Garden Club digs soil

Not all potting soils are created equally.

Such was the lesson offered up Wednesday by Evelyn Lay at the Dirt Diggers Garden Club meeting.

Lay presented the program for four members at her house.

She noted that for containers, hanging baskets and houseplants, you don’t really want potting soil. Instead, growers should use a soil-less mixture. Potting soil includes actual soil from the ground and would remain heavy and wet. 

Peat moss is harder to absorb water. Coir-based soil is good for starting seeds or left with chunkier bits and fibers for better drainage in large containers. Bark-based soil has pieces and chunks and is heavier when wet, but it will make the texture loose and airy. Minerals such as perlite and vermiculite increase movement and prevent compaction. Water and nutrients adhere to the outside of these particles instead of just washing through.

 

Putting down roots

Omaha is home to thousands of refugees. 

When they first moved here, the common thread among many was they missed gardening and farming. Laura Weiss got a small grant from a local foundation to start Root Down Community Garden, where residents could grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables. Omaha has four such garden locations.

Gardening gets children and their parents working together and has created something positive for them to be involved in and excited about. They can sell produce at farmers markets and teach cooking classes.

 

CLUB members agreed to take a field trip to IJNG Greenhouse in Chanute on April 10 at 10:45 a.m. Members will meet at Walmart before departing.

Sorosis club learns about life in England

Hazel Ebberts told Iola Sorosis Club members March 11 about growing up in her native England.

Ebberts, a physical therapist as Allen County Regional Hospital, is the daughter of a chef and stay-at-home-mother, with two younger sisters.

At age 11, she began secondary school, where boys and girls were separated and the students wore uniforms.

At age 14, students were allowed to pick their own subjects of interest, on top of the mandatory English, math and language arts.

At 16, students were allowed to leave school, although education there now is compulsory up to age 18, Ebberts said.

Students then had a choice. They could get a job, take an apprenticeship, attend college or stay in school for two additional years.

Ebberts attended college on a full scholarship to study health care. She received her training in therapy in England and came to the United States to work.

Ebberts was working as a traveling therapist in Eureka, when she met and married her husband.

Other differences between our countries is that people drive on the left side of the road and steering wheels are on the right side of the vehicle.

Traffic typically is very busy, she said. 

Trains and bus transportation are popular as well.

Currency in England consists of pounds and pence.

 

TWELVE members and three associate members attended the meeting, held at Iola’s First Christian Church. Vicki Flower and Jeanne Creitz were hostesses.

The next meeting will be the annual luncheon at 1 p.m. April 8 at Allen Community College. Sorosis members also were invited to a Women of the Bible program at 2 p.m. April 1 at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.

Rescues, evacuations as midwest rivers rise

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Residents in parts of southwestern Iowa were forced out of their homes Sunday as a torrent of Missouri River water flowed over and through levees, putting them in a situation similar to hundreds of people in neighboring Nebraska who have been displaced by the late-winter flood.

Heavy rainfall and snowmelt have led to dangerously high water in creeks and rivers across several Midwestern states, with the Missouri River hitting record-high levels in many areas. At least two deaths were blamed on flooding, and two other men have been missing for days.

While river depths were starting to level off in parts of Nebraska on Sunday, the water is so high in many places that serious flooding is expected to remain for several days. And downstream communities in Kansas and Missouri were bracing for likely flooding.

In Iowa, the Missouri River reached 30.2 feet Sunday in Fremont County in the state’s far southwestern corner, 2 feet above the record set in 2011. People in the towns of Bartlett and Thurman were being evacuated as levees were breached and overtopped.

County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said it wasn’t just the amount of the water, it was the swiftness of the current that created a danger.

“This wasn’t a gradual rise,” Crecelius said. “It’s flowing fast and it’s open country — there’s nothing there to slow it down.”

Thurman has about 200 residents. About 50 people live in Bartlett.

Lucinda Parker of Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management said nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated at eight Iowa locations since flooding began late last week. Most were staying with friends or family. Seven shelters set up for flood victims held just a couple dozen people Saturday night.

In Nebraska, the Missouri River flooded Offutt Air Force Base, with about one-third of it under water on Sunday. Spokeswoman Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake told the Omaha World-Herald that 60 buildings, mostly on the south end of the base, have been damaged, including about 30 completely inundated with as much as 8 feet of water.

