By GLENN BRINKOW Pottawatomie County farmer and rancher
It was just a pen, a simple ballpoint pen, but it brought me to my knees. We were working cattle, and someone asked me if I had a pen to write down the numbers and keep notes. I rummaged through my console and at the bottom I found a single, dusty, forgotten pen. The pen is nothing spectacular. It simply had the word “Glenn” on it with a phone number.
Earlier in the week I had gotten an e-mail that my friend Jill Casten had passed away from cancer. You don’t expect someone like Jill to be gone Even though you know it is coming, it is still a shock. She was one of the brightest stars in the Kansas Farm Bureau sky. Things had been busy, and I guess the totality hadn’t hit me until I found the pen.
Jill gave me that pen. One day in the hallway she found me and presented me with it. She explained that when she stayed at a hotel with the name of a friend, she always kept something from it to give to that friend. I remember joking with her and asked how often that happened. I asked if she had many friends by the name of Hilton or Marriot.
I also remember coming away feeling like I mattered to Jill. For her to think of me meant the world. I am sure she was busy on that trip and had many more important things to be thinking of than me. That is how most of us would have thought, but not Jill. No, Jill was always thinking of others and cultivating relationships. She had this special talent, and everyone in her life felt like they mattered.
Even then, covered in the grime of working cattle, in the middle of my dusty truck, I smiled touched again by the simple effort she made to let me know I mattered. That was why she was so effective as a leader and as a trainer.She modeled all the traits of a great leader.
I am saddened that I will never again see my friend or learn what it is to be a leader and an advocate from her. For that, I owe her a great deal. However, I am uplifted at the thought of who Jill Casten was and what I learned from her. Jill taught me to value relationships, to live in the moment, savor friends and family and to make the world around me a more welcoming place.
All of us who knew Jill experienced a great loss, and it will take time to heal that wound. We must take solace in knowing that we can live by the example she gave us. The legacy of Jill Casten will live on through the vast network of friends she collected. Godspeed my friend, until we meet again.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
Dr. Tisa Mason, FHSU presidentI have been thinking a lot about our faculty as we celebrate promotion, tenure, and our annual awards for teaching, service, and scholarly and creative activity – key responsibilities for a university professor. As we approach spring, I receive peer reviewed faculty files with recommendations for promotion and tenure.
Each of those three areas involve an incredible amount of work. Teaching alone takes enormous amounts of time. In addition to all the traditional work – creating lectures and tests, reading and grading papers and old-school things like that – there is finding and developing opportunities for service learning projects, creating, managing and monitoring online courses, finding and learning how to use constantly evolving software tools, integrating video into lesson plans and the Cloud into course management, and a whole host of other digital developments.
Scholarly activity is hours and hours of research and then more research, and then synthesizing it all, writing up findings and conclusions, often writing a lot of it over again, and then getting it published. Acts of literary or artistic creation involve the same kind of amazing dedication, purpose and resolve.
The service component encompasses all the things faculty do to serve the campus and the community outside the classroom: volunteering for community and campus activities; serving as officers in professional associations; taking on roles for hiring committees, policy committees, emergency planning task forces, academic boards and so many other similar tasks.
Our faculty do all of these things day after day, and the promotion and tenure files document all of them. It is truly remarkable. I am in awe at the resolve and stamina represented in all those impressive files.
An exchange I had with one of our English faculty, Cathy Adams, on the challenges of publishing is a perfect illustration of how important it is to remain positive and persistent. She wrote in part:
“The writer’s life is one of rejection like no other. On average, I’m lucky to get five short stories published each year. This is out of a pool of about twenty stories that I circulate to publishers. At any given time my short stories are sitting on the desks of publishers all over the globe. … This calculates to something like 400 rejections and 5 acceptances each year. It’s actually a little worse than that because out of that 400, some never bother to reject my story at all. They simply never respond.
“Imagine that for every 405 men or women you asked out on a date, 400 rejected you. And what about the ones who never respond but simply ignore you altogether? How long would you bother to stay in the dating game if those were your odds? Apply this level of rejection to a job search, or to the submission of an academic paper to a conference, or a proposal for a project. Being rejected 400 times would eventually numb a person to ever trying again.
“The irony of my writing statistics is that my acceptances are actually high in relation to the quality and quantity of publishers to which I submit my stories. For me, getting five short stories published in a year is a great achievement. …
“I admit that some days I get tired and I ask myself why I keep trying. It would be so easy to just stop at rejection 200 or 300, but I’ve been writing for twenty-five years and one of the things I’ve learned is that persistence is at least as important as talent. I’ve met a lot of creative and smart people who say they are “thinking of writing a story,” but they never get around to doing it. Twenty-five years ago I was one of those people, but my life was changed by a writer named Judith Ortiz Cofer. …
“One day I was invited to a luncheon to celebrate a student who had won a writing competition, and Cofer was the guest speaker. I was fortunate to be seated next to her, and I made the mistake of saying, ‘I’d love to write a book one day, but I’m just too busy.’ Cofer put down her fork, looked me directly in the eye and said, ‘Well, when you want to write a book, you will.’ I felt as if I’d been slapped. How dare she say that to me? She had no idea how busy I was. I had diapers to change, laundry to do, and meals to cook, all on top of a full-time job. My mind reeled at the insult. But as the days passed I couldn’t forget what she’d said. ‘When you want to write it, you will.’ I knew what she meant. We find the time to do what we want to do and everything else just slides by. Soon I was getting up at 5:00 AM and writing until my son woke up. On the weekends I would often write half the night. Within a year, I finished that book I was too busy to write, and I’ve never stopped.”
