Titans split Yates Center tournament opener

YATES CENTER — Southern Coffey County boys and girls moved to different sides of the bracket after the opening day of the Winter Wildcat Classic at Yates Center High School on Tuesday. 

The Titan boys (2-0) earned a round one win over Cherryvale 66-62, while the girls (1-1) fell 52-40. 

The SCC boys led the Chargers 19-8 after the first quarter but a strong second quarter effort by Cherryvale left things tied up at 28 at the half. 

That effort continued into the second half with Cherryvale taking a 48-42 lead. 

The Titans scored 24 points in the second quarter, proving too much for the Chargers. The Titans remain  undefeated so far this season. 

Senior Dawson Leimkuhler had 23 points followed by 20 for senior Kolgan Ohl and 13 for Noah Borntreger. Senior Jett Harvey and senior Jonathan Borntreger had four points and junior Cooper Harred had two points. 

Meanwhile, the Titan girls fell behind 14-6 after the first quarter. A 16-7 second quarter boosted the Lady Chargers’ lead to 30-13 at the half.

SCC came out of the half focused and outscored Cherryvale 15-5 to pull within seven points heading into the fourth quarter. With momentum on their side, SCC tried to pull off a comeback but a 17-12 fourth quarter for the Chargers wrapped up their win, pushing the Lady Titans to the left side of the bracket. 

Junior Reed Szambecki had a strong game with 18 points followed by six for senior Crystal Alumbaugh, four for senior Haven Harvey, sophomore Kyra Ohl and sophomore Emersyn Hall and two for senior Jordyn Stone and junior Bryli Copeland. 

The Lady Titans will take on Altoona-Midway today at 3:30 p.m. while the boys will face Sedan right after at 5 p.m. for a shot at the championship game. 

Ronald Wulf

Due to weather, the memorial service for Ronald Wulf, age 76 of Humboldt, will take place at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Humboldt, at 1 p.m. Saturday instead of at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Humboldt. He died on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 at Heritage Healthcare in Chanute.

Kelly unhappy with lack of kids’ psychiatric beds

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Incoming Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she is “stunned” by a state agency’s lack of response to a shortage of residential psychiatric beds for children needing care in the state.

During a meeting Tuesday of a task force studying the state’s child welfare system, Kelly suggested she wants significant changes after she takes office in January, The Wichita Eagle reported .

“I’m stunned, honestly, that your agency has not done anything concrete to deal with that issue,” Kelly told Susan Fout, deputy secretary of the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services.

About 140 Kansas children are on waiting lists to receive care at the residential centers, which are known as PRTFs.

Fout acknowledged the agency is having difficulty finding available residential beds.

“We know we’re not doing the service we need to for the youngsters. … Kids are getting lost,” Fout said.

The psychiatric residential centers are privately owned and Fout said the agency can ask them to provide more beds but can’t force them to do so.

The number of centers, which can treat children for weeks or months, has dropped from 17 to 8 since 2011, with the number of beds reduced to 280 from 780.

Fout said the agency has requested funds for a 24-7 crisis hotline. But when Kelly asked specifically what the agency had done about the lack of treatment facilities, Fout said “the beds are another story.”

She said she couldn’t recall the agency’s budget request of the centers, which annoyed Kelly.

“That has been the topic of conversation for 18 months. We have known prior to that, but certainly 18 months ago, that PRTF beds were a very high priority, that the lack of them is probably what’s creating a lot of the kids in offices, kids in one-night stands — you know, we don’t have any place to put them. We need those PRTF beds,” Kelly said.

Other task force members echoed Kelly’s frustration.

Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka Republican who will become the state insurance commissioner in January, said the agency’s lack of action was “a failure of government.”

“You’re giving us the same statistics only with increased numbers, and you’re not offering any solutions to us,” she said.

Kelly has not said who she will choose as secretary of the agency and the current secretary, Gina Meier-Hummel, has declined to say whether she wants to remain in the position.

Amid falling oil prices, OPEC plans to cut production

VIENNA (AP) — OPEC countries were gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and key ally Russia would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day.

Crude prices have been falling since October because major producers — including the U.S. — are pumping oil at high rates and due to fears that weaker economic growth could dampen energy demand. The price of oil fell 22 percent in November and was down again on Thursday amid speculation that OPEC’s action might be too timid to support the market.

Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight within OPEC, said Thursday it was in favor of a cut.

“I think a million (barrels a day) will be adequate personally,” Saudi oil minister Khalid Al-Falih said upon arriving to the meeting in Vienna. That, he said, would include production for both OPEC countries as well as non-OPEC countries, like Russia, which have in recent years been coordinating their production limits with the cartel.

That view was echoed by others, including the oil ministers of Nigeria and Iraq.

“I am optimistic that the agreement will stabilize the market, will stop the slide in the price (of oil),” said Iraq’s Thamir Ghadhban.

Investors did not seem convinced, however, and were pushing the price of oil down sharply again on Thursday, with some experts saying there is concern about the size of the cut. The international benchmark for crude, Brent, was down $1.52 at $60.04 a barrel.

“The cartel has to go above and beyond the 1 million barrels cut, to at least 1.4 million to really steady the ship,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.

The fall in the price of oil will be a help to many consumers as well as energy-hungry businesses, particularly at a time when global growth is slowing. And U.S. President Donald Trump has been putting pressure publicly on OPEC to not cut production. He tweeted Wednesday that “Hopefully OPEC will be keeping oil flows as is, not restricted. The World does not want to see, or need, higher oil prices!”

While Saudi Arabia has indicated it is willing to cut production, its decision may be complicated by Trump’s decision to not sanction the country over the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. Senators say, after a briefing with intelligence services, that they are convinced that Saudi’s de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , was involved in Khashoggi’s death. Some experts say that gives the U.S. some leverage over the Saudis, though Al-Falih denied that on Thursday.

When asked if the Saudis had permission from Trump to cut production, Al-Falih replied: “I don’t need permission from any foreign governments.”

Experts say this week’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will influence the price of oil over the coming months. How strongly it does so could depend on Russia’s contribution, which will be determined in a meeting on Friday.

Analysts estimate that if Russia is willing to step up its production cuts, OPEC and non-OPEC countries could trim production by a combined 1.3-1.4 million barrels a day. A cut of 1 million barrels would be the minimum to support the market, and anything less could see the price of oil fall another $10 a barrel, according to Wilson.

“The stakes are high now for OPEC,” he said.

OPEC’s reliance on non-members like Russia highlights the cartel’s waning influence in oil markets, which it had dominated for decades. The OPEC-Russia alliance was made necessary in 2016 to compete with the United States’ vastly increased production of oil in recent years. By some estimates, the U.S. this year became the world’s top crude producer.

OPEC is also riven by internal conflict, especially between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. One of the key questions in Thursday’s talks is whether to exempt Iran from having to cut production, as its energy industry is already hobbled by U.S. sanctions on its crude exports.

Meanwhile, Qatar, a Saudi rival and Iranian ally, said this week it would leave OPEC in January. While it said it was purely a practical decision because it mainly produces natural gas and little oil, the move was viewed as a symbolic snub to the Saudi-dominated organization.

Wisconsin legislators ignore voters’ wishes

In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are refusing to accept the voters’ will.

Instead of preparing to work with Gov.-elect Tony Evers, a Democrat, Republicans are furiously working to undercut his authority as well as that of incoming Attorney General Josh Kaul, also a Democrat.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed bills that affect gubernatorial appointments to agencies as well as the governor’s ability to make any changes to the state’s strict voter ID laws  or  change work requirements for food stamps.

Another measure limits the attorney general’s ability to decide which laws to challenge. Legislators also voted to curtail advanced voting to within two weeks of an election, even though a court ruled a similar provision unconstitutional.

Republicans defend the moves as providing better balance between branches of government.

Opponents see it as an outright power grab.

We side with the latter.

Evers and Kaul campaigned on platforms that included extracting Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act. Because they won their individual races, it stands to reason a majority of Wisconsin voters also regard the ACA as a valuable asset. Polls show Kansans feel the same, despite the fact that our  AG Derek Schmidt has also signed us up to see to its defeat.

In Wisconsin, Republicans went into micro-manage mode, ruling the new attorney general must get a committee’s approval before withdrawing from the federal lawsuit.

Wisconsin Republicans also want to protect current agencies such as the state’s Economic Development Corp., which Evers has deemed redundant. In order to ensure its perpetuity, legislators gave themselves the authority to increase their number of  appointments to the board and restrict those made by the governor.

