Big 12 hoops: Challengers vie to supplant Jayhawks at top.
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
www.iolaregister.com
The gift of giving By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
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A Christmas Eve “after hours” at Santa’s Toy Shop in downtown Iola provided families in dire straits an opportunity to take as many gifts as desired. Clockwise from left, Abby Martin, Chanute, points to something that has caught her eye. Behind her is her brother, Ian, and parents Rebecca and Danny Martin. The Martins were selecting toys for neighbors. Above, Nicole Reed is loaded down with toys for a friend. In back is Monica Catron, also selecting toys for a family new to Iola. Below, John Cox visits with Karen Culver about the appropriate gift for friends. Santa’s elves Tracy Keagle, left, and Georgia Masterson helped gather up gifts.
fter the doors officially closed at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Santa’s Toy Shop remained open to host families whose budgets did not allow for even the smallest of gifts. Only a handful appeared, some, in fact, were friends seeking gifts for those they knew were in dire straits. Monica Catron and John Cox came in search of toys suitable for friends who recently moved to Iola from Nebraska. “They weren’t going to have Christmas,” Catron said of the couple and their three children, ages 15, 12 and 2. “The mom works at Pizza Hut in Garnett. Half of her paycheck goes for gas,” Catron said. Their father is a severe diabetic who has had to be transferred to Olathe twice in the past week for severe reactions. For these people and the others who came “after hours,” there were no limits, per order of Tracy Keagle, organizer of the free giftgiveaway. Catron and Cox took their time selecting from a wide array of toys and games that lined the walls as Keagle and her “elves,” Karen Culver, Georgia Masterson and Karla Ingroum, filled their bags. Santa was still on site, giving no sign he may have other matters more pressing. THOUGH the parents of seven children, Rebecca and Denny Martin, Chanute, See GIVING | Page A3
GOP vexed by factions Colyer: Visibility, speculation grow in Topeka on replacing health law By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are united on repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law, but ideologically and practically speaking, they’re in different camps over replacing it. Getting the factions together won’t be easy. Some Republicans would revise and rebrand “Obamacare,” junking unpopular provisions like its requirement that most Americans carry health insurance, while preserving more popular provisions. Others would rip up the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, and not replace it. President-elect Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders will have to unite the groups on complicated changes affecting the financial and physical well-being of millions of people. For some constituents in fragile health, it’s literally a life-and-death debate. Republicans have “a really narrow path,” says GraceMarie Turner of the Galen Institute, a free-market health care research organization. “They’ve got to deal with the
An AP News Analysis Ricardo Alons-Zaldivar
politics of this, they’ve got to make sure they come up with good policy, and they also have process challenges.” Success is not guaranteed, and Republicans may come to regret that their party defined itself as totally opposed to “Obamacare.” Yet House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady seems unfazed by the challenge. “It’s like tax reform,” the Texas Republican says, explaining that many pieces See ACA | Page A3
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 42
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Jeff Colyer says his job description as Kansas lieutenant governor requires him to be ready to take over as governor at any time and he’s gotten more attention in recent weeks because “the context has changed.” Legislative leaders in both parties said they’ve had more contact with Colyer recently than in the past. Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, told reporters this month that fellow legislators believe GOP Gov. Sam Brownback is “looking for a ticket to D.C.” — a job with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Brownback, who is term-limited and cannot run again in 2018, isn’t commenting, and there’s no indication he’s talked to Trump or the businessman’s top aides about a job. But incoming House Majority Leader Don Hineman said Colyer’s visibility has “amped up a little
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer bit,” including getting text messages from him. “We all tend to read into that, that maybe he will be governor sometime within the next two years,” said Hineman, a Dighton Republican. The 56-year-old Colyer is a plastic surgeon who has helped fellow GOP conservatives shape health care policy for nearly a decade and still makes time for international
“Money often costs too much.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson 75 Cents
medical relief missions in war or disaster zones. He discounts talk that he’s prepping to be elevated to governor, describing himself as the state’s chief operating officer to Brownback’s CEO — or maybe more like “Star Trek.” “It’s kind of like Kirk and Spock. I’m his first officer,” he said during an Associated See COLYER | Page A2
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