So as we celebrate our faculty at the end of this academic year, I marvel as they meet the challenge of attaining excellence in teaching; as they juggle busy schedules to be engaged members of our community and campus in a myriad of roles; and as they persist and thrive in their creativity and scholarship.
I am so very impressed by and grateful for the wonderful level of their achievements. What an honor it is for me to recognize our faculty every year for their many successes!
Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly has all-but finished the first of four annual battles with the Kansas Legislature and she had some wins and she had some losses. And the Republican-dominated Legislature? We’re not going to know whether it won or lost until next year’s elections are tallied.
It was 1:34 a.m. Sunday when the House adjourned, and the Senate? Well, it stretched to about 3:08 a.m. before senators headed to their cars after most of the bars had closed in Topeka to start calculating whether they did anything that will assist them in winning re-election.
Medicaid expansion, which was Kelly’s primary issue throughout her campaign and during the legislative session, didn’t happen. The House passed the bill, the Senate refused to even debate it for fear it would pass, and we’re in for another year when more than 100,000 Kansans (the estimates vary widely) won’t have health care, or, more precisely, the caregivers and hospitals mostly in rural areas won’t be paid for that care for Kansans.
And after passing a too-big tax bill during the regular session, lawmakers in the just-ended veto session passed a smaller measure that Kelly probably won’t sign, and we’re down to either a veto of the measure or maybe-but-unlikely allowing it to become law without her signature.
Oh, and yes, we’re in for a summer of debate over whether the tax measure passed 27-13 in the Senate and 83-41 in the House that will mean smaller checks written to the state next year is a tax “cut” for some Kansans or just a reaction to federal tax law changes the Legislature didn’t have anything to do with, making the bill Kansas taxpayer “protection,” or something else altogether.
All we know for sure on the tax issue (adjustment?) is that the state will receive smaller checks from corporations with international operations and that relatively poor Kansans will see no drop in their tax bills.
The budget? Well, best we can tell for now is that it apparently is big enough that the Kansas Supreme Court won’t close down schools next fall, and small enough that even with millions spent to rebuild state government there will still be money in the bank for next session. A little more money for highways, more money for social service and health care for the poor and elderly and raises (2.5 percent) for state employees that wouldn’t make a good tip at a restaurant.
The state’s higher education industry gets more money to hopefully hold down tuition increases and, well, a lot of other smaller, more targeted spending that ought to be locally important in many parts of the state and the legislators who represent them.
The whole story? No. Not for weeks will we see just how the session changed any Kansans’ lives. At this point, there is more spending, there are some bridges that will be given new names, there are prison employees who are looking at raises as high as 15 percent in hopes it will keep them in their jobs, and there is a boost in the amount of income the poor elderly can have and still receive care in their homes.
In the next few weeks, we’ll find out just what happened and to whom, and how the governor casts those changes and how legislators describe their actions with an eye on just what they can use for bullet points on their campaign palm cards next year.
But at least lawmakers are home until the May 29 sine die adjournment, when we see just what happens to their tax bill and whether Kelly line-item vetoes some of that 400-plus page budget she will receive this week.
And then we’ll know how she did…
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com
The Kansas Geological Survey reports statewide crude oil production for January of 2.8 million barrels, compared to 3.4 million last January. Barton County operators report 139-thousand barrels, Ellis County notched 217-thousand, Russell County had 130-thousand, and in Stafford County, January production was 85-thousand barrels.
State regulators report an increase in one of the key barometers of oil production in Kansas. The Kansas Corporation Commission says operators filed 106 new intent-to-drill notices in April, the most since last November There were 141 intents filed in April of last year. So far this year, operators have filed 334 intents, compared to 563 at this time last year. There are five new intents in Barton County, eight in Ellis County, none in Russell County and two in Stafford County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports four active drilling rigs in eastern Kansas, which is unchanged, and 25 in the western half of the state, which is down two. Drilling was underway on one lease in Ellis County.
Baker Hughes reported 990 active drilling rigs in the U.S. Friday, an increase of two oil rigs, but a decline of three exploring for natural gas. The count in Texas was down seven, while New Mexico logged an increase of two rigs. In Canada there are 61 active drilling rigs, down two for the week.
Regulators approved 21 permits for drilling at new locations in Kansas during the last week, eight of them east of Wichita and 13 in Western Kansas, including one in Ellis County. There have been 304 new drilling permits approved so far this year.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 34 wells completed over the last week, 12 of them in eastern Kansas, and 22 west of Wichita. That brings the year-to-date total to 551. There was one newly-completed well in Ellis County, one in Russell County, and four in Stafford County, including two dry holes.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported yet another all-time record for weekly crude oil production for the week ending April 26: 12.277 million barrels per day. That beats last week by 100-thousand barrels per day. The previous high was during the week ending April 5, at 12.184 million barrels per day.
