Netflix releases Panama Papers movie, ‘The Laundromat,’ despite lawsuit

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Netflix has released a movie based on the so-called Panama Papers despite an attempt by two lawyers to stop the streaming premiere.

“The Laundromat,” starring Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas and Meryl Streep, debuted Friday on Netflix after a limited release in theaters.

Two Panamanian lawyers, Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, sued Netflix in federal court in Connecticut this week, saying the movie defamed them and could prejudice criminal cases against them. Netflix called the suit a “frivolous legal stunt” aimed at censoring free speech.

The Panama Papers were more than 11 million documents leaked from the two lawyers’ firm that shed light on how the rich hide their money.

A judge ruled Thursday that the case shouldn’t have been filed in Connecticut and transferred it to the Los Angeles-area federal court district.

Wichita mayor won’t face charges for gifts he received

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett says he will not file charges against Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell over gifts the mayor received from companies involved in building the city’s new water treatment plant.

Bennett said he has asked Longwell to report gifts he received in the past from Professional Engineering Consultants and Wildcat Constructors. The Wichita Eagle has reported Longwell received hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts such as meals, travel and golf outings from the companies while the bid for the water plant was under consideration.

Bennett said Thursday he didn’t pursue changes because state law doesn’t clearly define what constitutes “financial interactions” between local office holders and the public.

Longwell has said the presidents of the two companies are friends and their golf outings and dinners were not related to city business.

Douglas Co. won’t charge some cases of marijuana possession

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson says his office will no longer file criminal cases for simple marijuana possession.

Branson said Thursday that Douglas County citizens should not be criminally charged when citizens in Lawrence and surrounding communities face little or no penalty in such cases. And he said he hopes the decision will allow county courts and law enforcement to focus on more serious issues.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Lawrence city officials this year reduced fines to $1 for first and second convictions for marijuana possession, for people 18 and with 32 grams or less of marijuana. The city did not change municipal court fines for drug paraphernalia possession, and additional court and diversion costs could still apply.

Possession is still illegal in most Kansas communities, and under state and federal law.

Scientists: Big storms can create ‘stormquakes’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have discovered a mash-up of two feared disasters — hurricanes and earthquakes — and they’re calling them “stormquakes.”

The shaking of the sea floor during hurricanes and nor’easters can rumble like a magnitude 3.5 earthquake and can last for days, according to a study in this week’s journal Geophysical Research Letters. The quakes are fairly common, but they weren’t noticed before because they were considered seismic background noise.

A stormquake is more an oddity than something that can hurt you, because no one is standing on the sea floor during a hurricane, said Wenyuan Fan, a Florida State University seismologist who was the study’s lead author.

The combination of two frightening natural phenomena might bring to mind “Sharknado ,” but stormquakes are real and not dangerous.

“This is the last thing you need to worry about,” Fan told The Associated Press.

Storms trigger giant waves in the sea, which cause another type of wave. These secondary waves then interact with the seafloor — but only in certain places — and that causes the shaking, Fan said. It only happens in places where there’s a large continental shelf and shallow flat land.

Fan’s team found 14,077 stormquakes between September 2006 and February 2015 in the Gulf of Mexico and off Florida, New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador and British Columbia. A special type of military sensor is needed to spot them, Fan said.

Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 set off lots of stormquakes, the study said.

The shaking is a type that creates a wave that seismologists don’t normally look for when monitoring earthquakes, so that’s why these have gone unnoticed until now, Fan said.

Ocean-generated seismic waves show up on U.S. Geological Survey instruments, “but in our mission of looking for earthquakes these waves are considered background noise,” USGS seismologist Paul Earle said.

Grissom drops bid

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former federal prosecutor from Kansas abandoned his Senate run on Thursday and endorsed a fellow Democrat who just entered the race.

Barry Grissom urged Democrats to unite behind state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a retired Kansas City-area anesthesiologist who made headlines in December by defecting from the Republican Party. Bollier was formerly a GOP moderate often at odds with the party’s more conservative leaders and is running as a “pragmatic” Democrat and centrist.

Grissom’s move comes with some top Republicans worried that former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a take-no-prisoners conservative who built a national profile by advocating for tough immigration policies, will capture the GOP nomination next year.

Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932, but they see Kobach winning the Republican nomination as their best chance for picking up the seat held by Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, who isn’t seeking a fifth term.

