www.iolaregister.com
Saturday, August 4, 2012
The Iola Register
State News
B5
Heat puts strain on water systems Voters eschew political labels When you have extreme temperatures and dryness, it wreaks havoc on our water system. When the soil shifts, our pipes tend to not shift with it. — Martha Tasker, Salina’s director of utilities
main breaks have been repaired in the city since the beginning of the year, with 33 repairs in July alone — more than any month since 2000. “We are already above our all-time high, which was 32 in December when it was cold and dry,” Tasker said. Tasker said the public often notifies city crews about water main breaks. “People often see water coming out of the ground and they call us,” Tasker said. “The other way we find them is if the water levels at the plant are going down, and not because of an increase in usage by the customer. We also see tower levels start to drop.” Between 2000 and Friday, the city has spent about $5.187 million fixing 1,482
water main breaks. The city averaged 125.2 breaks between 2000 and 2011, with the majority of the problems occurring prior to 2004. “We had a lot of problems in 2003 because of the water pressure in the pipes,” Tasker said. “When I came on in 2003, we started to pay more attention to the pressure and reduced the number of breaks.” Tasker said Salina is not the only town having problems with water main breaks. In 2011, Wichita had 802 breaks, Topeka had 786 and Hutchinson had 103. Aside from money, the breaks cause the city to lose water. “When we have breaks, we have 11 to 14 percent of water pumped through that pipe that goes unaccounted for,” Tasker said.
Identity theft ring discovered WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say they’ve found evidence of a significant identity theft operation. Police Lt. Clark Wiemeyer says a Sedgwick County sheriff ’s deputy found a half-dozen fake IDs and numerous stolen checkbooks when he stopped a car Wednesday.
The 35-year-old driver was arrested on an outstanding warrant. The deputy contacted Wichita police after discovering the fake IDs. Wiemeyer says thieves are stealing checkbooks or other forms of identification, then making fake IDs to use with the stolen checks.
Investigators found paper for making fraudulent checks at the homes of the driver and a second person. Wiemeyer says the suspects worked hard to make their IDs look authentic, and were also printing fake checks. The Wichita Eagle reported no one has been arrested.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Political labels don’t stick anymore. People are rapidly unpeeling them, claiming that a label simply can’t represent the full range of their political views in a society of growing complexities Dana Schifflett, a retired Air Force meteorologist from Newton, is a Republican who considered himself a conservative, but now doubts he was one. He had to come up with several labels to accurately describe his views. “I’m a fiscal conservative, a social moderate and a theological liberal,” Schifflett said, responding to an Eagle query conducted with the Public Insight Network, His thinking evolved with world events. Schifflett said Democrats made a Republican out of him when they couldn’t control their spending, lied to the country about Vietnam, and favored intrusive laws such a 55 mph speed limit, a helmet law for motorcyclists, and restrictive gun laws. But the Republicans wiped out the budget surplus of the 1990s quickly under George W. Bush, he said, and “have left me searching for my inner Democrat.” Larry Bennett of Wichita is a progressive Democrat, but his interest in long-term and structural solutions aligns him with conservatives, he said. He has begun to reject the assumption that we must choose between only two political options. Nor do we need to opt for the middle of the road, he said.
“Instead, we need to actively look for areas of agreement — even if they concern relatively small issues — and then work out from there to craft larger solutions, “ Bennett said. People he knows have misconceptions about him, he said. They tend to think he is on the “liberal team” and assume he is for higher taxes, or they assume he is on the conservative team because he defends the interests of small-business owners. “News flash. I am not on a team,” Bennett said. “My allegiance is to those who are trying to address the root causes of our problems.” “What we have in America today is a situation where active voters don’t know what label best describes themselves,” said Russell Arben Fox, associate professor of political science at Friends University. “It’s actually a struggle.” People didn’t need labels when the party system was strong and well integrated into the American life, he said. People knew what the Republican and Democratic parties stood for going all the way back to the Great Depression.
“
That changed in the 1960s and ’70s when events like Vietnam, Watergate and the counterculture movement caused people to reject identifying with political parties and start using labels such as liberal and conservative, instead. “Now we get into this complicated situation where if someone says they’re a conservative, you’re pretty certain they are Republican, and if they’re a liberal, they’re probably a Democrat. But if somebody supports a Republican candidate, are they doing it for conservative reasons, or for reasons that don’t quite fit into the conservative model? Maybe they’re moderate conservatives, or even liberal,” Fox said. It’s the same on the Democratic side, where Democrats can be moderate or even conservative on different issues, he said. Jeff Roe, a Republican strategist in Kansas City who has run national and state political campaigns and does extensive polling on voters, said voters are more partisan than ever. “Voters will tell you one thing, but do another,” he said.
What we have in America today is a situation where active voters don’t know what label best describes themselves. It’s actually a struggle. — Russell Arben Fox, associate professor of political science at Friends University
“
“
“
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — As high temperatures continue to hover over the Salina area, humans aren’t the only ones suffering. The sun is baking the ground, causing it to shift, and the city’s water pipes, unfortunately, don’t shift with it. Water mains are breaking at a record rate this year, and at recordbreaking cost. “When you have extreme temperatures and dryness, it wreaks havoc on our water system,” said Martha Tasker, Salina’s director of utilities. “When the soil shifts, our pipes tend to not shift with it.” The shifting ground also is causing roads and sidewalks to erupt, sending city and county road and bridge crews scrambling to make repairs. Tasker said the breaks during the summer also come when water is in high demand and more water is being pumped. “When there is more flow, more pressure and more water moving, you have more breaks,” Tasker said. “When you have such an extended period of heat, it exacerbates things.” More than 100 water