Hundreds of people remained out of their homes in Nebraska, where floodwaters reached record levels at 17 locations. The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency highlighted some remarkably high crests. The Missouri River was expected to reach 41 feet in Plattsmouth on Sunday — 4 feet above the record set in 2011. The Elkhorn River got to 24.6 feet Saturday in Waterloo, breaking the 1962 record by 5½ feet.

In hard-hit Sarpy County, Neb., up to 500 homes have been damaged, including some cabins along a lake, said Greg London of the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office. The damage followed breaches of levees along the Platte River on Thursday and Saturday, and a Missouri River levee break on Thursday. The two rivers converge there.

London said many of the damaged homes are wet up to the roof line and likely ruined.

“This area’s had flooding before but not of this magnitude,” London said. “This is unprecedented.”

Nearly 300 people have been rescued from high water across the state.

At least two people have died in the floodwaters. Aleido Rojas Galan, 52, of Norfolk, Neb., was swept away Friday night in southwestern Iowa, when the vehicle he was in went around a barricade. Two others in the vehicle survived — one by clinging to a tree. On Thursday, Columbus, Neb., farmer James Wilke, 50, died when a bridge collapsed as he used a tractor to try and reach stranded motorists.

Two men remain missing. A Norfolk man was seen on top of his flooded car late Thursday before being swept away. Water also swept away a man after a dam collapse.

Downstream in St. Joseph, Mo., home to 76,000 people, volunteers were helping to fill sandbags to help secure a levee protecting an industrial area. Calls were out for even more volunteers in hopes of filling 150,000 sandbags by Tuesday, when the Missouri River is expected to climb to 27 feet — 10 feet above technical flood stage.

Flooding was causing problems for passenger train service between Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis. Amtrak said Sunday that its Missouri River Runner service between the state’s two largest cities was experiencing delays up to five hours because of flooding and rail congestion. All Missouri River Runner trains will be canceled Monday. The service typically travels twice daily between the two metropolitan areas.

The rising Mississippi River also was creating concern. The Mississippi was already at major flood level along the Iowa-Illinois border, closing roads and highways and swamping thousands of acres of farmland. Moderate Mississippi River flooding was expected at several Missouri cities, including St. Louis.

Flooding has also been reported in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, officials said residents who evacuated their homes could return now that floodwaters have receded there.

Letter to the editor — March 18, 2019

Dear all,

If you missed the forum on Tuesday night, you missed a really good meeting. The panel was very informed about the issues and had the expertise to answer all questions, and explain what work is being done right now to make sure that all answers are best for our schools.  

Thanks to The Iola Register and their staff for carrying this process through, and trying to contact people from all phases of life. They have worked hard to get the best we can do for our kids. During the meeting, Tim Stauffer was at a computer answering questions posted on Facebook  and sending them to links that had answers. At the same time, reporter Rick Danley relayed their questions to the panel.  It was a well-done event. Thanks to all of you who have worked so hard on this bond issue. 

Now, it’s everyone’s turn to step up and vote. This is for our young people, for our town, for our survival, so you need to vote. If you don’t understand something, go see the school staff, or Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager, or ask whomever can answer your question. Don’t ask people who haven’t been studying the issues. 

The county clerk’s office can tell you exactly how much it will affect your taxes. When I went to vote this morning, County Clerk Sherri Riebel said the more we do for our town, the easier it becomes for our taxpayers. This is for the betterment of our town. We need every one of you to save our town, our dreams, and most of all, our youth.  Someone built our schools, and  kept them up to date, so now it’s time to pay it forward. 

Be an informed voter.  

The special election is April 2 or you can vote now at the county clerk’s office. I’ve voted, have you?

Donna Houser,  

Iola, Kan.

Wichita: Police strained by parolees, offenders

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say the concentration of registered offenders and parolees in the area is straining resources and posing risks to public safety.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Sedgwick County has the largest number of parolees and registered offenders in Kansas, with many coming from other counties or states.

The Kansas Department of Corrections released 1,269 people under parole supervision to Sedgwick County last fiscal year, which ended June 30. Just 360 parolees were released to Johnson County, which has a bigger population.

Sedgwick County had 2,819 people on the state’s offender registry for certain violent, sex or drug crimes last fall, according to Wichita police. It’s more than three times the number of registered offenders in Johnson County.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said he was surprised by how many offenders have convictions in other counties or states.