“If we’re going to make history in Kansas, it will require an extraordinary commitment to changing the trajectory of our country, and maybe a little bit of luck, too,” Grissom said in a statement posted on his campaign website. “I know a drawn-out primary would be unquestionably harmful and set us all back in this fight.”

A look back in time

January 1949 — Although dairying is now Allen County’s largest industry, only a fraction of this area’s potential milk production has been realized. That was the conclusion emphasized last night by John Brazee and A.J. Miller, who spoke before the Chamber of Commerce on the growth of the local Pet Milk Company plant during the past 25 years. The plant now has about 2,000 patrons from whom it purchases milk every day, employs 70 to 85 men and has 34 others who operate milk routes throughout the plant’s territory. 

October 1964 — Ray Pershall, chairman of the Chamber’s industrial committee, said he was assured by E.E. Bartle, an official of the Pet Milk Co., that the Iola plant is and has been one of the top efficiency plants in the country, and that the company remains favorably impressed with the business climate here. The decision to move some of the operations from here to the Neosho, Mo., plant was based purely on economics, Pershall said. Dale Bowyer, president of the local Chamber and a Pet official, said that the problem simply is that milk production has decreased considerably in the Neosho, Mo., area, but major packaging machinery and can-making facilities are located there. Thus it is more economical, he said, to transport the milk from here to Neosho than to move the equipment from there to Iola or continue both operations as they have been running. Boyer emphasized that the cutback will have no effect on local milk producers and haulers.

November 1964 — W.M. Jackson, local Pet manager, announced today that Monday will be the last working day at the plant for some 34 hourly employees as the work force of 53 is cut to about 19. Milk will be received and condensed as usual but then shipped by truck to Neosho, Mo., where it will be canned for resale.

April 1968 — The Pet Milk receiving station in Iola was closed today. Pet announced that milk from its patrons in the Iola area will be received and transported by Producers Creamery Company in Erie for processing at Pet’s Neosho, Mo., plant. Pet officials said the decision will eliminate the jobs of six or seven employees at the Iola plant.

Mildred celebrates with music, cars

Music contests and a car show will highlight the Mildred Fall Festival this weekend at the Mildred Store.

Saturday’s events begin with registration for bands at  9 a.m., crafts and vendors at 9:30.

Preliminary competitions for bluegrass and acoustic music, as well as the craft and vendor fair, take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A performance jam session for all bands is scheduled for 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

On Sunday, car show registration starts at 8 a.m. followed by the car show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Car show prizes will be awarded at 12:30 p.m.

A gospel jam session and sing-a-long is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon.

Finalists from the band contest will perform from 1 to 3 p.m.

Throughout both days, enter a 50/50 drawing with the winner announced during band finals. Pumpkins will be provided for kids 12 and under to decorate.

Windows shot out

Iola police officers are requesting vandalism charges be filed against a suspect blamed in shooting out several windows in North Iola.

Mike Cooper, owner of Mike’s Carpet, said a pair of picture windows to his business at 803 N,. State St. were shot out sometime Oct. 7. That was the same time three other residences on North Jefferson Avenue reported window damage, officers.

The suspect was not identified, although officers said he is a student at Allen Community College.

A BB gun was used, officers said.

Cease fire off to rocky beginning

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (AP) — The cease-fire in northern Syria got off to a rocky start Friday, as Kurdish leaders accused Turkey of violating the accord with continued fighting at a key border town while casting doubt on provisions in the U.S.-brokered deal with Ankara.

Turkey’s president warned that Turkish forces would go back on the attack in four days unless Kurdish-led fighters withdraw “without exception” from a zone 20 miles (30 kilometers) deep in Syria running the entire 260-mile (440-kilometer) length of the border.

“Without exception, if the promise is not fulfilled, Operation Peace Spring will resume the minute the 120 hours end with even more determination,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists in Istanbul.

There was no sign of any pullout by the Kurdish-led forces. They say the deal only covers a much smaller section of the border, about 125 kilometers (75 miles) and haven’t committed to pull out from anywhere.

Some fighters have vowed not to withdraw, calling the accord an “insult to Kurdish dignity” and tantamount to a surrender arranged by the U.S., the former ally that abandoned them to the Turkish assault.

