Many years ago, I helped a married couple set up a trust. Eventually, both clients passed away. They had done a nice job of accumulating assets, leaving the assets divided among four children in equal shares. Each of the children were going to receive a nice windfall in life.

I scheduled a meeting with the children, one of whom was the trustee of the trust as named by his parents. Much to my surprise, the meeting was very tense. Before I knew it, they were rehashing issues from years ago – “Mom helped you more”; “Dad gave you money to start your business and you never paid him back”; and so on.

I realized that the son/trustee was ill-equipped to handle such a contentious job. I was more than a little frustrated that my clients had not let me know of the significant family dynamics.

When planning an estate plan, you are going to be called on to designate someone to act in a financial position, whether that is an executor of your will (in a probate), as trustee of your trust (during the trust administration), or as your agent under a power of attorney.

Unfortunately, incidents of financial abuse are on the rise – significantly. It is crucial for individuals to realize how important that financial position really is. While the document appointing an agent, executor or trustee can (and should) clearly identify the restrictions on power and authority, the facts are that by the time a violation is discovered, the absconded money or property may be gone or unrecoverable.

Let’s take it to another level. What if the person you appointed has bitterness or grudges against the other beneficiaries? Do you trust that person to be “fair” in managing and ultimately distributing your property after your death?

Is your appointed person strong enough to survive the arrows shot at him or her from other family members?
Recently a client revealed to me that her son (who she had named as her trustee of her trust, upon her death or disability), accused her of ignoring his advice, and further, that she coddled one of the other children.
Alarms went off in my head. After consulting with my client, we immediately changed the appointed agent to a disinterested third party (her accountant).

I STRONGLY suggest that when you visit with your attorney about your agents (for any position), you let that attorney know of any actual or perceived family difficulties involving the proposed agent. Also, ask yourself if that agent wants to be in that position, or should be in that position.

Back to my story of the disgruntled family. Eventually I had the trustee/son appoint a third-party to take his place (in this case, a commercial trustee).

Please be aware of family dynamics when deciding on who should be your financial agent in your power of attorney, will, or trust. By facing those issues now, you can save your family a lot of heartache and loss of close ties by properly designating the appropriate agent.

Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.

Hello from Topeka!

If you would like to see all the places we talked with constituents over the break last week, go to Ken for Kansas on Facebook.

Last Thursday, the long-awaited decision from the Kansas Supreme Court dealing with school funding adequacy was announced. The non-partisan Kansas Legislative Research Department issued a briefing document and the remedies look like the following:

The Supreme Court stated there is no one way to constitutionally fund K-12 public education and rejected the idea of a litmus test that relies on a specific funding level to reach constitutional compliance. Further, while acknowledging the cost studies are estimates, the Court stated they represent evaluations it cannot simply disregard, and the State should not ignore them in creating a remedy. The Court directed the Legislature to focus on creating a K-12 financing system that through structure and implementation is reasonably calculated to have all Kansas public education students meet or exceed the Rose standards and to be mindful of the connection between equity and adequacy. Further, the Court reiterated the Rose standards are minimal standards and the Legislature may exceed those standards.

The Court retained jurisdiction and continued the stay of the three-judge panel’s order and its own mandate to give the Legislature an opportunity to bring the state’s education financing system into compliance with the Kansas Constitution. The Court called for the State to satisfactorily demonstrate compliance by June 30, 2017, after which time a lifting of the stay would mean the State’s education financing system is unconstitutionally invalid and therefore void. The Court expressed its confidence in the State’s ability to reach compliance by that date based on the Legislature’s history of acting to cure infirmities and the long-scheduled expiration of the block grant on June 30, 2017.

If you would like to read the full document go to: http://www.kslegresearch.org/KLRD-web/Publications/Education/2017-memo-gannoniv.pdf.

The challenge ahead is what does this mean to the schools in the 110th district. The fight will be on to protect our interests and balance those with all school needs in the state. I will continue the conversation with those on the Education Budget committee that the new funding formula works for classrooms in our district as well as Johnson County. We are scheduled to be wrapped up with the session by Mother’s Day, but since the deadline for the court is the end of June we could be in Topeka until wheat harvest.

The Taxation committee will continue its work on formulating the funding arm of the budget, and now with the school funding decision out, the waiting is over and the negotiations will begin on another bill. We will see how many there will be to get something passed by both houses and the acted on by the Governor.

