer, Humboldt, 10:11; 31. Nathan Swogar, Humboldt, 10:59; 32. Josh Wanker, Iola,

See XC | Page B3

Humboldt High volleyball beats Baxter Springs, Cherryvale

By QUINN BURKITT The Iola Register

BAXTER SPRINGS — The Humboldt High volleyball team ran the table at Baxter Springs Tuesday, winning both of their matchups.

The Lady Cubs (6-5) picked up wins over Baxter Springs in two sets before taking down Cherryvale in three.

Humboldt @ Baxter Springs

Humboldt defeated Baxter Springs, 25-10 and 25-9.

Kenisyn Hottenstein, Kinley Tucker and Skylar Hottenstein each had a team-high three aces. Shelby Shaughnessy and Tucker each went for a 100% serving rate.

“I thought we came out and played a complete game against Baxter and really dominated from the service

line,” Humboldt head coach Terry Meadows said. “It was nice to see us stay focused when we were not getting a lot of balls sent back over to us.”

Shaughnessy led the Lady Cubs offensively with a team-high six kills while Chanlynn Wrestler and Kenisyn Hottenstein each had four. Defensively, Laney Hull and Ricklyn Hillmon each

had a team-high two blocks. Shaughnessy registered a team-high nine digs while Cassidy Friend and S. Hottenstein each had seven and Covey had four.

Humboldt v Cherryvale

The Lady Cubs took down Cherryvale, 22-25, 25-12 and 25-22.

Skylar Hottenstein and Tucker each led Humboldt with three aces. Offen-

sively, Shaughnessy had a team-high 13 kills while Hull went for five kills and Covey had four kills. Skylar Hottenstein led Humboldt with a .333 hitting percentage. “Against Cherryvale it was much harder competition,” said Meadows. “I was proud of the girls for fighting back after dropping the first set.

See HHS | Page B3

Iola’s Jackie Fager goes for a hit against Burlington Tuesday. REGISTER/QUINN BURKITT By QUINN BURKITT The Iola Register See IOLA | Page B3

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A look at USB-C, the future of charging sockets

LONDON (AP) — Bye, Lightning cable. Hello, USB-C.

Apple is ditching its in-house iPhone charging plug and falling in line with the rest of the tech industry by adopting a more widely used connection standard. A big part of the reason is a European Union common charging rule that’s coming soon for the 27-nation bloc.

Here’s a look at the USB-C plug and what it means for consumers: WHAT IS USB-C AND HOW CAN I TELL IT APART FROM OTHER PLUGS?

The first part of the acronym stands for Universal Serial Bus, and it replaces earlier versions of the USB cables used on everything from printers and hard drives to computer mice and Kindle readers.

The USB-C plug comes in a different shape than its predecessors — an elongated oval. It’s also

symmetrical and reversible, which eliminates one of the common gripes about previous versions like the rectangular USB-A connectors because there’s no wrong way to plug it in.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT USB-C?

USB-C cables can carry more power so laptops can be charged faster, and they enable faster data transfer speeds, allowing a big trove of files to be copied from a computer to an external hard drive. At the same time, they can pump out a video signal to a monitor and supply power to connected accessories.

The USB-C connector also is designed to be future-proof. Its shape won’t change but newer versions — and the devices they connect to — will come with upgraded capabilities. That means users will have to beware because older devices might not be able to support the latest specs.

It’s also slimmer than boxy USB-A plugs, making them a better fit for newer devices that keep getting smaller.

WHY IS APPLE USING IT?

Apple has long championed its proprietary Lightning connector for iPhones even though pretty much no one else used it. It resisted the EU’s common charging push, citing worries that it would limit innovation and end up hurting consumers.

Apple held out even as others started adding USB-C connectors into their devices. But after the EU proposal won a key approval last year, the U.S. tech giant gave in and didn’t look back.

A company executive unveiling the latest iPhone on Tuesday didn’t even mention the Lightning cable as she introduced its replacement.

