Hello from Agra and Merry Christmas!

In just a few days many of us will gather with the ones we love and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Like you, our family has many traditions during the holiday season, and we look forward to Christmas Eve service, singing “Silent Night” by candlelight. Our hope is you and yours have a magical Christmas and safe start to 2017.

We now know the Kansas House committee chairs and vice-chairs for the upcoming session. A couple of important ones include: Appropriations Chairman; Troy Waymaster from Bunker Hill, Education Chair; Clay Aurand from Belleville, Taxation Chair; Steven Johnson from Assaria and Transportation Chair J.R. Claeys from Salina. So some important leadership positions will be held from central and western Kansas people.

Also, Speaker Ron Ryckman appointed me Vice-Chairman of the Water/Environment Committee. This is a new committee, as these issues had been a part of the Agriculture Committee. Tom Sloan from Lawrence will serve as Chairman. Water has been identified as a critical issue and I look forward to developing good, science based policy to make sure we have an adequate supply for agriculture, municipalities and business development.

We have been reviewing survey results from constituents in the 110th District. Today we are going to discuss local control. Those who chose to participate were very vocal in their displeasure with the federal or state government stripping power from local units of government. By an almost 3 to 1 margin, people said the Kansas Legislature should not cap or limit how much cities, counties and school districts can spend in response to citizen needs.

The same margin was also reported by the 110th District residents said the Kansas Legislature should not prohibit locally-elected officials from increasing revenue for the jurisdictions they represent.

Some are probably surprised by these results, but is shows me that folks want a government that is accountable and decisions should be made locally, and not simply a cookie-cutter solution to each opportunity.

The challenges in the next session will be great, but one of my top priorities is to be cautious when it comes to raising taxes. Especially a consequence which would lead to another big jump in property taxes. The quest, which has already begun, is to find a fair and equitable revenue stream and review the efficiency study to find better ways to bring services to the taxpayers of Kansas. If you would like to review the study you can go to: www.kslegresearch.org and search Kansas Statewide Efficiency Review.

If you have questions, or if I can be of service, please contact me: Ken Rahjes, 1798 E. 900 Rd. Agra, KS 67621 or call (785) 302-8416. You can follow me on Facebook at Ken for Kansas or my website, www.kenforkansas.com

Thank you for the opportunity to be your representative, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We’re down to the just-before 2017 Legislature time when every little hint about what the governor would or would not consider in the march to a balanced budget becomes important.

And last week, at a series of press conferences, Gov. Sam Brownback said that he might, just might, consider some proposals to increase state revenues to balance the budget—apparently blended with reductions in spending.

Reporters have spent a lot of time crafting questions that would bring some subtle indication about just what tax increases the governor would, with just his signature, allow to become law.

So far, we’ve managed to get one pretty solid indication of a tax that he absolutely has no interest in. That’s a start.

That “don’t do it” that was the firmest is his opposition to placing a state sales tax on services, as differentiated from hard, hold in your hand, products.

So…it’s time for the state’s lawyers and accountants and financial service owners to take a deep breath and then maybe a drink because the governor doesn’t want to tax the services they provide.

Oh, and that no-tax on services extends, of course, to nearly everyone who sells their services to make a living, ranging from roofers to lawn services to…we guess…pole dancers.

Those services amount to billions of dollars of transactions that don’t make the state as much in revenue as selling a bar of soap or a new shirt.

While that no-services tax might have a positive effect on those providers it doesn’t do a thing for revenues.

It does, though, echo through the Statehouse, and it means that those sales tax-free service providers won’t have to spend time and money lobbying the Legislature to keep their sales off the tax rolls. And, for them, it’s a good thing.

Brownback also last week defended what started out as a small business tax break, the Limited Liability Corporation exemption from Kansas income tax.

Aimed to help small businesses keep enough profit to hire new workers and buy equipment, it quickly spread to giant businesses which don’t have to pay income taxes on their income that isn’t considered a wage.

Brownback said that the LLC exemption is helping job growth, and while the $200 million to $300 million cost in lost income tax revenues to the state is large, it also doesn’t allow deductions for those non-tax business expenses. What the trade-off between taxes and allowing exemptions for business expenses works out to is not clear, but it pares the tax loss by whatever those businesses could come up with as deductible expenses.

