Friend,

We’ve had a busy week back at the Capitol. Before we recap some of what we’ve been up to this week, I wanted to make sure you’ve seen that I will be embarking on another listening tour in May ! This will make 25 listening tour stops this year, not including some of the other public events we’ve done around the district.

As always, please never hesitate to contact my office for any questions, comments, concerns or ways we can be helpful to you.

May Listening Tour schedule

Salina
Tuesday, May 9, 7:30 am – Salina Chamber of Commerce Annex, 120 W. Ash

Belleville
Tuesday, May 9, 5:30 p.m. – Belleville City Hall, council meeting room, 1819 L St.

Washington
Wednesday, May 10, 8 a.m. – Washington County Hospital, 304 E. 3rd St.

Marysville
Wednesday, May 10, 12 p.m. – Landoll Lanes, 2005 Center St.

Wamego
Wednesday, May 10, 5:30 p.m. – Iron Clad, 427 Lincoln Ave.

LaCrosse
Saturday, May 13, 9 a.m. – Kansas Barbed Wire Museum, Conference Center, 120 1st St.

In the House

Western Kansas Chambers of Commerce
The Western Kansas Chambers of Commerce visited Washington this week to discuss a wide range of federal issues that impact their communities. Dodge City (shown right), Liberal, Great Bend and Garden City were all in attendance. It was great to see many familiar faces, and meet some new friends in this group of impressive community leaders from around our district!

Eisenhower Leadership Series
Some of the women of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series stopped by my office this week (shown left). For those that don’t know, each year this Series sponsors one class of outstanding Republican women from across Kansas, including some from the Big 1st!

 

 

 

Building Cuban Relations
On Thursday, I hosted José Ramón Cabañas, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba

to the United States in my office. We discussed the mutual benefits of opening up trade between our two nations. Additionally, we discussed the potential in bringing Cuban doctors and nurses to areas like rural Kansas, where there is a shortage of medical professionals. The opportunities between our two nations are untapped and represent a potential win-win situation. I am excited to continue these conversations with my colleagues in the House, as well as folks in Cuban leadership.

Washington D.C. Office
312 Cannon HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Tel: (202)225-2715

Salina Office
200 E Iron Ave
Salina, KS 67401
Tel: (785)829-9000

Garden City Office
816 Campus Dr., Suite 500
Garden City, KS 67846
Tel: (785)829-9000

Though advice about growing tomatoes might seem a stretch to be considered subject matter for an outdoor column, every outdoorsman I know grows a few tomato plants each year, even if they have to sneak them in with the snapdragons or hide them amongst the hibiscus. After all, nothing goes better with a freshly grilled venison burger than a juicy slice of fresh tomato. Though my thumb is only mildly green, I have become pretty successful at growing dandy tomatoes, so here are a few tips I find to work well for me each year.

Tomatoes today come in literally dozens of varieties, sizes and shapes. I find it prudent to know a little about the varieties I choose and what they are best used for, and I like to get plants that are resistant to most common tomato ailments. Tomato plants come in 2 different types, determinate and indeterminate. Determinate plants are bred to grow only about 3 feet tall, to set and ripen their fruit and then they are basically done. Indeterminate plants will keep growing and producing fruit the entire season, (so they’ll need to be well staked and supported) and as long as they are kept alive and healthy through the hot summer, they will begin setting and ripening fruit again when temperatures cool off. So if you want to take advantage of cooler fall weather to keep the tomatoes coming like last year, you’ll need indeterminate plants.

Tomato plants will not set fruit from their blossoms when daytime temperatures exceed 90 degrees and nighttime temps exceed 75 to 80, so I plant early to get a start on production before the hot summer arrives like we know it will. I usually plant in early to mid April and surround my plants with structures called Walls of Water. They are round flexible plastic tubes with numerous small compartments that you fill with water. When erected, they form a pyramid about 18’’ tall around and over the plant, open at the top and the water absorbs heat and sunlight to basically create a tiny greenhouse for each plant. Simply remove them when temperatures stabilize. This year I’m also trying 3 varieties, Florida 91, Phoenix and Fourth of July that are bred to be heat lovers and to set fruit in higher summer temperatures.

When actually setting my plants in the ground, I go a little above-and-beyond also. I dig a hole about the width and depth of a one gallon milk jug. In the hole I put a shovel full of good composted manure. Then I add one-quarter cup of Epson salts, which is actually magnesium-sulfate that helps combat blossom end rot on the fruit by adding magnesium, and adds sulfur to help grow good sturdy healthy plants. Add in a small amount of the dirt dug from the hole and mix it up a little with your hands. Set the plant in the hole at least 6 inches deep, pruning off bottom branches if necessary to allow that. This gets the roots down deep immediately to begin feeding and helps the plant develop deep roots sooner to make for a sturdy plant. Water with Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer or sprinkle a little of the dry crystals in the hole with the Epson salt. An overabundance of nitrogen will cause the plant to grow like gangbusters, but tomato fertilizer is low in nitrogen and high in Phosphate and Potash which the plant needs to produce blossoms and to set fruit. As the season progresses, if your vines are growing well but have few blossoms, feed them with fertilizer high in both Phosphate and Potash. If the vines don’t seem to be growing, feed them a little nitrogen.

