County approves agreement with ITC - The Concordia Blade

BLADE-EMPIRE
CONCORDIA
VOL. CX NO. 61 (USPS 127-880)
CONCORDIA, KANSAS 66901
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
County approves agreement with ITC
Good Evening
Concordia Forecast
Tonight, mostly clear. Lows in the upper
50s. Southeast winds up to 5 mph.
Wednesday, sunny. Highs in the upper
80s. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph.
Wednesday night, partly cloudy in the
evening, then mostly cloudy with slight
chance of showers and thunderstorms
after midnight. Lows in the mid 60s.
Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
Thursday, partly sunny with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. South winds
10 to 15 mph.
Thursday night, showers and thunderstorms likely. Lows in the mid 60s. Chance
of precipitation 60 percent.
Friday, mostly sunny with a 40 percent
chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Highs around 80.
Friday night, partly cloudy. Lows
around 60.
Saturday, mostly sunny. Highs in the
lower 80s.
Saturday night, mostly clear. Lows
around 60.
Sunday, sunny. Highs in the mid 80s.
Sunday night, partly cloudy. Lows in the
mid 60s.
Cloud County board of commissioners Monday approved
signing the road maintenance
agreement with ITC Great
Plains, LLC.
The unanimous approval
followed a discussion with Jeff
Jensen, Eric Ivey, Holly Fishes
and Liz Hunt of ITC concerning
the road agreement between
ITC and the County.
ITC will construct approximately one-half of a 60-mile,
345 kilovolt transmission line
that connects a new substation
approximately
four
miles
northwest of Aurora to a Westar Energy substation five miles
from Assaria.
In other business the board
approved several new hires:
Roger Weathersby as a correction officer at a rate of $13.37
an hour; Dalton J. Lindsay,
Corey M. Huff, Tanner Gilbert
and Marcus Murrow as equipment operators at a rate of
$12.63 an hour for a six
months introductory period.
County treasurer JoDee
LeDuc discussed an agreement
between the State and the
County for Motor Vehicle Processing. She also reported she
will be publishing a retraction
for delinquent taxes because of
a system error printing a prior
owner’s name rather than current owner on the published
delinquent listing.
Sheriff Brian Marks and jail
administrator Amber Lindberg
reported the Jail is housing a
total of 82 inmates with 62 of
them being from out of county.
They also discussed the heating and cooling system and
food service billing.
Highway
administrator
Andy Asch reported he had
looked at some used equipment and that employees are
continuing to spray and will
begin working on the bridge
between 230th and 240th on
Union Road.
Mike Hake, Solid Waste
director, discussed the Solid
Waste and Recycling Center
fees for 2016. Barry Porter,
appraiser, reported the method
used by Republic County.
In other business the board
•recognized the termination
of Jerron Baxter, effective Aug.
21.
•discussed
the
Health
Department building and the
road agreement with ITC with
Robert Walsh, county attorney.
•discussed
the
Health
department building with
Health administrator Diana
Gering.
•visited with Kent Anderson
about two items mentioned in
the 2016 budget, the deficit in
the Health Department budget
because of $100,000 more in
contractural services than previously anticipated and the no
fund warrants issued.
•approved signing the funding request for the fiscal year
Across Kansas
Kansas corn crop
maturing slowly
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report says that 8 percent of the
Kansas corn crop is now mature.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that is near the 12
percent that had matured by this time a
year ago, but is behind the 20 percent
average for this late in the season.
The agency was upbeat about the condition of the crop with 12 percent rated as
excellent and 47 percent as good. About 31
percent was said to be in fair shape, with
10 percent rated in poor to very poor condition.
Other major Kansas crops are also making progress.
About 71 percent of the state’s soybeans
are setting pods and 1 percent of its
sorghum crop is now mature.
Salina teen to be
tried as an adult
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A teenager
charged in the shooting death of a Salina
girl will be tried as an adult.
Saline County District Judge Rene
Young on Monday ordered that 17-yearold Andrew Woodring be tried as an adult
in the May 6 shooting death of 17-year-old
Allie Saum in Salina.
The Salina Journal reports a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10 for
Woodring and his four co-defendants:
Macio Palacio Jr., Stephen Gentry, Daniel
Sims and Jerome Forbes. Those four
defendants are all charged with firstdegree murder.
Police say Saum’s murder was a case of
mistaken identity. She was a passenger in
a truck that police say some of the defendants mistakenly believed belonged to a
person who had been in an earlier altercation with them.
Two found dead at
Webster Reservoir
STOCKTON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities
are investigating after two missing people
were found dead from single gunshot
wounds in Rooks County.
According to the Rooks County Sheriff’s
Office, 64-year-old Steven Little and 62year-old Kathleen Little, both of Hays,
were found Friday on the south side of
Webster Reservoir. Police say they had
been missing since Thursday.
In a news release Monday, the sheriff’s
office said the two died of single gunshot
wounds. The release said preliminary findings were consistent with a murder-suicide.
Authorities did not say how the two victims were related.
Visit us online at www.bladeempire.com
Headed to class
Cloud County Community College students cross the street on their way to their first day of classes on
Tuesday. (Blade photo by Jay Lowell)
Wichita teachers challenged
to teach refugee children
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Marcela Richardson
underlined the suffix “teen” on her smartboard at Washington Elementary School. She
was trying to show her class how to make the
numbers 14 through 19 out of the numbers 4
through 9 on Monday morning.
She teaches a “newcomers” class, meaning
that the students are new to the district, with
most of them new to the country. In a class of
20,
students
come
from
Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Vietnam, Turkey, Mexico, Saudi
Arabia and Uganda, ranging in age from 6 to
10.
That means Richardson’s students need to
learn both how to say the numbers and how to
add them.
The Wichita school district is asking the
state for more money to teach one group of
these students who need extra attention:
refugee children. The district wants around a
million dollars to help teach the more than
200 refugee children they expect to serve this
year, The Wichita Eagle reported.
On Monday, the State Finance Council
decided to table Wichita’s request for extra
money until at least October to allow the district to determine how many more refugee students it will have this year.
Moses Kamanzi, 9, one of those refugee
children from Uganda, looks around the room
as Richardson speaks and rubs his lips on the
edge of his desk. He can barely pronounce the
numbers 1 to 9.
He is supposed to be in third grade. But he
has a hard time waiting in line. He hasn’t
practiced sitting “criss-cross applesauce” on
the carpet. And neither he nor his parents
speak English, so he didn’t complete a single
night’s homework last week, the first week of
school.
This is how it goes, according to Richardson, who has taught in multilingual classes in
Wichita for more than 12 years. Across from
Moses sits Abida Fnu, a refugee from
Afghanistan. Last year, Abida was in a similar
position to Moses’. This year, she is one of the
top students in the class.
“Class, class,” Richardson calls out.
“Yes, yes,” the students respond.
“What comes after 11?”
“12,” Abida says, one of just a handful of
students to respond.
At the end of the year in Richardson’s class,
students create a trifold display with information about the culture they come from: the
food they eat, the holidays they celebrate, the
clothing they wear. They have to do it all in
English.
For her presentation last spring, Abida
wore a beautiful dress and a hijab, a head
scarf that she doesn’t normally wear at
school. Richardson said Abida worked hard to
practice everything in English and even
answer questions that other students in
school asked her when they visited the newcomers class in the gymnasium.