And in a last-minute decision, legislators locked in place punitive work requirements for Medicaid and food stamp recipients, despite overwhelming opposition by health-care providers, hospitals and insurers who say their consequences are overly destructive to the very populations the programs are designed to serve.

Republicans further justified the moves by saying laws enacted by a legislature “should not be erased by the potential political maneuvering of the executive branch.”

But that’s exactly how a democracy operates.

If a majority is unhappy with existing laws and practices, it votes in those who will change them.

 

THE STATE motto for Wisconsin is “forward.” But on Wednesday, it took a big step backward.

— Susan Lynn

 

 

Stephen Curry scores 42 points, Warriors rout Cavaliers

CLEVELAND (AP) — Stephen Curry made nine 3-pointers and scored 42 points, Kevin Durant added 25 and the Golden State Warriors came back to face a very different looking Cleveland team for the first time since winning another NBA title, and beat the Cavaliers 129-105 on Wednesday night.

Curry scored nine points in less than a minute midway through the fourth quarter to help the Warriors pull away for their eighth straight over their former Finals rivals.

Curry added nine rebounds, seven assists and appears completely healed after missing 11 games with a strained groin. Durant had 10 rebounds and nine assists.

It was Golden State’s first visit to Cleveland since June, when the Warriors completed a sweep to win their third championship in four years.

Nothing looked the same.

The Cavaliers lost LeBron James over the summer as a free agent and are starting from scratch after a four-year run as Eastern Conference champions. Cleveland also is playing without injured All-Star Kevin Love, forward J.R. Smith is on a forced hiatus and the team recently traded Kyle Korver.

Tristan Thompson, one of the only holdovers from those powerful Cleveland teams, had 19 rebounds and 14 points. Rookie Collin Sexton scored 20 points for Cleveland.

LAKERS 121, 

SPURS 113

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James scored 20 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter and Josh Hart hit two clutch 3-pointers in the final minutes as Los Angeles beat San Antonio for its fourth straight victory.

Kyle Kuzma had 22 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who lost Brandon Ingram to a sprained left ankle in the first quarter. Los Angeles still beat the Spurs for the first time in three tries this season, but only after James dramatically took control of another fourth quarter during his third 40-point game since joining the Lakers.

DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points and Rudy Gay had a season-high 31 before fouling out for the Spurs in the first of back-to-back games in three days to wrap up the season series between these longtime West rivals. They’ll meet again in San Antonio on Friday night.

San Antonio held an eight-point lead in the fourth before James started a rally by scoring nine consecutive points.

James scored all 20 of his fourth-quarter points in the final 9½ minutes, going 7 of 8 from the field with three 3-pointers. He also had six assists and five rebounds.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Spurs.

Ho-ho-whoa!

Jefferson Elementary School first- and second-graders offered up a unique spin on the holidays with “Crazy Carols!” The school’s annual winter program featured variations of a number of popular Christmas songs, such as “They Test You, Merry Gentlemen” and “Joy to the World (My Shopping’s Done!)” 

Township treasurer charged

A township treasurer accused of misusing public funds is scheduled to make his first court appearance next week.

Merle Leroy Beeman, age 77, is facing five felony charges related to the theft of more than $25,000 in government funds over the course of about four years. Beeman has served as Salem Township treasurer since January 2013.

Beeman is accused of writing multiple checks for personal use and misrepresenting the purpose of the money, according to Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway and court records. An audit by the county revealed accounting discrepancies, followed by an investigation by law enforcement.

Beeman was charged with official misconduct, permitting a false claim, misuse of public funds, theft by deception and making false information. The charges cover a period between Feb. 14, 2014, to Sept. 4, 2018, and were filed Nov. 13.

A first court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, in Allen County District Court.

Lame-duck legislature changes rules on way out

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Senate voted just before sunrise today following an all-night session to pass a sweeping bill in a lame-duck session designed to empower the GOP-controlled Legislature and weaken the Democrat replacing Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Republicans pushed on through protests, internal disagreement and Democratic opposition to the measures designed to reduce the powers of incoming Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. Both Evers and Kaul urged Republicans not to do it, warning that lawsuits would bring more gridlock to Wisconsin when the new administration, and the first divided government in 10 years, takes over.

