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Kansas senator blocks

female witnesses
from revealing attire
TOPEKA (AP) A Kansas
Senate committee chairman has
imposed a dress code that
prohibits women testifying on an
elections or ethics bill from
wearing certain clothing while
establishing no wardrobe restrictions exclusively for men.
The Topeka Capital-Journal
reports that a rule of Sen. Mitch
Holmes 11-point code of conduct
says low-cut necklines and
miniskirts are inappropriate for
women.
Holmes says he offered detailed

guidance to women because he

had observed provocatively clad
women at the state Capitol. He
says its a distraction to the Senate
committee during testimony.
A group of bipartisan women
senators says no chairman ought
to place gender-specific demands
on those inspired to share
thoughts on public policy with
legislative committees.
Holmes is a St. John Republican and chairman of the Senate
Ethics and Elections Committee.

A B O V E : L i b e r a l H i gh S c h o o l s t u d e n t G e o r g e I b a r r a i s p a r t o f t h i s c r e w w h i t e w a t e r r a f t i n g n e a r S t e a m b o a t S p r i n g s , C o l o . , a s p a r t o f h i s c a m p
e x p e r i e n c e c o u r t e s y o f S o u t h e r n P i o n e e r El e c t r i c .
F R O N T P A G E : I b a r r a p o s e s w i t h a f e a t h e r e d f r i e n d , a b a l d e a gl e , a t t h e c a m p . L H S s o p h o m o r e s a n d j u n i o r s , a l o n g w i t h s t u d e n t s f r o m s e v e r a l
o th e r a r e a s c h o o l s , c a n n o w a p p l y t o b e p a r t o f th i s y e a r s Y o u t h T o u r p r o g r a m i n w h i c h tw o s t u d e n ts a r e s e n t to St e a m b o a t S p r i n g s a n d t w o
t o Wa shi ng t on D . C . Ap pli c at i ons a r e due F e b. 1 t o S ou th er n Pi on eer . Courtesy photos

Youth Tour ...

O Continued from Page 1A

a power plant, go white water rafting and learn

amazing leadership skills.
Meals, hotels, snacks, admissions, entertainment, plane tickets, transportation, everything is paid for courtesy of Southern Pioneer
Electric.
Liberal High School student George Ibarra
recognized the significance of an opportunity
like this, and in 2013, the then sophomore
applied for the Youth Tour program.
He was very memorable, said Southern
Pioneers Youth Tour coordinator, Elyse
Molstad. He came in to verify that his application was indeed received. He followed up on
things, was prompt. You could tell he wanted
this trip more than anything.
Ibarra was chosen as a finalist out of approximately 100 applicants and was awarded and
asked to come interview with a judging panel
composed of community leaders.
Ibarra came in fifth place and was chosen as
an alternative Youth Tour representative. The
next year, applications for the Youth Tour
program started rolling in, and Molstad said she
remembers receiving the applications and
hoping Ibarra would apply again.
As an 11th grader, it was Ibarras last chance
at winning something he so desperately wanted.
He did apply again, was chosen as a finalist,
came in for an interview and again was chosen as
an alternate.
I didnt have the heart to tell him how close
he was to winning the trip this year, knowing it
was his last chance, Molstad said.
But then something strange happened about
10 days before the students were set to leave for
Steamboat Springs.
We received a phone call from another
cooperative that their camp winner now had a
conflict and could no longer attend, said
Kansas Electric Cooperative Director of
Communications Shana Read. We would much

rather fill a spot than have an empty seat on the

bus, so we e-mailed all our participating cooperatives.
Read said Molstad was first to respond,
making a special trip to Ibarras home to get all
the necessary paperwork filled out and signed off
on.
Within 30 minutes, we had all of the information we needed, and George was now part of
the camp delegation, Read said.
Molstad said that phone call was one of the
best ones she had ever made in her life, and
Ibarra was equally excited.
When Elyse called me and told me I was
given the chance to attend camp, it is as if all the
hard work and stress had finally paid off, he
said. I was stunned, speechless and really
excited.
Ibarra was equally excited about his
experience at the camp, calling it life changing.
Camp has created the young leader I am
today, he said. It is with pride that I say this
camp truly brought out a new person within me.
All the leadership activities and exposure, I
retained and now use to keep bettering myself
and my future.
However, the Youth Tour program opportunity didnt end with Ibarra just attending the
camp. Where there, his fellow campers and
leaders saw something special in him too and
voted him camp ambassador. As ambassador,
Ibarra wins another free trip back to camp this
July, this time in a leadership role.
Molstad said Ibarra is the first camper from
Southern Pioneer to be awarded the ambassador
honor.
We are so proud to have him representing our
company, our community and our state, she
said.
Now, Molstad is asking for applications from
sophomores and juniors who attend school in
Ashland, Cunningham, Fowler, Kiowa County,
Kiowa-South Barber, Minneola, Medicine
Lodge, Liberal, Satanta, Skyline, South Central
or Southwestern Heights to apply to be given
the same opportunity as Ibarra.
All they have to do is go to southernpioneer.net and fill out an application online for
the Youth Tour program, she said. An appli-

