The Iola Register, March 22, 2024

iolaregister.com

Fire storms Chanute complex

1 dead, several injured

By RICHARD LUKEN and TIM STAUFFER The Iola Register

CHANUTE — One person has died and several were hurt when an early morning fire gutted a Chanute apartment complex, according to Chanute officials.

The first fire alarm sounded at 1:22 a.m. Thursday at the Cornerstone Apartment Complex, 1610 W. 4th St., according to a joint press release from the City of Chanute and its police and fire departments.

The south side of the 24unit building was fully engulfed in flames with fire coming through the roof when firefighters arrived. Police immediately began evacuating the building.

The entire complex sustained damage throughout.

Crews from Iola, Parsons and Thayer fire departments assisted in battling the blaze.

Iola Fire Chief Corey Isbell said four IFD personnel

A fire broke out at 1:20 a.m. Thursday at the Cornerstone apartments in Chanute, above. By 8 a.m., it was a charred ruins, as shown at right. ABOVE PHOTO COURTESY OF SANDY HEFFERNON/RIGHT, BY RICHARD LUKEN OF THE REGISTER

were summoned, utilizing the city’s ladder truck and an ambulance stationed in Humboldt.

Isbell said the Humboldt ambulance was not needed to transport patients.

The Iola crews returned at 5:30 a.m. The number and extent of injuries has yet to be announced.

THE APARTMENTS are owned by Premier Real Estate Management, based in Brookfield, Wis.

Despite strong support, expansion uncertain

By RACHEL MIPRO Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers, health care advocates and lobbyists packed two committee rooms Wednesday, wearing buttons and slogan-emblazoned shirts to showcase public approval of Medicaid expansion.

But this show of support may fall on deaf ears as several key lawmakers remain against expansion, leaving the proposal’s fate uncertain.

Representatives of Thrive Allen County and Thrive Kansas attended the hearings in support of expansion.

Jenny Tatman, assistant director for Thrive Kansas, attended the morning hearing with the Ways and Means committee. She said she feels optimistic because “we’re closer now than we’ve ever been.

“There’s vast support from Kansas communities, from doctors and from health care workers but some of the opposition was from members of the legislature, and they have to make that decision. If it doesn’t pass, we’ll try again. We have to move the needle somehow.”

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a

If it doesn’t pass, we’ll try again. We have to move the needle somehow.

— Jenny Tatman, Thrive Kansas

Wichita Republican, is chairwoman of a House committee that heard the latest Medicaid expansion bill, encapsulated as House Bill 2556, Wednesday afternoon. Landwehr said she remains opposed to expansion but could not predict what the committee would decide.

With five Democrats and 12 Republicans on the committee, a vote along party lines would kill the bill.

Committee action is expected soon.

“It could be tomorrow,” Landwehr said.

More than 900 written testimonies were made in support of Medicaid expansion, according to the governor’s office.

“Kansans across the state have overwhelmingly echoed the same message — they want Medicaid ex-

See HEARING | Page A6

Casey Duffey, company president, said Thursday morning that the complex had been fully occupied. The facility has a mixture of twoand three-bedroom units.

“We don’t know anything yet about the cause. It’s very, very unfortunate,” Duffey said.

The building had sprinkler systems, fire alarms and smoke detectors, which apparently all functioned, Duffey said.

Duffey estimated the building was about 15 years old.

THE CHANUTE Fire De-

partment remained on the scene as of Thursday afternoon, along with the ATF and Kansas Fire Marshal’s office as they investigate the origin. The Sedgwick County Fire District 1, sent a team including a K-9 to help with the in-

See FIRE | Page A3

Preparing for the worst

By SARAH HANEY The Iola Register

Jason Trego wants to avoid a repeat of the 1905 infamous saloon bombings in downtown Iola. “I hope that if we ever have another terrorist bombing in Iola, that I’m a little bit better prepared to handle that,” said Trego, knocking on the wood table in front of him.

Trego, Allen County Emergency Management Director, is referencing the historic night of July 10, 1905 when Charley Melvin, a strict prohibitionist, took it upon himself to light the fuses to hundreds of sticks of dynamite placed in saloons around Iola’s courthouse square.

Wanting to expand his knowledge on the subject, Trego recently participated in a homemade explosives training at Allen Community College (ACC). The course taught first responders how to identify a homemade explosive laboratory and establish scene safety.

“It was a very positive and well-attended course,” Trego said of the 45 participants who came from as far away as Topeka and Jefferson County. Trego was inspired to host the class on March 2 with ACC Criminal Justice Program Director

22-24,

Anthony Maness after he attended a similar course in Woodson County in August. “I took that class and realized a lot of volunteer firefighters would benefit from it.”

For example, Trego noted the bomb that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing was fertilizer and diesel fuel. “If you have that on a farm — not suspicious,” Trego said. “If you have it in an apartment, it’s a little suspicious.”

TREGO’S TRAINING won’t stop there. In October,

The main focus was to help first responders identify an explosives making operation. “You can make explosives with household materials,” said Trego. “Most people have these components in their household, but you have maybe one bottle of it. If you have a whole case, that’s a little suspicious.”

See TRAINING | Page A3

Allen County Emergency Management Director Jason Trego will continue his homemade explosives training Oct.

in Socorro, N.M. REGISTER/SARAH HANEY

Obituary

Vicki Scheimann

Vicki Rae Scheimann, age 72, passed away at her home in Iola, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.

Vicki was born in Lebanon, Pa., on Oct. 24, 1951, to William and Katherine Neiswender.

Vicki was preceded in death by her husband; sister, Dawn Soullard; infant son, Ronald Truax Jr.; and granddaughter-in-law, Andrah Sheimann.

She is survived by siblings, Jean Thompson of Hillsgrove, Pa., and William Neiswender of Myerstown, Pa.; children, Brian Scheimann of Iola, Bonnie Salava Sr. of Burlington and grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

A private memorial service is being planned. Memorials may be made to Allen County Animal Rescue Facility (ACARF) and left in the care of Feuerborn Family Funeral Services, 1883 US Highway 54, Iola, KS 66749.

EU leaders discuss arming Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders gathered Thursday to consider new ways to help boost arms and ammunition production for Ukraine and to discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. Ukraine’s munition stocks are desperately low, and Russia has more and better-armed troops. There is also a growing awareness that the EU must provide for its own security, with election campaigning in the U.S. raising questions about Washington’s commitment to its allies.

