Dorothy Barnett, Executive Director of the Climate and Energy Project, Hutchinson
By DOROTHY BARNETT CEP Executive Director
I recently had the pleasure of participating in a Faith & Public Policy Forum hosted by Kansas Interfaith Action. Kansas Interfaith Action (KIFA) is a statewide, multi-faith issue-advocacy organization that “puts faith into action” by educating, engaging and advocating on behalf of people of faith and the public regarding critical social, economic, and climate justice issues.
Although the organization is fairly new, our relationship with them started many years ago when former CEP staffer Eileen Horn started the Kansas Chapter of Interfaith Power & Light. KIFA Executive Director, Rabbi Moti Rieber was at first a member of KSIPL’s board before taking over the organization. Moti’s work on the religious response to climate change in Kansas was instrumental in much of the clean energy success our state has seen and I’m excited to see where he’ll lead this new organization.
Listening to the Kansas Center for Economic Growth outline our difficult budget picture and Kansas Action for Children share their report “Repairing the Kansas Safety Net” helped me have a greater understanding about the challenges facing all Kansans. As a parent with a college student, I was glad to know that a newly formed coalition, Kansans Against Campus Carry hosted a concert September 25th to kick-off a statewide campaign to prevent campus carry. I found this great editorial by KSU professor Philip Nel on their Facebook page.
While listening to the Health Reform Resource Project, what struck me was not only concern for the more than 150,000 Kansans who currently fall into a health coverage gap, but also by the economic opportunities the state is leaving on the table. According to information shared by the Alliance For A Healthy Kansas, if KanCare was expanded, more than 3,800 jobs would be created across the state.
My portion of the panel focused on potential economic opportunities for renewable energy and energy efficiency. I spoke about the current KCP&L Energy Efficiency docket and ways for citizens to share their thoughts on utility EE programs. I talked about trends and opportunities for expanding access to clean energy and I also shared an update on the Clean Power Plan and how important our voices are in our energy future.
I hope you’ll join the upcoming Faith & Public Policy Forum and learn more about all of these very important issues. Your voice matters in each of these critical issues.
Monday, October 17th 7-9 pm – in Hays Sternberg Museum of Natural History, 3000 Sternberg Drive.
Panelists include: – Budget and Tax: Heidi Holliday – Executive Director, Kansas Council on Economic Growth – KanCare Expansion: David Jordan – Director, Alliance for a Healthy Kansas – “Campus Carry”: Megan Jones – Kansans Against Campus Carry – Climate and Clean Energy: Dorothy Barnett – Executive Director, Climate & Energy Project – Moderator: Rabbi Moti Rieber – Executive Director, Kansas Interfaith Action
In this presidential election cycle, has part of America become morally bankrupt?
I think I can make the case that it sure seems like that is happening.
Both political parties appear to be guilty. I believe, however, looking at the big picture, one is far worse than the other and maybe some other writer can present the other side. If somebody does, I challenge whomever to show where the level of immorality is the same.
Surely by now, readers are aware Wikileaks hacked emails prove the Democrat National Committee (DNC) was corrupt in selecting Hillary as its nominee. From the very start of campaigning, Bernie Sanders had absolutely no way of being the Democrat’s choice. The process was corrupted from the get go by the party’s most important central governing body.
Corruption equals immorality, and it is massive in our present Obama administration and will even be worse should Hillary become president.
Isn’t it interesting that Republicans are held to a whole different standard than Democrats? The whole world came unglued recently about Trump’s crude and sexist remarks 11 years ago. Yet, Hillary and Obama can say and do anything. And then there is husband Bill Clinton, the most popular Dem ever, even as a sexual predator who lied under oath as our sitting president.
There is a huge contrast, obviously, between the two parties in many ways. Many Republicans are jumping ship over Trump’s so-called non-presidential behavior. Do you see any Dems jumping ship over multiple Obama and Hillary scandals? Both have lied and betrayed Americans, but it makes no difference to their voters.
A synonym for moral is the word “trustworthy.” Every two out of three voters (including Democrats) consider her to be “untrustworthy” yet many will vote for her. The word “unconscionable” comes to mind and what does that say about this country’s moral principles?
According to Hillary and company, Republicans are racist, homophobes, Islamophobes, sexists, even bigots. It’s in their playbook to call Republicans names. Demonizing by painting with a broad brush is non-Christian but whom on the left cares?
Hillary also said recently that half of Trump’s supporters were deplorable and irredeemable. A person that I grew up with, now lives north of Hays, says I am all of those things just listed.
Studies show that Reps are more likely to attend church regularly and more likely to donate to charity. Perhaps most important of all a majority are pro life. Taking the life of defenseless unborn babies through abortion doesn’t seem to be a problem for most Dems, yet they have the gall to call us names.
Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine claims to be a devout Catholic but accepts abortion like any other liberal Democrat. A bishop called him out recently stating you can not be a good Catholic and support abortion. Our present VP Joe Biden is no different than Kaine.
