Voting does matter, just not mathematically. Only rarely does a single vote determine an election’s outcome. But overall, “Who votes?” can make all the difference.

For past few years, Secretary of State Kris Kobach has consistently made it more difficult to register and vote. But I don’t want to quibble about questionable allegations of penny-ante voting fraud and ill-considered policies to address these allegations.

Rather, I want to advocate as strongly as possible for pursuing a highly inclusive model of voting, to increase turnout and make our elections more representative of the views of all Kansans.

I suggest first that we work hard — really hard — at registering all potential voters, and especially those who turn 18 and become eligible to cast their first ballots.

Second, we should consider adopting a full-fledged vote-by-mail system, which makes it easier for voters to cast their ballots and saves money to boot.

Third, for all state and national legislative offices we should adopt a “top two” primary system, in which the two highest primary-election vote-getters face off in the general election.

None of these suggestions constitutes a panacea for low turnout or uninformed voters, but together they would give all Kansans far more of a stake in the electoral process.

Thus, the state of Kansas should seek – aggressively and at some considerable expense – to register every eligible voter. That means going into high schools, monitoring GED programs, canvassing neighborhoods, and sending out email solicitations. Registration should be simple – the motor-voter form is a good example – and universally available.

Second, Kansas policymakers should seriously consider going to a 100 percent vote-by-mail system. Oregon has long had such a process, and turnout has risen, especially in local elections, while fraud has remained a non-issue. In the end, we should embrace higher turnout.

Oregon’s Secretary of State concedes that mail balloting is not a cure-all, “but in terms of a reform that’s simple, familiar, and powerful, automatically sending every American voter his [or her] ballot — without their needing to ask for it – is a great place to start.”

Beyond increasing voting participation, one additional reform might make our politics far more representative. Current partisan primaries in Kansas and many other states lead to the nomination of relatively extreme candidates, in that highly partisan and ideological activists often dominate low-turnout primary elections.

In three states – California, Washington, and Louisiana – primary voters choose among all candidates for an office, with the top two advancing to the general election. The major argument for such a system is that it will produce more moderate winning candidates, who will better represent the overall preferences of the broad electorate.

In practice, Kansas voters in some legislative districts might well choose two Republicans as the top two primary candidates. In the general election, the argument goes, the GOP candidates would have to compete for some Democratic and independent votes, thus producing somewhat more moderate results.

Initial studies of the top-two primary have been inconclusive, but over the long term this reform has the chance to make election results more representative of all voters’ preferences.

In the end, we should energetically encourage more individuals to cast their ballots, with universal registration and voting by mail. And if this broader electorate could produce more representative results through a top-two primary system, all the better.

In short, the combination of more voters and stronger representation offers a positive, highly democratic approach to enhancing the quality of electoral politics in Kansas.

Burdett Loomis is a political science professor at the University of Kansas.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

From Cheney to Louisburg. The distance between those two small Kansas towns is approximately halfway across the state. During the college football season of 2015, there was a key play involving players from those two small towns that made for one of the most exciting finishes in early season games. Can small town athletes succeed at the college level? That’s the subject of today’s Kansas Profile.

Joe Hubener and Kody Cook are key players on the K-State football team. Both were outstanding high school athletes, but like many players from small town Kansas, they did not get lots of recruiting offers from high major colleges.

Joe Hubener comes from Cheney, west of Wichita. His parents both attended K-State. In high school, Joe lettered in football, basketball, and track. He even made the top five as a javelin thrower during the state track meet. In football, he played various positions such as wide receiver, defensive back, and backup quarterback, but he never started a game as quarterback during his high school career.

Joe decided to walk-on for football at K-State. The coaches recognized that he was an excellent athlete with that strong arm which had helped him do so well throwing the javelin. Joe became a quarterback and served as the primary backup during the 2014 season.

After a very competitive spring and fall practice period in 2015, Joe lost the starting nod at quarterback to another young man. But on the very first play of the very first game of the fall season, that young man was injured.

As they say in football, Next Man Up. Joe Hubener was suddenly pressed into service as the quarterback. He led the team to victory in that game and the next.

One of his wide receivers is Kody Cook. Kody is also a small-town Kansas kid, having grown up at Louisburg in Miami County south of Kansas City. Like Joe Hubener, Kody’s father attended K-State as well.

