Ellis, Barton and Midway Extension Offices are teaming up to offer a calving school on Wednesday, December 9th at the Dole-Specter Conference Center, Fossil Creek Hotel & Suites, in Russell .
The meal will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the program starting at 6 pm. There is a nominal fee of $5.00 per person and an RSVP is requested by Monday, November 30. Call the Midway Extension District Office in Russell at (785) 483-3157 to register.
Dave Rethorst, DVM and outreach director of the Beef Cattle Institute and former practicing veterinarian will show and demonstrate first-hand using a life size dystocia simulator cow and calf. The audience will be able to see how to address different calving situations and watch Dr. Rethorst perform the manipulations.
Additional topics covered will be the normal calving process, when to intervene, how to manage difficult births, tips for using the calf puller and nutrition during pregnancy.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) this week spoke on the Senate floor emphasizing that in the wake of the recent terror attacks, now is the “absolute” wrong time for the administration to be putting forth a plan to relocate Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States mainland, particularly when there has been no intelligence assessment on the danger of such a move. Watch Senator Roberts’ address here.
“The question is, how can the Administration ask Kansans, or any Americans, to paint a bullseye on their community without providing assurances that moving detainees to the U.S. will not pose a threat to them or our national security?” Roberts said. “It seems unfathomable, and yet, this president is proposing to do just that.”
“As our nation memorializes those who perished in France, it is the absolute wrong time for President Obama and this Administration to be putting forth a plan to relocate Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States mainland.”
He continued, “We must put national security back as our top priority. It must be our first duty in the Congress, and by the Commander-in-Chief. America’s national security is my top priority and bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States is not putting our nation’s security above politics, campaign promises, or anything else.”
He noted that the administration was set this week to release a plan with options for the relocation of terrorists currently detained at Guantanamo Bay. The White House has announced that the release of the plan has now been delayed.
Roberts yesterday wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter demanding answers about the intelligence on the consequences to national security of this move, saying “How can the Administration decide that moving these terrorists is in our best interests if we do not have an analysis of the threats? With both the American people and the Congress opposed to this executive action, how is the President reaching this decision?”
Roberts also noted that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agrees that “if the president acts by Executive Order, he is acting unconstitutionally.”
WICHITA – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County continue to search for a suspect involved with a robbery this week at Emprise Bank 2323 S. Hydraulic in Wichita.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic or mixed race black/white man in his mid 30s, 6-feet tall and weighs approximately 180 pounds, according to a police report on social media.
The suspect was wearing a black Chicago Bulls hat, a dark brown jacket, a black hoodie and black sunglasses.
He had a scruffy beard, New Balance shoes and had a grey iPhone.
Police asked anyone with information about this person, to call Investigations at 316-268-4407 or Crimestoppers at 316-267-2111.
DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai is recalling nearly 305,000 Sonata midsize cars because the brake lights can stay on when the driver isn’t stopping.
The recall covers cars from the 2011 and 2012 model years.
The company says the stopper pad between the brake pedal and the plunger that turns the lights on can deteriorate. That can make the plunger stick and cause the brake lights to stay illuminated. Also, the transmission could be shifted out of park without the brake on, and the system that lets the brakes override the gas pedal may not work.
Hyundai says no crashes or injuries have been reported.
The company plans to tell owners to take their cars to dealers to have the stopper pad replaced. No date has been set for the recall to start.
A Kansas City Council committee approved three anti-smoking measures on Wednesday. CREDIT MARIUS MELLEBYE / CREATIVE COMMONS-FLICKR
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Officials on both sides of the Kansas City state line have approved ordinances raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products and alternative nicotine items to 21.
Kansas City, Missouri Council members on Thursday approved the measure on an 11-1 vote. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County.
Kansas City, Kansas approved a similar measure on a 6-1 vote Thursday night.
Supporters say raising the legal age to 21 will make it harder for younger smokers — including 18-year-olds who are still in high school — to obtain tobacco products and provide them to younger friends and relatives.
The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is leading the effort to have the ordinance passed in all cities in the metropolitan area.
