By JOHN P. TRETBAR

US crude futures prices topped $51 for the first time in months. The Nymex benchmark contract was up 96 cents Monday morning to $51.62/bbl. London Brent gained $1.34 to $58.20/bbl. At CHS in McPherson, Kansas Common crude was fetching $41/bbl to start the week.

We’re now seeing consistent declines in gasoline prices, a month after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas. Triple-A reports the national average price for a gallon or regular was $2.57 on Monday, down a nickel on the week but still 22 cents more than a month ago. The auto club predicts even lower prices, as refiners return to normal, and switch over to winter blends in some states. The average price in Kansas was $2.472, down a penny on the day and a nickel lower than a week ago. Prices were down to $2.26 in Great Bend and $2.29 in Hays

Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 11 active rigs in eastern Kansas last week, down three. There were 22 west of Wichita, up one. Operators are drilling at two sites in Barton County and one each in Ellis and Stafford counties. Baker Hughes reported 935 active drilling rigs across the US, down five oil rigs, but up four seeking natural gas. There are 220 active rigs across Canada, up ten oil rigs and down two gas rigs.

Operators filed 19 permits to drill at new locations across the state, 1,031 so far this year. There were eight new permits filed in eastern Kansas and 11 west of Wichita including one new permit in Barton County and two in Stafford County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 16 well completions for the week, 919 so far this year. That includes nine east of Wichita and seven in western Kansas.

The Kansas Corporation Commission on last week approved a controversial Saltwater Disposal Well in Morris County that was opposed by residents of that region of the Flint Hills. Commissioners filed an order allowing Quail Oil & Gas to dump up to 5,000 barrels per day of production wastewater at up to 500 pounds per square inch into the well near Burdick. The order says opponents of the project failed to make their case that there was an immediate danger to public health, safety or welfare posed by the well. The commission also rejected a staff compromise to reduce the amount and pressure allowed. Opponents have 15 days to appeal and their lawyer says they are considering such an appeal.

Top lawyers for the cities of Oakland and San Francisco announce lawsuits against five of the world’s biggest oil companies for damages related to climate change. In court papers, the cities argue that the defendants — BP PLC, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC — have put citizens and public property at risk. Both cities want the companies to pay for climate change adaptation programs, which would include the construction of sea walls and raising low-lying buildings exposed to rising tides. These are not the first lawsuits of this kind. Back in July, Marin and San Mateo counties and the town of Imperial Beach, all in California, filed similar litigation to combat sea rise, naming 37 companies that produce oil, gas and coal.

A new study in Oklahoma could bring new problems for horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing, according to reporting in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance released an interim study that is cause for concern over “well bashing,” in which older, vertical wells are damaged by new horizontal plays and fracking. The OEPA report noted that in Kingfisher County alone, more than 450 vertical wells have been damaged economically, and some of them have seen environmental damage as well. The Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association acknowledges “well-to-well” interference, but says they try to handle that company-to-company, either by fixing or buying the damaged older vertical wells. OOGA President Chad Warmington tells the newspaper larger companies drilling horizontal wells are offering ahead of time to give concessions or pay damages or even give them a part of the new well.”

After repeated calls to raise the tax rate on oil and gas production to 7 percent, The Tulsa World newspaper reports Democrats in the Oklahoma House might next push for a statewide vote. Raising the tax rate is part of House Democrats’ own budget plan, but despite pressure from both inside and outside the Capitol, Republican leadership has rejected those ideas. (The Gross Production Tax was expected to come up in budget debates in the state’s special legislative session which began on Monday.)

North Dakota regulators on Wednesday approved an agreement settling allegations that the builder of the Dakota Access pipeline violated state rules about trees and Indian artifacts during construction. The agreement worked out by attorneys for the Public Service Commission and Energy Transfer Partners calls for development of a “how-to” manual and the planting of more than 100,000 trees. ETP also is not required to admit to any liability under the deal or to pay a fine, but is expected to shell out about $100,000 all told, for trees and such.

A Texas firm’s legal troubles are mounting over what prosecutors call a ponzi scheme involving fracking sand. Now Caldwell-Baker Co. of Gardner, Kansas has joined a list of firms suing Bates Energy Oil & Gas. Caldwell-Baker claims Bates Energy owes them $640,000 for a canceled contract to lease 170 rail cars to transport fracking sand. Through their lawyer, the defendants have denied the allegations. The San Antonio Express News reports Bates Energy’s owner and CEO await trial next month on fraud charges for their involvement in a now-defunct frack-sand company. A federal judge has frozen nearly $4.9 million in an escrow fund as multiple parties squabble over who gets that money.