“USB-C has become a universally accepted standard so we’re bring-

ing USB-C to iPhone 15,” said Kaiann Drance, vice president of iPhone product marketing. She said USB-C has “been built into Apple products for years” and can now be used on MacBooks, iPads, iPhones and AirPods.

WHAT ROLE DID EUROPE PLAY?

Apple’s shift is an example of how European Union regulations often end up rippling around the world — what’s known as the “Brussels effect” — as companies decide it’s easier to comply than make different products for different regions.

The EU spent more than a decade cajoling the tech industry into adopting a common charging standard. The push to impose rules for a uniform cable are part of the bloc’s wider effort to make products sold in the EU more sustainable and cut down on electronic waste.

Proessional players renew call for natural grass fields

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

(AP) — The NFL Players Association wants the league to switch all its fields to natural grass, calling it “the easiest decision the NFL can make.”

Executive director Lloyd Howell issued a statement Wednesday morning saying NFL players “overwhelmingly prefer it and the data is clear that grass is simply safer than artificial turf.” Howell said the issue “has been near the top of the players’ list during my team visits and one I have raised with the NFL.”

The players’ union called for the change less than 48 hours after a season-ending injury to four-time NFL MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon in his debut with the New York Jets on Monday night.

Howell said in his statement they know there is an investment to making such a change. But he said there’s a bigger cost to

the NFL if the league keeps losing its best players to “unnecessary injuries.” He noted the NFL flips surfaces to grass for World Cup or soccer exhibitions.

“But artificial surfaces are acceptable for our own players,” Howell said. “This is worth the investment and it simply needs to change now.”

The union has asked for all grass fields for years. The NFLPA in April pointed to studies from 2012-22 that it says show a significant increase in non-contact injuries on artificial surfaces vs. grass fields. The NFL has defended the use of artificial turf, pointing to 2021 when the numbers for injuries on both surfaces were close.

Rodgers argued for grass all over the league last November while with the Green Bay Packers. He said some artificial surfaces are softer, creating more wobble when the foot hits the ground.

HHS: Volleyball

Continued from B1

We stayed in it and found a way to win.”

Defensively, Shaughnessy and Kenisyn Hottenstein each recorded two blocks while Skylar Hottenstein had a team-high 20

digs and Tucker and Shaughnessy each had nine digs. Friend and Kenisyn Hottenstein each had four digs. Humboldt hosts an invitational Saturday at 9 a.m.

“It’s that wobble that can cause some of these non-contact knee injuries that we’ve seen,” Rodgers said at the time. “I’m not sure if that’s the standard that’s set for that type of surface or it’s the installation of that surface, but a lot of that could be just done away with if we had grass in every stadium.”

Agent Drew Rosenhaus echoed the NFLPA’s demand on social media Wednesday,

sharing the union’s post. “It’s a no brainer,” Rosenhaus wrote. “If the Owners care about their players & want to win, then they will make the switch! I encourage the leaders at the NFL to push for this change. It’s for the good of the players & the game itself.”

A new artificial surface was installed this year at MetLife Stadium. Jets coach Robert Saleh said Tuesday that

he didn’t see the surface as being an issue in Rodgers’ injury.

The 39-year-old quarterback got hurt when he was taken down by Bills defender Leonard Floyd.

“If it was a non-contact injury, then I think that would be something to discuss, obviously,” Saleh said. “But that was kind of forceable, I think that was trauma induced. I do know the players prefer grass and there is a lot

XC: Humboldt, Iola in Caney

Continued from B1

11:06; 36. Cooper Gillespie, Humboldt, 12:54; 41. Layne Ellison, Humboldt, 13:42. Iola and Humboldt placings in the middle school girls race were:

11. Eliana Higginbotham, Iola, 8:02; 10. Aspen Wimsett, Humboldt,

7:59; 12. Brecken Bycroft, Iola, 8:12; 14. Sydney Ebberts, Iola, 10:33. IOLA and Humboldt placings in the middle school boys race were:

2. Mosiah Fawson, Iola, 6:04; 4. Adam Klubek, Iola, 6:23; 10. Owen Works, Humboldt, 6:15;

Iola: Falls to Prairie View, Burlington

Continued from B1

with a team-high five points while Lily Lohman added four.