The government said U.S. crude oil stockpiles increased 5.5 million barrels and remain roughly equal to the five year seasonal average.
Viking Energy Group announced last week that its subsidiary Mid-Con Development sold all of its oil and gas assets in Ellis and Rooks counties to an independent third party. According to the announcement, the sale price was just over four million dollars. The assets consist of working interests in some 41 oil leases. They were purchased by Mid-Con in 2017. Last year the owners arranged to deepen and perforate approximately fifteen wells, and also improve water disposal capacity, successfully increasing production and putting the company in a position to sell the assets at a premium. The Company continues to own other assets in across eastern Kansas, including in Miami, Franklin, Anderson, Woodson, Allen, Riley, Geary and Wabaunsee counties.
The hottest bidding war in the patch in decades got a little hotter last week, as the board of directors at Anadarko deliberate whether a takeover bid from Occidental Petroleum is superior to a lower but already agreed-to deal with Chevron. Bloomberg reports Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway on Tuesday disclosed plans to inject $10 billion into Occidental in exchange for preferred stock and warrants.
Kristen Farrington is executive director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute.
By KRISTEN FARRINGTON Freedom Forum Institute
E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one.
In 1782, this Latin phase was adopted by our leaders as part of the Great Seal of the United States. It is not the official motto of our country, but many have adopted it as our motto. Over time, out of many states, one nation has come to represent for many Americans, out of many peoples, one America.
I wonder if E Pluribus Unum reflected the feeling of the people at that moment in time? Or was it aspirational — acknowledging the legal reality and yet knowing that the disparate people who lived in the United States had a long way to go before they’d see themselves as one nation.
As we reflect on the challenges that have faced our nation over the last few centuries — several wars, the Great Depression, social movements calling for the end of institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and domestic and international terrorism — I have no doubt that ordinary citizens like me, of every generation, have wondered — is this even possible? Did our foremothers and forefathers set us up for failure? Are we as human beings capable of learning to live together despite our deepest differences?
When I spend time with adults, I feel much more pessimistic about the possibility. When I spend time with children and youth, I see that in many ways they have already figured it out. As adults, many of us don’t go out of our way to engage with people who are different from ourselves, but children don’t seem to have the same barriers.
Last week I was on a bus headed to Los Angeles International Airport to catch my flight back to Washington, D.C. The bus was full. Looking at the sea of faces, I was struck by how this group represented the rich diversity of America. Next to me sat Brooklyn, a 2½-year-old who insisted she was 3. In the 15 minutes that I talked with her and watched her engage with the people on the bus, she helped transform the bus from a group of strangers staring at their phones to a community of people laughing and engaging in conversation. With a big smile, Brooklyn talked with everyone, asked us questions, introduced her 8-year-old brother and stuffed Minion to us and told us all about her friends at pre-school. She giggled and smiled, talked and asked questions and waved goodbye to each person as they got off the bus — a perfect example of kindness and hospitality.
As executive director of the Religious Freedom Center, I do a great deal of traveling, speaking and educating about religious freedom and religious literacy, helping equip community leaders so they can protect the rights of people of all religious traditions and none. This is First Amendment work, but it is also integral is to the larger diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work that is happening in universities, schools, businesses and communities across the country.
Often when I talk about religious diversity and inclusion, religious freedom and religious literacy with adults, either I receive “Yes this is an issue, but we don’t have the time to deal with it,” or “We haven’t had any complaints — we don’t have those issues in our community.” These answers often come from people who haven’t had to think about these issues or are benefiting from systems of privilege that don’t force them to address the issues. When it comes to basic human and constitutional rights, pretending these issues don’t exist is probably not the best policy. The better way, although the harder way, is to dig in.
The first step is recognizing that diversity already exists in our schools, businesses and communities. I’m astonished when people tell me that their communities aren’t diverse — there is so much they aren’t seeing. Diversity encompasses many things — race, ethnicity, language, military status, marital status, economic status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, learning differences, physical and mental ability, just to name a few.
The second step is to start asking the questions that Trudy Arriaga, Ed.D., asks in her book “Opening Doors” — “In what ways is the door slammed shut to certain groups? In what ways do we exclude and marginalize? In what ways do we send the message that our community, our school or business is not inclusive — not for everyone? In what ways do we ignore the systemic ways that prevent equal access?”
To have equity for people of all religions and none, we must guarantee fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all — not just for the people who look like us, think like us, and believe the same things we do. Dr. Arriaga reminds us that we need to take a hard look at our institutions and systems that create barriers and deny access. Once we put new equitable structures and systems in place, we still need to create environments where everyone feels welcomed, respected and fully valued.