Pictured from left, Lester Robben, K of C Respect-Life Chairman, Grace Pope, second-place, Kassadi Yost, first-place, Bryce Seib, third-place, and Holy Family Elementary sixth-grade teacher of both religion and English, Mrs. Shirley Dinkel.
Submitted
Kassadi Yost, daughter of Greg and Candace Yost, Hays, took first place in the St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus essay contest. The contest is conducted annually challenging sixth grade students at Holy Family Elementary to write on a respect life issue.
In Yost’s essay, “Euthanasia,” she encourages people to trust in God throughout their lives, Lester Robben, Respect-Life chairman for the K of C, said.
“She advocates good decision making throughout one’s life, and if someone isn’t sure which choice to make, Kassadi encourages them to look at God’s Commandments and the Bible for the answer. That’s good advice,” Robben said in presenting the award Thursday.
Second-place winner is Grace Pope, daughter of Jason and Michelle Pope, Hays. Pope wrote her essay on abortion and emphasizes that free will is doing the right thing, not just what an individual desires.
Third-place winner is Bryce Seib, son of Brent and Jessica Seib, Hays. Seib also wrote his essay about abortion stating that killing babies is killing “our future.” He also emphasizes the forgiveness of God for those who have made a decision to abort.
All three received ladder rosaries that were blessed by Pope Francis when he was in the United States in September.
Edgar W. “Ed” Dies died November 18, 2015, 90 years young at Hays Medical Center. As a Marine, he knew when it was time to make a tactical withdrawal.
He was born to Emma and George Dies on March 30, 1925, in Oklahoma. His family moved to Kingman Kansas where he went to school, and graduated high school in 1943. That same year he was drafted into the Marine Corps. He was turned down by the Army and Navy because of an ‘awkward gait’, but that didn’t stop the Marines. His military time was on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands toward the end of WWII assigned to the VMF 155 squadron. As the company clerk, he submitted all the required paperwork of rosters to the military. 50 years later, when he retired from State Farm, he requested the same paperwork to organize VMF 155 for 10 years of Marine reunions.
After his military service he returned to Kingman, KS where he met his wife, Geneva Lechner. They were united in marriage on July 6, 1947, and were married for 58 years. She died July 16, 2005. He said the happiest time of his life was being married. He was known as many different things: Husband, Daddy, Pop, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Uncle, Lion, Marine Sergeant, Jaycee, Highway Patrol Driver’s License Examiner, fisherman, State Farm Agent, volunteer, church member and friend.
An avid fisherman, there was always a fish tale to be told, and a new lake or pond in which to sink a line. He was adamant about living life to the fullest, and would say “well, you can sit and do nothing or get up and move.” Along with living life to its fullest came his commitment to volunteering. “We are here to help each other. You don’t have to look very far to find others less fortunate and we need to remember that.” In 1950, Mother and Daddy, along with 4 other families, founded the Messiah Lutheran Church. What began as Sunday school and church services in their homes has grown to more than 200 members in Hays.
He is survived by his three children; Carmen Armantrout of Hays, Dixie Dies from Hamilton, MT, and Barry Dies (Genette) of St. Paul, MN.: 13 Grandkids , 12 great grands, 1 great great grand child, and numerous nephews and nieces.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, and three sisters.
Memorial services will be at 1:00 pm on Monday, November 23, 2015 at the Messiah Lutheran Church, 2000 Main St., Hays. Private family inurnment will take place at a later date. The family will receive friends following the services at the church.
The family suggests memorials in care of the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine St., to the Community Assistance Center, 12th and Oak in Hays, Messiah Lutheran Church, 2000 Main in Hays, the Hays Lions Club, in care of Sandy Beisner at 611 Cedar Ln. Ellis,KS 67637, the Edwin A. Schumacher Marine Corps League, 103 W. 36th St., Hays, or by volunteering your time to a favorite charity. Condolences may be left for the family at www.haysmemorial.com.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
To a sociobiologist, our controversy over immigrants is a debate about inborn tribal instincts versus the higher cerebral capabilities only humans possess.