Kody was also an outstanding high school athlete, having lettered in football, baseball, and basketball. In football, he played quarterback, wide receiver, and defensive back. As a senior, he led his team to an undefeated season and a state championship, becoming the most valuable player of the state championship game.

Kody opted for community college after high school and had two excellent seasons at Hutchinson. In fact, during the Salt City Bowl during his last year, he moved from the receiver position to quarterback during the second quarter and threw for 272 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for another score. He was named the Salt City Bowl MVP.

Even so, he was still not getting scholarship offers from high major schools. Kody decided to walk-on at K-State and became a full-time wide receiver. After a redshirt season, he started 11 games in 2014.

There are several similarities between these young men. Both came from small Kansas towns, both began as walk-ons, both have become key contributors in college and both were voted player representatives in 2015.

On the third weekend of the fall 2015 football season, Joe Hubener and Kody Cook got the start at their respective positions. K-State was playing a surprisingly tough Louisiana Tech team. The game went back and forth. Kody Cook had a career day with three receptions in regulation but the game went into overtime.

In the third overtime period, K-State was penalized for an illegal block and was facing a third down and 17 yards to go at the opponent’s 31 yard line. Quarterback Joe Hubener saw the young man from Louisburg dashing down the middle of the field. He threw a strike to Kody Cook who rolled into the end zone with what would be the winning touchdown.

It had to be a proud moment for those from the rural communities of Cheney, population 1,807, and Louisburg, population 2,668 people. Now, that’s rural.

From Cheney to Louisburg. That’s not just a journey across Kansas. It was players from those two towns who made the winning play in this remarkable contest. Can small town athletes succeed at the college level? Joe Hubener and Kody Cook’s performance suggests that they can.

Among the new college textbooks that just came out for general biology, two contain a new diagram that shows that the authors know nothing about where our meat comes from.

Under the title of “Ecological Pyramids” the book shows a field of corn supporting 10 people. To the side of this, they show the same field of corn feeding cattle that in turn produce enough meat to feed one person.

The simple-minded message is that if we eat corn rather than meat, the earth can support ten times more people. This “10 percent rule” is a general concept we use in describing energy loss in food chains in nature. Unfortunately, the authors who designed this simplistic graphic knew nothing about growing corn or cattle ranching. The conclusions that students are to draw about the ten-fold benefit of everyone going vegetarian are biologically wrong. And the problems are many.

•    Humans consume only the small portion of highly nutritious corn kernels (plant embryos) from the total biomass the plants produce. Cattle are not picky vegetarians. They feed on stalks and leaves as well.

•    There is an efficiency difference between eating plant and animal tissues. Meat-eating is more efficient. Animal tissues are made of chemicals similar to what we need. But plant cellulose is indigestible by humans. Humans have to eat more vegetable matter biomass to get the calories and nutrients we need.

•    Cattle forage heavily on grass, not corn; this is where most of their biomass comes from.

•    A cow’s stomach is a rumen designed for fermentation of plant roughage. Their primary food source is grass and hay, etc. Feed lot operations that are used for some, but not all, beef cattle are finishing up the animal for the addition of fat marbling in the meat to attain a higher meat grade. The corn kernels that constitute the only food for humans does not constitute the totality of the animal’s biomass. The textbook mathematics is pseudoscience.

•    Drive through the Flint Hills and across parts of western Kansas where road cuts reveal the soil is only a few inches thick. No crop land there. Humans can either eat the grass, the grasshoppers or the beef. Take such lands out of cattle production and you decrease the world’s food supply—period. I work each summer in China and the meat available there is grown by animals that feed on peripheral “edges” that cannot be farmed, animals that never see a feedlot, and from pigs that mostly recycle food wastes.  End these sources of meat and there is no cropland saved to feed more people.

•    Wolves and other carnivores may eat nothing but meat, but humans are omnivores. Our prehistory, our teeth, and our nutritional requirements show that we have evolved to eat both plant and animal tissues. But the textbook shows a single person eating nothing but meat, a strawman argument that does not exist in the real world.

Why are textbooks only now beginning to run these incorrect examples? The number of persons with rural farm experiences nationwide has dropped from nearly 40 percent at World War II to well under one percent today.  But it is not just a case of a city scientist writing about something he doesn’t know about. College training has likewise shifted away from field experiences working with plants and animals, and toward biochemistry and molecular biology.

