Summer means different things to different people. I tend to idealize summer like a Country Time lemonade commercial.

You know what I mean: bike rides down dirt roads, rocking in chairs on the front porch, and swinging out over a body of water on an old rope. Other people think about going on vacation or sleeping late or eating outdoors. I’m not sure when or why these associations and fantasies begin, but they do and they stick with us for a lifetime.

Movies are released the whole year round, but the industry saves the biggest, splashiest movies for the summer.

Without fail, there’s always a super-hero film released. This year we’ve already seen the release of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and, later this summer, “Ant Man” and “Fantastic Four” will premiere. People can’t get enough of super-hero stories and usually when we can’t get enough of a certain type of character or protagonist it means that we want to play that protagonist in our own lives.

In short, we all want to be super-heroes. This year, the Hays Public Library gives you that opportunity.

The summer reading theme for 2015 is “Every Hero has a Story.” Movies are great fun, but reading can open up whole new worlds beyond the silver screen. You’ll discover heroes you never knew existed. Children from birth to fifth grade can participate in this summer reading program that has lots of incentives and prizes including a pool party at the Hays Aquatic Center! Children can register any time until July 31st by visiting hayspublib.org or by visiting the library.

The super-hero theme is not restricted to kids, however, the whole library has adopted the theme for the summer. In each department you’ll find events to go along with the theme. In the adult department, for instance, you can attend a workshop on June 6th at 11 AM about “Super Hero Foods.” This workshop, hosted by Marleah Augustine will go over some facts and myths of popular super foods and participants will also learn to make some tasty recipes from nutrient-dense ingredients.

This part of Kansas was pioneered by some pretty heroic people. Who but a bunch of heroes could figure out how to use and mine post-rock limestone to construct fences, churches, homes and bridges? If you’re interested in the heroic history of limestone, you might want to consider signing up for a staycation to LaCrosse on June 6th. We’ll visit historical museums in LaCrosse including the Post Rock Museum and the Barbed Wire museum. We’ll head further south to Rush Center for lunch then pass through Liebenthal on our way back to Hays. Transportation and admission are included, but lunch is your own responsibility. Space is limited so call or email today: 625-9014 or [email protected]!

The Kansas Room’s summer movie nights will focus on heroes of Kansas and the old west. On June 23rd at 6 PM I’ll be screening Red River, a movie starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in roles that helped make them famous. If you like John Wayne or classic westerns, you won’t want to miss this one which features a cattle-drive to Kansas. Movies are free and open to all ages. Free refreshments are provided.

Finally, a great way to be a super-hero in real life is to donate blood. The library will be hosting a blood drive on June 29th from 1 PM to 4:30 PM. If you really want to help save someone’s life, consider donating blood! To make an appointment call 625-9014, stop by the library, or email [email protected].

The Kansas Room is located in the basement of the Hays Public Library and is open from 9 AM to 4 PM Tuesday through Saturday, and by request.

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

“The Most Dangerous Animal of All,” by Gary L. Stewart and Susan Mustafa

For decades, the Zodiac Killer has captivated America’s imagination. His ability to evade capture while taunting authorities made him infamous. The vicious specificity of his crimes terrified Californians before the Manson murders and after, and shocked a culture enamored with the ideals of the dawning Age of Aquarius. To this day, his ciphers have baffled detectives and amateur sleuths, and his identity remains one of the twentieth century’s great unsolved mysteries.

If you’re interested in reading a book about a man grappling with his identity as he searches for his birth parents, this one’s not bad. If you’re interested in finally learning who the Zodiac Killer was, decades after the murders that terrorized the Bay Area, skip this book.

The problem with this book has nothing to do with its readability. Stewart provides a compelling account of the troubling relationship between his biological parents, supporting it with documents and photos, and the first part flows well, although later parts suffer from somewhat stilted dialogue. However, Stewart’s push to once-and-for-all reveal the identity of the Zodiac killer falls flat. Discrepancies abound, particularly when it comes to the reliability of the handwriting analysis and the lack of DNA results. The idea of a coverup by police is always intriguing, but in this case is doubtful.

Was Earl Van Best Jr. a despicable person? I think it’s safe to say yes. But was he the Zodiac? We will probably never know for sure.

As this is written, the Kansas Legislature is approaching 100 days in session. It cannot be said that the session has been remarkably productive or representative of the best democracy can do, but it did follow the cycle of typical legislative activity with the notable exceptions of budgets and taxes. Always the elephant in the room, the state’s fiscal issues have not been resolved. The 90th day and now the Memorial Day weekend have passed.

In the late days just before the holiday, and now that they have laundered their socks, our state legislators have had some time on their hands to develop some new ideas, recycle old ones, and discover, particularly regarding fiscal matters, ‘new’ truths.

