By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

May 1, 2014. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is announcing its nominations for the Emmys. One of those recognized is a young woman from rural Kansas.

Shevy Smith is a singer-songwriter in California. Last week we met her brother Craig Smith, an assistant professor of agribusiness at Fort Hays State University. She and her brothers grew up together on the family farm near the rural community of Haven, population 1,172 people. Now, that’s rural.

“We had a great music program at Haven,” Shevy said. “Mrs. Henks had a show choir called Haven Harmony.”

But Shevy did not gravitate toward music immediately. “I had two older brothers who didn’t care for choir, so I tried to pretend it wasn’t cool,” Shevy said. “But as I got into it, I found I loved singing.”

Shevy took piano lessons from Mrs. Henks and also learned guitar. Soon she was being selected to do solos at school and church. “The people in our community were so encouraging,” Shevy said. “They would let me have 30 minutes on stage to perform at local festivals.”

Shevy also applied the work ethic she had learned in rural Kansas to her budding musical career. “I would come home from school and spend five hours a night writing songs,” she said.

Soon this gifted young artist became noticed. She performed for Gov. Bill Graves’ inauguration which led to a contact in the New York music business.

She went to New York and then got publishing deals with labels and worked with producers in Nashville. By age 19, she was touring on the road, doing 200 shows a year. “One year I hit 47 states,” Shevy said.

“Looking back, it seems crazy that I was doing all that at that age,” Shevy said. “They put me in studios with phenomenal musicians and recording engineers. They took a chance on me and really taught me how to produce records. It was the best training I could have had.”

She even went on USO tours to Afghanistan and Iraq. “It was a chance to see the world,” Shevy said.

By 2008, she was ready for a change from the rigors of the road, and she wanted to branch out in her music. “My music is not necessarily in the country realm,” Shevy said. She moved to the west coast and continued her musical career as a singer, songwriter and producer in southern California. “I enjoy working with all types of music. I’m now producing a pop artist, writing for an alt-rock band, and doing promotional projects.”

She had the opportunity to join a creative team as a composer on a project for ABC. “I’m now on my fourth project with them,” she said. “It’s so fun and so collaborative.” One project was even nominated for a Daytime Emmy award.

Shevy has a heart for others. She is working with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project in which poems from Afghan women are adapted into original songs. She hopes to take this program overseas. “People need to feel that their voice matters,” she said. “We need to bring joy and ease suffering in the world.”

She is also mentoring students close to home. Shevy started teaching private music lessons in California as a temporary measure but found that she relished it. Her education company started with the name Girls With Guitars but has grown in scope. The company is now known as Forte Poesy and serves more than 50 teenagers. “I love helping others articulate their musical talents,” she said.

She also has a message of hope for students back home in Kansas: “You don’t have to live in the big city or the entertainment capitol,” Shevy said. “Small town kids should know, with hard work it’s as possible for them (to have success in the music business) as anybody else.”

May 1, 2014. The nominations for the Daytime Emmy awards include a gifted singer-songwriter from rural Kansas. We commend Shevy Smith for making a difference with her musical talents and especially her heart for others. Mrs. Henks would be proud.

Burger King bills itself as “home of the Whopper,” a name intended to convey to burger eaters that this one is a whale of a deal. But “whopper” also means a prevarication, a crock, a tall tale — hogwash.

Both meanings apply to Burger King’s current effort to take over Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain. The $11 billion price certainly is a whopping big one — the most ever paid to buy out a fast-food purveyor. And the deal would cook up a massive corporation, with 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries, making about $22 billion in annual sales.

But the deal is clearly a whopper in that it’s based on a con. While Burger King’s CEO, Daniel Schwartz, offers some credible business reasons for the combine, what he doesn’t want BK’s American customers to ponder is the clincher in the deal: It gives his corporation a huge tax dodge.

In U.S. tax law, something called an “inversion” is a loophole allowing an American corporation that merges with a foreign one to reincorporate in the foreign country — and shirk its tax responsibilities to our nation. It’s really a perversion of the law.