Ahead of the summit in Brussels, EU Council President Charles Michel said the Europeans “face a pivotal moment. Urgency, intensity and unwavering determination are imperative.”

New plans are on the table, notably to use the profits from frozen Russian assets to buy Ukraine arms and ammunition.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will join the leaders at the start of their twoday meeting, in part to encourage some member countries to resume funding for the U.N. Palestinian relief agency, the main provider of aid in Gaza.

The agency, known as UNRWA, is reeling from allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The agency fired the employees, but more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450 million, almost half its budget for 2024.

Early this month, the European Commission said it would pay $54 million to the agency after it agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists. Germany, notably, has not resumed funding.

The Israel-Hamas war has driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and U.N. officials say a quarter of the population is starving. The agency is the main supplier of food, water and shelter but is on the brink of financial collapse.

Concern is mounting about an imminent Israeli ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt. It’s a plan that has raised

House imposes fine for misuse of DEI policy

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector

The Israel-Hamas war has driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes and UN officials say a quarter of the population is starving.

global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel can’t achieve its goal of “total victory” against Hamas without going into Rafah.

The leaders are set to underline that such an operation “would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken huddled Thursday with top Arab diplomats in Cairo to discuss post-conflict plans for Gaza as relations between the United States and Israel soured further over Israel’s war against Hamas, notably its intent to mount a major military operation against the southern city of Rafah. Amid what Blinken said were hopeful signs that a deal for a ceasefire in exchange for the release of Hamasheld hostages could be reached, he met the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to go over ideas for Gaza’s future.

TOPEKA — The Kansas House tentatively approved legislation Wednesday imposing a $10,000 fine for every instance in which a public university or college tied student admissions or faculty hiring to an ideological pledge or statement related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The bill crafted by Rep. Steven Howe, chairman of the House Higher Education Budget Committee, wouldn’t apply to private or parochial colleges and universities in Kansas. Amid bipartisan criticism, the committee reduced the financial penalty from $100,000 but retained provisions allowing the attorney general to take alleged offenders to district court if infractions reported to the Kansas Board of Regents remained after a 90-day grace period.

Political special-interest groups and state legislatures have campaigned for years against K-12 and higher education policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion — or simply, DEI. Advocates say attempts to make campuses more welcoming to historically disenfranchised students or faculty amounted to discrimination against people offended by that type of administrative intervention. Supporters of DEI believe the opposite.

“As DEI has expanded, it has created tension,” said Howe, a graduate of Kansas State University. “Instead of a merit-based approach, universities have chosen to embrace ideologies which discriminate against people that do not hew to their orthodoxy.”

He said House Bill 2460 was constitutionally sound and would serve to shield freedom of speech, protect academic freedom and promote intellectual diversity.

Rep. Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said the bill didn’t attempt to define boundaries of diversity, equity and inclusion. He pointed to a Legislative Post Audit report on DEI spending at the six state universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system which identified six different definitions of DEI.

“It’s hard for me to pass a bill to punish a university for doing something that we don’t define,” Sawyer said. “I don’t know how

you could comply with that.”

Revamped bill

Originally, the bill would have imposed a $100,000 fine for every infraction of the new DEI standard at public universities, community colleges, technical colleges and at Washburn University in Topeka. The bill wouldn’t prevent students or faculty involved in teaching or research from adhering to anti-discrimination law imposed at the state or federal levels.

The bill, scheduled for a final action vote Thursday in the House, would enable DEI complaints to be filed with the Board of Regents. The board’s staff would have 45 days to determine guilt or innocence. If guilty, the offending higher educational institution would have 90 days to become compliant. If that failed, the Board of Regents would refer the case to the attorney general. An individual unsatisfied with the Board of Regents’ handling of a complaint could take their case to the attorney general.

Staff with Attorney General Kris Kobach would seek a district court ruling against the alleged violator. In each instance of a DEI violation, the maximum fine would be $10,000. The Board of Regents would be required to promptly disclose confirmed violations and submit annual reports on infractions to the Legislature.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said the compromise bill was the product of debate among House members and incorporated thoughts of university leaders.

“None of the presidents are ever going to be supportive. They’re not going to come out and say, ‘I support this.’ They are truly neutral in this situation and believe we have struck a proper balance,” Hawkins said.

St. John Rep. Brett Stafford, a GOP member of the House higher education committee, said he considered the legislation more of an attempt to affirm freedom of speech on college campuses rather than a mechanism for stifling academic consideration of DEI tenets. He said the primary objective of the legislation was to add a state-level prohibition on discrimination in admissions and hiring on public campuses as it related to DEI. He said significant amendments to the original bill reduced the proposed penalty for infractions and granted colleges and universities a window of time to correct problems.

Government overreach

Rep. Kirk Haskins, a Topeka Democrat and faculty member at Baker University in Baldwin City, said the House bill was an unjustified intrusion into higher education institutions and would serve to undermine intellectual inquiry on campuses. He said diversity enriched academic discourse and

critical thinking rather than interfered with those activities.

“It’s an overreach and it violates academic freedom,” Haskins said. “Where’s the problem? Why don’t we trust educators?”

Howe, the sponsor of the bill, said he objected to an assertion by Lenexa Democratic Rep. Brandon Woodard that Sarah Green, a student at the University of Kansas, falsely testified to his House committee about DEI practices on the Lawrence campus.

Woodard alleged Green misrepresented herself to the House committee by not being clear a DEI survey she took when applying for a campus job was related to the university’s private athletics corporation and not the academic side of the university. He said her testimony on that point amounted to a lie.

Howe said it was wrong for Woodard to attack someone in the public square who wasn’t there to defend herself. He said Green exhibited courage by talking about her experiences at KU.

“This bill is not about the merits of DEI. It is not,” Howe said. “DEI is mentioned in the bill, because that’s where we identified the problem. There is evidence that the universities were, in fact, requiring this as a condition for employment.”