We are making progress as more school districts, businesses and universities are putting an emphasis on DEI training and initiatives, but we still have a long way to go. The recent shooting at Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego County is another reminder of how we can’t ignore the growing anti-religious sentiment in this country. According to FBI hate crime statistics, hate crimes motivated by biases based on religion continue to rise. The increase in attacks on Jewish, Muslim and African-American communities over the last few years has raised alarm across America as communities continue to be devastated by shootings, arson and vandalism.
“Once we identify the barriers and start eliminating systems that systematically prevent people from access and opportunities, we can build new inclusive models and create an environment where all people feel welcomed, respected and valued” (University of Houston Center for Diversity and Inclusion). This is the long view — the work of years, decades and generations.
On days when fellow Americans tell me they don’t want to talk with anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs or roll their eyes and say things are just fine the way they are, I wonder whether or not E Pluribus Unum is even a remote possibility.
I was feeling that way when I left Los Angeles, but then met Brooklyn, who taught me a valuable lesson. She reminded me that there is an easy place to start this difficult work. She treated each person on the bus with kindness and in that very simple act made us feel valued, respected and welcomed. The nation’s founders placed the words E Pluribus Unum on the nation’s Great Seal. Brooklyn and others in future generations challenge us today to make them more than that.
Kristen Farrington is executive director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute.Contact her via email at [email protected].
Steve GillilandThe evening was far too hot and humid for the middle of April as I quietly walked across the alfalfa toward a tree line thick with fallen cottonwoods and old rotting hay bales. I followed the tree line until it ended abruptly, then tiptoed through a sea of Poison Ivy to the back door of our pop-up hunting blind. Once inside, I settled into a camp chair and unzipped windows on 3 sides. Approaching storms blew a nice breeze through the blind. In front of me was a narrow strip of alfalfa, hemmed in on the far side by wheat, and framed on 2 more sides by the river as it meandered through the countryside.
My quarries tonight were wild turkeys which I had seen here with some regularity, and I was prepared to shoot as many as possible. The flock I’d been seeing was perhaps a dozen birds, and I was pretty sure I could get them all with 2 shots at most! Three Blue Herons rose from the timber along the river, but were gone before I could shoot. A lone Red Tail Hawk perched high above the river was also giving me a nice shot if I hurried!
Now before you overload the switchboard at Operation Game Thief to turn me in to the authorities, allow me to explain. That night my weapon of choice hung by a strap around my neck; its barrel was a lense, and the trigger a small silver button. You guessed it! I was “shooting” photos with a camera
In the Kansas Hunter Education Manual, the chapter on Hunter Responsibility lists four stages of a sport hunter. This topic discusses how the standards by which a hunter defines success evolve and change as the hunter develops and matures. Stage 3 is called the “Trophy Stage,” and stage 4 is the “Method Stage.” During these 2 stages in a hunter’s life, he or she matures to the point where a trophy can just as easily be a photograph rather than a mount on the wall.
One frigid April morning years ago, I shared a blind with a young man and his guide during the youth turkey hunt. That was before cell phones had such fantastic cameras, so I had a digital camera around my wrist, hoping to record some of the hunt in pictures. Among the group of birds that came to our decoys were several hens, and among them was a white-speckled hen. My camera wouldn’t work in the icy morning air, so I didn’t get a photo of her, and now I’m relegated to remembering her only in my mind, (which is quickly fading.) I was more disgusted over the camera malfunction than if I had missed a shot at a long bearded tom!
I started deer hunting when I was just a kid, and I wish I had pictures of every awesome and unusual event I’ve seen in the woods since. Once as I sat quietly on a log, a mother fox and several cubs ran by me so closely I could have reached out and grabbed one. While fishing one evening at McPherson State fishing lake I watched a beaver swim clear across the lake with a huge leafy branch in its mouth. Another time during the early January antlerless-only deer season, a buck with a monstrous rack hanging full of long grass and weeds stood just yards away from me. He looked like a hanging garden on four legs.
I could go on, but my point is that all these things are in my mind’s eye only, and someday will probably be forgotten. If they were documented as photos, at least I could pass them on for others to enjoy as well. High dollar trail cameras are available that transmit photos directly to a computer, so why not a pair of glasses that does the same with images and action see through their lenses?
Not many years ago, if someone had suggested I could be as happy with a picture as with a mounted trophy on my wall, I would have bristled at the thought. Now, however, I feel like that transition will someday be an easy one… Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
Mark TallmanBy MARK TALLMAN Kansas Association of School Boards
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that average weekly salaries for teachers are nearly 20 percent lower than pay for similarly educated employees in other fields, and the gap has been growing for decades. The teacher pay penalty in Kansas is slightly worse than the national average. Adding non-wage benefits like insurance and retirement plans reduces but does not eliminate the growing gap.
Kansas education leaders have been raising concerns over a growing teacher shortage for several years, as fewer students enter teacher training programs and others leave the profession. This report suggests a major reason is that teacher pay has not only fallen behind inflation, but behind other professionals as well. Here are some of the key findings of the report.
Teacher salaries are increasingly lagging behind other professions requiring college degrees.
Average weekly wages for teachers have long been lower than average wages for non-teacher college graduates, but from the late 1970’s to the mid-1990’s, pay increased at about the same rate for both groups.
