The mechanics of a major change in state policy—the Legislature’s overhaul of city and school board elections, moving them from the spring in odd-numbered years to the fall of odd-numbered years—appear to have worked.

The local, closet-to-home, all-year-long politicians are going to see their election dates change in 2017, with only minor complications here and a bit of local procedure changing there, a legislative interim committee was told earlier this month.

The simple reason for the change is that the prime target—school boards members—are often elected in low-turnout spring elections that are heavily larded with schoolteacher, school employee and teacher union voters. Now, that’s annoying to most conservative legislators who believe that if you could just get more voters involved, that education industry influence would be diluted.

Diluting the vote of both the people with a monetary interest involved—school district employees—and the relatively small percentage of Kansans who actually know who their school board members are probably makes sense if your goal is to diminish the power of unions and those most involved with K-12 education, the parents.

But whether that yields, or will yield, better schools at a lower cost, well, that’s something that we aren’t going to know for several years, maybe a decade.

Don’t forget that at some point those nonpartisan elections are going to take on a partisan tinge. No, you won’t see the party affiliation of the candidates on the ballot as you do for, say, legislative elections, but look for the advertising for those candidates to get political. And, chances are that if you’re a voter in the fall local government elections, you’re probably going to remember the name of your party’s candidates.

Will a Democrat- or Republican-tilted school board or city commission change its responsibilities? Nope. But it will eventually shift the members’ view of just what they’re supposed to do and how they intend to govern the units of government that are closest to the voters.

Yes, the surprise is that the bill passed by last year’s session dealing with such a complicated issue took care of it all at once, with no need for revisiting the new law and touching it up here or there to make it work.

But the concept also provides an interesting little look at how well local elections have worked and whether expanding the potential voter turnout is a good thing or not.

Why?  Because that small percentage of voters who turn out for city and school board elections probably do so for a reason.

You gotta think that they vote because they know the issues and the problems facing city and school governance.

Voters who actually understand the local issues? Who take the time to learn what candidates want to do and to sort them out to give constituents the governance they want? That’s called enlightened self-interest.

The small percentage of those without a direct link to schools or government—say who don’t have children in schools or a zoning issue to pursue—do we actually know who is for what?

Now, we’d hate to have to take a little quiz before we get a ballot, but there’s gotta be an advantage to all of us if the voters in local elections actually know the issues at stake in that election.

Maybe there will be more turnout for fall elections of local officials. Maybe voters will study up for those elections and we’ll get better-run cities and schools. Or, maybe, higher turnout will dilute the votes of people who have high interest and knowledge about those local offices.

We’ll find out in the fall of 2017.

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.

Ah, the old Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks wombo combo. It’s been utterly fantastic, it’s been great and it’s been pretty good — but what it’s never been is bad. That tradition of excellence continues with their latest pairing, “Bridge of Spies.”

Set during the Cold War, “Bridge of Spies” follows an American insurance lawyer who is asked to represent a captive, alleged Soviet spy. The premise by itself is a breath of fresh air because only half of the principal characters are spies. That’s a full 50 percent less than is typical of Cold War movies. All joking aside, Hanks and co-star Mark Rylance, a world-renowned stage actor, deliver impeccable performances that give a beating heart to what could have otherwise been a cold, procedural legal/espionage drama.

The setting is fantastic, the acting is top notch and the direction comes from one of the men who have helped shape modern cinema in an indisputable way. Watching Spielberg’s direction, it’s evident that the hand of a master is at work.

That said, the Invisible Hand (can anyone tell me the “Star Wars” reference in regards to the capitalization just before the parenthesis? I would be impressed if you could) that steers this ship is a little heavy-handed. It’s the Spielberg touch, to be sure, but it’s not as graceful and elegant as it could have been. Maybe that’s just nostalgia for Spielberg’s earlier work, but it seems like a little of the usual finesse is missing.

There is a lot to love about “Bridge of Spies.” I loved nearly everything about it. It’s well made, tells an important story and is fun to watch.

The price of doing anything great is that, from then on, greatness becomes the expectation. It’s a little unfair of me to criticize Steven Spielberg for only being extremely good instead of great. Alas, such is the price of being a legend.

Luckily, only a few people consistently expects greatness from me, which comes in handy when I make a moderately good video breaking down the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” poster. I encourage you to watch it HERE:  It’s moderately good!

5 of 6 stars

While farmers and ranchers continue to fill our plates with food, their plates are filled with an ever-increasing number of issues. Such issues include escalating production costs, tightening use of water, continuing drought in some western Kansas counties, an ongoing search for new markets for agricultural crops and increasing oversight and regulation.

