Saturday, November 28, 2020
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COVID 101: The college experience
Crest players earn league honors
By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
The Class of 2020 faced a most unusual end of their high school years because of the coronavirus pandemic. For those who went on to college, what followed was an even more unusual beginning. The Register caught up with three graduates — Isabella Duke and Haley Carlin from Iola High School and Julianna Sprague from Marmaton Valley High School — to recap their first semester away. Their experiences were quite different, as colleges have adjusted to the pandemic in various ways. Each of the students have learned to adapt, just as they did since the pandemic first disrupted their schooling back in March. Isabella Duke
Isabella Duke made significant changes as she prepared
Trump pardons Flynn By ERIC TUCKER The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, ending a yearslong prosecution in the R u s s i a investig ation that saw Flynn twice plead Michael Flynn guilty to lying to the FBI and then reverse himself before the Justice Department stepped in to dismiss his case. “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted. “Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!” The pardon, in the waning weeks of Trump’s single term, is part of a broader effort by Trump to undo the results of a Russia investigation that shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half-dozen associates. It comes just months after the president commuted the sentence of another associate, Roger Stone, days before he was to reSee PARDON | Page A7
Vol. 122, No. 276 Iola, KS 75 Cents
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COVID ends snow days in Kansas
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Isabella Duke in Lawrence.
Haley Carlin at Washburn University.
Julianna Sprague at Fort Scott Community College.
Real Christmas trees now more popular PAGE A4
for classes at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. First, she landed a job at Walgreens and moved to an off-campus apartment with her dog, Toby, an Australian shepherd mix.
Duke greeted the change to live independently with determination. Even so, she looked forward to classes beginning and becoming part of a larger community. In high school, Duke was very involved with
extracurricular activities including FFA, forensics and theater. She also served as an intern with the Chamber of Commerce. Before classes began she
Churches alleviate medical debt
See COLLEGE | Page A3
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Follow your guiding star By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
Move over NASA, Humboldt has got its very own astrophotographer. Mike Myer has called Allen County home for almost five decades, and currently works in the shipping department at Monarch Cement, but his newest passion is recording images of deep space and the night sky. His love for cosmic things began early, becoming enthralled while watching the space race, in particular, when U.S. astronauts embarked on the Apollo missions. “I was nine years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon,” he said. “I got to stay up late that night and watch him on T.V.” He also remembered drawing pictures of Jupiter when he was young, and cared enough about the details so as to include its four visible moons. Not long after, Myer ordered his first telescope from the Sears store in downtown Iola, which he recalled had his name emblazoned on it. “I’ve owned a telescope of some kind for 50 years,” he said. Years later, Myer has gone far beyond a mere casual observer, and has even been honored by the Astronomical League as the 23rd person in the world to earn a Master Observers Certificate. TODAY Myer uses two main telescopes powerful enough to pick up objects like planets and gas clouds, some of which are outside our own Milky Way galaxy.
Mike Myer leans on his Starmaster telescope, which he’s been using to photograph planets. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG The physically larger of the two scopes, the Starmaster, Myer has been using to snap images of objects like Saturn. He procured the reflective machine from a former engineer living in Fort Scott, which features an enormous 20-inch mirror in the back. “It’s more of a video camera,” Myer explained, as they weren’t really designed with photography in mind. In order to capture an image of something like Saturn, then, the telescope records something like 1,000 shots in a row, which can later be compressed together using a laptop. Indeed, digital imaging and compression tools have al-
A photo of a red gas cloud. COURTESY OF MIKE MYER lowed “everyday” viewers to really step up their astronomical game, whereas before the necessary equipment would have filled an entire house or garage.
Part of this increased functionally is observed in how Myer’s machine can track an object across the sky as it See STARS | Page A7
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