And…Brownback notes, some states are taking a look at the LLC tax exemption here for possible use in other states. He said Kansas’ plan sounds a lot like President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to lower corporate taxes so those businesses have more money to spend on expansion, higher wages for their employees and more reason to keep jobs in the United States rather than send them to low-wage countries.

It really comes down to the politics of the issues. Everyone who pays income taxes has a good argument that the guy down the street with an LLC ought to pay something to the state, too.

But those sales-tax exempt service-providers don’t have to go to the expense and trouble of collecting taxes. And those income tax-exempt businesses don’t have to spend time and effort collecting information to use for tax deductions and then pay a sales tax-exempt service provider accountant or lawyer or tax preparer to figure their tax bills.

Or, do we tax ‘em both, and solve this revenue problem?

Can’t tell…yet…

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

Twas the night before Christmas and out in the country
I climbed into my deer stand and made myself comfy.
I was waiting for Santa and his grain fed reindeer
Hoping to catch them as they flew through here.

The economy was shot and my cupboard was empty,
Reindeer meat in the freezer seemed pretty tempting.
As I sat in my stand and considered my options
A text was sent to the phone in my pocket.

My wife was reporting that it said on the news
Santa might not be coming tonight as we snooze.
It seemed someone had heard that in Santa’s pocket
Was a little gold cross on a chain with a locket.

Inside of the locket was a picture of Christ
Whose birth, after all is what we celebrate tonight.
So because of that cross someone was offended
And determined to see Santa’s visit was ended.

So much for fresh reindeer on the shelves of my freezer
Thanks to the thinking of some lost unbeliever.
I sat there in silence, stunned and dismayed
Wondering how anyone could feel that way.

If one person has decided that they don’t need Christ
Should the rest of the world’s joy be sacrificed?
It once was the norm that if you didn’t agree
You stated your feelings then let it be.

But today the minority seems to believe
They should hold all the power to make the majority grieve.
As I gathered my things to climb down from my tree
A bright light in the dark sky shown all around me.

The Christmas star, I believed was what I could see
But it grew closer and closer till it hovered above me.
I could see it was Santa and on the front of his sleigh
Was a huge glowing cross that lighted his way.

As he sped out of sight he exclaimed from a distance
“Blessed evening to all and keep Christ in your Christmas.”
Generations from now it will still be expounded
How St Nick had the courage to stand up and be counted.

So much for the hope of reindeer meat in my dish
I guess I’ll just have a salad or a nice piece of fish.

Merry Christmas from Steve and Joyce at Exploring Kansas Outdoors

It’s funny how different bodies react to weather this time of year. Take a gander next time you’re in a public parking lot and study folks wandering to and from vehicles. You’ll see eccentric sorts wearing Bermuda shorts and flip-flops like it’s the middle of July. Someone else will cruise from warm store to vehicle in jeans and a sweater– lips and hands rosy with not a goose bump to indicate it’s below freezing. The woman shuffling to the car parked next to you might be covered Eskimo style so that you can’t tell a human is bundled inside that ski mask, sweatshirt, parka, snow pants, and boots. During your watch, you’ll see every fashion variable in between.

Each family has a mixture of these thermo-types to establish the range. Polar avoiders hate being cold and layer outdoor wear from top to bottom even on mild days. Auto-insulated folks, on the other hand, travel with a heavy coat in the car in case of bad weather but actually put it on only once or twice a winter. As long as those individuals wear long sleeves and pants, they don’t mind the cold wind’s bite, and they stride happily in brisk breezes that cause flags to fly at a 90 degree angle.

How two people with the same genes can have entirely different internal thermostats is a mystery, but it happens often. Schoolteachers see examples daily. Siblings arrive at school– one in a tee shirt and no jacket while brother or sis sports long johns peeking from edges of multi-layered sweatshirts and jeans.

Knowing this, remain alert to see who thrives in frigid weather. These folks are never happier than finding themselves somewhere that cool dawns and dusks require folks to wear jackets. Once temperatures go arctic, these individuals are in hog heaven. They come home from hunting, sledding, or feeding cattle with fogged up glasses, icicles hanging from eyebrows or mustaches, and Rudolph-style noses. As they peel away outer layers of clothing, they complain the house is too hot at 68 degrees.