Iola @ Burlington Burlington made quick work of Iola, winning in two straight sets, 25-16 and 25-22.

Jelinek and Mader each led Iola in the first set with a team-high four points. The Mus-

tangs couldn’t get the ball rolling and were overwhelmed when Burlington enjoyed a seven-point streak.

Reese Curry and Mader of the Mustangs each scored a team-high five kills in the second set.

Lohman had four kills while Clift had 18 digs.

Iola travels to Wellsville Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Crest: Opens Three Rivers play at Pleasanton

Continued from B1

recorded an 83% serve receive passing rate. She also had 17 assists, 11 digs, one block and five aces.

Brooklyn Jones had 11 kills, one assist, 18 digs and went eight-for-10 from the serving line.

Cursten Allen came

off the bench and had three digs with one assist.

Aylee Beckmon led the Lady Lancers with a team-high 20 digs. She also had three kills and went 15-for-18 with three aces from the serving line.

Kinley Edgerton led

the team with 24 assists, while also recording 10 kills and 19 digs.

Kaelin Nilges had eight digs, four kills and led the team in serving, going 30-for-31 with four ace serves.

Hanna Schmidt registered one dig and two kills.

Crest matches up against Yates Center, Coffeyville, Wichita Heights and Central Heights at the Humboldt Invitational on Saturday at 9 a.m.

14. Carter Collins, Humboldt, 7:12; 15. Konner Morrison, Iola, 7:18; 18. Cameron Palmer, Iola, 7:31. Humboldt hosts its annual cross country meet next Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. Iola travels to Rim Rock in Lawrence for an annual meet on Saturday, Sept. 23.

invested in those young men.”

The Tennessee Titans will debut the NFL’s newest artificial surface Sunday in their home opener against the Los Angeles Chargers after trying, and struggling, to grow grass in Nashville for 24 seasons. The Titans regularly replaced sod

See NFLPA | Page B4

Iola Mustangs REGISTER/QUINN BURKITT

A detail of the official National Football League NFL logo at MetLife Field in New Jersey. NICK LAHAM/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Oversight panel finds no single factor in horse deaths at Churchill Downs

By GARY B. GRAVES The Associated Press

Horse racing’s federally created oversight panel found no single cause of death among 12 horses at Churchill Downs this spring, but recommends further action and analysis to mitigate risk at the home of the Kentucky Derby, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) report also suggested improved veterinary screening and the creation of a blue-ribbon committee to study synthetic surface options throughout the sport.

The report comes two days before the start of Churchill Downs’ fall September meet and follows the June 7 suspension of racing to conduct an internal safety review. The spring meet was shifted to Ellis Park in western Kentucky.

That move came in the aftermath of seven horse deaths in the days leading up to the 149th Derby on May 6 — including two on the undercard — and five more in the weeks afterward. HISA immediately convened an emergency summit and recommended pausing the meet after consulting industry experts, veterinarians and trainers.

Though Tuesday’s re-

port determined there was no single factor in any of the areas, HISA

CEO Lisa Lazarus said on a subsequent Zoom call the investigation revealed a multitude of factors.

“Because of that, we need a multifaceted and a multipronged response,” said Lazarus, adding that “horses dying is not okay.”

“We have a really significant and real opportunity to tackle all of those factors and make real progress. If you look historically and kind of where we’ve been and where we are now. We have been making progress repeatedly over the years, but we just need to do better and make more progress faster.”

Royals beat White Sox, but barely

CHICAGO (AP) —

Maikel García hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning after Kansas City wasted a nine-run lead, and the Royals hung on to beat the Chicago White Sox 11-10 on Tuesday night for a doubleheader split.

Chicago took the opener 6-2 as Dylan Cease won consecutive decisions for just the third time and the White Sox ended a strange run of losses when their pitchers struck out 14 or more — Chicago had been 0-11 this year.

manager Matt Quatraro said. “For them to bounce back and score again … that’s a lot for them to do.”