Still, printed textbooks are supposed to be reviewed by other scientists before being published. Unfortunately, in the era of online materials that are hugely laden with errors, there is reason to believe that textbook publishers are letting down their guard. Textbook reviewers should have caught this.

Fortunately, well-trained biology teachers can send these textbook samples back to the cooks and not accept them until they are well done.

Communication and the written word isn’t what it used to be. Neither is the King’s English, grammar, punctuation or just about any integral part of listening, speaking and writing.

Why should we learn the basics of communicating in a world where today’s smart phone technology can and will do everything for us?

We’re busier than any time in our history trying to keep up with the latest technology of talking to one another. It’s about brevity and moving forward swiftly.

Don’t believe me, just ask the masses who today worship at the altar of these hand-held icons. You can talk, text, Tweet, Facebook, photograph, play music and games, wake up, go to sleep, find a place to eat, check on the weather – do almost anything you wish except maybe think for yourself with these wonderful rascals.

We can all rely on the latest technology to think, act and accomplish all the tasks we once learned to do. You know, carrying on a conversation, telling a story, writing a letter, communicating a message – actually making contact with another human being.

People I know are dying for human interaction. They just don’t know how to make the connection anymore. That’s why we need to return to the basics of communication.

It’s all about the destination or the journey’s end.

Answer the following question. If you were to drive from Salina to Kansas City, how would this trip be different from 1950?

You might respond the highways are much wider and smoother. Others would say today we have the Interstate system and toll roads. Someone else might respond that we have many more places to buy fuel and food – and these businesses stay open 24-hours each day.

All good answers, but what if I were to ask, what hasn’t changed?

The answer is the journey’s end and that remains Kansas City.

Today the latest and greatest technology is just around the corner waiting to be purchased. There will always be the next generation tablet, smart phone or laptop for those with the money or desire to possess them. We have been conditioned, or conditioned ourselves, to believe we must have these tools with us at all times and all places.

How can we live without them?

My question is how can we truly live with them?

That is the real challenge. We have become slaves to each new wave of technology; we replace our obsolete models with the latest, greatest version. At the same time, we trick ourselves into believing each new change will result in quicker communication.

Quicker?

Possibly.

Better?

Don’t bet on it.

Regardless of the technology we use, the journey’s end remains the same. Good letters, text messages, stories and communication that informs, reveals and motivates other human beings to action not consternation and confusion.

Remember, it is not the communication tool that is necessary, it is the thought we hope to convey to others. After thinking about what we wish to communicate or the story we hope to convey, we write it, edit it, review the piece again and rewrite the final draft. Strive to do your best.

All around us are examples of great speeches, letters and broadcasts – the Gettysburg Address, the radio broadcast of the Hindenburg crash, FDR’s fire side chat, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself…,” President Kennedy’s quest to land on the moon, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade… not because they are easy, but because they are hard….”

These carefully chosen and crafted words had power and meaning. They described scenes, situations and events with riveting anticipation and spontaneity.

The main reason for their greatness and longevity is that no matter how plain and primitive the tools used to convey them, those who uttered these words never lost sight of the destination.

As we work with the latest technology, never forget this. After all, what good is the message if the recipient cannot understand and is not moved to action?

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

I love watching hawks hunt, and I love observing how they’ve learned to interact with farm equipment as it rolls across fields and stirs up rodents and small birds that scurry about and often end up as a snack for the hawk.

I’ve been helping a local farmer prepare wheat ground, and today a couple red tail hawks joined my progress across the field. As the giant field cultivator rumbled past they would fly or hop just out of reach, all the while watching intently for any movement behind it.

I found it interesting that they were actually hunting from the ground rather than from a lofty seat atop a power pole along the road. A couple years ago not far from where I was working today, I happened by a big field of soybeans being cut. What caught my eye was the enormous number of hawks all around the field; I counted to 30-some then lost count.

I rolled into the field and talked with one of the combine drivers about the hawks. He said they had suddenly appeared as if from nowhere when they started cutting and had been there since. The soybean plants were extra tall and thick that year, and as they ripened and dropped their foliage, it left several inches of duff covering the ground between the rows; perfect cover for field mice and rats looking for warm concealment. As the combines lumbered through the field, they forced all those rodents from their cozy quarters and the hawks were feasting.