If you would like to contact me: Session phone number is: (785) 296- 7463 and email is: [email protected] and my cell number is (785) 302-8416.

It is my honor to serve as your representative.

Ken Rahjes, (R-Agra), is the 110th District State Representative.

By State Sen. Rick Billinger
R-Goodland

Town Hall Meeting Week: Much of this week was spent traveling across Senate District 40 meeting with constituents. I would like to thank those for attending and appreciate your concerns and comments. Thank you goes out to Farm Bureau for organizing and hosting the town hall meetings. Farm Bureau has been a great support to the 40th Senate District for many years and thank you for organizing these meetings.

I would like to recognize the 4-Hers who were at the Capitol last week. I hope you all learned a little about how the Legislature works. Thank you to the sponsors for bringing these young people to Topeka. Northwest Kansas can be proud of our 4-Hers.

Good news is that February revenues came in ahead of projections. State revenues for February were $314 million, which are $40.6 million above estimates. The additional $40 million will cut the overall shortfall for the 2017 budget to about $280 million, from a budget shortfall of a projected $350 million in November 2016.

The last several months’ revenues have come in above estimates, which will help in making cuts and adjustments for the 2017 budget. Some of the reasons revenues came in above estimates are; 1) individual income tax payment and withholding for February came in at $86 million which was $26 million above the estimate of $60 million. 2) Corporate income tax came in at $6.1 million, $5.1 million above the estimate 3) Sales tax receipts for February were $167.6 million, $7.6 million above estimates. 4) Cigarette tax came in less than projected at $8.7 million, $1.2 million below estimates. 5) Sales tax collected on internet sales on out of state purchases, also referred to, as compensating use tax, were $31.4 million up $1.4 million from projections. The Senate has legislation pending which will hopefully increase sales tax on out of state purchases.

On Thursday the Supreme Court ruled current school funding in Kansas is inadequate. In 2010 four school districts filed a lawsuit against the State of Kansas. The court ruled the State is obligated to provide public education to K-12 students. The justices noted that in Kansas, the “base state aid per pupil,” or BSAPP, had risen from $3,600 in 1992 to $3,890 in 2002 and gradually rose to $4,400 for fiscal year 2009. However, during the recession, appropriations fell steadily, and by fiscal year 2012, the legislature had reduced BSAPP to $3,780, passing on costs of more than $511 million to local districts.

Since 2009, the Kansas State Board of Education has asked that the BSAPP be increased to $4,492. Citing data from the 2015-2016 school year, the court said that nearly half of the state’s African American students and more than a third of its Hispanic students are not proficient in reading and math. More than a third of students who receive free and reduced lunch are also not proficient in those essential subjects. Under court order, last June, the legislature approved a $38 million funding boost for poor school districts.

The Senate Republicans will meet on Tuesday, March 7, in caucus to hear from the experts about possible solutions to satisfy the courts ruling. The Senate and House have been working on a new school funding formula. The courts ruled the legislature has until June 30, 2017 to accomplish this task.

By Congressman Roger Marshall, M.D.
Originally published in the Washington Times

Having just left private practice as an OB/GYN, and fresh off the campaign trail, I have talked to thousands of people about healthcare issues. For more-than 25 years, the most common concern I’ve heard, and have tried to help solve, is from folks who have a preexisting health condition, and must get their health insurance outside of an employer. These folks are worried about losing the coverage they have, if they have any, and fear they won’t be able to replace it in the future.

As we in Congress work to deliver true 21st-century healthcare to the American people, I wanted to address the issue of coverage for folks with preexisting conditions; also called “guaranteed issue,” which ensures that all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. Many of us in Congress, and our President, have agreed we must ensure this coverage, and have accepted it as our challenge.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed in 2010 with hopes of addressing this very issue. Unfortunately, individual health insurance policies under Obamacare can have deductibles as high as $14,000 for a family. To many of us in the medical field, it seems that more people than ever do not have meaningful health insurance. Here we are in 2017 and although people technically have access to health insurance, many cannot afford to get care because of their premium, and out-of-pocket expenses. This cuts to the very heart and soul of the current debate on what true healthcare reform looks like.

What I propose today, after having listened to and studied many ideas, are “value pools.”

What are value pools? Value pools are insurance programs set up to focus specifically on patients with pre-existing conditions. To most patients, their insurance plan would look very much like the insurance most of us were used to seeing before Obamacare. Some basic federal laws (or rules from HHS) would provide guidelines and minimum standards, but general design and administration must be at the state level.

