Sports: KC’s Kennedy has injury scare See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Lawmakers eye plans for budget shortfall fixes
Gap could be $200 million by year’s end By JIM MCLEAN KHI News Service
The Kansas Statehouse is relatively quiet these days. Only the arrival of the occasional busload of school children disturbs the calm. That will change when lawmakers return April 27 to face what is expected to be more bad news about the budget. Legislative leaders are hoping to finish their wrapup session in a matter of days. But many involved in the process say that could be wishful thinking given a lack of consensus on how to balance the state budget in the face of continuing revenue shortfalls. Tax receipts were $54 million below official estimates in February, and lawmakers are bracing for more bad news this week when the March numbers are revealed. Also, Shawn Sullivan, the governor’s budget director, expects the consensus revenue estimating group to once again lower its revenue targets at a meet-
The Allen County Animal Rescue Facility is coordinating a shoe drive as a fundraiser to erect outdoor exercise pens at the shelter in LaHarpe. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Shelter kicks off shoe drive By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Those old penny loafers might be worth a pretty penny to ACARF. Same goes for those sneakers, hiking boots, heels and other assorted footware. The Allen County Animal Rescue Facility has launched a two-month shoe drive, with the hopes of raising funds to add outdoor exercise pens at the LaHarpe-based shelter. As ACARF director Janice Porter explains, the shelter will earn funds based on the number of pairs of shoes collected through Funds2Orgs, an international organization
that helps impoverished people start, maintain and grow businesses in third-world countries. “We estimate that for every 25 pairs of shoes we collect, that’s enough to feed one dog for a week,” Porter said. No, the dogs don’t actually feast on the shoes. Rather, they’re “sold” to Funds2Orgs, and then donated to the young entrepreneurs.
The styles of footware doesn’t matter. “It just has to be a pair of shoes you think somebody would want to buy,” Porter said. The shoes can be donated at ACARF on the east edge of LaHarpe, or at ACARF’s Second Chance thrift store at 209 South St. in Iola. In addition, volunteers have set up a number of “pickup days” in Humboldt, Moran and Yates Center, starting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Orscheln Farm and Home in Iola. Other pickups: See SHOES | Page A5
Cleanup Week deadline is Friday Iolans have until noon Friday to call in to have items picked up during the city’s annual Spring Cleanup Week. Call 365-4903 in order to notify the city of items to be retrieved. The items — such as yard debris, freon-free appliances, furniture, small lumber and other miscellaneous objects — must be placed by the street or alley by 6 a.m. Monday. City officials ask that yard waste be kept separate from household items. The city will not pick up tires, auto parts, hazardous materials, wet or lead-based paint, ammunition, demolition or construction debris. If any of those items are mixed with the regular debris, the city will not pick up at that address. Cleanup Week is scheduled to run through April 8.
ing on April 20. “I would expect — and I think anybody who sees the balance sheet and the revenues coming in (would expect) — that it will be decreased further,” Sullivan said on a recent edition of Statehouse Blend, a podcast produced by Kansas City public radio station KCUR. Rep. Steven Johnson, a Republican from Assaria and a key member of the House tax committee, said he is expecting revenue shortfalls in each of the final three months of the fiscal year: April, May and June. “That’s what we’re hearing,” Johnson said, adding that he’s been warned to expect a total shortfall as large as $200 million by the end of this fiscal year. “I think a number of us are saying, ‘How do we plan if we are at a negative $200 million? What do we do?’” he said. “The prudent thing is to have a plan. The further See REVENUES | Page A2
Trump under fire for abortion comments
Near misses
A series of severe thunderstorms that rumbled through southeast Kansas and beyond sparked tornado warnings in Oklahoma and a ferocious hailstorm in Coffeyville, but largely missed Iola and Allen County Wednesday. Even so, the storms brought a spectacular view of some wicked cloud cover, including this site near Gas along U.S. 54. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Injury reports follow Tulsa twisters TULSA, Okla. (AP) — At least seven people were injured and authorities were evaluating damage that included a destroyed home after severe storms spawned multiple tornado touchdowns in northeastern Oklahoma on Wednesday night, authorities said. National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Jankowski said a tornado touched down and lifted up numerous
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 108
times as it swept through the northern Tulsa and Owasso areas. About one square mile of a mostly residential area sustained “heavy damage,” Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Stan May said. One home was destroyed and other residences and businesses sustained roof and structural damage, he said. Police and fire officials were going door to door in
the area to make sure everyone was accounted for. There were no immediate reports of anyone missing, May said. “We want to check each house,” he said. “We’ve got some elderly people in the area. We want to make sure people have the medicines they need.” Emergency Medical Services Authority, an amSee STORMS | Page A6
“Men willingly believe what they wish.”
— Julius Ceasar 75 Cents
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump is fighting to convince a skeptical Re publican Party he can improve his standing among women, even as he takes back Donald Trump an explosive comment about abortion and attacks the credibility of a female reporter police say was illegally grabbed by the GOP front-runner’s campaign manager. It took Trump’s campaign just hours to backtrack on Wednesday after he said that should abortion become illegal, women who undergo the procedure should face “some sort of punishment.” The plan sparked an immediate backlash from both sides of the debate, prompting Trump to release two statements clarifying his poSee TRUMP | Page A5
Hi: 64 Lo: 39 Iola, KS