Royals fall to ace Kluber in Cleveland

CLEVELAND (AP) — Corey Kluber says the goal each time he takes the mound is to give the Cleveland Indians a chance to win, rather than getting the W himself.
The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner is doing pretty well in both departments.
Kluber became the first 18-game winner in the majors this season, striking out 10 and pitching the Indians past the Kansas City Royals 3-1 Wednesday.
“I don’t pay attention to it,” he said. “There’s going to be times things are out of your control. You might pitch fairly well and the guy on the other side pitches lights out.”
“More so than actually getting the win, it’s giving our team a chance to win. That’s what I base things on,” he said.
The Indians moved closer to a third straight AL Central title, and their magic number for clinching the division was reduced to eight when Minnesota lost at Houston.
Kluber (18-7) is a major reason the Indians will be playing again in October. He allowed one run and two hits in 6 2/3 innings. He was pulled after throwing 105 pitches.
Kluber has won six of his last seven decisions and is a leading candidate to be chosen the league’s best pitcher for the third time in five seasons. Luis Severino of the Yankees was set to start Wednesday night at Oakland.
“The last couple times out, seemed like he started to get the feel back. That’s fun to watch,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Royals manager Ned Yost watched Kluber retire the first 10 hitters before Kansas City got its only two hits of the game.
Alex Gordon lined a double on a 3-2 pitch in the fourth. Hunter Dozier struck out, but rookie Ryan O’Hearn’s long drive was over center fielder Greg Allen’s head and fell for an RBI triple.
The right-hander struck out Jorge Bonifacio to get out of the brief jam and retired nine of the last 10 hitters he faced.
Brad Hand struck out the side in the ninth for his eighth save since being acquired from San Diego and 32nd this season.
The game began in sweltering conditions with the temperature at 91 degrees for the first pitch.
Brad Keller (7-6) allowed three runs — one earned — in seven-plus innings and lost for the first time since Aug. 7.
“I felt like my fastball was pretty good and I hydrated myself all last night, so once the adrenaline kicked in when I got out there, I felt pretty good the whole time,” he said.
Edwin Encarnacion’s RBI grounder broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth. Allen’s RBI single in the second gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead before Kansas City tied it.
Michael Brantley’s one-out single started the go-ahead rally. Shortstop Alcides Escobar couldn’t handle Yandy Diaz’s chopper and Brantley took third when the ball rolled into the outfield on the error. Encarnacion’s grounder put Cleveland ahead.
Jason Kipnis had a sacrifice fly and two hits.
Cody Allen, the Indians’ closer until Hand was acquired, struck out two and retired all three hitters in the eighth. Oliver Perez struck out the only batter he faced and Cleveland’s pitchers combined to fan 16.
Royals right fielder Brett Phillips was out of the lineup after running full-speed into the wall chasing Jose Ramirez’s fly ball Tuesday. He was  diagnosed with a bruised right shoulder.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: LHP Danny Duffy (sore shoulder) will not pitch again this season after leaving his Tuesday start in the first inning. Duffy was on the disabled list from Aug. 13-23 with a similar injury and recently received an anti-inflammatory shot.
“The doctors said he can’t have another shot for a while, so it makes sense just to shut him down,” manager Ned Yost said.

 

Dull campaigns envious of Beto’s draw

Even with the entrance of former Gov. Gary Johnson into the contest for U.S. Senate, we in New Mexico can’t claim the excitement of the race for Senate taking place right now in Texas. ….

So, let’s look at what is happening in Texas, where GOP incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz is battling U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat from El Paso. While Cruz remains the likely winner — states don’t come much redder than Texas — there is a groundswell of support for the Democrat that could signal the long-awaited transition to a purple Texas.

If nothing else, the campaign is fascinating, with Beto, as he is called, having a real shot at winning.

Going viral last week was a video of O’Rourke answering a difficult question about whether players who take a knee at an NFL game during the national anthem are being disrespectful. By late last week — helped by a retweet by LeBron James — the video had more than 12.8 million views and more than 160,000 retweets.