Logan Porter capped a four-run first inning in the second game with an RBI single, Michael Massey hit a threerun homer in a fourrun second and Salvador Perez hit his second RBI single of the game in the third as the Royals built a 9-0 lead.

Among the findings in HISA’s report:

— An independent review by track surface expert Dennis Moore found no correlation between Churchill Downs’ racetrack surface and the fatal injuries some horse sustained. Moore’s analysis determined no “major issue” in its makeup, condition or maintenance and said the metrics were consistent with previous years. Moore recommended screening the existing cushion and any new material using a slot desk screen of less than a quarter inch to filter items such as rocks.

Churchill Downs has asked HISA to conduct a compliance review after its 2023 fall meet.

NFLPA: Calls for natural grass

Continued from B3

juries.

Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill and two-time All-Pro safety Kevin Byard both made clear they prefer grass. The Titans played one preseason game on the new surface, and Tennessee beat Virginia on Sept. 2 playing on the new turf.

Mike Vrabel, the Titans’ coach who played 14 NFL seasons, said the new field was definitely different and felt amazing.

“From a temperature standpoint, fantastic product to be able to play games here when it’s 100 degrees and not have the field be 130,” Vrabel said.

In the college game

at Nissan Stadium, Virginia nose tackle Olasunkonmi Agunloye was carted off at the end of the first quarter after slipping as he celebrated on his way to the sideline.

Volunteers wide receiver Bru McCoy said the surface at Nissan

Stadium was bouncy and required some adjustment. But he said he felt fast.

“At times, it felt like it had give,” McCoy said. “At times, it felt like you could really put your foot in the ground. No issues with it.”

— There were no discernible patterns in the locations where horses died or were injured. The injuries occurred at several locations on Churchill Downs’ dirt and turf surfaces.

— Necropsies revealed no single cause or identifiable pattern of the horses, and none tested positive for banned substances.

— HISA has not consistently received fatality notices, necropsy reports or timely injuries from many jurisdictions including Kentucky, as required by organization rules. It urged improvement and inclusion of reviews of training injuries.

HISA’s investigation revealed an assortment of injuries among the deceased horses but found that four fractures occurred while racing on the dirt track and two others on the turf. There were two cases each of exercise-related sudden death and soft-tissue injuries while racing on dirt.

Veterinarian Susan Stover’s analysis of high-speed exercise acknowledged increased injury risk from repetitive overuse injuries.

Kansas City, a major league-worst 45-101, has lost at least 100 games for the third time in six seasons and with 16 games left could break the team record of 106, set in 2005. The Royals had not lost when leading by nine runs since a 15-13 defeat to Cleveland on Aug. 23, 2006, when Kansas City led 10-1 after the first inning.

“Give our guys credit. When they tied it up there, that’s a really demoralizing inning,” Kansas City

Eloy Jiménez started Chicago’s comeback with a fifth-inning homer against Jordan Lyles, and Gavin Sheets hit a three-run double off Taylor Clarke (3-5) in an eight-run sixth, then tied the score 9-9 when he scored on Lenyn Sosa’s sacrifice fly.

“It was a really good inning for us,” Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. “But those are the games we’ve got to close out.” García put the Royals back in front 10-9 with his single off Deivi García (0-1), who made his White

See ROYALS | Page B6

Horses competing in the sixth race ahead of the 149th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. MICHEAL REAVES/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Fight over traditions could start new tradition

Dear Carolyn: My fiancée and I can’t agree on how to spend Christmas as a couple. She has one sister, who is single, and they were raised by a single mom after the death of their father. For Christmas, their mother pays for a vacation somewhere — places I have no interest in going, like all-inclusive resorts. If I join them, we would need our own room, either an added expense for their mom or our entire vacation budget for a trip I don’t want to go on. My fiancée also hates these resorts but doesn’t want to rock the boat.

There are also uncomfortable family dynamics at play. They are tightknit but bicker and snap at each other, and the sister also resents me because it’s been just the three of them for decades and I am intruding.

