8/2/2019 Matilda Visit (1)

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INTERCEPTED LETTER

Dear friend,Were glad you could call our

neck of the woods home evenbriefly.

Matilda 26-year-old nomad

stopping in Hutch as she travels

THEHUTCHINSONNEWSCOVERING THE BETTER PART OF KANSAS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010 #75 CENTS

6 760 4 24 0 0 050

VERSATILETENORSTrio to bring bigmusic range here

IN PREVIEW, B1

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INDEX: ADVICE B5 BUSINESS C7 CLASSIFIEDS D1 COMICS C8 LOTTERIES A5 OBITUARIES A9 OPINION A8 CROSSWORD D5 SPORTS C1 WEATHER C6

NECK INJURY DOESNTKEEP HAWK DOWN

BEFORE YOU PLANYOUR DAY, SEE OURWEB CALENDAR

SPORTS, C1

HAPPENINGIN HUTCH

WHATSONLINE

YEAR 139 NO. 126 MOBILE.HUTCHNEWS.COM ON WIRELESS DEVICES WWW.HUTCHNEWS.COM

Photos by Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News

Matilda, a 26-year-old traveler, says she prefers living in the woods rather than on the streets, and is on her way south to escape the cold

weather.

Interest stirs for vacant Senate seatBYMARYCLARKIN

The Hutchinson News

mclarkin@hutchnews.com

A Melvin Neufeld-GarrettLove race redux? Its possible.

The two southwest Kansansare showing interest in complet-ing the unfinished Kansas Sen-ate term of Congressman-electTim Huelskamp, R-Fowler.

Love, a Montezuma Republi-can and young university grad-

uate, defeated state Rep.Neufeld, R-Ingalls, a farmer andformer speaker of the house, in

a heated August primary in the115th House District. On Tues-day, Love won a two-year termto the House.

Nearly the entire 115th Dis-trict lies within Huelskampslarger 38th Senate District,

which covers all of Ford, Se-ward, Gray and Meade countiesand parts of Haskell and Clark

counties. Huelskamps Senateterm expires in January 2013.

Charles Sellens, on the facul-ty at Dodge City CommunityCollege, has declared his inter-est in the job and sent letters toRepublican precinct commit-

teemen and committeewomenwho will nominate Huel-skamps successor.

Brian Weber, a partner in asmall business and Huel-skamps deputy congressionalcampaign manager, also is seek-ing to fill the post.

We will, but not now, Huel-skamp said Thursday, when

asked if he would endorse a

HUELSKAMP

Crew keepseye on fireshot spotsBY DARCY GRAY

The Hutchinson News

dgray@hutchnews.com

More than a dozen firefighters onThursday monitored land northeast ofHutchinson still smoldering fromWednesdays grass fire.

Were looking at hot spots today tomake sure they didnt get started again,Mike Miller, Hutchinson Fire Departmentbattalion chief, said Thursday. The (fire)threat is really high, and we want to stayon top of this.

On Wednesday, three separate firesburned about 640 acres in Reno County.

Ed shortfallto hit $50M

BY KEN STEPHENS

The Hutchinson News

kstephens@hutchnews.com

TOPEKA School districts could lose$75 per student in base state aid thisschool year unless the governor and Leg-islature come up with an extra $50 mil-lion.

Deputy Commissioner of EducationDale Dennis, the states expert on schoolfinance, told the Legislative EducationPlanning Committee that a drop in as-sessed property valuation and increasesin enrollment and in the number of chil-dren qualifying for free school lunches

I Group urges Legislature to use jobsbill money as way to fill funding gap.

See SHORTFALL / A3

SeeFIRE / A10

Secretary-elect making voter fraud fight a top priority

BY JOHNHANNA

AP Political Writer

KANSAS CITY Secretaryof State-elect Kris Kobach

said Thursday that he ex-

pects to take important stepstoward combating potentialelection fraud in Kansaswithin a week of assumingoffice and will move quicklybecause he has a mandatefrom voters.

Kobach, a Kansas City-area law professor and for-

mer Kansas Republican Par-

ty chairman, said during anAssociated Press interviewthat he plans to have a bill forlegislators drafted by Jan. 1to require voters to showphoto ID at the polls. It alsowill require people to provideproof of citizenship, such asa passport or birth certifi-

cate, when registering to vote

for the first time in a givencounty.He also said he expects to

designate one or two employ-ees of the secretary of statesoffice to investigate allega-tions of election fraud within

SeeKOBACH / A3KOBACH

SeeSENATE / A10

The Hutchinson News plans tolive-stream tonights Hutch HighSalthawks football playoff gameagainst the SalinaCentral Mustangs.

Watch the game atwww.hutchnews.comand listen to theunique commentary offered by play-by-play announcer Alex Cabral andhis sidekick, new media reporterKristen Roderick of The News.

Game time is 7 p.m.

Football game live online

I Contenders emerge to fillHuelskamps unfinished term.

Woman forgoes convention for colorful nomadic path

BY JASON PROBST

The Hutchinson News

jprobst@hutchnews.com

Brandi Smith noticed itaround 7:30 a.m., shortly be-fore she began waiting tablesat Fraese Soda Fountain.

So did her co-worker Jen-nifer Brawner.

Around 8:30 a.m., it was stillthere, tucked into the alcoveof an empty building betweenLongs and Hospice Care inthe 100 block of North Main.

I saw a guitar case, a back-

pack and bundle, Longs RonEbersol said. I didnt knowwho was under it.

A single Styrofoam cup,

filled with hot chocolate, satnearby the bundle, courtesy ofthe Fraese employees. It hadcooled between the time itwas delivered and the time theperson under the bundle hadopened her eyes.

Still, the bleary-eyed, olive-skinned woman tilted the lidoff the cup, took a sip, smiledand expressed her gratitude.

By 11 a.m., Smith, Brawner

and Fraese owner Don Kauf-man had decided to ask the

SeeMATILDA / A6

Matilda wakes up with her dog, Ashes, in her sleeping roll on Main

Street early Thursday morning.

I know mylife is not easy. But its the life I like.Matilda

Theres more to thestory. See video athutchnews.com.A road less traveled

I New identification rules

to be part of bill he aimsto have drafted by Jan. 1.