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Last week’s column about canceling our syndicated political cartoons in the Alva Review-Courier drew a lot of comments. I was stopped by people in stores who said they were unhappy with those cartoons, too. One lady came into the office specifically to express her appreciation. She also had a recommendation of where I might find more acceptable political cartoons. The “last straw” cartoon for me was one from a liberal slant about Rush Limbaugh after his death. Most people I talked to consi...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) David Drake, University of Colorado Boulder and Jeffrey York, University of Colorado Boulder (THE CONVERSATION) The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea People often point to plunging natural gas prices as the reason U.S. coal-fired power plants have been shutting down at a faster pace in recent years. However, new research shows two other forces had a much larger effect: federal regulation...
The House of Representatives finished hearing bills in committee this past week. The next two weeks will be devoted to hearing bills on the House floor. Of the 1,987 House bills and joint resolutions introduced this year, only 503, or 25%, made it through the committee process. This compares to 494 measures that passed in committee in 2020 out of 1,378 filed, equaling 36%; and 450 of 1,756 in 2019 – 26%. Some of the measures never made it to committee. Others received a do-not-pass recommendation – or too many no votes – to advance from commi...
PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy shot and seriously injured a fellow student Monday morning at an Arkansas junior high school, and the suspect was detained in a juvenile detention facility, authorities said. The shooting happened in a hallway at Watson Chapel Junior High School as students were switching classes at about 10 a.m., Pine Bluff Police Chief Kelvin Sergeant said. The school is in the city of Pine Bluff, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Little Rock. The school went on lockdown after the shooting. The shooter r...
ROME (AP) — A trial began in Sicily on Tuesday for 97 suspected Mafia members and white-collar professionals allegedly in cahoots with mobsters in what prosecutors contend was a scheme that fraudulently garnered millions of euros in European Union agriculture funds. In the indictment for the trial, in Messina, prosecutors alleged that local Cosa Nostra clans, with the aid of complicit notaries and bureaucrats handling the paperwork, managed to gain 10 million euros (now $12 million) in EU aid starting in 2013 for a sprawling area of grazing l...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission told Congress on Tuesday that the agency should address how to protect investors who use online stock-trading platforms with flashy tech gimmicks that entice them to trade more. Gary Gensler, who was a chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration, testified by video for his confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. He was asked about the roiling stock-trading drama involving GameStop shares that has s...
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Talk about your yard sale finds. A small porcelain bowl bought for $35 at a Connecticut yard sale turned out to be a rare, 15th century Chinese artifact worth between $300,000 and $500,000 that is about to go up for auction at Sotheby's. The white bowl adorned with cobalt blue paintings of flowers and other designs is about 6 inches (16 centimeters) in diameter. An antiques enthusiast came across the piece and thought it could be something special when browsing a yard sale in the New Haven area last year, according to S...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association said Tuesday that he is encouraged and happy that the State Department of Health will begin using U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 death reports, which show about 2,500 more deaths in Oklahoma due to the coronavirus than the department has reported. "As physicians we want to make sure that these numbers are accurate and timely, and certainly one of the best ways to look at COVID deaths is to look at death certificate information," which is p...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers moved Tuesday to extend protections for businesses from lawsuits over COVID-19, while a prominent critic of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said the state's vaccine distribution has improved in recent weeks. The Republican-controlled Legislature is considering several measures arising out of the pandemic or Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's response to it. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would give businesses an extra year of protection, until March 31, 2022, from lawsuits from customers or e...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A deputy from the Sedgwick County Jail has been arrested after an investigation into contraband being brought into the jail, Sheriff Jeff Eastern said Tuesday. An investigation began last week after the sheriff's office received a tip that David Cameron, 35, was bringing contraband into the jail, Easter said. He was arrested on one count of mistreatment of a confined person and one count of trafficking contraband. Details of the mistreatment allegation were not released. On Monday, the sheriff's office seized a cell p...
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The student newspaper editor at Haskell Indian Nations University filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging the university and its president violated the First Amendment rights of the students by retaliating against them for engaging in protected speech and journalistic activities. The lawsuit stems from a directive Haskell's president, Ronald Graham, sent in October to Jared Nally, editor of The Indian Leader, instructing him not to contact any government agency for information while representing the paper or "attack" a...
"I'm literally living the dream," Peyton Yandel said of owning his own gym and surviving despite Covid restrictions. What's his secret? Building on a foundation of relationships, dedication and hard work. "I wake up at 4:30 in the morning and come to the gym," he said. He's usually there till about 7 p.m. "It's a long day, but I get to do what I love and the majority of people can't necessarily say that." A 2015 graduate of South Barber High School in Kiowa, Kansas, Yandel was a top athlete...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The number of Oklahoma deaths due to the illness caused by the coronavirus jumped by about 2,500 Wednesday as the state health department began using the count reported by the federal Centers for Disease Control. The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 7,035 deaths using the CDC's number that is based on death certificates. The health department on Tuesday had reported 4,534 COVID deaths. The pending change was announced Monday by state epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor, who said the state's lower total was due to t...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The evidence implicating an Oklahoma death row inmate whose case has drawn national attention is overwhelming and his application for a commutation is filled with "demonstrable falsehoods," Oklahoma County's top prosecutor wrote in a letter this week to the state's Pardon and Parole Board. The murder conviction of Julius Jones, 40, for the 1999 shooting death of Edmond businessman Paul Howell in front of Howell's two young daughters has drawn the attention of reality television star Kim Kardashian West and athletes with Okl...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Driven by pleas from desperate local officials, Kansas legislators moved unusually quickly Wednesday to create a state low-interest loan program to help cities cover spikes in costs associated with providing heat and electricity to their residents during last month's intense cold snap. The House approved, 124-0, a bill that would allow the state to loan out $100 million of its idle funds immediately to cities that operate their own electric and natural gas utilities, to cover "extraordinary" energy costs last month. C...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate on Wednesday approved a proposal from its top Republican to require the state's public school districts to offer in-person classes to all students by March 26. Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, is pushing the measure with the number of new COVID-19 cases lower than they have been in months. Masterson and other Republicans argue that many students don't fare well academically or emotionally with online learning and need to get back into classrooms. The Senate's 26-12 vote sends the m...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who injured a police officer after intentionally ramming through a security gate at a Koch family home in Wichita has been sentenced to three years of probation. Aron James White, 42, was sentenced last week for injuring the officer. The Koch family did not pursue charges after the January 2019 incident, which caused $20,000 damage to the gate and $10,000 in ruined landscape, The Wichita Eagle reported. Court records say White rammed the gate after a security guard refuse to let him enter. He then hit a patrol car u...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who police allege attacked a Wichita woman with a sword and stabbed her dog has been arrested, police said Wednesday. Police began searching for James Brown, 41, after officers went to a home early Tuesday and found his girlfriend suffering from severe cuts on her hand and back, Officer Charley Davidson said in a news release. She was hospitalized in serious condition. Investigators determined that Brown and the woman were arguing at the home when he grabbed a 5- to 6-foot sword and struck her with it several t...
SALEM, N.H. (AP) — Police have made an arrest following a 15-month-long investigation into vandalism at a group of rock configurations in New Hampshire called "America's Stonehenge." Mark Russo, 51, of Swedesboro, New Jersey, has been charged with one count of felony criminal mischief, accused of defacing the stone in Salem in September 2019. A lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf Tuesday. Police said the rock tablet appeared to have been damaged by a power tool. It was carved with "WWG1WGA" and "IAMMARK." Police said the first s...