Tribalism is our inborn preference for “us” over “them.” Our tribe can be our religion, our country, our race, our language, our political group, and most definitely our family and relatives.
Recently in biology we have attributed our self-centeredness to shared genes. We point to the fact that, similar to many animals, we give preference to our young. Biology calls it “kin selection.”
But selfish genes fail to explain why we go to war to protect those unrelated to us. Favoring our own young does not explain why we adopt babies from foreign lands. Nor does it explain why so many fans in a college stadium go wild for a team of unrelated classmates but feel grievous loss when we lose to “others” who are no more distantly related.
In prehistoric times, the instinct to bond with our parents and extended family members was a matter of survival of a small tribe. It is the mentality of the herd, the flock, the pack, or the school of fish.
But in a world of seven billion, we have to overcome those tribal instincts and use our far higher mental capacity to find fair and humane ways to treat each other.
As an educator, I am uncomfortable with the way we practice youngsters in tribalism. Live on one side of town and you attend a school that chants: “Go Mustangs, Kill Bulldogs.” Then the student moves to the other side of town and the school chants: “Go Bulldogs, Kill Mustangs.”
Unfortunately, our primal instinct to protect ourselves by barricading the doors and keeping “others” out disregards the fact that most of us trace back to immigrant ancestors. Once we were “others.” Our tribal lineage was not kind to others who were Mormons or African slaves. And when we felt threatened, we felt justified in sending thousands of law-abiding Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II. Despite some living here for generations, we still considered them “others.”
Meanwhile we ignore the terrorist acts of those who came from inside our tribe—like Timothy McVay and Terry Nichols who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City.
And when we march to war, it becomes difficult to suppress tribalism and act humanely and objectively. Tribalism guarantees that the reporters from two sides will report the same event differently. Once we succumb to war fever, an objective observer who points out this distortion is likely to be penalized by the tribe.
Tribalism drives the drumbeat toward war. You can hear it in American reporting toward China, Russia and the Middle East—they are not OUR tribe.
But our ability to rise above tribalism and understand the sweep of humanity has resulted in some of our finest hours in history. The Marshall Plan, where America contributed to rebuilding Germany after World War II to prevent the punitive tribal mistakes we made after World War I, is an example of recognizing the dignity of others who were our defeated enemies.
But George Kennan, the author of the Marshall Plan, saw such acts as exceptions. His plan would have never been approved by the voting populace. It was the wisdom of a few leaders. Kennan contended this was a major weakness of a democracy: the vulgarity of elections. In order to keep office, a highly intelligent statesman who understands the correct and just actions that need to be taken, will nevertheless have to support a bad policy in order to be re-elected.
“Close our borders” is a perfectly normal knee jerk tribal response. But it is the grunting of cave men ancestors who lived in fear and retreated to defend their cave.
Humans are a mix of animal and angel. We have evolved the intelligence to rise above knee jerk tribalism. Other animals lack the talent to see outside their self interest. Only we have the ability to see the global picture and that we too could be the refugees in a war-ravaged land.
Leaders in Great Britain and Canada and even France—despite its losses—have risen above tribalism to accept tens of thousands of others. They know that it is the better part of being human to stare into the eyes of a refugee child—and understand: “there, but for the sake of God, go I.”
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center
Want to know how to terrorize a terrorist? Read the 45 words of the First Amendment — preferably aloud.
Airstrikes and drone strikes? Threats and condemnations from the leaders of the most powerful nations in the history of the planet? Targeted assassinations at home or abroad?
To some degree, those tactics may well put fear in the shadowy collections of would-be dictators and pseudo-religious fanatics now operating around the world. And certainly the quick French response — including the raid in which the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 13 attacks died — should serve as a graphic demonstration of speedy justice.
But simply go out to a cafe in Paris for a relaxed evening of conversation, free of government or despotic controls on your opinions, your music or your ideas. ISIS can’t handle that. Worship a bit differently than others in Baghdad or Aleppo, or a dozen other places — and extremists strike. Or just visit a market in Yola or Lagos, Nigeria, where Boko Haram and others are trying to strangle a developing and diverse society. And that’s just in the last few weeks.