Who would get their health insurance from a value pool? Though there are several ways to determine eligibility for these pools, we could start with having one of 33 diagnoses (as currently used by the innovative Alaska reinsurance program) and/or a letter of denial from one or more existing insurance carriers.

Why value pools? By putting folks with pre-existing conditions into a separate “like-risk” insurance group known as a value pool, they will be more likely to get the type of benefits and care they need. I believe these most-valued patients could especially benefit from a “concierge physician” who is dedicated to directing them through the confusing maze of health care. This concierge can bring each patient true value.

By separately structuring and funding value pools for patients with preexisting conditions, health insurance will be much more affordable for those without preexisting conditions. Those without preexisting conditions will once again buy from conventional commercial insurance markets. Costs will be more predictable, and we know insurance actuaries thrive on predictability.

How would value pools be funded? The patient would be responsible for paying a premium equal to the average cost of coverage in their respective commercial market. The remainder would be funded via state funds, fees assessed on private insurance carriers in the state, and federal funds.

Interestingly, 35 states have experience with similar pools. Prior to the coverage mandate, the average annual cost for the 226,000 patients enrolled in these high-risk pools was about $12,000 (Source: NASCHIP Comprehensive Health Insurance for High-Risk Individuals: A State-by-State Analysis). Also of note, the federal government is spending nearly $11,000 per-patient annually for Medicare patients (Source: CMS National Health Expenditure Data).

As we’ve listened to and visited with our state governors and state insurance commissioners, the most common themes they ask for are “flexibility and certainty.” It is Congress‘ job to give them just that.

As a business person, I look at this problem and ask how much money we, the hard-working taxpayers of this country (via the federal government) can afford to make these changes. The state will then dial the many alternatives up or down to keep within their budgets, and to spend the money as judiciously as possible.

As an example, around 12 million people are on an exchange policy now. With free market reforms and the deregulation of medicine, many (most likely over 90 percent) will move back to the free market. The total insurance premium for the remaining value group, which would be split between the patient, private insurance, the state and federal government, should be under $15,000 per year, and hopefully closer to $11-12,000 as time goes on. In this model, the deductible would be around $1000, and the plan would also include a tax credit for the premium.

Of course, these valued patients will also benefit from other free market reforms such as expanded HSAs, increased transparency, and policies that encourage innovation.
Finally, I propose a federally funded “reinsurance” program, much like many of us use in the private sector, to provide an umbrella for the state-based Value Pools.

It’s not complicated. In fact, it is simple. But it’s not easy.

Unlimited free healthcare is not, and won’t be an option. And it is dishonest and harmful to tell hard-working Americans otherwise.

There will be pains and there will be mistakes, but I believe we can keep working to ensure all Americans, regardless of their health challenges, have the opportunity to achieve this goal of quality, affordable healthcare.

Roger Marshall, an obstetrician, is a Republican U.S. representative from Kansas.

    The Kansas Supreme Court decision that funding of Kansas schools is inadequate poses a difficult problem for Kansas legislators. The ruling noted that funding was related to students’ academic success and they took aim at schools that were not adequately serving students in academics.

    But one solution has been around for 15 years. And it addresses both the cost of K-12 education in Kansas and also the quality of our students’ education. That solution is school consolidation.

    There have been three Kansas consolidation plans proposed. 

    A 2002 Legislature-commissioned study from Augenblick and Myers found Kansas has 1 percent of the nation’s pupils, 1.6 percent of the nations’s schools and 2.1 percent of the nation’s school districts.

While most states genuinely consolidated their schools long ago, Kansas barely went half way. The study found a few districts too large, but 50 school districts that were far too small. Kansas had 303 USDs at that time. They recommended dropping the number of Kansas districts to either 284 or 255.

    At that same time, two Kansas superintendents proposed a model, similar to our regional hospitals and clinics, to consolidate many districts into a few regional school districts, perhaps as few as 50.     In both cases, a Kansas student would not ride a bus to school over an hour. But neither plan was adopted by the Legislature. 

    A February 2010 Kansas Legislative Post Audit again reported the “economic efficiencies” that could be gained by school consolidation. And again the plan was shelved.

    This time the Legislature is under pressure to increase both monetary support in Base State Aid Per Pupil and to improve academics. School consolidation addresses both.