Students like Moses and Abida take extra
time and resources. For most of the class
time, Moses has an adult working directly
with him or right next to him.
That means that, on the floor on the other
side of the room, Joscelyn Carrillo, 7, who just
moved here from Chihuahua, Mexico, has to
sit and wait. Only after a few minutes, when
Richardson comes over and gives instructions
in Spanish, does Joscelyn learn how to put
together the counting cards. She, a girl from
Turkey and a girl from Pakistan take turns
putting together cards so that they add up to
10, even though none of them speaks the
same language.
When possible, Richardson makes do by
having the one student from Saudi Arabia who
is returning to the class for a second year
work with the two other Arabic-speaking students.
2015-2016 to Kansas Crossroads RC&D for $700.
Adjournment was at 12:15
p.m. Next meeting will be at 9
a.m., Aug. 31.
Meetings attended by commissioners the past week
included: Bill Czapanskiy,
Cloud
County
Resources
Council meeting, Aug. 19; Gail
Engle, KAC Legislative Committee Conference call, Aug.
21; Juvenile Detention Committee meeting Aug. 19 and the
North Central Regional Planning Commission meeting Aug.
20; Gary Caspers, KWORK
board of trustees meeting in
Topeka, Aug. 20 and participated in KNCK’s Community
Corrections, Aug. 21.
All commissioners attended
a work study with the City of
Concordia
Commissioners
Aug. 19,
The board may attend the
Tourism/Historical
Society
meeting Thursday, Aug. 27.
Panel allots
districts
less than
requested
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A
state panel on Monday allotted less than half the emergency aid several Kansas
school districts had requested.
The state set aside $12.3
million for districts’ extraordinary needs during the current
school year under a new law
that jettisoned Kansas’ old
per -student formula for distributing more than $3.4 billion in aid. The 38 school
district applying for emergency aid represented more
than 13 percent of the state’s
286 districts, and their
requests exceeded the dollars
available by nearly $2.8 million.
The State Finance Council,
which includes Gov. Sam
Brownback and eight legislative leaders, granted about $2
million total on Monday to 13
school districts experiencing
considerable growth in student enrollment this year.
The panel granted $4 million to 22 districts that lost
local revenue for this school
year because of declines in the
valuation of oil and gas properties. Most of those districts
are in western Kansas, The
Topeka
Capital-Journal
reported.
“I’m disappointed with the
result,” said Steve Karlin,
superintendent of Garden City
USD 257, which sought more
than $1 million in emergency
aid and received less than
$60,000. “I think given what
happened with schools over
the last several years, any further reduction in revenue creates an extraordinary need.”
Karlin was referring to earlier cuts to certain types of
school aid, in particular funding for operational expenses.
The Legislature created the
emergency aid in March as
part
of
legislation
that
scrapped Kansas’ two-decadeold school finance formula
and trimmed more than $50
million in court-ordered funds
that had been earmarked for
school districts with weaker
local property tax bases.
The first round of emergency requests reached the
State Finance Council in May,
and the council approved
about $500,000 in extra aid
for five districts: Louisburg,
Concordia, Skyline, Waconda
and Lebo-Waverly.
OPINION
2 Blade-Empire, Tuesday, August 25, 2015
DOONESBURY® by G.B. Trudeau
Jacqueline Bigar’s Stars
Sudoku is a number-placing
puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with
several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9
in the empty squares so that each
row, each column and each 3x3
box contain the same number
only once. The difficulty level of
the Conceptis Sudoku increases
from Monday to Friday.
3
1
2
Difficulty Level
3
1
6
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8
4
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9
Difficulty Level
7 8
9 5
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By Dave Green
3
8/24
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5 3
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2 7
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3 8
8/25
2015 Conceptis Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
SUDOKU
2015 Conceptis Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
By Jacqueline Bigar
A baby born today has
a Sun in Virgo and a Moon
in Sagittarius if born before
12:20 a.m. (PDT). Afterward, the Moon will be in
Capricorn.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY for
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015:
This year you experience
many special moments. You
could be heading into a very
unique year, where all your
wishes will come true. Finally, you might feel as if all
the years of hard work and
diligence have paid off. Your
birthday promises many
positive moments. If you are
single, you open up to offers
from many potential suitors.
Do not cut someone out of
your life just because he or
she is different; learn to be
more accepting. If you are
attached, this year will be
significant to your relationship’s history. You are likely
to take a new step or enter
a new phase together. This
period will initiate a new life
cycle for you. CAPRICORN
adores you!
The Stars Show the
Kind of Day You’ll Have:
5-Dynamic;
4-Positive;
3-Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult
ARIES (March 21-April
19)
* * * You might have enjoyed the excitement surrounding recent events, but
the time has come to buckle
down and play catch up.
You have a lot to do, and it
needs to be done ASAP. The
sooner you dive in, the happier you will be. Tonight: A
force to be dealt with.
TAURUS (April 20-May
20)
* * * * * You have an endless imagination when you
decide to use it. Dive into
your work and tap into
your ingenuity in order to
clear out what you can. Allow time for networking and
socializing, as they will be
stimulated by your creative
abilities. Tonight: Let the
party begin.
GEMINI (May 21-June
20)
* * * * Someone will be
knocking on your door, leaving you very little choice but
to have a long-overdue conversation. Even if this person does not make the first
move, know that the two of
you will need to clear this
matter up soon. Tonight:
Dinner or munchies for two.
CANCER (June 21-July
22)
* * * * You will need to defer to someone else, even if
you think you have a better
idea. Understand that this
person needs to see what
happens and realize how
successful his or her own
ideas are. Give him or her
the space to do just that.
Tonight: Out and about.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
* * * Your efficiency is being tested far more than ever
before. You could be full of
energy and playfulness, yet
you will need to muster as
much self-discipline as possible. Lightness and productivity will be a winning
combination for you. Tonight: Off to the gym.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
* * * * Tap into your ability to get what you want. If
you could wish upon a star,
what would you wish for?
Try to manifest a realistic
goal by deciding to make
it so. You will begin to see
much more of what you can
accomplish in the long run
as a result. Tonight: You
know what to do.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
* * * You have many demands on you that you
haven’t let others know
about. When you are unavailable emotionally, it is
often because of concerns
involving this area of your
life. You might be inspired
to revitalize a diet or exercise habit. Tonight: Your
home is your castle!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov.
21)
* * * * * Reach out to others instead of waiting for
them to reach out to you.
You can play the waiting
game like no other sign, but
the real question is: Does
this behavior really serve
you? Listen to news openly,
and be willing to make the
first move. Tonight: Hang
out.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21)
* * * * You might be thinking about a financial decision and feel out of sorts.
You like taking risks, but
not to the point of setting
yourself back. If you try to
be conservative, you probably will like the outcome.
Your intuitive side comes
forward. Tonight: Reward
yourself.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19)
* * * * * Take a deep
breath. You might feel as if
you are on top of the world
right now. What you hope
to accomplish is not far
from reality. You can do no
wrong! The planets are rooting you on. Tonight: Don’t
let anyone or anything stop
you.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb.
18)
* * * * You have pushed
yourself as hard as you can.