With just one question, it is easy to see why this unassuming, lanky guy has captured the imagination of so many voters. Currently barnstorming across Texas with town hall meetings just about everywhere, O’Rourke is drawing crowds not just in liberal Austin or Houston, but in places like Lubbock, Abilene, Amarillo — truly conservative cities even by Texas standards. He’s taken his campaign to all 254 Texas counties. He has refused to take any money from political action committees, so his fundraising depends only on people, not PACs. Polls have him within a few points of front-runner Cruz.

Most of all, he answers people’s questions, even the hard ones. In the case of the anthem, O’Rourke stated without equivocation — so rare in a politician — that when it comes to protest, “I can think of nothing more American.” He did not dodge.

More than that, O’Rourke went on to explain how reasonable people can disagree: “You’re every bit as American all the same.” That’s important in our divided land, underscoring that, yes, we can disagree without dishonor. In fact, O’Rourke disagreed with his questioner, right to his face.

(Replying on Twitter, Cruz said: “Most Texans stand for the flag, but Hollywood liberals are so excited that Beto is siding with NFL players protesting the national anthem that Kevin Bacon just retweeted it. That means all of us can now win Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!” No response on the substance, either on the history of peaceful protest in the U.S. or the issue of racial injustice.)

In contrast, O’Rourke went on to put the NFL protests in context — alongside the actions of both civil rights activists and military veterans of armed battles who have fought for rights at home. He thanked veterans and those martyrs who gave up so much to end segregation and secure voting rights. He also detailed the heroes who died, were beaten and spat upon as they asked for equality, showing how the NFL protests, then, have a backstory that too many choose to ignore. All of this, mind you, in answer to a spontaneous question at a town hall.

An upset in the making? The path for Democrats to reclaim the Senate is far from easy, with the electoral landscape favoring the GOP despite its many scandals. Still, we — and the nation — will be watching O’Rourke on his unlikely quest. Politics aside, such plain speaking gives a body hope.

— The Santa Fe

New Mexican

Former GOP Gov. Graves endorses Democrat Kelly

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former moderate Republican Gov. Bill Graves has endorsed Democrat Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor’s race.
Kelly’s campaign announced the endorsement Monday and posted a YouTube video of Graves praising Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka. Graves says in the video that Kelly will bring Republicans and Democrats together to solve problems.
The former GOP governor’s endorsement came after the union representing firefighters in Kansas endorsed Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach last week. It previously has endorsed Democrats.
Kelly and independent candidate Greg Orman are wooing moderate Republicans alienated by Kobach’s conservative politics and advocacy of tough immigration policies.
Graves served two terms as governor from 1995 until 2003. He won re-election in 1998 with a record 73 percent of the vote but clashed frequently with GOP conservatives.