Salina Republican Rep. Steve Howe, left, led the Kansas House to tentative approval of House Bill 2460, which would forbid public colleges and universities from mandating adherence to diversity, equity and inclusion pledges in admissions and hiring. KANSAS REFLECTOR SCREEN CAPTURE FROM THE KANSAS

LEGISLATURE’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Congress unveils $1.2 trillion plan to avert federal shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers introduced a $1.2 trillion spending package Thursday that sets the stage for avoiding a partial government shutdown for several key federal agencies this weekend and allows Congress, nearly six months into the budget year, to complete its work in funding the government through September.

Democrats were largely able to swat back scores of policy mandates and some of the steeper budget cuts that House Republicans were seeking to impose on nondefense programs, though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., highlighted some policy wins, including a nearly 24% increase in detention beds for migrants awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country. This year’s spending bills were divided into two packages. The first one cleared Congress two weeks ago, just hours before a shutdown deadline for the agencies funded through the bills.

Now Congress is focused on the second, larger package, which includes about $886 billion for the Defense Department, a more than 3% increase from last year’s levels. The 1,012page bill also funds the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and others.

“Congress must now race to pass this package before government funding runs out this Friday,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck

Schumer, D-N.Y.

Nondefense spending will be relatively flat compared with the prior year, though some, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, are taking a hit, and many agencies will not see their budgets keep up with inflation.

When combining the two packages, discretionary spending for the budget year will come to about $1.66 trillion. That does not include programs such as Social Security and Medicare,

Spring brings break in weather

By the Associated Press

The United States can expect a nice spring break from past too rainy or too dry extremes, federal meteorologists predicted Thursday.

After some rough seasons of drought, flooding and fires, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s spring outlook calls for a less hectic spring that should be warmer and wetter, but not prone to major flooding and drought at low levels.

There is zero ma-

jor or record flooding forecast, with much of the East and Southeast predicted to get more nuisance-type flooding that doesn’t cause property damage, said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Less than a quarter of the country is in drought with just 0.14% of the nation experiencing the highest level of drought, which is unusually low, said Jon Gottschalck, operations branch chief for NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Training: Explosives

Continued from A1

explained.

The course will also teach participants how to identify IEDs; terrorist organizations, both foreign and domestic; and lessons learned from past terrorist incidents. The course will include activities at a bomb range. “They will blow something up every day,” he said. The training is funded by New Mexico Tech and doesn’t require anything from the county, aside from Trego’s time. “This training will also allow me to train others locally on a very basic level of awareness of homemade explosives,” he added.

Fire: Apartments

The Red Cross has set up a shelter at Chanute’s Central Park pavilion, 101 S. Forest, to aid those in need of shelter or other assistance.

In other words, a sweet spot. “We certainly are pleased to see the lack of major flooding and the upper Mississippi portions of the Red River in the north, which we typically see this time of year,” Clark said. “In fact, this is one of the first outlooks I’ve seen in a long time where we have not had major flooding projected for some portion of the country.”

“The lack of flooding is really a boon for the nation,” Clark said.

Former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist not involved in the spring forecast said there is likely to be a bit of “overtime winter” at the end of the month for the Great Lakes and Midwest, but spring is looking good. He and others said what’s happening is the world is transitioning from a strong El Nino, which is a warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide, to a forecast summer La Nina, which is El Nino’s cooler cousin that also warps weather.

“A mild wet pattern for the next 1-2 months will probably give way to a hot, dry La Nina summer, but until then we may actually see a bonafide spring transition season rather than flipping the switch directly to summer,” Maue said in an email. investigation.

Clothing and other donations are being accepted at Chanute’s Consignment Store at 109 E. Main St.

The Nazarene Church at 1621

and financing the country’s rising debt. The House is expected to take the measure up first, on Friday. Then

it would move to the Senate where senators would have to agree on taking it up expeditiously to avoid a partial shutdown. Usually, such agreements include votes on proposed amendments to the bill.

Johnson described the bill as a serious commitment to strengthening national defense by moving the Pentagon toward a focus on its core mission while expanding support for those serving in the military. The bill provides for a 5.2% pay increase for service members.

In promoting the bill, Republicans cited several ways it would help Israel. Most notably, they highlighted a prohibition on funding

through March 2025 for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which is the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians in Gaza. Republicans are insisting on cutting off funding to the agency after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency were involved in the attack that Hamas conducted in Israel on Oct. 7. But the prohibition does concern some lawmakers because many relief agencies say there is no way to replace its ability to deliver the humanitarian assistance that the United States and others are trying to send to Gaza, where one-quarter of the 2.3 million residents are starving.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., right, smiles as he is joined by, from left, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Thursday. AP PHO-

TO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Gangs wage attacks on Haiti’s capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE,

Haiti (AP) — Armed gangs launched new attacks in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, with heavy gunfire echoing across once-peaceful communities near the Haitian capital.

Associated Press journalists reported seeing at least five bodies in and around the suburbs, and gangs blocked the entrances to some areas.

People in the communities under fire called radio stations pleading for help from Haiti’s national police force, which remains understaffed and outmatched by the gangs. Among the communities targeted in the pre-dawn hours were Pétion-Ville, Meyotte, Diègue and Métivier.

“When I woke up to go to work, I found I could not leave because the neighborhood was in the hand of the bandits,” said Samuel Orelus. “They were about 30 men with heavy weapons. If the neighborhood had mobilized, we could have destroyed them, but they were heavily armed, and there was nothing we could do.”

By Wednesday after-

noon, another victim had been reported: a police officer killed in broad daylight in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood known as Delmas 72, according to the SYNAPOHA police union.

As the attacks continued, the U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it had completed its first evacuation of American citizens from Portau-Prince. More than 15 Americans were airlifted to neighboring Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

More than 30 U.S. citizens will be able to leave Port-au-Prince daily aboard the U.S. government-organized helicopter flights, the agency said.

“We will continue to monitor demand from U.S. citizens for assistance in departing Haiti on a real-time basis,” the department said.

On Sunday, the agency evacuated more than 30 U.S. citizens from the coastal city of CapHaitien in northern Haiti to Miami International Airport.

“We hope that conditions will allow a return of commercial means for people to

Fox in Socks

In conjunction with Dr. Seuss Week, Iola Elementary School students collected dozens of socks for Hope Unlimited, a shelter for women and children. Alexandria Gumfory, left, and Molly Shaughnessy work at the shelter. COURTESY PHOTO

travel from Haiti soon. We and the international community and the Haitian authorities are working for that to become a reality,” the State Department said.

