Prequels are inherently kinda weird. From the get-go, you know where the story is supposed to end. Not only are you waiting for the right pieces to fall in place, you’re also looking for those, “heh, I see what they did there” moments.

“Pan” the prequel to the story we all know of Peter Pan is a kinda weird prequel. It’s a prequel that introduces a beloved character with a pointless opening 20 minutes, a confusing and misleading plot and the occasional breathtaking visual. 1/3 isn’t great, but it could be worse. By about a third if my math doesn’t fail me.

“Pan” has one of those “eye-roll” worthy scripts where the solution to all the film’s problems, would have worked almost exactly as well without the main character’s involvement. It’s full of confusing rules about how the world works, intentionally misleading gags that make the audience think they’re about to be given a puzzle piece they know should fit, only to have it snatched away. It’s a prequel in the vein of “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” it doesn’t make a ton of sense and ultimately will add nothing to the world it is clamoring so hard to be a part of.

As I alluded to, the visual effects and cinematography are the real saving grace of “Pan.” Where “Oz: The Great and Powerful” looked, felt and was clunky, at least Neverland is breathtakingly gorgeous. The wonder isn’t consistent throughout, but when it’s present, it’s tangible, it breaths life and direction into the film. All said, “Pan” isn’t what it could have been, and it’s barely passable at what it is. Despite the magic of Neverland, “Pan” is far from timeless.

4 of 6 stars

Besides whether or not Donald Trump’s hair is real, I know of no other topic that provokes more discussion amongst outdoorsmen than the subject of how best to mask or remove human scent when deer hunting or predator trapping.

Research estimates the long canine nose of a coyote contains over 250 million olfactory receptors, and a deer’s nose is equipped with even more, compared to possibly 6 million for a human. It is also estimated that the part of a coyote’s brain dedicated to analyzing scent is 40 times larger than a humans, and once again, that portion of a deer’s brain is larger still.

In summary, the amazing sense of smell God gave to both deer and coyotes is possibly 1,000 times more acute than that of a human’s. What to do?

To control human odor when big game hunting, the first consideration should always be to use the wind in your favor no matter what else you do. Always hunt with the wind blowing away from you and blowing away from where you expect the deer to appear.

Many hunters have multiple hunting stands to take advantage of the wind no matter which direction it blows; I believe at last count my brother has 12, which combined possibly equals more square footage than his home. Products are also available to either remove human scent or simply to mask it.

Scent removal products are applied to a hunter’s outer clothing to remove odor; cover scents are placed in the stand or blind to cover our scent by providing natural odors like soil, acorns, apples and even skunk in an attempt to temporarily fill a deer’s nose with a smell that is natural to its surroundings. Hunting clothing can also be stored over the summer in bags containing cedar branches or other scents a deer will associate with your hunting area.

Removing or masking human odor is important when trapping coyotes, but the debate among trappers has always been just how important it is.  In a nutshell, the goal is to keep traps completely free of human scent and other foreign odors, then to conceal the trap in front of an attractor that appeals to either the coyote’s sense of smell or vision. Human odor can be removed from traps by boiling them each season, then handling them only with gloves. Odors can be kept to a minimum at the trap site by wearing rubber boots and gloves while actually setting the trap.

Some trappers, me included, handle traps and equipment with one pair of gloves and bait and lure with a different pair so as not to get those odors on the traps. A few trappers even wear different boots to drive and change each time they step out of their truck. A good friend of mine, who routinely catches a couple hundred coyotes a year, represents the opposite school of thought when it comes to human scent control when trapping. He once told me “Every coyote in the area already knows I’ve been there the second I open the truck door, so why go to all that trouble.”

He only wore rubber boots if it was muddy, rarely boiled or cleaned his traps and only handled traps with gloves to keep the sand burrs off his hands. His take on it all, was to make his bait attractive enough that the coyote would disregard his scent to get to it.

