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Opportunity

By
John Marshall
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john marshal

Four years ago, students and educators in southwest Kansas began talk of bringing a satellite campus from one of the state’s universities to Dodge City (Fort Hays was mentioned). Students wanted to pursue four-year degrees in the southwest because they wanted to live there. The educators wanted to teach there.

At stake, they said, was the long-term health of communities in the region, an “education desert” in the one quadrant of the state with no four-year public university. The campus at St. Mary of the Plains, a liberal arts college that closed in 1992, was mentioned as a potential site. Legislators yawned.

Many young men and women today pursue college after high school, a degree and a return to farm country. Scholarship applications, informal polls and surveys reveal a pulsating call of home, a longing for places they came to love while growing up.

*

Despite indifference in Topeka, there are signs of energy and advantage for farm towns and communities. Among other marks:

‒ Opportunity zones:

A federal plan involving state and local government directs infrastructure improvements, technology upgrades, housing programs and other aid to communities with growth potential. These are often places with an institution of higher learning and a thriving hospital.

‒ Medicaid expansion:

Rural hospitals are not thriving. For five years, Gov. Laura Kelly has offered plans to expand Medicaid for 150,000 Kansans who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay for private insurance. This year, Washington would pay 100 percent of the expansion cost for two years; after that, a hospital surcharge pays the state’s ten percent share with no added cost to taxpayers.

Of 102 rural hospitals, 84 reported financial losses because the under-insured or uninsured couldn’t pay their bills. A dozen have closed since 2005, 27 are at immediate risk of collapse and 59 are in jeopardy. Medicaid expansion is to save a vital service for life in rural communities.

In recent polls, more than 70 percent support expansion. Our neighbors ‒ Nebraska, Colorado Missouri, Oklahoma ‒ have expanded Medicaid. Kansas is one of ten states that have not. Legislative leaders in Topeka have refused even to allow debate of the idea.

‒ Property tax relief:

Over the past 20 years, the legislature has sluiced away more than $1.5 billion in property tax relief owed to Kansas cities and counties and ordered by state law. The money, now more than $100 million annually, is derived from the Local Ad Valorem Tax Relief fund, framed in statutes dating to 1937.

Legislators each year have routinely suspended the transfer ‒ 3.63 percent of annual state sales tax revenues ‒ and siphoned the money for dubious purposes, political pets or, lately, a doubling of their own pay.

The governor wants to make amends. Her plan would not cover the 20-year theft, but at least commits $54 million annually to local tax relief. Payments to cities and counties would be apportioned by population and property valuation.

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There are other signs, including support for workforce development and a long-term solution for a groundwater aquifer crisis that threatens farms and cities.

Solar and wind power have taken root across the Smoky Hills and High Plains. A process called “carbon sequestration” to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, gains interest. Corrective farming practices include planting cover crops, leaving organic matter in fields after harvest, rotating in additional crops and managing grazing.

We once climbed out of depressions with government help and local innovation. Invention and change are again on the march in farm country and would blossom, if only Topeka’s leadership had sense enough to back the effort.

 

 

Plan A ain’t workin’

By
Milo Yield
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0
Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

Nevah and I recently had bizness in the Kansas City area. At my age, I despise driving in big city traffic, but we needed to make the trip. So, we overnighted with my old high school classmate, Canby Handy, and his wife May Bea. After a thoroughly enjoyable evening of playing cards and eating too much, the next morning ol’ Canby said to hop into his pickup truck for a little sightseeing around Platte City, Mo., which is just north of the Kansas City Airport.

Folks, from what I saw on our little excursion, I can say confidently — rightly or wrongly — that the Plan A war on carbon dioxide is hopelessly lost. Here’s why I say that: Last time I visited the Canby’s their new home was on the edge of a huge housing development. Today, there are probably more than a hundred new homes around his and new construction was on-going everywhere.