Investigate what is happening with a loved one with
care. Avoid making judgments at the moment. All
of the facts you are hearing need validation. More
is happening than you
originally thought. Tonight:
Don’t rush. Be methodical.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March
20)
* * * * Focus on what you
want, and don’t settle for
anything less. Honor fast
changes. You might not
want the same things you
once did. Listen to your gut.
Nearly anything is possible,
as long as you push toward
that goal. Tonight: If you
can dream it, you can manifest it.
BORN TODAY
Singer Billy Ray Cyrus
(1961), actor Sean Connery (1930), film director
Tim Burton (1958)
***
Jacqueline Bigar is on
the Internet at www.jacquelinebigar.com.
(c) 2015 by King Features
Syndicate Inc.
***
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some
strangeness in the proportion.
-Francis Bacon
***
Concordia Blade-Empire
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Today in History
50 years ago
Aug. 25, 1965—Marla
Morgan and LeRoy Beikman announced their Aug.
22 wedding, which took
place at the First Presbyterian Church in Concordia. .
. . Corvon Carpenter, local
manager of Schendel Quality Pest Control, had completed an 18-month correspondence course from
Purdue University in Pest
Control Technology and
was awarded a certificate
by the company’s president, Robert R. Schendel of
Topeka.
25 years ago
Aug. 25, 1990—Stacy B.
Ruud and Craig B. Mowry
were married at Trinity
United Methodist Church
in Concordia. . . . Concordia and Cloud County officials received preliminary
data from the U.S. Census
and were preparing to protest the federal agency’s
findings. “We’re definitely
going to protest,” Concordia
commissioner Greg Hattan
said, referring to figures indicating that the city’s population had slid from 6,487
in 1980 to 6,133 in 1990.
10 years ago
Aug. 25, 2005—Regular unleaded gas was $2.99
a gallon in Concordia. . .
. James Carter and Kelley Melton, Lawrence, announced the birth of their
son, Jameson John Harshman Carter, born Aug. 16.
5 years ago
Aug. 25, 2010—A man
suspected in break-ins at
Womack Sunshine Ford &
Kawasaki and Pizza Hut in
Concordia had been apprehended in Emporia. Dennis
Powell, Wymore, Neb., was
arrested by Emporia Police.
He was driving a car with the
license tag he had taken during the Womack robbery. . . .
Cassidy Brown and Madelyn
Meyer led the club in singing
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
when Republican Valley 4-H
Club met at the Fairgrounds.
1 year ago
Aug. 25, 2014—Cloud
County board of commissioners approved a budget
which called for expenditures of $10,964,538. . . .
Jason and Michelle Fahring,
Attica, announced the birth
of their son, Jadon William
Fahring, born Aug. 22.
Blade-Empire, Tuesday, August 25, 2015 3
PEOPLE
Engagement announced
EICKMAN-KALIVODA
Machinery of yesteryear
A 1912 steam engine propels the 1919 thresher which separates the grain from the straw during harvest time for the Livengood
family.
Harvesting of yesteryear
Harvest may be over in Cloud
County for most farmers, but not for
the Dwight Livengood family.
Last Saturday, using a 1912 Chase
steam engine and a 1919 Chase threshing machine, Dwight of rural Concordia, his sons Rob of Bennington, Mike
of Abilene and John of Salina, and his
nephew, Jeremiah Black and wife Michelle of McPherson threshed approximately a half acre of oats on Dwight’s
acreage west of Concordia.
Dwight said the activity, which
took about two hours, is something
Harvest crew
his family has been doing just for fun
since 2001. The machinery belonged
to his father, Guy Livengood, and was
used before combines became popular. He plans to give the oats to his
grandson, John Livengood, because
he has a horse to feed.
Kasey Ann Eickman and
Kale Dea Kalivoda announce
their engagement. Kasey is
the daughter of John and
Kandy Eickman, Chester,
Neb. Kale is the son of Terri
Kalivoda, Salina, and Kurt
Kalivoda, Concordia.
The future bride is a graduate of Belleville High School
and Kansas State University. She is employed by Polansky Seed, Inc., Belleville.
The prospective groom is a
graduate of Concordia High
School and Cloud County
Community College. He is
employed by EcoWater of
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) –
As Washington state’s wildfires burned into the record
books Monday, calls for help
were answered from far and
near.
Fire managers from New
Zealand and Australia arrived to contribute to a
ground campaign led by
firefighters from across the
West and augmented by U.S.
soldiers.
The flames that claimed
the lives of three firefighters, injured four others and
burned 200 homes also inspired an outpouring of
volunteers who have been
invited for the first time in
state history to help battle
the blazes.
This summer’s fire response across the West
has been overwhelmed by
destructive blazes tearing
through the tinder-dry region.
The biggest fire burning
Monday was in Okanogan
County on the Canadian
border, where a group of five
fires raging out of control
became the largest in state
history,
scorching
more
than 400 square miles, fire
spokesman Rick Isaacson
said.
Lightning-sparked
fires
broke the state record,
surpassing blazes that destroyed more than 300
homes in the same county
last year.
“I’d like to set some different records,” Okanogan
County Sheriff Frank Rogers
said.
The U.S. is in the midst of
one of its worst fire seasons
on record with some 11,600
square miles scorched so
far. It’s only the sixth-worst
going back to 1960, but it’s
the most acreage burned by
this date in a decade, so the
ranking is sure to rise.
“It’s only Aug. 24th,” Isaa-
The Edward and Nellie
Breault family reunion was
Aug. 2 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Aurora.
Those attending were
Marilyn, Blake and Amber Slater, Max and Suzanne Abercrombie, Salina;
Don and Karen Breault,
Ryan, Nichole, Lauren, Andrew and Claire Pendleton,
Wichita; Tatum and Easton
Sakraida, Garry and LaRae
Tremblay, Jill, Matt, Leah
and Allison Peltier, Lori
Peltier, Topeka; Ron and
Sheila LeDuc, Assaria; Eric
and Janie Murk, Junction
City; Bob and Sherri LeDuc,
Clyde; Jeremy, Jessica, Jay-
Boise, Idaho, were being outfitted to fill a critical shortage of mid-level fire managers such as equipment
bosses, strike team leaders
and supervisors.
The Southern Hemisphere
nations have been partners
with the U.S. for more than
50 years, able to lend out
firefighters because the severest part of their fire seasons occur at opposite times
of the year. The last time the
U.S. asked for their help was
2008, with 50 firefighters
arriving. The U.S. sent firefighters abroad in 2007.
Chris Arnol, international
liaison for Australia and New
Zealand firefighters, said at
a news conference in Boise
the firefighters will be ready
for the mountainous terrain
in the Pacific Northwest.
Warren Heslip, a 47-yearold firefighter from Southland, New Zealand, said the
new arrivals were ready for
the conditions.
“We’re used to tall timber
and steep territory,” he said.
Costs for the international firefighters will be paid by
the agency they’re assigned
to, officials said, though no
estimate was yet available.
In Southern California,
crews used snow-making
cannons to blow water, and
planes dropped fire retardant on a 100-acre wildfire
burning near the popular
Snow Summit ski resort in
Big Bear Lake. They were
able to build a perimeter
halfway around the blaze,
but hundreds of homes remained threatened in the
mountainous area about
100 miles east of Los Angeles.
In Montana, firefighters
traveled by rail to the edge
of a thick forest to build fuel
breaks to slow or stop a wildfire creeping toward a major
rail line and U.S. Highway 2
on Glacier National Park’s
southern boundary.