Part of the trend can be explained by Wichita being the state’s largest city, with many job opportunities and resources.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Jose Salcido said sending more registered offenders to Wichita creates a “hyper-concentration” that results in increased crime.

“It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Salcido said.

Federal statistics show parolees are likely to commit a serious crime after being released from prison, Salcido said.

He said it’s costing the Police Department time and money, and putting strain on its homeless outreach team. The unit responds to 911 calls and calls for service involving homeless people, and allocates one-quarter of its resources to homeless parolees, Salcido said.

The department has also been working with state corrections officials to better track violent offenders and provide treatment and prevention, according to Salcido.

Democratic Rep. John Carmichael said Wichita gets a disproportionate number of parolees partly because it has the only work release facility in the state. 

Men can work jobs in the community as they finish their sentences, which Carmichael said results in many staying.

Some settle in the area because Wichita has mental health and drug treatment programs, he added.

He said the state could face heightened pressure to release more parolees to Wichita because the state’s prison population is growing and the prison system is understaffed.

Carmichael said the disproportionate number of parolees “imposes a burden on law enforcement and the citizens and taxpayers in Sedgwick County.”

Appeals Court reviews Kansas voter ID law

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court will hear arguments Monday over the constitutionality of a struck-down Kansas statute that had required people to provide documents proving their U.S. citizenship before they could register to vote.

In a case with national implications for voting rights, Kansas faces an uphill battle to resurrect the law once championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led President Donald Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission.

A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked Kobach in 2016 from fully enforcing the law, calling it “a mass denial of a fundamental constitutional right.” The issue is back before the appellate court after U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson struck it down last year and made permanent the earlier injunction.

“Kansas was the tip of the spear of an effort to make it harder for people to register under the guise of protecting elections from a nonexistent epidemic of noncitizen voting. Those efforts haven’t stopped as this case illustrates, and I think this case will be closely watched,” said Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project.

The legal fight has drawn national attention as Republicans pursue voter ID laws they say are aimed at people who are unlawfully in the country. Critics contend such efforts amount to voter suppression that target Democratic-leaning minorities and college students who may not have such documentation.

Kobach, a conservative Republican, was a leading source for Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in an emailed statement that the statute was enacted by large bipartisan majorities in the Legislature.

“The Legislature is free to repeal the statute if it is no longer favored, but as long as the law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote remains on the books, we think it, like other duly enacted state laws, deserves a full and vigorous legal defense,” Schmidt said.

Kansas argued in court filings that it has a compelling interest in preventing voter fraud. It contended its proof-of-citizenship requirement is not a significant burden and protects the integrity of elections and the accuracy of voter rolls.

Critics countered that the documentary proof-of-citizenship law was “a disastrous experiment” that damaged the state’s voter rolls, disenfranchised tens of thousands and eroded confidence in the state’s elections.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has counted 35 states that have laws requiring some form of identification at the polls, but the Kansas voter registration statute at issue goes further by requiring people to provide documents such as a birth certificate, U.S. passport or naturalization papers before they can even register to vote. Arizona is the only other state with a similar law in effect, but it is far more lenient and allows people to satisfy it by writing their driver’s license number on the voter registration form. Proof-of-citizenship laws in Alabama and Georgia are not currently being enforced.

Judge Robinson found that between 1999 and 2013 a total of 39 noncitizens living in Kansas successfully registered, mostly due to applicant confusion or administrative error. That is .002 percent of the more than 1.76 million registered voters in Kansas as of Jan. 1, 2013. Eleven of those 39 noncitizens voted.

The registration law took effect in January 2013. In the three years before the appellate court put it on hold, more than 30,732 Kansans were not allowed to register to vote because they did not submit proof of citizenship. That figure represented about 12 percent of voter registration applications.

FB frustrated by local news effort

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook’s effort to establish a service that provides its users with local news and information is being hindered by the lack of outlets where the company’s technicians can find original reporting.

The service, launched last year, is currently available in some 400 cities in the United States. But the social media giant said it has found that 40 percent of Americans live in places where there weren’t enough local news stories to support it.

Facebook announced today it would share its research with academics at Duke, Harvard, Minnesota and North Carolina who are studying the extent of news deserts created by newspaper closures and staff downsizing.