Isn’t it the Republicans on the right that are called the moral majority or the Christian religious right, even Bible thumping people? Is there something wrong with that? Not to me. Dems on the left are known as secularists and are opposed to religion being any part of politics or government.
Hollywood, where anything is acceptable, supports Hillary big time. What these days we call entertainment on the screen makes Trump’s remarks look like just another walk in the park, so to speak.
Never mentioned by media, but the many communist (atheistic) U.S. organizations are all Hillary supporters. God help us, even teachers’ unions have become liberal and progressive and all that goes with that like free condoms for young children.
Where on God’s green earth is it better to be dependent on government handouts (welfare) than to take personal responsibility by working? It’s immoral for government to deliberately keep people poor and dependent on welfare in order to get votes. Obviously, Dems aren’t really for the poor or the war on poverty would not be a failure.
At this point in my writing, I have a huge question. Is it moral to distort, even lie, about a presidential candidate just because he is on the Republican ticket? And, there are also sins of omission ignoring scandals and corruption by one candidate while making mountains out of mole hills in the case of the other candidate. Enter – corrupt media!
Mainstream liberal media in this country has lost all integrity. A corrupt media is backing a corrupt candidate and not even trying to hide their bias.
There’s evidence of collusion between TV networks involved in the debates and Hillary. Mainstream media, whether TV, newspapers, Facebook, Google, Univision, etc. intends to choose our president, not we the people. For god’s sake, how is a Republican supposed to win an election with most media, Hollywood, even higher education all acting as an arm of the Democrat Party?
Liberal media is flat out determined to take out any Republican president no matter who it is, even if it was Mother Teresa. Trump (like Mitt Romney) is being demonized like you wouldn’t believe.
In as much as it appears we have gone off the deep end morally in choosing our next president, I predict voter fraud like never before in American history. There will be dead people voting, people voting multiple times and in different states, even non citizens voting. There will probably be technical glitches in counting ballots like never before.
Nothing will be left to chance. Every effort will be made to put Hillary back in the White House, not as the First Lady, but as the most powerful person in the world.
There will be hell to pay if we don’t get it right. Some will think I make that statement figuratively speaking, others may take it literally. At any rate, if we don’t get it right, America could be changed forever in ways that our children and grandchildren will be the ones to suffer the most.
There could be an America beyond recognition as we have known this country to be in the past. It may be now or never culturally – and otherwise.
Maybe, for those of us on the religious right, what’s needed, considering the odds with massive corruption, is divine intervention.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
The arguments over whether Kansas is funding an adequate education for Kansas children have mainly focused on test scores as the scale to grade school quality. Defenders of the Kansas Legislature underfunding point to NAEP scores that have remained mediocre over time. Advocates for more spending point to an increase in state assessment scores when funding went up, and a recent decline when funding was cut.
Educational test results are misused by both sides in a manner that recalls Mark Twain’s comment about “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Student standardized test scores have been mis-used to judge students, teachers, principals, schools and state systems.
But test scores are not an indicator of good schools. And nobody knows the limitations of tests better than Harvard Professor Daniel Koretz, an expert in testing.
In his book for teachers, “Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us,” Koretz explains his frustration with folks who move into a neighborhood and ask him to identify good schools, because as an expert on testing, he obviously would know. While tests scores are not irrelevant, he advises parents to look at many more factors: music and athletic programs, special curricula, the variety of teachers and students, etc. He tells them to visit the school to observe the student engagement, teacher professionalism, school-wide enthusiasm, and “spirited discussion among the students.”
Unfortunately, we hear little to nothing about these complex factors that spur intellectual growth in our wide variety of schoolchildren. Instead, combatants in the Kansas school funding case, similar to Koretz’s friends, want a simple criteria: test scores. His reply was simple: “If all you want is high average test scores, tell your realtor that you want to buy into the highest-income neighborhood you can manage. That will buy you the highest average score you can afford.”
I use Koretz’s book to train my student teachers how scores on high-stakes tests do not tell us all we need to know about student achievement or school quality.
But I constantly run into another myth: “The public demands accountability!” Supposedly, everyone in Kansas is only concerned that their child gets high scores on a narrow range of standardized tests in language arts and math. I don’t think so.
The parents I know are interested in having teachers who will care about their child. Who will help them to develop good habits as young ladies and gentlemen. To guide them to be honest. To treat others fairly. To enjoy some art and some music. To develop their different talents. And to respect other students who are different.
The last 15-years of No Child left Behind test-and-punish has narrowed our children’s education, driven many good veteran teachers from the profession, and discouraged a generation of students from entering the teaching profession.
The core of this problem is the external testing. Teachers have been giving their own customized tests as part of their internal teaching and for their own use to determine how best to teach their students. Teaching-to-the-test never became a problem until the test was externalized as state “assessments.” This in turn drove standardized teaching with the one goal of every student scoring higher on the uniform test.
