WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is delivering another $16 billion in aid to farmers hurt by his trade policies, an effort to relieve economic pain among his supporters in rural America and another sign that the U.S.-China trade war likely won’t end anytime soon.

Watch LIVE: President Trump Delivers Remarks on Supporting America’s Farmers and Ranchers https://t.co/CVtQkZ9TwK

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 23, 2019

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August. He suggested it was unlikely a trade deal would be done by then, a sign that U.S. negotiators could be months away from settling a bitter trade dispute with China.

“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Perdue said.

The latest bailout comes atop $11 billion in aid Trump provided farmers last year.

Trump, seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminum, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.

U.S trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on U.S. agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartland, where support for Trump runs high.

Farm country is hurting, I’m glad to see @realdonaldtrump & @SecretarySonny respond to Cheating China’s shady tactics that consistently undermine direct negotiations. Our farmers need a deal, but this $16B package will hopefully give some relief during the ongoing trade war.

— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) May 23, 2019

William Reinsch, a trade analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former U.S. trade official, called the administration’s aid package for farmers “a fairly overt political ploy.”

“It’s not economics,” Reinsch said. Trump wants win the farm states again in the 2020 election, “and he’s got members of Congress beating up on him” to resolve the trade conflicts.

Financial markets buckled Thursday on heightened tensions between the U.S. and China. The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 400 points in afternoon-day trading.

U.S. crude plunged 6% on fears that the trade standoff could knock the global economy out of kilter and kill demand for energy.

Talks between the world’s two biggest economies broke off earlier this month with no resolution to a dispute over Beijing’s aggressive efforts to challenge American technological dominance. The U.S. charges that China is stealing technology, unfairly subsidizing its own companies and forcing U.S. companies to hand over trade secrets if they want access to the Chinese market.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss the standoff at a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in Osaka, Japan, next month. There are no current plans for talks to occur before then.

Briefing reporters on the farm aid package, Perdue said he doubted that “a trade deal could be consummated before” the first payments to farmers in July or August.

The second payment will be made around November and the third likely in early 2020, USDA officials said, unless a trade deal has been reached by then.

The direct payments will make up $14.5 billion of the $16 billion package and will be handed out on a county-by-county basis. The amounts will be determined by how much each county has suffered from the retaliatory duties imposed by China, as well as previous tariffs put in place by the European Union and Turkey.

The rest of the package includes $1.4 billion to purchase surplus food commodities from farmers and distribute them to U.S. schools and food banks, and $100 million to help develop new export markets overseas.

The payments will go to farmers producing roughly two dozen crops, including soybeans, corn, canola, peanuts, cotton and wheat. Dairy and hog farmers are also eligible.

U.S. soybean exports to China have been hit particularly hard, falling from $12.3 billion in 2017 to just $3.2 billion last year.

The aid offsets some of the losses. But farmers are worried about the future and whether they can win back lost sales in China, a market they’ve spent years breaking into. “I don’t think any kind of bailout package, even if it was permanent, would substitute for the loss markets,” said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and a former U.S. trade official.

Trump has said that China is footing the bill for the farm bailout by paying the tariffs. But tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. importers, and studies have shown that American consumers and businesses usually end up absorbing the higher costs.

Perdue acknowledged that the tariffs, regardless of who pays them, are sent to the Treasury Department and not earmarked for the relief program. But he said that China is “indirectly” paying for the aid.

“The president feels that China is paying for this program through the tariffs,” Perdue said.

Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports and is planning to hit another $300 billion worth, a move that would extend import taxes to just about everything China ships to the United States.

Among those bracing for higher costs if the new tariffs kick in is Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun!, a Boca Raton, Florida, toy company that imports from China.

“The thought of the government taking my money and giving it to farmers as subsidies to support their loses doesn’t sit well,” Foreman said by email. “It’s not fair to take money from a Florida company to support an Iowa farmer! Farmers don’t want welfare. I’m sure they, like us, just want open free markets to trade in!”
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NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is providing another $16 billion in aid to U.S. farmers hurt by his trade policies.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that Trump has “authorized the $16 billion facilitation program.” Last year, the Trump administration delivered farmers an $11 billion bailout to offset the costs of his trade conflicts with China and other U.S. trading partners.

Trump has imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum and thousands of Chinese products. Foreign countries have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs. They have focused on U.S. agricultural exports in a direct shot at Trump’s supporters in rural America.

