Court report

DISTRICT COURT

Judge Daniel Creitz

Civil cases filed:

State of Kansas ex rel DCF vs. Brittney M. Stanturf, other domestic

Sheila D. Newman vs. Brent L. Newman, divorce

RES Systems 3 LLC vs. Black & McDonald Inc., B&M Energy & Infrastructure LLC and Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, other contract

Life Care Center of Burlington vs. Lillie Davis, other civil

Barn Lease Corporation of America Inc., vs. Bob Holding, debt collection

Buckner Heavylift Cranes LLC vs. B&M Energy & Infrastructure LLC, other

Marriage licenses issued:

Christopher R. Wright and Erin K.C. Koder

Dillon W. Aikins and Kim Kaufman

 

MAGISTRATE COURT

Judge Tod Davis

Convicted of no seat belt and fined $30:

Jennifer M. Klingensmith, Fredonia

Charles W.B. Klingensmith, Fredonia

Jason W. Garber, LaHarpe

Convicted of speeding:

Railie A. Zimmerman, LaHarpe, 71/55, $189

Antionettia D. Royal, Las Vegas, 87/65, $231

Mitzi Farran, Humboldt, 40/30, $153

Andrew T. Goldsmith, Spring Hill, 82/65, $195

Thealvin C. Minor, Iola, 71/55, $189

Tyler R. Eudaly, Shawnee, 76/65, $159

Kacey N. Benger, Sand Springs, Okla., 94/65, $294

Kameron C. Greenwade, Lenexa, 75/65, $178

Carmelita R. Soto-Roberts, Topeka, 83/55, $285

Deona M. Joy, Altoona, 75/65, $153

Stacey C. Murrell, Iola, 75/65, $153

Richard D. Baikie Jr., McKinney, Texas, 7/65, $153

Waylon J. Travis, Muskogee, Okla., 75/65, $153

Devan J. McDaniel, Independence, Mo., 75/65, $153

Jerry N. Veal, Athens, Ga., 75/65, $153

Rakesh Gopinathannair, Overland Park, 103/65, $423

Kyle D. Turner, Kansas City, Mo., 75/65, $153

Taylor A. Scoma, Spring Hill, 83/65, $201

Heidi I. Rhodes, Elk City, 81/65, $189

Justin J. Adams, Tulsa, Okla., 75/65, $153

Derek M. Craig, Lawrence, 75/65, $153

Brittany D. Gardner, Iola, 75/65, $153

Paul D. Lamotte, Kansas City, Mo., 75/65, $153

Reuben Lewis, Zellwood, Fla., 75/65, $153

Danielle R. Nunnery, LaHarpe, 55/45, $153

Lori C. Reinhardt, Chanute, 75/65, $153

Steven A. Heiman, Grain Valley, Mo., 75/65, $153

Montgomery L. Roberts, Leawood, 88/65, $240

Convicted as follows:

Britton C. Klotz, Iola, illegal tag, no driver’s license, $348

Hushee Her, Chanute, possession of marijuana, driving while suspended, $1,226, 12 months probation

Chevy C. Crook, Waverly, consumption of liquor on public property, $508

Criminal cases filed:

Mary M. Chase, Iola, perjury, harassment by telecommunication device

Kimberly L. Gregg, Moran, possession of drug paraphernalia

John J. Lowell, Iola, interference with law enforcement officer

Dimity E. Lowell, Iola, interference with law enforcement officer

Aaron D. Boudreaux, Parsons, two counts of abandonment of a child

Contract cases filed:

Willard’s Inc., vs. Beverly A. Miller

 

IOLA MUNICIPAL COURT

Judge Patti Boyd

Convicted as follows with fines assessed:

Daniel L. Taylor II, Iola, criminal damage, battery, $880

Holding up military aid too much for Kasich

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran against President Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, says he supports impeaching the president.

Kasich said on CNN that the “final straw” for him was when acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged Thursday that Trump’s decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine was linked to his demand that Kyiv investigate the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Mulvaney later claimed his remarks were misconstrued.

Kasich said Friday: “The last 24 hours has really forced me to review all of this.”

Congress is conducting an impeachment inquiry sparked by a whistleblower’s allegation that Trump pressed the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden as he delayed military aid to the country.

Lincoln teacher, students recognized

A sweet potato project spearheaded by Lincoln Elementary School fourth-graders and instructor Mary Ann Regehr was recognized by the Iola Community Involvement Task Force/PRIDE Committee.

Members of CITF PRIDE presented the award to Regehr and students — now in fifth grade — during a special ceremony at Lincoln Monday.