Polar avoiders need to take advantage of such friends when temps plunge. Those early shiverers can stir up soup and cinnamon rolls while frostbite addicts cover heads with Stormy Kromer caps, zip insulated Carhartts, slip into heavy-duty mittens, and grab a big shovel. After an hour or so, the heat lovers can glance outside to see cleared driveways and evenly cut trails to garages and sheds. True cold devotees stay out long enough to scoop good size openings in the yard where pets can relieve themselves. They scrape snow and ice to the point wimpier loved ones could leave coats in the car because they won’t be outside long enough to need them.

This brings to mind a Wyoming road crewman. On a sizzling August day, he answered the question, “Do you prefer working outdoors in summer or winter?” After a moment’s thought, he grinned and said, “Winter. You can always add layers. In summer you’re limited to what you can take off.”

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 our nation prepares to observe the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights, some of us might be excused for wondering if the individual liberties we have come to cherish will survive another two centuries.

Although such a thought might seem preposterous in a country that prides itself — and rightly so — as the shining example of freedom in the world, intolerance of opposing ideas and values has been simmering for decades, and it appears to have reached the boiling point more recently.

While there is nothing wrong with disagreeing on how to attack the issues we face, we Americans have divided ourselves into camps unlike any time since the Civil War. This division is being fed from both extremes of the political spectrum, fueled by ideologies about government as diametrically opposed as when our nation divided itself between North and South, ripping families apart in the process.

Our Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, traces its ratification back to Dec. 15, 1791. Those first additions to the newly minted Constitution laid the necessary groundwork for the freedom of expression needed to foster active citizen participation in government. A number of those rights also have served to protect us from an overzealous or even tyrannical government.

While all 10 amendments are vitally important, the First Amendment provides the basis for every other individual freedom.

Even though it is a sickening thought, ponder with me for a moment where we would be without those guaranteed rights of expression in America.

If our citizens could no longer speak out freely on important societal issues, the public’s participation in our democracy would crater, greatly increasing the possibility for corruption, despotism and cronyism.

If we didn’t feel safe to exercise our right to peaceably assemble, to march in protest and to petition our government for a redress of our grievances, the likelihood that we could continue to make progress toward a better society and a better world most certainly would be diminished.

If Americans no longer could freely make decisions about their religious life, they might quickly find themselves ostracized if they didn’t go to the “right” church or follow the same beliefs as the majority.

If our nation’s journalists could not continue to rely upon unfettered access to the decision-makers and the decision-making processes of government, public officials might be even more encouraged to serve narrow special interests rather than the common good.

And if we were barred from utilizing all those rights to question authority and scrutinize law enforcement and our court system, then our nation’s future surely would be in jeopardy.

Even though we Americans say we cherish the fundamental right to speak our minds — and most of us are not bashful about doing just that — it has become more difficult for a variety of reasons. Certainly, the burgeoning growth of social media, fake news sites and politicians who put “beliefs” before “facts” have all contributed to the division in our country.

Rather than quell speech we don’t like, the answer to this cacophony of voices actually is “more speech.” The marketplace of ideas is how we find common ground, even though it can often be a messy process.

So, will we ever be talking of our guaranteed right to free expression in the past tense? For our sake, let’s hope not, for it would certainly sound the death knell for the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world.

On this 225th anniversary of one of our nation’s finest hours, let’s celebrate the individual rights we have as Americans. And let’s pledge to make sure those rights survive attacks from those who believe “their” way is the “only” way.

Doug Anstaett is executive director of the Kansas Press Association.

It happened to me last Saturday morning. I was halfway across town after a trip to the grocery store when I realized I didn’t have my purse. With my heart pounding and my stomach churning, I raced back to the store to search for it. Nope, nothing in my parking space or at the checkout lane I’d used. But when I hurried to the customer service desk, the clerk smiled and said “A lady turned this in a little while ago.” Sure enough, there was my missing purse- completely intact, with phone and cash and credit cards all in place. Such an immense relief!