Also on Wednesday, a plane chartered by the Florida Department of Emergency Management evacuated 14 Florida residents, including children, out of Haiti, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the state agency, at an airport in Sanford, Florida where the passengers were expected to land.

More than 300 Floridians are in Haiti, and the Florida-sponsored operation was working on getting them out on future flights despite bureaucratic obstacles from the U.S. government and safety threats in Haiti, Guthrie said at a news conference, where he was accompanied by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“We understand there are people really in danger right now who are fellow Floridians,” DeSantis said.

Wednesday’s attacks in parts of Port-auPrince came two days after gangs went on a rampage through the upscale neighborhoods of Laboule and Thomassin in Pétion-Ville, with at least a dozen people killed.

The violence forced the closure of banks, schools and businesses across Pétion-Ville, which until now had been largely spared from the attacks that gangs launched on Feb. 29.

Gunmen have set fire to police stations, forced the closure of Haiti’s main international airport and stormed the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

Scores of people have been killed and some 17,000 others have been left homeless amid the violence.

Meanwhile, Haitians await the possibility of new leadership as Caribbean officials rush to help form a transitional presidential council that will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister and a council of ministers.

A

Man escapes injury in explosion

By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

A Chanute man escaped injury when his pickup exploded while he was working at an oil pump jack site in rural Allen County Wednesday. Sheriff’s deputies said Brandon Morris was working on the pump jack, and was outside his vehicle, when a mechanical failure on the truck caused the explosion.

Fire crews were able to extinguish the blaze before it could reach the pump jack.

The truck was considered a total loss.

A female acquaintance approaching the scene at 2875 Hawaii Rd. called 911 in panic, thinking Morris was still inside his truck when it exploded. After a few tense seconds, she realized Morris was out of the vehicle and uninjured.

Pig kidney transplant a success

NEW YORK (AP)

— Doctors in Boston announced Thursday they have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient.

Massachusetts General Hospital said it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously, pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.

The experimental transplant was done at the Boston hospital on Saturday. The patient, Richard “Rick” Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, doctors said Thursday.

Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose, his doctors suggested a

The announcement marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues, or organs from animals.

pig kidney transplant, he said in a statement released by the hospital. “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of

people who need a transplant to survive,” said Slayman.

The announcement marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues, or organs from animals. For decades, it didn’t work — the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. More recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike — increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs.

More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.

The stories that ‘Oppenheimer’ didn’t tell

By RACHEL BRONSON and TIM RIESER Chicago Tribune/TNS

Last summer, the film “Oppenheimer” swept the box office and helped reignite public discourse about nuclear weapons and the ever-present threat of their use.

It’s perhaps inevitable that the movie, which dramatizes the United States’ development of the atomic bomb, still provides only a partial understanding of the complex reality of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and legacy. With the movie dominating the awards season, the audience deserves to know about two crucial stories that the movie left out.

A central storyline of the film is Oppenheimer’s loss of his security clearance and eventual excommunication from the halls of power — a result of the Red Scare and his advocacy of nuclear disarmament policies that people in power did not want to hear.

In the movie, that storyline ends with a flash-forward to Oppenheimer receiving a presidential award in old age. But, even at that time, Oppenheimer was still officially regarded as having been blameworthy. The decision by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that cost him his security clearance was still on the books.

To some, this was merely an unfortunate historical footnote, one of many wrongs committed during that era. But for a persistent few of us, led by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the attack on Oppenheimer’s character to silence him mattered. We saw that the decision loomed as a warning to scientists that their participation in the political process was conditional on not rocking the boat too hard.

It was not an abstract concept either, as even in recent years, experts have been forced out of government jobs for supporting the scientific consensus on climate

change. So, we joined with others and urged administration after administration to overturn the AEC’s decision.

Finally, in December 2022, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and the Department of Energy vacated the decision against Oppenheimer, righting a historical wrong. It would have been a welcome addition to see this mentioned at the end of the movie. It would remind viewers that it is never too late to address historical injustices. That lesson is important now in so many sectors of our society, including the history of the Manhattan Project. If Oppenheimer’s security clearance story was not fully told in the film, the harrowing story of another group of nuclear victims was completely left out. They are still awaiting justice today.

“Oppenheimer” makes a centerpiece of the Trinity test, the world’s first nuclear explosion. But the viewer could be forgiven for think-

ing that the scientists in the film were its only witnesses. Just off screen, there were many other witnesses.

be years before anyone knew that they had unwittingly received the first doses of weapons-grade atomic radiation, amplified by the water

The attack on Oppenheimer loomed as a warning to scientists that their participation in the political process was conditional on not rocking the boat too hard. ... Even in recent years, experts have been forced out of government jobs for supporting the scientific consensus on climate change.

COMMUNITIES surrounding the Trinity testing site were rural, low-income and largely Hispanic and Indigenous. Like the scientists, some saw a flash and heard the explosion, others saw the mushroom cloud, and many remembered black rain in the following days as radioactive dust and debris that had been carried up into the atmosphere by the explosion fell back down. Under the cloud of wartime secrecy, it would

they drank and the food they ate long after the test was over. In the years to come, that distinction would manifest in abnormally high rates of cancer, birth defects and other medical conditions — many of these passed from generation to generation. This community would be called “Downwinders” for living “downwind” of Trinity, and they would later be joined by other Downwinders across many states harmed

by hundreds of nuclear tests carried out at the Nevada test site. Their search for justice is also a story of persistence. It was not until 1990 that these groups were recognized by the federal government and given limited compensation for what they suffered without their knowledge or consent. But even that was only a first step, with many heavily affected groups left out — including victims of the New Mexico Trinity test.

THE NEED TO RIGHT these historical wrongs carries its own importance today. It would be a powerful reminder that the government should not harm its own citizens under the banner of national security or shroud its mistakes in secrecy. As important, compensation would make an immediate difference. Downwinders and their families are still suffering from the health effects of nuclear testing, and this assistance would be a lifeline. Congress must act urgently now to expand and extend the program before it expires this July.

The persistent battle to compensate the Downwinders and the long battle over Oppenheimer’s security clearance are examples of the ongoing search for justice in our nuclear history that continues to demand answers today.