The project stemmed from CITF/PRIDE’s decision to add flower pots around the square in downtown Iola a few years back. The venture drew Regehr’s attention, who asked if she and her students could have the sweet potatoes and tubercles in the fall of 2018 to plant in the Lincoln greenhouse over the winter, utilizing a gardener’s grant to help maintain the vines.

Donna Houser CITF/PRIDE member, retrieved the plants in the spring to replant in the flower pots around the square.

Most of the vines grew quite well during the growing season over the summer.

The effort led to CITF/PRIDE’s decision to nominate the Lincoln project for the Kansas PRIDE Rising Star Award.

Presenting the award were Barbara Anderson of the Kansas Department of Commerce, as well as CITF/PRIDE members Houser, Heather Curry and Corey Schinstock to Regehr and the students.

Plans are in the works to take the vines and harvest them again over the winter so they can be replanted in the spring.

Unity Club hears about uplifting survival story

Ellen Thompson hosted 14 Unity Club members Monday to hear a review of the book “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens.

Donna Houser described the “marvelous story” of a 6-year-old girl, left alone in the marshes of North Carolina.

The tale is a story of isolation, desertion and a lost family whose lives were so bad, they abandoned her, Houser said.

The girl survives the  harsh environment in the marshlands and learns to love the habitat and wildlife.

Eventually, she learns to categorize her findings after a good friend teaches her how to write.

The fast-moving, almost lyrical tome becomes a heart-warming story about survival, Houser concluded.

European food producers brace for tariff hikes

MILAN (AP) — European producers of premium specialty agricultural products like French wine, Italian Parmesan and Spanish olives are facing a U.S. tariff hike due Friday with a mix of trepidation and indignation at being dragged into a trade war they feel they have little to do with.

The tariffs on $7.5 billion on a range of European goods were approved by the World Trade Organization as compensation for illegal EU subsidies to plane maker Airbus.

The U.S. has some leeway in deciding what goods it puts tariffs on. So while it is taxing European aircraft goods an extra 10%, it is walloping agricultural products an extra 25%.

“It’s a nightmare,” says Aurélie Bertin, who runs the 700-year-old winery Chateau Sainte-Roseline in southern France. “We don’t know what will be the result at the end.”

Her rosé wine business has boomed also thanks to Americans’ growing demand for the beverage. She fears her U.S. sales could drop by a third under the new tariffs.

The punitive tariffs take particular aim at European agricultural products that have a “protected name status.” Those are goods that can be sold under a name — like Scotch whiskey or Manchego cheese — only if they are from a particular region and follow specific production methods. The result is they fetch premium prices, protect cultural heritage — and are shielded from competitors.

U.S.-made Parmesan cheese, for example, is not allowed access to the European market as a copycat of the traditional Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano — a barrier that the U.S. milk producers lobby are pressuring to bring down.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella sought to impress on U.S. President Donald Trump during a White House Visit on Wednesday that the result of the tariffs may turn out to be “a mere race between tariffs” after the WTO decides Europe’s case later this year over U.S. subsidies to Boeing. Trump was undeterred.

At home, European producers feel they are collateral damage from a political squabble entirely unrelated to their business.

“We consider that we are hostages of politics. We are very, very far from aeronautics, even if our wines are served on planes every day,” said Burgundy wine producer Francois Labet.

The president of the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese consortium, Nicola Bertinelli, said that its members “are embittered because one of the strongest sectors of our economy is being unjustly hit.” He noted that Italy doesn’t even participate in the Airbus consortium of countries that prompted the penalties.

The four shareholders in Airbus — Spain, France, Germany and Britain — were targeted with more tariffs than other EU countries. Spanish olives, for example, have been singled out, while those from Italy and Greece have been left alone.

That has created additional anxieties, with Spanish olive producers worried that U.S. buyers will turn to buying from Italian companies instead.

The U.S. tariffs appeared to be selectively chosen to hit premium specialty items that well-heeled U.S. consumers could continue to afford even at higher prices — and not sectors that would more directly correlate to the unfair subsidies for Airbus, which could put a damper on the U.S. economy, said Gianmarco Ottaviano, an economics professor at Milan’s Bocconi University.

“We don’t see a lot of tariffs on things that Italy is exporting a lot, like machinery. The reason is that this is probably more useful than Parmesan cheese to the U.S. economy,” he said. “You want to punish, but at the same time, you don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot.”

A tariff is essentially a tax on importers and for small U.S. retailers, they come at a bad time ahead of the holiday season.

U.S. wine retailers, distributors and importers already expect some customers to seek alternatives from countries whose products aren’t being taxed. And any signs that customers are balking at higher prices will force retailers to absorb their increased costs.

The vice president of Italy’s main industrial lobby, Lisa Ferrarini, said that European producers could in the longer-term shift exports away from the U.S. market. But director of the Spanish food and beverage industry director disputes that logic, saying, “there is no alternative to the American market.”