Firefighters had been limited to attacking the blaze by
air because the steep, dense
terrain left few escape options for ground crews if the
fire that has burned about a
square mile suddenly shifted.
Hints from
Heloise
Senior Citizens Menu
RIGHT CAN
Dear Heloise: I enjoy
reading your column in both
the Amarillo (Texas) GlobeNews and in Good Housekeeping magazine. I use
aerosol cans of fabric sizing
when pressing our clothes. I
keep a rubber band around
the can that I am using so
I don’t have to guess which
can is being used. -- Edith
in the Texas Panhandle
Tuesday, Aug. 25—Sausage and rice casserole, scalloped potatoes, peas, pears.
Wednesday, Aug. 26—
Pork chops, fried potatoes,
baked beans, Jell-O® with
fruit; 10 a.m.—Exercise;
12:30 p.m.—Boosters.
Thursday,
Aug.
27—
Chicken
and
noodles,
mashed potatoes, fresh vegetable, fruit.
Friday, Aug. 28—Meatloaf, baked potatoes with
sour cream, green beans,
pudding; 10 a.m.—Exercise;
progressive cards.
Fresh coffee and cinnamon rolls daily, 9-11 a.m.
Call Teddy Lineberry at
243-1872 for questions or to
make reservations.
lynn and Jeremy Joe LeDuc,
Newton; Pat and Jim Murk,
Aurora; Pete and Marilouise
Breault, Gloria LeDuc, Max
and Donna Peltier, Jessica LeDuc, Tammy Mead,
Justin, Jamie and Sydney
LeDuc, Shawn, Rachel, Michael and Kyle Kling, Don
and Sharon Kling, Brian,
Ashley, Connor, Addison
and Cayden Forshee, Concordia; Steve and Kerry
Kotschwar, Lincoln, Neb.;
Doug and Karen Comeau,
Boerne,Texas; Rex and Debbie Istas, Killeen, Texas.
Next reunion will be the
first Sunday in August,
2017.
Annie’s
Mailbox
Loading the thresher
cson said. “In our district we
could see this go clear to the
first of November.”
Thirteen firefighters have
died nationwide this year,
including the three in Washington state who were killed
when they tried to escape
the fire in a vehicle, crashed
and were overrun by flames.
So many fires are burning in the state that managers are taking extreme measures, summoning help from
Down Under and 200 U.S.
troops from a base in Tacoma in the first such use of
active-duty soldiers in nine
years.
Jim Whittington, a Bureau of Land Management
spokesman in Portland,
Oregon, said military assets cannot be used against
wildfires until all civilian resources are deployed.
Since 1987, active duty
military
personnel
have
been mobilized to serve as
wildland firefighters a total
of 35 times. The last time
was in 2006.
Since then, it has not
been necessary to ask for
military assistance until this
fire season, Forest Service
officials said.
Nearly 4,000 volunteers
also answered the state’s
call for help, far more than
will be accepted, said state
Department of Natural Resources spokesman Joe
Smillie.
The state is looking for
former firefighters or heavy
equipment operators who
can bulldoze fire lines to corral the blazes and keep them
from spreading in mountainous, timber-covered areas. So far, about 200 people with the right experience
have been cleared to work.
The 70 firefighters from
Australia and New Zealand
who arrived at the National
Interagency Fire Center in
NCK, Concordia.
The couple plan to be
married in September at
Chester, Neb.
Breault family
gathers in Aurora
Rob (left), Mike, Dwight and John Livengood break for a photo Michelle Black helps load oats into the threshing machine.
during their harvest activity Saturday.
(Blade photos by John Hamel)
Wildfires get help from near and far
Eickman-Kalivoda
by Kathy Mitchell and
Marcy Sugar
Dear Annie: My heart is
breaking for my sister. She
has been married to the
same man for more than 30
years and he has never been
kind or respectful toward
her. They have two married
sons and a grandchild with
health problems. My sister
loves that grandchild more
than life itself, but she rarely
gets to see him. Worse, her
sons treat her terribly and
I have no idea why. The
younger son takes advantage of her, and the oldest
acts as though his parents
are beneath him.
I have several siblings
and although none of us is
perfect, we have all tried our
best to be good parents. My
sister has recently developed
medical problems, but she is
so depressed about her life
that she doesn't care about
her own health.
I am worried about her.
She deserves love and respect and has sacrificed herself for the men in her life.
Should I write a letter to
my nephews and open their
eyes? — Big Sister
Dear Sister: If your
brother-in-law has treated
his wife disrespectfully their
entire married life and she
has tolerated it, then her
sons will treat her similarly.
That is the pattern they grew
up with and they see nothing wrong with it. Your sister
needs to assert herself and
demand more acceptable behavior, but we suspect she
doesn't know how.
If you want to write letters to your nephews, by all
means do so, but be aware
that it might not help and
could estrange them from
you. Can you enlist the help
of your nephew's wives? Men
who treat their mothers disrespectfully often repeat the
pattern with their wives. We
also hope you will offer to go
with your sister for counseling, not only so she can
learn to stop putting up with
such disrespect, but to help
her move forward and take
control of her life and her
health.
Dear Annie: Eleven years
ago, when my father passed
away, the funeral home gave
my mother an American flag,
since Dad was a veteran of
WWII.
As per his wishes, there
was no funeral and my father
was cremated. This flag was
never used and my mother
put it away in a closet. Now
my mother is in a nursing facility and I have the flag.
Annie, we already have a
smaller flag that hangs by
our front door. Dad's flag
has no sentimental value for
me, but I have no idea who I
can pass it on to or what else
can be done with it. I can't
just throw it away. Do you
have any suggestions? —
Daughter of a Vet in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Dear Daughter: Are there
nieces, nephews or grandchildren who might like to
have this flag? Please ask
around. Here are some other
ideas: Contact your local historical society to see whether
they will accept this item,
perhaps along with your father's other war memorabilia if there is any. Also offer
it to nearby schools, the Boy
Scouts or Girl Scouts, your
local fire department and the
VFW to see whether they are
interested. Finally, please
contact the U.S. Dept. of
Veterans Affairs (cem.va.gov)
to donate the flag for use in
the National Cemetery.
Annie's Mailbox is written
by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy
Sugar, longtime editors of
the Ann Landers column.
Please email your questions
to anniesmailbox@creators.
com.
4 Blade-Empire, Tuesday, August 25, 2015
MUTTS® by Patrick McDonnell
ZITS® by Scott and Borgman
Upcoming
events
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2
p.m.—Mike and Mary Davis
and Mary Davis Yungeberg
will be serving ice cream
sundaes at the Lester’s
Sweet Shop exhibit in the
Cloud County Historical Society Museum.
Saturday, Sept. 26, 5-11
p.m.—Music Fest, Broadway Plaza, 6th and Broadway.
Sales Calendar
BABY BLUE® by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott
BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH® by John Rose
HAGER THE HORRIBLE® by Chris Browne
•Thursday,
September
3, 2015– Public Auction
at 4:00 p.m. located at the
home at 113 Washington
Street, Clyde, Kansas. Real
Estate, Furniture, Antiques
and Collectibles. Andrew
and Josephine Seifert Estate,
Sellers. Thummel
Auction.