Students come into our classes unique. They should graduate out unique. Instead, external one-size-fits-all tests have driven much classroom teaching for over a decade with disastrous results.
Anyone who had taken a course in “Tests and Measurements” would have understood the severe limitations of testing. But ironically, this is the very course that many Schools of Education dropped from their curriculum long ago. Had they continued teaching the limitations of tests, as Koretz does today, perhaps we would never have gotten into the NCLB testing addiction that continues today under ESSA.
Similar to my colleagues, I have more students who hold up a hand and ask: “Is this going to be on the test?”
I simply reply: “No, it is much more important than that.”
Very soon, you will be seeing members of your area Knights of Columbus organizations volunteering and collecting donations during their annual Tootsie Roll Drive. The Knights conduct this special drive for the benefit of people with disabilities. The people who receive services from Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas have been one of the many fortunate recipients from this fundraiser. Your contributions and the generosity of the K of C have allowed us to offer much needed support to those we serve.
One of the ways that the Tootsie Roll Drive benefits the individuals that we serve is our Consumer Medical Fund. Thanks to the Knights and your contributions, DSNWK was able to establish this fund and assist individuals with disabilities with the cost of medical items and care that are not covered by Medicaid such as dental expenses and adaptive equipment.
I hope that you will all support the Knights with their annual Tootsie Roll fundraiser and thank them for their generosity. I know DSNWK appreciates their kindness and support of the people we serve and wishes them the best of luck.
Steve Keil,
Director of Development
Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas
There are inside-the-Statehouse maneuvers that most Kansans don’t have a lot of reason to take interest in—but which shake the ground inside the building where everyone is looking for a political or tactical advantage.
It appears that Gov. Sam Brownback’s not-very-catchily named “Governor’s Consensus Revenue Estimating Working Group” is one of those maneuvers.
The goal: To have that six-member Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, which includes two members of the governor’s staff, a member of the Legislature’s Research Department and three university-named economists, come up with the most accurate estimates possible of the revenue coming into the state treasury.
The closer the estimate, the more accurately the governor and Legislature can assemble a budget and make tax policy for the state. You gotta know where you are financially to make decisions on where you’re going. That’s pretty simple.
It’s why you shop for a Chevy, not a Cadillac.
So, the working group came up with some suggestions—more data, more input from industry folks, bankers and others—to improve the state revenue estimating process. Those estimates in recent years have generally been less than actual receipts, which means that budgets have to be cut and shuffled to make it through the fiscal year.
Now, those changes Brownback’s panel suggested probably aren’t all bad. The more information you have, the better estimate you get and the better taxing and spending decisions you make.
But…while that sounds good, legislators are starting to wonder why just now Brownback wants these changes made in a decades-old estimating procedure.
Many are thinking about timing. The new and likely more accurate estimates aren’t likely to be made before the key date of Nov. 10. That’s when the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group is scheduled to produce its estimate of revenues for the remainder of this fiscal year, next fiscal year and the one after. Those are the figures that the governor uses to craft his budget to present to the Legislature in January when the 2017 session opens.
Probably a good time to mention that this January will be Brownback’s last budget submission to the Legislature, now that he’s put the state on a two-year, or biennial, budget system, which means this will be the budget for the last two years of the second and last term of his governorship.
Don’t count on that altered, and presumably more accurate, budget estimating process to get into full gear until May 1. Once the fully-ramped up and presumably more accurate budget estimate process is in full gear, it’s likely to present that likely lower budget estimate to the Legislature on May 1.
And…that’s where things get interesting.
Legislators are near-certain that as usual, the actual revenues flowing into the state won’t support the governor’s budget, so they will be the ones who have to cut spending on the last few days of the session, taking out those politically popular/necessary spending items that Brownback will have offered in his well-publicized State of the State speech.
That means legislators are the ones carving away at services that their constituents want, they are the ones delaying that road project, that assistance for the poor and sick.
So while accurate revenue estimates are great…it’s when they actually hit the hard world of appropriations that is the political key here.
Yes, some legislators believe they’re being set up with this new interest in accurate revenue forecasts, that they’ll be the ones who pay the political price.
Oh, and don’t forget if the Legislature shears the governor’s budget and more accurate revenue projections still prove too low, then the governor can single-handedly make the cuts without legislative oversight. That hands him more control over what Kansas looks like than he could probably get lawmakers—who aren’t looking at their constitutional last term in office—to approve.
Yes, this will be interesting to watch…
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.
Upland game hunters remain positive about a good season this fall in Kansas. Talk with landowners in the western half of Kansas and they will tell you rainfall this summer has resulted in more birds for the upcoming fall season. This year promises to be as good as 2015 and maybe better as hunters scour the countryside in search of pheasants, quail, ducks and other species of wildlife.