New sanctions against North Korea have been in place a little over a week, but Reuters is already reporting apparent violations. Ships leaving eastern-Russian ports filled with crude oil are returning to North Korea, despite declaring other destinations. U.S. officials allege that having ships change destinations mid-trip is a tactic often used by Pyongyang to undermine sanctions.

One hundred forty-bushel dryland corn in Norton County?

Impossible. Won’t ever happen. Can’t be done.

Any Kansas grain farmer will never say for sure what a crop will make until it’s been harvested, stored away and the figures finished. Still, on Sept. 15, three generations of the Van Patten family believe they have an opportunity to cut some 140-bushel-per-acre corn.

David Van Patten has farmed since the 1950s. He says in his 80-plus years in Norton County, he’s never seen such an ideal summer to grow corn, or any other crop in northwestern Kansas.

Twelve inches of rain during July and August helped produce this abundant crop. Temperatures in the 80s during this period cemented the deal.

“You know, it’s one of those so-called weather phenomenons,” the elder Van Patten says. “It may take another 85 or 100 years to grow such a crop. No one knows for sure but one thing’s for certain, we’ll enjoy this harvest.”

Tony Van Patten, David’s son, says this year’s corn crop was planted in milo stubble. This may have also benefited the growth of this fall’s crop.

“With this year’s rainfall coming like it did, the corn crop never stressed,” Tony says. “It’s still green throughout the field and it’s the middle of September. No rolled up leaves anywhere.”

A beautiful sight indeed – across thousands of acres in northwestern Kansas during the fall of 2017, the corn looks exceptional. Ears range from good-sized to big, farmers say. Most of the corn stalks sport double ears as well.

The Van Pattens figure they’ll start corn harvest in mid-October – weather willing. Soybean harvest has already started.

As for his family’s soybean crop, it looks good as well.

“I hope we’ll average 40-bushels-per-acre,” Tony says. “Some fields may make 50-bushel. Others may be closer to 30-bushel.”

Looking out across his fields of corn and beans, Tony waxes poetically.

“You take what’s given you in this country,” he says. “Some years what you receive is better than others.”

Like their neighbors and friends across Kansas, these farmers take risks that test their mettle. They face each harvest with the hope of a bountiful crop. They make their peace with the Almighty and keep that same peace with their fellow man.

Have a safe and abundant harvest.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

Saturday, September 23rd, Inman held its annual Santa Fe Days celebration in honor of the Santa Fe Trail which passed just a few miles outside of town on its way through Kansas, and played a major role in Inman’s history. This seems like an opportune time to retell another story that helped shape the history of Inman, Kansas; the legend of Sink Hole Sam.

Once upon a time near a town called Inman, in the land of Kansas, a legend was born; a legend that nearly 70 years ago would bring this sleepy little town notoriety for a season. The legend became that of Sink Hole Sam.

Prior to the 1920,s, a string of small freshwater lakes stretched across part of central Kansas, coming within a couple miles of the town of Inman. It’s widely known that back then people from all around the state came here to fish and hunt ducks in those lakes. Eventually the lakes were drained, leaving Lake Inman and a few low pockets of water that became known as “sinkholes.” Inman Lake remains as the largest natural lake in the state of Kansas.

The largest of the sinkholes became known locally as” the Big Sinkhole,” and here a legend was born in the form of a large serpent-like creature that became Sink Hole Sam. People speculated that Sam had been living in some prehistoric underground cavern that had somehow filled with water from the sinkhole, allowing him to finally venture forth. Or maybe Sam had lived there in some of the lakes all along, and now with them drained had nowhere else to go. Evidently no one got close enough to see if the creature should be named Sam or Samantha, but I’ll stay true to the legend and call it “Sam.”

Two unidentified Inman men fishing at the sinkhole first reported seeing Sam, and soon after, local “Inmanites” Albert Neufeld and George Regehr spotted him also. The story goes that Albert sought to save the town by taking pot shots at poor Sam from a nearby bridge (I suspect the bridge was not really all that nearby!) Of course descriptions of the beast varied according to the audience and to the time of day, but Sam ended up being a very large snake-like creature, about fifteen feet long and the diameter of an automobile tire.