Within a very few miles, I saw a humongous new warehouse that has been finished in recent months. Then we stopped on some high ground and I saw a brand new concrete slab being poured that had to be bigger than 40-acres. It wuz just a small portion of a several-hundred-acre new industrial site being developed just east of the airport. The cement plant for the development wuz on the site. Dozens of cement trucks were lined up hauling cement. Dozens of track hoes, caterpillars, sheep tracks, and utility company equipment were all going at high gear.

When I looked up, I saw airliners landing and taking off at KCI every few seconds. The KCI parking lots were full to overflowing with thousands of every sort of vehicle. In short, the entire KC area is a beehive of activities spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The same held true everywhere I looked on both sides of the Kansas/Missouri state line.

After seeing all that development everywhere I looked in the KC area, I’ll make the flat-out statement that the goal of curbing carbon dioxide is a pipe dream. It goes against human nature. I don’t know what the progressive Plan B for humanity is, but clearly Plan A ain’t workin’.

***

The good thing about our trip wuz the KC area barbecue joints. I’d recommend two: “Scott’s Kitchen & Catering” just east of the KC airport, and “Q39” on Antioch Road. Your tastebuds will thank you for eating at either one.

***

Another of my favorite country music singers is now performing on the “Next Life” Grand Ol’ Opry stage. Toby Keith left us country/western music fans with a batch of never-to-be-forgotten pure country songs and memorable lyrics. Toby had a unique quality in his voice that set him apart. The best set of Toby Keith lyrics, in my opinion, came from the song, “A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action.” Here those lyrics are:

 

Well, she was fighting them off at a corner table

She had a long-neck bottle. She was peeling the label

The look on her face, it was perfectly clear,

Said, “somebody please get me out of here.”

The look she shot me through the glass refraction

Said “a little less talk and a lot more action.”

 

The other set of my favorite Toby Keith lyrics were in his famous “Red Solo Cup” song. Here are those lyrics:

 

Now, red solo cup is the best receptacle

For barbecues, tailgates, fairs, and festivals

And you, sir, do not have a pair of testicles

If you prefer drinkin’ from glass.

Hey, red solo cup is cheap and disposable

And in fourteen years, they are decomposable

And unlike my home, they are not forecloseable

Freddy Mac, can kiss my a#%.”

***

Folks, I’ve gotten new hearing aids recently. They are the expensive kind that cost about as much as a whole farm did with I wuz a kid. They work in tandem with my IPhone. And, while they are not perfect, I can honestly say I can hear much better in most locales and in most circumstances.

***

Our new home is within a mile of the northern boundary of the Ft. Riley military reservation. The Army uses the northern part of the base as its artillery practice area. From the frequency and ferocity of the artillery practices we hear every night and day, I’d guess that our troops are honing their artillery skills pretty intently. Hope it’s not for a new war.

***

I forgot to mention one fact in my recent columns about reaching the 50th anniversary of FARM TALK. For those who might be interested, the Kansas Historical Building research library in Topeka has archived every copy of the paper and my column ever published.

***

During a recent Old Geezer Gathering around Valentines Day, my height-challenged buddy, ol’ Bob Doff, wisely questioned, “How is it that women get flowers for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, but men get flowers only on their caskets?” Who knows?

***

Here are my words of wisdom for the week: “Some folks drink deeply from the well of knowledge. Too many, though, just rinse and spit.” Have a good ‘un.

Conservationists Argue For Horses Ecological Significance, Economic Value To Rural Communities

By
Frank Buchman
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Animal Wellness Action and its partner organizations, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Foundation, have urged the National Park Service (NPS) to reconsider its plans to remove free-roaming wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) in Medora, North Dakota.

“The National Park Service is being robotic and reflexive in wanting to depopulate horses from an area that has had large mammals on the landscape for tens of thousands of years,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy.

“So many North Dakotans are rightfully appalled by this scheme, noting that the wild horses provide beneficial ecological services and are also a key draw for thousands of visitors who drive millions in economic activity to gateway communities in the rural reaches of the state.”