    The major expense in education is in the salaries of teachers and staff. Education Week just released a study of average salaries of public school teachers. Only 8 states out of 50 pay teachers lower than Kansas, one factor contributing to our rapidly growing teacher shortage. There is even a shortage of substitute teachers and “long term subs.”

    Kansas has many counties with several small rural school districts where there is no chemistry or physics or foreign language teachers. Some use less-than-inspiring online programs. Others have a math teacher teach physics out-of-field. Of the 700-plus biology teachers in the state, I estimate that less than 500 are actually competent to teach biology. Teachers who add a biology endorsement for merely taking a biology test-out lack the actual college course with laboratory experience are unlikely to understand and teach accurate biology that is exciting to students. 

    Many Kansas counties have a bigger city-based school district and one or more rural satellite districts. Those rural districts are more likely to have out-of-field teachers or full time subs “teaching” courses. Rural schools have smaller class sizes but less lab equipment. Merging small USDs with a central regional district eliminates duplication of administrations and would put all high school students under qualified teachers. Nearly all elementary and middle school buildings would remain where they are.  Secondary students would ride further to the larger high school.

    The three proposed school consolidation plans focused on financial savings by removing administrative duplication. However, consolidation not only increases the number of students under a qualified teacher, but ends the inefficiencies of small high schools that graduate less than 20 students a year. By statute, schools that consolidate get to keep their higher pre-consolidation funding for several years. Intended as an incentive to consolidate, this ironically also prevents any immediate savings.

    Rural Kansas continues to de-populate, losing 800-1000 small farms a year. We have seen the gradual forced consolidation of small rural school districts by bankruptcy, from 303 to 286 USDs.  The resulting gerrymandered districts lack the logic—and savings—of a state plan.

    I personally enjoy the atmosphere of small rural schools. When I arrive to visit a student teacher, the school has the atmosphere of a family working together—quite in contrast to some large school factories.

Local school boards and communities do not want to lose their small high school. We often see that when the high school is closed, a small rural town suffers.

    But to provide Kansas students with quality teachers and a quality education today, a major statewide school consolidation is the only solution that addresses our financial crisis, the Kansas Supreme Court ruling, and the academic needs of Kansas students.

Talk to farmers, stockmen and ranchers – most will tell you how much they love their cows. Problem is, this humble and in most cases easy-going beast rarely receives the praise associated with the noble show horse or one of the so-called smartest creatures, the squealing pig.

No one extols the virtues of this contented creature that spends her days quietly grazing and eating grass. We’ve all watched movies about horses Trigger and pigs Babe, but for most of the time, cows are considered boring and ignored by Hollywood, the media and the public.

Still, cows are not whiners and they take their obscurity in stride and rarely complain about their circumstances. Except for a couple of rare occasions, animal rights activists have overlooked this wonderful beast of burden and focused their careful aim on mice, monkeys, rats and other vermin.

Everyone screams bloody murder when some shampoo company tests its latest shampoo on a furry rodent. Where is the outcry for the lifestyle of cows?

They spend days and nights under the stars without a tent or blanket and only their coat to keep them warm. They must hoof it across the pasture just to get a drink of cold water.

But hey, I’m not here to say I feel sorry for the cow community. Confident and quiet, it is not their way to ask for preferential treatment.

Spend time with a herd of cows and you’ll soon discover they are indeed spiritual beings. They live their entire lives in service to mankind.

Behind that seemingly blank stare rests a knowing glint that suggests, “Go ahead. Make fun. I spend all day eating and sleeping. You’re the one with high blood pressure and cash-flow problems.”

Cattle occupy a unique role in human history, domesticated beginning with the Stone Age. Some are raised for meat (beef cattle), dairy products (cows) and hides (both).

They are also used as draft animals and in certain sports. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle rustling, consequently one of the earliest forms of theft.

Dairy cows are referred to as the foster mothers of humans because they produce most of the milk that people drink. They provide 90-percent of the world’s milk supply.

The best cows may give approximately 25 gallons of milk each day. That’s 400 glasses of milk. Cows in this country give an average of 2,000 gallons of milk per year. That’s more than 30,000 glasses of milk.

Beef cattle supply more than 30 different cuts of meat including the heart, tongue and what we grew up calling mountain oysters – a male private part. You gotta’ admit, that’s meaningful giving.

Another gift from the bovine community is leather that comes from their hides. We use it for boots, belts, baseballs, suitcases, purses, wallets, easy chairs and jackets. Yes, cattle or cows make the ultimate sacrifice for human comfort.

