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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Thursday, March 26, 2015
Kansas to join states allowing concealed guns without permit By JOHN HANNA Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is poised to join a handful of other states that allow their residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit after the Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to a bill backed by the National Rifle Association. The measure was headed to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback despite some lawmakers’ misgivings about the state dropping its requirement that anyone seeking to carry a concealed firearm undergo at least eight hours of training. Brownback’s office didn’t say what his plans are, but he’s signed every other major gun-rights measure sent to him since taking office in January 2011. Kansas would become the fifth state to allow concealed
carry without a permit everywhere within its borders, according to the NRA. “Carrying a gun is a lifestyle,” said Republican Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady. “The government should trust its citizens.” The House approved the bill Wednesday on an 8539 vote. The Senate passed it last month, but a House committee made a technical change that senators had to review. The Senate signed off, 31-8, about two hours after the House’s vote. The House also approved, 100-24, a bill prohibiting cities and counties from imposing special fees and taxes on guns or gun sales. It would follow up on a law last year aimed at nullifying local restrictions and goes to the Senate. All states allow some See PERMITS | Page A5
Terry Meadows, left, directs the community choir during a rehearsal Wednesday. The choir will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
Choir to perform Handel’s ‘Messiah’ By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
A music classic is making a come back to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. A community choir will perform George Frideric Handel’s “Easter Messiah” at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Bowlus auditorium. The hour-long concert will feature 41 singers and 12 bell
Kiwanis projects draw praise
Dave Hurrelbrink, Kiwanis’ Kansas district governor, talks to local Kiwanis members Tuesday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN The Iola trio represents the only Kansas service club invited to the White House event. Twenty-nine such clubs from across the nation will be represented.
“We have been laboring away as Kiwanis for a long time, 100 years in fact,” Hurrelbrink said, noting the organization was founded in See KIWANIS | Page A5
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate passed a $15.5 billion budget proposal Wednesday, but lawmakers won’t take steps to balance it until late April. Spending cuts in the Senate’s budget, along with transfers from other funds, erase most of the state’s nearly $600 million shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1, but the budget would still come up about $130 million short without tax increases. Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Republican from Nickerson, said that approving the budget, which passed on a 26-13 vote, would help focus discussions on what revenue adjustments can be made to fill the remaining hole. “All the pieces to the puzzle are laying out there on the table for us, and from here on out we spend our considerable talents, I think,
trying to put them together and get the best policy we can,” Bruce said. One piece is an increase to alcohol and tobacco taxes proposed by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback amounting to $1.50 more per pack of cigarettes, while taxes on other tobacco products would increase to 25 percent from 10 percent and the tax on alcohol at liquor stores would jump to 12 percent from 8 percent. This is projected to raise a total of $394 million over two years. Other proposals would offer an amnesty that waives penalties for people who owe back taxes, eliminate sales tax exemptions and impose excise taxes on renewable energy production. The House has not yet voted on a budget bill. Republican Sen. Les Donovan of Wichita, who chairs See BUDGET | Page A5
1 killed by tornadoes in Okla., Ark.
Miller will head to State Geographic Bee John Miller, an eighthgrader at Iola Middle School, will be in Abilene Friday to compete in the State Geographic Bee. Miller competed recently along with 50 other IMS students in a written test. He was the only local qualifier. He will compete with 99 other students at Abilene’s Eisenhower Center.
music instructor, and will be accompanied on piano by Ted Clous, Allen Community College music director. Soloists will be Shelly Meadows, soprano, Bob Horn, tenor, Greta Adams, soprano, Russ Valeir, bass, and John Works, bass. The concert is open to the public, but patrons are welcome to make a donation at the doors.
Senate OKs budget, still not in balance
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
For all of their virtues, Kiwanis Club members tend to fall short in one area, Dave Hurrelbrink said Tuesday — self promotion. “We don’t really beat our own drum very often,” said Hurrelbrink, Kiwanis’ Kansas district governor. “We’re just nice guys and gals, and brought up that way, where you don’t boast and you don’t brag and you don’t tell people what a great job you did. But it’s time we did.” Hurrelbrink was at Tuesday’s Iola Kiwanis meeting to recognize the club’s involvement with the new handicapaccessible playground in Riverside Park. That project has been noticed at the national level. Iola Kiwanis President Chris Stevens and Kiwanians Mike and Nancy Ford will attend a community leadership briefing in Washington, D.C., April 26.
players. Bowlus executive director, Susan Raines, said participants are from Iola, Humboldt, Fort Scott and Moran. “We wanted to honor the original history of the concert,” Raines said. The Bowlus hasn’t hosted the “Messiah” concert since the late 1960s. The ensemble is directed by Terry Meadows, USD 258
John Miller
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 101
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — The slow start to the nation’s tornado season came to a violent end Wednesday, when tornadoes raked Tulsa during its evening rush hour, killing one person and injuring others. Tulsa County Sheriff ’s Capt. Billy McKelvey said one person was killed in a mobile home park near suburban Sand Springs that was nearly destroyed Wednesday amid severe weather. It wasn’t yet clear whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds that hit the park, which McKelvey said could accommodate 40
to 50 trailers. McKelvey said he believed at least 15 people were hurt, but he did not have an exact number yet. “It could have been much worse,” he said. Tornadoes were seen elsewhere in Oklahoma, as well as in Arkansas, but no injuries were reported from those. A small tornado swept across parts of Moore, an Oklahoma City suburb where 24 people died in a top-of-thescale EF5 tornado in 2013. Other twisters formed along a line from southwest of Oklahoma City to east of Tulsa,
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” — Judy Garland 75 Cents
and some touched down in the Ozark Mountains of northwestern Arkansas. Until Tuesday, when a waterspout formed over an Arkansas lake, the U.S. hadn’t had a tornado in more than a month. Television video Wednesday evening showed roof damage in a Moore neighborhood — the Moore storm two years ago scraped lots to their foundations. A glass door at the Tulsa building that houses the National Weather Service ofSee TORNADO | Page A5
Hi: 58 Lo: 34 Iola, KS