cation is just basic contact information name,

e-mail, what school you attend. We ask that they
write a paragraph, not an essay or anything like
that, just a paragraph, a couple of sentences of
why they should be chosen to go.
When she receives the applications, which are
due by Feb. 1, Molstad makes copies, with one
set given to judges with names whited out.
All they see is the kids number and the
paragraph as to why they should go, and they
pick the top finalists, she said. The finalists get
to come in for a face to face interview. The kids
get prizes. Last year, we gave them a power bank
for their phones. This year, theyve got some fun
surprises coming in.
Molstad said unlike most scholarships,
Southern Pioneers opportunity does not require
straight A students.
We want somebody who has the desire, she
said. You can tell in a paragraph if this is a kid
who will appreciate this and if theyre going to be
open to this experience. If the type of kid whos
really shy and isnt going to make friends, this
isnt a trip they would want to be on and we
would want to send them on. Were looking for
somebody who will represent us well and whos
proud of where they come from.
Molstad said Southern Pioneer normally
receives around 100 applications, but so far, less
than 50 have been received.
Its such a simple application, she said. It
takes less than 10 minutes, and thats with
somebody proofreading your paragraph.
Molstad said $15,000 in scholarships will be
handed out to graduating high school seniors
from students from the above list of schools or
who reside in the Southern Pioneer Electric
territory. Applications can be found at
www.southernpioneer.net are due by Feb. 1.
The interviews will be at the end of February,
so theyll know by March 1, she said.
Molstad said winning one of these trips opens
up huge doors for the students future, but most
importantly, it opens their minds and gives them
hope.
They have the opportunity to experience new
people, places and things, she said. They see
there is a world waiting for them beyond what
they see every day.

Stock market tumble could

keep pension funds behind
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
The slide on Wall Street could
damage public employee pension
funds around the country, most of
which havent even recovered from
the Great Recession, and the
burden could end up falling on
taxpayers.
Stocks have been tumbling in the
first weeks of 2016, with the Dow
Jones industrial average and the
S&P 500 down nearly 9 percent
since the start of the year.
If theres a quick rebound, the
slump wont make much
difference. If the tumble continues,
it could be bad news for pensions.
Somewhere down the line, states
may have to either cut benefits
which can be legally or politically
difficult or pump more tax
dollars into their pension funds to
make sure retirees get what they
were promised.
Pension funds for government
employees in many places are
already struggling to bring in
enough money to cover future
payouts. Data compiled by the Pew
Charitable Trusts found that only
four states Oklahoma, Rhode
Island, South Dakota and
Wisconsin had amassed funding

for a bigger portion of their pension

liabilities in 2013 than in 2007, a
year before stocks fell dramatically.
The average state-run plan went
from being 86 percent funded
before the Great Recession to 72
percent in 2013, the last year for
which data was available. Despite
strong returns on Wall Street from
2009 through mid-2015, most
states saw funding declines for a
variety of reasons, including higher
payouts because of longer lifespans
and generous benefits that were
promised during flush times.
States such as California, Illinois,
Kentucky and New Jersey didnt
come close to making the taxpayer
contributions they are required to
make to their pension funds.
Pension fund officials in states as
varied as California and West
Virginia said they are not worried
about short-term market fluctuations because they are diversified,
long-term investors.
For the most part, we are in it
for the long haul, said Christine
Radogno, the Republican state
Senate leader in Illinois, which
faces the nations largest unfunded
pension liability, at more than $100
billion, and is in a tough spot
because the courts have ruled that
employees benefits cant be cut.

We look at 30-year returns, and

the market is always up and down.
Keith Brainard, research director
at the National Association of State
Budget Administrators, noted that
market drops can be a good opportunity to buy low on stocks that will
rise in value before long. These
funds measure themselves in terms
of their performance over decades
rather than months, days and
years, he said.
But some people who track
government finance say even shortterm returns are important.
They can say theyre long-term
investors, but they have fixed
payments that they must meet
come hell or high water, said Don
Boyd, director of fiscal studies at
the Rockefeller Institute of
Government, part of the State
University of New York. Illinois is
very different than, say, a rich
family creating a trust fund for a
wayward son. While the family
could reduce the sons payout when
returns are low, theres little wiggle
room for states to shrink payments
to growing numbers of retirees, he
said.

This Friday, Jan. 15 photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps shows a
Marine Officer attached to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 uses
binoculars to search for debris of a helicopter mishap in Haliewa Beach
Park, Hawaii. Rescuers battled winds of up to 23 mph and waves up to 30
feet as they searched for 12 Marines who are missing after two
helicopters they were in crashed off the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Cpl.
Ricky S. Gomez/U.S. Marine Corps via AP

Status of missing Marines

changed to deceased
After five days of
searching, the status
was changed to
deceased on
Wednesday
HONOLULU (AP) The
Marine Corps says the 12 Marines
who were in two helicopters that
crashed off Hawaii are considered
dead.
The status of the missing
Marines changed to deceased on
Wednesday, after five days of
searching for them. The Marine
Corps says casualty assistance
calls officers personally notified

each family of the change.

The search began late Thursday
when a civilian on a beach
reported seeing the aircraft flying
and then a fireball.
The Marines were alerted when
the CH-53E helicopters carrying
six crew members each failed to
return to their base at Kaneohe
Bay following a nighttime training
mission. Hours later, a Coast
Guard helicopter and C-130
airplane spotted debris 2 1/2 miles
off of Oahu.
The Marines were from various
states and ranged in age from 21
to 41.

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