Another place cows shine is in the rodeo arena or as spokesmammals in advertising. Who hasn’t seen the skydiving cows on their television screen?

Another cow celebrity that’s been around for eons is Borden’s Elsie the Cow.

Snorting bulls symbolize a healthy stock market and a Hereford cow pioneered space travel. Every kid knows about the cow who jumped over the moon.

Milk, ice cream, cheeseburgers or that fine leather purse – think about it. Where would we be without our cows?
On any given day, a cow often does more for us than our friends, neighbors, in-laws or even our elected officials. Cows deserve a roaring round of applause and recognition for a job well done.

Anyway, I’d much rather thank a cow and wear a pair of leather boots than sport a mink coat and thank a varmint. I know I’d rather drink milk from a cow than milk from a mink. Enough said.

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

In China, this is the year of the sheep. Around my rural home, it’s the spring of the skunk.

Driving up our 1/4 mile long drive that night, I counted four black and white creatures in my headlights, one wandered too close to home for comfort. Since those were visible, who knows how many stinkers ran around outside my vision.

By four the next morning, I knew one had wandered close to the house. We woke up gagging and choking from acrid fumes released within feet or maybe inches of our open bedroom windows. My stomach clenched to think one of ours dogs scored a direct hit.

After discovering my eldest daughter choking her way upstairs, hoping to find fresher air, I braved opening the door. I expected to see a sheepish pooch, stinking to high heavens. Imagine my surprise when both registered a clean air report. As bad as it smelled, I guessed two skunks had run into each other and let the odor fly. Unfortunately, we didn’t get back to sleep.

After that, I smelled skunk everywhere. I thought it was in my head until I got to the school parking lot and exited my vehicle to realize that I did smell skunk. It appeared that early morning blast occurred near my car, and I carried that scent into town with me. The bad news was I’d parked my car in the garage the night before.

That next evening, my husband ran into that skunk. We’d kept the dogs in and away from Pepe Le Pew. During the wee hours of the morning, one barked and growled threateningly at the living room wall attached to the garage. My husband bravely investigated the situation and heard rattling in the garage.

Upon flipping on the garage light, he faced our prowler. Choosing the wise path, he backed out of the garage and raced around front to open the door. That way, the inquisitive beast could depart scentlessly. That incident ended without crisis. Unfortunately, we couldn’t say the same about the next.

Our pup had previously met skunks while running through the brush around the property. With so many present, she got sprayed. In short time, I brewed up a deodorizing concoction using a twelve-ounce bottle of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda, and a teaspoon of dish detergent. I’d discovered this worked better than tomato juice to remove skunk stink. However, it can’t be used on heads and faces, which means that any dog hit straight on exhaled eau de skunk for days. No one wanted Reebok nearby for the rest of that week.

Our big yellow dog had his own run-in with those black and white kitties. An obstinate sort, he didn’t want our de-scenting treatment. Choosing his own cure, he wandered to the creek and rolled in mud until he resembled a swamp creature. Though he smelled better, no one, to his surprise, invited him in the house.

Right now, I ‘m waiting for a cold front. When it comes, skunks’ll settle down. While they won’t hibernate, an extended dormancy will clear the air.

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.

As I sat on the back step this morning seeing the bright sunshine but feeling the brisk north wind, and wishing the weather would either drop into the freezer and stay there awhile or become spring and stay spring, I heard the distinct “pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty” spring call of a male cardinal. That told me that no matter how cold the wind is or how deep the snow still gets, spring is waiting in the wings.

A little thing maybe, but it gives me hope.
When Joyce and I got married, she explained to me her “points” system. Everything I do for her garners me one point; sometimes that one point is bigger than others, but is still only one point. I’ve never fully understood her system and have always thought it a bit unfair that a surprise trip to see the Lion King live on stage rates the same as a few sips from my Leprechaun shake at Spangles. But the other side of the coin is that a few sips of my Leprechaun shake gets me just as much recognition as most anything else. A little thing maybe, but it makes me appreciate how easily she is pleased.

We have our grandson Jacob all day every-other Sunday, and last Sunday after church he and I went for a walk out into the McPherson Valley Wetlands just outside town. I was telling him about the mega beaver dam out there and promised to show him. Vehicles are not allowed on the wetlands, and getting to the beaver dam means a several hundred yard walk, so we parked the pickup and struck out on foot along a trail that’s kept mowed through the tall native grass. We’d only gone a short way when he spotted some feathers on the trail. We each picked up a few, and with them clutched tightly in his hand, moseyed on.