It goes without saying that Kansas farms and ranches have always been a handy, ready-to-use outlet for many urban dwellers who travel outside their city homes in search of recreational hunting. On opening day of the upland game season, the interstate and U.S. highways will be a steady stream of pickups, SUVs and cars headed for central and western Kansas.
If you’re one of these hunters who plan to hunt on private land, remember one key word when your thoughts turn toward hunting. This word is consideration. Translated, this word means thoughtful and sympathetic regard.
In this country, wildlife belongs to the people, but landowners have the right to say who goes on their land. If you are interested in hunting, make arrangements before you hunt.
Don’t wait until the day you plan to hunt someone’s land and then pound on their door at 6 a.m. Once you’ve secured permission, here are some suggestions to follow to ensure a lasting relationship between you and the landowner.
Agree on who, and how many, will hunt on the land. Specify number and furnish names. Talk about specific times and dates you plan to hunt.
Phone each and every time before you plan to hunt, and let the landowner know your intentions. The landowner may have forgotten about your original conversation. It’s just common courtesy to say hello before hunting and ask again for the opportunity – or privilege to hunt on someone’s property.
Determine exactly where on the land you have permission to hunt. Some areas may be off-limits because of livestock or crops.
Always, and I can’t stress this enough, leave gates the way you find them. If they are open, leave them that way. If they are closed, shut them after you pass through.
If you ever leave a gate open and a farmer’s cow herd gets out of the pasture, “Katie bar the door.” You’ll never be invited back to hunt.
Once you’ve enjoyed a successful hunt, stop by to thank the landowner for his generosity. Offer to share the game you bag.
After the season ends, write a note expressing your appreciation for the opportunity to hunt. You may also find out what the landowner and his/her family enjoys eating or drinking and drop by later with a gift.
Leasing of land by the hunter from the landowner is becoming more
popular in Kansas. Such agreements allow hunters a guaranteed hunting site. It
also provides the landowner income to recoup some of the investment he needs to leave habitat suitable for wildlife to survive and prosper.
If you enter into such a lease, make sure it is written and includes all provisions both parties deem necessary. This should include a clause for the landowner and his or her family to hunt on the land.
Remember that the hunter and landowner should always discuss the terms of the hunt before hunting begins. This is extremely important. And hunters, never forget you are a guest and it is a privilege to hunt on the owner’s land.
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center.So, consider the internet to be one, big ole’ bucket of free expression — news and information pouring in constantly.
And then consider what would you want poured into that bucket? What would you keep out?
Those two simple questions likely will occupy much time and talk over the next years, if not the next decades, as we are forced to consider the nature of the stuff — speech, news and information — that goes into and comes out of the World Wide Web.
If you live in the United States and live under the First Amendment as it currently stands, the immediate answer to “in-out” questions, with very few exceptions, is “Whatever I want.”
Nothing in the 45 words that define our core freedoms provides for limits or gives specific guidance to anybody. And so for at least the last 100 years, the tilt has been toward more speech, more protections for a free press and more informational “stuff” for everybody.
Google, Facebook and their e-contemporaries, as private not government operations, are free to post, block or remove content as they will — on our behalf. Most cite “community standards” as reasons for impeding the free flow of information through their products and services.
But “going global” via the web raises new issues and new standards, often in contradictory ways.
Several reports over the past few days highlight the old and new complexity behind “simple” editorial decisions and algorithmic applications of group standards in planetary systems.
Journalism think tank Poynter reported a few days go on a large surge in requests to U.S. news outlets to remove past items, for reasons ranging from not-guilty verdicts to plain embarrassment — a manifestation of something engagingly called “the right to be forgotten.”
And a European human rights group called on the United Kingdom to prevent news outlets in the UK from reporting whether or not terrorists are Muslim, as a means of fighting Islamophobia and countering violence against law-abiding Muslims.
Consider the implications eliminating negative information and images from our varied web personifications. Sure, news reports of that humiliating court appearance continue to sting, even if the case was dismissed. Or paying a fine disposed of the legal aspects of that relatively minor traffic violation. Even in more serious matters, once one has paid their “debt to society,” as it was once politely referred to, what’s the value in continuing to be connected to a past act?
For one thing, such reports are an independent record of what actually happened, not subject to future spiteful revision or gossipy inaccuracies. When contained in a public record, such accounts also serve to hold public officials accountable, particularly when aggregated to show trends, spending patterns and perhaps questionable discrepancies and unfairness.
Scrubbing news reports of religious references when terrorism is involved — in the name of preventing slurs and violence aimed at an entire faith community — has a noble ring to it. But taking a shortcut through a full reporting by a free press as a means of combating the seamy side of societal bigotry and overreaction seems an unlikely and largely ineffective path to a better world.
Where does such an approach stop? Should those periodic bursts of armed conflict between India and Pakistan be vaguely reported as “things that kind of happen between two nations that don’t seem to like each other,” ignoring the faith-based, Hindu-Muslim nature of the long-extant dispute? Should violence flare again in Northern Ireland, are news operations to be required to treat it as a kind of “skin-and-shirts” intramural contest gone awry, not a battle between Protestant and Catholic extremists? When tribal identity and tensions in Africa result in war, should the media just say it happened “well, because some people didn’t like other people”?