A new idea? According to Senator Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee), the federal Affordable Care Act’s mandated purchase of health insurance by the working uninsured forces the state of Kansas to create a tax on participating health insurers (to be passed on to premium payers, no doubt) to offset the costs (undisclosed) imposed on the state by ACA. What these costs might be are anybody’s guess since the state of Kansas chose not to create a state managed health insurance exchange, or embrace the expansion of Medicaid and its large federal subsidy providing a lifeline to many rural healthcare providers whose services to many low-income Kansas elderly are vital.

An old idea? The most obvious and unsupportable is that cutting income tax rates creates economic growth. It is a truth of market economics that high taxes stifle economic growth. That’s very true when tax rates are confiscatory and erode capital because the burden can’t be passed on to someone else in higher prices. The reverse is not true and especially not true when income tax rates are moderate, as they have been since the Graves Administration here in Kansas. As the current governor and his legislative allies have discovered after five years walking the walk and talking the talk, dropping income tax rates for small businesses and professionals only puts a little cash in the hands of the owners. It doesn’t prompt notable growth and expansion. Only increased demand does that and increased demand comes from people who have more to spend. Since the income tax cuts lightened the burden very little for most Kansans, and for many, property and sales taxes went up, expendable income and demand have gone nowhere.

And a new truth (or perhaps just a rediscovered truth)? Cutting taxes is so easy – and cutting spending is so hard! The peoples’ champions, those who pay homage to Rex Sinquefield and the Koch brothers and Grover Norquist, appear to be emperors without clothes. If they were real apostles of the conservative faith, they’d have no reservations about cutting half a billion out of the general fund budget to match the drop in revenue. Afterall, whatever government costs it’s too much; government does the wrong things; it transfers resources to the undeserving; and it only incentivizes bad behavior.

Can they do it? So far, no. But they do seem to be developing a taste for tacking on new tariffs on consumption. Instead of slashing spending and goring the oxen of many “cut them, not me” constituents, our enlightened lawmakers seem to be planning to raise the cost of cigarettes, gasoline, beer, booze, and all other merchandise, except perhaps food.

The result? Less spending by the people who make the cash registers ring, further reducing demand for those small scale entrepreneurial types and their prospects for economic expansion.

It is said that the definition of insanity is the repetition of past unsuccessful behavior in the expectation of a better future outcome.

Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka.

When 312 people joined 52 local Walk Kansas teams in March to walk the distance across Kansas, little did they know they would log enough miles to circle the globe 1.7 times!

Ellis County team members participating in the 8-week Walk Kansas program sponsored by K-State Research and Extension met the fitness challenge to “walk” Kansas– and then some.  Our walkers reported a total of 42,939 miles– enough to cross the state 101.5 times, or to travel from New York to Los Angeles 17.5 times!

This averages 2.45 miles– or almost 37 minutes– per person per day, for an average total of 258 minutes per week, surpassing the recommendation of 150 minutes of physical activity per person per week from the US Guidelines for Physical Activity.

In a parallel challenge to track fruit and vegetable consumption, team members reported eating 44,041 cups of fruits and vegetables during Walk Kansas.  That’s approximately 22,020 pounds or 11 tons of these healthful foods.

This averages 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per person per day. While this is a great effort, it still falls short of the daily consumption advised by the US Dietary Guidelines. The recommendations vary by age, sex and activity level, but most adults should eat 2-2.5 cups of vegetables and 1.5-2 cups of fruit each day, for a combined goal of 3.5-4.5 cups daily.  Low fruit and vegetable intake is a risk factor for premature death among Ellis County adults with 81% of adults in Ellis County consuming too few fruits and vegetables, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Kansas Department of Health & Environment.

Top mileage honors this year went to the Saints team which collectively logged 1,788 miles of exercise. The team which consumed the most fruits and vegetables was the Wonderful, Wacky Women Walkers of USD 432 team with1,693 cups eaten.

Team members reported many benefits from their participation in the Walk Kansas challenge.  While many reported that the team support kept them motivated, others mentioned specific benefits such as weight loss, increased energy, and the ability to sleep better, breathe easier and feel healthier.

Experts know that exercising controls weight, reduces risk of premature death from heart disease, helps to alleviate arthritis, reduces the risk of diabetes, decreases blood pressure, helps older adults become stronger and remain independent, helps lower cholesterol levels, decreases anxiety and helps to alleviate depression.

Physician Robert H. Butler once said, “If exercise could be purchased in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation.”

With all the health benefits of physical activity, it is no surprise that experts have determined there are also health costs associated with inactivity.  According to research done at North Carolina State University several years ago, the cost estimate for inactivity is $1,412 in direct and indirect health costs per inactive person per year.  By helping 312 Ellis County participants become more active, the potential estimated cost savings of Walk Kansas in Ellis County is $440,544!