Some 1,800 newspapers have closed in the United States over the last 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina. Newsroom employment has declined by 45 percent as the industry struggles with a broken business model partly caused by the success of companies on the Internet, including Facebook.

The Facebook service, called “Today In,” collects news stories from various local outlets, along with government and community groups. The company deems a community unsuitable for “Today In” if it cannot find a single day in a month with at least five news items available to share.

There’s not a wide geographical disparity. For example, the percentage of news deserts is higher in the Northeast and Midwest, at 43 percent, Facebook said. In the South and West, the figure is 38 percent.

“It affirms the fact that we have a real lack of original local reporting,” said Penelope Muse Abernathy, a University of North Carolina professor who studies the topic. She said she hopes the data helps pinpoint areas where the need is greatest, eventually leading to some ideas for solutions.

Facebook doesn’t necessarily have the answers. “Everyone can learn from working together,” said Ann Kornblut, director of news initiatives at the company.

The company plans to award some 100 grants, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, to people with ideas for making more news available, said Jimmy O’Keefe, product marketing manager for “Today In.”

That comes on top of $300 million in grants Facebook announced in January to help programs and partnerships designed to boost local news.

The company doesn’t plan to launch newsgathering efforts of its own, Kornblut said.

“Our history has been — and we will probably stick to it — to let journalists do what they do well and let us support them and let them do their work,” she said.

Woods cards highest score ever at 17, makes cut at Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Tiger Woods paused on the ninth green and stared at a nearby leaderboard.

His name would have been on it if not for one hole.

Woods hit two balls in the water at the par-3 17th at TPC Sawgrass — the first time he’s done that in 69 rounds at The Players Championship — and carded a quadruple-bogey 7 in the second round Friday. It was his worst score at the famed island green and matched his highest on any par 3 in 24 years on the PGA Tour.

Woods rebounded with two birdies on the front side, leading to a 1-under 71 and leaving him at 3-under 141 for the tournament.

He was well back of the leaders, but felt he was still within range heading to the weekend.

“Everyone who makes the cut, anyone who makes the cut, has a chance to win this golf tournament,” Woods said.

Woods was 5 under and tied for eighth, two shots off the lead at the time, when he approached the course’s signature hole. Thousands of fans surrounded the murky lagoon and were shocked when Woods’s wedge shot from 146 yards away strayed a little left, landed pin high and rolled off the green. It went through the rough, across a wood beam and plunked into the water.

“I was a bit surprised it went that far,” said Woods, who made par or birdie on every other hole Friday. “I took something off that wedge and it flew a lot further than I thought. The other guys took a little read off of that.”

Woods said he would have dialed back his swing had he hit after playing partners Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson. But he was the first to play.

He made a beeline to the drop area and promptly hit another into the drink. This time, he hit another wedge too flat and too hot. The ball one-hopped off the green and into the water.

“Both shots I’m just trying to hit the ball into the slope and just walk away with a 20-, 25-footer and move on about my business,” Woods said. “I was pretty ticked, no doubt about that, and I was bound and determined to get it all back and get it back to (5 under), and I thought that would have been a hell of a fight. Ended up getting back to 3 (under).

“Still was a good fight to get to that point, but as of right now I’m six back, which is definitely doable on this golf course, especially with the weather coming in.”

The forecast calls for cooler temperatures and a change in wind direction over the weekend, which could make scoring tougher on the Stadium Course.

Woods likes the way he’s played so far — aside from the one hole.

“I’m very happy with the way I’ve been grinding around this golf course,” he said. “I’ve missed a few opportunities to get up-and-down for birdie. Overall, I think I’ve putted pretty solidly. Other than 17 today, I really haven’t done a whole lot wrong. I very easily could be up near that lead. There’s no way I would be leading, but I would be close enough to that lead given the weekend and the forecast.”

Woods said his neck — soreness caused him to miss the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week — felt “fine.”

He had no excuses for what happened at 17. Woods had hit four balls into the water during his previous 68 rounds at the Players. He had carded a double-bogey four times, including in the final round in 2018.

“Number-wise and club-wise, it shouldn’t be that hard,” Woods said. “But we all know if you land it up on top, it’s got a good chance of getting out of here. And that’s the tricky part: It’s just a wedge and you want to get it somewhere up there where you got a chance to make birdie, but you just can’t afford to land it too far up on top.”