“Forgetting” factual reports or preventing the free flow of information as uncomfortable and inconvenient as it may be will create information “holes” where unfounded rumor, false data and outright fiction will reign unrefuted.
Credible information, freely reported and freely discussed, is the foundation for self-governance and democratic societies, which survive and thrive on “facts” on which to build discussion and decision. And a credible record of the past is required to measure the present and realistically prepare for the future.
To revise history in the name of personal comfort, or to limit the flow of information to deal with unwanted outcomes, risks transforming the vaunted “marketplace of ideas” — that crucible in which we debate, disagree but hopefully discover the best ideas for the public good — into little more than a carnival sideshow.
And such moves could well turn the World Wide Web, with its optimistic promise of making more information available to more people than at any time in human history, into a New Age version of that Shakespearian vision in Macbeth of “a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.”
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]
Linda BeechCommunity food drives provide an important source of food for families trying to make ends meet. They also give neighbors the chance to help neighbors and instill the values of sharing and caring in children. While food pantries and the people they serve are grateful for any and all donations, giving an assortment of healthy foods will help food pantry users have better diets.
Fall food drives begins this month with the “Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat” campaigns in Ellis on Sunday, October 9 and in Hays on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Food collections often continue throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season in churches, schools, clubs and other organizations. This is an important time of year for local food pantries to fill their shelves to help those in need.
You can give the gift of better health by providing nutritious non-perishable food items to food drives in your community.
Many Americans eat more calories than they need. But it’s important to realize that although an overweight person may look well-fed, he or she may be filling up on calorie-dense food that doesn’t contain the nutrients his or her body needs.
In the United States today, health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity are common.
Unfortunately, the prevalence of these conditions is often higher among people who use food pantries.
The good news is that these conditions can in part be controlled by the foods a person eats. Eating fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, lean proteins, and foods that are lower in salt and sugar can go a long way toward improving health and feeling good.
Before you give to your local food drive, think about filling a healthy plate. Use the food groups of the MyPlate as a guide for food drive donations with a healthier twist:
Fruit group: canned fruit in juice or light syrup, 100 percent fruit juice, raisins or other dried fruit.
Vegetable group: Low sodium canned vegetables– especially dark green and deep orange varieties, tomatoes and tomato sauces, low sodium canned soup, dry potato products.
Grain group: whole-grain unsweetened breakfast cereal, whole-grain pasta and crackers, oatmeal, brown rice, popcorn, cornmeal, whole wheat flour.
Dairy group: nonfat dry milk, evaporated canned milk, shelf-stable milk boxes.
Protein group: canned or dried beans, water-packed canned tuna and salmon, canned chicken, unsalted nuts, nut butters.
For individuals with limited kitchen access, consider single-serve canned pull-tab foods such as fruits, vegetables, pastas, stews, chicken and noodles, etc. and single-serve items such as granola bars, packs of nuts or dried fruit, and individual juice packs or boxes.
Contact your local food pantry to find out what other items they need, such as infant formula, baby food, sugar-free or gluten-free items, or other foods for special dietary concerns.
K-State Research and Extension has developed a new bookmark-size flyer listing healthy options for donated foods. Use it for your own reference, or share it with others as you prepare for a food drive. Find it on our Ellis County Extension Office website at www.ellis.ksu.edu.
When donating food for a food drive at holiday time– or anytime– choose foods that provide maximum nutrition from each food group of MyPlate. Your neighbors will eat healthier when you contribute more nutritious foods.
Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
MANHATTAN – This year marks the 22nd anniversary of Kansas State University’s hard red winter wheat variety, Jagger. This variety has made an impact in several countries, states and individual farms, since its release in 1994. Not only was it one of the most widely-planted varieties, but one of the best parent varieties as well.
Dr. Rollin Sears, a retired wheat breeder for K-State and later AgriPro/Syngenta, made the initial cross for Jagger and several other widely-accepted varieties during his career.
“When I came to Kansas, I noticed that most of the time wheat never ripens in Kansas. It usually dies because of the drought or high temperature. So, I was looking for and making crosses to try to identify wheats that would actually ripen and not die. Jagger was that variety.”
Jagger was named after Minneapolis, Kansas, wheat farmer, Joe Jagger. Prior to that time, K-State had never named a wheat variety after a wheat farmer before, since they were always named after locations. Sears wanted to name the variety after Jagger, but wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.
“I asked four or five key wheat breeders, after Joe’s passing, and all of them started to cry because they felt so affectionate for Joe and realized the impact he’d had on wheat, so I knew it was the right decision,” said Sears on naming the variety after Jagger.
