For more than a year, Hays Post has published booking photos of suspects arrested by the Hays Police Department. While they are certainly among the most viewed pages on the website, the concerns about publishing those photos have greatly outweighed any positive feedback.

At least temporarily and pending a thoughtful review, Hays Post no longer will publish booking photos, although we will continue to publish arrest records. We also have removed previously published booking photos.

We invite you to contact us with your thoughts and concerns. [email protected]

I wanted to let you all know that the Alliance office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon this week. I am helping with VBS at the Methodist Church in the afternoons. I will return after 3 p.m. if you need something. You can also contact me by phone and I’ll return the call as soon as I’m able.

Here’s a couple of things you may want to know and get on your calendars:

Tues-Friday: VBS at the Methodist Church from 1-3pm. Open to all 4 year olds to incoming 5th graders. Register upon your arrival.

Sunday 13th – Friday 18th: Bible School at the Ellis Baptist Church from 6:30-9:00pm. Open to all K-12 students. For more info, call Chad at the Ellis Baptist Church.

Tues, July 22: Red Cross Blood Drive! Looking for LOTS of 16-24 aged donors, as well as ALL other donors! This will help EHS earn scholarships and credit toward their blood drive later in the year! Come out and donate.

Tues July 22 – Sat July 26: Ellis Jr. Free Fair!!

Wed July 23: Rock & Chalk at the Ellis Library! Decorate with sidewalk chalk our downtown sidewalks and have a Dog & a Coke with Steve!

Just a teaser for now, more deatials as they come about.

Have a great day everyone!

Dena Patee is executive director of Ellis Alliance.

Tuesday, June 24, arrived like most mornings in Finney County. The only difference – humidity levels were high and the dew point skied off the chart.

Two inches of rain the last couple days after nearly four years of drought concerned veteran farmer Dwane Roth. He believed conditions were ripe for a serious storm.

Shortly after noon, a cloud bank began forming on the northern horizon. Throughout the afternoon it gradually moved closer and closer to his fields north of Highway 50.  At 3:45, the rain began falling slow and easy.

But not for long. In little more than a minute marble-sized hail stones dropped straight down. A couple minutes later, hail the size of golf balls started blowing horizontally.

Within five minutes, the sky turned white and the wind blew so hard visibility dropped to less than 100 feet. Reports of hail a foot deep were not uncommon.

The white combine (hail) left a swath of destruction seven miles long and five miles wide approximately eight miles northwest of Holcomb. The aftermath was devastating.

Wheat ready for harvest was hammered by the storm. The next day, the heads, stripped clean by the hail, drooped in the bright morning sun. Plump, golden berries covered the ground between rows and the promise of a 70 bushel-per-acre irrigated crops evaporated as the white combine reaped its wrath.

A beautiful, chest-high corn crop also met a similar fate. Stalks lay twisted and broken while the leaves were left torn and tattered. Some of the crop lay pummeled into the soil and the corn left standing stood less than knee high.

Bruised and battered corn stalks are prone to disease, especially when they’re growing as fast like they are at this time, Roth said. Stock rot and lodging could result in major losses.

“My dad always told me after a bad storm you should take off and go fishing for a week, but he never did.”

One veteran farmer pulled up in his pickup, stepped out and looked to the west at one of his fields of corn.

“It looked pretty crappy,” he said. “My dad always told me after a bad storm you should take off and go fishing for a week, but he never did.”

When asked how he slept the night after the storm and before he could survey the damage the next morning, he replied while interjecting some patented western Kansas humor.

“I slept just fine,” he smiled. “I’m a good Catholic with a clean conscience and we always sleep well – even after farming for nearly 50 years.”

Then he added as he cocked his head to the right and looked me squarely in the eyes, “I’d much rather be looking at this crop than looking at you, if you were my doctor, telling me I had six weeks to live.”

Always able to look at the bigger picture, many of the Finney County farmers surveying the damage believed their corn crop would come back. Some even hoped they’d harvest at least half a crop if no more hail hit their farms.