Since 1996, however, teacher pay nationally, when adjusted for inflation, has actually fallen about $20 per week, while non-teacher pay has increased by $323 per week.
The pay gap between teachers and other college graduates has widened, especially for male teachers.
This teacher pay gap or penalty is now 21.4 percent for all employees and has widened from 6.3 percent in 1996. Because professions dominated by men have traditionally earned more than teaching, which has been traditionally dominated by women, the pay gap for men is greater – 31.5 percent, compared to 15.1 percent for women. Prior to the mid-1990’s, female teachers actually earned more on average than female non-teachers with comparable education.
The report blames the widening pay gap on state tax and funding cuts.
The report says state tax cuts were a major contributor to the widening pay gap, at least since the Great Recession of 2008. In fact, the “teacher penalty” decreased slightly around 2010 as private sector wages fell, but it grew more rapidly as the economy recovered. The authors say: “It is noteworthy that the wage penalty shrank in the early portion of the Great Recession, as private-sector wages fared worse than those in the public sector, reflecting the greater short-run stability of teacher wages due to long-term contracts. This trend was more than reversed in the recovery beyond 2010 as state and local spending cuts sapped teacher wage growth while private-sector wage growth accelerated.”
In Kansas, average teacher salaries lagged behind inflation every year from 2009 to 2017, which includes the period of state income tax cuts passed in 2012 and largely repealed in 2017. Kansas teacher salaries also lagged behind the U.S. average for teachers and other private sector employees. (See previous post.) Following the repeal of Kansas tax cuts and in response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s Gannon school finance decisions, the Legislature boosted K-12 funding in 2018 and 2019, and teacher salaries rose faster than inflation for the first time in a decade. (See previous post.) This trend is expected to continue as additional state funding is phased in.
Whether because of, or in spite of, state income tax cuts, Kansas personal income growth has been among the lowest in the nation since 2013. This has also limited the state’s ability to increase school districts’ funding, which largely determines teacher pay.
The pay gap is reduced, but not eliminated, by better non-wage benefits for teachers.
Teachers receive higher benefits in the form of insurance and retirement plans than non-teachers. For non-teachers, non-wage benefits are over 20 percent of total compensation; for teachers the percentage is nearly 30 percent. The authors found this “benefits advantage” was 8.4 percent for public school teachers in 2018, which reduced the 21.4 percent wage penalty to a 13.1 percent deficit in total compensation.
The authors say while the benefits advantage is important to note, wages have a more immediate impact on individuals. “While the total compensation penalty rounds out our understanding of how teachers are faring compared with other professionals, the growing wage penalty is still important and critical to keep in mind given the different natures of wages and benefits—only wages can be spent or saved!”
Again, the Kansas experience reflects the national trends noted by the report. For example, school Kansas school districts increased spending on salaries for all employees by 38.3 percent from 2004 to 2018, but employment benefits increased by 170.3 percent.
In particular, Kansas Public Employee Retirement System contributions for school districts increased from $110.9 million to $375 million or 238 percent. Increased KPERS funding has been largely driven by the efforts to make up for past underfunding, not new benefits. These funds will eventually help pay for retirement benefits for school district employees but are also dollars not available for current teacher salaries.
Mark Tallman is the Associate Executive Director for Advocacy for the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Jeff Kahrs is regional director for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
By JEFF KAHRS U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Pockets of our country are experiencing a significant uptick in the number of measles cases.
Measles is not a harmless childhood illness. It is actually a highly contagious, dangerous disease that can even be deadly. But measles is also easily preventable with a vaccine.
There’s a lot of misinformation swirling around, so let me provide the facts: vaccines save lives. Vaccines protect our children from debilitating and deadly disease, and they promote the overall health of our communities. Vaccines are safe and highly effective. Large studies undertaken over the years have confirmed their safety again and again.
Vaccines do not cause autism and do not contain toxic chemicals. Any serious side effects from vaccines are exceedingly rare, and the protection from disease that vaccines provide far outweighs any potential risks.
If you’re a parent, talk to your child’s doctor to make sure your child is up to date on all of his or her scheduled vaccinations. This is especially important if you have an infant, because vaccinating your baby on the recommended immunization schedule provides protection against 14 serious childhood illnesses.
For measles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children get two doses of the MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age.
If you’re an adult, check with your doctor about whether you’re up to date on your vaccines, too.
We all want our children to grow up in a world that is free from preventable diseases. The single most important thing each of us can do to achieve that goal is to get fully vaccinated – for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
You can find out more about the measles vaccine and other vaccines at Vaccines.gov.
Jeff Kahrs is regional director for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the First District Kansas Congressman.
Friends,
This week people across the country gathered with their friends, families, and churches to celebrate the National Day of Prayer, we also remembered the six million lives lost under the Nazi regime, for Holocaust Remembrance week. Every work week that we’re in D.C., I attend a bipartisan weekly prayer group with other members. In those meetings we give thanks to the Lord and pray that he continues to protect and guide us and this great nation. We must continue above all else to pray and to love each other, always standing firm against hated and antisemitism in all forms and never forget what evil this type of destruction caused during the darkest days of our world’s history.