Soon we will again be seeing an extraordinary number of hawks of all varieties as they migrate south toward warmer climates. The extent of our Kansas winter will largely determine whether they stay here for a spell or move on south, and our milder-than-normal winters of late have been a huge draw to migrating hawks. The hawks I observed hunting the soybean stubble field that year were obviously migrants that were getting a good meal whether they stayed or not. The vast acreages of new wheat fields are a huge draw too, as mice, voles and insects become vulnerable to the hawk’s keen eyes in the short new wheat.

Another plus is the type of air currents and thermals that blow through the plains states. North winds coming down from Canada are utilized by all types of hawks, saving them precious energy by being able to soar. So in summary, the mild winters, the open fields and the beneficial wind currents all make Kansas a popular place to see hawks of many varieties this time of year.

One common hawk we see here every winter is the Northern Harrier. They are large hawks with broad, square tails and are often seen gliding effortlessly mere feet above CRP fields and pastures. We also get an influx of Red Tails from northern states as they come here for our milder winters. Swainson Hawks on their way to Argentina stop in Kansas by the thousands. Mississippi Kites can be seen as they make their way to Mexico and South America. Rough-Legged Hawks migrate from Canada to the western US, including Kansas. Ferruginous Hawks may be seen here as they travel from Western Kansas to parts of the South Eastern US and Florida. As a rule-of-thumb, the bigger bodied the bird, the less likely they are to migrate. All these truly make for a kaleidoscope of raptors in our Kansas sky.

This article could not be complete without emphasizing the important role raptors play in our agricultural environment. Raptors get blamed for everything from low pheasant and quail populations to stealing chickens and everything in between. Yes we all know that hawks and especially owls will steal a chicken or two given the chance, but in actuality, hawks prey on mice, rats, snakes and possums that eat quail and pheasant eggs and newly hatched young.(FYI, feral and stray cats are the worst predators alive for killing young game birds and song birds.) Owls are huge rat and mice hunters and also eat skunks that carry rabies. If not for these raptors in our midst, rodent populations would devastate farmer’s crops and our environment as a whole. And for the record, killing a raptor of any kind is illegal in Kansas!

You can’t go afield this time of year without seeing hawks silently hunting low over patches of CRP and milo stalks or putting on shows of acrobatic excellence as they soar above us on the November breezes. I once overheard a raptor rehabilitator tell someone “We as humans have encroached on them, so the least we can do is let them live with us.” Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

The Ellis County Extension Office will offer an educational program on “Medicare Basics” on Friday, September 25 at noon in the Extension meeting room, 601 Main, Hays.

This free program will cover Medicare eligibility, how and when to apply, what is covered by the various parts, and how to fill the gaps. Tips for choosing a Part D drug plan during the fall open season and programs available to assist low income individuals will also be discussed.

Anyone interested in learning more about Medicare would benefit from this program, particularly those who are nearing age 65 or those who help aging parents with insurance and financial matters.

The program will be presented by Jamie Rathbun, Midway District Extension FCS Agent and a trained Senior Health Insurance Counseling for Kansas (SHICK) counselor.

Medicare is the federal government program that provides health insurance to those who are age 65 or older, and some disabled people under age 65, no matter their income.

Medicare has different parts that cover inpatient services, outpatient services and prescription drugs at the pharmacy.  Unless someone makes another choice for how to get benefits when they become eligible for Medicare, they will have Original Medicare, the traditional fee-for-service program offered directly through the federal government. In Original Medicare, you are covered to go to just about any doctor or hospital in the country.

People can also choose to get their Medicare benefits instead through a Medicare Advantage plan (such as an HMO or PPO). These plans, which are also called Medicare private health plans, must offer at least the same benefits as Original Medicare but can have different rules, costs and coverage restrictions.

Medicare is different from Medicaid, which is a state and federal program offering health care coverage to people with low incomes.

Each year, insurance companies that provide Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage have the right to change their monthly premium price, the drugs they choose to cover and the co-pay or co-insurance amounts you pay for those drugs at the pharmacy.  It is always a good idea to check each year to see if your plan might be changing.  Learn more about how to do a plan comparison and make changes during Part D open enrollment October 15 through December 7, 2015.