I like to water each individual tomato plant at its base which puts the water immediately where it needs to be rather than all over the garden or all over the plants foliage. To help accomplish this, I get empty one gallon cans from the local nursing home kitchen, cut the bottoms from them and place them around each plant, pushing them a couple inches into the ground. To water, simply put a couple inches of water into each can once a week. I also try to cover the bare ground between plants with either black weed barrier or with black plastic garbage bags, weighted down with small pieces of brick or with flower pots. This is a good place to put pieces of broken pots turned upside-down to create what my wife calls “Toad Abodes,” hiding spots for toads during the heat of the day. It doesn’t get much better than to have natures best bug collectors living right there amongst the plants; sort of like the fox living in the henhouse.

Well there you have a few tips I use to grow tomatoes each year. We eat some fresh during the season, but most of our tomatoes are frozen as we get them and used to make homemade tomato soup from a recipe my mom used. There is absolutely nothing like a hot bowl of homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold evening. I imagine lots of you readers also have “tomato tips” you have developed over the years, and if you’d like to share them, send them to me and if I get enough I’ll make an entire column out of them. Yet another way to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“It’s the best thing we ever got.” That’s the type of customer feedback that every company would like to hear. It’s typical of the kind of comment received by Arden and Sally Vernon of EZE-Latch. For anyone who tries to hook up a gooseneck trailer to a truck, this ingenious product from rural Kansas can be a big help.

Arden and Sally Vernon are the owners and founders of EZE-Latch. They both come from rural Kansas. Sally grew up near Turon in western Reno County. Arden grew up near Admire in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas.

“I rode horses to school in the first through third grade,” Arden said. He went on to study animal sciences at K-State, where he met Sally who was studying elementary education. The two got married and began a life together.

Sally became a teacher and taught in various places. Arden joined the U.S. Air Force.

“We joined the Air Force to see the world, and we got as far as Enid, Oklahoma,” Sally said with a smile. After his military service, they moved back to her home area near Turon where she became a teacher. Arden worked with cattle feeders, went into banking, and raised cattle and horses of his own. He bred and sold beautiful Paint horses.

One day he was riding a horse in a pen when the horse crashed into a pipe fence and crushed Arden’s knee. He recovered but he found that one of the tasks which became more difficult was hitching up the gooseneck trailer to his truck.

A gooseneck trailer gets its name from the long narrow extension on the front of the trailer. It contains a coupler which connects to a ball hitch in the bed of a truck for pulling. The challenge is getting the hitch connected. A person backs the truck under the trailer’s coupler, but getting the coupler latched is not easy. It usually requires a person to reach over the side of the truck bed if they can, or to climb into the bed from the tailgate.

This is awkward and inconvenient, and sometimes leads to a person hitting their head or messing up their jeans climbing in or out. After Arden was injured, it became even more difficult.

“My husband is the kind of guy who, when he sees a problem, he can find a way to make it work,” Sally said. Arden invented a device that uses a lever and cable which enabled him to conveniently hitch and unhitch the trailer without leaving the ground. It worked great. In fact, it worked so well that the neighbors wanted one also. As demand for the product grew, it became a business.

Arden named the product EZE-Latch. The latching device also comes with a small mallet which a person can use to tap the pin in or out of position. Arden also invented the EZE-Loc, which disables the trailer’s hand crank jack and thus protects the trailer. EZE-Latch is also a distributor for a portable, wireless backing camera called Swift Hitch. In their retirement, he and Sally now take the EZE-Latch to farm and ranch shows around the Midwest to sell the product.

The EZE-Latch has literally been sold from California to Florida and as far away as Hawaii and Canada. This is an impressive record for a business in a rural community like Turon, population 432 people. Now, that’s rural.

The design is simple yet helpful. “No batteries are required and you don’t have to download an app for it,” Sally said with a smile. It saves a person from clambering in or out of the truck bed and banging one’s head or knees. When Sally and Arden go to farm shows, people will often express to them how helpful this product has been for them.

For more information, go to www.eze-latch.com.

“It’s the best thing we ever got.” That’s a wonderful testimonial from any customer, and it’s a common comment about the EZE-Latch. We commend Arden and Sally Vernon for making a difference with this innovation. It’s great to have something that makes hitching up a trailer EZE.

Senator Wagle of Wichita serves as president of the state senate, first elected to that post in 2012 and reelected last December. She has served in the legislature for over one-quarter of a century, elected to the house in 1990, before moving to the senate in 2000.

