Homecoming: Iola set to battle old foe.
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Congress approves 10-week budget
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, left, visits with Chanute attorney Jeb Griebat Tuesday evening at a dinner at Miller's On Madison in Iola. REGISTER/SUSAN LYNN
JUSTICE FOR ALL Supreme Court justices pay visit to Iola
By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
Justice Marla Luckert may have won over a few fans Tuesday afternoon when she told a gathering of high school seniors, “I’m a nerd. I love to do research and write, which is one reason I love my job.” Luckert is senior justice on the Kansas Supreme Court. She and Chief Justice Lawton Nuss were in Iola for
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Marla Luckert presents Chuck Apt, Iola attorney, an award for his services to the Kansas legal system.
the greater part of the day and into the evening to meet with students from seven area high schools and members of the public to discuss their roles on the High Court. For the students, the hourlong session included a brief overview of the court system as well as a mock trial regarding an actual case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The students interacted with the justices, showing they were up to snuff in their civics lessons. Luckert explained how the three branches of government help guard against a concentration of power in one over another. Luckert referred to James Madison, an author of the U.S. Constitution, who argued for the system saying, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” so pure would their every motive be. “But experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” Luckert described the responsibilities of each branch as thus; the executive, the sword; the legislative, the purse; and the judiciary, as an arbiter of the law.
MORE AND more cases come the way of the Kansas Supreme Court, said Nuss. Last year, the justices reviewed about 900 cases of which they agreed to hear 73. In Nuss and Luckert’s tenure, they have heard about 3,000 cases, he said. Of those only six have been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nuss was first appointed to the high court in 2002 and became Chief Justice in 2010. Luckert was appointed in 2003. The justices maintain Kansas has a superior system of nominating and retaining judges. Currently a commission nominates three to the court with the governor getting the final say. The nominating commission is comprised of nine members, five are attorneys and four are non-attorneys, representing the state’s four congressional districts. The governor appoints the lay members while attorneys select among their peers the other spots. The fifth attorney comes from a statewide vote of attorneys. Fans of the process say it allows for wide representaSee COURT | Page A5
WASHINGTON (AP) — Acutely partisan and all but dysfunctional, Congress has completed its most elementary task after an intense weekslong struggle, finalizing a deal to fund the government just See related days ahead of news on A6 a shutdown deadline. The legislation extends existing spending levels a mere 10 weeks, past Election Day, while finally addressing the Zika crisis with $1.1 billion and providing longsought help for the residents of Flint, Michigan, as well as flood victims in Louisiana. After a last-minute burst of deal-making, the legislation passed the Senate on a 7226 vote Wednesday and was backed by the House 342-85 in a late-night vote Wednesday. It was a conclusion in sight and within reach since lawmakers returned from their summer recess just after Labor Day. But with the Capitol awash in election-year politics and shadowed by the contentious presidential race and engulfed in a fierce battle for control of the Senate, the simplest task became a nearly impossible heavy lift impeded by needless delays and bitter finger-pointing. Republicans, defending a fragile Senate majority and eager to get a handful of vulnerable incumbents back home to campaign for re-election, accused Minority Leader Harry Reid of holding up a deal to keep GOP lawmakers off the campaign trail. “The Democrats are determined to keep us here as long as they can,” groused one atrisk Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Democrats denied it but lobbed their own allegations, all but accusing Republicans of racism for holding up money for people affected by lead-tainted water in predominantly black Flint, the final sticking point in the talks. “All they’d have to do is put See CONGRESS | Page A3
Report: Kansas' cash reserves would last only two days TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A recent study says the Kansas government could run on its cash reserves for only two days. The Wichita Eagle reports that Pew Charitable Trusts analyzed cash reserves for all states at the end of the most recent fiscal years and estimated how long state government could continue to function if it relied on those reserves. Kansas ended the 2016 fiscal year in June with a
$35 million balance, equivalent to about two days. The study says the average state has about 29.2 days of reserve funds. Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said the study reflects a steep drop-off in the oil and agriculture economies. Hawley said other states with similar economies have also experienced declines in their state reserve funds, however each of the states she named has reserves that
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would last beyond the 29day national average with the exception of Oklahoma at 13.3 days. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since GOP lawmakers cut personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging, hoping to stimulate the economy. The state’s tax collections have fallen short of expectations for 10 of the past 12 months. Hawley said the Pew report “does not reflect how the administration
has saved KPERS (the state’s pension system) from bankruptcy, invested in roads resulting in top national rankings, and invested more in K-12 education than ever before, all while returning money to pockets of hardworking Kansans.” “It’s frightening,” Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, DKansas City, said. “It’s absolutely frightening that we only have two days of reserves if some kind of catastrophe hit.”
“Success is the sum of small efforts — repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier, American writer, 1885-1950 75 Cents
Hi: 72 Lo: 49 Iola, KS