What could have been a disastrous start to the Christmas season instead became a reaffirmation that there are a lot of good people in the world. It was a touching way to lift my spirits- and calm my rattled nerves- at the beginning of the Christmas season. (And to the unknown “Christmas Angel” who rescued my purse at the Dillons store on Vine Street around noon on Saturday, I give my most sincere and heartfelt thanks!)

Last week I attended the funeral of a wonderful person whose family suggested that in lieu of memorial contributions, friends could do random acts of kindness in memory of their loved one. What a great way to get into the holiday spirit and spread it to others.

I remember the time before Christmas several years ago when a stranger paid for our meal at a restaurant in Garden City. My husband and I marveled at how wonderful it felt to receive an anonymous gift of kindness when we were least expecting it. It inspired us to look for ways to spread the joy and touch the lives of others with the holiday spirit, too.

How about you? You may be able to lift someone’s spirits with your own small act of kindness. It doesn’t even have to cost any money to surprise and delight someone with your thoughtfulness. If you need inspiration, the internet is full of ideas, stories and surprises that can jog your imagination and creativity.

A great place to start is the list of “Kindness Ideas” at the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website. It’s huge! Check it out at www.randomactsofkindness.org.

As we embark upon the Christmas season, I encourage you to look for ways to share kindness and love with others- those you know and those you don’t know. It will make our world a better place to live.

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

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen! On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen!” Those words tell us that Santa’s reindeer are on their way. But what if we could see an actual, living reindeer? Today, in the conclusion of this special two-part holiday Kansas Profile, we’ll learn about a rural Kansas family that is incorporating reindeer into their remarkable agritourism operation.

Last week we learned about the Corbin family at Fulton Valley Farms in Butler County. David and Betty Corbin are the fifth generation on their family farm. Through the years, they diversified the operation to include a commodities brokerage and a wedding venue. Their son Richard is now a part of the operation.

One year they needed a venue for their son’s wedding reception. The wedding was in a small church but there was not enough room in the fellowship hall. They decided to clean out a barn and host the wedding reception themselves, right there on the family farmstead. It was so successful that another lady wanted to use the barn for her reception.

That was the beginning of the building which the Corbins call the Boot Scootin’ Barn. It was their first wedding venue and they found there was a lot of interest in rural, outdoor weddings. The Corbins invested in the materials and infrastructure to expand the wedding operation.

“Through the rural electric cooperative, we got a couple of big telephone poles which let us build a bridge over the creek to the woods next to the barn,” Richard Corbin said. “We used a skid steer to clear out some of the deer trails in the woods. We didn’t take out any trees, but we made nice paths for the people to walk.”

The Corbins have continued to expand and improve facilities, and use creative ideas and good customer service to grow the business. They are located in a pretty, rural setting, just minutes from Wichita and El Dorado.

Over time, they have converted buildings to offer places for meetings and retreats as well as weddings. Today the farm offers six venues: The Boot Scootin’ Barn which can hold up to 350, lodging for up to 16 in The Creek House, several outdoor wedding sites, a secluded dining location in the woods called The Bower, a corporate meeting place called The Woods Conference Center, and smaller meeting places in the Cattle Shed and the Hayloft.

In their first year of wedding operations, the Corbins hosted a half-dozen events. By 2015, they hosted 75 weddings at the farm.

Then came the holidays. “Mom loves Christmas,” Richard said. They strung lights up to 45 feet in the air through the trees across the creek and hosted Country Christmas dinners. “This year we’ll have close to 50,000 lights, all blinking in time to the music.”

The Corbins even thought about getting reindeer. It turns out one doesn’t just buy reindeer down at the sale barn. In fact, they were nowhere to be found in Kansas.

The Corbins finally found a breeder in Minnesota, but they had to order the reindeer in advance, pay a deposit, and be placed on a waiting list. Now the Corbins have them. Guests can sit in a sleigh and get their pictures taken with an authentic reindeer. Richard also takes the reindeer out on location. This year the reindeer will make 35 appearances, as far away as Omaha, Nebraska.

Visitors to Fulton Valley Farms can walk through the light displays, enjoy hot chocolate, and visit a live nativity scene.

“With all the weddings plus other special events, we figure we had nearly 20,000 people at the farm in the last year,” Richard said.

