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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
State of the union a snapshot of our lives
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Monday, January 19, 2015
‘DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS’
WASHINGTON (AP) — They call it the State of the Union address. But presidents spend more time laying out their to-do lists and beseeching Congress, mostly unsuccessfully, to approve a wish list of legislative proposals. The actual condition of the country gets short shrift.
State of the Union 8 p.m. Tuesday Major networks
So what is the state of the nation? Some trend lines give a sense of how the United States is doing and where its people are headed. As things change, some stay surprisingly the same. THE ECONOMY AND ITS MOJO
JOBS: The economic recovery took hold in 2014 as unemployment continued to drop from a high of 10 percent in October 2009. The December unemployment rate stood at 5.6 percent. A year ago it was 6.7 percent. Employers hired 2.95 million workers in 2014 compared with 2.33 million
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ACC favors free proposal By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
John Masterson readily admits his bias when asked to react to President Obama’s recent announcement that all Americans should be allowed free access to two years of community college after they finish high school. As president of Allen Community College for more than 20 years, Masterson proudly notes Obama’s proposal recognizes the role schools such as ACC serve in today’s society. “I was extremely pleased
the president and his educational cabinet saw community colleges as the means to educating the workforce,” Masterson said. “He sees our dual role, and he understands. The federal government has understood the past several years the role of the community college. “That’s been growing over the years,” he continued. “There’s a recognition, No. 1, our jobs of the future are going to require a skilled workforce; and No. 2, community colleges are still the best place to provide that knowledge and background for our future stu-
dents.” OBAMA’S PLAN certainly has its critics. Several in Congress noted “free” community college brings with it a $60 billion price tag. But the widespread support for education may make inroads, Masterson said, because of who would benefit. “This could be perhaps the first program in a long time that’s come along with the focus more for middle class students,” he said. “Right now the Pell Grant, with the increases See ACC| Page A4
Act aims to join hospital, caregivers WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A group of seniors and their supporters is pressing for a bill aimed at ensuring a smooth transition to home for discharged hospital patients. Members of the AARP talked to lawmakers and the governor last week about a bill called the Caregiver Act, The Wichita Eagle reported. The bill would require hospitals to work with a patient’s caregiver, often a family member, to ensure that necessary preparations are in place for the patient to recover at home after leaving a hospital. AARP state executive director Maren Turner says some hospitals already do a good job of that, but others are inconsistent. “It’s really important the caregiver is well informed on what to do so they (patients) don’t come back in a couple of days or the next week,” Turner said. The bill dovetails with federal and state efforts to reduce government health care costs by reducing hospital readmissions among the poor and elderly. Last year, 34 Kansas hospitals — more than a fourth of the hospitals in the state See ACT | Page A4
Youngest participant in march describes the day
‘Selma’ stars march to honor MLK SELMA, Ala. (AP) — Oprah Winfrey, fellow actors from the movie “Selma” and hundreds of others marched to recall one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights movement on Sunday, the eve of the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. The remembrance comes after several incidents in which unarmed black men were killed by police in recent months, spurring protests and heightening tensions around the country. In Ferguson, Missouri, where one fatal shooting caused weeks of violent protests, leading black mem-
Martin Luther King event Ward Chapel A.M.E 7 o’clock tonight Speaker: Lloyd Houk bers of Congress pressed for further reforms of the criminal justice system in the name of equality. Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay at Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson as they took up King’s legacy in light of the recent
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deaths. “We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences,” said Clay, a St. Louis Democrat. “Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country.” In Selma, Winfrey marched with “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and the rapper Common. Winfrey was a producer on the film and had an actSee SELMA | Page A4
NEW YORK (AP) — “Steady, loving confrontation.” Those were the first words Lynda Blackmon Lowery says she heard from the mouth of Martin Luther King, Jr. “And those three words changed my life,” said Lowery, who at 15 was the youngest person to join King for the 1965 march from the Alabama cities of Selma to Montgomery, demanding voting rights for African-Americans. On Sunday in New York, the now 64-year-old mother and grandmother showed the scar she still bears on the back of her head from a brutal beating at the hands of an Alabama state trooper during an earlier march when she was 14. It took 28 stitches to close the gash, and seven more for a cut above her right eye. Lowery spoke at the NewYork Historical Society on the eve of Monday’s federal holiday marking King’s birthday. The audience represented all races and ages, including children who sidled up to her for photos, peppering her with questions like, faced with the bru-
“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. 75 Cents
tality, “Why didn’t you fight back?” She explained that they would have been killed if they did — unarmed, confronting “a sea of white men on foot and horseback,” armed with rifles, bayonets, billy clubs and fierce dogs, plus tear gas. “It was terrifying,” she said. A month earlier, activist Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by a state trooper. His death inspired three marches from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. On Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. By the time she was 15, Lowery had been jailed nine times. But there were moments of comic relief. Flashing a warm smile, she recounted how when she and her young friends were released from the “sweatbox” — a windowless, sweltering hot cell — police asked them to sign their names for the record. “We wrote, ‘Mickey Mouse, See YOUNGEST | Page A4
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