When we got to the beaver dam we discussed why it was built like it was, knocked around there awhile and headed back toward the truck. A few more feathers were added to the collection on the walk back, and suddenly I remembered a small turtle shell I had found there and procured for just such a time as this. I told him I had found something for him that was either in the back of the pickup or in my trapping shed at home, and he pestered me the rest of the walk to tell him what it was. It was not in the truck, so once at home, I parked at the shed and retrieved it while he waited in the truck. It was a totally intact top-and-bottom shell about four inches across from a box turtle of some sort. I cleaned it up with my knife and gave it to him. Taking after his dad, Jacob’s a KU basketball fan, and as I gave him that silly turtle shell you’d have thought the whole KU basketball team had him on their shoulders running with him around the court. His eyes were the size of dinner plates and he couldn’t wait to get inside and show the shell to grandma.

I’m afraid I often miss the boat when it comes to sharing my love of the Kansas outdoors with others. I’m always looking for big outcomes; for example, why take someone along with me to check traps when I might not catch anything today? Why take a kid deer hunting when we might not see a deer? Why take someone fishing when we may not catch any fish? I need to learn to see the feathers and the little turtle shell along the trail (remember my wife’s scoring system?) They’re little things, but to people yearning to experience the outdoors, they are like a ride on the shoulders of the KU basketball team (unless they’re K State fans!)…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

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

Click to play the audio or read below.

If you were to follow the path of the Arkansas River through the flatlands of Eastern Colorado all the way to my native country north of Bucklin, Kansas, there is a very defining “lay of the land” that you would probably notice.  On the south side of the riverbed, sometimes a mile or so away, are almost endless rolling sandhills, as opposed to reasonably flat land on the north side once you get out of the river valley.

This very sandy area sometimes extends another mile or two south; sometimes hardly noticeable at all. Much of the sandy land has never been tilled, and is covered with sage brush, yucca, plum thickets, and some of the best grass cover around. Over the years, the areas have been tightly fenced, and windmills are working day and night. It is a relatively narrow strip of prime cattle grazing area.


During the Ice Age, when mountains were formed and rivers began to flow, the heaving of the earth apparently caused sand to be pushed southward from the river. In the ’50s and ’60s, with the introduction of center pivot irrigation, some of those hills were successfully farmed, as long as  plenty of water and fertilizer were added.

But most of the land became strictly pastureland, as it did in my home country. My Grandad secured a lot of this land sometime in the teens and twenties, and with the help of a couple of his sons, pastured many head of cattle, mostly cow-calf programs, on the richly covered grasslands. Grandad loved Hereford cattle, and he tended them carefully, while his sons did most of the plowing, planting, and harvesting.

When the dust storms hit during the ’30s, some of the most fragile of the sandy lands would be blown bare. These areas, known as blow-holes, would be stripped of every blade of grass and it would take many years for it to reseed and become viable again.

When the War began, a new use was found for Grandad’s pastureland and Grandad wasn’t very happy about it. Most of his pasture acreage was designated as a Bombing Range by the government. B-17 and B-29 Bombers, stationed at Schilling Air Force Base in Saline, Walker Air Force Base near Russell, and Pratt Air Base at Pratt, dropped thousands  of practice bombs on Grandad’s pasture for several years.

Grandad was allowed to run cattle on an adjoining section of grass at his own risk, which he did.


Practice bombs, usually 100 pounders, with occasional 500 pound models, and always painted blue, were loaded with sand and black powder. When the bomb hit the ground, black smoke was visible so that on-board bombardiers could get a fix on there accuracy. My cousin Keith and I would sometimes ride our horses over to the target area, and there seemed to be no bomb crater anywhere near the target! But “misses” were scattered all over the countryside. No injuries to people or cattle were reported.


When the War was over and the land returned to the family, the government sent many trucks to the site to remove the bomb metal, and to generally clean up any other accumulated debris. And a Grandfather and many head of cattle were happy again!

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

It may seem nice to get a check from the government every year, but a Kansas State University financial management expert says that a person’s tax liability should be as close to zero as possible.

“This means that when you file your tax return that you do not owe any taxes and you do not get a refund — remember that the IRS is not a savings account,” said Kristy Archuleta, co-director of the Financial Planning Clinic, a part of the School of Family Studies and Human Services in the College of Human Ecology.

