HUTCHINSON — With recent rains, the condition of Kansas pasture land is improving.
The rainfall is leaving land green, and hay fields are looking better than in recent years. Steve Hessman with the USDA office in Dodge City said the ample rain helped hay and pasture land, including the Flint Hills area, which suffered greatly from the drought. He also noted prices are starting to come down for most hay after spiking earlier in the spring. Hay prices went from $150 at the start of the season to $200 per ton, before dropping again this summer.
Hessman said farmers and ranchers are having an easier time finding hay for their operations than in the past three years, although supplies of high-quality dairy hay is still short due to the rainy weather, which is keeping alfalfa in the fields too long.
Outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case reached fever pitch this week as congressional Democrats prepare to introduce legislation to reverse the ruling.
“Your health care decisions are not your boss’s business,” Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., told the New York Times. “Since the Supreme Court decided it will not protect women’s access to health care, I will.”
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.
Of course, any attempt to reverse Hobby Lobby will fail in the House of Representatives. So Democrats are looking to the midterm elections — already sending fundraising appeals headlined “Supreme Court decides that corporate rights trump women’s rights.”
Before going off that deep end, let’s all take a deep breath – and take a closer look at what the high court did and did not do.
I would argue that the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores is neither the all-out assault on women’s rights alleged by some on the Left — nor the major expansion of religious freedom trumpeted by many on the Right.
Instead, the Hobby Lobby ruling is a narrowly tailored attempt to balance the conscience claims of religious owners of closely held businesses against the government’s interest in ensuring that employees of those businesses receive health coverage, including full access to contraception services.
True, the Court’s finding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) protects closely held corporations breaks some new ground.
“Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby,” argues Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion, “protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those companies.”
In a strongly worded dissent joined by three other justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg argues that religious owners of businesses like Hobby Lobby must comply with the contraception mandate. Recognizing closely held corporations as “persons” protected by RFRA, says the dissent, allows religious employers to impose their beliefs on employees — and opens the door to endless lawsuits over a parade of claims for religious exemptions.
But, as Justice Alito takes pains to explain, the Hobby Lobby decision “is concerned solely with the contraceptive mandate.” In most other instances, the government will have compelling interests such as health and safety that will trump religious claims for exemption when no less restrictive alternative is available.
What tips the scale in favor of Hobby Lobby in this case, in the view of the Court’s majority, is the fact that the government has already provided an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious objections to the contraceptive mandate.
Writing for the majority, Justice Alito acknowledges that the government may have a compelling interest in full health care coverage for women. But if the government can accomplish that interest and simultaneously protect religious conscience — as it has done with religious nonprofits — then the government must make the accommodation.
That’s exactly what’s going to happen. In the wake of Hobby Lobby, the Obama administration will create a workaround for closely held corporations with religious objections to some forms of contraception — modeled on the one already in place for religious nonprofits (in which, for example, the insurer excludes contraceptive coverage from the employer’s plan and provides separate payments for contraceptive services).
The result will be a win-win: Religious owners will be protected — women employees will be fully covered.
This outcome, I believe, best upholds American principles and ideals. Striking a balance between religious claims of conscience and laws designed to serve the common good is a balancing act as old as the Republic.
From the founding period when Quakers were exempted from military service to more recent accommodations for Amish families to withdraw their children from school at age 14, adult Jehovah’s Witnesses to refuse blood transfusions, Native Americans to use peyote in religious ceremonies (to name but a few), the United States has long been one of the rare nations in the world to take claims of religious conscience seriously.
It’s sometimes complicated and often messy — but protecting religious freedom is what makes America a haven for the cause of conscience.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Washington-based Newseum Institute. [email protected]
This September, for the first time, all county treasurers in Kansas will mail the county’s real estate tax revenues to the state of Kansas instead of their school districts.
The funds, earmarked for school districts each year, then will be sent back to the school districts from the state.
The new provision is part of the state’s school funding compromise bill passed in the spring — and is puzzling superintendents and administrators in Ellis County and across the state.
