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Tuesday, January 5, 2021
REPUBLICAN-TIMES TRENTON
Trenton, MO 64683
Established Sept. 4, 1864 - 157th Year - No. 35
75¢
per copy Check out the Republican-Times on the Internet: www.republican-times.com ©W.B. Rogers Printing Co., Inc.
Ten Pages
BRIEFS Active COVID Cases Down COVID-19 cases in Grundy County increased over the weekend, but active cases are down from the report on Wednesday, Dec. 29. According to information provided by Grundy County Health Department Administrator Elizabeth Gibson, there are 890 total cases of the virus in Grundy County as of Monday morning, with 671 confirmed cases and 219 probable cases. There are currently 79 active cases, down from 84 on Wednesday. The number of deaths related to the virus are steady at 28.
Park Board Meeting Moved R-T Photo/ Diane Lowrey
Cars are lined up at T&L Auto for a car show in April, 2019. What is believed to be the first ever Alumni Weekend car show will take place on Saturday, Sept. 4 in the Trenton High School circle drive.
Car Show In The Works THS Alum Jeremy Soptic Organizing Car Show Event For 2021 Alumni Weekend
With the 2020 Trenton High School Alumni Reunion being cancelled last fall, plans are under way to make the 2021 weekend bigger and better than ever, with the first announced addition to the annual Labor Day weekend event being a car show.
The car show, which is being organized by THS alum Jeremy Soptic, is believed to be the first one ever hosted during Alumni Weekend. It will be held Saturday, Sept. 4 and since many car enthusiasts schedule their events well in advance, the show is being announced early to allow for planning. The event will be held in the THS circle drive and will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with numerous classes for entry. There is a $10 entry fee for exhibitors, with trophies to be presented for winning entries. Both food and door prizes will be part of the event. Exhibitors nor spectators do not have to be THS graduates and all proceeds from the event will be ear-
marked for the THS Alumni Scholarship Fund. Those with questions about the car show can contact Soptic at 660-359-1938 or visit the official Facebook page at THS Alumni Car Show or the Foundation Trust for THS Facebook page. In other THS Alumni news, classes are reminded to submit updated mailing lists to Dr. John Holcomb in preparation for the annual mailing scheduled for February. Lists may be picked up or the completed lists may be mailed to P.O. Box 185 in Trenton or to Dr. Holcomb at 3313 Lake Trenton Dr., Trenton, MO 64683. Mailing lists are requested to be returned by Feb. 1.
The Trenton Park Board, which normally meets the first Wednesday of the month, has moved its January meeting. The meeting has now been scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 13, with an agenda and meeting location to be announced.
Missouri Cases Top 400,000 ST. LOUIS (AP) — The number of coronavirus cases in Missouri has now topped 400,000, and hospitalizations remained at a high level on Sunday. The state reported 2,305 new cases of the coronavirus to give it 401,761 total cases since the pandemic began. Missouri also reported 19 new deaths to give the state 5,562 linked to COVID19. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is down significantly from the peak of 4,723 set back on Nov. 20, but it has been on the rise since Wednesday’s 2,183 and it hit 2,810 on Sunday. The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in the state declined to 2,701 from the previous day's 2804, but it remained around the high level the state has been reporting since mid-November. The seven-day average number of hospitalizations has stayed above 2,500 since mid-November. That is double what it was in early October.