“It’s been amazing,” Betty Corbin said.

That’s certainly impressive for a place near the rural community of Towanda, population 1,319 people. Now, that’s rural.

For more information, see www.fultonvalleyfarms.com.

We commend Dave, Betty and Richard Corbin and all those involved with Fulton Valley Farms for making a difference with entrepreneurship in agritourism. “Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all!”

Wishing you happy holidays, for the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development.

In the spirit of the season this retired professor offers Kansas state lawmakers and their newly elected leaders a resolution for starting down the path to fiscal sanity.

First, end the tax experiment as the first order of business. Move state finance in the direction of tax fairness by putting 300,000 businesses back on the income tax rolls. Over two-thirds of all Kansans now believe the experiment has failed, and hard economic data confirms their belief. Public-spirited business owners also want this inequity scrapped. This step will not solve the $350 million deficit in the current fiscal year but could help, if acted on quickly, and could restore $200 million or more next fiscal year.

Second, reclaim all state sales taxes for general purposes. Stop the shell game of putting one of every six sales tax dollars in the highway fund and then robbing that fund. This action would reinstate the historic purpose of applying sales tax revenues to the core obligations of the state—public schools, state colleges and universities, and assistance to vulnerable citizens. This step could send $425 million to the state general fund and allow lawmakers to determine the appropriate allocation of those funds.

Highway lobbyists will protest loudly, but state highways should be funded by highway users, not low-income Kansans who pay a disproportionate share of the nation’s highest sales tax rates on food and may not even own a vehicle. If lawmakers have the backbone to shut the door on sales taxes for roads, road funding will still be roughly $900 million a year. Creative minds will also find ways for highway users to fund expanded road improvements, if needed.

Third, plug the leaks. Halt tax subsidies to businesses for projects of questionable economic value. State sales and income tax subsidies estimated at $125 million per year have been granted by state executives to a few selected businesses through the High Performance Incentive Program, Promoting Employment Across Kansas Program, and STAR bonds. State lawmakers should place a moratorium on authorizing new subsidies. A suspension of new projects would allow lawmakers time to assess whether these business incentives and others adopted years ago have continuing economic value to the state.

Legislative leaders should also focus a laser beam on capturing the $100s of millions in lost revenues from internet sales that escape taxation to the detriment of Main Street businesses throughout Kansas.

Fourth, restore balance to the state and local tax structure. Balance and diversity in taxes assure lower tax rates overall, reduce competition with other states, and promote tax fairness based on income. Kansas achieved near-perfect balance in its tax structure at the start of the 21st century by deriving equal proportions of revenue from its primary tax sources—property, income, and sales taxes. Two recessions and a self-inflicted tax experiment have thrown that ideal out of kilter and aggravated inequities. Regressive property and sales taxes now carry over three-fourths of the tax burden, income taxes only one-fourth. Reestablishing balance in the three-legged stool of state and local should guide any action on tax policy.

Fifth, balance the budget. Balancing revenues and expenditures seems simple and obvious, but ideologically-driven lawmakers have repeatedly failed at this constitutional obligation for the last five years. Once the Kansas Supreme Court acts on school finance, the magnitude of the heavy lifting required here will be known. Lawmakers will be expected to find common ground on spending for schools and other state obligations in tandem with the revenues required to support that spending. The ill-conceived tax cuts of 2012 will have to be part of this discussion.

No step down this path will be easy. But a new crop of legislators and their leaders appear ready to face reality and exercise common sense in restoring fiscal sanity to the state.

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

And, divided we will stand as well.

Has there ever been a time in our history when this country has been more divided than now? There is no doubt whatsoever we have two different Americas, unlike the past in many ways.

Trump was chosen as Person of the Year by the ultra liberal left Time magazine. Time wanted Hillary to have that honor instead, therefore, added a heading to the cover that reads “President of the Divided States of America.”

For the record, we were divided before Trump entered the Republican race for president. Division was (and still is) a marquee agenda of the Obama presidency.

In order to make America great again we should try to bring people together. We should all strive for a more unified America. Obviously, more can be accomplished if that occurs and Trump says he will work toward that end.