Republican leaders say the change was made so the state could create the “audit trail” required by the Kansas Supreme Court school funding ruling.
John Robb, attorney for Schools for Fair Funding, said that reasoning is flawed.
“That’s just crazy. There is nothing on the Supreme Court opinion about audit trails or tracing of the funds. There is no justification whatsoever coming from the Supreme Court for shifting that local money to the state and then back to the locals,” Robb said. “Whoever is using that rationale is being really creative to try to come up for a reason for this bill, but it didn’t come from the Supreme Court.”
He said his guess is those responsible are thinking, “By gosh we will take that local money and take it to the state and we will get credit for giving it to the schools — it doesn’t give the schools a dime more for the classrooms.”
Robb said the state has been notorious in similar situations with being late on payments — a fact that is worrisome to Hays USD 489 administrators.
“I think the biggest fear most of us have is that if the state gets their hands on it, it can end up like many others things — that they can delay those payments,” said USD 489 Superintendent Dean Katt said. “We talk about our reserves being down and making sure we can pay bills at the end of the month, if in fact, they do delay payments. With looking at (state) revenue streams being down the last three months, (there is) probably a real possibility that could happen.”
According to a June report from Kansas Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan, June’s tax collections missed estimates by $28 million, pushing the shortfall for the fiscal year to nearly $338 million.
Assistant Superintendent for Special Services Mark Hauptman shares Katt’s concerns.
“Will we get a cash flow basis coming that allows us to fund our operation in a timely manner? This is not the first time in history this type of manipulation has occurred,” Hauptman said. “It happened a few years ago with KPERS funding, which is our state retiree pension fund. That money flows to the district. The same day, it has to be sent back electronically to the state again.
“Again, that was a politically motivated act to just simply say the state is funding education at a higher level when, it fact, it makes no difference in the amount of funding or what anyone receives,” he added.
Katt said the provision is similar to the one in which state-mandated tenure was removed for K-12 teachers, in that the issue was never discussed or debated and many legislators were not even aware of the provision until after it passed.
A Wichita company soon will begin installing additional message boards in northwest Kansas stretches of Interstate 70.
According to Joe Finley of the Kansas Department of Transportation, the “Intelligent Transportation System” project also will include additional cameras to monitor traffic and weather conditions.
Preliminary locations for the message boards — for eastbound traffic — were at Colby, WaKeeney, Hays and Russell, while the cameras are expected to be installed near Bunker Hill, the Kansas 23 junction, and between Colby and Oakley.
Wichita-based Atlas Electric recently was awarded the bid for the project, which will cost approximately $873,000.
TOPEKA (AP) — A northeast Kansas businessman running for the U.S. Senate as an independent candidate has launched a statewide radio and television ad campaign even before he’s secured his spot on the ballot.
Greg Orman, of Olathe, began radio, cable and broadcast television ads Thursday. His campaign also said he’s raised about $600,000 in cash contributions in less than two months for his Senate bid.
His campaign unveiled three television ads Thursday, one 60-second and two 30-second spots that emphasize Orman’s message that Washington has become too partisan.
Orman said in an interview that he’s launching the ads now because the Nov. 4 general election is less than four months away.
To get on the ballot, his supporters must gather the signatures of 5,000 registered voters on petitions by Aug. 4.
Irene J. Kippes, 86, Hays, died Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at the Via Christi Villages.
She was born September 18, 1927 in Catherine, Kansas the daughter of Leo J. and Albina (Jacobs) Dreiling. On September 22, 1948 she married Gilbert F. Kippes in Victoria, Kansas. He died November 9, 1999. She was a homemaker and a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, St. John’s Auxiliary, Ellis County Historical Society, and the VFW Auxiliary. She enjoyed shopping, cooking, and Thomas Kincaid artwork. She especially enjoyed spending time with her family and grandchildren.
