Locally owned since 1867
Monday, July 26, 2021
iolaregister.com
Fair wraps up
Tough loss ends season for Indians
The Allen County Fair week ended with the livestock auction on Sunday night. At left, Charley Kerr talks with judge Carly Wigton about her rabbit during competition at the Allen County Fair. Below, Raveyn Kegler celebrates after winning grand champion dairy goat in her division at the Allen County Fair. REGISTER/
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TREVOR HOAG
Fauci: COVID booster shots may be ahead By LINUS CHAU and YUEQI YANG Bloomberg News (TNS)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is moving in the “wrong direction” in combating a new wave of COVID-19, and a booster vaccine shot may be needed especially for the most vulnerable, said Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. With half of the country still not fully vaccinated, and with a new spread fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, the U.S. faces a worst-case scenario of daily deaths reaching 4,000, the same See COVID | Page A4
Carly Dreher sold her grand champion market steer to Twin Motors Ford for a premium of $3,000. From left, Tim Henry, Teresa Henry, Barney Barnett, representing Twin Motors, and Dreher. Twin motors has been a 4-H sponsor for over 35 years. REGISTER/
A contestant takes his turn at mutton busting during Friday night’s event. Local youth attempted to ride sheep both Friday and Saturday before the start of the Bull Bash (see photo on B1). REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
VICKIE MOSS
Fighting boredom at the fort Kansas refugees puzzled about child tax credit
Trevor Hoag
By DAVID CONDOS Kansas News Service
Just Prairie Monotonous ... The plains perfectly still as the clock strikes slowly. Such was early life at Fort Scott for most soldiers, who were cranky from living in tents, and with only the occasional prostitute or whisky-peddler to liven things up. Many of the officers had brought personal slaves with them, but they were focused primarily on their unpleasant labors as opposed to entertaining anyone. Hence the grog shop just across the Missouri border was a constant temptation, with soldiers often going AWOL while drinking at the joint. In fact, desertions ranged as high as 16 percent, thanks to boredom, bad pay and outright hatred for military life. As for those who remained, in the words of Capt. Thomas Swords, “wolf chasing and duck hunting” were about the only way to stay sane. THE fort’s story stretches clear back to April 1842, when soldiers first arrived on the spot from Fort Wayne to the south in “Oklahoma” (aka Indian Territory). It was chris-
The Fort Scott Historic Site is a historical area under the control of the U.S. National Park Service in Bourbon County. At right, Capt. Thomas Swords said the only way to stay sane at Fort Scott was through “wolf chasing and duck hunting.” tened for General Winfield Scott, who himself was nicknamed “Old Fuss and Feathers,” given an insistence on military decorum. The Cherokee didn’t care to have Fort Wayne so close in proximity to their territorial lands, which had precipitated the relocation efforts, along with the desire to provide settlers and Native people some measure of mutual protection from one another. The Osage, for example, had been conducting raids in
response to white encroachment throughout the area, and the situation had become increasingly violent. Oddly enough, though, the fort itself didn’t have defensive walls, as the wide-open See FORT | Page A4
Congress OK’d the spending of trillions in pandemic relief to resuscitate the economy, part of it directed at lifting tens of millions of children out of poverty. But money coming in advance child tax credits often doesn’t find its way to refugees in southwest Kansas, or when it does, they’re confused about what’s landed in their mailboxes or checking accounts. Elama Mohamud, a Somali-American mother of two in Garden City, said people in her community don’t know what to do. “Some people don’t watch news or they don’t understand the English,” Mohamud said. “So, abruptly, they just get this money, and it’s like, ‘What!?’” She’s gotten several anxious calls from other people in local Somali and Congolese refugee communities caught off guard by the payments. “There’s a lot of rumors going around,” Mohamud said. “There’s a lot of confusion here.” Some of her neighbors are worried the checks could be some kind of scam. Others think the payments might
The White House mailed a letter explaining the advance child tax credit to families who would receive it, but it's only in English and Spanish. DAVID CONDOS/KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
be part of a low-income assistance program that’s separate from their tax returns entirely. There’s also some confusion about how many monthly payments they’ll receive and if they’ll need to pay that money back at some point. The payments are an advance on half of the child tax credit that families have historically received after they file their taxes each spring. The monthly payments are scheduled to run from now until December. The problem, Mohamed said, is that many refugees haven’t seen information See REFUGEES | Page A2
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