Morris hits hole in one

Iolan John Morris hit a hole-in-one Tuesday evening at the Cedarbrook Golf and Fitness course in Iola.
Morris used an 8-iron for the ace on the par-3 117-yard fourth hole.
Witnessing the feat was James Miller.

Iola AA Indians split with Baldwin

BALDWIN — In the first game of a doubleheader with Baldwin here Tuesday night, Iola’s American Legion AA Indians’ losing streak grew to a bamboozling three games. They rectified that in the second game, bouncing back to register a 9-6 victory.
Iola lost two first-found games in the Chanute Fourth of July Tournament Saturday by the narrowest of margin, 6-5 to Chanute and 5-4 to Osawatomie. Baldwin scored four runs in the fifth inning in Tuesday night’s opener en route to a 6-5 win.
Iola returned to form in the nightcap. The Indians scored five runs in the first two innings and went on to win 9-6.
Results of the four games left Iola with a 21-6 record and a doubleheader tonight at Garnett, a team the Indians handled easily earlier this season.
Corey Taylor and Mason Coons split mound duty in the victory over Baldwin. Together they yielded five hits, including a pair  of two-baggers, and issued seven walks. They struck out seven.
Meanwhile, Iola laced nine hits, seven singles and two doubles, about the diamond. Ethan Ericson and Austin Knoblick had the two-base hits while Coons singled twice and Devan Conner, Clint Heffern, Jerrik Sigg, Kris Collins and Jarred Latta all had one single.
The game was decided early. Iola tallied two runs in the first and added three in the second. Another three-run outburst put the game away in the sixth.
In the first game Baldwin snatched up a victory when it scored four runs in the fifth and weathered a three-run Iola rally in the seventh that featured Sigg’s booming triple.
Heffern had a double, Conner singled  twice and Collins, Ericson and Knoblick each singled.
Sigg had mound duty for Iola. He limited Baldwin to four walks and four hits, including two doubles, while fanning six. Baldwin was opportunistic, though, bunching both doubles, a single and two walks in its big fifth inning.

Derek Aldrich

Derek Aldrich, 42, Garnett, died Saturday, July 2, 2011, at Anderson County Hospital.
Funeral arrangements will be published later when provided by Feuerborn Family Service.

Jerry Trester

Jerry Lee Trester, 63, Iola, died Saturday, July 2, 2011, at his home.
He was born March 21, 1948, in Iola, the son of Bert A. and Maxine L. (Scheer) Trester.
On Aug. 30, 1968, he married Janice E. Jones and they made their home in Iola. Jerry worked at Walton Foundry for 17 years. He later worked at Ray’s Metal Depot and was groundskeeper of the 54 Drive-In Theater.
His wife of 42 years survives, as do three daughters, Tammy Harris and her husband, John, LaHarpe, Tina Bresee and her husband, Ted, Iola, and Pamela Waggoner and her husband, Marc, LaHarpe; four brothers, Larry, LaHarpe, Gary, Chanute, Ivan, LaHarpe, and Carl, Chanute; three sisters, Beverly Hoddy, Chanute, Judy Burkholder, Branson, Mo., and Sharon Trester, Iola; nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Chapel in Iola. The Rev. Steve Bubna will officiate. Burial will follow at Gas Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Jerry Trester Memorial Fund and left with the funeral home.
Online condolences may be left at www.iolafuneral.com.

Political values put to test in St. Paul and D.C.

Minnesota’s state government shut down Friday.
Chris Lapakko, one of the 22,000 state workers laid off, took the occasion to make a point. He pitched a tent on the Capitol grounds in St. Paul and told passersby, “This is what small government looks like.”
Gov. Mark Dayton wants to close the state’s $5 billion budget gap by raising taxes on the rich as well as trimming back on state spending. The Republican-controlled Legislature refused to go along. No tax increases, they insisted.
The deadlock persisted past the deadline so the state sent its workers home and closed its doors. Minnesota state parks were closed on the eve of the three-day Fourth of July weekend. No one answered the phone at the Capitol. State-financed road repairs came to a halt.
The list of what the state of Minnesota no longer does for the people of Minnesota will grow longer by the hour.
Minnesota is giving the nation practical instruction in what happens when politicians decide that it is more important to stick stubbornly to their political dogma than it is to serve the citizens.
What is happening today in Minnesota could happen nationwide on Aug. 3 — and for basically the same, ideological reasons. Republicans in Congress say they won’t vote to raise the debt limit if the Democrats insist that tax loopholes and tax breaks must be eliminated as part of the deal.
Democrats say the Republicans are protecting their financial supporters, the “millionaires and the billionaires,” and argue that it is better to tax the rich than to make deep cuts in public programs that will throw thousands of public workers out of jobs and worsen the recession.

WHILE THESE stories made headlines in St. Paul and elsewhere, another story hit the headlines. Equilar, an executive compensation data firm based in Redwood City, Calif., announced that the median pay for top executives of 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to be a 23 percent gain from 2009. (That was about how much your family income rose, right?)
The executive pay data firm reported that Philippe P. Dauman, chief executive of Viacom, made $84.5 million last year to top the list. Other media execs did pretty well, too. Leslie Moonves of the CBS corporation got a 32 percent raise and made $56.9 million. Brian L. Roberts of Comcast Corporation and Robert A. Iger of Walt Disney Company each received pay packages valued at $28 million.
Target — the discount chain — paid its CEO $23.5 million. There are more than 100 equally mind-boggling examples of outlandish pay packages for the guys and gals at the top.
Well, you get the picture. The chief executive officers of all 200 of those corporations made millions while wages and benefits for the rest of the U.S. population disappeared entirely, shrank or, at best, stagnated.
Despite this screaming inequity in the way the nation’s wealth is being distributed, Republicans in Minnesota were willing to throw state workers out in the street and shut down government offices there rather than raise taxes on upper bracket earners. Republicans in Congress seem poised to be equally reckless at the national level.
The consequences of shutting down the U.S. government by refusing to raise the debt limit would be far more severe. Shutting off Medicaid and other support services in Minnesota will be disastrous. Shutting off Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and all of the rest of the services the federal government provides to the people would be catastrophic.
It happened in Minnesota. It can happen in Washington.  