For most of her legislative career Wagle has been aligned with the radical right faction of Kansas Republicans. In 2006, she served as national chair of American Legislative Exchange Council—a group dominated by corporate interests and dedicated to cutting income taxes to promote growth. She has been consistently endorsed by the Kansas State Chamber, which champions the elimination of state income taxes in Kansas.

Wagle has voted on numerous occasions for measures designed to save Brownback’s tax experiment. By supporting a five-year string of unbalanced budgets that has sunk the state in red ink. By increasing sales taxes in 2013 and again in 2015. And by authorizing record breaking highway and pension debt in 2015.

However, once Kansas voters became aware of this financial disaster, Wagle’s tune began to change. Instead of marching arm in arm with Brownback and her ideological patrons she started calling for “tax fairness” and rectifying inequities that flowed from the governor’s tax experiment.

Wagle showed newfound independence by distancing herself from the unpopular governor and blaming him personally for the mismanagement of state finance. She stopped criticizing state court decisions on school finance. After the August primary election she persuaded centrist Republicans who had trounced her former far-right allies that she would lead the senate in securing fairer taxes and balancing the budget.

Wagle followed through on that commitment early in the current legislative session by moving a tax bill quickly to the senate floor. Once there, however, she voted against the bill which passed by a good margin. A few days later she opposed the attempt to override Brownback’s veto of the bill, which fell short by three votes. She then pushed a “flat tax” bill that garnered only two votes beyond her own.

Susan Wagle is better positioned than any other state lawmaker, including the governor, to steer her colleagues in resolving the thorny issues of taxes and school finance and bring this legislative session to a successful conclusion. She does face daunting political obstacles—a reluctant governor clinging to his legacy and her own caucus split down the middle between centrists and far-right ideologues.

At the same time her course forward has become increasingly clear. A tax bill that passed with large legislative majorities in both chambers provides the logical vehicle for advancing tax fairness and balancing the budget. Wagle’s own vote plus those of her majority leader and tax chair could provide the margin needed to override the governor’s veto and restore sustainable state finance.

A bill patterned after the school finance legislation of 1992 and adjusted to address the recent court order is expected to emerge shortly from a house committee. That bill will be headed to the senate soon and will most likely require override votes to be enacted into law. Those votes can only be found in the bipartisan alignment on the tax bill.

Wagle has a unique opportunity to lead lawmakers in addressing the state’s financial dilemmas. Kansans will soon learn whether she will act in their best interests and demonstrate her fitness for higher office. Or will she revert to her ideological past for short-term political advantage?

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

Click to play the audio or read below.

When I get to thinking about it, it seems like our little family of four ate a lot of potatoes during those dusty days of the 30s.  I suppose that’s because we DID eat a lot of potatoes back when I was just an ugly little kid in overalls and long socks that sometimes required garters to hold ’em up.  I bring up the subject of potatoes today because out here in Northwest Kansas, we’re only 5 or 6 weeks away from planting those little seed pieces.  But first, we had to order the seed, as well as figure out a place to plant them.

And we didn’t plant just a few short rows in the garden. No sireeBob! We planted about a half acre of them, or however much space it might take to use up a 100 pound bag of seed potatoes that went in the ground just about every spring.  And I can remember 5 or 6 gunny sacks full resting comfortably in the root cellar after harvest in the fall.  Hardly anybody has the storage space today that a root cellar provided.  But then, hardly anybody plants a half acre of spuds these days anyway and you don’t need much space to store a crop from a 15 foot row.


About now, if weather permitted, Dad would hook up the two-row lister to the 10-20 International tractor and list up maybe 30 or 40 rows, maybe 100 feet long. Or however much space it would take to accommodate 100 pounds of seed pieces. At planting time about the 20th of March in Southwest Kansas, Dad would repeat the process, but would make rows where the ridges had been before. Those old lister shears made a nice seedbed.

I think it took longer to cut up the spuds into viable seed pieces than it took to plant them, being very careful to be sure there were two eyes in each seed piece.  That job would be a nighttime family project after supper while listening to the radio.

We planted Irish Cobblers, a white potato, as our main crop, and also some Early Ohio red potatoes because they were better keepers.
 So, the rows were freshly plowed out there and we began to plant. A seed piece was placed in the row, cut side down, at about 12 inch intervals. Then, with a rake, we pulled the 
soil down from the ridges to cover the seed pieces to a depth of 5 or 6 inches. When the potato begins it’s growth, the new potatoes form above the seed piece so it’s important to plant them fairly deep.


You know, I don’t remember watering the growing plants very often, if at all. We always applied a thick covering of wheat straw mulch between the rows which assured us that every little rain shower would provide needed moisture to the crop.  Without the mulch, the soil dried up quickly.

The biggest problem in the potato patch was the same one we have today. that would
be the nasty Colorado Potato Beetle. There were no sprays or dusts in those days to solve the problem, so brother Max and I were appointed to get rid of those hordes of beetles. We were armed with a stick and a half a can of coal oil (kerosene) and spent many sweltering days flicking those stinking bugs into their final resting place. Today, all you have to do is lightly dust the plants with 5% Sevin D, and you’re home free!