•Saturday,
September
12, 2015– Public Auction
at 10:00 a.m. located at the
4-H Building at the Fair
Grounds in Belleville, Kansas. Cars, Pickup, Trailers,
Lawn Mowers, Mechanic and
Carpenter Tools, Household
and Antiques. Mrs. Clifford
(Rosie) Swanson, Seller.
Novak Bros. and Gieber
Auction.
•Saturday,
September
12, 2015– Toy Auction at
the Kearn Auction House,
220 West 5th Street, Concordia, Kansas. Dannie Kearn Auction.
•Monday, September 14,
2015– Retirement
Auction at 10:00 a.m. located
at 2749 Teal Road, 1/2 Mile
West of clyde, Kansas High
School. Machinery, Tractor,
Trucks, Trailers and Equipment. Lambert Brothers
(Harold and Pat) Sellers.
Larry Lagasse Auction.
Man who tackled
shooting suspect
describes incident
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) –
It was a frightening and dangerous scene: A Louisiana
state trooper lay bleeding on
the ground as a man rifled
through his pockets and tried
to take the immobile officer’s
handgun from his holster.
Some distant bystanders
had waved Robert LeDoux
over to the side of the road
before he reached the scene
and told him he shouldn’t get
any closer; it was too dangerous, they said, and the man
had a gun of his own. LeDoux
ignored them.
As he approached, the
suspect told him, “’Everything’s all right. Mind your
own business. You need to
go,’” LeDoux told The Associated Press a day later in
an exclusive interview. “All I
could see was pure evil in his
eyes.”
LeDoux ignored the suspect’s warning as well: “I took
off running,” he said. “I tackled him. We hit the ground.
I was on top of him and I
called 911.”
The man whom LeDoux is
credited with apprehending
is now charged in the death
of Senior Trooper Steven Vincent.
Kevin Daigle, 54, is accused of shooting Vincent on
Sunday evening after Vincent found Daigle’s truck in
a ditch and stopped to offer assistance. Vincent died
Monday.
LeDoux said he was out for
a drive Sunday when he saw
flashing police lights about a
quarter-mile in front of him.
Three men stopped him and
urged him to turn around.
They said they were calling
911, but that he shouldn’t
approach the patrol car because they had seen a man
brandishing a gun by the
trooper.
After LeDoux tackled the
gunman, the other men ran
over to help. They handcuffed
the shooter and two of them
held him down while LeDoux
went to help Vincent, using
the trooper’s radio to call for
assistance.
LeDoux said it wasn’t until he saw the trooper’s name
tag that he realized he knew
the officer because he was
good friends with the officer’s
brother, also in law enforcement.
Police introduced LeDoux
at a news conference earlier
Monday but he did not speak
to reporters at the time.
Authorities also suspect
Daigle in the death of another man whose body was
found Monday at a house
where Daigle had been living.
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony
Mancuso said authorities
originally went to the house
Sunday evening because the
vehicle Daigle was driving
was registered there. No one
answered and they had no
search warrant, so they left,
he said.
But on Monday, authorities got a phone call from the
man’s office saying he had
not shown up for work and
asking police to check on
him.
As authorities were on
their way to the house, Mancuso said state police also
passed along information
from their interview with
Daigle that “led investigators
to believe there was an altercation at this house.”
Upon arrival, a sheriff’s
deputy found the man dead
and signs of a struggle. The
man’s name was not released.
“We really don’t have a lot
of answers,” Mancuso said.
Authorities have charged
Daigle with first-degree murder in the trooper’s slaying.
But they are still trying to figure out what triggered him.
Daigle had a record and was
known to authorities already.
“He’s a citizen that has a
criminal history in our community,” Mancuso said. “Everything from some battery
charges, some domestic issues, battery on a police officer, DWIs. It’s somebody
we’ve dealt with before.”
The police have not released the dashboard video,
but state police chief Mike
Edmonson described what
he said is on it: Vincent, a
13-year state police veteran
in southwest Louisiana and
member of a law enforcement
family, trying to talk the man
out of the truck. Instead, the
man came out with a shotgun.
“It was frightening to
watch,” Edmonson said.
He said the tape shows
a shotgun blast, and then
Daigle wandering over to Vincent to ask him if he was still
alive.
“You could hear him
breathing, telling him, ‘You’re
lucky. You’re lucky – you’re
going to die soon.’ That’s the
words that came out of his
mouth,” Edmonson said.
The police suspect Daigle
had been drinking and said
another type of drug was in
his system, but gave no further details.
Vincent leaves behind a
wife, Katherine, and a 9-yearold son, Ethan. One of his
brothers was a police chief in
Iowa, Louisiana, and another
brother is a state trooper.
He was a marathon runner who just the night before
ran a marathon just for fun,
Edmonson said.
“Nobody wore this badge
more proudly than Steven
Vincent,” Edmonson said.
The chief called LeDoux a
hero when he introduced him
at the news conference Monday.
But LeDoux shied away
from that label, saying he
simply did what many others
might do. He also repeatedly
praised the three men who
returned to help him.
“A hero saves somebody’s
life, and in the end I couldn’t,”
LeDoux said, getting choked
up as he spoke about knowing the Vincent family.
But when pushed, he acknowledged he helped catch
a killer: “I’m the reason we
caught him, and I’m the reason (Trooper Vincent’s) able
to donate his organs. That
doesn’t make me a hero.
That just makes me a good
person.”
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Blade-Empire Tuesday, August 25, 2015 5
Sports
Cozart wins competition to start at quarterback for KU
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) —
Montell Cozart will be under
center for new Kansas coach
David Beaty when the Jayhawks begin their season
Sept. 5 against South Dakota State.
Beaty announced Monday that the junior had won
the competition for starting
quarterback.
“He is a very bright, hardworking, smart dude,” said
Beaty, who was hired to
replace Charlie Weis last
fall. “He’s what you want. I
love the dude that he is. Our
team loves him.”
Cozart started three
games as a freshman in
2013 and the first five
games last season before
Michael Cummings took
over. But when Cummings
sustained a season-ending
left knee injury in the spring
game, it appeared the job
would be Cozart’s to lose.
Still, Beaty made him
earn it in a competition with
talented
junior
college
transfer Deondre Ford and a
pair of freshmen, Ryan
Willis and Carter Stanley.
Part of the reason Cozart
earned the job is he appears
to fit Beaty’s offensive
scheme, called the “Air
Raid.” Cozart may not have
the biggest arm in the Jayhawks’ stable of quarterbacks, but he may be the
most athletic.
“It’s fun — simple, fast
and fun,” Cozart said of the
offense. “Going out there,
the plays (are) so simple that
you can go out there and be
real confident and know
exactly what you have to do
on each and every play. The
simple plays help a quarterback be confident.”
Cozart struggled with
inconsistency as a sophomore. He was just 64 of 128
for 701 yards with five
touchdowns and seven
interceptions.
Beaty has praised the
progress Cozart has made
not only in learning the system but in growing as a
leader, and Cozart acknowledged that he has made
strides in both areas.
“Absolutely, I’m getting
better,” he said. “That’s
what it’s all about. I’m getting better every day and am
learning new things that are
going to give me more confi-
explained.
“We’ve been emphasizing that,” he said, “and I
think they’ve stepped up.”