The Park Service announced its intentions to revise its livestock management plans and conducted an environmental assessment to evaluate the consequences of two potential courses of action regarding the wild horse population in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

One option involved the complete removal of the horses from the park. This would involve capturing the horses and redistributing some to tribal communities, with the remaining animals either auctioned off or transferred to other entities.

Alternatively, the NPS explored methods to employ fertility control programs using PZP, a method with “a proven track record of safety and effectiveness over the past 40 years,” that the Park Service said will allow the horses to live out their natural lives within the park, but not breed further.

A robust debate involving Federal officials, North Dakota public officials, citizens and national equine protection organizations has continued since the announcement in 2023.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located in southwest North Dakota and alongside the future home of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Opponents of the Park Services’ two plans argue that wild horses play a crucial role in maintaining the park’s grassland ecology and contribute significantly to the economic development of gateway communities.

With fewer than 200 wild horses inhabiting the 70,000-acre park, proponents of preserving the horses continue to advocate against physical removal.

According to Ross MacPhee at Rewilding America Now, removing wild horses from TRNP could have adverse ecological consequences, as these animals are vital for maintaining grassland health.

MacPhee emphasized the importance of considering the long-term implications of such actions on the park’s ecosystem.

The debate has drawn significant public attention, with over 19,000 comments submitted during the scoping period on the September 2023 Livestock Plan Environmental Assessment, the majority of which favored continued protection of the horses within the national park.

While some stakeholders, including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, have urged the NPS to preserve the wild horse herd, the agency has yet to respond definitively to these requests.

+++30+++

 

CUTLINE

A wild horse band runs freely through Theodore Roosevelt National Park at Medora, North Dakota.

Transitions In Moving Cattle

By
Frank Buchman
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0

Most cattlemen nowadays have large gooseneck livestock trailers they pull with a big powerful pickup.

Others even have semi tractors to pull single, double, and sometimes triple decker livestock trailers.

There are still a few cattlemen who have bumper hitch livestock trailers, but trucks with stock racks are almost nonexistent.

Quite contrasting to decades ago hauling cattle from one place to another. Early last century, cattle were driven from horseback or walking behind.

There were a few trucks with makeshift cattle hauling racks but not many. For long distance transportation, railroads had cattle cars which continued with limited use into the 1950s.

Mom insisted we have hogs to help pay the bills with horse ownership. That bred Hampshire gilt called Susie Q was hauled in the back of the grocery store delivery station wagon. Notably, Susie had twins and one succumbed.

For hauling horses to the fair, floorboard stock racks were built for a trailer pulled by the grocery delivery car.

Things looked up when a used pickup was purchased, and wooden stock racks were built to haul livestock.

Memorable time was purchase of a new two horse trailer pulled by a Ford Galaxy to participate in horse shows.

Hauling cattle in the pickup stock racks for several years, finally a new bumper pull stock trailer was acquired. It simplified the cattle business with easier moving from pasture to pasture and at market time.

A gooseneck four horse trailer with simple living quarters was bought to make attending horse shows more enjoyable for family.

As cattle operations expanded, the 16-foot stock trailer seemed inadequate as horse show enthusiasm declined. The living quarter horse trailer was replaced with an aluminum gooseneck livestock trailer still in use.

Two bumper pull stock trailers were also used for several years until they both wore out. When another gooseneck livestock trailer came up at auction, it was purchased to make cattle hauling easier.

It is still in use too although semi tractor livestock haulers are hired when moving large numbers of cattle.

Other family members have their own gooseneck livestock and horse trailers to help when the need arises.

A 12-foot bumper pull livestock trailer works well for hauling personal horses to shows and work.

Reminded of Second Corinthians 5:17: “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

+++ALLELUIA+++

XVIII–9–2-25-2024

KU News: School of Social Welfare event will focus on supporting older adults facing social isolation

By
Guest Columnist
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0

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Social work Grand Challenges event focuses on supporting older adults facing social isolation

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare’s Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration will host an interactive panel on supporting older adults through social isolation with intergenerational alliances. The public event, which will take place at noon Feb. 27 on Zoom, will include professionals from organizations including the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging and KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. After the panel presentation, participants will discuss how everyone can contribute to eradicating social isolation.