We also received a great pro-life ruling from the Trump Administration this week. The HHS ruled that no physician or nurse should be forced to perform an abortion. This is great news, and I am thankful that the Trump Administration is standing up for the pro-life community’s religious liberties.
Holocaust Remembrance
This week we Honor the 6 million Jewish men, women, and children who were violently murdered by the Nazi regime for their religious beliefs. We remembered the victims that lost their lives to this evil regime with a bipartisan candle lighting ceremony in the Capitol, and we celebrated with survivors that beat the unthinkable odds and stood before us and shared their stories.
As the most well-documented genocide in human history, the evil and unimaginable torture throughout the Holocaust will forever haunt us. We must never tolerate or overlook antisemitism in any form.
In 2017, I had an emotional experience at the Holocaust Museum in Israel with my wife. There we heard from other survivors and walked through the hall of names honoring the six million victims of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust showed that a society that tolerates antisemitism is susceptible to other forms of racism, hatred, and oppression. We must make it abundantly clear to those with this deep hatred in their heart, that this country has zero tolerance for this type of evil.
This week I addressed the House floor to tell the story of a Kansas survivor of the Holocaust.
National Day of Prayer
This week millions of Americans gathered and celebrated the National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme, based upon the words of Jesus in John 13:34, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you.” As we are met with challenges, we must continue to seek his guidance and wisdom through prayer and always above else, love one another.
Every week I sit down with other members of our bipartisan prayer group and we pray together for his continued direction and wisdom when serving this country. As we are met with challenges, we must continue to seek guidance through prayer.
Community Bankers in DC
We had a full house on Tuesday when the Kansas Community Bankers came through the office! We talked about the importance of community banks across Kansas, and how they’re working to protect consumer data privacy and ensure access to capital for our farmers, ranchers, and main street businesses. As a former community bank board member myself, I understand the importance of these institutions to our small communities, and appreciate the work they’re doing to help rural America thrive!
Meeting with the Ambassador to Paraguay
This week I met with the new Ambassador from Paraguay, Mauel María Cáceres, to discuss the long-standing friendship between Paraguay and Kansas. In 1968, Kansas-Paraguay Partners Inc. (KPP) and the Comité Paraguay Kansas (CPK) developed hundreds of community-based partnership projects in both Kansas and Paraguay as part of the Partners of the Americas program. Since its creation nearly 2,000 Paraguayan’s have attended Kansas Universities as a result of the exchange. Today our partnership continues and the relationship remains as strong as ever.
The educational exchange seeks to benefit both sides of the partnership through learning opportunities covering agriculture, education, the cultural arts, health, international trade, natural resources, citizen participation, emergency preparedness, and much more.
In our meeting, we discussed the exchange between Paraguay and Kansas, and the bond we have through this program. We have a lot in common with Paraguay, they too rely heavily on their farmers, agribusiness, and selling of commodities through international trade. Also much like Kansans, the majority of Paraguayans are Christian and care deeply about god, family, and their country.
I was glad to meet with the Ambassador and look forward to building upon the Kansas-Paraguay relationship in the future!
Agriculture Subcommittee Hearing
The US dairy industry has faced a multi-year period of low margins and challenging market conditions. To address these issues the Livestock and Foreign Agriculture subcommittee, on which I proudly serve, held a hearing this week to hear directly from dairy farmers and experts from different regions on ways Congress can help address these issues. We discussed the ongoing labor shortage on farms, the importance of passage of USMCA and other trade deals, and the role that dairy cooperatives owned by family farmers play in assisting dairy producers back home.
Cooperatives, like Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), guarantee producers have a place to sell their milk, even if it means taking it at a loss. They also provide many other services for their members that producers rely on for making the right decisions on their farms. DFA recently relocated its headquarters from Missouri to Kansas and has a large milk powder processing plant located in Garden City. The plant is owned by twelve of its member farms in Southwest Kansas and is helping to support the industry’s continued growth in the region, as well as meet rising demand for U.S. dairy both domestically and globally.
Grain Inspection and Weighing Agency
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet with and address the American Association of Grain Inspection & Weighing Agencies. AAGIWA represents the state and private partners, authorized by the Federal Grain Inspection Service, to provide official inspection and weighing services to the grain industry on their behalf.
We discussed the importance of pending trade deals, farm bill implementation, foreign aid, and the need to repair and modernize our country’s aging infrastructure system. There were several Kansans in the group representing the Kansas Grain Inspection Service, which is responsible for providing official grain inspection services for all of Kansas, Colorado, western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. KGIS maintains offices in Colby, Concordia, Dodge City, Garden City, Salina, Sidney, Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka where they are responsible for grading samples representing roughly 500,000,000 bushels of wheat (57%), sorghum (19%), corn (15%), soybeans (7%), and other grains (2%) annually.
We are blessed to have farmers who produce the safest, most plentiful, and highest quality grains in the world. The work being done by AAGIWA and KGIS allow the fruits of that labor to get to market safely and efficiently. I look forward to continuing to support this important work and appreciate them inviting me to speak!