Charles Jones, the presumptive leader on the
depth chart, led the Wildcats in rushing with 540
yards a year ago. It was the
second-fewest yards for
any leading rusher since
1989, and a far cry from
the 1,000-yard seasons
that Darren Sproles and
others once churned out.
As a team, the Wildcats
averaged just 134.2 yards
— eighth-best in the Big
12.
Dimel said the reason
for that was opposing
teams, accustomed to the
Wildcats winning games on
the ground, lined up to
take that away. They would
rather watch Waters throw
for 400 yards, as he did
against West Virginia, than
watch Kansas State grind
games away, as they did
when bruising Heisman
Trophy finalist Collin Klein
was the quarterback.
There is more talent at
running back this year
than last year, though, and
potentially less at quarterback and wide receiver.
Jesse Ertz appears to have
a slight edge to start under
center in the opener Sept.
5 against South Dakota,
but three other quarterbacks are in the running.
And at wide receiver, Lockett and dependable Curry
Sexton have both graduated.
But Jones is back in the
backfield, and he’s joined
by a pair of talented freshmen in Justin Silmon and
Dalvin Warmack, both of
whom redshirted a year
ago.
Warmack is an especially intriguing prospect. He
was a two-time winner of
the Simone Award as the
best prep player in the
Kansas City metro, and the
Missouri player of the year
as a junior and senior at
Blue Springs (Missouri)
High School.
“He’ll be competitive in
the running back position,” Snyder acknowledged. “We probably have
as good of depth than
before. Now it’s about
bringing the quality out of
it.”
Or, figuring out how best
to use each of them. Snyder seemed to indicate the
Wildcats will take a running back-by-committee
approach to the season.
“They all have a little different knack, each and
every one of them, but he is
certainly going to be in the
top three,” Snyder said.
“Among those guys, it’s
very, very competitive right
now. There’s not a clearcut decision at this point
and time. Dalvin is good,
hard worker who takes
things in quite well. He’s a
good teammate and humble young guy, which I
admire.”
The
Wildcats
also
shared carries a year ago,
when Jones and DeMarcus
Robinson took most of the
snaps. But some of their
best years in terms of
ground production have
been when they’ve had a
featured back, someone
who is on the field for the
majority of reps.
Sproles was that guy in
the early 2000s. Daniel
Thomas and John Hubert
were more recently.
Dimel said he is fine
with sharing carries, even
if it makes it harder for his
running backs to get into a
rhythm. And if someone
grasps ahold of the No. 1
job, that’s fine, too.
“We like the competition,” he said. “(Jones) isn’t
the guy, but right now he’s
the leader. The other guys
will play in the first game
and be able to see what
they can do. We definitely
want to get everyone out
there on game day and see
what they can do.”
dence.”
It doesn’t hurt that Cummings is still around the
program. He and Cozart
have been able to learn the
Air Raid offense together,
even though Cummings will
spend the season on the
sideline.
“It was hard seeing him
go down in the spring
game,” Cozart said. “It was
really tough for me because
I’ve been under him for
three years, learning under
him.”
Cozart is aware that
earning the starting nod in
late August doesn’t guarantee he will be under center
all season. The Jayhawks
have churned through a
handful of starters in his
brief time on campus, from
Jake Heaps to Cummings to
himself.
That doesn’t mean that
Cozart is afraid of a little
competition, either.
He made that clear by
earning the job in the first
place.
“Things are going really
well,” Cozart said. “I’m looking forward to keep competing.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)
— It had been nearly two
years since Kris Medlen
stood on the mound to start
a game, so it was no surprise the Royals right-hander felt a few butterflies
Monday night.
He seemed to chase them
away in a hurry.
After giving up an early
two-run homer to Orioles
slugger
Adam
Jones,
Medlen got into a groove
and cruised through six
innings. His offense put up
seven runs in the bottom
half of that frame, and the
result was an 8-3 victory
over Baltimore to open a
four-game set.
“I tried not to make it
about myself,” said Medlen,
whose last start came on
Sept. 27, 2013, with
Atlanta. “I said from the getgo, I don’t want this to be a,
‘Yay, you made it, kind of
thing.’ I wanted to come out
and produce.”
Medlen (2-0) did that,
allowing just five hits and
striking out six without a
walk in his first start since
replacing Jeremy Guthrie in
the rotation.
Still, Medlen was in line
for a loss until the Royals
broke loose in the sixth
inning.
Mike Moustakas hit a
tying, two-run homer, and
Omar Infante added a tworun triple moments later,
scampering home when the
throw to third base skittered away. Lorenzo Cain
drove in two more, spoiling
what had been a promising
start by Ubaldo Jimenez.
Jimenez (9-8) allowed
seven runs and 10 hits in 5
2-3 innings.
“He just started elevating
some fastballs and they
made him pay for it,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “He was really
commanding the ball well
and just didn’t that inning.”
The loss was the fifth
straight for Baltimore and
sixth in seven games. It carried a little added sting in
that it was the first meeting
between the teams since the
Royals swept the Orioles in
the
AL
Championship
Series on their surprising
run to the World Series.
“They pitched well and
we didn’t swing the bats
well,” Showalter said. “They
know that we got to get it
going, and that’s not usually a good recipe against
good pitchers.”
The two-run homer by
Jones and a run-scoring
double by Steve Clevenger
in the fourth inning got the
Orioles off to a good start,
and Jimenez was cruising
through five. The only run
he had allowed was on an
RBI groundout by Eric Hosmer in the third inning.
Things completely unraveled for Jimenez in the
sixth.
Hosmer doubled with one
out and Moustakas sent a
pitch soaring into the rightfield stands to knot the
game 3-all. Salvador Perez
singled, Alex Rios hit a double and Infante sent a triple
into the gap in left-center,
sliding into third base
ahead of the throw. When it
skipped away to the thirdbase dugout, Infante clambered to his feet and
chugged on home.
Alcides Escobar and Ben
Zobrist followed with hits
before Cain’s two-run double made it a seven-run
inning, matching a season
best for the Royals.
BEIJING (AP) — Usain
Bolt was back on familiar
territory on Tuesday, running his favorite event and
showing off why he is the
greatest 200-meter runner
of all time.
After the intense pressure that accompanied his
come-from-behind win over
Justin Gatlin in the 100 on
Sunday at the world championships, Bolt was all
smiles as he coasted into
the semifinals of the 200.
Gone was any worry about
injuries, about his rival, or
about stutter-steps that
marred his 100 semifinal
heat.
“It means a lot more to
me,” Bolt said of the 200,
the event in which he is a
three-time defending champion and two-time Olympic
gold-medalist.
Easing up with 50 meters
to go and jogging at the end,
Bolt crossed in 20.28 seconds, tied for 13th overall.
In the heat after him, Gatlin
powered to a time of 20.19.
Gatlin also outran Bolt in
the 100 heats.
“I’m a little worried about
my fitness,” said Bolt, now
29 years old. “I’m tired and
my legs are still sore, but
I’m going to have another
bath tonight and hopefully
tomorrow, I’ll be there.”
Like Bolt, David Rudisha
has been struggling with
injuries for the past two
years but still came up golden in Beijing.
The Kenyan won the 800
meters at the London
Olympics in a world-record
time and had not been back
to his best since. At the
Bird’s Nest, Rudisha rekindled that Olympic spirit,
again front-running from
the start to hold off Adam
Kszczot after the Pole
attempted to pass 250
meters from the end but left
himself boxed in.