Now everyone likes a good legend, and the discovery of Sam was no exception. The story spread like hot peanut butter! Newspapers caught wind of the tale, (no pun intended) and locals started getting calls from strangers all across the country .Today, some residents still recall seeing hundreds of cars parked around the big sinkhole hoping “Sammy” would make a curtain call.

In an attempt to quell speculation about their new prehistoric mascot, (here the legend takes a slight southern detour) some “great scientific minds” were brought on board in the persons of Ernest Dewey and his assistant Dr. Erasmus P. Quattlebaum. Earnest D. and the Dr. informed Inman that Sam was a “Foopengerkle,” one of a species thought to be the “extinctest” creatures ever to inhabit the Kansas Plains. This must be where he became Sam rather than Samantha, because Ernest D. and Dr. Q. maintained that no female “Foopengerkles” ever existed. Their final report urged caution, since Sam did not seem to realize he was extinct. Sam soon disappeared from sight, never to be seen or at least acknowledged publicly again.

Perhaps Sam still comes out at night to prowl the waters of the Big Sinkhole, frolicking and doing whatever else it is Foopengerkles do. Tromping through the wetlands there I’ve heard strange sounds I always figured were muskrats or beavers rummaging around through the cattails, but maybe it was really Sammy out for a stretch and a snack! Each time I’m there and I get that feeling that someone or something is watching me, I peer optimistically over my shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of the big lug. But now with the wetlands and the sinkholes nearly dry again, ole’ Sam has probably for sure retired to his cavern until he has water enough to swim once more.

Millions of dollars have been spent attempting to prove or disprove the existence of Bigfoot and The Loch Ness Monster, and as far as I know, all such attempts have failed at both. Sink Hole Sam put Inman on the map and in the news those many years ago, and no one has yet disproven his existence to me. Like I said, everyone likes a good legend; after all this is America, and stranger things have happened! …Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

By the time you read this, I should be in west-central China trying to sleep-off an 11-hour jet lag. This is trip number 19 to Asia, counting the entry stamps in 50 years of passports. During that time I have taught in schools in mainland China and Hong Kong, visited schools in Taiwan and worked with fellow teachers from Singapore, South Korea and Japan. No region of the world values education and respects teachers more than East Asia. Even if you are poor but educated, you are honored as a scholar.

We know this when we take our children to Asia and find they are several years behind grade level. And when East Asian families move to the United States, their children are often one or two grade levels advanced. While American-born populations are barely above 40 percent in college graduation, Asian-American students are already completing college degrees at 60 percent.

So the Lumina Foundation and educational leaders set the goal of 60 percent or more of the U.S. working population reaching or exceeding a tertiary education by 2025.

I taught in Hong Kong 1975-78 and my students from the affluent corporate and consular communities were high performing. But their study ethic was kicked a level higher by the one-third of Chinese students attending that international school. Since then, Hong Kong overbuilt their university capacity. About 15 years ago, Hong Kong found their college-going population to “top out” at below 60 percent of their high school graduates. And that included tertiary technical schools. So they opened up their empty university seats to mainland students who faced a shortage of higher education facilities.

Taiwan overbuilt university capacity 10 years ago and found empty seats when they approached the same 60 percent graduation level. Taiwan is now undergoing a dramatic downsizing and consolidating its universities.
South Korea has also rapidly grown its university capacity and sure enough, having overbuilt for 60 percent of their high school graduates, they are now desperately recruiting foreign students.

And just last year, Thailand found itself with more university seats than qualified students and is facing downsizing of its higher education campuses.

Singapore is an exception to this 60 percent wall. Singapore is well below zero population growth (ZPG). So it is actively recruiting the best students from surrounding countries and especially China. Singapore offers free tuition to incoming students who score high; but these students must then reside in Singapore after graduation for the same number of years they took free tuition. This pushes their level of college-degreed population to the highest in the world. But they are paying to import them from the surrounding regions, causing a brain drain on those other countries.

All of these Asian countries use high stakes tests for coursework and gatekeeping. They have no intention of diluting the academic value of their high school diplomas or their college degrees by lowering their performance standards or rigor of coursework.

But in the United States, in our panic to reach higher rates of college graduation, we are accepting high school dual-credit and other questionable coursework without test confirmation. We are letting a one-day test score replace a semester of coursework in “competency-based” learning in both the G.E.D and at Western Governor’s “University.” If the American public wants 60 percent of high school graduates to go on to college, our educational system is quite able to lower the bar and graduate anyone.