“Oppenheimer” is the latest welcome step in recounting that history. There are still wrongs that can and should be righted and lessons to be learned. And as we enter a new era of nuclear danger, those are stories worth telling, and those are injustices worth addressing.

About the authors: Rachel Bronson is president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Tim Rieser was a senior aide to U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. The fight over J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance was among the policy initiatives Rieser handled on the senator’s behalf.

Court should reject challenge to abortion drugs

American women are thought to have more abortions today than they did before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

The main reason is probably abortion pills. Safe and effective, cheap and convenient, and small enough to fit into an envelope, they enable many women to have an abortion without leaving home. The pills account for nearly two-thirds of terminations in America, up from almost a quarter in 2011, partly because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has loosened rules around their use and distribution.

No wonder anti-choice advocates want the Supreme Court to clamp down on them. Medically and legally, that would be an error.

The court will hear the case on March 26 — its first on abortion since it ignited a nationwide battle over reproductive rights by scrapping Roe.

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a conservative group, wants greater restrictions around mifepristone, a drug typically used in combination with another, misoprostol, to induce

The medication is safe and effective, cheap and convenient, and has fewer complications than later-stage surgical procedures.

abortions. Arguing that the FDA’s rulings have been “arbitrary” and “capricious”, it wants to restore a strict seven-week limit on use of mifepristone, as well as a requirement that only doctors can prescribe and provide it — and that this must be in person. That would be a bad outcome for women’s health.

Mifepristone is safer than Tylenol (paracetamol) and has fewer complications than later-stage surgical abortion. It is also cheaper, less invasive and more convenient than surgery, especially for women who cannot easily get to a clinic or when prescribed through telemedicine.

Pill-based abortion has risen globally. In England and Wales, and much of Scandinavia, around 90% of terminations now use pills.

During the pandemic, which limited visits to doctors, trials found that remote prescriptions of abortion pills have many benefits and no added risk.

RESTRICTING mifepristone’s use to seven weeks of pregnancy makes no sense medically.

If anything, the FDA’s current 10-week limit is too restrictive. The World Health Organization lists mifepristone as safe and effective for abortions up to 12 weeks.

Although women now detect and terminate pregnancies earlier than in the past, 49% of abortions in America still happen between six and 12 weeks (94% take place in the first trimester).

Without mifepristone, most of these women will still have abortions, using either misoprostol alone or

surgery. But these options tend to bring more hassle, discomfort and a higher risk of further medical intervention.

Siding with the plaintiffs would also be a bad legal outcome. Courts should require strong grounds to conclude that a regulator has got a technical assessment wrong. If judges can substitute their own supposed expertise for the FDA’s, it will weaken America’s system of technically informed regulation— especially if the test case is a charged issue in which the empirical evidence is strong

and the plaintiff has suffered no concrete injury.

Anyone with a cause, from moral objections to contraceptives to conspiracy theories about Covid-19 jabs, will be encouraged to sue the FDA. Meritless challenges against other agencies will proliferate, too.

This case presents an opportunity for the justices to rein in judicial activism. Our hope is that the Supreme Court took it on chiefly for that reason. It can best do so by coming down unanimously in favor of the FDA.

— The Economist

Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in the film “Oppenheimer.” The award-winning movie, however, failed to address the “Downwinders,” those harmed by the hundreds of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government as well as the government’s character assassination of Oppenheimer for advocating for nuclear disarmament. (UNIVERSAL PICTURES/TNS)

Hearing: Overflow crowd to discuss Medicaid expansion

Continued from A1

pansion,” said Gov. Laura Kelly. “While the legislature has held hearings, it cannot stop there. The Cutting Healthcare Costs for All Kansans Act must swiftly be debated on the floor and put up to a vote.”

The meeting, one of two on Medicaid expansion held Wednesday, marks the first time in four years since legislative leaders have allowed hearings on expanding state health care coverage.

Kansas is one of 10 states left that have not expanded, and Republican leadership in the Legislature — where the party holds a supermajority in both chambers — has blocked expansion despite widespread public and legislative support.

Kelly has spent months rallying across the state for expansion, leveraging 2024’s election year status to jolt Kansas lawmakers into action before they face their constituents in the fall. With Kelly’s backing, Democrats introduced Medicaid expansion bills into House and Senate committees in January.

They waited until now for action.

Landwehr said the time was right to have committee discussion on the bill. A joint Senate committee informational hearing on expansion was heard earlier, on Wednesday morning.

“We thought, ‘Okay, let’s have the debate, let’s have the discussion,’ “ Landwehr said. In both meetings, several Republican law-

makers, including Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Eudora Republican, spoke against expansion, arguing the current state health insurance plan should not be changed.

“For multiple reasons, I urge my fellow legislators to vote against Medicaid expansion,” Gossage wrote in submitted testimony. “Kansas is wise to preserve limited Medicaid funds for the truly vulnerable for

whom Medicaid was originally designed. And not to displace people from their private plans onto a government program that will stretch the state budget and withhold funds from other vital projects.”

UNDER THE Affordable Care Act, the federal government covers 90% of the extra cost of Medicaid services in exchange for expanding

eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty rate. Medicaid expansion would unlock $700 million in annual federal funding and could potentially save 59 rural hospitals on the brink of closure.

Among the conservative national lobbying groups that voiced opposition to expansion were Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute and Opportunity Solutions Project.

rural hospitals in his areas suffer.

Eligible individuals with behavioral health conditions see increased access to treatment and other services under Medicaid expansion.

—Christine Osterlund,

Most of the estimated 150,000 Kansans who would benefit from expansion are low-income workers or those suffering from chronic illness.

Benjamin Anderson, president and CEO of Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System, a Republican who was “raised to believe that every person is created by God with equal, inherent value,” said he supported expansion, partially due to his experience watching the

Christine Osterlund, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s deputy secretary and the state’s Medicaid director, said increasing access to affordable health care would result in more Kansans receiving preventative health care, addressing health issues before they worsen and result in hospitalization or emergency room visits.

“Expansion states show more mothers accessing services, including postpartum care, than in non-expansion states, and children with parents enrolled in Medicaid are more likely to receive health care services,” Osterlund said. “Eligible individuals with behavioral health conditions see increased access to behavioral health treatment and other services under Medicaid expansion.”