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Folk ends slump, nabs modified win

HUMBOLDT — Jess Folk Jr. broke out of a season-long victory slump Friday, thanks to a couple of simple adjustments to his modified racer.
Folk, a former Humboldt Speedway track champion, declined to reveal the adjustments, but they paid off in a big way. He dominated his heat race, then led wire to wire in the Allen County Chiropractic USAA Modified feature. The win was his first of the year at Humboldt.
Taking second was Folk’s brother, Justin “Whitey” Folk, followed by Scott Daniels, John Allen and Brian Folk.
Ethan Lamons picked up his second factory stock feature win in as many weeks. Scott Stuart challenged but had to settle for second place. Derrick Wilson was third, Brandon Tindle fourth and Brandon Weide fifth.
Jeremy Chambers held a commanding lead throughout to claim the B-Mod feature. Tim VanGotten was second, Dalton Kirk third, Jimmy Davis fourth and Riley Whitworth in fifth.
David Matlock bested the field to win the pure stock feature checked flag. Levi Phillips finished second, followed by Dennis Aiello, Matthew Kay and Floyd Taggart.
Regular racing resumes Friday at the speedway.
Humboldt Speedway
Race Results
July 1
Whitworth Construction
Pure Stock
HEAT 1 — Tyler Kidwell, Jeremy Willard, Matthew Kay, Levi Phillips, Derek Michael, George Reimer.
HEAT 2 — Dennis Aiello, David Matlock, Floyd Taggart, Stetson Deets, Duke Turner.
HEAT 3 — Blake Kisner, Mike Aiello, Eddie Coulter, Norman Mackley, John Maloney.
A FEATURE — David Matlock, Levi Phillips, Dennis Aiello, Matthew Kay, Floyd Taggart. George Reimer, Tyler Kidwell, Jeremy Willard, John Maloney, Eddie Coulter, Stetson Deets, Derek Michael, Norman Mackley, Blake Kisner, Duke Turner.
Factory Stock
HEAT 1 — Scott Stuart, Jeremy Wilson, Derek Yocham, Brandon Weide, Tim Phillips.
HEAT 2 — Ethan Lamons, Brandon Tindle, Derrek Wilson, Billy Shadden.
A FEATURE — Ethan Lamons, Scott Stuart, Derrek Wilson, Brandon Tindle, Brandon Weide, Tim Phillips, Derek Yocham, Billy Shadden.
EZ Lock & Key B-Mod
HEAT 1 — Jeremy Chambers, Jimmie Davis, Dalton Kirk, Josh Schooler, Cole Becker.
HEAT 2 — Tim VanGotten, Jerry Kustanborter, Nathan Schmidt, Riley Whitworth, Brian Heg.
A FEATURE — Jeremy Chambers, Tim VanGotten, Dalton Kirk, Jimmie Davis, Riley Whitworth, Nathan Schmidt, Jerry Kustanborter, Josh Schooler, Brian Heg.
Allen County Chiropractic USRA Modified
HEAT 1 — Jess Folk Jr., Brian Bolin, Jerry Schniepp, Allan Broers, Dennis Bishop, Gene Hogan.
HEAT 2 — Scott Daniels, Justin Folk, Ryan Whitworth, Jon Sheets, Mike Lawrence, Cody Schniepp.
HEAT 3 — John Allen, Casey Jesseph, Rick Murcko, Darren Fuqua, Justin Becker, Dustin Lawrence.
A FEATURE — Jess Folk Jr., Justin Folk, Scott Daniels, John Allen, Brian Bolin, Casey Jesseph, Darren Fuqua, Rick Murcko, Ryan Whitworth, Jon Sheets, Allan Broers, Mike Lawrence, Gene Hogan, Dustin Lawrence, Dennis Bishop, Cody Schniepp, Jerry Schniepp, Justin Becker.

Melvin run, fly-in fill weekend

A weekend filled with activities awaits Iolans with the third annual Charley Melvin Mad Bomber Run For Your Life and a powered parachute fly-in.
Festivities kick off Friday evening on the courthouse square, including a car show, kids’ carnival, bucket brigade relay, fire truck pull, a “drag” race, an outdoor movie showing of “Ghostbusters,” and a hot air balloon that will provide short rides, weather permitting.
The evening culminates at the stroke of 12:26 a.m. Saturday with the 5K run or 3K walk, starting in front of the Iola post office.
Registration continues for participants right up until the starting bang.
The Melvin Run is cosponsored by Thrive Allen County and Allen County Crime Stoppers.
To register, contact Thrive offices, 365-8128. A sign-up booth also will be set up Friday.

THIS WEEKEND also marks the return of the distinctive powered parachutes to Allen County Airport, starting Thursday evening.
The 10th annual Power of Dreams Fly In will bring upward of 40 powered parachute pilots to the airport.
The group will fly each morning — typically when winds are at their lowest — before returning to the airport for most of the day. Flights will continue through Sunday morning, weather permitting.
The public is invited to visit with the pilots or watch the spectacle from bleachers set up by Iola and Allen County crews.
“Both the city and county continue to be so supportive of our efforts,” said Ron Smail, one of the fly-in’s organizers. “There’s no way we could be this successful without their support.”