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Trump extends restrictions to April 30 A stream of cars parades down Bridge Street in downtown Humboldt Sunday as part of an effort to celebrate community while still practicing social distancing. A statewide stay-at-home order went into effect today. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE MYER
Kansans asked to stay at home By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — All 2.9 million Kansas residents were under a stay-athome order today imposed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly as the numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and COVID-19-related deaths continue to grow. Kansas joins nearly two dozen states in ordering residents to stay at home. The Kansas order was effective at 12:01 a.m. today and runs through April 19. “As governor I left the decision to local health departments for as long as possible,” Kelly said. She called the current “patchwork” of local orders problematic and said she believes the statewide order was necessary because Kansas “isn’t ready for the peak” of the pandemic. Kelly, a Democrat, issued the order for Kansas’ 2.9 million residents after at least 25 counties, including all of the state’s most popu-
Prep athletes earn all-state recognition
Online seminar for small businesses set for Friday
Small states ripe for coronavirus, CDC warns PAGE B2
Critical aunt causes hard feelings PAGE B3
See KELLY | Page A2
See SEMINAR | Page A2
Laney Hull, a sixth grader at Humboldt Middle School, picks up her belongings from teacher Darcie Croisant Sunday afternoon. Students across the state will begin doing their school work from home today because of the coronavirus pandemic. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
lous ones, issued their own stay-at-home orders. Kelly said the new order supersedes the local orders. The order directs people to stay at home except for essential business such as trips to the grocery store or to get medical care. Outdoor exercise is allowed as long as social distancing is main-
See TRUMP | Page A2
The time aliens stole my cow
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tained, Kelly said. “You can leave your house. You can still go outside. You are not under house arrest,” Kelly said. It helped Kelly’s case with the Republican-controlled Legislature that the exceptions in her order for “essen-
MANHATTAN – Officials of two lead Kansas agencies responding to the COVID-19 outbreak will provide info r m at i o n for small businesses David Toland online at 9:30 a.m. Friday, as part of K-State Research and Extension’s First Friday monthly webinar series. The call will be recorded and archived. The session, to be conducted via Zoom, is free and open to anyone inter-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through April, bowing to public health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding coronavirus pandemic. It was a stark shift in tone by the Re p u b l i c a n p r e s i d e n t , Donald Trump who only days ago mused about the country reopening in a few weeks. From the Rose Garden, he said his Easter revival hopes had only been “aspirational.” The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires today, and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic. He instead decided to extend them through April 30, a tacit acknowledgment he’d been too optimistic. Many states and local governments have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings. Trump’s impulse to reopen the country met a so-
ust when you think things can’t get any weirder, that’s when the aliens arrive. Or at least that’s what an old settler named Alexander Hamilton claimed happened at his ranch south of Vernon in 1897. He staked his sacred honor on it. Apparently the extraterrestrials stole and dismantled his prize heifer, which perhaps explains why even today the cattle at Hamilton’s pasture seemed jumpy. Everywhere you go in Woodson County, black Angus walk right up to the fence, looking for food. Here they appeared skittish, darting away as soon as I approached the barbed-wire. The entire herd repeatedly stampeded off as if they’d seen a ghost. Their owner, too, was wary, and demanded to know why I was parked by his pasture, carefully observing his
Trevor Hoag Just Prairie charges. ACCORDING to the Yates Center Farmer’s Advocate, on the night of the abduction Hamilton claimed he and his family had been awakened by panicked cries. Assuming it was merely his mischievous bulldog, Hamiliton went to the porch to scold him when he saw it: an enormous “airship descending over [the] cow lot about 50 rods from the house.” He swore the craft was 300 feet long, dark reddish in color and cigar-shaped. Hamilton and his son, along with other farm-workers, snatched up axes and
Hay bales flank the abandoned Vernon Rural High School. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG
sprinted toward the ship with its shining glass panels. It was then they saw “six of the strangest beings [they’d] ever seen,” communicating in a manner none of them could understand. As the farmers approached, the aliens shined their lights on the men, then
quickly accelerated the craft upward. As the ship ascended, it trailed a cable of sorts to the ground where it had snared an unsuspecting heifer, who balled and cried furiously as she was pulled from the See ALIENS | Page A4
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