Sen. Jerry Moran frustrated by slow progress on new farm bill

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas acknowledged difficulty of writing new farm bills while rebuking congressional colleagues for lack of progress toward compromise on a new bill adjusting agriculture commodity programs, food aid and measures to combat inflation in production costs.

Moran, who has considered himself a farmstate aggie since entering Congress in 1997, said during a Senate floor speech that a sort of political malaise appeared to be taking root in Washington, D.C., that could postpone action on an updated fiveyear farm bill until after the 2024 elections.

“Tough decisions are ahead of us, but we should not walk away from the process. It’s a dereliction of duty to the farmers and ranchers of America,” Moran said. “I’ve been through numerous farm bills. They’re always hard and they’re always late and we never get them done easily. But this seems different to me for the first time saying, ‘What we have, is what we get.’”

In November, Con-

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said he was worried congressional leaders weren’t pressing hard enough on farm bill negotiations and potential of Congress missing an opportunity to alter food and agriculture programs. KANSAS REFLECTOR

SCREEN CAPTURE OF U.S. SENATE’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL

gress extended for one year the version of the farm bill adopted in 2018. That arrangement would expire Sept. 30, but could be extended again.

Moran said many farm bill program provisions needed to be reworked to more precisely frame the agriculture safety net and answer shifting market demand, prolonged drought and inflation-

ary pressure on farming inputs and land prices.

Net farm income hit record highs in 2022, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service said net farm income declined 16% from 2022 to 2023. The USDA’s economists projected a 25.5% drop in farm income from last year. The situation was a blend of eroding demand for U.S. commodities fol-

Mortgage rate climbs back to nearly 7%

LOS ANGELES (AP)

— The average longterm U.S. mortgage rate climbed back to nearly 7% this week, pushing up borrowing costs for home shoppers with the spring homebuying season underway. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.87% from 6.74% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.42%. The average rate is now just below where it was two

weeks ago.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week, pushing the average rate to 6.21% from 6.16% last week. A year ago it averaged 5.68%, Freddie Mac said.

When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford in a market

already out of reach for many Americans.

“After decreasing for a couple of weeks, mortgage rates are once again on the upswing,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

Investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and what the Federal Reserve does with its short-term interest rate can influence rates on home loans.

lowing the COVID-19 pandemic and escalation in production costs tied to labor, pesticides, fertilizer and livestock prices.

“This is just unsustainable,” Moran said. “American agriculture is at a pressure point. There’s record volatility in the farm economy, and farm income is falling by the most significant amount of all time. We ought to be providing certainty to those who provide our food, fuel and fiber.”

He said Kansas’ stake in the process was tied to thousands of jobs in crop and livestock production as well as work on renewable energy sources, agriculture research and internation-

al food aid programs. He said the U.S. response to global hunger was part of the national security calculations.

“The time is now to show leadership,” the

GOP senator said. “I hope that we as leaders can get back to the table and produce a farm bill that provides meaningful and real relief for Kansas producers.”

An overflow crowd attended a Kansas Senate hearing Wednesday on implications of Kansas expanding Medicaid to about 150,000 lower-income adults and children. It was to be followed by a Kansas House committee hearing on Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s Medicaid expansion bill. TIM CARPENTER/KANSAS REFLECTOR

Sports Daily B

Wildcat twosome honored

By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

MORAN — Marmaton Valley High’s memorable basketball season had both its boys and girls teams ascending heights they hadn’t reached for several years.

The Wildcat boys advanced to the Class 1A-II State Tournament, the school’s first state tournament appearance in 23 years.

The Wildcat girls fell one game short of state, but their Class 1A-I Substate Championship game appearance marked the first time in recent memory the Wildcats had won multiple postseason games in one season.

Two of the key players in their teams’ success —

‘Every

By WAYNE PARRY The Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)

— This is the best time of the year for Mark Bawers: Day after day of uninterrupted college basketball, all of it consequential.

“I love how excited everyone gets — every shot matters to someone: on the points spread, the total, on a bracket,” he said. “Someone’s happy and someone’s upset with every shot.”

Particularly those who have some money on the game. The annual NCAA basketball championship tournaments for men and women are the biggest betting events of the year, spanning several weeks.

The American Gaming Association estimates that American adults will legally wager $2.72 billion on the tournaments this year, with sports betting being legal in 38 states plus Washington, D.C.

sophomore Tyler Lord on the boys side, and Payton Scharff for the Wildcat girls — have been voted as the Iola Register’s male and female athletes of the month. For winning, each gets a free specialty pizza, courtesy of Rookies in Iola. Lord’s ascension down the stretch epitomized Marmaton Valley’s drastic improvement in the second half of the season. The sophomore point guard averaged 8.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game, good enough to earn honorable mention for the Three Rivers

League basketball team. He saved his best for last, averaging nearly 19 points a game in the postseason. “I started shooting the ball more,” he noted. “We needed more points.”

Wildcat head coach Cornell Walls had impressed upon his players the importance of finishing strong, pointing to the school’s state playoff drought.

“He motivated us to get there,” Lord said.

“The season went pretty well,” he continued. “It was exciting to get to state.”

Lord also earned all-league and all-district honors as a

defensive back and wide receiver during the football season.

Now, Lord is focusing on Marmaton Valley’s upcoming baseball season. He’ll play shortstop, pitch and bat at the top of the lineup.

“We should be pretty good,” he said.

And with Marmaton Valley losing only a few key players to graduation, Lord is optimistic better things lie ahead.

“We want to get back to state,” he said.

SCHARFF, a multi-sport standout for the Wildcats, was a mainstay on the hardwood for the Wildcats. The

NFL execs eye rules changes

By JOSH DUBOW The Associated Press

The NFL competition committee is proposing a rule to penalize so-called “hipdrop” tackles and a radical change to kickoffs to add more returns without compromising safety.

The proposals will be presented to owners at the league meetings later this month, with 24 out of 32 votes needed for approval.

The committee didn’t propose any rule changes to limit the use of the “tush push” quarterback sneak that has been so successful for the Philadelphia Eagles the past few seasons, or any change to the rule giving the defensive team a touchback if the team with the ball fumbles through the end zone.