Everyone has a choice about how to get Medicare health benefits.  Whether making decisions for yourself, or helping parents, grandparents, relatives or friends make health care decisions, it is important to understand Medicare options and to choose Medicare coverage carefully.  The decisions you make about Medicare benefits can affect costs and quality of care.

To learn more, plan to attend the free program on “Medicare Basics” on Friday, September 25 at noon at the Ellis County Extension meeting room, 601 Main in Hays.  Enter the rear door from the north parking lot.  Please pre-register by calling the Extension Office, 785-628-9430, to ensure adequate materials.

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

The day that the cinematic community has been yearning for finally has arrived. Our long national nightmare is over. Johnny Depp has, at long last, delivered the kind of riveting performance that film-lovers the world over know he is capable of. “Black Mass” proves that Johnny Depp is far more than a Jack Sparrow-shaped-cash-cow for Disney and is capable of the exact opposite of the inhuman aberration that was “Mortdecai.”

Set in 1970 Boston, “Black Mass” tells the true story of the unholy alliance between James “Whitey” Bulger and the FBI, who mistakenly added fuel to a very deadly fire. Bulger, one of the most violent gangsters in Boston’s history, is played to spectacular effect by Johnny Depp. To say that the character is captivating is an understatement. I found it nearly impossible to tear my eyes away Depp’s cold stare of cruel conviction. While Depp’s return to glory certainly steals the show, “Black Mass” is stuffed to the gills with strong actors keeping pace.

While it doesn’t rise to the heights of “The Godfather” or, my personal favorite, “The Departed,” “Black Mass” is a very worthy entry in a long line of critically acclaimed gangster movies. It has all the right pieces for a great gangster flick – a menacing series of villains, a shifting line of morality and a film-spanning vice that continually tightens.

The only thing keeping “Black Mass” from a 6/6, or true greatness, is a murkiness of plot that obscures the tightening vice. One of my favorite things about watching “The Departed” for the first time, was the unbelievably intense concern that I had for the safety of the main characters. The threat was so real, it had a viscosity to it. I could feel the danger pumping through my veins like a Cerv’s Snowball (which I’ve really been missing after moving to D.C.) – cold, dense and packed with exhilarating. That rarest of cinematic elements that makes you forget that “Titanic” is doomed, makes you believe that Batman may not be able to save Gotham in “The Dark Knight” or wonder if happiness exists anywhere but with the “Guardians of the Galaxy.”  If “Black Mass” had a little more of that secret sauce, this could have been one for the books.

5 of 6 stars

Submitted by the Hays Board of Realtors

The proposed Zoning and Subdivision Regulations currently being considered by the City of Hays represent another government effort to solve problems that do not exist.

At over 500 pages in length, these regulations are extremely complicated and difficult to understand.

Do we really need the City of Hays to tell us how many caliper inches wide a newly planted tree must be, how many trees we can plant and where we have to plant them? Should the City of Hays dictate to a builder of a multi-family property how much of their property must be brick or stone and what type of siding they can use?

These are just examples of the thousands of requirements that will be placed on property owners.

The regulations will undoubtedly result in:
1) A significant loss of the rights of property owners in the development and improvement of their properties.
2) An increase in the cost of development, construction and remodeling.
3) An increase in the cost of local government as a result of the enforcement and
administrative costs surrounding these regulations.
4. A deterrent to new business and residential growth in our area.

We have attended numerous meetings beginning, July of 2014, involving city staff and the planning commission and expressed concerns. While they have listened, we believe that after review of the new drafts of the proposed regulations it is apparent that promising to make small changes will not be sufficient to stop the overall negative impact these regulations will have on our community. The regulations are excessive and another case of government intruding ever further into the lives of property owners.

We’d like to issue 2 challenges:
1) All planning commission and city commission members to read the entire Zoning Rewrite prior to taking it to a vote. We don’t need another pass first…read later.
2) All concerned property and business owners to contact a HBOR member or their city commissioners to voice their concerns.

We are asking the Hays City Commission to reject the proposed Zoning and Subdivision Regulations currently under consideration. We also ask city staff to continue efforts to work with Developers, Realtors, Contractors and Property Owners to identify realistic revisions needed to the existing regulations.

The current regulations have served the City of Hays well and there is “no need to throw out the baby with the bath water”.