Italy’s agriculture minister, Teresa Bellanova, tweeted a photo to Trump promoting grapes and Italian Parmesan as a healthy snack, and the president of the Emilia Romagna region, where much of the cheese is produced, has launched a social media campaign in support of the product.

Trump, meanwhile, rebuffed Mattarella’s in-person overtures, arguing that Europe “has taken tremendous advantage of the United States.”

France’s finance and economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, will make another attempt to soften the tariff blow when he meets with U.S. trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer in Washington today. Le Maire told Europe 1 radio he will warn Lighthizer that Europeans would strike back if the tariffs take effect on Friday.

“We, Europeans, will take similar sanctions in a few months, maybe even harsher ones — within the framework of the WTO — to retaliate to these US sanctions,” he said.

Chicago teachers union goes on strike

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago teachers went on strike today, marching on picket lines after failing to reach a contract deal with the nation’s third-largest school district in a dispute that canceled classes for more than 300,000 students.

The strike came after the Chicago Teachers Union confirmed Wednesday night that its 25,000 members would not return to their classrooms. It follows months of negotiations between the union and Chicago Public Schools that failed to resolve disputes over pay and benefits, class size and teacher preparation time.

The strike is Chicago’s first major walkout by teachers since 2012 and city officials announced early Wednesday that all classes were canceled for Thursday in hopes of giving more planning time for parents.

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said Wednesday night that the hope is for a “short strike with an agreement that will benefit our schools and our teachers.” He said Thursday morning while joining picketers outside Peirce elementary school that striking teachers have long been frustrated by their classroom sizes and crowded conditions they face while trying to teach.

“There’s a pent-up frustration among our membership about what conditions are like in our schools,” he said, noting that Peirce elementary doesn’t have a kindergarten class with fewer than 30 students.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was disappointed by the union’s decision to strike.

“We are offering a historic package on the core issues — salary, staffing and class size,” she said Wednesday night at a news conference, adding that school district negotiators will remain at the bargaining table and that she hopes the union does, too.

During the 2012 strike, the district kept some schools open for half days during a seven-day walkout. District officials said this time they will keep all buildings open during school hours.

The schools will be staffed by principals and employees who usually work in administrative roles.

Breakfast and lunch will be served, but all after-school activities and school buses are suspended.

Janice Jackson, the district’s CEO, encouraged parents to send their children to the school that they normally attend, however they will be welcome in any district schools.

“We’ve put together a really comprehensive plan for the students,” Jackson said. “We will make sure they are safe and they have a productive day.”

Also striking will be 7,000 support staffers, whose union also failed to reach a contract agreement.

Before the strike announcement, June Davis said if teachers walked out, she would likely send her 7-year-old son, Joshua, to his usual elementary school — Smyth Elementary on the city’s South Side where almost all students are low-income and minority.

Davis, 38, said she would otherwise have to take her son to his grandmother’s in a southern suburb, requiring an hourlong trip on a regional bus line.

“Everybody’s hoping they will come to some kind of agreement, find some compromise,” Davis said.

Diplomat disturbed by politicization

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top State Department aide testified in the impeachment inquiry that the Trump administration’s politicization of foreign policy contributed to his resignation, while the Senate GOP leader briefed colleagues on a possible Christmas impeachment trial.

The day’s events, interrupted by an explosive meeting at the White House, churned as longtime State Department officials continued speaking out under subpoena — some revealing striking new details — about the actions President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, took toward Ukraine that have sparked the House investigation.

On Wednesday, Michael McKinley, a career foreign service officer and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s de facto chief of staff, told investigators behind closed doors that he could no longer look the other way amid the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, which were among the reasons he ended his 37-year career last week, according to multiple people familiar with the testimony, who, like others who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, were not authorized to discuss it.

“I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents,” McKinley testified, according to a former colleague familiar with his remarks.

The impeachment inquiry revolves around a whistleblower’s complaint that Trump was pushing Ukraine’s leader into opening an investigation of a company connected to the son of Trump’s potential 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden. It is illegal to solicit or receive foreign help in a U.S. election.

Among McKinley’s concerns was the administration’s failure to support Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted in March on orders from Trump.

McKinley, who as a Latin America expert was not specifically involved in Ukraine, was also frustrated that there had been no response to an August inspector general’s report that found significant evidence of leadership and management problems, including allegations from career employees that Assistant Secretary of State Kevin Moley and his former senior adviser Marie Stull retaliated or tried to retaliate against them as holdovers from the Obama administration.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters outside the closed-door hearing that McKinley was complimentary about Pompeo’s role but did raise other issues.

“I think most of this is a concern by a colleague for an ambassador that he held in high regard,” Meadows said, declining to provide more details of the closed session.

