Opinion: Missouri looks at horse meat See B1
2017 1867
Sports: Cubs’ Hoepker named to all-star game See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Failure to repeal ACA could pave way to expansion By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Legislators and advocates in Kansas pushing to expand the state’s health coverage for the poor to thousands of adults are buoyed by the failure of Republicans in Washington to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
The GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature already was more receptive this year to ex-
panding the state’s Medicaid program, thanks to elections last year that put more moderates and liberals in office. The state Senate gave an expansion bill first-round approval Monday, 25-13, and planned to take a final vote Tuesday to determine whether it goes to conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, who represents Allen
County, was absent and did not vote on the measure. Obama’s Affordable Care Act encouraged states to increase the number of people eligible for Medicaid by promising to pay most of the costs. Some states where Republicans hold power had been reluctant to do so, but 31 states, including some led by GOP governors, have expanded Medicaid. Other states now
pursuing expansion include Maine, North Carolina and Virginia. The effort in Kansas could prove largely symbolic because Republican legislators remain deeply divided and Brownback is a longstanding critic of health care policies championed by Obama, a Democrat. Yet supporters See MEDICAID | Page A3
DITCHING STEREOTYPES Sanchez touts work ethic, persistence
do not know what you are going to do from one day to another,” Sanchez said. “You might be out in the pouring rain, you might be out in the snow and sleet. You are doing anything from mowing grass to being knee deep in a sewer.” Being a female of Hispanic heritage, Sanchez went to work with two crosses to bear. This motivated her to work extra hard because she felt she needed to prove herself. Often she felt that her male counterparts would test her to see if she could live up to the high physical demands of the job, she said. Not only was she able to live up to the demands, but she also worked her way up the ladder. “We are all considered to be maintenance workers, just different levels until you get to be lead maintenance and then foreman,” Sanchez said. In addition to making reports and inspections, Sanchez supervises a yearround crew of six men. Any man who thinks he’s going to make excuses for why he cannot complete a task does not stand a chance, she said. She has done everything she asks the men to do. “Most people who apply here either know I work here or know someone who knows me so they know how
By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — March is National Women’s History Month. The 2017 theme honors women who have successfully challenged the traditional role of women in the workplace. Patricia Sanchez, 56, Humboldt, is a local woman who has not only challenged the role of women in the paid labor force but also challenged herself to go outside her comfort level. Sanchez is employed in Humboldt’s Public Works department and as the town’s Utility Foreman. Although most of the area residents are accustomed to seeing Sanchez down in a ditch, checking gas meters or directing a construction crew, they might be surprised to know how long she has been doing it. This April marks her 36th year of employment. Sanchez started out in 1980 on a sanitation truck. She grew up with four broth-
Being a female of Hispanic heritage, Patricia Sanchez went to work in the 1980s with two crosses to bear. Sanchez said this motivated her to work extra hard because she felt she needed to prove herself. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY ers and often helped her dad, Abel Sanchez, a foreman at Monarch Cement Company, with small construction jobs. She considered herself to be a tomboy and enjoyed playing softball. Graduating from high school in 1978, she was not sure what she wanted to do. She just knew
she did not want to attend college, she said. After fumbling with short-term jobs for a few years she landed the job in Humboldt. But Sanchez did not take the easy way out. She started out in the trenches right alongside all of the men. “This is not a factory, you
See SANCHEZ | Page A3
257 goes for smoothies By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
Purple Monster. Green Slime. Apple pie. Blueberry-banana. Strawberrybanana. Berry-banana. Also, Green Monster and cranberry-orange. These are a few of the smoothies on offer to Iola middle- and high-schoolers this year, according to OPAA! food service director Brian Donovan, who described for the USD 257 Board of Education on Monday the ways a grant from the Midwest Dairy Council has afforded the district a new, top-shelf “smoothie program.” The $6,000 blendered-beverage grant, explained Donovan, allowed for the purchase of two commercial blenders and four carafes. The middle school kitchen
currently makes, on average, 16 breakfast-hour smoothies per day. At the high school, where about 32 smoothies churn to life daily, the drinks are available for breakfast as well as on a “grab and go” basis at midday. Each smoothie is required to contain at least one-half cup of fruit and either yogurt or milk. “Apple pie has been a favorite at the high school,” said Donovan, “as has Green Slime.” Green Slime See 257 | Page A3
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 106
Devin Nunes
Pressure builds on Nunes WASHINGTON (AP) — House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes faced growing calls Tuesday to step away from the panel’s Russia investigation as revelations about a secret source meeting on White House grounds raised questions about his and the panel’s independence.
Nunes acknowledged Monday that he reviewed intelligence reports at the White House complex and met a secret source behind his statement that communications involving associates of President Donald Trump were caught up in
“Faith is spiritualized imagination.”
See NUNES | Page A3
— Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (1813-1887) 75 Cents
Austin Sigg
Sigg resigns council position By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Iola City Councilman Austin Sigg, who represents the city’s Third Ward, announced his resignation Monday from the Council. Sigg and his family are moving out of the ward, he explained, thus making him ineligible to retain his seat. “I’d like to thank everybody for the experience I’ve had,” Sigg said at Monday’s meeting. “It’s been a good time.” Iola’s Third Ward covers much of the southwest quadrant of town. A replacement will be appointed by Mayor Joel Wicoff, and is subject to approval from the remaining Council members. Sigg, a supply sergeant for the National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion in Iola, was elected to a four-year term over incumbent Gene Myrick in April 2015. COUNCIL members approved a request for a group of bicycle enthusiasts to camp overnight at Iola’s Riverside Park the weekend of April 29. The campout will coincide with the opening of a Velo Plus bicycle shop in town that day. Owners of another Velo Plus shop in Lenexa and others will ride to Iola that weekend. Damaris Kunkler, proSee IOLA | Page A6
Hi: 63 Lo: 52 Iola, KS