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RILEY COUNTY —A Kansas inmate who walked away from work release in April is back in custody, according to the Riley County Police Department booking report.

Just after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Austin Swafford, 34, was arrested in the 1000 Block of South Seth Child in Manhattan. He had originally been held in Riley County on a probation violation, according to the RCPD arrest report.

On April 26, police in Beloit reported Swafford’s disappearance, that he had “ties to Beloit, the Mitchell County area and that the public should not approach him.

Riley County records indicate Swafford may have turned himself in. The arrest occurred at the police department in Manhattan. He is being held on a $1500 bond.  Police had no additional information on Swafford.

By TALI ARBEL
AP Technology Writer

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that aims to combat the illegal robocalls torturing Americans.

Though the measure wouldn’t eliminate all unwanted calls, it would give regulators more tools to go after scammers. It would also push phone companies to adopt new technology to combat fake phone numbers popping up on caller ID.

The Senate passed the bill 97-1 on Thursday. It’s not clear what will happen in the House, where Democrats in charge have their own anti-robocall proposals.

The bill has support from the telecom industry and consumer groups, a rare combination.

As scam call volume rises, the Federal Communications Commission is trying to nudge phone companies. The nation’s communications regulator will vote in June to allow carriers to block scam calls by default for customers.

Each year Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) Foundation for Agriculture awards scholarships to college students studying in fields that benefit agriculture and rural Kansas. Forty-two recipients received $25,000 in scholarships for the 2019-20 school year.

Over the past decade, the foundation has awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships.

“We’re investing in students today to ensure they become tomorrow’s leaders,” says KFB President and Foundation Chair Rich Felts.

Dixie Miller, Reno County, is the winner of the $500 Godfrey and Emma Bahr Miller Agriculture Scholarship, a permanent, privately endowed scholarship fund for students attending a college in Kansas and majoring in a subject related to agronomy and conservation.

Cade Hibdon, Franklin County, was awarded $1,000 for the Frank & Helen Bernasek Memorial Scholarship.

Sara Schlickau, Reno County, received $1,000 for the K-State Agricultural Communications and Journalism Scholarship.

Jacqueline Clawson, Meade County, was awarded $500 for the DeWitt Ahlerich Memorial Scholarship.

Seven students received scholarships to Kansas technical colleges. They are Gage Harding, Neosho County; Dylan Helwig, Cherokee County; Wyatt Hilt, Cheyenne County; Talen Quenzer, Thomas County; Wyatt Schuster, Jewell County; Brody Stamm, Washington County; and Lane Wells, Wichita County.

Four $1,000 KFB scholarships were awarded to juniors and seniors enrolled in Kansas State University’s college of agriculture and majoring in a subject related to agriculture. They are Sara Gammon, Bates County, Missouri; Ciara Hodgkinson, Pratt County; Leah Metzger, Butler County; and Katelyn Pinkston, Clay County.

Two $1,000 KFB scholarships were awarded to juniors and seniors enrolled at Fort Hays State University. Recipients are Dani Mangus, Sherman County; and Brianna Stefan, Clark County.

Twenty-five recipients received $500 scholarships. These students are attending a Kansas college with a Kansas Farm Bureau Collegiate chapter. Students must be a Farm Bureau Collegiate member.

Recipients include:

Allen Community College

• Ryan Beeson, Labette County
• Carleigh Fox, Valencia County, New Mexico

Barton Community College

• Kerri Bruntz, Ness County
• Dawn Ledeboer, Wabaunsee County
• Bryce Maneth, Barton County
• Kenton Wondra, Barton County

Butler Community College

• Chad Hibdon, Franklin County

Colby Community College

• Hannah Eslinger, Sherman County
• Karlee Logan, Scott County
• Dylan Pruter, Osborne County
• Cassandra Wolff, Barton County

Fort Hays State University

• KelsiJo Crouch, Scott County
• Sathena Scarborough, Howard County, Nebraska
• Morgan Tucker, Lane County
• Haley Winkel, Mitchell County

Fort Scott Community College

• Peyton Bragg, Barrow County, Georgia
• Tatum Brunkow, Pottawatomie County

Hutchinson Community College

• Chisum Grund, Wallace County
• Katelynn Wilt, Reno County

Kansas State University

• Ashley Craig, Adams County, Nebraska
• Suzanne Huntley, Phillips County
• Andy Mink, DeKalb County, Missouri
• Haley O’Neal, Bourbon County
• Colton Sutterby, Allen County

Pratt Community College

• Camryn Youngers, Ford County

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas clinic stopped providing telemedicine abortions months ago and returned to court Wednesday after concluding that the legal climate remains uncertain despite a judge’s order late last year saying the state couldn’t stop the procedures.