Our tuition-driven public colleges are moving toward accepting every student with a heartbeat and a credit card. Pressure to inflate grades and lower standards is evident from kindergarten to graduate school.
For several years now, international education conferences in Europe and Asia openly discuss whether the U.S. public university degree is losing value. Despite the ITT and Corinthian debacles, our online diploma mills are expanding. High school graduation rates keep going up while test scores fall.

The lesson from Asia is that about 40 percent of our youth have neither the ability nor desire to complete genuine college level work. Efforts to force our system to go beyond the 60 percent level simply water downs or destroys the value of a bona fide degree.

John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.

As I mulled writing about devil’s claw plants for this week’s column, my thoughts skittered across a dozen bunny trails. So, hang with me. Folks who grow up on the plains frequently repurpose seemingly unrelated items into functional uses.

Stephen Ambrose noted this ability in his book Band of Brothers. He praised the ingenuity of American farm boys who welded metal to fronts and undercarriages of tanks and other military vehicles, permitting them to plow open centuries-old hedgerows. Their problem-solving saved lives and permitted the U.S. front to advance across Europe. Though nowhere as dramatic as Ambrose’s story, I’ve watched friends and relatives turn what seems unusable into functional objects.

Consider those nasty stickers that thrive at the edges of corn and milo fields. Once they dry, they split into two wicked hooks that attack intruding humans and beasts. Like Norman hedgerows, this natural armament prevents hunters and farmers from getting where they want to go easily. When one embeds itself in the calf, ankle, or foot of you, your hunting dog, or livestock, it’s difficult to imagine them as anything but excruciating torture.

This did not hold true for Grandmother’s creative friend. Southwest Kansas has as many of these evil thorns as we have in Northwest Kansas, so this woman transformed them into art. She’d wander borders of fields carefully collecting them. Somehow, I never thought to ask how often they tore holes in her flesh. She’d dry them further and shake out their seeds so they didn’t expand territory before she turned them into magical creatures.

Following the summer molt, this artisan explored near the artesian well and other springs where a large flock of Meade Lake peacocks quenched their thirst. The noisy, pretty males dropped iridescent tail feathers. Instead of collecting them in a pretty container, Grandma’s friend recognized their potential for combining with her collection of devil’s claws to create tiny replicas of exotic birds.

Somehow, this craftsperson stabilized each massive thorn so it stood on its own. Then she trimmed blue, turquoise, and green feather eyes to fit inside the now dry claws. Satisfied with their fit, she glued each one in place. I know she spent time on this because they survived each of us grandkids’ close and frequent inspection. I’m guessing more than one adult handled them as well. When she finished, she had folk art renditions of courtly birds who dance prettily with fanned tails.

I looked forward to visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s each year for many reasons, but one was to see the new little peacocks lined up on Lottie’s shelf. Granddad had already introduced the grands to his favorite birds and entertained them with his imitation of the males’ obnoxious call. This combination made it easy to fall under such a beautiful creature’s spell.

The carefully crafted peafowl imitations in Gram’s house changed my perspective about thorns. A local artist’s imagination and skill increased my appreciation for beleaguered farm boys’ ability to adapt equipment and win WW 2. Funny how something as simple as creating folk whimsies out of what most consider trash connects dots across time. Head down the hole, bunny. Don’t come out until next week!

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

Friend,

I want to start off by offering my sincerest prayers and well wishes to those recovering from natural disasters in Mexico and Puerto Rico. I have been in communication with Congresswoman González-Colón from Puerto Rico, and it is clear that they have a long way to go. I encourage you to give what you can to causes that will help the victims, and to keep them in your prayers.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or know of ways my office can be of assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

In the House
Congressional Delegation to China

Several of my colleagues and I are in China this week for meetings on trade and national security.

The picture to the left was taken after our meeting with Zheng Zeguang, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs with a focus on North America. We discussed our long term shared goals for national security, and specifically focused on the threat posed by North Korea.

In addition to Zheng Zeguang, we met with the U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad and James Green of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. We discussed our new agreement to sell U.S. beef in China, DDG exports to China, ethanol and other ways to expand our trade partnership. As the former Governor of Iowa, Ambassador Branstad understands agriculture, and the economies of states like Kansas. He is, and will continue to be, a great advocate for our producers.