Ellis County walkers were among over 16,000 people statewide who participated in the K-State Research and Extension Walk Kansas program.

If you’d like enjoy the benefits of physical fitness with a fun team atmosphere, plan to join Walk Kansas next year, March 20- May 14, 2016.  Until then, keep moving and eating well!

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

Today’s livestock producers work in a noble profession. Unfortunately, not everyone believes this so people who care for animals must understand how consumers think and feel. Get inside their heads, if you will.

Consumers hold farmers responsible for the humane treatment of farm animals. In recent consumer surveys, people rated animal well being higher than the care and well being of workers in the food system but not as high as food safety.

It is not science, technical capacity or ability that drives trust. Instead, it is whether consumers believe agriculture shares their ethics and values.

Farmers and ranchers must talk about their commitment to doing the right thing – their commitment to values and ethics, not just science.

They have plenty of evidence to demonstrate they’re doing the right thing, but rely too much on such language. They must connect with the public on a value’s basis.

The most important job ahead is to communicate in a way that helps people trust what farmers and ranchers say and do. Too often livestock producers take for granted that rural neighbors know and understand who they are and what they do.

Agriculture can no longer take this for granted. Our industry continues to evolve and most of the people in the United States today are not involved in farming and ranching.

Americans know little about where their food comes from. They want to believe that what livestock producers are doing is consistent with their values and ethics. Telling this story includes showing people what is taking place on our nation’s farms and ranches.

That said, there clearly remain legitimate reasons like disease prevention and biosecurity not to allow unfettered access to farms and ranches.

Livestock production or animal agriculture in the most affluent country in the world faces special challenges and opportunities. Among those challenges is that Americans spend such a small percentage of their income on food that they can demand food where they want it, when they want it, in the proportion they want it and produced in a humane way.

Many food stores and food retailers have announced implementation of third-party verification measures to ensure food animals are treated humanely. In some instances, customers will demand third-party verification and if it doesn’t exist, the store providing the food may not be credible.

Agriculture can and will win the hearts and minds of consumers.

Farmers and ranchers must remember whom they are trying to influence. Customers and consumers need to hear from livestock producers.

It is not productive for the agriculture community to attack activist groups. Instead, agriculture must retake its rightful position as the people in charge of ensuring the humane treatment of animals.

Tell your story. Inform people at every opportunity how hard you work every day to ensure animals are treated fairly and humanely.

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

There’s just something about a toad that “conjures” up visions of a witch in a huge black hat with a big hairy wart on her nose stirring a bubbling pot full of potion and mumbling spells as she stirs. Toads just look creepy, and then of course there is that propensity they possess to pee on anyone picking them up.

Despite having a face only a mother could love, toads are extremely important to our planet. It is reported that a toad can eat ten thousand insects in one summer and are part of natures pest patrol (the person who did the counting for that study really needs a life!)

Toads begin their lives as tiny swimming tadpoles and eventually crawl onto land and begin breathing air, yet another of God’s creative mysteries. Toads, like other amphibians actually absorb air through their skin as well as getting it from their lungs with occasional breaths. They also absorb water though their skin rather than drinking it through their mouths.

Because of toxins in their environment, toad populations are said to be declining nearly to the point of crisis, although I certainly see no evidence of that at my house. Raccoons, skunks and snakes are natural predators of toads. Besides protection from them, and pets which are usually mere annoyances, toads also need cool dark places to get away from the bright sun and weather.

Joyce has several large flower gardens and scattered throughout each garden she has created what she calls “toad abodes.” She takes broken clay or ornamental flower pots and turns them into cool, dark, secret hideaways for the resident toads.

She finds an already shady spot beneath a big perennial plant, then simply lays the broken pot on its side to form a little round-top enclosure into which the toads can easily crawl and hide themselves away from predators, pets and the heat of the day. One such hideaway is even made from the bleached white pelvic bone of a cow drug home from the woods by our grandson. Laid beneath a big plant with long slender leaves that hang down over it, the arched shape makes a perfect secret hideout for a toad or two. Any object that has room for a toad to crawl inside will work, and besides protecting the toads, they look very decorative and rustic in the flower bed too.

So the next time you buy your pet a new toy or treat, think about your insect removal friends too. Find a broken clay pot or bowl and place it in a new spot in the garden for yet another toad abode. And next year, when you ask yourself what in the world that broken pot is doing in your flower bed and pick it up to remove it, don’t be surprised to see a pair of dark eyes looking back at you from beneath it…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

Remember the separation of powers business you learned in school? You know, there’s the executive branch of government, the legislative branch of government and the judiciary, separate from the other two because there’s not supposed to be politics in the courts.