The clinic in Wichita operated by the Trust Women Foundation also faces a complaint over its past telemedicine abortions filed with the state’s medical board by officials from the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life. The state has enacted three laws in eight years to require physicians to be physically present when giving women pregnancy-ending medications.

The clinic has two doctors who live outside Kansas and can be at the clinic two days a week. In October, it started having them confer by webcam with women seeking medication abortions to increase the hours the physicians were available to patients. The clinic stopped Dec. 31.

“I was just fearful that our clinic and our doctors could be penalized,” Julie Burkhart, the foundation’s CEO and founder testified during a daylong state district court hearing Wednesday. “I wanted to be in a position where we absolutely knew we were able to wade into those waters.”

The clinic stopped telemedicine abortions on the same day Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis ruled that the state couldn’t stop the procedures. But Trust Women attorneys said Wednesday that they could not get written assurances from the local district attorney and the State Board of Healing Arts that no ban would be enforced.

The Trust Women Foundation filed a new lawsuit in late January, seeking an order to block enforcement of any ban. Another judge, District Judge Teresa Watson, had the hearing Wednesday and said she hopes to rule “in short order.”

The hearing was the first lower-court action since the Kansas Supreme Court ruled last month that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. The high court said the state constitution grants a right to “personal autonomy” and to “control one’s own body.”

Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life’s executive director, said she worries that the legal dispute over telemedicine abortions “could turn out badly” — and be only the first of many.

Abortion opponents fear that that the Kansas Supreme Court decision endangers even longstanding restrictions. Many were enacted under Republican Govs. Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took office in January.

Their frustration is rising as other states, including Alabama and neighboring Missouri, move to ban most abortions and abortion foes hope the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse its historic Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 legalizing abortion across the nation.

“They could back and turn over virtually all our abortion laws,” Culp said.

Kansas enacted its first telemedicine-abortion ban in 2011, only to see it swept up in a broader lawsuit against multiple restrictions that prompted Theis to block them all together. In his December ruling, Theis said that earlier order blocked a 2015 version of the ban, and he declared that a 2018 version was an “air ball” without enforcement provisions. The state has appealed.

Kansans for Life launched its complaint over the Wichita clinic’s telemedicine abortions before Theis’ last ruling and received a notice last month that the complaint had been assigned to an investigator. The medical board regulates the clinic’s physicians, while the clinic itself is regulated by the state health department.

The medical board’s 15 members all were named by Brownback and Colyer, both strong abortion opponents. Kelly, an abortion rights supporter, cannot fill any spots until four members’ terms expire June 30.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Burkhart testified that webcam conferences made the clinic’s two physicians available to patients and additional eight to 12 hours a week. She also said telemedicine allowed the clinic to reduce waiting times, so patients could spend less than two hours there, instead of from six to eight hours.

She said that Trust Women hoped eventually to open a clinic in rural Kansas offering telemedicine abortions.

But Shon Qualseth, a lawyer representing the Kansas attorney general’s office, said the clinic still cannot show that its patients face imminent harm without another court order.

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MONTGOMERY COUNTY — An 88-year-old Kansas man is recovering after a dramatic water rescue.

On Wednesday, Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the intersection of County Road 6600 and 4500 Road where a family reported 88-year-old Robert Harriman was last seen at that location at approximately 10a.m., according to Sheriff Robert Dierks.

Heavy rainfall over the past week left the area flooded by the Verdigris River.

Deputies and the family began a search and located Harriman’s vehicle one half mile from the road. Deputies contacted Neodesha Fire crews and a warden from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to do a water rescue.

They used a drone to help see the vehicle and determined Harriman was trapped in the vehicle.

Neodesha Fire crews, Game Warden Uhrmacher and an off-duty trooper used a patrol boat to reach the vehicle that had been swept 2000 feet off the flooded road and remove Harriman.

Independence EMS treated him at the scene and transported him to a local hospital.  The sheriff had no update on his condition Thursday.