“If you receive a large tax refund, you’ve loaned the government the use of your money throughout the year interest free,” she said as a reminder for America Saves Week this week.

Archuleta said receiving a major tax refund means an individual needs to adjust his or her W-4, a form that tells an employer how much to deduct from each paycheck. The deducted amount is called the withholding, and by minimizing this amount, a person can increase his or her cash flow.

A W-4 form is typically one of the first documents an employee fills out in a new job. If a person’s financial situation changes, the form can be updated by contacting the human resources department at his or her place of employment.

If a tax refund is received, the money can be used to achieve several different financial goals. However, whatever the money is used for, Archuleta advises people to be deliberate in their financial decision-making.

While a tax refund may seem like a free gift or a windfall, it´s not. That refund is just your own hard-earned money that Uncle Sam has used interest-free for a year. Before you go on a spending spree, think about ways you can use your tax refund to improve your family financial situation.

“Don’t blow a tax refund on unnecessary items,” Archuleta said. “Use it to build an emergency fund or pay down debt, especially high-interest debt. It can also be used for savings by contributing to a long-term investment tool, such as a Roth IRA for retirement or a 529 plan for a child’s education fund. The money can even be saved for a large ticket item you are planning to purchase.”

Saving is a choice – and an essential foundation for financial security. More information on saving and other money management skills is available at the K-State Research and Extension website www.kansassaves.org.

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

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

A group of Australians is visiting the U.S. They will likely tour various U.S. landmarks and tourist locations, but one of their stops is at a rural location on the High Plains of Kansas. Why? The answer is that they are not just touring, they are geocaching. Geocaching has become a worldwide practice. One of the very first geocache locations was in rural Kansas.

Ryan Semmel is the person who told me about geocaching. Ryan is a military retiree, having served around the U.S. and overseas. He was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and then in Germany before coming to Kansas again. After serving at Fort Riley, he retired in Manhattan. “We love it here,” Ryan said.

“I’ve always liked adventure,” Ryan said. While serving previously at Fort Leavenworth, he heard about an outdoor scavenger hunt in Missouri. “I did it with one of my soldiers,” Ryan said. “It was so much fun that another soldier gave me a brochure about geocaching.” When he was subsequently stationed in Germany, Ryan did geocaching with his family.

“Geocaching is like a worldwide scavenger hunt using GPS technology to find canisters placed by other enthusiasts,” Ryan said. It has also been described as “an outdoor adventure where players use a free mobile app or a GPS device to find cleverly hidden containers around the world.”

This all began in 2000 when the government made global position system technology available to the public.

“A gentleman in Oregon was wondering how accurate these GPS readings were,” Ryan said. “He put a five-gallon bucket in the middle of the woods, posted the GPS coordinates on a message board, and asked if anybody could find it. A couple of guys did, and more people started putting out containers with coordinates for people to find.”

It was a lot of fun to explore and find these sites with geographically dispersed containers, called geocaches. However, it was difficult to scour the message boards to learn about the caches. In September 2000, three guys in Seattle thought of creating a central website where geocache locations could be registered, posted, and shared. That was the beginning of www.geocaching.com.

The website creators listed the first geocaches. One of those was the seventh official geocache of all time, and the first in Kansas, located in the High Plains. It is southeast of Colby near the rural community of Mingo, an unincorporated settlement with a population of perhaps 25 people. Now, that’s rural.

How does geocaching work? First of all, someone creates a geocache which consists of a waterproof container with a logbook and possibly more inside. They hide the geocache in a specific location, post the information online and leave it for explorers to find. When a geocache is found, the finders can sign the logbook and post their experience on the geocaching.com website.

The container itself might be a pillbox or bucket or tub, for example. Some geocaches contain trinkets which the finder can take and swap. “We call it SWAG,” Ryan said: “Stuff We All Got.”

“The only rule is, if you take something out, you have to put something back,” Ryan said. “I tell people to use old Happy Meal toys or something inexpensive from Dollar General.”

The geocaches are always put back for the next geocacher to find, and they are not buried. They are not to be placed on private land without the landowner’s permission.

The practice of geocaching has grown. There are approximately 3 million active geocachers worldwide, with more than 830,000 of those in the U.S. An estimated 2.8 million geocaches are now located in more than 180 countries. Ryan Semmel enjoys meeting these geocachers from all over.