Numerous hunting and trapping experts recommend learning to think like our quarry, but I don’t believe any of them recommend smelling like them too. So until that happens, our human odor will continue to be a factor in both big game hunting and coyote trapping, but every hunter and trapper must decide for themselves how they want to handle it, then use the way that gives them the most confidence.

Remember, the best you can hope to do is to confuse a deer or coyotes nose just long enough to harvest it. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

Did you get a paycheck this week? If you did, quite likely your employer withheld money from it to cover your obligation to pay state income taxes. Sorry, but you are part of the group that funds state government.

Do you draw your income from selling things, renting houses, farming, or some other type of business venture? Congratulations! You don’t owe any state income tax. Enjoy the money. It would be great if you used it to create a job, but you have no obligation to do so.

For the last 3 years, income tax policy in Kansas has roughly divided the citizenry into the paycheck people who pay and others who don’t. It’s fundamentally unfair.

Put in place by the 2012 Legislature, the policy completely exempts individuals who receive business income from any state income tax liability. No other state requires the paycheck people to pay but entirely exempts business income.

Much of the public discussion of this policy has focused on limited liability corporations (LLCs). Setting up an LLC is relatively easy. These can be tiny entities or great big businesses, but little or big, the profit individuals make through their LLCs is exempt from Kansas income tax. However, the policy goes much further than that. Any individual reporting income as business income rather than a wage, or receiving rental income or farm income, is also exempt. In Kansas, more than 300,000 tax filers took advantage of the exemption in the first year.

This creates all sorts of unfair situations. A lawyer who owns his or her own office does not pay state income tax, but everyone else working in the office does. A farmer does not pay, a factory worker does. A self-employed doctor does not pay, a doctor working for a hospital does. A landlord does not pay, a renter does. A writer working on contract does not pay, a newspaper reporter does. A food truck vender does not pay, a food service worker does.

The policy was ostensibly put in place to create jobs, but those receiving the tax break were given no requirement to do so. They could just as easily bank the money or spend it on out-of-state travel. As a result, the policy has not produced the intended effect. In the years it has been in place, Kansas job creation has been anemic, running behind both the geographic region and the U.S. average.

Legislators, even some of those who originally supported the policy, know it is flawed. “One of the impacts it has created is what I call horizontal inequity,” Senate President Susan Wagle said earlier this year. Wichita Republican Mark Hutton called it an equity issue. “I’ve had a lot of emails from business owners that want to be included…. They don’t like the fact that people out there believe they’re getting a free break. That’s not good for their business and it’s not good for Kansas and they understand that.”

Legislators made a run at modifying the policy in the last legislative session, but Gov. Brownback stopped them in their tracks by threatening to veto any change. So unfairness persists.

In June, lawmakers raised the sales tax rate and moved money from the state’s highway fund to narrowly avert a full-blown budget crisis, caused by the income tax changes. However, even after shifting to the much more regressive sales tax, Kansas is still just barely sliding by financially. Each month revenue collections are falling behind expectations, putting even a conservative set of school expenditures and other programs at risk. Tax policy will need to be revisited.

Few of us like to pay taxes. If you have benefited from the business income exemption—nice. If you are a wage earner with a paycheck—tough. And you are right. It’s not fair.

Duane Goossen is a Senior Fellow at the Kansas Center for Economic Growth and formerly served 12 years as Kansas Budget Director.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

A National Park Service researcher is calling. He is working on a feasibility study which is considering the addition of the Western Cattle Trail to the National Park System. The person he is calling is a western author located in rural Kansas.

Last week in Now That’s Rural, we met Margaret and Gary Kraisinger, owners of The Old Hardware Store in Halstead. Gary and Margaret are also published authors who have extensively researched the history of the west, specifically the historic Western Cattle Trail.

Gary was raised at Hays and met and married Margaret at Fort Hays State. They became teachers and took teaching positions at Dighton. Margaret taught high school business and English, and Gary taught Kansas history and math at the junior high level while doing graduate work in the summertime.