Electric Cooperatives
Many representatives from electric cooperatives across the district were in town this week to discuss issues impacting their industry. From the importance of upgrading and maintaining infrastructure to innovations helping our co-ops deliver energy more cleanly and efficiently to consumers, these companies understand the unique challenges facing rural America and are working hard to keep their members at the forefront of the conversation.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the First District Kansas Congressman.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Is it a post or is it a rock? In central Kansas, it might be both. A unique limestone formation in central Kansas has given rise to the name Post Rock country. Now a dedicated group of community advocates is launching a new coalition to attract visitors to the Post Rock region.
Last week, we learned about the Russell County Area Community Foundation, which is supporting the new Post Rock Limestone Coalition. The coalition is co-chaired by Rosslyn Schultz of the Grassroots Arts Center in Lucas.
As we have shared before, Rosslyn went to K-State and met and married a Lucas-area wheat farmer. Her interest in wheat weaving led her to become involved in folk art. She eventually became director of the Grassroots Arts Center which specializes in outsider, self-taught art environments across Kansas and the Midwest.
Lucas is in the heart of a unique region known as Post Rock country. It takes its name from the pieces of stone which were used as fence posts by inventive pioneers more than a century ago.
When settlers came to the mostly treeless plains of central Kansas, they solved their fencing problems by quarrying and shaping slabs of limestone for use as fence posts and other purposes. Homes, barns, churches, bridges, caves, and water towers were constructed from the honey-colored stone as well.
In 1975, the book Land of the Post Rock was published. Kansas designated Highway 232 from Wilson to Lucas as the Post Rock Scenic Byway, but the underground stone formation went well beyond that highway.
For years, tourism leaders in the area had thought about working together as a region. When the Russell County Area Community Foundation offered a new grant program, it stimulated action to make this a reality.
In August 2018, Rosslyn Schultz and others started working on a grant proposal. This involved a detailed application and an oral presentation before a review board. “It felt like we were gearing up for a master’s thesis,” Rosslyn said.
The Russell County Area Community Foundation ultimately made a $25,000 grant to develop the Post Rock Limestone Coalition. This coalition represents 17 counties which cover this underground limestone formation. In March, 23 individuals representing 20 different organizations and 10 counties in the Post Rock area attended the second organizational meeting.
The region is located along a diagonal line from north central Kansas toward southwest Kansas. Russell County, including Lucas, is in the heart of this region.
The Grassroots Arts Center is located in three historic stone buildings in downtown Lucas. In back of these buildings is the Postrock Limestone Courtyard, a landscaped area highlighting what can only be described as examples of native stone artistry. Lucas is a rural community of 394 people. Now, that’s rural. Many historic stone buildings can be found in rural communities throughout the Post Rock region.
“Our group has a passion for limestone architecture,” Rosslyn said. “This layer of stone is found nowhere else in the world,” she said. “We want to educate about these stone buildings and the people who built them.”
“We need to get people off the interstate,” Rosslyn said. “A study showed that if we can get current visitors to stay one more night and eat two more meals, that is a $2.5 million benefit to the region.”
Eventually, the group hopes to have a visitor’s center or gateway, mobile apps for guided and self-guided tours, and an artist-in-residence program. “We also need masonry people to restore these buildings,” Rosslyn said. The coalition is seeking more partners to expand this effort. For more information, search for the Post Rock Limestone Coalition on Facebook.
Is it a post or is it a rock? In one unique region of our state, we find both. The limestone which served the pioneers as fence posts also became beautiful homes, stores and churches, and now serves as an iconic symbol for the region. We commend Rosslyn Schultz and all those involved with the Post Rock Limestone Coalition for making a difference by preserving and promoting these historic artifacts. I think I will post that this idea rocks.
Monday morning was busy but I had time to go home for lunch. As I got home, the news was reporting smoke coming from the Notre Dame Cathedral. I got busy for the next 45 minutes but before heading back to work, I looked over at the television with my wife watching it. The spire at the cathedral had just collapsed.
I had an appointment at the office that required me to go back, but I could not help but worry that it was 9/11 all over again. I wondered how the world was about to change.
Though the news evolved that it was a fire that was caused by accident (at least we hope), I was still saddened by the loss of an 850-year-old historical landmark of the world. It is one of breathtaking beauty and of significance to so many people for various reasons.
That coming weekend was Easter. My wife and I traveled to Wichita to be with our grandson (as well as my son and his wife). Alex is now 20 months old. It always seems that when I am around him, he puts so many things in perspective.
That Sunday we were visitors at a church, with Alex in tow. One of the points of the message actually dealt with Notre Dame. Something that we can build and be so proud of can disappear in a moment.
The last couple of weeks I have had two difficult cases. One was with a family dealing with very advanced cancer. It had just come at a time when everything seemed to be working out perfectly for the family. Now life was taking a new direction.