And while these are good times for some in production agriculture, they are trying times for others. Living on the land in the rural areas of our state, farmers sometimes experience feelings of isolation. Feelings like,” I’m only one voice, one person, one family.” Or maybe thoughts like, “We’re one small enterprise in an age of dwindling farming populations coupled with a continuing exodus to larger, regional urban centers.”

That said, membership and leadership roles in farm and commodity organizations are more critical today than ever before. There is strength in like-minded people. There is strength in numbers. There is also credibility when farmers and ranchers tell their own story with a common thread and a common purpose.

You begin at sun up and work until sunset during spring planting season. You put in 16-hour days during harvest. You bundle up and head into a fierce snowstorm to help a heifer calve. You must demonstrate the same courage and conviction when telling your story.

Make time. Take time. Those outside our profession aren’t going to be the ones who defend us and tell our side of the story. If our story is to be told, we must make sure the job is done. It is up to you. It is up to me.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why should I serve?”

Each day people ponder this question. These same people wring their hands and spend sleepless nights trying to decide.

One of the strongest reasons to serving hinges on the personal satisfaction an individual derives from giving of him or herself. John Ruskin once said, “The highest reward for men’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.”

Before you decide to serve on a board or committee, evaluate the organization’s position. If you believe in the ultimate goal but disagree on how it’s being implemented, it should be a challenge to serve and redirect the methods used to achieve this goal.

Some people hesitate to serve because they are unsure how the board or organization operates. No one enjoys appearing foolish or uninformed, yet each group has its unique procedures. Everyone must serve as a novice while learning working procedures.

Never feel embarrassed because you do not know all the answers. Remember, you will not be alone when asking questions.

Perhaps you are uncomfortable about serving and the thought overwhelms you. In that case, don’t bite off more than you can chew.

First participate on a small scale until you become comfortable and confident. Begin by serving on a committee. Next expand your sights and serve on a local organization. Continue stepping up your involvement to include county, district, state and national organizations.

Once you have committed your time and effort to serving, be dependable, prompt, prepared and contribute to that committee, organization or board.

“Leadership is that intangible quality in an individual which makes men do better than themselves; which makes men dream greater dreams and perform braver deeds.”

This quotation embodies the spirit of people working together for the betterment of their industries and communities. It comes from one of Sam Rayburn’s addresses to Congress. From Texas, Rayburn served as speaker of the House under eight American presidents.

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

Given the time of the year and the fact that I just traded for a much nicer pickup, I can’t help but think about deer/vehicle collisions. We’re fast approaching the annual breeding season for whitetail deer known as “the rut,” which is more important to many hardcore deer hunters than their anniversary. During this time, bucks throw caution to the wind in their quest for love.

There are two schools of thought to explain the timing of the annual rut. One is that the timing of the rut is controlled by the photoperiod, or the length of days. It’s a proven fact that as the days grow shorter, the decreased amount of sunlight triggers certain hormones in deer, leading the does into estrus. According to this theory, most rutting activity occurs during the latter half of October and the first half of November, and varies very little from year to year.

The other side of the isle attributes the timing of the rut to the phase of the moon. In “deerhunterspeak,” the second full moon after the autumn equinox is known as the “rutting moon” and is thought to be the peak of the rut. Under this theory, the peak of the rut changes from year to year, falling on October 27 this year, and the most serious rutting activity is forecast to take place from October 25th – November 3.

We in Kansas are blessed with marvelous whitetail deer hunting. The flip side of that is the number of deer related accidents that comes along with a healthy deer population. Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) records show 9,607 deer related accidents in 2014 alone. Ascribing to the theory that the most deer related accidents occur where there is the most vehicle traffic, Sedgwick County tops the list with 422.

You all read the same advice about this time each year, like being especially careful when driving along wooded areas at dusk and dawn, and where there is one deer, there are probably more. But the worst deer related accidents often occur after a driver has struck a deer or when a driver swerves in an attempt to avoid hitting a deer. If you hit a deer with your vehicle and the deer is lying on the roadway, DO NOT attempt to remove the deer from the road yourself. Stay in your vehicle, turn on your emergency flashers, call 911 and wait for a law enforcement officer to arrive. If a deer darts in front of your vehicle, DO NOT swerve to miss the deer. Swerving at highway speed can result in rolling your vehicle, or at very least, finding yourself in the other lane facing oncoming traffic.

I hope you all harvest a Kansas deer this season, but not with your vehicle. There are so many different deer seasons here in Kansas that there is no excuse not to buy a deer permit and fill your freezer with nutritious, grain-fed Kansas venison. Getting one that way is a lot easier on your vehicle and I think you’ll find the meat to be in a lot better shape too. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

The World Series. It’s a great event for baseball fans. As the baseball season comes to its culmination, we are reminded of a time before racial integration when there were two World Series: One for major league baseball, and a second for what was called the National Negro League. Today we’ll learn about two young players who led their teams in each league.  Incredibly, those two players both came from the very same small town in rural Kansas. Thanks to Meredith Wiggins of the Kansas Humanities Council whose article served as our source and is used with permission in today’s Kansas Profile.