One day a local rancher approached them and said that he had something he wanted to show them. “One Sunday afternoon, we went out there and the rancher took us out into his pasture,” Margaret said. “We were driving across the pasture and then he turned his wheels sharply, and it was like a washboard. What is that, we asked. `Well, it’s not wagon ruts, but we think it is a cattle trail,’ he said.”

The interest of Gary and Margaret was piqued. Was there an old-time cattle trail that had passed through the region? Gary and Margaret agreed to look into it.

This began a decades-long labor of love. On and off through the ensuing years, they researched the history of the cattle trails. These were the routes on which thousands of longhorn cattle moved north from Texas during the 1800s. Of course, this research started before Google even existed.  “We did this research the old-fashioned way,” Margaret said. “We wrote letters and read books and contacted museums and libraries and county clerks.”

With time, they came to several conclusions. One was that a major cattle trail had indeed passed through that rancher’s property. The larger conclusion was that there were different trail systems that evolved before and after the Civil War. There was no simple line on a map, but rather entire systems of splinter and feeder routes leading into trunk lines which reached a variety of destinations through the years. One of these systems was the Western Cattle Trail.

Gary went into the construction business which took him to the Wichita area, where the Kraisingers settled in nearby Halstead. When Margaret retired from teaching, she finally had time to work on the data they had amassed from their years of research. In 2004, Gary and Margaret produced a book titled “The Western: The Greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1886.” It focused primarily on branches of the Western Trail that went through Kansas and southwestern Nebraska.

“We would go out to do book signings and presentations and people would say, “We’re from Montana, what about us?” Margaret said. Ultimately Gary and Margaret decided to produce a larger, more comprehensive book on the Western Trail system in total.

“It was a team effort,” Margaret said. “I would be writing upstairs while he would be drafting a map downstairs.”

In April 2015, the new book was produced. It is titled “The Western Cattle Trail 1874-1897, Its Rise, Collapse, and Revival.” Of this voluminous book, literally an inch-and-a-half thick in hardcover, it has been said, “No other work has been as comprehensive about the Western Cattle Trail System.”

The National Park Service is now conducting a feasibility study on the possibility of adding the Western Trail and the Eastern/Chisholm Trail to the national trail system. The Kraisingers’ books are being used as supporting evidence.

For more information, go to www.westerncattletrail.net.

It all began with a stop in a pasture near the rural community of Dighton, population 1,223 people. Now, that’s rural.

A National Park Service researcher is calling. As he works on this feasibility study, he is calling on these authors and researchers in rural Kansas. We commend Gary and Margaret Kraisinger for making a difference with their in-depth, thorough research. They are truly helping document and preserve the history of the long-lost cattle trails.

Every year, Knights of Columbus organizations from across the state conduct their annual Tootsie Roll Drives for the benefit of people with disabilities. The people served by Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas have been many of the fortunate recipients from this fundraiser. For many years, the generosity of the Knights have allowed us to offer additional support to those we serve through a variety of ways.

One of those ways is DSNWK’s Consumer Medical Fund. This fund was established due to the contributions made through the K of C Tootsie Roll Drive. Thanks to the Knights, DSNWK has been able to 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.

So as the area K of C’s gear up for this annual fundraiser, we would like to take the time and wish all of them the best of luck and encourage everyone to stop and support their efforts. We truly appreciate their kindness and support.

Steve Keil, Director of Development, Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas

In the hallowed halls of “Legendary Film Directors,” Sir Ridley Scott doesn’t need to show his ID. They know him at the door. That said, Scott hasn’t been at the helm of a the kind of runaway hit that made him a household name in a good long time.

His recent directorial work, including “The Counselor,” which I hated, and “Prometheus,” which I unhappily tolerated, are not genuine, grade-A Ridley Scott material in the vein of “Alien,” or “Gladiator.” I’m happy to report that Scott’s latest crack at it, “The Martian,” has very much more in common with the latter than the former, and it’s about time.

“The Martian” is a brilliant examination of the effort required and physical and psychological cost of survival. Matt Damon stars at Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut who becomes stranded, alone, on Mars after violent storm forces an early evacuation.