University Distinguished Professor Sarah Deer will highlight advocacy in lecture that examines tribal statutes on sexual violence

LAWRENCE — In her inaugural Distinguished Professor Lecture at the University of Kansas, acclaimed lawyer, advocate and scholar Sarah Deer will present “What If Survivors Wrote the Laws? An Exploration of Tribal Statutes on Sexual Violence.” The lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. March 4 in the Malott Room at the Kansas Union.

KU chemist Kristin Bowman-James wins award honoring decades of commitment to science statewide

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Kristin Bowman-James will receive the Joseph G. Danek Award at a ceremony Feb. 26 in Washington, D.C. The $5,000 prize recognizes her commitment to enhancing the research infrastructure in Kansas by forging collaborations across institutions and disciplines, which is a goal of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR. Bowman-James served as the statewide project director for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR from 2005 to 2023.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Margaret Hair, School of Social Welfare, 785-864-9876, [email protected], @KUSocialWelfare

Social work Grand Challenges event focuses on supporting older adults facing social isolation

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare’s Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration (CCEC) will host an interactive panel on supporting older adults through social isolation with intergenerational alliances.

The event, which highlights alumni of the Sigler Family Aging Scholars Program, will take place Feb. 27 and include professionals whose careers are reshaping the future of aging. After the panel presentation, participants will discuss how everyone can contribute to eradicating social isolation.

The CCEC Grand Challenges for Social Work event – “Reshaping the Future of Aging with Intergenerational Alliances” – will take place on Zoom from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Sign up for the Zoom here.

Speakers include:

Lindsay Huddleston, eligibility specialist with Johnson County Area Agency on Aging.
Dan Goodman, executive director of Kansas Advocates for Better Care.
Kelly Loeb, community engagement manager at the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Kristin Nichols, a multidisciplinary practitioner working as a social worker at KU Outpatient Neurology.
Eric Sigler, who helped create the Sigler Family Aging Fellows and currently works as a grief specialist with KC Hospice.

“One of the Grand Challenges for Social Work is to eradicate social isolation, which has adverse effects on health and well-being. Older adults are among those most at risk of social isolation, yet aging services have workforce issues that constrain their reach,” said Melinda Lewis, director of the school’s Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration.

“The school’s Sigler Family Aging Scholars Program is designed to encourage social work practice in aging and bring more people into the rewarding work to meet this Grand Challenge,” Lewis said.

The Grand Challenges for Social Work is an initiative within the social work profession to champion social progress around a series of grand challenges that the profession works to affect.

Social workers who register for the event can receive one free continuing education credit.

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The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.

Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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Contact: Elizabeth Barton, Office of Faculty Affairs, [email protected], @kufacaffairs

University Distinguished Professor Sarah Deer will highlight advocacy in lecture that examines tribal statutes on sexual violence

LAWRENCE — In her inaugural Distinguished Professor Lecture at the University of Kansas, acclaimed lawyer, advocate and scholar Sarah Deer will amplify sexual violence survivors’ voices and the relation to tribal statutes.

The lecture, titled, “What If Survivors Wrote the Laws? An Exploration of Tribal Statutes on Sexual Violence,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. March 4 in the Malott Room at the Kansas Union.

Individuals can register to attend the lecture, and a recording of the lecture will be posted afterward on the Office of Faculty Affairs website.

Deer focuses her scholarship on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims’ rights, relying on Indigenous feminist principles as a guiding framework. Her 2015 award-winning book, “The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America,” is a culmination of over 25 years of working with survivors, and it highlights the common thread of advocacy work throughout her scholarship.