My colleagues and I also had the chance to meet with Secretary Liu Jiayi of the Shandong Province (shown right). Shandong is the home of Confucius, and the Secretary made a point to quote the philosopher on promoting peace.

The Secretary also spoke positively about the increased trade between our countries, and our efforts to expand those agreements even further.

Military academy nomination deadline approaching

My office will be accepting applications to attend the United States service academies through Friday, Oct. 6!

Individuals ages 17 to 22 residing in Kansas’ 1st Congressional district may apply. All applications can be submitted on my website.

For questions or more information, call 620-765-7800.

Kansas state fair visitors

Thanks to all those who visited with my staff and me at the Kansas State Fair! Hearing the comments, concerns and ideas from Kansans all over the state helps us serve you better. If you’d like to weigh in on the upcoming tax reform debate, CLICK HERE.

September is National Disaster Preparedness Month. It is also the month for the annual Prepare Kansas social media campaign from K-State Research and Extension.

In Kansas, we need to be prepared for disasters that often take us by surprise. Tornadoes, floods and wildfires can happen without warning.

But what if you had days of warning? What if the storm you were facing was bigger than your entire state? And what if it was headed directly toward you?

The need to be prepared for disaster became personal this month. My sister lives on the east coast of Florida, in the early-predicted path of Hurricane Irma. A series of text messages described her efforts to prepare for the coming disaster.

Wednesday, 9-6-17,10:18 a.m.: “This will be my line of hurricane communication. Hurricane Irma is looking pretty scary. I’m off work gathering important paperwork and saving things online. We have plenty of food and water and full tanks of gas. Hopefully this thing will miss us, but it is twice as wide as the entire state so we will surely get something. I’ll keep you posted.”

Wednesday, 3:55 p.m.: “The latest on the storm doesn’t look good for us. Our county has declared a state of emergency. I have all my important papers copied and in a file to bring with us if we have to leave– tax returns, mortgage info, car and home insurance, important numbers, account information, I.D. etc. I also made an emergency contact sheet with our doctors’ names and phone numbers, prescriptions, family contact info, etc. (If I can’t use my phone I won’t have access to all those numbers.) I spent the day copying it all, so the next hurricane I won’t have to do that again! I took pictures of all the rooms in the house before Hurricane Matthew last year! Lol!”

Friday, 9-8-17, 8:18 a.m.: “We are as prepared as we can be. We are hunkering down and praying for the best. The roads are clogged going north and there is no gas, so it is just as well. More later.”

The rain started in my sister’s area on Saturday, with howling wind and as many as 9 tornado warnings by Sunday. The power went off on Sunday night (and was ultimately off for 5 days), but on Monday morning came the message we were waiting to hear– “Made it! All is good. Still no power but no major damage.”

If a killer storm was headed your way, how would you prepare? My sister protected her property as much as possible, then gathered the documents she would need to recover if it was all destroyed. Prepare Kansas calls this a financial grab-and-go kit.

Why is this important? If you have your most important documents and information at hand in a grab-and-go kit, it can help to get you back on firm financial footing more quickly.

According to the Prepare Kansas campaign, your kit should be a waterproof, fireproof container that can be taken with you at a moment’s notice. Be sure to keep it in a secure place in your home.

What should be included in the kit? At a minimum you’ll want to have some cash and the financial information and personal identification needed to conduct your day-to-day financial life.

Other information to include in a grab-and-go kit:

•Personal information such as copies of driver’s licenses, passport, and social security cards and key documents that may be needed to restore your financial records.
•Account information such as financial account numbers; copies of ATM, debit, and credit cards; insurance cards, policies, or other proof of insurance coverage; and contact information for all financial and insurance providers.
•Household inventory.
•Safe deposit key.
•Important medical information, including prescriptions for medications and glasses, and children’s immunization records.
•Contact information for family members, doctors and other important service providers.

So, take a lesson from my sister in Florida . Don’t wait until a hurricane (or a Kansas tornado) is bearing down on you. Get prepared before disaster. Follow the Prepare Kansas pointers and challenges this month on the K-State Research and Extension Facebook page, read more at the Prepare Kansas blog (https://blogs.k-state.edu/preparekansas/) and download the disaster preparedness fact sheet from the K-State Research and Extension bookstore at https://www.bookstore.ksre.k-state.edu/pubs/MF3055.pdf.