Over the past few years, Jagger has been marketed by the Kansas Wheat Alliance (KWA). This variety may not be seen in many fields across the state as Jagger anymore, but it lives on in the pedigree of several current varieties. Those varieties include K-State’s Everest, Joe – KWA’s newest hard white wheat variety released in 2015 – and Tatanka, one of KWA’s newest hard red wheats released this fall. In addition to having a high percentage of pedigrees worldwide, it was also part of the foundation for wheat breeding.
Sears explained the moment he chose the cross for Jagger.
“I could take you to the exact spot where Jagger was selected at Ashland Bottoms. It was just one of those things where you’re just walking along and you’re looking at thousands of rows of wheat and then, all of a sudden, you come to this row, and it’s like love at first sight when you see it, and you know that this is going to be a successful variety of wheat,” said Sears.
Jagger was planted in two foundation fields in its first year. Nine years later, it reached its peak and had nearly 35,000 acres of Certified seed production with 1.3 million bushels of Certified seed produced that year. Even this year, Certified Jagger is still being produced. During the span of 22 years, over 10 million bushels of Jagger Certified seed has been sold in Kansas alone.
In the first spring after Jagger’s release, a series of killing frosts wiped through Kansas, severely injuring many of the Jagger fields. During that time, several farmers had started to give up on Jagger, but after a cool spring with a few good rains, Jagger fields made an astounding recovery. After that, Jagger had a series of good years with successful yields.
Sears recalled knowing that Jagger would be a good variety because he noticed there was something special about this variety, but he never imagined that it would be such a popular variety, accepted in so many different places.
Jagger’s strengths include a fast establishment in the fall, exceptional baking quality, good performance on low-pH soils, very good drought tolerance and moderate resistance to tan spot. On the other hand, Jagger had a few weaknesses. This variety had been known to shatter, have below-average straw strength, is susceptible to leaf rust and Hessian fly, moderately susceptible to stripe rust and had below-average test weight.
This popular variety has been successful across all the Central and Southern Plains. It also has good tolerance to drought and wheat streak mosaic virus in the region.
At the Borlaug Summit convention in 2014, a farmer from the Republic of Georgia, a small country between Europe and Asia, told Sears he had wanted to thank him for a long time because Jagger had saved his farm.
In Jagger’s lifespan, it was planted as a significant variety in 12 countries. It was a hard working variety for farmers because it was dependable and didn’t give up. At one point, Jagger was planted on nearly every acre in south central Kansas.
“It’s humbling to know that at one point you held all the Jagger that existed in the world in the palm of your hand. Then the seed was increased and grown by everybody and got up to over 15 million acres,” explained Sears.
The Kansas Wheat Alliance is a not-for-profit organization formed by wheat producers, researchers, and seed marketers with the goal of maximizing value for wheat farmers by promoting responsible management of new wheat varieties developed by Kansas State University and other wheat-breeding programs. Royalties are used to support wheat research that enhances the profitability of wheat producers.
With the approach of upcoming elections I am reminded of a private conversation five years ago with Governor Sam Brownback’s chief of staff who mused: “The real issue is whether conservatives can govern.” At that time I held out hope that the relatively new governor and his legislative allies could govern effectively. I was wrong.
The Brownback coalition dominated by far-right ideologues has left Kansas government in a state of despair. Their fanatical vision of boosting the economy by eliminating the state income tax, cutting taxes on the wealthy, and exempting businesses from taxation has not worked. Their delusion has wrecked state finance and caused grim repercussions for most state services.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.
Brownback and his allies were foolhardy to believe from the start that handing big tax breaks to a few of the highest-income taxpayers would magically trigger an “adrenaline shot” to the $150 billion Kansas economy. That has not happened. The economy has fallen behind in job and income growth. Indeed, recent numbers suggest we may be going backwards.
The radical tax policy has left formerly well-managed state finances in shambles.
This far-right faction claims to be “conservative” but has repeatedly adopted unbalanced budgets, spending more than is taken in. A budget balance of $700 million only a few years ago has been depleted, leaving not a penny in the state’s pocket. Last spring lawmakers had the audacity to adopt a budget $100 million out of balance and then adjourn. Our state now behaves like a deadbeat by not paying bills on time.
Tax policy now benefits the wealthy to the detriment of other taxpayers. Business owners pay no income tax while their employees do. Lawyers pay no income tax but their secretaries do. Two sales tax increases have made the state’s sale tax on food the highest in the nation, a heavy burden on lower-income Kansans. Over this period property taxes have risen by $550 million statewide, not counting the bills taxpayers will see later this year.
A conservative posture in the use of debt has been abandoned, as current obligations are pushed onto future generations. State taxpayers have been saddled with new, long-term liabilities, and the state’s debt load has ballooned to an all-time high of $4.5 billion, a jump of 50 percent in two years. Statutory caps on borrowing were suspended to issue $400 million in highway debt, which was immediately swept from the highway fund to pay for tax cuts. Financial mismanagement has resulted in repeated downgrades of the state’s credit rating.