Meanwhile, I come from a huge and happy extended family. We very rarely have any arguing or cattiness. Christmas is the only time we can all be together.

My fiancée loves my family but is (rightfully) devoted to hers. She wants to alternate holidays. I don’t want to miss my own family holidays. To my thinking, four adults can easily make up Christmas at a later time, whereas a family of 50 cannot. She wants to be with her family on Christmas Day. I have invited hers to join mine, but the sister is not interested.

I have also suggested separate Christmases with our families of origin, but she wants us to celebrate as our

own family unit. I won’t sacrifice my fun family time for her tense, expensive family time.

Can you see a way to resolve this?

— Clueless

From Whoville Clueless From Whoville: I would love to help figure a way, straight from my nerdy soul. Such an interesting emotional word problem.

But. I can’t help — or at least shouldn’t, for your own good. Testing their ability to resolve issues like this is exactly how engaged couples find out whether marrying each other is a good idea. That is, assuming they have sense and strength not to push it off to some fictional, easier “later.”

See this through now, because you and your fiancée will hit some version of the same wall for the rest of your time together.

Because you are a pragmatist, and she is a romantic.

You: can’t imagine missing out on 50 people you love only to spend money you don’t have on travel to places you don’t like so you can be with people who don’t want you there, just because a calendar, which you don’t acknowledge as a legitimate authority, says you have to choose one or the other. (Fellow pragmatist here, full disclosure.) She: will cherish trips she doesn’t enjoy because the tradition of

doing so means more to her than her comfort, and she will go on the exact day because that is the tradition’s taproot, and she will want you there, grudgingly or not, welcome or not, because being with her chosen life partner is as much the point as upholding the tradition in the first place. The world is better for both types. Truly. But tempting as it is to declare that your marriage will be the better, too, and to wrangle a system where each of you sacrifices just enough, that would be superficial. What a marriage that isn’t grindingly miserable wants instead is something more broadly applicable:

1. Ungrudging acceptance, from both of you, that you see the world differently. Full stop.

2. Confidence that these different priorities will assert themselves continuously. In where you live, whom you see, what you plan, where you stay, how you work, what you spend, whether and how you rear children.

3. A healthy respect for the limits of compromise. It works for couples only when it serves both parties’ values. Take the alternateholidays example: To sacrifice 50 percent of your rare family time for no reason that you find rational or meaningful goes against your core beliefs. Right? So, not a viable compromise.

4. Honesty about not being each other’s uncontested top priority. If you were, then simplistic would work: You accept some all-inclusive suffering for her, she

GOING ON VACATION?

Want

accepts some separateholiday suffering for you, done.

5. Integrity. No pretending to be each other’s top priority because engaged people “should” be. Be true to yourself within any partnership: You can still want a lifetime with her and still not be willing to give up X to fulfill her vision of Y. Show each other your lines, decide whether you can live well within them, then own it.

6. Flexibility. These traditions began somewhere. They will end, too. Others will form.

7. No open arguments. Marriages can accommodate vast differences, but not when each difference spawns a new recurring argument. If she refuses to miss an All-Inclusive Christmas™, then resolve to go with her always, never, every fourth year, whatever, but Do Not, either of you, please, resolve to apply pressure till the other caves. (Everyone you know thanks you for that in advance.)

Now go work together, or accept you won’t.

ZITS

by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

BEETLE BAILEY by Mort Walker

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE by Chris Browne

BLONDIE by Young and Drake

MARVIN by Tom Armstrong

HI AND

by Chance Browne

MUTTS by Patrick McDonell

Big 12 aims for 3-game sweep of SEC teams

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

(AP) — You can bet the Southeastern Conference is counting the days until Texas is playing with them rather than against them.

In the first of three matchups between the heaviest of heavyweight conferences and the Big 12 spanning two weeks, the then-No. 11 Longhorns — soon to be jumping to the SEC — did something last

Saturday that only eight teams had done in 112 tries spanning more than 16 seasons: They beat then-No. 3 Alabama and coach Nick Saban at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Now, the once-inperil Big 12 could sweep the SEC when No. 15 Kansas State visits old conference rival Missouri on Saturday and newcomer BYU heads to Arkansas. The Wild-

cats were 4 1/2-point favorites as of Tuesday, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, while the Cougars were 8 1/2-point underdogs as they prepared to face the Razorbacks.