Soon, Rudisha was out of
reach and finished in a slow
1 minute, 45.84 seconds,
almost five seconds off his
world record.
KSU poised to get back to running roots Big sixth inning
propels Royals, 8-3
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP)
— The approach taken by
Kansas State’s offense a
couple of years ago was
simple: The Wildcats were
going to run it right at their
opponents, daring them to
make a stop.
That all changed last
season.
With an accurate quarterback in Jake Waters and
a dynamic wide receiver in
Tyler Lockett, now with the
Seattle Seahawks, the
Wildcats all but bailed out
on their run game. The
result was a leading rusher
who barely broke 500
yards, and an offense that
was woefully unbalanced
— at least by Kansas State
coach Bill Snyder’s standards.
But with plenty of questions at quarterback this
season, and a plethora of
talented running backs on
the roster, Kansas State is
poised to get back to its
running roots.
“We’re really trying to
emphasize being physical
runners, and running
downhill, and making guys
miss and getting some
yards after what we call
which
confrontation,
means either make them
miss or run them over,”
Wildcats offensive coordinator
Dana
Dimel
Smith blames knowledge for his struggles
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) —
When the Chiefs traded for
Alex Smith, one of the reasons that general manager
John Dorsey and coach
Andy Reid were so enamored
of him was his vast knowledge of the game.
Turns out Smith may be
too smart for his own good.
After struggling through
two preseason games, Smith
said Monday that part of the
issue is that he has too good
of a grasp of the Kansas City
offense. So rather than react
to what defenses are giving
him, Smith is trying to outwit them, leading to incompletions and interceptions.
“Watching the film with
coach, I’m trying to do too
much,” he said. “You know
where everyone is at. You
know the details. I need to go
back to the fundamentals.
I’m doing too much with my
eyes and things like that.”
By that, Smith means trying to lure defenders into a
certain spot on the field
based on where he is looking, which would allow his
wide receivers to run free.
That certainly didn’t work
in the first half Friday night
against Seattle, when he
threw a pass right at Bobby
Wagner. The Seahawks linebacker barely had to move to
catch the pass — it was so
off-target that it was hard to
tell exactly who the intended
receiver was — and Wagner
was able to run untouched
25 yards for a touchdown
that gave Seattle the lead.
“Trying to hold guys,
move guys, doing too much
of that,” Smith said. “I really
felt looking at the film, I need
to get back to moving the
ball, executing the offense.”
It’s easy to forgive Smith
for trying to stretch his
knowledge of the offense.
This is the first time in his
11-year professional career
he’s had the same offensive
coordinator — Doug Pederson — three straight seasons. In all, Smith has gone
through seven coordinators,
including a stretch of five in
his first five seasons in the
league.
In other words, this is the
first time that Smith has
ever gone through training
camp and preseason games
where he feels completely
confident in the system.
“Yeah, I’m doing too much
with things like my eyes and
things like that,” he said,
“but I’m very comfortable,
without a doubt. We’ve got a
lot of the same pieces in
place, I’ve been with the
same coaches for three
years, so it’s a good thing.”
Yet the results haven’t
been very good. Smith was 6
of 10 for 42 yards with an
interception against Arizona,
and 11 of 18 for 81 yards
with a touchdown and picksix against the Seahawks.
Perhaps drawing more
scrutiny to Smith’s uneven
performances has been the
fact backup Chase Daniel
has been dynamic, throwing
four TD passes without an
interception— albeit, leading
the Chiefs’ second-team
offense against the opposing
team’s backup defense.
Reid remains unconcerned about his starting
quarterback, who was given
a four-year, $68 million contract extension prior to last
season. But he also expects
Smith to clean up things.
“He’s trying to put things
in small windows and make
plays, (and) we’re asking him
to do some different things,
and he’ll get all that taken
care of,” Reid said. “That’s
not his M.O., so I’m not too
worried about it.”
Indeed, Smith’s modus
operandi is to protect the
football. He only threw six
picks all of last season, a big
reason the Chiefs are willing
to put up with his relatively
weak arm and penchant for
tucking and running the
moment the pocket begins to
collapse.
Smith’s rough preseason
hardly falls entirely on his
shoulders, either.
Competition and injuries
have left his offensive line in
flux, with left tackle Eric
Fisher (ankle) and right
guard Jeff Allen (knee) missing the Seattle game. And
Smith has had to grow
accustomed to new wide
receivers: Jeremy Maclin is
here, Dwayne Bowe is gone.
Maclin is confident the
offense will be humming by
Week 1 against Houston,
and that the guy under cen-
IndyCar driver Justin
Wilson died Monday night
from a head injury suffered
when a piece of debris
struck him at Pocono Raceway. He was 37.
IndyCar
made
the
announcement at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Wilson, a British driver
who lived outside Denver in
Longmont, Colorado, was
hit in the head during Sunday’s race by piece of debris
that had broken off another
car. Wilson’s car veered into
an interior wall at the track,
and he was swiftly taken by
helicopter to a hospital in
Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“Can’t even begin to
describe the loss I feel right
now. He was my Brother, my
best friend, my role model
and mentor. He was a champion!” his younger brother,
Stefan, also an IndyCar
driver, tweeted. Stefan Wilson said his brother’s
organs would be donated.
The last IndyCar driver to
die from an on-track incident was Indianapolis 500
champion Dan Wheldon,
who was killed in the 2011
season finale at Las Vegas
after his head hit a post in
the fence when his car went
airborne.
After Wheldon’s death,
Wilson became one of three
driver representatives to
serve as a liaison between
the competitors and IndyCar. It was no surprise: The
6-foot-4 Wilson, easily the
tallest in the series, was well
liked.
Indycar driver Wilson dies of head injury
Bolt, Gatlin through
to 200 semifinals
6 Blade-Empire, Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Obituaries
ERIKA “WALLY” W. (Distler) THORNTON
Erika “Wally” W. Thornton, age 88, Concordia,
Kan., passed away on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015, at the
Mitchell County Health Systems Resident Care Center,
Beloit. She was born on Feb.
7, 1927, in Poeßneck, Germany, to Fritz and Gertrude
(Patcer) Distler.
She married Melvin
A. Thornton on May 19,
1961, and he preceded her
in death on Aug. 25, 2013.
LEE AUSTIN CHRISTIAN
Lee Austin Christian, 87,
Grand Prairie, Texas, died
Aug. 24, 2015. He was born
July 30, 1928, in Clyde, Kan.,
to John and Ruth Christian.
He graduated from Concordia High School prior to serving in the U.S. Army during
the Korean War. After the
war, Lee married Pat Winters and they had two chil-
She was also preceded in
death by her parents and
six brothers.
Per Erika’s wishes, cremation has taken place and
there will be no services.
Private inurnment with her
husband Melvin will be in
the Randall Cemetery, Randall. Condolences may be
left online at www.chaputbuoy.com.
Chaput-Buoy
Funeral Home is in charge
of arrangements.
dren. He spent several years
in law enforcement prior to
joining Meadow Gold, where
he retired. Lee is survived by
his son, Michael Christian
of Odenton, Md; daughter,
Debra Venus, Ponca City,
Okla.; three grandchildren.
He is preceded in death
by his wife, C. Patricia Christian.