Her lecture will share the results of her forthcoming publication based on a comprehensive review of tribal nations’ sexual assault statutes and illuminate potential frameworks for addressing sexual assault in tribal courts by employing Indigenous feminist legal theories about consent and sexual autonomy.

“My research shows that tribal criminal laws tend to be unaffected by rape law reform efforts in the 1990s,” Deer said. “Because Native people suffer the highest rates of sexual assault in the United States, my research is intended to support the reform of tribal statutes to ensure that tribal prosecutors have the tools needed to prosecute sexual assault.”

Deer is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. Her advocacy work to end violence against Native women has earned her national recognition, including awards from the American Bar Association and the Department of Justice. She has testified before Congress on four occasions and was appointed to chair a federal advisory committee on sexual violence in Indian country. Deer was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2014 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019. She has co-written four textbooks on tribal law, and her work has been published in numerous law journals.

Deer holds a joint appointment at KU in the departments of Indigenous Studies and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, as well as a courtesy appointment with the School of Law. She earned both her bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from KU.

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Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”

a KU News Service podcast hosted by Kansas Public Radio.

 

https://kansaspublicradio.org/when-experts-attack

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Contact: Claudia Bode, Kansas NSF EPSCoR, [email protected]

KU chemist Kristin Bowman-James wins award honoring decades of commitment to science statewide

 

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Kristin Bowman-James has earned many honors during her nearly 50-year career. But her enduring commitment to Kansas has not been spotlighted until now.

On Feb. 26, Bowman-James will receive the Joseph G. Danek Award in Washington, D.C. The $5,000 prize recognizes her long-term commitment to enhancing the research infrastructure in Kansas by forging collaborations across institutions and disciplines, which is a goal of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR.

Danek, the award’s namesake, is considered the “father of EPSCoR” for his vision and role in developing the federal program, which is designed to address research funding disparity across the United States. It continues to thrive today with bipartisan support to build research capacity in traditionally underfunded regions of the country, including Kansas.

For 18 years, Bowman-James served as the statewide project director for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR, overseeing projects from 2005 to 2023. These efforts leveraged nearly $58 million National Science Foundation dollars to facilitate research and build research talent in Kansas, leading to researchers garnering more than $150 million in additional federal funding.

Bowman-James first became involved with EPSCoR initiatives in 1995 as part of a research grant involving chemists, chemical engineers and physicists from KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University working on the design of novel materials. A few years later, as chair of the KU’s chemistry department, she received funds for three cluster hires across the chemistry/biology interface.

“I am surprised and thrilled to be receiving the Danek Award for doing something that I have greatly enjoyed for almost three decades,” Bowman-James said. “It has been an honor to work together with scientists and leaders across Kansas. It is because of their hard work and commitment that we realize the benefits of collaborative multidisciplinary research across our institutions.”

From nanostructures to microbiomes, lipidomics to bioinformatics, ecological genomics to forecasting — the list of projects conducted under Bowman-James’ leadership is long. All have one thing in common: an eye to tackling the state’s highest priorities, such as clean energy and sustainable agriculture.

“These efforts enabled a wide array of multi-university partnerships that have led to an impressive breadth of scientific discoveries and workforce development for the state,” said Belinda Sturm, KU interim vice chancellor for research, professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering and Bowman-James’ successor as the Kansas NSF EPSCoR director.

In fall 2023, Bowman-James stepped down as the EPSCoR leader at the conclusion of the six-year project called MAPS, or Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant & Soil Systems.

“MAPS was a fantastic group to work with,” said Walter Dodds, University Distinguished Professor of biology at Kansas State University and theme leader for the MAPS project. “The EPSCoR support for this project and others in the past has been much appreciated.”

Presented by the EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition and Foundation Board, the Danek Award adds another honor to Bowman-James’ career, which includes serving as the first woman to chair the KU Department of Chemistry from 1995 to 2001. In 2021, she was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Award in Inorganic Chemistry for her contributions to inorganic chemistry, and she was also named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

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KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

http://www.news.ku.edu

 

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

 

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

 

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