Schwartz intends to do just that, renouncing Burger King’s U.S. citizenship so it can get a lower tax rate as a Canadian citizen. Schwartz & Co. would still be headquartered in Miami, Burger King would still haul in billions of dollars in sales from its U.S. outlets, and its top executives would still enjoy all the benefits that the USA affords them — but potentially without putting a corporate dime into our national treasury.

Why should we buy this whopper? There are plenty of places to buy a burger, so you don’t have to spend your dollars at the one that says it doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen.

If Burger King won’t support America, Americans shouldn’t support it either.

OtherWords.org columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker.

Talk to farmers, stockmen and ranchers – most will tell you how much they love their cows. Problem is this humble and in most cases easy-going beast rarely receives the praise associated with the noble show horse or one of the so-called smartest creatures, the squealing pig.

No one extols the virtues of this contented creature that spends her days quietly grazing and eating grass. We’ve all watched movies about horses (Trigger) and pigs (Babe), but most of the time, cows are considered boring and ignored by Hollywood, the media and the general public.

Still, cows are not whiners and they take their obscurity in stride and rarely complain about their circumstances. They spend days and nights under the stars without a tent or blanket and only their coat to keep them warm. They have to hoof it across the pasture just to get a drink of cold water.

But hey, I’m not here to say I feel sorry for the cow community. Confident and quiet, it is not their way to ask for preferential treatment.

Spend time with a herd of cows and you’ll soon discover they are indeed spiritual beings. They live their entire lives in service to mankind.

Behind that seemingly blank stare rests a knowing glint that suggests, “Go ahead. Make fun. I spend all day eating and sleeping. You’re the one with high blood pressure and cash-flow problems.”

Cattle occupy a unique role in human history, domesticated since the Stone Age. Some are raised for meat (beef cattle), dairy products (cows) or hides (both).

They are also used as draft animals and in certain sports. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle rustling, one of the earliest forms of theft.

Dairy cows are referred to as the foster mothers of the human race because they produce most of the milk that people drink. They provide 90 percent of the world’s milk supply.

The best cows may give approximately 25 gallons of milk each day. That’s 400 glasses of milk. Cows in this country give an average of 2,000 gallons of milk per year. That’s more than 30,000 glasses of milk.

Beef cattle supply more than 30 different cuts of meat including the heart, tongue and what we grew up calling mountain oysters – a male private part. You gotta’ admit, that’s meaningful giving.

Another gift from the bovine community is leather that comes from their hides. We use it for boots, belts, baseballs, suitcases, purses, wallets, easy chairs and jackets. Yes, cattle or cows make the ultimate sacrifice for human comfort.

Another place cows shine is in the rodeo arena or as spokesmammals in advertising. Who hasn’t seen the skydiving cows on their television screen?

Another cow celebrity that’s been around for eons is Borden’s Elsie the Cow.

Snorting bulls symbolize a healthy stock market and a Hereford cow pioneered space travel. Every kid knows about the cow who jumped over the moon.

Milk, ice cream, cheeseburgers or that fine leather purse – think about it. Where would we be without our cows?

On any given day a cow often does more for us than our friends, neighbors, in-laws or even our elected officials. Cows deserve a roaring round of applause and recognition for a job well done.

Anyway, I’d much rather thank a cow and wear a pair of leather boots than sport a mink coat and thank a varmint. I know I’d rather drink milk from a cow than milk from a mink.

Enough said.

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

Dear Dave,
My husband and I have been living on a budget for a few months, and for some reason there seems to be leaks in our budget. It’s just a few dollars here and there, but added together it makes a huge dent. Can you give us some advice?
Joy

Dear Joy,
This kind of thing happens a lot in household budgeting, especially to folks who are new to the game. Here are some ideas to help stretch your dollars and plug those leaks.

Use the cash-only method, especially when shopping for groceries. Take only the amount you have budgeted, and don’t use your debit card or a check. Also, use coupons only for items you would buy anyway. In addition, you can stock up on items you use often when there is a big sale. These little things will add up.

Try eating out only on special occasions, drink water as your beverage and don’t be afraid to use coupons in restaurants, either. When it comes to buying clothes, make a habit of checking out the sale rack first. You can shop at thrift and consignment stores, and sell the clothes you don’t wear anymore.