Our president-elect showed incredible resilience while campaigning, and will continue in that vein when he occupies the White House. We all may be shocked to see what happens to this country in spite of our division and monumental obstacles as we go in a totally different direction than under Obama.

I’ve said in previous letters, and I will say it again. Liberal mainstream media is out to destroy Trump, including his presidency. For example, I read recently that liberal CNN alone spent 200 more times on trashing Trump then they did with Obama giving away the farm in the middle of the night to the tune of $400 million to help Iran come closer to being a nuclear power.

The New York Times even said it needs to abandon objectivity in order to destroy Trump.

Liberal media is off the wall. Recently, it tried to tell us that although Hillary lost the election she had many successes within her failures. That same media is trying to tell us with their “fake news” Trump is inheriting a booming economy from Obama.

Personally, I believe mainstream media is responsible for what will be an Obama legacy of failure. Why? Media didn’t hold him accountable for anything so he went off the deep end on far too many things. Media also led Hillary to believe she had the election in the bag and need not worry how she campaigned, therefore, helping her lose.

Here’s an interesting stat: 57 major newspapers around the country endorsed Hillary and only two endorsed Trump. How’s that for Trump resilience against those odds!

Denzel Washington, the actor, recently said mainstream media is B.S. He said if you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed, if you do read it, you are misinformed.

What good is it for people to live in a bubble? What good is it to be misinformed? Existing in a politically unrealistic world doesn’t change the facts. Reality is reality, and truth is truth no matter what we wish those things to be.

With some, changing their minds is mission impossible. Fact after fact can be presented but to no avail. It makes one wonder what mental gymnastics (or is it gyrations) liberals undergo to continue living on what seems to be another planet, while ignoring reality.

That being said, there are some who will change and create a more unified America. We should all work toward getting people to look at the facts, not fake news. Years ago Ellis County was a Democrat stronghold. It no longer is. Many of us changed our minds, and we did when that party changed dramatically. Facts prove it changed. Worst of all, it threw religion under the bus, and went in other directions as well.

With media out to divide us even more, my advice is to check the source of any news that is negative toward Trump. Most likely it is a partisan source of misinformation.

The Pope weighed in recently on the fake news issue. He said “spreading disinformation is the greatest damage media can do” and called it sinful. As I recall, one of the commandments forbids bearing false witness against others.

Unfortunately, I doubt all those in media creating fake news care about what St. Peter has to say when the time comes.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.

December 7th is a solemn reminder of the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. While most of us were not yet born in 1941, stories have passed down from our parents and grandparents about the events of that day, as well as the subsequent changes in the world.

My grandmother, Thelma, had three brothers. One, Billy Tom Wafer, was a new pilot excited about taking to the skies. Just prior to December 7th, he arrived in the Philippine Islands as part of the 24th Pursuit Squadron. On December 8th, the Philippine Islands were attacked by the Japanese (10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor), and many of the airplanes were destroyed. As a consequence, Billy Tom was never able to fly as a pilot during World War II.

While I had learned some of the story of my great uncle, Billy Tom, it was not until about a year ago that I learned much more.

I learned that on December 8th, 1941, Billy Tom, converted from a pilot to a foot soldier, fighting against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. In a book that covers the events in the Philippines from December 1941 until April of 1942, I learned of the many hardships soldiers endured while trying to defend the Philippines. I learned of their starvation. I learned of their eventual capture and their experiences on the Bataan March.

The book ends there. From that point forward, the story is recounted by my grandmother. I was also able to find some history by following military records.

After the Bataan Death March, Billy Tom spent time in various prison camps. His family thought he was deceased (they thought that for over three years). On two different occasions (and two different ships), Billy Tom was shipped from the Philippines to Japan. On one ship, there were approximately 1,600 prisoners. When that ship was sunk, the U.S. prisoners were put on another ship. It too was sunk. By the time they arrived in Japan in January, 1945, out of the 1,600 prisoners, less than 400 had survived. Billy Tom eventually ended up in a prison camp in Korea.

It was only after being placed in Korea, and near the very end of the war, did my grandmother learn that her brother was still alive. His pre-war fiancé, Betty, had already given him up as dead, and had married. Upon learning that he was still alive, Betty, who had only been married a short time, promptly divorced her husband and waited for Billy Tom’s arrival back home.