At harvest time, out came the lister again and Dad guided it down the rows and turned up those beautiful potatoes.  All winter long, almost everyday, we would be treated to potatoes that were mashed, fried, baked, boiled, creamed or augratined. It was just another way to whip the dust, heat and drought of the times.

Kay Melia is a longtime broadcaster, author and garden in northwest Kansas.

The best news that Kansas lawmakers got from the iconic Consensus Revenue Estimate last week is that state revenues for the upcoming two fiscal years aren’t going to drop, but instead increase just enough that the state’s fiscal problems don’t get worse.

So, essentially, not getting worse is a good thing when it comes to the state budget.

The Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE) predicts that the state is going to receive in taxes $42 million more in the upcoming fiscal year and $51 million in the following year. There is considerable money shuffling and internal borrowing, but those small-change boosts that sound like the early weeks of a new Powerball contest should be compared to a total State General Fund budget of around $6 billion dollars.

The incremental boost? Well, $42 million wouldn’t be much of a tip on a $6 billion bar tab, would it?

The best thing that the CRE brought Kansas lawmakers—who return to Topeka May 1 to finish up writing a budget and figuring out how to pay for it—is that virtually nothing has changed since they left town for a three-week vacation.

Oh, and don’t forget that while there’s predicted to be a little more cash dripping into the state treasury, lawmakers are looking at maybe $150 million a year in additional funding for K-12 education next year and likely $150 million a year increases in spending for the four following years.

Nothing got perceptibly better when you look at it from a distance, and so far, the Legislature hasn’t passed a tax bill that will add even a dime to the State General Fund.

So, we have the final numbers, or at least the latest final numbers, and what does it look like for the state of Kansas and the Legislature and you folks who elected all of them?

Remember Gov. Sam Brownback’s now largely forgotten budget offering, with its big spending cuts and no new taxes—except for you smokers and drinkers? Suddenly, that proposal which was roundly rejected by the House and Senate pencils out like a worker for the next two years except for that school finance component that is relatively small change from a $6 billion State General Fund. But, it appears that it is virtually off the table for largely political reasons, including preserving the four-year-old Kansas income tax exemption for non-wage income of LLCs.

Which brings Kansans to tax increases—netting that LLC money and increases in income tax. The flat rate proposal which purportedly had the quiet support of the governor didn’t go anywhere before Spring Break, and it reportedly hasn’t picked up much steam during the break.

So, it looks like that tax increase bill that came within three Senate votes of passage by overriding the governor’s veto has picked up a little support, and might well be the focus of the wrapup session. It actually picks up a little steam because of those puny revenue increases predicted by the CRE which can be used to offer some little breaks—maybe a percent off the sales tax on groceries.

It’s not hard to gin up a twin bill to the three-bracket measure that was vetoed so lawmakers can at least pass it under standard 63 House votes, 21 Senate votes basics, and then when it is undoubtedly vetoed again, find the three Senate votes for the override.

Ever think we’d elect a Legislature where two or three votes to support a veto by the governor essentially set the policy and the future of the state?

Maybe there ought to have been an asterisk next to their names on the ballot last November…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

As spring rolls around and field work picks up, so does the potential for farm accidents. Tractor overturns remain the leading cause of death for farmers, ranchers and workers.

Approximately 19 percent come from machinery and about 36 percent involve tractors. Another 5 percent of farm and ranch accidents are livestock related.

Stress has always been a major factor in farm and ranch accidents. This culprit shows up when farmers and ranchers try to do too much in too short a time.

If possible, farmers and ranchers should try to find additional help during their busy times. They should also take time to relax some during long days.

Head injuries are a common occurrence on the farm and tend to be serious. When doing work that might involve possible head injury, trade your familiar baseball cap or straw hat for a hard hat.

When spraying herbicides and insecticides overhead, wear a wide-brimmed hat that will not allow liquids to seep through. Make sure the brim is wide enough to keep chemical spray from drifting down over the back of the neck or face.

Eyes have been labeled the “windows to the soul,” but just like all windows they can break if something is hurled, splashed or sprayed into them.

Safety goggles and sunglasses should be just as much a part of your daily garb as a good pair of steel-toed shoes. Sunglasses are important because they lessen eye fatigue after long hours in the bright spring and summer sun.

While people often consider the farm a place of quiet tranquility, many farmers experience hearing loss.
As a rule of thumb, farmers should reach for ear protection whenever the noise level reaches 85 decibels. Farmers don’t carry testing equipment to measure decibel level, so they should wear protection when in doubt about the noise level.