With entertainment, use dollar-off and buy-one-get-one-free coupons whenever you can. See a matinee or a second-run movie, and if you’re going somewhere with a bunch of people, call ahead and ask for a group discount. You’ll be amazed at how much money these tactics will save!
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.

WASHINGTON – Taking to the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Pat Roberts on Monday night defended the First Amendment against Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attempts to silence opposition. Senator Roberts is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration which has jurisdiction over federal election law.

“Our founding fathers knew that those in power would be inclined to retain it and, unless constrained, would use their power to punish those who would seek to challenge them or remove them from office,” Roberts said. “The First Amendment denies us that power. It explicitly prohibits this Congress from passing laws that restrict the speech of the American people. With this amendment, the majority wants to try to remove that prohibition. They want to grant themselves the power to control speech – to silence their opposition.”

The Senator made the remarks during the floor debate on S. J. Res. 19, which would amend the Constitution of the United States to allow the Congress to regulate free speech and activity in federal elections.

At some public universities across the nation, faculty parking lots are half empty after noon.

Good colleges and universities have traditionally had good teaching faculty. They not only taught their courses well, but they had ample office hours. Their doors were open to students who have further questions, needed extra help, or sought academic advice. Professors are salaried which means that they do not “clock in” but are paid to get the job done. Faculty parking lots were full and remained full all day long. And most students graduated knowing that some of their professors knew them and helped them succeed. Later in life, when the student has a successful career, it is this relationship that is most likely to generate alumni donations.

But walk the hallways of some of today’s public universities and you will find fewer students in those hallways. Classrooms may stand empty even at 10:00 a.m. on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Faculty office blocks may be a ghost town. Why are some faculty parking lots half empty in the afternoon?

The absentee professor problem is becoming more common as technology makes it legitimate to “phone it in.” The “telecommuting” craze started in industry about a decade ago and many businesses allowed workers to work at home where it was appropriate. That has not always worked out and many businesses are calling workers back into the on-site offices to regain that interpersonal interaction that produces creativity and loyalty. Unfortunately, this phone-it-in craze is accelerating in higher education.

The extent it has legitimacy is evident in the June 20 Chronicle of Higher Education where the title says it all: “Office Hours Are Obsolete.” If they can offer courses online, why not do everything else online as well. That author asserts that: “…other than teaching my face-to-face classes, almost everything I do as part of my job can be done from practically anywhere. Therefore, I should be able to do those things from practically anywhere if I see fit.”

When you follow up on absentee professors, you can find other excuses as well. In law and business schools, some administrators explain that private practice pays so much more that you cannot hire qualified professors if you don’t let them work on the side (during school hours). This excuse even extends to education fields such as counseling and to some applied liberal arts as well.

Such professors may only appear on campus for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and be absent the rest of the week. So if they are only present 40 percent of the time, are they just making 40 percent of the salary? Think again.

Most universities have a standard “conflict of interest” form that they update with annual contracts to ensure that professors are not participating in activities that conflict with their work at the university in a monetary or ethical way. And that includes a “conflict of time commitment” to ensure that their full time job at the university is not eroded by extensive participation in non-university activities. However, the questionable claim that “I can work from home just as well” makes the enforcement of these legal commitments nearly impossible.

Imposing requirements that faculty have a set number of office hours outside of class is no solution; it merely turns salaried professionals into time-clock punching wage earners. Surveys of good faculty reveal that professors work an average of over 60 hours a week. Treating faculty who have integrity with work hour rules could easily reduce their presence.

The professional solution to absentee professors is to have competent departmental chairs who are given the authority to do their job, and are backed up by higher administration. Many universities need to reverse the trend and get both professor’s and student’s boots back on the ground. Students do not attend a campus to do most of their work online. If universities continue to tolerate a growing number of absentee professors today, they will pay by a decline in alumni contributions tomorrow.

You almost have to wonder whether those two appropriately dressed debaters at the Kansas State Fair at Hutchinson are dividing Kansas voters into two separate groups — those who are intimately familiar with the operation of Congress, and those who aren’t.