The Kurdish self-administration said some provisions of the cease-fire deal “need further discussion with the United States,” though it did not specify what. A senior Kurdish politician, Ilham Ahmed, was due in Washington over the weekend to meet U.S. officials.

The cease-fire agreement — reached in negotiations between Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence — requires the Kurdish fighters to vacate a swath of territory in Syria along the Turkish border. That effectively means the Kurds would grant Turkey its goals in the offensive and consecrate its control of territory it captured.

Criticism mounted for a deal that President Donald Trump called “a great day for civilization.”

EU Council President Donald Tusk said it was “not a cease-fire, it is a demand for the capitulation of the Kurds” and called on Turkey to immediately halt its operation in northeast Syria. French President Emmanuel Macron called the Turkish operation “madness.”

The U.S. pullout from northeastern Syria has positioned Russia as the main power broker.

Erdogan is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday, the day the halt in fighting runs out.

After being abandoned by the Americans, the Kurds agreed with Moscow to allow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces to deploy along the border with Turkey to halt the invasion. Syrian forces have already moved into several sites previously under Kurdish control.

Ahmed, the Kurdish official, said the cease-fire deal doesn’t impact the agreement with Russia and Damascus.

The Syrian government deployment, although not complete, puts Russia as the ultimate arbiter of the arrangements along much of the Syrian-Turkish border.

The border town of Ras al-Ayn was emerging as an immediate test of whether the halt in violence can take hold. Before the deal’s announcement, Turkish-backed forces had encircled the town and were battling fierce resistance from Kurdish fighters inside.

Turkish shelling hit in and around Ras al-Ayn on Friday morning, raising columns of smoke seen by an Associated Press journalist in Ceylanpinar on the Turkish side of the border, but none was seen after 10:30 a.m., and only sporadic gunfire was heard from inside the town.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Rojava Information Center said fighting continued into the afternoon as Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish forces in villages on the outskirts of Ras al-Ayn.

Other activists reported a new exodus of civilians from the villages. Gun battles and shelling continued around a hospital in the center of Ras al-Ayn, and those injured inside could not be evacuated, said Mustafa Bali, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Kurdish-led force said in a statement that 13 of its fighters and five civilians were killed in fighting since the cease-fire began.

Fighting quieted around 4 p.m., and the calm continued into nightfall, Kurdish fighters said.

The Kurdish-led administration said Turkey “has not adhered with the cease-fire until now in some areas,” particularly in Ras al-Ayn.

But Trump and Erdogan insisted it was working,

Trump said in a tweet that he spoke Friday with Erdogan who said there had been some “minor sniper and mortar fire” that was quickly stopped. “There is goodwill on both sides,” Trump added.

The commander of the Kurdish-led force, Mazloum Abdi, said Thursday night that it would abide by the cease-fire and “do our best to make it successful.” He did not mention any withdrawal.

A force spokesman, Mervan, said “so far” there is no plan for withdrawal from Ras al-Ayn because of the continuing siege.

A member of the Syrian Kurdish force rebuffed calls for a pullback from border towns, calling the U.S. deal with Turkey an “insult” that would in “no way” work. He derided the idea that the Kurds would hand their land over and questioned the U.S. ability to enforce the deal “without any presence on the ground.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

No fighting was heard elsewhere Friday along the stretch of the border that has been the main theater of the Turkish assault, running from Ras al-Ayn about 75 miles (125 kilometers) west to the Turkish-held town of Tal Abyad. Kurdish fighters have already been driven out of much, but not all, of that territory.

The Kurds were U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State since 2014, but Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters terrorists because of their links to outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey since the 1980s.

Kobach fires Senate campaign aide

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Kris Kobach’s campaign for the Senate in Kansas says it has fired an aide after learning he regularly posted hateful comments about Jews and racial minorities on a white nationalist website.

The latest campaign finance report filed by Kobach’s campaign shows it paid Joe Suber of Olathe $500 for field coordinating services in September. The Kansas City Star reports Suber also filed paperwork in August making the campaign a limited liability company.

The newspaper said Suber has a history of making anti-Semitic and racist comments on The UNZ Review, a website with white nationalist and anti-Semitic content.

Kobach called Suber’s views “abhorrent” and repudiated them.

His campaign said Suber ran errands and did other small tasks.

Suber suggested some of his posts “might be humor.”