Survivors include two sons, Glenn Kippes and wife Charisse of Dallas, TX, and Warren Kippes and wife Angie of Hays, two daughters, Sharon Wegele and husband Gary of Hays and Sheila Allen and husband Don of Wichita, Kansas, a sister Lillian Schumacher and husband Leland of Victoria, Kansas, and a sister-in-law Marian Dreiling of Colorado, nine grandchildren, twelve great grandchildren and one great great grandson.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, brothers Leo F. Dreiling, Jr., Thomas Dreiling, and John Dreiling, infant brothers Virgil and Frederick Dreiling, sisters Anita Feltis and Shirley Gross, and an infant sister Lillian Dreiling.
Private family services will be at a later date. Visitation will be from 5:00 pm until 8:00 on Sunday, July 13, 2014 at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine Street. A parish vigil service will be at 7:00 pm on Sunday at the funeral home. Memorials are suggested in Irene’s memory to Via Christi Assisted Living, Hospice of Hays Medical Center, or to Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church Building Fund, in care of the funeral home. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.haysmemorial.com
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Two Kansas City men were indicted Wednesday on a federal bank robbery charge, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.
Dale Williamson, 34, Kansas City, Mo., and Robert Robinson, 40, Kansas City, Mo., were charged with one of count bank robbery in connection with the May 22, 2014, robbery of the Bank of America, 15811 Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park, Kan.
The men initially were charged in a criminal complaint filed June 14 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. It is alleged that Robinson, wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie, walked into the bank holding a cellular telephone to his ear. He showed a clerk a note saying, “I have a gun. I will kill you.” He tucked the money from the robbery into a folder and walked out of the bank.
After investigators released surveillance photos from the robbery, they identified Robinson as the bank robber and Williamson as an accomplice who planned the robbery and drove the getaway car.
If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The FBI and the Overland Park Police Dept. investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble is prosecuting .
After they were swept in a two-game series over the weekend in Liberal the Hays Larks returned the favor here in Hays completing their own two-game sweep of the Bee Jays winning the series finale 5-4 Wednesday night.
Trailing 1-0 in the third the Aaron Cornell tripled home a run to tie the game at one and Tyler Leffler followed that with an RBI to put Hays up 2-1.
Liberal rallied for three runs in the sixth take a 4-3 lead but Derek Birginske led off the bottom of the inning with a solo homerun tying the game at four.
The Larks took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh with a Tyler Leffler RBI single putting Hays up 5-4.
With Hays leading four different Larks relief pitchers combined for three and a third shutout innings securing the victory.
David Koll pitched a scoreless seventh to earn his fourth win of the season.
Tyler Leffler was two-for-four and drove in two runs.
Hays improved to 18-11 overall and 13-11 in the Jayhawk League.
Hays has Thursday off before hosting Fort Collins for a non-league game on Friday and again Saturday.
MANHATTAN — The Kansas wheat harvest may be one of the worst on record — and the loss doesn’t just hurt Kansas, according to a Kansas State University expert.
The 2014 wheat harvest in Kansas may be the lowest on record and could have a ripple effect on the economy, according to a Kansas State University climatologist. Courtesy ksu.edu.
“The rains came too late to benefit the wheat production, so we may have our lowest wheat harvest on record,” said Mary Knapp, service climatologist in the university’s agronomy department.
That isn’t just disappointing for Kansas farmers, but could affect other food availability and the overall economy. Drought conditions lead to poor pasture conditions and hay production, which then impacts the number of cattle ranchers can graze, Knapp said.
“Then it starts trickling into the community because if you have wheat farmers with very low production, they most likely also received very low income,” Knapp said. “That farmer is not going to invest in machine upgrades or make as many purchases in the community. That will cause the economy to drag, which may result in a ripple effect that can be far reaching.”
Knapp says it takes about as long to recover from a drought as it did to reach drought status, so if it has been three years in the making, it will take three years or more to recover from the drought effects. And even getting more rain may not improve drought status.
“You can have a drought punctuated by a flood and still be in a drought,” Knapp said. “If the rain comes too quickly, it doesn’t have a beneficial component.”
Eric Sperber, representative of Cornerstone Ag LLC in Colby, said that the area was at the halfway point for this year’s harvest. His facility has already been receiving wheat for a week, but he hopes that with cooperating weather farmers will be done within the next week.