That debate, of course, was between Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and independent candidate Greg Orman. They both wore sport coats with open-collar shirts, while at the earlier debate, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback was one of the only people in Hutchinson wearing a coat and tie on Saturday morning, and Democrat House Minority Leader Paul Davis apparently couldn’t find his coat and was dressed like most of the hamburger vendors.

But this Senate race debate: It was Roberts campaigning against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, on the presumption that independent Orman would line up Reid if elected—rather than at least having the option to side with whatever is the powerful majority party in the Senate on behalf of Kansans.

Still gotta wonder whether most Kansans are looking that far into the race.

But Roberts is apparently convinced that Kansans are indeed looking that far into the politics of the Senate campaign on the Washington level, essentially looking beyond the candidate himself and at the institution of the Senate where he lives.

To Kansans, well, it’s going to take several Republican wins for the Senate to move to Republican-tilted from its current Democrat-tilted, and most of those decisions aren’t something Kansans can vote on.

Orman, who maintains he has been a Republican and a Democrat and didn’t care much for either in terms of getting federal government business done, says he’ll look over the rest of the Senate and decide whether he’ll line up with either party to get things moving. Or…he could just remain an independent, a potentially game-changing position from which he can issue-by-issue vote with whichever party he believes will solve problems—or maybe advantage Kansas in federal legislation.

That sounds pretty advantageous—unless Republicans take control of the Senate, and Orman’s independent status means to new leadership that he’s a fair-weather friend that the chamber isn’t likely to spend much time figuring out how to pander to. And it’s not just pandering to independent Orman; it’s pandering to Kansas’ specific interests…

Orman continues to talk about a do-nothing Congress—where Roberts has worked for much of his life—and which Roberts asserts that with the right votes in Kansas and several other states, he knows how to get moving. Roberts maintains that if Harry Reid can just be moved to the back row of seats, Orman’s big issue dissolves.

Starting to sound like more insider politics than most Kansans have the time, or maybe the inclination, to puzzle out?

Might be, might not be, but that’s where Roberts is taking his campaign, while Orman is talking about working with whatever crew is on salary next January and seeing what he can do for Kansas.

That’s where this campaign is taking a fairly interesting tack.

It is not just electing the guy you like, the guy who says what you want to hear about health care, immigration, the budget, the economy and such. Based on the themes at the debate, it is a more complicated voter understanding of the operation of Congress if Roberts has his way or maybe a less complicated view if Orman gets the bus ticket to Washington in November.

At least the choice, from the initial debate, appears to be between two candidates who know how to appropriately dress for the occasion.

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.

By Sen. JERRY MORAN

In a year when Kansans have been inundated by news reports of incidents of mismanagement and even death caused by failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), there is finally good news to deliver: The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives came together to pass compromised legislation to overhaul access to veterans’ health care by offering the choice of utilizing care outside the VA. In August, the Veterans Access to Care through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (H.R. 3220) was signed into law.

I was proud to sponsor this bill, which was developed as a consequence to the deplorable situations veterans have been experiencing at VA medical facilities all across the country. Over the past few months, Kansans reached out to me every day to share their troubling experiences. The stories came veterans, veteran family members and even fearful VA employees, across our state who spoke of turmoil in the system and veterans being made to feel like a number – rather than like patriots deserving of care from a grateful nation.

I am pleased the Senate and House did not walk away from this issue, and called on the VA to live up to its commitment to care for those who have sacrificed for our country. While H.R. 3220 offers hope to veterans by including some of the most significant reforms that have been made within the VA in decades, it is just the beginning. Congress now has the responsibility of overseeing the implementation of these vital changes at the VA.

First and foremost, this legislation takes an important step toward ensuring veterans no longer struggle with unacceptable wait times at VA facilities. Instead of waiting months, veterans will now have the new “Choice Card” which gives them the option of seeing their local physician if they are not offered a VA appointment within a reasonable amount of time.

Another important issue this legislation addresses is the burden of distance and travel time rural veterans face when seeking care at VA facilities. Kansans understand this all too well since the average driving time to a VA facility in our state is two hours. If a veteran lives more than 40 miles from a VA facility, they may now select a community healthcare provider to get the timely, quality care they deserve. This is of utmost importance to the 41 percent of veterans in the VA health care system who reside in rural areas. Every veteran deserves access to health care services regardless of where they call home.