Earmuffs are better than earplugs because the latter can cause compaction of earwax that is difficult to remove.
If you plan to stay in the sun most of the day, wear long-sleeved cotton clothing. Natural fibers allow the skin to breathe and offer protection from the sun’s harmful rays.
Loose-fitting clothes remain a health hazard. Avoid wearing sweats with long drawstrings that hang from the waist or around the neck.

These strings are made of extremely strong nylon or other artificial fibers. Such fibers don’t rip or tear as easily as clothing like cotton. It’s easy for dangling drawstrings to catch in augers or other moving parts.
Shoes and boots can provide foot protection and traction. Make certain your shoes are clean of mud and manure that can cause slipping and falls.

Proper fit is important for both day-long comfort and stability. When spraying chemicals, wear waterproof footwear that won’t absorb chemicals.

Rings hang up on bolts, sharp corners – just about anything you find around the farmstead. Always remove them and other loose-fitting jewelry. Failure to do so can result in injury to fingers or other limbs.

Without a doubt, safely dressed farmers and ranchers seldom make the fashion pages of GQ or even the local paper, but you won’t find them on the “obit” pages either.

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

Approximately 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside America’s borders. Markets in the United States will continue to evolve to meet domestic consumer demand, but the vast majority of the future growth in food and agriculture markets will be made through exports. And the best way to boost prices for American producers now and in the future is to export more of our agriculture products to these foreign markets.

Our country has begun to reevaluate its trade commitments and how we can put Americans first. For Kansas’ economy, America first means selling what we produce here around the globe. Keeping and creating jobs domestically is critical; but in agriculture, where American producers already have the advantage, protectionist trade policies make little economic sense.

Our farmers and ranchers produce the safest, highest-quality products in the world. Despite this advantage, we are in the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in farm country since the Great Depression with farm income down nearly 50 percent since 2013 and expected to continue its decline.

The 2016 harvest in Kansas and across much of the country produced record-breaking yields, but unfortunately, there are still large piles of wheat, corn and other grains sitting on the ground next to grain bins filled to capacity. Kansas farmers need more markets to sell the excess supply of food and fiber they produce. Meanwhile, only 90 miles from our shore, Cuba and its 11 million people offer a significant opportunity for increased exports. As in years past, I am again championing legislation that would lift our nation’s Cuba trade embargo so we can improve the outlook for American farmers and ranchers.

Cuba imports the vast majority of its food. In fact, wheat is Cuba’s second largest import, second only to oil. And when we don’t sell to Cuba, another country does. While our unilateral trade barriers block our own farmers and ranchers from filling this market, willing sellers such as Canada, France and China benefit at American farmers’ expense.

It costs about $6 to $7 per ton to ship grain to Cuba from the United States. It costs about $20 to $25 per ton of grain to ship from the European Union. However, this competitive advantage that our farmers ought to have when selling to Cuba is eliminated by regulations related to the embargo that drive up the cost of dealing with the United States.

To understand what we are missing out on, consider our current trade relationship with the Dominican Republic, another nearby Caribbean nation with a comparable population, income level and diet. Between 2013 to 2015, the Dominican Republic imported an average of $1.3 billion in U.S. farm products. During the same time, Cuba imported just $262 million. That difference represents a billion dollars of exports that U.S. farmers are missing out on because of our trade restrictions on Cuba. There is a clear and substantial potential for increased exports if we lift the trade embargo.

My bill, the Cuba Trade Act, would amend our country’s laws so American farmers can operate on a level playing field with the rest of the world. I often say: In Kansas, we will try anything once – sometimes twice or even three times. However, when we have been trying something for more than five decades and it has yet to work, it is time to change direction.

The Cuban embargo was well intentioned when it was enacted. Today, however, it only serves to hurt our own national interests by restricting American freedoms to travel and to conduct profitable business. If we’re truly committed to putting America first, lifting the embargo is the strategic choice. I encourage my colleagues to recognize the need for this change, and to join me in my effort to open the Cuban market for the good of the American people.

A version of this op-ed previously ran in Cuba Trade Magazine on April 9, 2017.

Over the years I’ve had many encounters with those jaunty little stilt-legged birds known as Killdeers. As a midwestern farm kid I can’t count the number of times the little beggars ran ahead of the tractor in the middle of a field full of absolutely nothing but bare soil, never once hesitating to take on the big green behemoth invading their space. And that broken wings thing they do to lead you away from their nest; seriously?

Occasionally I’d stop to chase one around and the minute I’d start to gain on it those wings that looked broken to the point of dragging uselessly in the dirt would miraculously heal and those tiny stick legs would propel it well out of reach again. I suppose Killdeer are named partly for the loud “KILL DEE” call they use, especially after they’ve fooled you again with the broken wing thing.

As kids we would spend some time each fall on Kelley’s Island in Lake Erie catching yellow perch. One popular spot to fish was from the dock where the big ferry tied-up when it arrived each time from the mainland. The dock included a large concrete area where passengers and vehicles unloaded from the ferry, and when the ferry was not in, we’d sit on the dock with our feet dangling over the water and the big concrete pad behind us. Several Killdeers were always hanging out there, I guess looking for handouts from departing passengers who thought they were so adorable they’d toss them bread and other snacks.