He reported the area’s yields are highly varied this year. Some fields are ranging from 5-10 bushels an acre while others have reaped in about 60 bushels an acre. However, he reports that the overall average will be about 35 bushels an acre.
The test weights have dropped from 62 pounds per bushel to around 58-59 pounds per bushel because of the rains. Sperber has reported consistent field insect kernel damage, but overall dockage for the area is down this year.
This harvest is shaping up to be an improvement for Colby farmers. “I think we will be up 300-400% this year in comparison to last year. I’m already up 200%. But last year wasn’t hard to beat.”
Bill Burton, a representative of Midland Marketing in Hays, said that their 11 locations have taken in around 4 million bushels of wheat. This year they will be taking in a little less than half a normal crop, Burton estimates. The yields in the Hays area are averaging about 25 bushels an acre and the test weights are in the 58-59 pounds per bushel range. Protein contents have averaged around 13.5%. Burton reports that there are no major dockage issues in the area.
Theron Haresnape, a farmer from Lebanon in Smith County, said that he currently has about 300 acres left and will hopefully be done with two solid days of cutting. His yields are averaging out at around 25 bushels an acre. His test weights for most of his fields were at 62 pounds per bushel, but fell about 4 pounds after the rain. However, his fields closer to the Nebraska border have not seen the test weight drop because they weren’t quite ripe by the time the rains poured. His Everest and SY Wolf varieties have both been very consistent. Haresnape said that this year’s yields will be down from last year’s.
The 2014 Harvest Report is brought to you by Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and Kansas Grain and Feed Association.
The Hays Eagles Senior American Legion was held to just two runs in their opening game of the Blue Spring Missouri Wood bat tournament falling 4-2 to Jefferson City.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the second inning Connor Rule led off the inning with a double and eventually came around to score on an error tying the game at one.
Kaden Rohr led off the third inning with a double and came into score on a Cole Schumaker sacrifice fly giving Hays a 2-1 lead.
But Jefferson City rallied for three runs in the fifth taking a 4-2 lead and they would go on to win by that score.
Kaden Rohr got the loss for the Eagles. He allowed four runs; just one of them was earned in six innings.
Cole Schumaker was 1-for-2 with an RBI in the loss.
The Eagles play the Lee Summit Pirates at 2 p.m and Bellevue Nebraska at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The TMP-Marian girls’ residency program will find a new home this fall at the Hadley Center in Hays.
Hadley Center
Just three weeks ago, school officials were notified of deficiencies in the electrical system at the existing girls’ dormitory, Marian Hall, located on 13th Street. The decision was made to seek alternative living arrangements for the roughly 25 female students who already have signed to attend TMP-Marian this year. The search revealed a secure wing on the third floor of the Hadley Center, located between Seventh and Eighth streets just east of Main Street.
As in years past, the resident students will be assigned a roommate, will be transported daily to school, activities, and to meals off-site. Residents will be supervised by a round-the-clock staff of resident advisers overseen by Director of Resident Life Michelle Fairbank. The resident staff is available 24 hours-a-day to the students. The staff is responsible for transportation arrangements, helping the residents with activities, ensuring online activities comply with school standards and providing for their overall safety and well-being.
The facility, which has private entrances, is in a secure wing of the Hadley Center that was occupied most recently by Hays Medical Center. There are enough rooms to accommodate all the incoming female resident students, private bathrooms and showers, dedicated laundry availability, kitchenette, a large common room with abundant natural light, and handicap accessibility. The building itself is modernized with safety features including available private electronic locks, multiple exits and full fire suppression system.
The chapel remaining from the Hadley Center’s former life as Hadley Hospital also is located immediately adjacent to the wing being used for the girls’ dormitory and will be available for use as a prayer and meditation space to residents.
TMP-Marian has entered into a 10-month lease with the Hadley Center, making this space available to the resident students through the end of May. More information about the Hadley Center is available on the Hadley Center’s official website.