As a consequence of this financial mess public schools have been shortchanged, highway maintenance has been deferred, and university budgets have been cut forcing hefty increases in student tuition, fees, and debt. Support for our state’s most vulnerable citizens has suffered from inattention and poor management:
• the state is failing to ensure the safety of children in foster care according to auditors
• a state hospital decertified last year for failure to protect patient safety continues to cost the state $1 million each month in lost federal funds
• private contractors hired by the state have backlogged thousands of applications from eligible clients for health care services over the past year
• state cuts in Medicaid have diminished services by health care providers throughout the state and resulted in the loss of tens of millions in federal funds
The list goes on and on.
Brownback and his legislative backers have failed at governing. In the upcoming elections our state desperately needs new leaders who can break out of the ideological fog, address state issues with an open mind, and govern with realism and common sense.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.All seven of this year’s Nobel Prize winners in science were born and educated outside of the United States—a growing trend. And while last year’s prizes went to applied research, this year’s awards went to mostly abstract “pure” research.
Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology was the sole winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his basic work with yeast cells, discovering how cells digest wastes by “autophagy.” This will be important in understanding a variety of diseases.
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and John Kosterlitz, all born and educated in the United Kingdom, share the Nobel in Physics “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”—important theoretical work with future applications.
And Jean-Pierre Sauvage (French), Sir Fraser Stoddart (United Kingdom) and Bernard Feringa (Netherlands) will share the physics prize for the design and synthesis of machines on a molecular scale.
While none of these scientists were born or educated in the United States, four of them now work at American universities. So the U.S. news media claims them as Americans. Indeed looking back over a century of science Nobels, the U.S. has benefitted from foreign born and educated scientists for many of “our” Nobel Prizes. One factor was the massive flight of intellectuals from the Third Reich before World War II. Since then, the U.S. has been able to attract foreign born and educated scientists with state-of-the-art research facilities at our research universities. However, how long we will be able to lure foreign scientists is questionable as the living standards, research money and research facilities improve greatly in the European Union and in Asia.
Yet we hold an illusion that American K–12 science education must be fairly good because “we” keep getting Nobel Prizes. The press just forgets to mention that many of these “American” scientists were not educated here.
There is much to praise in American classical science education where the science teacher conducted lab work and field trips to make the science “meaningful.” And it was the American science teacher who was free to design lessons for the interests of local students. And American teachers were trained to avoid rote questioning and recitation, and to ask questions that required students to analyze data, interpret graphs, and generate new questions. —That is, until No Child Left Behind came along. The rote teaching-to-the-test that has been imposed, along with the earlier outcomes-based movement has produced two decades of decline in American student creativity. It takes time for the importance of discoveries to be assessed and the most recent American Nobel prizewinners in science were educated before the great standardization of teaching occurred under No Child Left Behind. Meanwhile, many other countries have moved toward adopting our earlier American-style questioning and lab inquiry.
A second factor involved is the pure-versus-applied research dichotomy. Fifty years ago, poorer foreign countries had to focus their scientists and resources on solving applied problems. America had faith in “pure science” that explored fundamental principles that might have no immediate consequences in medicine or industry. Being the country with more pure research also gave us an edge in Nobel Prizes.
This year’s science prizes went to mostly pure research that is only beginning to show applications. On the other hand, the 2015 science prizes went to some very applied research. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to William C. Campbell (Irish, but working at Drew University) and Satoshi Omura (Japanese) for discovering a treatment against roundworm parasites, and to Youyou Tu for developing a treatment for malaria. This last award was also the first science Nobel prize awarded to a Chinese researcher doing research in China. (It won’t be their last.)
Meanwhile, research universities brag that their “pure” research mission makes them superior. However, it was no less than the great Louis Pasteur who said that there is no distinction between pure and applied research, but “just science and the application of science.” Whether in pure or applied science, it is our American educational system that is not getting any recent prizes.
It’s made for a lot of news stories—though we’re betting they probably didn’t crowd the advertisements out of your local newspaper—this citizenship-voter business in Kansas.
And it might finally be over…if the Secretary of State and the ACLU can get a federal judge to agree to the wording of a letter to thousands of Kansans that they sure enough can vote in November and that the election folk are going to count those votes.
It has taken more than a year and who knows how much money for Secretary of State Kris Kobach to try to enforce a law that the Legislature probably shouldn’t have passed and the governor probably shouldn’t have signed into law that requires proof of U.S. Citizenship for people to vote in Kansas.
It was a couple years ago that someone thought it was a good idea to have just documented American citizens voting on the people who run the nation, the state, the county, city and drainage district in which we live.
That proof of citizenship requirement probably meant that thousands of Kansans either had to dig through mom’s storage closet to find a birth certificate to prove they were born here, or maybe locate a passport if you are a foreign traveler or a citizenship certificate if you were born in another country.