The concrete contained several potholes that filled with water that splashed into them when the ferry arrived and left. Minnows were the preferred bait for yellow perch, and I remember that we would put a few minnows into the nearest pothole, trying to lure the Killdeers close. They’d stay just out of reach until the second we’d turn our back, then from the corner of my eye I’d see them scamper in, skewer a minnow or two from the puddle then retreat just out of reach again to swallow their catch.

Killdeer are members of the plover family which includes several other cousins that also look a lot like Killdeers. I learned that baby birds are divided into two distinct groups. Birds that hatch blind, naked and helpless are known as altricial, (Greek for “wet nurse.”) This group includes robins, blue jays and most other backyard birds whose hatchlings lie helplessly in their nest utterly relying on the parents to bring them food and push it down their throats. It’s two weeks or more before altricial hatchlings mature enough to leave the nest, and even then they rely completely on the parents for food. The other group is known as precocial, (Latin for “ripened beforehand,”) and includes ducks, geese, pheasants, quail and killdeer.

These hatchlings remain in the nest only long enough for their feathers to dry, then they are already out following their parents about, learning the ropes of life. Precocial birds remain in the egg twice as long as altricial birds to give them more time to develop. So for example, a one day old killdeer chick is actually two weeks older than a one day old robin hatchling. And along with this, Killdeer eggs are twice as big as robin eggs to allow for more nourishment to be built into the egg to sustain the chick for its longer time “behind the shell” (yet another “God Thing” found in nature.) Killdeers almost always lay four eggs but none of the eggs start to develop until the last egg is laid and the parent begins to sit on the nest. When the embryos feel the warmth of the adult Killdeer on the nest, they all start to develop at the same time, meaning that even though three of the eggs are older than the last one laid, all chicks will still be the same age when hatched.

The thing about Killdeers that has always baffled me is why on earth they nest in the places they do. Although technically in the family known as shorebirds, their nests will usually be found about as far away from water as they can get; often in the middle of a plowed field or in the gravel of a busy parking lot; places with absolutely no cover whatsoever. As far as no-frill nests go, they rank right up there with turkey vultures.

They’ll use a slight depression, if there happens to be one, to hold the eggs, but that’s about as fancy as it gets. They make up for all this by laying eggs that blend in so well with their chosen locations, it’s a fortunate person indeed who ever actually spots a Killdeer nest and eggs in the wild. And from those humble nests hatch some of the cutest chicks there can be, looking for all the world like fuzzy little ping pong balls on toothpick legs. Killdeers are very tolerant of us humans; there are numerous examples of them nesting and hatching families along busy sidewalks or next to tennis courts.

Like I said, when I was a kid I had dozens of encounters with those cute little birds with the stick legs known as Killdeers, but never once did I ever find a nest. In fact I don’t think it ever occurred to me to search for one. The actor with the broken wing would drag its apparently poor dilapidated body out of my way and the tractor would steam past. Now as I think about it, it kind of bothers me thinking about all the Killdeer nests I probably unknowingly disked under. To Killdeers everywhere, can you find it in your heart to forgive me? And maybe next time rethink the whole nest location thing. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

The storm last week dumped several inches of rain on Ellis County and caused localized flooding problems. The excess moisture has created mold and mildew problems for some Ellis County residents. I’ve received a few calls about controlling mold growth in homes. Since some have called, I suspect that others may be experiencing problems with mold growing in warm, moist areas of homes, offices and other buildings.

(Note: this column was originally published last May after torrential rains created mold problems in the area. The information bears repeating.)

A publication from K-State Research and Extension is available free of charge to help with mold and mildew problems. For your copy, contact the Ellis County Extension Office at 601Main Street in Hays (785-628-9430) and ask for “Controlling Mold Growth in the Home.” You can also find it on the K-State Research and Extension website at www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu. Use the search function to search for the publication title.

Molds grow best in warm temperatures and they require moisture to survive. The moisture can come from water leaks, flooding, seepage, high humidity and condensation. Molds require oxygen to grow, but not light, so molds can continue to grow indefinitely in darkness. Molds thrive on organic materials like natural fibers (such as cotton and wool), paper, leather, wood, or surfaces coated with the slightest amount of organic matter such as food, grease and soil.

How do you know if there is mold in your home? Many times, mold can be detected first by a musty odor. Growths of mold can often be seen in the form of a stain or discoloration, ranging from white to orange or green to brown or black.

To control the growth of mold in your home, remember these three steps: 1. Clean it, 2. Dry it, and 3. Disinfect it.

Keep it clean. Regular cleaning of surfaces and household textiles will reduce the food supply molds need to survive. Use a grease-cutting solution of detergent and water to wash hard surfaces like walls, floors, tub or shower enclosures and other susceptible areas. If mold growth has already begun, scrub these hard surfaces well with a brush to remove the discoloration.