Another family was dealing with dementia that snuck up on them. The husband had always been the strong one and was now struggling, and he knew it. He knew his time was limited. The children were struggling both with their dad that was struggling with his own frailty, as well as with their mother trying to guide her chronically ill spouse through this process.
Each case reminded me about how fragile life can be, but the one constant in both cases was the relationships of the family members with each other. Frankly my breath was taken away. It was all I could do to keep my eyes dry.
The church service reminded me that while Notre Dame was great, and even perhaps it will be rebuilt, it is our relationships that are most important.
And so it is with Easter. For many it is a difficult time understanding the Easter meaning. I do not want to get into the religious philosophies, but for me it is about a new beginning. It is a new life.
That weekend I got to take Alex (my grandson) on two different Easter egg hunts. At almost two years old, the eggs were fun to put in the basket, and equally fun to take out and throw. What he enjoys most was running over to his grandfather (and I suppose his parents as well).
While the eggs in our life may be important at the time we get them, what is important is the new beginning that we have each day with those with whom we have relationships.
While I am optimistic that Notre Dame will be rebuilt (and some will say will never be the same), I know that our spirit will continue on. Because our spirit is not stuff; it is the not the little eggs we pick up on Easter; it is the hugs and the time we have together.
I hope that the two families I met will remember that. I hope I do as well.
Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.
May is an excellent time to fertilize cool-season lawns such as tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass if they will be irrigated throughout the summer. Non-irrigated lawns often go through a period of summer dormancy because of drought and do not need this fertilization.
May is a good time to fertilize because the springtime flush of growth characteristic of these grasses has tapered off, so the fertilizer you apply will be less likely to cause excessive shoot growth than if you fertilized at a full rate in April. Slow-release nitrogen sources are ideal.
These nitrogen sources promote controlled growth, which is desirable as the stressful summer weather approaches. Relatively few fertilizers available to the homeowner supply ALL of the nitrogen in the slowly available form. But one such product that is widely available is Milorganite.
Other such products available in the retail market include cottonseed meal, alfalfa-based fertilizers, and any other products derived from plants or animals. (Bloodmeal is an exception, and contrary to popular belief, the nitrogen it supplies is quickly available.)
These products are all examples of natural organic fertilizers. They typically contain less than 10 percent nitrogen by weight, so compared to most synthetic fertilizers, more product must be applied to get the same amount of nitrogen. Translation: they are more expensive! Apply enough to give the lawn one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. For example, if the fertilizer is 6 percent nitrogen by weight, you will need to apply almost 17 pounds of fertilizer product per 1,000 square feet. Summer lawn fertilizers that contain at least a portion of the nitrogen as slow-release are fine to use as well. Be sure to follow label directions.
If cost is prohibitive, you can use the less expensive quick-release (i.e., soluble) sources, but split the application into two doses as follows: apply enough to give the lawn 0.5 lb nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in May and again in early June.
Alicia Boor is an Agriculture and Natural Resources agent in the Cottonwood District (which includes Barton and Ellis counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact her by e-mail at [email protected] or calling 620-793-1910.
TOPEKA – The following message is from Governor Laura Kelly regarding tax reform:
“Time and again over the last several years, Kansas has made impulsive, poorly reviewed, sweeping changes to tax policy. With the exception of the original Brownback tax experiment, all of these recent changes were enacted out of dire emergency. And, unlike other high priority issues that have been studied repeatedly over the last five years, a thorough review of Kansas’ tax code in the wake of the Brownback failure has never been done.
“In recent weeks, I asked my administration to begin outlining a plan to facilitate this process. Twenty-seven states have convened tax study commissions over the last decade. While each state approaches it differently, they all agree that lawmakers must exercise due diligence before overhauling their tax structures. Kansas should follow this example.
“Like any smart business, state government should consider fundamental questions before pursuing major tax changes, including: what kind of revenue stream is needed to provide services like healthcare, public education, and public safety – both now and into the future? What parts of our tax code are antiquated or unfair? What are the consequences – intended or unintended – of any proposed changes to the tax code?
“One of my top priorities for tax reform has always been to lower Kansas’ unacceptably high tax on food. I’d like to provide meaningful tax relief to those who need it most, and ultimately all Kansans. I’d like to restructure our tax code to be more sustainable over time, so that it can provide certainty to both businesses and families. We should take a balanced approach that goes hand in hand with rebuilding our state’s rainy day fund. This would position us to offer refunds to taxpayers in years of plenty, but cover deficits during economic downturns. And, I believe we are long overdue for a review of how we can ensure our tax code truly incentivizes economic growth.
“I welcome lawmakers’ ideas and involvement. Nonpartisan economists, tax policy experts, and business leaders should also be at the table. Above all, I believe this discussion should be guided by a thoughtful, data-driven, big-picture vision for Kansas – not by a hasty attempt to achieve an immediate political victory.
“Kansas lawmakers have invested a tremendous amount of time debating tax reform over the last five years. I agree that tax reform provides an opportunity to reshape Kansas for the better, and my job as governor is to make sure we get it right this time. I look forward to working collaboratively and thoughtfully with stakeholders to achieve that goal in the future.”
By GLENN BRINKOW
