Sports: Rec league rolls on See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Tuesday, June 17, 2014
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Hospitals crafting Medicaid proposal
Rat-a-tat-tat
By JIM McLEAN KHI News Service
Trilby Bannister, left, and Yohon Sinclair, will be drum majors for the Iola High School Band in the fall. The two students attended the Phantom Regiment drum major camp earlier this month. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
Conductors drum up band goals By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Two Iola band students were able to work with the “major league of drum corps” during the Phantom Regiment drum major camp June 2-5 at Rockford University, Rockford, Ill. Trilby Bannister, senior, and Yohon Sinclair, junior, will be drum majors for the Iola High School Band in the 2014-15 school year. Iola Band instructor, Matt Kleopfer, said conductors across the country teach the camp. “Going to this camp is an experience of a lifetime,”
Kleopfer said. “It is something I never got as a kid.” The Phantom Regiment is a drum and bugle corps founded in 1956. Bannister and Sinclair became involved in band in sixth grade. The camp gave them their first taste in conducting. “We had our views of what a leader is changed,” Sinclair said. “It’s more than someone up front telling the band what to do.” The students learned conducting methods and verbal commands. Bannister said watching the Regiment was her favorite part of the camp. The stu-
dents were able to not only watch the drum corps but also visit with them outside of practices. “We’ll use everything we learned from them,” Bannister said. “We also got a book explaining how to do things.” Sinclair said he enjoyed meeting other band students. “I liked talking to the other kids,” he said. “They gave us ideas that we can use. It was an awesome experience.” Both drum majors have goals for the Iola band in the upcoming year. “We want to keep practices better structured,” Sinclair said. “The Regiment gets a lot done in a day.”
acare, from a political standpoint, has made this a very difficult issue,” said Jerry Tom Bell S l a u g h t e r, executive director of the Kansas Medical Society. With the Affordable Care Act still unpopular with Kansas voters — Republicans in particular — Brownback and legislative leaders opposed to the law didn’t want to discuss Medicaid expansion, fearing it would send the wrong signal to core supporters heading into the November election. So, when asked about the issue, they stuck to talking points about the ACA’s messy rollout and concerns about the federal government’s ability to shoulder the lion’s share of expansion costs into the future. Bell acknowledged that it’s been virtually impossible to engage Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP leaders on the expansion issue. But he said he believes that could change after the election. “We’ve had a number of people tell us that maybe after the election this is something that will be a little easier to talk about,”
TOPEKA — It’s make-orbreak time for advocates of Medicaid expansion in Kansas. Fearing that political events may be conspiring to foreclose the opportunity to use mostly federal dollars to extend coverage to thousands of uninsured poor adults, the Kansas Hospital Association is preparing to shift its lobbying campaign into high gear. The first step, said Tom Bell, the association’s chief executive, will be to craft an expansion proposal for lawmakers to consider in the 2015 session. “We plan to have something very specific for the Legislature to consider next year,” Bell said. The organization spent the last two legislative sessions trying to stimulate a conversation about expansion. It bankrolled a study that projected the economic benefits of expansion and commissioned a poll that showed a majority of Kansans favored expansion. The results generated headlines but little serious discussion at the Statehouse. Republican legislative leaders refused to even schedule a hearing on a bill to authorize expansion. “The influence of Obam-
See MEDICAID | Page A6
Lawmaker claims Koch retaliation TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A conservative Kansas legislator is accusing Koch Industries of trying to punish him politically for questioning how the Wichitabased company lobbied last year against the state’s renewable energy standards for utilities. Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, said in a recent email to supporters that the Kansas Chamber of Commerce isn’t endorsing him in the GOP primary Aug. 5 because of a confrontation he had last year with lobbyists for Koch Industries over a proposal to repeal the renewable energy requirements. A 2009 law mandates that wind and other renewable resources account for 20 percent of each utility’s peak capacity for generating electricity by 2020. Kansas Chamber CEO Mike O’Neal told the Lawrence Journal-World and Topeka Capital-Journal in stories published online Monday that Schwab’s allegation is “without merit.” Koch Industries spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia
declined comment when contacted by The Wichita Eagle. Both the chamber and Koch Industries oppose the renewable-energy mandate. Critics argue that the requirement has increased electric rates for consumers and market forces should settle how much utilities rely on wind and other renewable resources. Supporters of the mandate argue that it helps the environment and has sparked the development of a thriving wind-energy industry in Kansas. Schwab voted this year to preserve the renewable energy mandate, but he acknowledged in his email that he’d been willing last year to consider its repeal. He said in his email, sent last week, that he’d been troubled by the lack of public support for the repeal from Kansas businesses. Schwab said he told a Koch Industries lobbyist that the company should testify publicly for the mandate’s repeal, rather than continuing to work behind See KOCH | Page A6
Mad Bomber “Officer” Tristan Bruneau arrests “Mad Bomber” Cheyanna Colborn outside of El Charro, 17 W. Madison Ave., on Monday. Bruneau and Colborn are promoting the 6th Annual Mad Bomber Run. The event pays homage to the real Mad Bomber of Iola history, Charley Melvin, who blew up a number of saloons in 1905, and raises money to support Crimestoppers and Thrive Allen County. The celebration will be July 12-13 and also includes a family-friendly carnival, live music, parade and more. For more information or to register go to www.madbomberrun.com. REGISTER/KAREN INGRAM
Quotations in the News By the Associated Press “More than half of the town is gone — absolutely gone.” — Stan-
ton County Commissioner Jerry Weatherholt after massive tornadoes swept through northeast Nebraska, destroying more than half of the town of Pilger.
“Our city is a little darker today without him but immeasurably better because of him.” — San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer in a statement on the death of baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn who died Monday of oral cancer at age 54.
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Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 163
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“A single rose can be my garden...a single friend, my world.” — Leo Buscaglia, author 75 Cents
“What I can say is it was a very tough game. Playing at this level any little mistake can cost you dearly. We didn’t deserve to get the first goal against us.” — Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah whose team lost 1-2 to the U.S. team in their World Cup opener game Monday.
Hi: 90 Lo: 79 Iola, KS