With years of farming under their belts, most of these farmers understand that by the end of June there’s little they can do but wait and see how the rest of the growing season pans out.

“This is usually the way it goes out here,” Roth said rolling the battered corn stalk in his hands. “When you come out of a drought you’re going to get some significant weather. So many times the results aren’t what you hope for.”

And what about the drought that has lasted for years, especially in southwestern Kansas?

“You know they say farmers are the eternal optimists and I’m hoping it’s over, Roth says. “I’m not certain it is. But hey – I’m breathing, we’re going to be okay.”

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

Dear Dave,
My wife and I just became debt-free, and we’re saving for our first house. We have about $75,000 in savings, and we’d like to buy a home with cash in the next few years. Where do you think we should place our money so it’s working for us while we save?
Andrew

Dear Andrew,
I don’t advise playing the market on the short term. If I were in your shoes, and looking at possibly a two- to four-year window, I’d just pile the cash in a money market account or possibly a balanced fund.

I’m a big fan of growth stock mutual funds when it comes to long-term investing. The problem with that in this scenario would be the volatility of the market. By the time you’ve saved up more money and spent time deciding on a house, the market may be down. All you’re looking for in this scenario is a wise, safe place to park it and pile it up while you prepare.

Congratulations, Andrew. Debt-free is the way to be when you’re looking to buy a nice, new home!
—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.
 

By Sen. JERRY MORAN and AJIT PAI

As sons of rural Kansas, we are committed to ensuring that children who grow up in the Sunflower State receive the same educational opportunities as students anywhere in America. One of the tools for making certain rural students receive a 21st Century education is broadband Internet access. Broadband can be the great equalizer; with an Internet connection, where you live doesn’t determine what information and resources you can access.

The good news is Congress recognized the importance of offering all students access to technology when it directed the Federal Communications Commission to create the E-Rate program nearly 20 years ago. Today, that program distributes more than $2 billion every year to help schools and libraries connect to the Internet, and every American who has phone service contributes to the E-Rate fund through charges on his or her monthly bill.

The bad news is this federal program meant to close the digital divide is actually making it worse for rural schools. A few commonsense reforms, including simplifying the application process and providing certainty to schools, could fix that.

Schools in rural areas routinely get less funding-per-student than those in wealthier, urban areas. For example, E-Rate distributes to students in Washington, D.C., roughly three times the amount that Kansas students receive – even though our nation’s capital has a much larger tax base and broadband is cheaper to deploy there than in rural Kansas. Indeed, small Kansas towns from Colby to Coffeyville, and Elkhart to Seneca, tend to get less money than large school districts with more resources. These disparities undermine E-Rate’s core mission of giving rural schools the same technological tools as their urban and suburban counterparts.

One reason for this unfair distribution of funding is the complex E-Rate application process. To apply for E-Rate funds, schools must complete a seven-step process with six application forms spanning 17 pages – just for basic service. If a school wants to invest in a technology the federal government does not consider a priority, additional paperwork is required. Moreover, schools are required to sign service contracts months before the school year begins, and possibly years before the school knows if E-Rate funding will even be available to offset the cost of those services.

All of this means that it is expensive and burdensome to apply, forcing some schools to divert money away from the classroom in order to hire consultants to help them navigate the process. Other schools just give up entirely because they just don’t have the budget to hire consultants, accountants or lawyers. And even those who hire help can still make mistakes.

In all, administrative delays and missteps result in E-Rate collecting about $400 million more from American consumers each year than it spends – money that sits in a bank account instead of going to help out schools in need.

On top of the complicated application process, E-Rate doesn’t give schools a budget. That means urban schools at the front of the line often get as much money as they want while many rural schools at the back of the line must make do with what is left. The result is some schools using E-Rate to subsidize Blackberries for administrators while other schools can’t even get funding for classroom Wi-Fi. That’s not right.

To fulfill E-Rate’s promise to all of our students, we must cut the bureaucracy and refocus the program on our children’s needs. We must create a student-centered E-Rate program.