RANDALL “RANDY” LEE LABARGE
Randall “Randy” Lee
Labarge, age 54, died on
August 4, 2015 at his residence in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
Cremation has taken
place, and Inurnment will
be 11:00 a.m., Friday, August 28, 2015 at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, St.
Joe, Kansas, with Fr. Brian
Lager officiating.
Memorial contributions
may be given to Kansas
Children’s Service League in
care of Chaput-Buoy Funeral Home, Concordia.
For online condolences
please visit www.chaputbuoy.com
SHIRLEY McCOLLOM
Shirley McCollom, age
77, died Tuesday, Aug. 25,
2015, at her home in Con-
cordia. Arrangements are
pending with Chaput-Buoy
Funeral Home, Concordia.
***
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and
forgot to put a soul into.
-Henry Beecher
***
Published in the Blade-Empire on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Kansas seeks to
Weather
block release of
voting machine tapes
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) –
The top election official
in Kansas has asked a
Sedgwick County judge to
block the release of voting
machine tapes sought by
a Wichita mathematician
who is researching statistical anomalies favoring Republicans in counts coming from large precincts in
the November 2014 general
election.
Secretary of State Kris
Kobach argued that the
records sought by Wichita
State University mathematician Beth Clarkson are
not subject to the Kansas
open records act, and that
their disclosure is prohibited by Kansas statute. His
response, which was faxed
Friday to the Sedgwick
County District Court, was
made public Monday.
Clarkson, chief statistician for the university’s National Institute for Aviation
Research, filed the open records lawsuit as part of her
personal quest to find the
answer to an unexplained
pattern that transcends
elections and states.
She wants the hard-copies to check the error rate
on electronic voting machines that were used in a
voting station in Sedgwick
County to establish a statistical model.
Clarkson said in an
email she did not have any
comment about Kobach’s
answer to her lawsuit yet
because she hadn’t done
more than skim it.
“I don’t see anything in
there about why I shouldn’t
be allowed access other
than there is no official
channel for private citizens
to get access to those records. Therefore, no access
allowed,” Clarkson said.
Clarkson, a certified
quality engineer with a
Ph.D. in statistics, has
analyzed election returns
in Kansas and elsewhere
over several elections that
indicate “a statistically significant” pattern where the
percentage of Republican
votes increase the larger
the size of the precinct.
The pattern could be voter fraud or a demographic
trend that has not been
picked up by extensive
polling.
In response to her lawsuit, Kobach also contended he is not the custodian of records kept by the
Sedgwick County Elections
Commissioner
Tabitha
Lehman.
Lehman told a Sedgwick
County District Court judge
in a separate filing last
week that production of
the tapes would be “unnecessarily burdensome” because the material cannot
be easily copied. Each person’s vote in the 2013 election takes up about 27¬Ω
inches of the electronic
machine’s paper trail. Each
roll from the 2014 election
is 385 feet long, and stored
in 42 boxes that are not
segregated by precinct or
voting district.
Kobach and Lehman also
both argued in their separate filings that the identical issues were presented
by Clarkson and were previously rejected in a 2013
open records lawsuit that
she had filed.
Today’s weather artwork by
Carlie Carlgren,
a 3rd grader in
Mrs. Koester’s class
Theater shooting
victims speak at
gunman’s sentencing
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) grandfather of the youngest
– Scores of victims of James victim, 6-year-old Veronica
Holmes’ deadly attack on a Moser-Sullivan, called on
Colorado movie theater, now Holmes to “do the correct
free to vent their feelings be- thing for once” and petition
fore the judge, are denounc- the court to be executed by
ing the defense team, the firing squad.
legal process and the single
Unlike during the trial,
juror who blocked a death witnesses spoke from a lecsentence.
tern facing Judge Carlos A.
Throughout
Holmes’ Samour Jr., rather than the
three-month trial, if they jury box, which sat empty.
were called to testify, sur- Their voices were tearful
vivors and family members and trembling.
were stifled by objections
At the end of the threeand court orders preventing day hearing, Samour will
them from veering off topic formally sentence Holmes
or saying too much about to life without parole and up
the searing emotional and to 3,318 additional years on
physical scars the shooting attempted murder convichas left.
tions. Forty more people are
But they were finally al- expected to take the stand
lowed to speak without in- Tuesday and Wednesday.
terruption when Holmes’
Jurors rejected Holmes’
formal sentencing opened insanity plea and convicted
Monday, offering testimony him of murdering 12 people
that was sometimes quiet and trying to kill 70 others
and reflective, sometimes when he opened fire on a
laced with anger and frus- packed theater in suburban
tration.
Denver on July 20, 2012.
Tom Teves, whose son The jury was divided on the
Alex was killed, called sentence, with 11 favoring
Holmes a pathetic coward death and one favoring life
and the defense attorneys without parole. Under ColoPolice Dept. Report
“agents of evil” who were rado law, jurors must be
Arrest – Officers respondtrying to advance their own unanimous to impose the
ed to a disturbance in the
careers.
death penalty, so Holmes
100 block of East College
Robert
Sullivan,
the automatically got life.
Drive at 6:10 p.m., Aug. 24.
Upon investigation they arrested Katherine Phipps, 27,
of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She
was charged with Domestic
Battery and transported to
Cloud County Law Enforcement Center.
Accident—Officers investigated an accident at 3:15
p.m., Aug. 24, in the 200
Homemade Fried Okra
block of East 6th involving
6 cups oil, for frying
vehicles driven by Jennifer
1/2 cup of cornmeal
Robbins, Concordia, and
1 cup all-purpose flour
Destiny Bowers, Concordia.
2 teaspoons of House Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds fresh okra, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1/2 cup buttermilk
House Seasoning
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Directions
Heat oil in a heavy skillet or Dutch oven to 350F. Note:
Do not fill the pan more than halfway up on both sides.
Grab a medium-sized bowl and combine the cornmeal,
flour, House Seasoning, and cayenne pepper.
Dip the okra in buttermilk and dredge in the cornmeal
mixture to coat it completely.
Carefully add the okra to the hot oil and let it cook until
it is brown.
Once the okra looks brown at the edges, remove and
drain on paper towels and serve immediately!
For the
Record
From the
Kitchen
Markets
Stocks surged Tuesday afternoon on Wall Street, erasing some of the heavy losses
of a day earlier, after China
cut interest rates to try to
boost the world’s second-largest economy.
Traders around the world
welcomed the move, which
came after a dayslong global
sell-off triggered by fears of a
slowdown in China.
“They’re relieved by what
China has done,” said Chris
Gaffney, president of EverBank World Markets, and are
telling themselves: “Maybe it’s
time to get back in there.”
Investors also got some encouraging news from a survey indicating that U.S. consumer confidence rebounded
this month. A separate report
showed sales of new U.S.
homes bounced back in July.
LOCAL MARKETS -EAST
Wheat ...........................$4.33
Milo ......(per bushel) ....$3.31
Corn .............................$3.20
Soybeans .....................$8.38
AGMARK
LOADING FACILITY
LOCAL MARKETS - WEST
Wheat ..........................$4.33
Milo .....(per bushel) .....$3.31
JAMESTOWN MARKETS
Wheat ...........................$4.23
Milo ...(per bushel) ........$3.21
Soybeans .....................$8.38
Nusun .........................$15.15