Keep it dry. Reduce the moisture produced inside the home. Turn off the humidifier if the humidity level is over 50 percent. Use exhaust fans when cooking or showering and repair any plumbing leaks. Also reduce the sources of moisture coming in from the outside. Seal cracks in the basement, slope the earth away from the house to promote drainage, and be sure gutters and downspouts are clear and working properly. Adequate insulation in walls will help to reduce condensation, and increasing the air circulation with fans in problem areas will keep the moisture level down as well.

Disinfect it. Disinfectants kill mold growing on hard surfaces such as walls and floors. One of the most effective and least expensive disinfectants is chlorine bleach. After the area has been thoroughly cleaned, disinfect with a solution of one cup of bleach to one gallon of water. The area must be kept wet with the bleach solution for ten to fifteen minutes to kill the mold. If large areas of an unfinished basement need to be disinfected, a clean garden sprayer can be used to apply the bleach solution to concrete floors and walls.
Other household items such as carpeting, upholstered furniture, leather goods, clothing and textiles, books and paper products may support mold growth and are much more difficult to clean and disinfect.

The publication “Controlling Mold Growth in the Home” contains specific techniques for preventing and removing mold growth on these items. If flooding or mold damage to home furnishings is extensive, consult a professional with experience in mold clean-up.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has a helpful website for information on mold prevention and control. For online access, see www.epa.gov/mold.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

By JORDAN HILDEBRAND
kansaswheat.org

Growing consumer interest and trust in agriculture is a lot like managing your crops; there are much higher yields when the inputs are applied during the growing season. This is where the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (KFAC) comes in. KFAC’s core mission as a 501(c)(3) non- profit organization is “connecting classrooms to Kansas agriculture.”

“The Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is a tangible way to connect teachers across the state to great resources about agriculture,” said Cathy Musick, Executive Director of KFAC. “We’re there working hand-in-hand with Kansas teachers. We’re able to provide them with materials that enhance classroom learning with ag-based curriculum that help students connect real-life scenarios to the content they learn about every day.”

This past year KFAC provided agriculture literacy resources and training to 259 teachers which reach 6,600 students across the state. In their quest to increase agriculture literacy, KFAC offers three main delivery methods to Kansas teachers: A+STEM, Summer Conference and a Summer Institute. The A+STEM (Agriculture plus Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is a half day in-service training for school districts. The one day Summer Conference allows KFAC “master teachers” to present workshops to their peers that demonstrate how they incorporate agriculture into their everyday curriculum. This year’s three day Summer Institute is titled, ‘Plants and Animals Have a Place in the Classroom,’ and provides lesson plans that may be used to help students reach Kansas educational standards. If you, or someone you know, is interested in attending these workshops, please head to www.ksagclassroom.org.

“It’s always exciting to see the light bulb go off for teachers as they realize how valuable the real-life connections are to the materials that they teach every day,” said Musick. “Teachers know that when these materials spark curiosity for themselves, it’s sure to do the same for their students.”

Many teachers, both in Kansas and out of state, have been excited to learn about Kansas pork and dairy farms with the innovative Virtual Farm Tours offered by KFAC, in partnership with Kansas Pork and the Kansas Department of Agriculture. These programs have given hundreds of students a unique opportunity to see the inside workings of Kansas farms and ask real farmers questions about their operations all from the comfort of their classroom.

If preserving agriculture’s place in Kansas classrooms is important to you, there are several ways you can help! One of the most visible can be seen on dusty backroads and city streets alike. The “Agri-tag” is a specialty license plate promoting agriculture that can be purchased from your county treasurer at the time you pay taxes. This provides a $35 donation to KFAC. You can also become a member of the Agriculture Advocate funding team by submitting a yearly donation, participate in KFAC fundraising efforts on Giving Tuesday, November 28th, 2017, or through Grow Green Match Day, April 21st every year.

KFAC is an organization that is funded entirely from the private sector. For more information on KFAC, how to be involved, and how to donate, please head to www.ksagclassroom.org.

As scientists march for more appreciation and recognition of science in the United States, many are overlooking that scientists themselves share a major part of the blame for the American population being science illiterate. Our public school students study barely one-third the science course work of students in other countries.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest group of scientists in the world and a major sponsor of the March for Science. They publish the weekly journal “Science” and I am among their 120,000 membership. But the AAAS is directly culpable for the science ignorance of Americans.

In the late 1980s, I was a science professor invited to sit on the local high school science curriculum committee. We were designing advanced courses for students who wanted to pursue more biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences. But before the committee had finished, an administrator rushed in with a hot-off-the-press AAAS policy: “Less Science, Not More.” That simple-minded theme shut down any new advanced science sources in high schools across the country.