This provision to serve rural veterans is modeled after a pilot program I led in the House, which became law in 2008 called Access Received Closer to Home or ARCH. I am pleased the compromised VA reform legislation also extends ARCH in the five pilot sites already operating across the country, including the surrounding area of Pratt, Kan. Veterans from the five ARCH pilot sites are overwhelmingly satisfied with the care they receive through the program, which was set to expire this month. This extension will make certain they may continue to receive quality care closer to home, and it is my hope that the new Secretary of the VA, Bob McDonald, will authorize the expansion of the ARCH program to serve the entire state of Kansas .

These important changes are already making a difference in the lives of Kansas veterans. Lee Mahin of Smith Center recently reached out to my office to share good news. He was surprised to receive a phone call from the VA letting him know he would no longer be forced to travel four hours to Omaha, Neb., for his colonoscopy and would now be allowed to have the exam in his hometown. The procedure has already been rescheduled and confirmed at Smith County Memorial Hospital, and Lee is appreciative that he will no longer have to arrange for someone to drive him to Omaha and sleep in hotel the night before.

In addition to ensuring timely, high-quality care, increased accountability at the VA is fundamental to change. H.R. 3220 gives the Secretary of the VA the authority to fire or demote VA executives based on their performance and misconduct. On the day of his resignation, former-VA Secretary Shinseki said he “was too trusting of some” and could not “explain the lack of integrity amongst some of the leaders of our health care facilities.” I hope Secretary McDonald wastes no time in executing this authority in the VA bureaucracy to develop a workforce that is committed to serving veterans and changing the culture of indifference.

By offering veterans choice and flexibility – and making certain bureaucrats are held accountable – this legislation will begin to improve the lives of countless veterans who have lost hope in the agency that was created to serve them. I was proud to support the passage of this important bill, but our work continues. I will work to make certain Kansas veterans have a Department of Veterans Affairs worthy of their service and sacrifice.

When will these ISIS terrorist thugs realize that the phrase “U.S. journalist” concerns geography, not political science?

Killing journalists from this county does get you headlines, but history tells us that it’s an ignorant, tragic and foolish belief to think that the government of the United States will change geo-political directions because journalists die.

Clearly, those who Tuesday killed journalist Steven Sotloff — and who killed photojournalist James Foley on August 19 — are as ignorant or deliberately dismissive of how a free press functions as they are brutal in their methods of gaining the world’s attention.

Journalists from a nation with a free press do not control the news. They do not make the news. And they do not collaborate with, nor are they controlled by, those who do. Here’s a headline from the real world: There is no direct line between the Pentagon, White House and any news organization in America where policy is set or strategy is determined.

For more often, the press in America — whether reporting domestically or from other nations — is seen as a counterweight to official statements by U.S. government officials, and a watchdog on whether the nation’s leaders are doing what they say they are doing.

Yes, at times, the U.S. press wrongly has taken government at its word: The failure to fully pursue what turned out to be unsupported claims of “weapons of mass destruction” still echoes today. But more often, journalists operating under the shield of the First Amendment have been seen as critics or even opponents of what the nation’s political leaders recommend or the course being pursued.

Famously, a U.S. press reporting freely from Vietnam is blamed by some as a reason “America lost the war.” Reports from journalists on the scene called into question information from U.S. military briefings and enemy body counts. The famed “credibility gap” that plagued several administrations was rooted in the difference between what high White House officials said about the progress of that war and what the nation on a daily basis read in newspapers and saw on TV.

It’s difficult to think of an important public issue on which there is not some American journalist asking the difficult questions or challenging official accounts, which makes the fate of Foley and of Sotloff — who disappeared while reporting from Syria in 2013 — as senseless as it is tragic.

If ISIS was serious about changing American public opinion, it would not do so with tactics that will simply harden public support for U.S. military strikes against it. We need look no further than the most serious terrorist strike against America, on Sept. 11, 2001. American policies in the Middle East hardened amidst a surge in patriotism and increased public sentiment for a military response against those who carried out the attack.