49 killed in New Zealand attacks

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — At least 49 people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers in an attack broadcast in horrifying, live video by an immigrant-hating white supremacist wielding at least two assault rifles and a shotgun.

One man was arrested and charged with murder, and two other armed suspects were taken into custody while police tried to determine what role they played.

“It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, noting that many of the victims could be migrants or refugees.

She pronounced it “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”

The cold-blooded attack shocked people across the nation of 5 million people, a country that has relatively loose gun laws but few gun homicides and is so peaceful police officers rarely carry firearms. New Zealand is also generally considered to be welcoming to migrants and refugees.

The gunman behind at least one of the mosque shootings left a 74-page manifesto that he posted on social media under the name Brenton Tarrant, identifying himself as a 28-year-old Australian and white nationalist who was out to avenge attacks in Europe perpetrated by Muslims.

Using what may have been a helmet camera, he livestreamed to the world in graphic detail his rampage at Christchurch’s Al Noor Mosque, where at least 41 people were killed as he sprayed them with bullets over and over, sometimes firing at victims he had already cut down. Several more worshippers were killed in an attack on a second mosque in the city a short time later.

At least 48 people were wounded, some critically, authorities said.

Police did not immediately say whether the same person was responsible for both shootings. They did not identify those taken into custody and gave no details about them except to say that none had been on any watch list.

While there was no reason to believe there were any more suspects, the prime minister said the national threat level was raised from low to high. Police warned Muslims against going to a mosque anywhere in New Zealand. And Air New Zealand canceled several flights in and out of Christchurch.

Police said the investigation extended 360 kilometers (240 miles) to the south, where homes in Dunedin were evacuated around a “location of interest.” They gave no details.

World leaders condemned the attacks and offered condolences. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and other Islamic leaders pointed to the bloodshed and other such attacks as evidence of rising hostility toward Muslims.

“I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia post-9/11 where Islam & 1.3 bn Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror by a Muslim,” Khan tweeted.

New Zealand’s prime minister said that immigrants and refugees “have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us.” As for the suspects, Ardern said, they harbor “extremist views that have absolutely no place in New Zealand.”

Witness Len Peneha said he saw a man dressed in black and wearing a helmet with some kind of device on top enter the Al Noor mosque and then heard dozens of shots, followed by people running out in terror.

Peneha, who lives next door, said the gunman ran out of the mosque, dropped what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon in his driveway and fled. Peneha then went into the mosque to help the victims.

“I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque,” he said. “I don’t understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It’s ridiculous.”

In the video that was livestreamed, the killer spends more than two minutes inside the mosque spraying terrified worshippers with gunfire. He then walks outside, where he shoots at people on the sidewalk. Children’s screams can be heard in the distance as he returns to his car to get another rifle. He walks back into the mosque, where there are at least two dozen people lying on the ground.

After going back outside and shooting a woman there, he gets back in his car, where the song “Fire” by the English rock band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown can be heard blasting. The singer bellows, “I am the god of hellfire!” and the gunman drives off.

The second attack took place at the Linwood mosque about 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

Mark Nichols told the New Zealand Herald that he heard about five gunshots and that a worshipper returned fire with a rifle or shotgun.

Based on the video, the attacker was at the scene of the first mosque for about 10 minutes, and police did not arrive until after that.

The footage showed he was carrying a shotgun and two fully automatic military assault rifles, with an extra magazine taped to one of the weapons so that he could reload quickly. He also had more assault weapons in the trunk of his car, along with what appeared to be explosives.

The gunman said he was not a member of any organization, acted alone and chose New Zealand to show that even the most remote parts of the world are not free of “mass immigration.”

Last year, New Zealand’s prime minister announced that the country would boost its annual refugee quota from 1,000 to 1,500 in 2020. Ardern, whose party campaigned on a promise to take in more refugees, called it “the right thing to do.”

Christchurch is home to nearly 400,000 people and is sometimes called the Garden City. It has been rebuilding since an earthquake in 2011 killed 185 people and destroyed many downtown buildings.

Before Friday’s attack, New Zealand’s deadliest shooting in modern history took place in 1990 in the small town of Aramoana, where a gunman killed 13 people following a dispute with a neighbor.