Drew Goddard, a rising star and protégé of Joss Whedon, who helmed such wonderful projects as “The Cabin in the Woods,” and the Netflix series “Daredevil,” continues to prove that he is a writer who is very keyed into what makes an idea memorable, no small feat. Goddard is smart, cunning and best of all patient. When leaving breadcrumbs, its easy to want to either put the big reveal in neon lights or pushing it out before it’s fully cooked. Goddard has an unmistakeable talent for delivering the right information at the right time.

On the acting front, Matt Damon delivers an incredible performance that is a wonderful combination of sardonic wit, brilliant scientist, and unrelenting dreamer. Being that his character is stranded on Mars, Damon was acting by himself, with few emotional catalysts to help him. Nevertheless, “The Martian” will likely go down as one of the crowning achievements of Damon’s career.

Put those three things together in one movie, visionary directing, brilliant writing and compelling acting and, well, that’s how you make a good movie. “The Martian” isn’t the best thing that these three individuals, Scott, Goddard and Damon, have ever produced, but it’s a fascinating combination of their strengths and an exemplary fusion of the different talents it takes to make a great film. I think everyone could easily enjoy this film, and it will be a welcome treat for the often-starved science-fiction fans out there.

5 of 6 stars

OK, we all want clean air for our family, friends, pets to breathe.

That’s the bottom line…but getting there — at least as it relates to federal rules for electric generating plants — is pretty tricky, and at some point, well, the path doesn’t sound like the way we do things in the United States.

The Kansas Attorney General’s office probably wants to breathe clean air too, but is challenging just how the Environmental Protection Agency is going about forcing states to order that the coal-fired power plants in their states be cleaned up. Now, those were pretty cool power plants when they were built decades ago, when the real issue was probably more about smoke coming out of the stacks than carbon dioxide.

But we’ve learned more about what’s in the smoke that comes out of those stacks. The EPA is about to publish rules on how much carbon dioxide is allowed, and those rules are going to require either massive upgrades to those plants or changes in fuels for them or that the plants just be shut down.

Now, most of us would figure that there’s a federal law that sets those emissions, or at least specific authority for the EPA to come up with rules that, well, have the effect of law.

That’s not the case now, and Kansas and about a dozen other states are challenging the specific authority for the EPA to order states to clean up their power plants, essentially to reorganize and rebuild a tremendous part of the state’s power infrastructure.

Oh, and don’t forget, that the guys who sell coal to those power plants don’t want the EPA messing with their business. They obviously don’t want to have to shift down to economy cars and “staycations” if their coal is virtually useless in the generation of electricity.

The simple solution, of course, is for Congress to pass a law that essentially gives the EPA the authority to demand cleaner power plant emissions and to eventually shift the U.S. electric industry to burning natural gas or using nuclear power or windmills or those solar energy plates.

Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon, so the EPA is relying for its authority on some settlement agreements that it has met with some utilities, figuring that if the utilities which were sued by the EPA caved in, that cave-in constitutes the new standards that the EPA can impose on the nation.

Not quite black-and-white law, but the concept is that if that EPA agreement is good enough for the folks that the agency settled with, it ought to be good enough for everyone else generating electricity or there would have been no settlement.

The Attorney General’s office calls it “sue and settle.” That means, the state asserts, that those lawsuit settlements are being used as the basis for rules and regulations on emissions rather than actual law…or even specific authority for the EPA to make and enforce rules relating to power plant emissions.

A few Kansas legislators don’t want the EPA messing with Kansas power production and have lined up behind the attorney general in opposing those rules. That appears to work as long as the electricity produced in Kansas by any means isn’t moved across a state line and into interstate commerce.

Eventually, be assured, the generation of electricity is going to be cleaner, but the EPA rules would speed things up, and those coal power plants and the folks who sell coal for those power plants aren’t ready for that to happen yet…maybe until they are out of coal to sell.

Lots of technical legal dueling going on, and it would be simpler if there was just a federal law that says what the EPA can do.

But we’re not sure whether we can hold our breath until the issue plays out in the courts or Congress steps in, or the old coal plants just wear out.