I share this story with you because I hear many stories like it in my office. Sometimes I see people suffer such “bad luck” and never turn their lives around. Other times, I see people who face some major obstacles in life, but do not let those obstacles stop them from making the most of each day.

Recently, I was talking with a relative as he neared the end of his life. He was lamenting about the things that had gone wrong and mistakes that he had made. I knew enough about the events of his life to know many of the wonderful things he had done, and the many people he had touched along the way. I reminded him.

I am hoping that what you take from this article is this. Your past is your past. I hope that when we are in the second half of life, we will look forward and not backwards. While our history is important and does make us who we are, it should not stop us from enjoying our second half of life. It should not stop us from being who we want to be.

In September, 1945, Billy Tom was eventually freed. Because of his emaciated state, he was shipped to Cuba, along with many other freed prisoners of war. He spent time there on the beach recuperating and as he said, “fattening himself up”.
He was finally united with my grandmother, his mother, and his brothers.

After about six months, the relationship with Betty was rekindled and Billy Tom and Betty were married. Billy Tom remained in the military and they moved to Langley, Virginia. Billy Tom died about a year and a half after being freed, doing what he always wanted to do – flying an airplane. While testing a new “jet”, it exploded in midair during an airshow.

When December 8th comes around each year, I will always think of Billy Tom, and the tribulations he endured during the war. Yet, he never gave up. He married his childhood sweetheart and he flew again. He did not let his past stop him from enjoying life.

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.

I’m not surprised that Ed Cross again is trying to defend the oil and gas industry as good stewards of the environment and with the importance of its products to our way of life (“Petroleum: Commodity essential to our life”, December 6). The industry has a vested interest in maintaining our dependence on fossil fuels and debunking their role in causing climate change. Exxon’s executives have known for nearly 40 years that burning fossil fuels was the primary cause of the climate change we’re experiencing today, but chose to sow doubt on peer-reviewed research done by climate scientists and misinform the public about the issue (www.goo.gl/xF7XUW).

Wouldn’t it be better to formulate your opinion on human-caused climate change based on research conducted by climate scientists published in peer-reviewed journals, rather than misleading information provided by the fossil-fuel industry from studies it paid for and published in journals disseminated by organizations with a political agenda?

Climate change is a complex subject for those of us who aren’t climate scientists. If you want to learn more about climate change, check out the series of easy-to-understand 6-minute videos at www.goo.gl/NPxuQG by Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University. Or read the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report Summary for Policy Makers (www.goo.gl/iFNBhb). To see the effects of climate change around the world, watch Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary, “Before the Flood.”

The options for addressing climate change don’t have to be regulatory like the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan. The Carbon Fee and Dividend is a market-based proposal designed to price fossil fuels to account for their health, environmental, and economic costs (www.goo.gl/XRh899).

Helen Hands, Hays

Record crops, low commodity prices and stalled trade negotiations spell troubled times for Kansas farmers and ranchers heading into 2017.

Like many other small businesses, inputs to produce a bumper crop generally entail an abundance of costs as well. Except for lower fuel prices, most agricultural inputs remain high and continue to rise.

Drive through rural Kansas and you’ll see huge piles of red and gold grain lying on the ground. Talk to farmers and ranchers and they’ll tell you their near economic prospects don’t look good.

“Insight” visited with Congressman-elect Roger Marshall at the recent Kansas Farm Bureau convention to ask him what could be done to remedy some of the ailments in farm country.

Marshall campaigned on a platform of bringing Kansas farmers a voice on the House Ag Committee. He labeled himself a “fifth generation farm kid” and said, “I do know what the back side of a tractor feels like and I hauled a lot of hay in my day.”

He’s practiced as an OB-GYN and served as Chairman of the Board of Great Bend Regional Hospital. Marshall says some of his best knowledge about agriculture was learned while he served as a board member of the Farmer’s Bank and Trust in Great Bend.

“Times are tough in agriculture,” Marshall says. “And there are no simple solutions.”

Beefing up our trade policy would help the Kansas farmer, he says. While he understands president-elect Trump is against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in its present form. He is committed to free and fair trade and that may leave room to work.