Walter “Big Train” Johnson was an icon in big league pitching a century ago, playing for 21 years with the Washingon Senators. He was the dominant power pitcher of his time, described as “one of the most celebrated and dominating players in baseball history.” Several of his pitching records still stand today, more than a century later.

Walter was well-known to have come from a farm near Humboldt, Kansas. What is less well-known is that another major league player also came from Humboldt during that same time. He was an African-American named George Sweatt who made his mark in the Negro Leagues.

George Sweatt grew up at Humboldt. He attended Pittsburg State where he was a decorated track and field athlete. He pursued baseball and made it to the Negro Leagues where he played with the famous Kansas City Monarchs and later with the Chicago American Giants.

Sweatt, sometimes called “Sharkey” or “The Teacher,” was a combination infielder and outfielder known for his wicked hitting. However, he and Walter Johnson were also both known for their sportsmanship. Johnson had a terrifying pitching arm, but he was remembered for his polite disposition. He was even known to throw easier pitches to opposing players with low batting averages.

George Sweatt was also remembered for his good sportsmanship. He was actually a schoolteacher in Coffeyville. If the baseball season overlapped with his teaching duties, there was no question which he would pick, according to Negro League baseball historian and author Phil Dixon.  “Sweatt was kind of an academic and a ballplayer,” Dixon said. “He….would leave the team early enough so he could go teach. He was a tremendous individual.”

Walter Johnson had a lengthy big league career. In his 18th year with the Washington Senators, he led his team to the World Series championship in 1924. In that same year, the Negro League World Series was won by the Kansas City Monarchs, including George Sweatt.

What are the odds that two ballplayers from the same small Kansas town would lead their teams to World Series championships in the very same year? The citizens of Humboldt should be proud – and they are.

The community is “pleased as punch” to share the two men’s stories with a wider audience, said Humboldt Historic Preservation Alliance mentor Eileen Robertson. Humboldt set up a local baseball Hall of Fame with a display featuring photos, articles, and memorabilia associated with the two men. Today, town teams play at both Walter Johnson Field and at Sweatt Field.  Monuments to both men stand at various locations throughout town.

While Walter Johnson has been famous for decades, the town is taking steps to publicize George Sweatt’s rich history in the area as well. A plaque marking his birthplace is planned. This is fitting recognition for a man whose autobiography includes a dedication to “the older citizens of Humboldt, Kansas for accepting me for what I was and have become.”

Humboldt is even hosting the Hometown Teams Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition this fall. For more information, go to www.humboldtkansas.org.

It is incredible that two World Series champions in the same year would come from a single rural community – the town of Humboldt, Kansas, population 1,964 people. Now, that’s rural.

The World Series. It’s a great event for baseball fans, and today we remember two World Series champions who came from the same small Kansas town. We salute the Humboldt Historic Preservation Alliance for making a difference by preserving and promoting this history. I think they’ve hit a home run.

We are one of Fort Hays State University’s 310 Leadership Team, Bags of Love. Our mission is to help the Salvation Army with Project Suitcase.

Project Suitcase provides assistance for the children in the Ellis County Foster Care system. Each child that enters the system is only given two trash bags to transfer their personal belongings from home to home.

Ages of the children in foster care range from the day they are born to the age of 21. Our ultimate goal is to obtain 350 suitcases, filled with a few toiletries and a personal item. We are asking the Ellis County Community to kindly donate any type of suitcase, toys and stuffed animals.

The following items are being collected: heavy-duty luggage bags, duffel bags, totes, drawstring bags, backpacks, rolling luggage suitcases, teddy bears, books, toys, etc.

The team Bags of Love is going to have a bag drive on from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, and from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 24 at Big Creek Crossing. Save the dates!

We would gladly appreciate any type of these listed items as donations to be able to help out the foster kids in Ellis County!

For any questions, feel free to contact any of these numbers below:

Rosa Medrano (620)474-7454
Courtney Nemechek (620) 376-8438
Johnae Blackmon (785) 432-4110
Chelsie Andrews (785) 416-0149
Katie Page (785) 643-5677
Diane Hernandez (785) 259-9377

Sometime, probably mid-November, we Statehouse habitués will get the piece of information that will shape the upcoming election-year session of the Legislature.