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.

No doubt you’ve noticed all the soft drinks, flavored water and sports drinks today. They’re everywhere.

While eating at a favorite restaurant the other day, I was faced with so many choices, my head started to spin.

You can’t walk into a supermarket or convenience store without bumping into the many drink offering displays either.

And flavors. Wow.

Just think of some taste you desire – fudge malted gumball, cheese yogurt yummy or silvery satin strawberry. It’s out there and you can buy it and drink it down.

Without question, the best part of these drinks for me is the packaging.

It’s unbelievable. And the creativity?

Almost too much for one to digest.

Anymore, I don’t even care what’s in the container. I just want to hold it in my hand, caress its coolness, admire its latest, unique logo and look good doing so.

While many are content with the multitude of diet sodas; and flavored waters like blackberry blush, my drink of choice is chocolate milk. I really enjoy it by the way. I have since I was a small child.

Today’s explosion of new soft drinks, flavored waters and sports drinks has one major worrisome aspect I cannot help but point out.

Pitchmen, women and kids are filling our heads with the idea these flavored drinks can be part of a well-rounded, balanced diet. Their ads and infomercials are as numerous as the products they’re selling – and they’re working.

The most alarming part of this sales pitch is that so much of it is aimed at our youth. In case you haven’t been in today’s schools, this drink deluge is very much a part of the contemporary scene.

Soft drinks have no business being considered part of a balanced diet at our schools or anywhere else. These drinks have little, if any, nutritional value.

Look at the ingredients in a soft drink the next time you pick one up. Most people wouldn’t have a clue what these ingredients are, myself included.

If students or adults want a treat – something out of the ordinary – that’s where soft drinks play a part.  To be part of a balanced diet, a food product must have nutritional value. I believe soft drinks have such a negligible amount, they cannot be considered as part of any “balanced” diet.

Unlike water, soft drinks won’t even quench your thirst. They leave you longing for a tall, cool glass of water.

Talk to a nutritionist or physician and what do they tell you we’re supposed to drink at least eight glasses of?

That’s right. Nature’s own liquid – water.

What about that wonderful white liquid chock full of calcium we call milk? Where does it fit in our daily diet?

Milk belongs in almost everyone’s diet. Nutritional research has stressed that men and women between the ages of 11 and 24 need the equivalent of five servings of dairy products daily. This can be milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream and a whole array of other good-tasting dairy foods.

Juice from oranges, grapefruit, lemons, strawberries and other fruits is another item that belongs as part of a balanced diet. Food products from natural primary crops – not always secondary, highly processed food products – are essential to our youngsters’ diets. We owe it to them and their good health to provide these.

Other vegetable drinks made from tomatoes, carrots, celery and other vegetables are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber. Vegetable drinks also belong as part of our daily diets.

But let’s return to soft drinks. What a brilliant stroke of marketing, linking soft, sports and flavored drinks with a well-rounded, nutritionally balanced diet. Infer something often enough and people will begin to believe. Soft drinks linked with a balanced diet and nutrition is about as palatable to me as the drink manufacturers laughing all the way to the bank.

There is no substitute for healthful, nutritious food in our daily diets. Students and adults should reach for a tall glass of water, juice or milk the next time they’re thirsty. These are truly nutritious products that belong in a daily balanced diet.

If you need to treat yourself, add chocolate to the milk. Mix a couple of the fruit juices together or just drink water. You’ll be doing yourself a favor and you’ll be supporting farmers and ranchers who supply these fresh, tasty, nutritious drinks.

Bottoms up.

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

It’s October again. Bierocks, Major League Baseball and high school musicals abound!

October represents the best month to be outside, weather-wise, and the first month to enjoy the coziness of the indoors. It’s my favorite month. I met my husband online in October 2011. I got engaged in October 2012. By October of 2013, I was pregnant with my first baby and in October 2014, I got pregnant with my second. This year, I’m not getting married or having a baby, but I do have news: I’ll be leaving the library on Oct. 15 to stay home with my children. It’s the right thing for me and my family at this time.