Trump, On Tape, Presses Ga. Official To 'Find' Him Votes President Repeatedly Cited Disproven Claims Of Fraud WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state's presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of a “criminal offense" if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation. The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to press a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump said. "Because we won the state." Georgia counted its votes a total of three times before certifying Biden's win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted. “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions," he said on the call. We don’t agree that you have won." Audio snippets of the conversation were first posted online by The Washington Post. The Associated Press obtained the full audio of Trump’s conversation with Georgia officials
from a person on the call. The AP has a policy of not amplifying disinformation and unproven allegations. The AP plans to post the full audio as it annotates a transcript with fact check material. Trump's renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud come nearly two weeks before he leaves office and two days before twin runoff elections in Georgia that will determine political control of the U.S. Senate. It also added a level of further intrigue to Trump's rally in Georgia Monday night — likely the last of his term — in which he is supposed to boost the two Republican candidates. In a rage after the Raffensperger call, Trump floated the idea of pulling out of the rally, which would have potentially devastated the GOP chances in what is expected to be a pair of razorthin races. But Trump was persuaded to go ahead with the rally as a stage from which to reiterate his claims of election fraud and to present, as he tweeted Monday, the “real numbers” from the race. Republicans, though, were wary as to whether Trump would focus only on himself and potentially depress turnout by undermining faith in the runoff elections and not promoting the two GOP candidates. The president used Saturday's hourlong phone conversation to tick through a list of claims about the election in Georgia, including that hundreds of thousands of ballots mysteriously appeared in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. Officials have said there is no evidence of that happening. The Georgia officials on the call are heard repeatedly pushing back against the president’s assertions, telling him that he’s relying on de-
bunked theories and, in one case, selectively edited video. “It was pretty obvious pretty early on that we’d debunked every one of those theories early on,” Raffensperger told ABC's “Good Morning America” on Monday, “but President Trump continues to believe them.” At another point in the conversation, Trump appeared to threaten Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s legal counsel, by suggesting both could be criminally liable if they failed to find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County had been illegally destroyed. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim. “That’s a criminal offense,” Trump says. “And you can’t let that happen." Others on the call included Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorneys assisting Trump, including Washington lawyer Cleta Mitchell. Democrats and a few Republicans condemned Trump's actions, while at least one Democrat urged a criminal investigation. Legal experts said Trump's behavior raised questions about possible election law violations. Biden senior adviser Bob Bauer called the recording “irrefutable proof” of Trump threatening an official in his own party to “rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place.” “It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump's assault on American democracy,” Bauer said. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in that chamber, said Trump’s conduct “merits nothing less than a criminal investigation." Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Raffensperger. The White House referred questions to Trump’s reelection cam-
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE There’s a chance of rain and snow on Wednedsay, with a high of 38, then mostly cloudy on Thursday, with a high of 35. Lows will be in the mid-20s. The high Wednesday at Trenton was 33, Thursday’s high was 29 and Friday’s high was 28, with 3.2 inches of snow. The high Saturday and Sunday was 31, with a low Sunday of 12. There was no report from the Government Weather Station near Spickard.
paign, which did not respond Sunday to an emailed request for comment. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger conducted Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden. “He has no clue!” Trump tweeted of Raffensperger, saying the state official “was unwilling, or unable” to answer questions. Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.” Various election officials across the country and Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of their state elections. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which has three Trump-nominated justices. In Georgia, the ballots were counted three times. One was a mandatory hand count and one was requested by Trump. Still, Trump has publicly disparaged the election, raising concerns among Republicans that GOP voters may be discouraged from participating in Tuesday's runoffs pitting Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff. Rebecca Green, who helps direct the election law program at William and Mary Law School, said that while it is appropriate for a candidate to question the outcome of an election,
CLASS OF THE DISTRICT... MSHSAA has released its class and district assignments for winter sports. Check out who will be joining the Trenton Bulldogs in postseason play this year on the basketball court and wrestling mat. SPORTS, PAGE 2
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the processes for doing so for the presidential election have run their course. States have certified their votes. Green said Trump had raised “lots of questions” about whether he violated any election laws. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said Trump has shown “reprehensible and, possibly illegal, conduct.” Trump noted on the call that he intended to repeat his claims about fraud at a rally Monday night in Dalton, a heavily Republican area in north Georgia. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” he says on the recording. Biden is also due to campaign in Georgia on Monday, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stumped in Garden City, Georgia, on Sunday, slamming Trump for the call. “It was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States,” she said. Loeffler and Perdue have largely backed Trump in his attempts to overturn election results. But on Sunday, Loeffler said she hadn't decided whether to join Republican colleagues in challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over Trump when Congress meets Wednesday to affirm Biden's 306-232 vote win in the Electoral College. Perdue, who was quarantining after being exposed to a staff member with the coronavirus, said he supports the challenge, although he will not be a sitting senator when the vote happens because his term has expired. Still, he told Fox News Channel he was encouraging his colleagues to object, saying it's “something that the American people demand right now.”
WHAT’S INSIDE
SPORTS ..........................PAGE 2 LOCAL ............................PAGE 3 CHURCH ........................PAGE 4 CALENDARS ..................PAGE 5 COMMUNITY .................PAGE 5 COMICS..........................PAGE 6 CROSSWORDS ...............PAGE 7 DEAR ANNIE .................PAGE 7 LOCAL ..........................PAGE 10