That’s the mid-November report of the Kansas Consensus Revenue Estimating Group. That group of economists and state agency fiscal staffers will release its estimate of the state’s revenues for the remainder of this fiscal year and the prospects for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1, 2016.

The report is key to nearly everything that happens in state government, because that estimate will be the basis for Gov. Sam Brownback to touch up—or not—his budget for the rest of this year and next, and it will define just what the Kansas Legislature does next session in the way of spending.

As those estimators get ready for their report—which could be as early as mid-November but is required to be made by Dec. 4—lawmakers are wondering just what sort of session they have ahead of them in the upcoming year when the entire House and Senate stand for re-election.

While the CREG estimate is just that, an estimate, lawmakers tend to see it as the truth and the light and the way, and if revenues fall short of those estimates, well, lawmakers have to do ugly things to the budget—like cutting programs—or ugly things to Kansans—like raising taxes.

If that estimate is lowered, it means it might be necessary for further cuts halfway into the current fiscal year.

So far, it looks like that reduction in estimate is inevitable.

Those taxes that lawmakers raised in July haven’t produced the revenue that they expected…so far, the state is about $61 million short of its projections and nobody’s very confident that things are going to turn around.

That $61 million shortfall so far reduced what was estimated to be a $73 million budget surplus into about $10 million. Some of those new taxes, say, the income tax increases (which actually are reductions in tax deductions), won’t show up until spring, but some of those raises—sales tax especially—aren’t producing what was predicted.

The governor helped the ending balance some, with cuts and shifts and such that may be worth $62 million which would boost the ending balance to that previously projected $70-million plus. Oh, and that shakily restored balance amounts to just over 1% of the state’s total $6.2 billion in planned spending.

While $70 million or so sounds like a lot of money, well, it just takes a heavier than normal snowfall this winter, a flood or two—or a school funding decision from the Kansas Supreme Court—and it’s gone. Ever go on a date with just 1 percent more money than the movie tickets cost? Of course not.

So that’s why the administration and legislators are nervous. For some—let’s say, conservative Republicans—if we could put a cuff on their biceps, we could probably pump water to the roof. For some—let’s say, moderate Republicans and Democrats—they’ll have a real-life issue to campaign against those who support Brownback’s tax cuts, or at least those who don’t apply to them or to a majority of voters in their reelection bids.

But, none of the political aspects of the budget rises to the level of the real problem of not having enough money to provide services that Kansans believe they are entitled to.

And, that’s where the anxiety comes from.

Brownback says no new taxes next session—which is a plus for conservatives seeking reelection—which means that if that revenue estimate is dropped, well, things get cut. Deciding what is cut in the way of spending becomes political, too. Do you cut services to the poor; do you quit repairing roads or shoveling snow or sending emergency crews?

That’s the anxiety and next month, probably, we’ll find out whether, politics aside, Kansans get the government and services they expect.

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.

It seems people outside agriculture routinely try to define the family farm. In our contemporary society this means people two, three or four generations removed from the land live in sprawling suburbia.

Today, men and women whose great grandfathers or grandfathers worked the land with mules and horses, progressed to tractors and are now using GPS, sit behind desks and computers dealing with an agricultural public they rarely, or never, see or know.

The world as we knew it a few years ago is different today. Today, computers, smart phones and social media have changed the way we communicate, live and work. These tools have replaced traditional sources of learning, made our world smaller and in some ways, more constrained.

Considering these factors, let’s take a look at the family farm. Today’s contemporary farm needs to be based on owner operation. This means the rights and responsibilities of ownership are vested in an entrepreneur who works the farm for a living.

The second key in defining the family farm system should include independence. Independence is defined as financing from within its own resources using family labor, management and intellect to build equity and cash flow that will retire the mortgage, preferably in the lifetime of the owner.

Economic dispersion is the next important step in defining what a family farm should entail. Economic dispersion would include large numbers of efficient-sized farms operating with equal access to competitive markets worldwide.

No family farm would be complete without a family core. This family-centered operation must have a family that lives its life in harmony within the workplace. All family members share responsibilities and the children learn the vocation of their parents.

The ideal family farm would be commercially diversified. Production of diversified commodities should help reduce price risks and maximize the use of farm resources to produce crops and livestock that would, in turn, provide greater self-sufficiency.

One final attribute necessary in defining today’s family farm would be the acceptance and use of innovative technology. This should not only enhance farm labor but also help boost production.

Family farming carries with it a commitment to specific, independent values. These values become a part of the community and include conservation, frugality, responsibility, honesty, dignity in work, neighborliness, self-reliance and concern and care for future generations.

While it’s rare indeed that one particular family farm may possess all of these attributes, together they have created a system of agriculture that has been a part of our rural culture since this nation’s beginning.

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