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

According to the fourth USD 489 mailer promoting the school board’s $154 million tax increase, the economic impact to the Hays community generated by the proposed building projects is estimated at $189 million. From a common sense perspective, it’s hard to imagine how increasing taxes by $154 million can generate $189 million of positive economic impact, particularly since no new jobs are going to be created and local property owners will have $154 million less to spend in the local economy.

In fact, research demonstrates that the economic impact will actually be negative on the Hays community — to the tune of $462 million.

In Hoisington Management Quarterly Review Outlook, 3Q 2016 and 2Q 2009 written by Dr. Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington which appeared in John Mauldin’s “Outside the Box” newsletter dated October 26, 2016, and July 13, 2009, respectively, Hunt and Hoisington wrote the following about government spending and tax multipliers:

“Textbooks have historically hypothesized that government expenditures lift economic growth by some multiple of every dollar spent through a positive government expenditure multiplier. … Impressive scholarly research has demonstrated that the government spending multiplier is in fact negative, meaning that a dollar of deficit spending slows economic output. The fundamental rationale is that the government has to withdraw funds, via taxes or borrowing, from the private sector, to spend their dollars. When that happens, the more productive private sector of the economy has fewer funds to use to make productive investments. Thus the economy slows along with productivity when government spending increases.

“Multipliers take into consideration the second, third, fourth, etc. round effects from an initial change. Thus, multipliers capture the unintended consequences of policy actions. Although the initial spending objectives may be well intended, the ultimate outcome becomes convoluted. Over the past several years, multipliers have been intensively examined by leading economic scholars.”

Dr. Robert Barro of Harvard University and Dr. Robert Perotti of Universitá Bocconi and the Center for Capital Economic Policy Research calculate that “each $1 increase in government spending reduces private spending by about $1, with no net benefit to GDP. All that is left is a higher level of government debt creating slower economic growth.”

“The most extensive research on tax multipliers is found in a paper written at the University of California Berkeley entitled The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a new Measure of Fiscal Shocks, by Dr. Christina D. Romer, former chair of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, and Dr. David H. Romer (March 2007). This study found that the tax multiplier is 3, meaning that each dollar rise in taxes will reduce private spending by $3.”

When the voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 7, they should be able to make their decision on the school bond based on accurate information. USD 489 has failed the voter.

Henry Schwaller IV, Hays

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

Fort Union, New Mexico. At this historic fort, a group of African-Americans are re-enacting the role of the historic U.S. Cavalrymen known as buffalo soldiers. One of their leaders is a man from rural Kansas.

Jay Clark is founder and organizer of the Wichita Buffalo Soldiers. The name “buffalo soldier” came from the native American Indians in the 1860s, because the strength, courage and curly hair of the African-Americans reminded them of the Great Plains buffalo.

One of Jay Clark’s ancestors was a buffalo soldier. Jay’s father served in the military as well. Jay grew up at Nicodemus, which had been originally settled as an all-black colony in northwest Kansas in 1877. Nicodemus is located near Bogue, a rural community of 143 people. Now, that’s rural.

Jay went to Hill City High School and then to Kansas Wesleyan. He played cornerback and tailback in football, set records in track, and was inducted into the Kansas Wesleyan Hall of Fame.

Jay graduated with degrees in accounting and business. He worked in Salina for two years and then moved to Wichita in 1988, where he has worked in sales and operated his own financial services business for a time. Jay got married and now has six children.

In 2004, Jay was in Lyons visiting his brother who rode with a group of buffalo soldier re-enactors from their home in Nicodemus. “Me and this one horse became friends,” Jay said, so he decided to ride with the buffalo soldiers also. The buffalo soldiers unit participated in various activities such as riding in parades and attending events.

One year these buffalo soldiers did a campout at Abilene. Jay really enjoyed sharing the true stories of the buffalo soldiers with the public.

“I fell in love with the educational part of it,” Jay said. In 2013, he established the Wichita Buffalo Soldiers. This unit also rides horses, but concentrates on historically correct encampments which are used to educate the public about buffalo soldiers. They participate in an annual encampment at Haysville and have attended events in Lyons, Ellsworth, Hays, Fort Larned, Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop in Olathe, and the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan. They have even gone to Fort Union in New Mexico. Jay’s son now participates in re-enactments, and Jay hopes he will carry on this work.

These buffalo soldiers represent the U.S. 10th Cavalry, Company A, as they would have appeared in the post-Civil War era. They wear authentic woollen uniforms and use genuine McLellan saddles and tack.