Day 2: Kavanaugh takes the hot seat

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh touted the importance of an independent judiciary as his confirmation hearings began with strident Democratic criticism that he would be President Donald Trump’s man on the high court.
Today, Kavanaugh can expect to spend most of the day in the hot seat, sparring with Democratic senators over abortion, guns, executive power and other high-profile issues.
A long day of questioning awaits the 53-year-old appellate judge, whom Trump nominated in July to fill the seat of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. The change could make the court more conservative on a range of issues.
Barring a surprise, Republicans appear on track to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, perhaps in time for the first day of the new term, Oct. 1, little more than a month before congressional elections.
However, the first of at least four days of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee began with partisan quarreling over the nomination and persistent protests from members of the audience, followed by their arrests.
Strong Democratic opposition to Trump’s nominee reflects the political stakes for both parties in advance of the November elections, Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign and the potentially pivotal role Kavanaugh could play in moving the court to the right.
Democrats, including several senators poised for 2020 presidential bids, tried to block the proceedings in a dispute over Kavanaugh records withheld by the White House. Republicans in turn accused the Democrats of turning the hearing into a circus.
Trump jumped into the fray late in the day, saying on Twitter that Democrats were “looking to inflict pain and embarrassment” on Kavanaugh.
The president’s comment followed the statements of Democratic senators who warned that Trump was, in the words of Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, “selecting a justice on the Supreme Court who potentially will cast a decisive vote in his own case.”
In Kavanaugh’s own statement at the end of more than seven hours of arguing, the federal appeals judge spoke repeatedly about the importance of an independent judiciary and the need to keep the court above partisan politics, common refrains among Supreme Court nominees that had added salience in the fraught political atmosphere of the moment.
With his wife, two children and parents sitting behind him, Kavanaugh called himself a judge with a straightforward judicial philosophy.
“A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent,” he said.
The most likely outcome of this week’s hearings is a vote along party lines to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate.
Majority Republicans can confirm Kavanaugh without any Democratic votes, though they’ll have little margin for error.
“There are battles worth fighting, regardless of the outcome,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said in an unsparing opening statement that criticized Kavanaugh’s judicial opinions and the Senate process that Democrats said had deprived them of access to records of important chunks of Kavanaugh’s time as an aide to President George W. Bush.
Democrats raised objections from the moment Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, gaveled the committee to order. One by one, Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, all potential presidential contenders, demanded that Republicans delay the hearing. They railed against the unusual vetting process by Republicans that failed to include documents from three years Kavanaugh worked in the Bush administration, and 100,000 more pages withheld by the Trump White House. Some 42,000 pages were released to senators only, not the public, on the evening before the hearing.
As protesters repeatedly interrupted the session, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who is fighting for his own re-election in Texas, apologized to Kavanaugh for the spectacle he said had less to do about the judge’s legal record than Trump in the White House.
“It is about politics,” said Cruz. “It is about Democratic senators re-litigating the 2016 election.”
Republicans will hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate once Jon Kyl, the former Arizona senator, is sworn in to fill the seat held by the late Sen. John McCain.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only two Republicans even remotely open to voting against Kavanaugh, though neither has said she would do so. Abortion rights supporters are trying to appeal to those senators, who both favor abortion access.

Storm rolls in, weakened but still deadly

DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama (AP) — Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, killing a child by blowing a tree onto a mobile home as it made landfall. The storm later weakened into a depression on Wednesday, dumping heavy rains across southern states.
The National Hurricane Center said Gordon was weakening on a path into Arkansas after striking the coast at 70 mph, just shy of hurricane strength, near Pascagoula, Mississippi. The remnants will likely cause flash flooding across parts of seven states and as far north as Iowa in the coming days.
The storm was going out swinging: Forecasters said radar spotted possible tornados spun off by the storm overnight in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, and more were possible through tonight in Mississippi and western Alabama.
Driftwood and other debris on the causeway made for hazardous driving early today to Dauphin Island, Alabama, which was partly flooded by seawater overnight, leaving people to drive over sand and around lawn furniture on the main road in the wake of the storm. Siding was peeled off some houses, but Mayor Jeff Collier said “for the most part, we did OK.”
The center predicted total rain amounts of 4-8 inches (10-20 centimeters) in the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Rainfall could be even more intense in isolated places, dropping up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) through early Saturday.
A storm surge covered barrier islands as the storm blew through, and some inland roadways were flooded as well. The National Weather Service in Mobile cautioned that the Styx River near Elsanor, Alabama, could reach moderate, and possibly major, flood stage later Wednesday.
But the storm’s impact could have been worse: Gordon gave only a glancing blow to New Orleans, where Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city now has “the pumps and the power” needed to protect residents inside the levee protection system.
There were no immediate injury or significant damage reports, other than the tree that fell on the mobile home in Pensacola. The Escambia County Sheriff’s office posted on its Facebook page that responding deputies discovered that the child had been killed. The name and age were not released.
More than 27,000 customers were without power as Gordon began pushing ashore, mostly in coastal Alabama and the western tip of the Florida Panhandle around Pensacola, with a few hundred in southeastern Mississippi. Crews were already restoring electricity early Wednesday.
Rain was still falling but the lights were on Wednesday morning at a Waffle House restaurant in Mobile, where factory worker Jerome Richardson said he lost power at 9 p.m. as the storm passed overhead. He was still without electricity as he left for his 12-hour shift.
“I just hope I don’t have to throw out everything in my refrigerator when I get home,” he said.
The last hurricane to strike the U.S. was Nate last October, coming ashore in Biloxi with 75 mph (120 kph) winds.
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency to better mobilize state resources and National Guard troops for the storm. Mississippi shut down a dozen Gulf Coast casinos. Workers on at least 54 oil and gas production platforms were evacuated. Communities along the coast provided sand and bags, and many hustled to protect their properties ahead of the storm.
Gordon was not the only storm being watched by forecasters. Hurricane Florence was some 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) away from the U.S., and lining up behind it, another potential storm was likely to form not far off the coast of Africa.
It’s way too early to know if either of those storms will have any impact on land, but Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said attention should be paid: “It’s the peak of hurricane season. Now is the time to get your plans all set,” he said.