“There’s a lot of energy, a lot of excitement with our fans and our players. I’m excited about it, too,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said this week. “We know that we have a

Royals: Beat White Sox, 11-10

Continued from B4

Sox debut after he was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees. Bobby Witt Jr. added a sacrifice fly in the ninth against Michael Kopech.

“We knew that we needed to get to their bullpen and were successful at doing that,” García said through a translator after ending an 0-for-20 skid.

Luis Robert hit into a run-scoring forceout in the ninth against Carlos Hernández, who got his fourth save in nine chances when Jiménez hit into a game-ending forceout.

White Sox starter Touki Toussaint gave up eight runs, matching a career high, and six hits while throwing 46 pitches and getting just three outs. Lyles, whose 16 losses top the major leagues, allowed seven runs and seven hits in five innings.

Cease (7-7) allowed one run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and one walk. Bryan Shaw struck out three over 1 2/3 innings, Lane Ramsey one and Gregory Santos two in a perfect ninth for his fifth save in nine chances.

“Today was solid,” Cease said. “I thought I commanded the ball well and mixed it up good and the defense and offense played well.”

Cease’s only other consecutive winning decisions this year were April 5 and 10, and May 23 and July 16 — with eight no-decisions in between.

Chicago took a 5-0 lead in the first against Brady Singer (8-11), who dropped to 0-3 in his last four starts. Jiménez and Yoán Moncada hit RBI singles, Sheets had a two-run single and Elvis Andrus ground-

ed into a run-scoring forceout.

“I just struggled there in the first,” Singer said. “Command was pretty bad. Quite a bit of damage there.”

Witt was 3 for 3, his 15th game this year of three or more hits for the Royals. Edward Olivares had an RBI double in the fourth and a run-scoring single in the sixth.

Andrus added an RBI single.

SOLID DEBUT

Logan Porter, a 28-year-old catcher, made his major league debut for the Royals and went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. The ball from his first hit was secured by first base coach Damon Hollins and will probably end up in his man cave, he said.

“I thought the nerves were going to be a little bit higher,” Porter said after a dousing from his teammates and a visit with a dozen friends and family. “I was very comfortable and very confident, which was awesome.”

Porter was a teen clubhouse attendant at the Royals’ spring training facility Phoenix and worked as a bullpen catcher in the organization before getting the call from Triple-A Omaha on Monday. His wife and parents were among the crew that made the trip to Chicago.

TRAINER’S ROOM Royals: LHP Austin Cox has a torn left ACL and a damaged MCL, and will need surgery.

... C Freddy Fermin had season-ending surgery Tuesday on his left middle finger. White Sox: Robert appeared to foul a ball off his left knee in the fourth of the second game but continued the at-bat after a visit from an athletic train-

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er. … Jiménez will be used only as a designated hitter in the final days of the season, manager Pedro Grifol said. Sheets, Trayce Thompson and Zach Remillard will get opportunities to start in right field.

UP NEXT Royals rookie Steven Cruz (0-0, 7.20 ERA) makes his first career start against fellow RHP Mike Clevinger (77, 3.64) in Wednesday night’s series finale.

conference to play for, a conference to represent.”

The Big 12 has been ransacked twice by the SEC over the years. The first came with the departure of the Tigers and Texas A&M more than a decade ago, and now with the Longhorns set to join the SEC along with Oklahoma beginning next

season. At one point, after Nebraska left for the Big Ten and No. 18 Colorado for the Pac-12, some thought the Big 12 was on life support. The league stabilized under Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, though. BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston have joined this year, and four more are due

to arrive next year with Colorado returning alongside No. 12 Utah, Arizona and Arizona State. Before that, they can make a statement against the SEC, which won four of six meetings between the leagues last year. One of the losses was Kansas State blowing out Missouri.