Being a librarian is one of the coolest jobs in the world. Librarians are human search-engines. We are trained to think about and access information in a way that makes us valuable to our patrons. Author Neil Gaiman says “Google can bring you back 100,000 answer, a librarian can bring you back the right one.” It’s true! I love tough reference questions and I love tracking down the answer. I love helping people fill in the blanks of their research or even their own family history.

The Hays Public Library is a wonderful place to work and I will continue to frequent the library as a patron. Having come from a small community with a tiny library, I am continually astounded by both the collection and the programs offered at the library. It’s an amazing community resource!

Though I am leaving, I do have one program scheduled for October. On Sunday, Oct. 18th at 2 PM, Erika Nelson will be giving a program called “Jackalopes, Hodags and other Larger than Life Myths from the American Road.” Erika Nelson, the curator of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things roadside attraction and Museum, will talk about roadside monuments dedicated to our fantastical legends. Our legends reflect our culture and this lecture will explore the origins of the legends, the people who crafted them, and how they reflect the regions they inhabit. You may even get to see a jackalope!

The Kansas Room will go on without me. I sincerely hope the community continues to take advantage of the books, microfilm, databases and quiet space in the Kansas Room. It’s a great place to study, read, rest and find out things you never knew. Auf wiedersehen!

The Kansas Room is located in the basement of the Hays Public Library and is open from 9 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday, and by request. Stop by anytime to say hello!

Lucia Bain is Kansas Room Librarian at the Hays Public Library.

I love the Kansas state fair and I love talking to people about trapping, so I spend some time each year at the Kansas Fur Harvesters booth at the Kansas State Fair.

That booth is an excellent way to educate people about the importance of trapping here in the U.S.
As people stop by the booth, one of the things we point out is that furbearers in Kansas are very prolific breeders and trapping is a perfect and necessary tool to keep their populations manageable.

Beavers have from one to six young each year, and they do considerable damage by damming streams and ponds that flood farmland, back roads and golf courses. They cut off newly planted saplings with just a couple bites and kill large standing trees by completely chewing off the bark as high as they can reach. Muskrats have three to five litters per year, each containing up to five kits, and even though they don’t chew trees, they can absolutely riddle dikes, stream banks and pond dams with holes for dens. Raccoons birth three or four young each year and their taste for eggs leads them to destroy large numbers of songbird, pheasant and quail nests every spring. Coyotes have six to ten pups each year and even if only three survive, that’s a three hundred percent population increase.

Displayed at the booth are tanned pelts representing every furbearer found in Kansas. Everyone enjoys trying to identify each pelt as they run their fingers through the soft luxurious fur. The skunk pelt is always a good conversation starter, and visitors are usually astonished at how soft and beautiful skunk fur really is; even more surprising to them is the fact that skunk essence is used in minute amounts in perfume as an agent to hold and carry the aroma, making it last longer (ever noticed how long skunk smell hangs around?)

Just next to the skunk pelt in this year’s display was the opossum pelt, which itself is amazingly soft considering the appearance of the lowly possum. I always try to point that out to each visitor that stops, along with the unique fact that most possum pelts are made into felt, and that the felt tops on most pool tables are made from possum fur.

Numerous men who stop at the booth trapped when they were kids and they often ask about fur prices today. Their eyes widen when we tell them that nearly all the wild-caught fur from the U.S. now goes overseas to China, Korea, Greece, Italy and Russia, so the economy of those countries and even the severity of winter in Russia directly affect the prices we are paid for our fur here in Kansas.

As recently as a generation ago, hunting, trapping and fishing were never questioned and were just a part of life. Today, because of seasons and harvest limits there are more game and fish available for harvest than ever before in the history of our country, so it makes no sense to me that hunting, trapping and fishing would be challenged now. I wish every anti-hunter could envision a world without regulated hunting, trapping and fishing, where wildlife died from starvation, rampant disease and indiscriminate shooting; it wouldn’t be pretty! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

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