A group of Australians is visiting the U.S., including a visit to Kansas to find our state’s original geocache. We commend Ryan Semmel and all those who are making a difference with this method of combining modern satellite technology with the timeless value of the great outdoors.

And there’s more. Geocaching is bringing a major event to Kansas in 2017. We’ll learn about that next week.

On Feb. 8, a group of Latino men were leaving an overnight hypothermia shelter at Rising Hope Mission Church in Alexandria, Va., when they were surrounded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, arrested and taken away in vans.

The church’s pastor, Kerry Kincannon, worries that ICE is now targeting churches, abandoning long-standing ICE guidelines that treat houses of worship, hospitals and schools as “sensitive areas” to be avoided when rounding up people for deportation.

“They are making people fearful of coming to church,” Kincannon told a local TV station. “They are making people fearful of coming in, to get out of the cold, to get help in a shelter, and we are not going to stand for it, we are absolutely not going to stand for it.”

Kincannon is not alone. Religious leaders across the country are increasingly concerned about new immigration policies that have “taken the shackles off” ICE agents, in the words of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Of course, large numbers of undocumented immigrants were deported under the Obama administration. But Obama-era guidelines focused ICE on serious criminals and gang members; this directive appears to be vanishing under President Donald Trump. According to news reports from several states, people with no criminal history or with misdemeanor convictions are now being swept up in ICE raids.

Houses of worship are pushing back by declaring themselves “sanctuary churches” — an act of conscience that many sanctuary activists believe is rooted in biblical admonitions to “welcome the stranger.” At various times in American history, churches have given sanctuary to the vulnerable, most famously harboring fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad in the 19th century. In the 1980s, many churches gave sanctuary to Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict.

According to USA Today, there are now more than 800 sanctuary houses of worship in 45 states, a number that spiked dramatically after the presidential election.

Earlier this month, to cite just one example, the First Unitarian Society of Denver gave sanctuary to Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of four described by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock as “an active community member who has persistently pursued legal status through the proper channels.”

To be clear, religious and civic leaders like Kincannon and Hancock are not arguing that the government turn a blind eye to the presence of more than 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. Nor do they oppose ICE taking action against people who have committed serious crimes and endanger the community.

But sanctuary leaders are standing up for undocumented people who they believe have been betrayed by a government that has long refused to fix the problem, and big business that has long profited from the labor of undocumented migrants. Instead of taking responsibility for creating and sustaining a broken immigration system, many Americans now demand mass deportation and unworkable walls. For the sanctuary movement, this is a classic case of blaming the victim.

Against this backdrop of dysfunction, hundreds of religious individuals and communities involved in the sanctuary movement see their actions as acts of religious conscience protected by the First Amendment. For many Christians, protecting the vulnerable is more than social justice; it is a command of the Gospel.

Thus far, however, the religious freedom defense has not prevailed in the courts. Under current law, ICE may enter places of worship to arrest undocumented people. And religious leaders themselves risk being charged with harboring people not authorized to be in the U.S.

Exactly which actions by religious leaders could violate the law is murky, given that lower courts differ on whether “harboring” means concealment or simple sheltering. But we do know that religious clergy and laypeople were arrested and convicted for their work in the sanctuary movement in the 1980s.

Since the law may not protect them, churches and other places of worship must rely on public opinion and moral suasion to keep ICE agents from entering their sanctuaries. The ICE “sensitive areas” guidelines are an acknowledgment that the optics of raiding churches would be morally repugnant — and a public relations nightmare.

But if houses of worship become fair game for ICE under Trump — which is precisely what Pastor Kincannon fears — the only recourse for many people of faith is civil disobedience through nonviolent resistance.

Civil disobedience is not, of course, one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. But a sixth freedom — the act of following the dictates of conscience in pursuit of justice — has been at the heart of social justice movements throughout American history.

From the Underground Railroad to the women’s suffrage movement, from the civil rights movement to ACT UP, courageous Americans have defied what they believed were unjust government laws and policies — and willingly accepted the consequences, including physical assault, arrest and incarceration.

“There are just laws and there are unjust laws,” wrote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his cell in the Birmingham jail. “I would agree with St. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all…One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly…I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.”

“Welcoming the stranger” in the current climate requires courage and carries risk. But in the face of injustice, the voice of conscience cannot be denied.

Charles C. Haynes is vice president of the Newseum Institute and founding director of the Religious Freedom Center. Contact him via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @hayneschaynes.