Freedom of expression and religious liberty, it would seem, really do terrorize terrorists.
These ragtag collections of misguided zealots are so frightened by such simple daily declarations of freedom that they have been driven to shoot, stab, bomb and execute — most recently, 132 people in Paris; more than 50 people in Nigeria; and 43 people in Beirut.
For the nations and societies that have been targeted, the stepped-up pace of the mass killings brought a new, if fragile, sense of cooperation. The result: Nightly news reports of military action.
But what about the rest of us? Well, there’s a simple, two-step tactic — an approach rooted in the fright felt by these terrorists.
Step One: Live freely. Step Two: Repeat step one. Daily.
Those core freedoms — in the U.S., the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition — are under challenge and attack in so many places, from the cowardly killing of innocents in heartless attacks, to gore-filled cyberspace campaigns spewing hatred, to the intentional misuse of legal structures to impede, imprison and imperil those who would think, write, speak and worship freely.
Terrorists and hijacked governments try each day to silence those in opposition. But those who fear freedom so greatly will be terrorized every single day by the mere sight of freedom and the empowerment it brings to individuals.
Doubt that freedom has the power to frighten? Just go online and catch the verve, nerve and sense of solidarity shown in recent days by children and adults, concert-goers and sports fans around the world, all singing the “Marseillaise,” the French national anthem.
There also are some things we don’t want to do. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) wants the federal government to block Internet sites used by the Islamic State. Barton conceded that such sites still will “pop up like weeds,” and in fact said he supports the concept of free speech, but he still has asked the Federal Communications Commission to battle ISIS through control of content.
But restraints on the marketplace of ideas advanced by the terror groups will only fuel misunderstandings, prevent the rest of us from seeing savagery and hatred close-up, and give censors a new, “well, you do it too” excuse. Better the real devils we do know, than to encourage new ones.
And journalists worldwide must acknowledge a tragic equality in attacks around the world, so that the opponents of freedom can’t divide its supporters with claims that media attention or national sympathy only happens with attacks in the West — a claim already being made regarding news coverage of the Paris attacks versus the world attention paid to the two Beirut bombings, and now Nigeria. In fact, there are real differences in the nature of the tragedies, from their scope to ready access by news media to the shock of an attack in a “safe” city.
Satire, as it so often has in history, draws out the truth in things even as it makes us laugh. John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” opened his latest show with a short commentary on the Paris tragedy, just 48 hours after it occurred. He mocked the killers in what he accurately described as “a moment of premium-cable profanity.”
“Nothing about what these (attackers) are trying to do is going to work,” Oliver said, after declaring the killers followed a “bankrupt” ideology. “France is going to endure, and I’ll tell you why: If you’re in a war of culture and lifestyle with France, good … luck.”
Now that bit of free speech ought to terrorize any terrorist who hears it.
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]
Gusty northwest winds expected behind a cold front which will cross southwest Kansas during the afternoon. As cold air invades western Kansas overnight gusty northwest winds will be at 25 to 30 mph. This will result in wind chills falling back into the 2 to 15 degree range after midnight.
Today Partly sunny, with a high near 56. Windy, with a south wind 9 to 14 mph becoming north northwest 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight Scattered flurries before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Windy, with a north wind 21 to 29 mph.
Saturday Sunny, with a high near 38. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 15 to 20 mph becoming west southwest 7 to 12 mph in the afternoon.
Saturday NightMostly clear, with a low around 20. West southwest wind 7 to 10 mph.
SundaySunny, with a high near 51. West northwest wind 9 to 13 mph.
ANDERSON COUNTY- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 4:30p.m. on Thursday in Anderson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Peterbilt Grain Grinder driven by Chad R. Collins, 39, Waverly, was westbound on 1600 Road five miles west of Garnett.
The vehicle went into the north ditch, came back out of the ditch onto the road, overturned and came to rest in the south ditch.
Collins was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.
He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
K-State Ellis County Extension