Well…there’s an interesting little provision in the Legislature’s yet-to-be passed bill that would finance the judiciary in Kansas for the next two years that has the Legislature dabble in the management of the Judiciary and maybe it is constitutional, maybe not.

Here’s the deal. The Legislature, dabbling, of course, tied the last two years’ judicial budget to a shakeup in court management that most people never heard about: Judges of the state’s 31 judicial districts will elect their local chief judge instead of having the judge appointed by the Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. Oh, and that chief judge in each of the districts can opt to take over the budget of each district, deciding which judge gets a new desk, more staff, whatever…

The judiciary, of course, wasn’t intrigued by this dabbling, seeing it as just the first baby step into injecting politics into the operation of the courts. There was opposition by the court to linking those organization policy changes and the budget for the courts in the same bill, but it happened.

And, the plot grew thicker when a district court judge from out west this spring filed a lawsuit asserting that the management issues that the Legislature inserted into the previous judicial budget bill were unconstitutional. That’s the appropriations/policy bill for the fiscal year which ends June 30.

Well, the new bill that finances court operations for the two years starting July 1 has that “non-severability clause,” too. Which means the policy issues in the nearly expired budget/policy bill will carry over into the next appropriation for the judiciary.

The new budget bill renews that non-severability clause, which means if the policy decisions the Legislature imposed on the court are found to be unconstitutional—by the courts—that because the policy issues and the budget are unseverable, the policy issues are thrown away and so is the appropriation to operate the courts.

Hmmm… Sounds a little like extortion, or at least a lesser included offense, doesn’t it?

So, if the dabbling with court management is found by the courts to be unconstitutional, there’s no budget for the courts. Any chance that might influence a court decision on the management provisions that the Legislature passed? Any chance that a judge hearing this case will wonder whether he/she can make his/her car payments if there is no judicial budget that provides their salary?

That’s just the first issue of the Legislature sticking its nose into the operation of a different branch of government.

And, of course, if that western Kansas judge wins his suit and lawmakers can’t essentially manage the courts, the issue then quickly turns to whether the non-severability clause cutting off funding for the courts works. That’s the bigger issue that will have wider ramifications on the public than judges deciding who runs their district court.

Of course, there’s a chance that the non-severability clause is unconstitutional for some reason other than just not feeling right to some grown-up Kansans. So, if the judge wins and the Legislature can’t dictate who manages the courts, that’s one thing, and it leads to the second step of this dance, whether a non-severability clause in itself is an unconstitutional overstep of the Legislature’s authority.

And, the courts will decide that one, too.

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.

The structure of a plot is one thing, the cohesion of an idea is quite another. Plot should enclose and ensconce its ideas and give them fertile ground in which to grow. Too much or too little rigidity encasing a narrative often times ends up exposing it to too little or too much light, a common threat to ideas.

I didn’t quite know what I should expect from “Tomorrowland.” I am happy to report that movie-goers won’t be sorry for their selection, even if they leave the theatre with a dent in their hats from the movie’s well-meaning, but overbearing theme. Film’s beating audiences to death with their messages has been done in the past; but regardless of “Tomorrowland’s” lack of subtlety, it’s message is worth hearing.

I wish that “Tomorrowland’s” execution had been smoother. The plot structure is rough around the edges, to say the least. You could even say that it’s outright confusing in some places, and it’s not even a difficult structure. For example, two of the male child actors in this film are nearly identical and they arrive on screen back-to-back. If I had a lifetime to examine them side-by-side, I would probably still get them mixed up. That’s poor casting of a dangerous sort that mislead me down a rabbit hole that I wasn’t supposed to exist.

With the exception of the confusing children, the cast of “Tomorrowland” is strong, even if no one gives a particular stellar performance. Britt Robertson, of “The Longest Ride” fame, is a rising star who will hopefully get better gigs after sharing the screen with George Clooney and the wonderful Hugh Laurie, who played Dr. House on “House M.D.” For the good of the industry, Laurie definitely needs to spend his tomorrows being a mainstream character actor.

At the end of the day, I liked “Tomorrowland,” and will always love the core concept and philosophy behind its message of dreaming, hoping and working for a better tomorrow. We, all of us, need to take care of each other and our planet. As a rule, we humans like to wait for our enemies to take concrete forms before we launch ourselves into the fight. That paradigm is certainly handy in the case of bears or terrorist threats. On the other hand, it’s about time that we start working on helping our planet before the entire thing catches on fire. Waiting for this one to be concrete may well be too late for you and I. If “Tomorrowland” can jolt some additional minds into caring about the world, then I am perfectly happy to have endured the clunky movie that surrounded the message.

4 of 6 stars