Opinion: Feds shouldn’t repeat Kansas’ mistake See A7
Sports: Humboldt loses in regional heartbreaker See B1
2017 1867
The Weekender Saturday, May 20, 2017
Locally owned since 1867
TICK TALK
Farmers grow anxious over trade stances
It’s time to get out the DEET
By PAUL WISEMAN The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sizable majority of rural Americans backed Donald Trump’s presidential bid, drawn to his calls to slash environmental rules, strengthen law enforcement and replace the federal health care law. But last month, many of them struck a sour note after White House aides signaled that Trump would deliver on another signature vow by edging toward abandoning the North American Free Trade Agreement. Farm Country suddenly went on red alert. Trump’s message that NAFTA was a job-killing disaster had never resonated much in rural America. NAFTA had widened access to Mexican and Canadian markets, boosting U.S. farm exports and benefiting many farmers. “Mr. President, America’s corn farmers helped elect you,” Wesley Spurlock of the National Corn Growers Association warned in a statement. “Withdrawing from NAFTA would be disastrous for American agriculture.” Within hours, Trump softened his stance. He wouldn’t actually dump NAFTA, he said. He’d first try to forge a
By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
The majority of tickborne illnesses found in Kansas are not mandatorily reported and due to the inaccessibility of testing, treatment of potentially fatal diseases may be a matter of guesswork. Lyme disease, characterized by its flu-like symptoms and a distinctive rash, was first recognized in Old Lyme, Conn., in 1975. It was connected to the deer tick in 1981 by scientist Willy Burgdorfer. Since then, scientists have discovered approximately 15 tick-borne diseases. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said in an email that the most recently discovered diseases are not likely to be new diseases, but rather have been present all along, and either have been misdiag-
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Just one tick can infect a person with a combination of diseases. Which diseases are transmitted depends on the type of tick. nosed or not diagnosed at all. Senior epidemiologist Daniel Neises of the KDHE Bureau of Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics agreed. “The assumption is that our ability to differentiate different tick-borne diseases has gotten much better and the laboratory methods that we have to detect bacterial viruses are far better than they used to be,” Neises said in a tele-
phone interview. However the Bourbon virus, named for the Kansas county in which it was first discovered in 2015, is of a genotype that is commonly found in Europe, Asia and Africa and never before found in the Western Hemisphere, Hawkinson said in a video on the hospital’s website. Early into the 2017 tick See TICKS | Page A4
more advantageous deal with Mexico and Canada — a move that formally began Thursday when his top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, announced the administration’s intent to renegotiate NAFTA. Farmers have been relieved that NAFTA has survived so far. Yet many remain nervous about where Trump’s trade policy will lead. As a candidate, Trump defined his “America First” stance as a means to fight unfair foreign competition. He blamed unjust deals for swelling U.S. trade gaps and stealing factory jobs. But NAFTA and other deals have been good for American See TRADE | Page A3
Michael Wilson shows an unmanned aircraft he built and raced . COURTESY/KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Iola native competes in drone racing By KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Iola native Michael Wilson has taken to a new technology — unmanned aircraft (drone) operations — like a duck to water. Wilson, who is studying unmanned aircraft systems at Kansas State University’s Polytechnic Campus, recently competed in the first-ever See DRONES | Page A6
Representatives with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation take a tour of Allen County Thursday as part of the foundation’s review of the county as a finalist for the foundation’s prestigious Culture of Health prize. Among those on the tour are, from left, Allen Community College President John Masterson, Letitia Jackson, president and CEO of Tandeka LLC, Julie Willems Van Dijk of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Thrive Allen County CEO David Toland and Allen Smart, a consultant for philanthropic groups. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Allen Countians promote ‘Culture of Health’ Allen Countians put their best foot forward this week to promote a “Culture of Health.” Teams of locals from across the county, from Iola to Elsmore, Humboldt to Moran, greeted representatives Thursday and Friday from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a countywide tour. The RWJF site visit was
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 144
the result of Allen County being chosen as one of 11 finalists for the fifth annual Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health prize. The award honors communities across the country that are making strides in their journey toward better health. Thursday’s tour of the county illustrated the new
and sometimes unconventional partnerships that have developed in recent years to make Allen County a healthier community. Stops along the way included visits to the G&W Foods building site and Elm Creek Community Garden, in Iola; Fees Park in Gas; the LaHarpe City Park’s new playground area and the Regional Rural Tech Center;
“The art of communication is the language of leadership.” — James Humes, attorney 75 Cents
and 54 Fitness in Moran. Stops at Stub’s Market in Moran, the Elsmore Community Garden, Allen County Regional Hospital Clinic, and a stop on the Humboldt square followed. From there, members took a leisurely bike ride along the Lehigh Portland Trail south of Iola before capping See HEALTH | Page A3
Hi: 67 Lo: 46 Iola, KS