But Republicans forged ahead regardless, passing it 17-16 with all Republicans except one in support. All Democrats voted against it. The Assembly was expected to pass the bill later today, sending it on to Walker for his consideration. Walker has signaled support.

“This is a heck of a way to run a railroad,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling said as debate resumed at 5 a.m. “This is embarrassing we’re even here.”

In one concession, Republicans backed away from giving the Legislature the power to sidestep the attorney general and appoint their own attorney when state laws are challenged in court. An amendment to do away with that provision was part of a Republican rewrite of the bill, made public around 4:30 a.m. after all-night negotiations.

Walker, who was booed and heckled during an afternoon Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the Capitol rotunda, has signaled support for the measures that he would have to sign before they take effect. He’s in his final five weeks as governor after losing a bid for a third term to Evers, the state schools superintendent.

Despite the victories by Evers, Kaul and every other Democrat running for statewide office, Republicans maintained majority control in the Legislature for the next two years. Democrats blamed partisan gerrymandering by Republicans for stacking the electoral map against them.

But faced with a Democratic governor for the first time in eight years, legislative Republicans came up with a package of lame-duck bills to protect their priorities and make it harder for Evers to enact his.

“Why are we here today?” Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said as the debate of more than nine hours began late Tuesday night. “What are we doing? Nothing we’re doing here is about helping the people of Wisconsin. It’s about helping politicians. It’s about power and self-interest.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos countered that the bills will ensure a balance of power between the Legislature and the executive branch.

“We have allowed far too much authority to flow to the executive,” Vos said. “To you this is all about politics. To me, it’s about the institution.”

The bill would weaken the governor’s ability to put in place rules that enact laws and shield the state jobs agency from his control until September. It would also limit early voting to no more than two weeks before an election, a restriction similar to what a federal judge ruled was unconstitutional. Democrats were optimistic it would be rejected by the courts again.

The proposal would also weaken the attorney general’s office by requiring a legislative committee, rather than the attorney general, to sign off on withdrawing from federal lawsuits. That would stop Evers and Kaul from fulfilling their campaign promises to withdraw Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit seeking repeal of the Affordable Care Act. They made opposition to that lawsuit a central part of both of their campaigns.

The Legislature passed another measure to enact Medicaid work requirement rules Walker recently won a federal waiver to establish. The bill would also give the Legislature oversight over the governor seeking future waivers for health care, a change Democrats said would handcuff the new administration.

The proposals come after North Carolina lawmakers took similar steps two years ago. Michigan Republicans also are discussing taking action before a Democratic governor takes over there.

Protesters have come and gone in the Capitol the past two days as lawmakers rushed to pass the bills. The tumult was reminiscent of much larger demonstrations in the opening weeks of Walker’s time as governor in 2011, when he effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.

“The first thing Scott Walker did when he walked through the door of the Capitol was to create chaos,” Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said during Senate debate. “The last thing he is doing is creating chaos.”

 

Stay up-to-date on the recent developments by following Wisconsin Public Radio on Twitter:

Audrey Gardner

(Click here for an article detailing Ms. Gardner’s impact on students and staff.)

Audrey Bonita Gardner, 41, of Iola, died Monday, Dec. 3, 2018 at Allen County Regional Hospital at Iola.

Ms. Gardner was born Aug. 26, 1977, at Shreveport, La., the daughter of Paul B. and Rosemary Tierney Gardner.  

She was raised in Shreveport, La. She graduated from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in 1996. She later attended Pittsburg State University and graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She later received a master’s degree also from Pittsburg State University. She was an elementary school teacher in the Iola school district. She was a member of St. John’s Catholic Church in Iola. 

Survivors include her parents, Paul and Rosemary Gardner of Girard; a brother, Paul (Dana) Gardner II of Lawrence, and a nephew, Kaleb Gardner of Lawrence.

Mass of Christian burial will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Arma, with Father Floyd McKinney as celebrant. Burial will be at the Pittsburg Garden of Memories Cemetery. Rosary will be said at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Bedene Funeral Home at Arma, and the family will receive friends following the rosary. 

The family suggests memorials to the Audrey B. Gardner Scholarship Fund at Iola’s USD 257 School District. Donations may be sent to or left at the Bedene Funeral Home, 517 E. Washington, Box 621, Arma KS 66712.