There also were several possible rule changes proposed by teams that the league released last week that included one that would allow replay challenges for penalties called on the field, a change to the onside kick rule and giving teams a third replay challenge if at least one of their first two was successful instead of both.

The biggest change proposed by the competition committee regards kickoffs in an attempt to add excitement with more returns while reducing high-speed collisions that have made the play so dangerous.

The league has spent the past several seasons making kickoff returns less common in hopes of reducing injuries. Data showed a significantly higher rate of injuries

See NFL | Page B6

See MADNESS | Page B6

At left, Marmaton Valley High’s Tyler Lord (21) and at right, the Wildcats’ Payton Scharff (2) have been voted as the Iola Register’s Male and Female Athletes of the Month. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN (LEFT) and ELEANORA MELANI/MVHS

Finances aside, the start of March Madness is a cultural event in the U.S., with people taking off work to gorge on televised hoops. Others who go to work may pretend to be busy, while frequently checking the scores on their phones, if they’re not streaming it.

Joe Mascali of Sayreville, New Jersey has seen it firsthand.

“I work in IT, so we would steal part of the bandwith to watch the games,” said Mascali. His pick is the same as that

shot means something’: Fans revel in, bet on March Madness

San Diego State’s Lamont Butler hits the game-winning shot at the buzzer in the semifinals the 2023 NCAA Tournament against Florida Atlantic. THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/MEG MCLAUGHLIN/TNS

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Q: I heard that Katy Perr y is going to leave “American Idol” after this season. Is there any chance she might change her mind?

A: Well, there’s always the potential for someone to change their mind about anything but in making her announcement during an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last month, she seemed to leave the door open for a possible retur n to “American Idol” someday “if (the producers will) have me.” Perr y will have done seven seasons on the talent competition as a judge — along with Luke Br yan and Lionel Richie, spanning the entirety of the program’s ABC run thus far — when the current Season 22 concludes, and she has indicated that she is working in new music. The show’s production schedule definitely involves a time commitment, with the judges having to go to dif ferent cities during the audition phase, then making sure they’re in Hollywood on a regular basis once the given season’s episodes are centered there.

If Perr y were to return to “Idol” after leaving, it wouldn’t be the first time a judge has done that. Jennifer Lopez was a regular on the show during its earlier Fox era during Seasons 10 and 11, then she left for Season 12 but returned for Seasons 13, 14 and

15. Also, if Perr y (who took a brief break from “Idol” last season) came back to the series, it wouldn’t necessarily be as a full-time judge … which might be more conducive to the schedule she apparently wants to get back to with her own music career. She could step back in as a guest mentor, a position that Jelly Roll and Tori Kelly are filling this season.

Mother-in-law should give up driving

Dear Carolyn: My mother-in-law is on oxygen, is wobbly on her feet, can’t hear or see very well, and is understandably forgetful. She lives by herself and refuses to have anyone help her except me. She has three children (my husband and two siblings who live out of state), but I am the one who spends the most time with her and knows her condition the best.

I called her primary doctor to say my mother-in-law should not be driving. My husband and I have had several large fights over this. His response is when she gets in an accident, then he will have that discussion with her. He knows that is a bad plan.

I took her for her appointment, and the doctor did take away her driving privileges. The doctor asked me my opinion in front of my mother-in-law, and

Carolyn Hax

I said that although I don’t get a vote, I think she should not be driving. Needless to say, she is devastated, and furious at me.

My husband is mildly annoyed that I called the doctor and said it wasn’t my place.

So, now she is mad at me, still driving. My husband talked to her and said I did it because I love her. She said she would be careful driving, and he said okay. He refuses to tell her she shouldn’t be driving because he would then have to deal with it.

I have decided to stop mothering her. At lunch yesterday, I didn’t help her in and out of the car or give her my jacket when she was cold, and

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when her oxygen wasn’t on, I didn’t tell her. My husband said I was being rude. I said that I was treating her as an adult, that she couldn’t have it both ways. Your opinion?

— Not Sure of My Lane

Not Sure of My Lane: What will they do when she kills someone? Then will her son “have that discussion with her”?

This is not about love, or adult treatment, or rudeness, or anyone’s place. It’s about “lanes” only in the sense that the poor souls unwittingly on the road with your mother-in-law deserve to be safe in theirs.

People whose vision has deteriorated to the point they “can’t … see very well” belong nowhere near the controls for some thousands of pounds of rolling steel.

I do care about your mother-in-law’s feelings. I don’t see loss of independence as an abstraction. I will struggle

Padres top LA in slug-fest

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto lasted just one inning in his Los Angeles Dodgers’ debut after signing a record $325 million, 12-year contract, giving up five runs to the San Diego Padres in a 15-11 loss on Thursday night.

The 25-year-old righthander trailed 2-0 after nine pitches and needed 43 pitches to get three outs, leaving with a 45.00 ERA.

San Diego batted around, and Michael Grove relieved Yamamoto with the Dodgers trailing 5-1.

mightily with surrendering mine, if I am lucky enough to have many years ahead of me. I resent that driving tracks so closely with independence to begin with, given that our culture went all in on cars and tolerated public transportation only as an afterthought at best.

But I care about people’s safety more than I care about all these things. More than I care about your husband’s mother’s feelings. It’s not even close.

And your husband is so selfishly obtuse, I could scream. If he wants a say in how this goes down, then he will have to start by getting his [priorities] out of his [stuck place].

But don’t wait for him. Resume the process the doctor started of seizing her keys; take the marital hit as a public service. The doctor, local police and department of motor vehicles all have a role, and each can steer you toward your next step.

BEETLE

NFL: Committee eyes rule changes

Continued from A1

on kickoffs compared to other plays.

Last season, returns were attempted on less than 22% of all kickoffs, according to Sportradar, down from 80% as recently as 2010.

The new rule proposal takes elements of the kickoff rules used in spring leagues like the XFL.

For a standard kickoff, the ball would be kicked from the 35-yard line with the 10 kick coverage players lined up at the opposing 40, with five on each side of the field.

The return team would have at least nine blockers lined up in the “set up zone” between the 30- and 35yard line with at least seven of those players touching the 35. There would be up two returners allowed inside the 20.

Only the kicker and two returners would be allowed to move until the ball hits the ground or was touched by a returner inside the 20.