Republicans are crying foul over the process of the impeachment inquiry, but as House Democrats press on with the investigation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell briefed Republicans about the possible trial ahead.

McConnell warned of a possible House impeachment vote by Thanksgiving that would force a trial in the Senate, likely by Christmas. He used slides and history lessons during a private Senate GOP lunch in the Capitol to talk about the process, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

At the White House, congressional leaders abruptly ended an explosive meeting with the president on the situation in Syria, when Trump called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “third-grade politician,” according to Democrats. Pelosi said later the president was having a “meltdown.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he knows his House colleagues didn’t run for office to conduct an impeachment investigation, but he said, “The facts that are already in the public domain are so deeply troubling and must be taken very seriously.”

Another key figure in the impeachment investigation, special envoy Kurt Volker, returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to review the transcript of his Oct. 3 testimony to investigators, according to a person familiar with his appearance.

Volker provided text messages to lawmakers that revealed an effort at the State Department to push Ukraine’s leader into opening an investigation of the gas company Burisma connected to Biden’s son, Hunter, in return for a visit with Trump.

That effort soon escalated into what one diplomat feared was a quid pro quo for U.S. military aid. Trump has denied that, saying assistance to Ukraine was delayed to pressure the country into addressing corruption.

Another ambassador involved in those text message exchanges, Gordon Sondland, has been asked to appear Thursday.

The testimony so far from the witnesses, mainly officials from the State Department and other foreign policy posts, largely corroborates the account of the government whistleblower whose complaint first sparked the impeachment inquiry, according to lawmakers attending the closed-door interviews.

One witness said it appeared “three amigos” tied to the White House — Sondland, Volker and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — had taken over foreign policy.

Another quoted national security adviser John Bolton as calling Giuliani a “hand grenade” for his back-channel efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden and Biden’s son Hunter.

Trump’s July 25 phone call in which he pressed Ukraine’s president , Volodymr Zelenskiy, to investigate Biden’s family is at the center of the Democrats’ inquiry.

Pelosi, despite intensifying calls from Trump and Republicans to hold a formal vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry, showed no indication she would do so. She said Congress will continue its investigation as part of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances of the executive branch.

“This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday.

Trump calls the impeachment inquiry an “illegitimate process” and has blocked officials from cooperating.

At the same time, Republicans are bracing for a vote and trial. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise invited GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was an impeachment manager decades ago during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, to brief Republican lawmakers on the process ahead.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee overseeing the probe, has praised the State Department officials for stepping forward, under subpoena, to shed light on the matter.

“We have learned much of this thanks to the courageous testimony of the State Department officials who have been put in an impossible situation by the administration,” which is urging them not to comply with requests to testify to Congress, he said. “They are doing their duty.”

A look back in time

65 Years Ago

October 1954

Approximately 150 delegates and visitors opened the 53rd convention of the Second District Federation of Women’s Clubs here yesterday. The sessions continued through today, closing with a luncheon at noon at the First Methodist Church. Mrs. C.E. Russell of Iola was general chairman.

*****

Iola’s newest recreational facility, a 15-acre projected lake near the shale mound in Bassett, is finally on the way to becoming a reality. Water from a Lehigh fire hydrant started flooding the area Saturday. If Elm Creek keeps flowing, the pumping will continue until the area has a depth of about four feet. When the process is complete, the general public will be invited to use the lake for boating, skating or fishing.

Hundreds of birds crash building

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An animal rescue group says more than 300 birds crashed into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte, killing some 100 of them.

Carolina Waterfowl Rescue says on its Facebook page that 100 of the chimney swifts are severely injured with broken legs, wings and other fractures. They say the rest of the birds were stunned by the impact and it’s hoped they can be released in a few days.

The agency says it received a call around 11 p.m. Tuesday reporting birds diving straight into the building’s windows. A Charlotte woman’s video aired by Fox 46 shows the birds crashing into the windows and lying near the building’s entrance.

State biologists say birds are most likely to fly into buildings in the fall when they begin migrating.

Lawyer sentenced for embezzlement

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 69-year-old former Wichita attorney who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Christopher O’Brien was sentenced Tuesday and was also ordered to pay $603,000 in restitution.

O’Brien pleaded guilty in March to embezzling. Roger and Marcia Altis, of Eureka, told The Wichita Eagle that O’Brien kept money they paid to him that was meant to pay their debt caused by a 2010 bankruptcy in their family’s oil field business.

O’Brien also agreed to turn over $554,889 to the bankruptcy estate of a Wichita machine shop and $51,500 to a group of Hawker Beechcraft retirees.

O’Brien said in written testimony that he embezzled for more than 25 years from law firms and clients. He used the money for expensive trips and weddings and other personal expenses.