Many farmers, ranchers and other ag leaders realize if this nation engaged in more free trade it would drive up prices.

“If we passed TPP tomorrow, it’d mean $400,000 a day of additional cattle sales to the Pacific-rim countries,” Marshall says.

Positive trade deals could provide Kansas farmers and ranchers with an opportunity to remain competitive in today’s global marketplace. If the United States stays on the sideline, others will continue to sign trade agreements with China, India, Japan and many other developing countries who would welcome Kansas’ high quality feed grains, protein, value-added products and manufactured goods.

Marshall also believes decreasing regulations in agriculture, banking and health care could drive the cost of inputs down.

“The new administration is going to come in and say, ‘halt and desist’ to the Environmental Protection Agency,” the congressman-elect says. “I expect (legislation on) Waters of the United States (WOTUS) to slow down or stop all together.

“When you look at the law that talks about navigable streams, as near as I can tell, water running in a ditch is not navigable where I come from.”

Tax reform is another way to help this country’s economy and that of Kansas farmers and ranchers, Marshall says. He believes a reduction in corporate taxes will spur companies and individuals to invest money and grow businesses.

Rebuilding this nation’s infrastructure could also invigorate this nation’s economy.

“Buckle in because we’re going to start to work on Jan. 4,” Marshall says. “Congress will no longer conduct two and three-day work weeks. Our new president expects us to produce and we expect to operate as a Congress of action. We’re going to turn our economy around.”

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

Well, we have a brand-new plan to balance the state budget starting July 1, but instantly, it has become an “us vs. them” political scrap that is likely to put the state Legislature into several fights that it’s too early to handicap.

The plan presented last week by a coalition of groups—interested in financing schools, building highways, taking care of the needs of the poor and paying state employees who are vital to meeting those needs—pencils out nicely to raise money for those purposes.

The Kansas Center for Economic Growth pulled together a wide range of interest groups to assemble a new tax regimen for the state and included taxing those 330,000 LLC-owning Kansans who don’t pay taxes now, reshuffling the tax rates to see the wealthy paying more taxes, cutting the sales tax on food, and boosting the tax on gasoline by 11 cents a gallon.

Instantly, Gov. Sam Brownback’s office slapped the venture, saying it will raise taxes on Kansans. That’s generally a bad political thing to do.

Oddly, few are looking back to the 2012 massive tax cuts at how nice it felt for a year or two, while the state had balances in its budget to make negligible the effects of less money coming into the treasury.

Anyone else thinking that with the knowledge that the state was going to start taking in less money, it would have been a good time to start looking for efficiencies, for sharing of government resources, for finding ways to save money so that those shrinking revenues would cover the cost of services that Kansans want?

Well, that didn’t happen. That’s why the shrinking revenues—for both the current half-over fiscal year and the upcoming two years that Gov. Sam Brownback will present his budget for in January—are scary.

Oh, the governor and Legislature managed while revenues have been dropping the past couple years to cut their way out of a deficit. The Legislature made some cuts in spending, the governor made some cuts in spending, but there really hasn’t been much of a plan for reducing spending or finding efficiencies in government that would match costs with the tax revenue available to finance those costs.

Kansans have seen what amounts to stomping out fires instead of preventing them in the first place.

But, that’s where we are now, legislators say, and some of those new legislators who won election in November are recalling that the job ahead of them didn’t seem nearly so big last spring as it did after their election and the estimates of state revenue for the current and upcoming years subsequently were revealed.

Now, that Center for Economic Growth plan has an interesting wrinkle. Do all the tax increases and shuffling to boost state revenues when the Legislature opens before dealing with the immediate $350 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. An interesting idea. Patch the roof before you dry out the carpet. Probably the way you’d manage your business or household.

With about one-third of the total Legislature being new this year, those newbies are likely to see the advantage of making long-term policy first, essentially creating solid ground to work from in the future, and then dealing with the emergency budget shortfall once the future is secure.

But, doable? Probably not likely, because the Legislature tends to deal with immediate problems, and two-year House terms and four-year Senate terms and a new governor in 2018 tend to make looking into the future very far difficult.

The roofing project might sound logical, but the culture of the Legislature tends to want to dry out the carpet first.

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.