The Kobach-American Civil Liberties Union agreement on a form letter letting those folks who don’t readily have, or maybe don’t know how to secure, a birth certificate that they can vote will end the turmoil.
That federal court decision also does away with Kobach’s proposal for a dual ballot system. While federal law doesn’t require proof of citizenship to vote on federal races, the now overridden Kansas law does require proof to vote on state and local issues. Kobach’s idea? You could vote on federal offices, but not Kansas offices or issues without that proof of citizenship.
Sounds a little strange that if you can vote for the president you can’t vote for a Trego County commissioner, but that’s the way Kobach wanted it.
Now essentially stricken down, it means that probably about 18,000 Kansans now can spend the time in the booth to vote for everything on the ballot, federal and state and local, the whole works.
What’s it all mean?
Finally, if you are a Kansan, and we know who we are, you get full voting privileges. We gotta figure that if some foreign nationals somehow made it across the U.S. border, and found their way here to live, then they can vote.
That issue apparently settled, we now get to speculate how many of those new, full-ballot voters are actually going to vote in the November election.
Lots of those folks registered to vote when they got new driver’s licenses and registered without having to show citizenship. And, there are federal election registration forms that don’t require proof.
Now, are those folks going to vote? Nobody’s sure. Kobach estimates that statewide, after a county court judge issued a temporary ruling just the Friday before the primary election that they could vote the whole ballot, only 73 of those affected Kansans actually bothered to make the drive in to vote.
With more than a month’s notice now—and that letter that is still being parsed out—there may be thousands of Kansans who will be officially notified that they can vote on everything, and that trip to the polling place will actually be worth the gas.
With that vote-denying business out of the way, we gotta wonder what’s next?
Did we hear someone in the halls of the Statehouse mutter about that other registration duty of the Secretary of State? Wonder if there’s a majority of a quorum of legislators and the governor passing a law that requires notaries to be right-handed, or weigh at least 150 pounds?
We’ll see…
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
Lack of understanding and critical thinking on the part of some in the environmental movement has compromised their effectiveness as self-appointed protectors and guardians of our planet.
Whenever we improve our critical thinking skills it becomes easier to see through deception and exaggeration that has characterized the promotions of some environmental organizations and the mass media’s coverage of their issues.
If we examine the issue of critical thinking, one of the first things we must realize is that correlation is not causation. I know I am wandering into a deep subject for such a shallow mind as mine, but bear with me.
Correlation means two things tend to happen at the same time. Causation means one thing is known to cause another.
Because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean one is causing the other. We need proof, including a reasonable theory showing the path by which one thing causes another to occur.
Global warming and pollution of the water supply with herbicides for example – common environmental concerns – have resulted when correlation of two things was mistaken for causation. To avoid future errors, radical environmentalists must be responsible for proving that one thing is actually causing another to happen.
They just can’t say it. That doesn’t make it so.
In today’s world, much remains unexplained. Cancer is one disease that comes to mind.
This dreaded disease might be due to genetic conditions, nutrition, a health problem in childhood, prolonged stress or a combination of these factors. One day scientists may find a cure for this disease, but that day has not arrived.
Trends don’t always predict the future. During the early ‘70s some scientists predicted the advent of another ice age. During the ‘80s temperatures increased and some experts said we’d experience catastrophic global warming. The cold winter of 1993-94 prompted a new wave of hysteria about another ice age.
Today’s projected cataclysms are the continued fear of global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps. Predictions of resource depletion are another reason for concern. Most of these are based on projections of past trends. Trends only serve as a guideline of past events and cannot document exactly what will happen down the road.
Another element of critical thinking is reliance on fact rather than opinion. So often in our society, the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The loudest or most controversial opinion receives the most attention.
This has definitely been true in the environmental movement where claims of upcoming calamities receive extensive media coverage. To make sure experts with a minority view don’t mislead the public, seek relevant facts and make up your own mind.
One reason apocalyptic abusers thrive is the general public rarely relies on its long-term memory. People are unlikely to remember a doomsayer’s dire predictions of a few months ago, much less 10 or 20 years back. We must remember yesterday’s false alarms and the people who sounded them if we are to respond to future calls to action.
While few people enjoy risk in their lives, we can’t live without it. Everything we do has risk attached even ordinary events like walking down the steps (falling and breaking bones) or crossing the street (being hit by a truck).
Remember the risk of drowning (16 in a million), or dying in a home accident (90 in a million), or being killed in an auto accident (192 in a million) greatly exceeds the alleged environmental risks being hawked by some organizations.
Throughout our lives we make choices. We must decide between the black pair of shoes and the brown. We must decide on catsup, pickles or mustard on our hot dog.
The same can be said about our environment. We have to choose our priorities. We can’t do everything at once. To do so could produce unintended consequences that could harm the world in which we live.
Instead, we must apply the same prudence we apply to other significant aspects of our lives. The importance of environmental issues doesn’t exempt them from this discipline. Their importance makes careful planning and efficiency all the more necessary.
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