Allen Robb

Robert Allen Robb, Jr., age 28, of LaHarpe, passed away Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018. Allen was born on May 16, 1990, in Iola, to Robert Allen Robb, Sr. and Terry Buck Robb Harris.
Allen attended school in Moran. He worked for SEK Livestock Auction, Gas.
Allen enjoyed fishing, hunting, camping, and picking wild asparagus. He liked to play basketball with his nephews and being the reason they got in trouble with their parents. His sisters said he was known for his terrible cooking. Allen enjoyed riding 4-wheelers and spending time with his four-legged friend, Berkley. His passion was working cattle.
Allen was preceded in death by one sister, Tasha Robb; his grandfather, Harry Robb; and one uncle, William Robb.
Allen is survived by his father, Robert Allen Robb, Sr., LaHarpe; his mother and step-father, Terry Buck Harris and husband, Dan, Kincaid; two sisters, Ashley Robb, Colony, and Sara Robb, LaHarpe; two brothers, Dusty Harris, Selma, and JD Harris, Gas; grandparents, Mary Robb, LaHarpe, Joan Buck, Iola, Bill Buck, LeRoy; nephews, Xavier Dickerson, Zander Dickerson, Wyatt Dickerson, and Bradyn Dickerson, Colony, Ethan Harris and Wyatt Harris, Gas; uncles, Mike Buck and wife, Brenda, Iola, Larry Buck and wife, Janet, Iola; aunts, Rebecca Hedman and husband, Mike, LaHarpe, Carrie Riebel and husband, Randy, Iola, Linda Mead and husband, Jason, LaHarpe; cousins, Lynn Buck, Nathan Buck, Travis Buck, Shelly Park, Josh Robb, Emilee Robb, Chase Riebel, Grace Bazil, Lisa Kinzer, and Melissa Stokes.
A funeral service honoring Allen’s life will be at 10 a.m., Friday at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel, Iola. Burial will follow in the LaHarpe Cemetery, LaHarpe.
Memorials are suggested to the Allen Robb Memorial Fund, and may be left with Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, Iola.
Condolences for the family may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

 

Tommy Wilson

Tommy Leon Wilson, 48, passed away on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, of a sudden heart attack at the home of his parents in Neosho Falls. Tommy was born Sept. 6, 1969, in Iola, to Gary and Wanda Cuppy Wilson. He graduated in 1988 from Iola High School.
Tommy resided in Wichita since graduation. He worked as a sales clerk for KWIK Gas Station.
Tommy was a quiet person. He enjoyed gaming on his computer. Tommy was a hard worker and dedicated employee. Tommy enjoyed visiting family and friends, and he especially enjoyed family reunions.
Tommy is survived by his parents of Neosho Falls; two brothers, George Wilson and wife Lisa, Janesburg, N.J., and David Wilson and wife Tonya, Newton; and one sister, Rebecca Carney and husband, Nathon, Iola.
A memorial visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday in The Venue at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, Iola.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to the American Cancer Society, and may be left with the funeral home.
Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

KDOT safety contest announced

Deadlines are approaching for the Kansas Department of Transportation’s annual “Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day” safety campaign.
Youngsters ages 5 to 18 are eligible for a variety of prizes.
A poster contest is for youngsters ages 5-13. Three statewide winners will receive a Kindle Fire tablet and case from the Kansas Turnpike Authority, a $50 gift card from Walmart, a $50 Amazon gift card from the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association of Kansas and movie passes from AAA Kansas.
Eighteen regional winners from the six regions, divided into three age groups will receive a bicycle from KTA and a helmet from Safe Kids Kansas.
Poster entries must be postmarked by Sept. 21. Information and entry forms are available online as ksdot.org.
A video contest is open for students in grades 8-12.
Prizes from the Kansas Turnpike Authority include an iPad, a Go Pro and a DJI Osmo camera. The grand prize winner’s school will receive $500.
Video entries must be submitted by the end of the day Sept. 30.
Information on the video contest entries is available at ksturnpike.com/contests.