In the 1980s, many science teachers had been upgraded by NSF Academic Year and Summer Institute that greatly increased their science knowledge. Kansas State Teachers College was one major site, and the KSTC-trained teachers went back to their schools from Florida to Alaska and Arizona to Maine with an enthusiasm and desire to teach more science. But the AAAS “Less Science” halted this drive for more science and even gave school administrators ammunition to reduce science offerings.

I wrote to the education section of AAAS under F. James Rutherford, author of the motto, and received the reply that it was not their intention to reduce science, just that the current science should be taught better. But the AAAS was clueless about how their policy was being understood in the field. They soon released their next theme: “Science for All Americans.” This again prevented any expansion of more advanced courses because it focused science teaching on delivery to all students—basic literacy only. The smaller group of students who had an interest in advanced science were ignored.

While AAAS is comprised of nearly all scientists, their education branch is not. Instead the AAAS has followed Education School philosophies that believe that advanced science not necessary. Future citizens do not need to know more science in this Internet Age. —Folks can always look things up online.

Numerous scientists complained to AAAS about the “less science” problem in our school curricula, but AAAS has remained tone deaf. As a result, America now ranks with Afghanistan in anti-vaccination belief. Pharmacists must read simple prescription instructions to us. And each of us pays several thousand dollars more per year in higher medical costs—due to ignorance about our anatomy and physiology—in higher health care costs, medical insurance, and stupid jury decisions.

Foreign exchange students come to our public schools and find themselves well beyond grade level, while our students go overseas and find themselves far behind in science.

America has to “buy” most of its engineers and physicists from overseas, and foreign students make up the majority of U.S. college degrees in those areas. In the 1980s, we only accepted into medical school the top 1/4th of students who took the MCAT. By 2000, we were taking nearly half. Now NPR reports that only 40,000 sit for the exam to fill 30,000 MD/OD school positions. Our science pipeline is going dry.

Every American student should have a full high school year of anatomy/physiology/microbiology merely to be a good patient. —And another full year of zoology/botany/ecology in order to sensibly understand the environment. And far more advanced high school science courses should be available for students attracted into science. But we don’t even have enough science teachers to cover our current anemic curriculum.

“The future belongs to those countries that make friends with science,” said India’s Prime Minister Nehru a half century ago. Unfortunately, the U.S. is not friendly to science. The guilty parties are not just the government and public. The science community and AAAS itself shares part of the blame.

Kris Kobach finally found a non-citizen voter.

On the hunt since the “SAFE” Act passed in 2011, Kobach recently secured a guilty plea from Victor David Garcia Bebek, a Peruvian national who voted in three different elections, in Sedgwick County. This brings Kobach’s total number of prosecutions up to eight—Bebek, plus seven people each caught voting in two different states. Kobach is the only Secretary of State in America with the power to prosecute voter fraud, as opposed to referring it to federal or other state authorities.

Unfortunately, there are a few difficulties.

First, Bebek recently became an American citizen. While millions of Americans are too apathetic to vote, Bebek was so eager to participate that he had already registered and voted before completing the naturalization process. For this, he gets three years of probation and a $5000 fine. Welcome to America, Mr. Bebek!

Bebek’s case may be typical. For example, political scientist Jesse Richman is often mentioned by President Trump and by Kobach, because Richman says he found cases of non-citizen voting. Yet Richman recently issued a statement asking President Trump, Secretary Kobach, and other politicians to stop citing his research. Richman never claimed that undocumented immigrants are the ones casting ballots, and he does not want his name associated with it.

The problems only get worse from there. Over 30,000 “suspense voters” have had their registrations canceled by Kobach under the SAFE Act, while he has only found these eight fraud cases: less than 0.003% the voters purged from the rolls. Furthermore, all eight cases could have been identified before the SAFE Act

Next comes my own research. My county-by-county analysis indicates that voters were more likely to shift toward Trump in states which did not have these new voting laws. That’s right: the new voting laws may have actually hurt Trump. Not only that, but in some states, there is evidence of a backlash—Democrats capitalize on the anger of those who feel targeted, and campaign on themes like, “don’t let them take your vote away!”

In several states, the voter turnout and Hillary Clinton’s performance were actually higher where restrictive laws were in place. This is true even when accounting for other factors like the state of the local economy, the percentage of white residents, and urban/rural differences.

The results make sense, since reporters for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution discovered that Trump’s vote totals surged in rural counties with a lot of new and infrequent voters. Having gotten out of the habit of voting, or having never been in that habit in the first place, these voters are likely to be the most befuddled by the new laws. After all, new requirements make voting harder than they had remembered. Without the new laws, Trump may have won several states by larger margins, including Kansas.

Kobach talks a lot about undocumented immigrant voters, but where are they? What he has actually accomplished is to shrink voting rolls, prosecute a new American citizen for voting, and find hardly any voter fraud. Now we can add holding down Donald Trump’s vote totals to these achievements. Things just are not going well for Kobach and the SAFE Act.

Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science at Emporia State University.