Wednesday, June 17, 2020
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Thrive tapped to oversee grant funds By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
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Trump signs order on police reforms WASHINGTON (AP) — Following weeks of national protests since the death of George Floyd, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices. But he made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black men and women. Trump met privately with the families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police before his Rose Garden signing ceremony and said he grieved for the lives lost and families devastated. But then he quickly shifted his tone and devoted most of his public remarks to a need See POLICE | Page A6
After being awarded a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the Kansas Department of Commerce for $132,000, commissioners selected Thrive Allen County to be the grant’s administrator. The selection came during a public hearing wherein commissioners considered bids from Thrive, Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission and others. Thrive offered to administer the grant at a cost not to exceed $10,000. “I would prefer to pick a local entity,” said Commissioner Jerry Daniels, and the sentiment seemed unanimous among the entire commission. Thrive had already been heavily involved in the grant See THRIVE | Page A3
Thrive Allen County Chief Executive Officer Lisse Regehr and Allen County Commissioner Jerry Daniels look over details for administering the CDBG-CV grant recently awarded to the county. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG
Deadline nears for ‘Restart Kansas’ loan applications By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Allen County business owners adversely affected by the COVID-19 shutdown can apply for “Restart Kansas” loans, through the Allen County Cole Herder E-Community program. Businesses can borrow up to $20,000 in emergency assistance to maintain or restart
their businesses due to the impact of the coronavirus, explained Humboldt City Administrator Cole Herder, one of the local administrators of the E-Community program. The loans would be repaid over the next 48 months, at 2% interest, with payments
deferred for the first four months. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Monday, although borrowers can ask for an extension by contacting Herder at cole.herder@humboldtkansas.org or 620-473-3232. Local businesses are eligible for the Restart Kansas funding because Allen County is part of the E-Community network. The E-Community Program is a part of NetWork Kansas, a team of entrepreneurs and private and public
A look at how seized tribal lands funded scores of universities By STEPHAN BISAHA The Associated Press
COUNCIL GROVE — Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and 30 other schools owe at least part of their existence to land taken from Kansas’ indigenous people. In the 1800s, the U.S. government gave states that land in the interest of building land-grant universities. Then, the schools would reinvest the money they got from selling the land — which was mostly in the Midwest, including 920,000 acres in Kansas. A recent analysis by High Country News shows tribes who were forced off of their land were paid less than 2% of what the states raised from selling that same land. “It’s almost like a 19th century form of money laundering,” said Jim Leiker, a professor of history at Johnson County Community College. Before 1825, the Kanza tribe called 20 million acres in Kansas home. By the time President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Morrill Act in 1862, they’d been forced to live on Vol. 122, No. 162 Iola, KS 75 Cents
Pauline Sharp shows a map of Kanza land in the 1800s during a visit to Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park. STEPHAN BISAHA / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE/KCUR.ORG
80,000 acres in the Flint Hills near modern-day Council Grove, less than half of a percent the size of where they’d been. That same year, the federal government built 138 huts for the Kanza people — at the Kanza’s expense. And the huts were built of stone instead of their preferred rounded dwellings of bark. Sharp cor-
ners could trap the spirits the Kanza believed in, so the stone huts housed their horses instead. “They were never ideal from the beginning,” said Pauline Sharp, a member of the Kaw Nation, which is one of many names the Kanza use. Only three huts remain, a few crumbled walls, at Allegawaho Memorial Heritage
Park that’s a few miles south of Council Grove. They are a reminder of what Kanza head chief Allegawaho said in 1871 was the “darkest period in our history,” according to historian Ronald Park’s book, “The Darkest Period.” “It’s horribly sad to know how your ancestors were treated,” said Sharp, who also serves as secretary-treasurer of the Kanza Heritage Society board. The land that Kanza and other Kansas tribes were forced off of became a windfall for the newly created landgrant universities, including Kansas State. As of 2017, more than 1.7 million students were enrolled in land-grant institutions, which were initially meant to research and train Americans in agriculture and engineering and are found in all 50 states. The vast majority of Kansas land benefited universities back East, like the following: 1,100 acres around Kanopolis Lake in the Smoky Hills helped pay for several landgrant universities, including See LANDS | Page A6
partner organizations from across the state. Allen County is one of more than 60 designated E-Communities. Much of the funding comes in the form of a 75% entrepreneurship tax credit. This means that for every $1,000 donated, a donor receives a $750 credit directly off his state income tax liability. Proceeds are used for a variety of resources to assist small businesses across the state. More than $236,000 has See LOAN | Page A3
Retail spending rebounds BALTIMORE (AP) — American shoppers ramped up their spending on store purchases by a record 17.7% from April to May, delivering a dose of energy for retailers that have been reeling since the coronavirus shut down businesses, flattened the economy and paralyzed consumers during the previous two months. The government’s report Tuesday showed that consumers’ retail purchases have retraced some of the record-setting month-to-month plunges of March (8.3%) and April (14.7%) as businesses have increasingly reopened. Still, the pandemic’s damage to retailers remains severe, with purchases still down 6.1% from a year ago. Last month’s bounceback by consumers comes See SPENDING | Page A3
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