 

Dem primary stunner

BOSTON (AP) — In a political stunner, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano lost Tuesday’s primary to Ayanna Pressley, a Boston city councilor who is virtually assured of becoming the first black woman to serve Massachusetts in Congress.
The 44-year-old’s upset over a 10-term incumbent congressman underscores the shift underway in a Democratic Party whose base is seeking younger, more diverse candidates who embrace progressive policies. Her victory comes just two months after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez similarly defeated a top House leader in a primary for a New York congressional seat.
Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night tweeted a selfie of both women together and wrote, “In June, I won my primary. Tonight, she won hers. Here’s to November.” A Pressley campaign insider, meanwhile, posted a video showing the candidate the moment she learned she’d won.
Pressley, the first black woman to serve on the council, is now on track to represent an area of Massachusetts once served by Democratic icons Tip O’Neill and John F. Kennedy.
“Change is coming and the future belongs to all of us,” Pressley told wildly cheering supporters Tuesday night.
A subdued Capuano told supporters he did everything he could to win re-election.
“Apparently the district just is very upset with lots of things that are going on. I don’t blame them. I’m just as upset as they are, but so be it. This is the way life goes,” he said.
The race between Capuano and Pressley was perhaps the most closely watched contest in Massachusetts, especially since Pressley drew comparisons to Ocasio-Cortez.
The 7th Congressional District is the only one in the state where minorities comprise a majority of the population.
“This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy,” Pressley said Tuesday while campaigning in the district. “And a reliable vote is not good enough.”
Capuano is considered one of the most liberal members of the Massachusetts delegation, and Pressley had acknowledged she had few major policy quarrels with him.
There is no Republican on the November ballot in the district, meaning Pressley is virtually assured of entering Congress in January.
Massachusetts’ last Democratic primary upset came in 2014, when Seth Moulton defeated Rep. John Tierney in the state’s 6th Congressional District.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sailed through her primary unopposed. She’ll face Geoff Diehl, a state representative who served as co-chairman of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state and defeated two other Republicans for his party’s nomination.
Another veteran congressman, Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, won a spirited primary showdown with Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a black attorney from Springfield who had hoped to become the first Muslim to serve in Congress from Massachusetts. Neal, the dean of the state’s House delegation, first was elected in 1989.
Two other Democratic House incumbents, William Keating and Joe Kennedy, fended off primary challenges on Tuesday. Kennedy, the grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, delivered the Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term, and that open seat touched off a political scramble with 10 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker won his party’s nomination for a second term, defeating Scott Lively, a conservative minister and staunch supporter of Trump who frequently called Baker — a frequent critic of the president — a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. Baker will face Democrat Jay Gonzalez in November.
Baker, a moderate who has been popular with voters in what is perceived as one of the nation’s bluest states, will face Gonzalez, who served as secretary of administration and finance under Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.
“At a time when our country is having trouble finding common ground on so many issues, we in Massachusetts are the exception,” Baker told supporters. “We believe that people in public life can, and should, debate the issues respectfully and seek common ground whenever possible.”
Neither Gonzales nor his primary opponent Democrat Robert Massie, a longtime political and environmental activist, was well-known outside party activist circles. Both contended that Baker’s support among voters was soft and that his administration had failed to make significant strides in many areas, particularly the problems plaguing the Boston-area transit system known as the “T.”

Stolen hearse has a surprise

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police in central Mexico say they’ve caught a man who made off with a hearse — with a corpse inside.
The Tlaquepaque police department says the hearse had been readied to take the body of an 80-year-old man from a hospital in neighboring Guadalajara to a funeral home.
Police say a 40-year-old man has admitted seeing the keys left in the vehicle and deciding to take it late Friday night.
Officers were alerted and they soon spotted the hearse along a highway and detained the suspect, whose name was given only as Annibal Saul N.
Both the hearse and the body were recovered.