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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Thursday, June 30, 2016
Friends, colleagues laud Saxton
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
The verdict was handed down emphatically Wednesday afternoon. Judge Thomas Saxton — a courtroom mainstay for more than a generation — will be missed. Saxton is retiring this week, putting an end to his 27-year career as magistrate judge for the 31st Judicial District, and the past 25 years as Iola Municipal Court judge. He was honored Wednesday with a District Courtroom packed with family, friends, fellow judges, attorneys and other well-wishers. “I have told anyone who will listen to me for the last many, many years, there’s no better magistrate in the state,” decreed Judge David Rogers, Fredonia. “I’ve known Tom since he went on the bench, and as great of a magistrate and a judge he is, he’s a better friend.” Rogers’ comments were echoed by Justice Lee Johnson of the Kansas Supreme Court, who lauded Saxton’s efforts in helping shape juvenile law, and how those efforts recently were recog-
Judge OKs voter registration rules By ROXANA HEGEMAN The Associated Press
Retiring Magistrate Judge Thomas Saxton holds aloft a gift he received from the 31st Judicial District and Allen County Bar Association during a ceremony Wednesday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN nized by the District Magistrate Judges Association. Saxton has worked to protect Kansas’ most vulnerable residents — its children, Johnson said. “It seems rather inade-
quate to present a plaque for all that loyal and true service to the state. If it were up to me, I’d have a gold watch or a silver plate,” Johnson joked. “But in a state that pays its trial judges the lowest sala-
ries in the nation.... it tells you that Tom has done this out of a desire for public service,” Johnson said, “and not for monetary gain.” Allen County District See JUDGE | Page A5
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Residents of Kansas, Georgia and Alabama will have to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote Judge for federal Richard Leon elections using a national form, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided against a coalition of voting rights groups that sued a U.S. elections official who changed the proof-of-citizenship requirements on the federal registration form at the request of the three states and without public notice. Residents of other states only See VOTERS | Page A5
Others may follow Britain’s departure By BARRY HATTON The Associated Press
It took 37,000 Lego pieces to create an Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. LEWIS GINTER BOTANICAL GARDEN PHOTO/TNS
Legos, nature merge By KATHY VAN MULLEKOM Newport News, Va. (TNS)
The big bumblebee weighs 60 pounds. The dramatic dragonfly features a 3½-feet wingspan. A regal red rose stands seven feet tall. They and 24 more eyecatching sculptures are a child’s dream come true because all are made with Lego Bricks and on display at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va., through Sept. 18. The exhibit’s centerpiece sculpture is an Eastern tiger swallowtail, built from 37,000 Lego pieces, that highlights the habitat of Virginia’s state insect. Besides giving you many feel-good moments, each sculpture offers visitors a message about plants that thrive in the garden and can be grown at home.
A seven-foot rose “blooms” at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. LEWIS GINTER BOTANICAL GARDEN PHOTO/TNS
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 173
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Disenchantment with the European Union is not limited to British voters who opted to leave the bloc. Across the continent, anti-EU sentiment is bubbling up, fueled by farright movements and others unhappy about government spending cuts, the influx of migrants and other policies overseen from the 28-nation bloc’s headquarters in Brussels. Some political parties are offering to fight the cause of those disgruntled voters in upcoming national elections — while a few far-right groups are demanding a ballot in their own countries on whether to follow the United Kingdom out of the EU door. That prospect is sending a shudder through top EU officials because it could propel a process where the bloc breaks up or collapses as fast as an Arctic ice sheet, wrecking Europe’s delicate postwar balance. “Will Britain’s shock vote to leave the (EU) embolden populists elsewhere in Europe? That has become the key question for Europe,” Holger Schmieding, the chief economist at German bank Berenberg, wrote in an analysis. France’s far-right National Front lost no time in claiming that the U.K. referendum outcome was an emphatic endorsement for the proposals it has been putting forward for years. The nationalist
party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, posted a Union Jack photo on her Facebook page when the result came out last week, saying, “The United Kingdom has started a movement that will not stop.” She told the European Parliament on Tuesday: “I believe the consequences (of the U.K. vote) can only be positive ... the people can only gain from getting back their independence, a democratic process and control of their destiny.” Le Pen predicts that Europe’s future shape will now
be a central issue in campaigning for the French presidential election in about a year’s time. Numerous polls have shown her reaching a runoff against a mainstream candidate. The British decision to leave was also met with joy by Dutch firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam and euroskeptic Freedom Party is riding high in polls ahead of a general election next year. “We want to be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders, and our own immigration policy,” Wilders said, pledging to hold a referendum on EU membership if he takes power. “Let the Dutch people decide.” Eager to nip such talk in the bud, EU leaders are taking a tough line with the See EU | Page A5
British more negative on EU The European Union has never been as popular in the United Kingdom as it has been among other EU members. % Favorable view of EU
78%
52%
France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain median 60% 58% 54% 52%
45%
63% 50% 51%
43% United Kingdom
44%
0 2007
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Source: Pew Research Center Graphic: Staff, Tribune News Service
“It is always brave to say what everybody thinks.” — George Duhamel , French author 75 Cents
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