“The buffalo soldier units were commanded by white officers,” Jay said. In the modern-day group, a gentleman from Great Bend fulfills that role as Captain. Jay is in the role of First Sargent. The encampments include a large Captain’s tent, small shelters for the enlisted men where they slept head-to-toe, a laundry tent for the laundress (portrayed by Jay’s sister), an iron cooking pit for the cook, saddle racks, and a picket line to tie up the horses.

“Everybody has a story to tell,” Jay said. He wants the person in each role to know the historical facts about the job they had to do and be able to share that with visitors from the public.

“There’s so much to share,” Jay said. “At an encampment, people can come back three to four times during the day and learn something new each time.” In addition to the history, Jay tries to share life lessons with kids. “We need three things: Perseverance, so we can keep going in the face of adversity; purpose, so we don’t just drift aimlessly; and God in your life,” he said. “What’s important is not the color of their skin or their nationality, but what’s in the heart.”

Buffalo soldiers have fought in every American war since the units were formed. “The buffalo soldiers won the most Congressional medals of honor of any cavalry unit in history,” Jay said.

It’s time to leave Fort Union, New Mexico where buffalo soldiers from Kansas are sharing their story. We salute Jay Clark and all those who are making a difference by helping this history stay alive.

Who was Phill Kline? And what does his landslide defeat in 2006 mean for the governor’s race in 2018?

Anti-abortion zealot Phill Kline was elected attorney general in 2002 and then deployed his office in conducting highly publicized, wide-ranging inquisitions involving abortion.

Kline threatened healthcare professionals with prosecution for failing to report suspicions of under-age sexual abuse. He pursued court orders forcing state agencies to release private data on sexual abuse and the termination of pregnancies. And he sought search warrants for women’s medical records. In his fanatic pursuits Kline circumvented court orders, submitted false statements to courts, and abused the administration of justice.

Most all of Kline’s wild charges were dismissed or blocked in court, and later the Kansas Supreme Court suspended Kline’s law license for “his lengthy and substantial pattern of misconduct.”

Kansas voters tossed Kline from office when he sought reelection in 2006, giving him the lowest vote total for a Republican candidate for attorney general in over four decades. His Democratic opponent won that race by 140,000 votes.

Does Kline’s grandstanding with unsubstantiated charges, court infractions, and zealotry in the conduct of state office remind us of anyone?

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, currently a front-runner in seeking the 2018 Republican nomination for governor, has commandeered his office to mount a well-publicized, obsessive crusade, in Kansas and across the nation, to find and prosecute voter fraud.

Kobach claims that illegal voters number in the thousands or even millions nationally, but he has successfully prosecuted only a handful of cases in Kansas, mostly U.S. citizens convicted of voting in two states. His first prosecution of a non-citizen occurred last April. That contrasts with more that 1.2 million Kansans who voted last November.

Kobach has championed proof-of-citizenship laws to stop non-citizens from voting, but those laws have been challenged on grounds of disenfranchising voters and are now stalled in federal courts. In 2013 Kobach ordered local election officials to institute a convoluted two-tier voting structure designed to prevent voters registered on federal forms from voting in state and local elections. That placed thousands of potential voters in suspension. In 2016 a federal judge blocked Kobach’s orders and ruled that 18,000 of those in suspension be registered. In another challenge his two-tier plan was permanently halted.

Kobach has taken his voter fraud campaign national by signing on as vice-chair of President Trump’s “Election Integrity Commission” and as a columnist with Breibart, an ultra-right media outlet. In his first Breibart column he claimed without evidence that illegal voters had stolen a U.S senate race in New Hampshire.

Kobach’s litigious tactics have also run afoul of the courts. He has been reprimanded and penalized for deception in defending the proof-of-citizenship law. A federal magistrate judge fined Kobach $1,000 for deceptive conduct and “patently misleading representations.” Kobach appealed only to have another federal judge uphold the fine based on Kobach’s pattern of misleading statements to the court. More recently a third federal judge scolded Trump’s voter fraud commission, which Kobach continues to head, for failing to provide public access to agenda materials.

In 2006 Kansas voters rejected the reckless zealotry of Phill Kline and his conduct in public office. In 2018 they will have to determine whether Kobach’s fanatical quest to prove illusive voter fraud disqualifies him for elevation to higher office.

H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.