Any kick that reaches the end zone in the air can be returned, or the receiving team can opt for a touchback and possession at the 35. Any kick that reaches the end zone in the air and goes out of bounds or out of the end zone also would result in a touchback at the 35.

If a ball hits a returner or the ground before the end zone and goes into the end zone, a touchback would be at the 20 or the play could be returned. Any kick received in the field of

play would have be returned.

Under current rules, any touchback — or if a returner calls for a fair catch in the field of play — results in the receiving team getting the ball at its own 25. A trailing team can declare an onside kick attempt in the fourth quarter twice in a game, which would be similar to the current onside kick rules.

The Eagles previously proposed the change to the onside kick rule that would allow a trailing team to attempt a fourth-and-20 play from its own 20-yard line instead of a traditional onside kick up to two times.

Only 5% of onside kicks in the fourth quarter were recovered by the kicking team last season, according to Sportradar. That’s down from 18.8% as recently as 2017 as new rules for

safety have made recovering onside kicks more difficult.

The committee also proposed a 15-yard personal foul for hip-drop tackles, which it defined as any time a defender grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms, and then swivels or drops his hips or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg below the knees.

League executive Jeff Miller has said the hipdrop tackle increases risk of injury by 25 times the rate of a standard tackle. The committee views those tackles as being similar to horse collar tackles that were banned before the 2005 season.

The NFLPA is against the rule change, believing it can’t be fairly enforced.

“The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule

prohibiting a ‘swivel hip-drop’ tackle,” the NFLPA said in a statement. “While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials and especially, for fans. We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule.”

The competition committee also proposed several other changes, including making it reviewable on replay if the game clock expired before a snap, to make reviewable by replay if a player was ruled down by contact or out of bounds before throwing a pass, expand crackback block penalties to players in motion and allowing major fouls to carry over following a change of possession.

Ohtani interpreter accused of theft

SEOUL, South Korea. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers following allegations of illegal gambling and theft from the Japanese baseball star.

Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, 39, was let go from the team Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well over $1 million. The team is in Seoul this week as Ohtani makes his Dodgers debut, and Mizuhara was in Los Angeles’ dugout during its season-opening win over San Diego.

“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” law firm Berk Brettler LLP said in a statement Wednesday.

Sports gambling is illegal in California, even as 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of it. Mizuhara is a familiar face to baseball fans as Ohtani’s constant companion, interpreting for him with the media and at other appearances since Ohtani came to the U.S. in 2017. He even served

as Ohtani’s catcher during the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All-Star Game. When Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels to sign a $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December, the club also hired Mizuhara.

The Dodgers said in a statement they were “aware of media reports and are gathering information.

“The team can confirm that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara has been terminated,” the statement said. “The team has no further comment at this time.”

Ohtani was in the lineup for the second game of the series Thursday, hitting a single in the first inning as the Dodgers’ designated hitter. The Dodgers lost 15-11.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed Mizuhara had a meeting with the team on Wednesday but declined to elaborate. He said he did not know Mizuhara’s whereabouts and said a different interpreter was being used.

Will Ireton, the Dodgers’ manager of performance operations, went to the mound in the first inning to translate for pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Ireton was Kenta Maeda’s translator with the team from 201618.

Tourney: Fans revel in, bet on, NCAA’s March Madness

Continued from B1

of many other people this year, including fans as disparate as ESPN host Stephen A. Smith and former President Barack Obama: a repeat by defending champion Connecticut.

UConn is the betting favorite on most platforms. On FanDuel, the official odds provider for The Associated Press, Connecticut is +370, meaning a $100 bet on them would win $370, for a total payout

of $470, including the bettor’s initial stake.

Connecticut has the most bets at FanDuel 17%, followed by North Carolina at 16%, Kentucky at 15% and Purdue at 7%.

Connecticut was also the pick of Bawers, who drove from Dover, Delaware with his father to watch the games at Atlantic City’s Golden Nugget casino. His father picked Houston, as he has for the past three years.

Also picking Houston was high-profile gambler Jim McIngvale, a businessman who calls himself “Mattress Mack” and who regularly bets $1 million or more on Houston teams to win national championships. His wager with Caesars would pay $7.5 million if it wins.

A survey of 2,000 college basketball fans commissioned by the Tipico sports book found that the average fan will spend at

Athletes: Wildcats honored

Continued from B1

senior ripped the nets for an average of 9.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2 steals.

She was particularly effective late in the season, when an ankle injury hobbled Marmaton Valley’s leading scorer Janae Granere.

“We knew everyone was going to have to step up,” Scharff said. “We did a good job.”

Then, when Granere returned in time for the playoffs, the Wildcats knocked off rival Crest and then top-seeded Flinthills in the postseason.

“It felt great because it had been forever since we’d gone that far,” she said.

How long? No one really knows, not even head

coach Becky Carlson, who was a participant in the Wildcat girls’ last state qualifying team in 1976.

Alas, Marmaton Valley’s run ended in the substate championship game against Olpe.

“We were disappointed, but we were happy we were able to stay with them,” Scharff said.

In years past, the end of basketball season meant Scharff would be lacing up her cleats and heading to the softball diamond.

However, Marmaton Valley will not field a softball team this season because of low numbers.

“It’s disappointing,” Scharff said.

Instead, Scharff’s last foray into high school athletics will be in track and field, where she’ll throw the javelin and run in the 4x100-meter relay team. She last suited up for track in junior high.

“It should be fun,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

least 36 hours involved with the tournament, including 13 hours of watching games, 10 hours of watching related content, and six hours creating brackets and placing bets.

Anthony Sanguino of Flanders, New Jersey used to fly to Las Vegas most years to watch and bet on the tournament. But once New Jersey

won a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2018 clearing the way for any state to offer it legally, he has been alternating trips to Las Vegas with visits to Atlantic City casinos. On Thursday, he was with a group of friends at the Golden Nugget, where they had placed bets on 11 games as of an hour before the first contest tipped off.

His pick to win it all: Iowa State, which was listed at +2000 before its first game. “I feel like a kid on Christmas Day,” he said. “You get 32 games of wall-to-wall basketball. You get to watch Cinderella teams make a run, you see buzzer-beaters, and you get the chance to make some money, too.”

Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker kicks the ball for kickoff at Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/ANGELA WEISS/TNS