A sad irony also follows both deaths. Neither Foley nor Sotloff’s work focused on the political or military aspects of whatever ISIS wants from the Obama administration. Each was focused — and perhaps more vulnerable to the abduction that put them in ultimate harm’s way — by reporting directly on the “people” angles of the Syrian civil war and other conflict in the region.

About a week ago, Sotloff’s mother, Shirley Sotloff, made a video plea to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi not to kill her son. In it, she said, “Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson,” she said. “He is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.”

In the most recent video, the terrorist speaking to the camera said, “I’m back Obama and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence in continuing your bombings. Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” A third captive journalist, a British citizen, was shown at the end of the Sotloff video, with warning of a third execution.

Yes, Sotloff apparently was forced in the video, just prior to his death as was Foley, to recite a statement questioning U.S. involvement in Iraq. But that recitation does not politicize his work as a journalist nor in any way justify his senseless execution. And with many news organizations declining to show the most recent video, as they did with one of the Foley murder — the desired policy impact is even more remote.

The only real message — so cruelly delivered not by the news media but these online merchants of deaths — is one of futility and shame on those who composed the statements, held the cameras, posted the videos and wielded the knives.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]

When I was in college, I petitioned my parents for a bicycle as a birthday gift.

I saw other students zipping around campus on bicycles and I thought it would be fun to be a part of this crowd.

True to my preference for vintage things, I asked specifically for an old-fashioned red bicycle with a wide seat and tires and a basket in front. Wonder of wonders, my parents gave me the bicycle for my 21st birthday.

When I moved to Kansas, we loaded my bike into my father-in-law’s truck and it moved with me. My first year in Kansas, I lived just a mile from the library and rode my bike to work many times, enjoying the relatively flat landscape in comparison to the Ozark foothills I was used to. Unfortunately, my tires went flat before too long and my husband would fix them only to have them go flat again after a day or two.

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that my husband was finally able to permanently fix the tires.

On my first ride in over a year, I rode tentatively, but soon I was zipping along the gravel country road near our house. I’ve been riding my bike almost every evening since then. From my vantage point on my bicycle I see the sun disappear a little earlier each evening, I see the dragonflies chasing their supper against the pink evening sky, and I see the deer creep out of the woods and into the darkening fields. I am so looking forward to a September full of cool evening bike rides. September is sort of magical in how it slips by so quickly, making us wonder when — in the space of a month — the summer got traded in for fall.

September is bound and determined to go by in a flash, so I’m focusing on just two public programs for the month.

On Sunday, Sept. 7 at 2 PM, I’ll be hosting Bingo in the library’s gallery. Ever a popular game in western Kansas, Bingo will be open to all ages and is free of charge. We’ll be playing classic Bingo (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), 4 corners Bingo, and we might even sneak in a game of blackout. Never played? Bingo is easy to learn and fun for all ages. You don’t need a team or even a partner to enjoy playing the game. Prizes will be awarded to winners. Get ready, get set, BINGO!

My second and more highly anticipated event is the second annual chili cook-off! We’re looking for all kinds of chili: red, green, white, and vegetarian. This event will take place from 12 PM – 5 PM on Thursday, Sept. 25. To participate, you must drop off a crock pot full of your chili at the library by 12 PM on September 25. The public will have the opportunity to taste each chili and vote for their favorite one! You must register your chili for this event by calling 625-9014 or emailing [email protected]. The chef behind the winning chili will win a delicious prize.  This event was lots of fun last year and I’m hoping for an even greater turnout of cooks and tasters for our second annual cook-off.

Finally, I’d like to invite every one of my readers to “save the date” for the upcoming premiere of Hays’ Turning Points story, The Art of Change. Turning Points is a short film project supported by the Kansas Humanities Council through a generous gift from Suzi Miner in memory of Kansas historian Craig Miner. Four towns throughout the state – Hays, Ulysses, Kinsley and Olathe – were selected to have short films made about a significant “turning point” in their communities. Hays’ film is about the formation of the local arts council and how the council has impacted both the people of Hays as well as the reputation of the community as a whole. The premiere will be held at the Robbins Center on FHSU’s campus on October 17, 2014. The evening will begin at 6:30 PM and will last until about 8 PM. Please don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime premiere event!

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.