Let’s start by streamlining the process and cutting the initial application down to one page. All schools should be able to apply on their own without hiring a consultant. And, let’s speed up the funding process. Schools need certainty that E-Rate funding will be there before – not after – they sign service contracts. They shouldn’t have to wait months for paperwork to wend its way through a large bureaucracy.

Next, let’s fix the inequities in distributing E-Rate funds. If we allocate E-Rate’s budget on a per-student basis across every school in America on day one, then every school board, every teacher, and every parent will know just how much money is available. If the money follows the student – with higher amounts for schools in rural or low-income areas – we can better give schools the resources they need to connect the classroom. Indeed, a per-student funding model would encourage all schools to be fiscally responsible while giving a funding boost to the rural schools that need it most.

Helping our students prepare for the digital economy is necessary in order for America to compete in the 21st Century; to do that, we need real reform of E-Rate. With a student-centered E-Rate program that is simple and certain, we can give all Americans – including those in rural areas – the chance to compete with the rest of the world for next-generation jobs. It’s time for kids in rural Kansas, too, to share in the bounty of broadband.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is a member of the U.S. Senate. Commissioner Ajit Pai is a member of the Federal Communications Commission. This column originally appeared in the Wichita Eagle.

In June, I completed a four-year training program focused on nonprofit instruction.

Offered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this comprehensive course of study is known as the Institute for Organization Management. For the past four summers, I spent one entire week in Madison, Wis., attending classroom-style instruction all day while networking with professional peers each evening.

Simply put, it was an exhausting but profound experience. Instead of turning the tassel on my mortar board, I now can add “IOM” behind my name.

While in Madison, I loved watching the sailboats on the nearby lakes. I couldn’t help but reflect on how similar a ship’s crew is to our own work environments. At a quick glance, you will see a collective group of people working hard to keep the vessel on its proper course. On a row boat, for example, you will see rowers rowing the boat with the chief mate ensuring the boat is moving quickly while the captain navigates toward the destination.

Similarly, every workplace needs people who get the work done — they are the doers. Managers direct the team to
be better, faster, cheaper and more efficient. Of course, the boss determines the overall strategic direction.

In order to be successful, the entire operation must work together smoothly.

Community leaders do the same – they help determine the course for our city, county or region so we can continue to prosper and grow. The Leadership Hays Class of 2014 is a great example of such leaders. While I’m proud of my new professional designation, I’m even more pleased to help launch these mates on their own successful venture.

I could go way “overboard” and share with you how the class really “battened down” to learn leadership principles and theories. One thing is for certain, our community needs to “keep a sharp lookout” for these Leadership Hays graduates.

Congratulations to the Class of 2014, and thanks for investing in yourself, your business and your community.

Tammy Wellbrock is executive director of the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ever been to one of those bars where there’s a two-drink minimum order? It usually means there’s a band or strippers for the entertainment, and it generally means that the show is a good one.

Well, they’re not talking about music or pole dancers, but the state’s new K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Commission, which will meet this summer and fall, might be the most entertaining — and important — commission that we’ve seen in the Statehouse for a while.

The nine members are assigned to study how the state’s school districts operate, how well they educate our students, and how economically they can do that.

And, they’re supposed to come up with ideas that will make schools better and cheaper and at some point able to survive what are likely to be cuts in revenue from the state in the next few years.

That’s a big job, and it’s going to be difficult because the state’s nearly 300 unified school districts are insular; their members are elected by voters in those districts who realize that schools are important—but expensive.

While it’s easy for folks who don’t have children in public schools to look at the numbers and decide that there have to be economies possible to reduce the state contribution to education and maybe to reduce the local school district property tax, there are districts in sparsely populated western Kansas where the local school system is a major employer—which keeps the gas stations, the grocery stores and a raft of other businesses…well…in business.

There are some relatively obvious suggestions by that commission to save money. One, of course, is to put districts together, maybe reducing the 293 now to some smaller number.

That sounds logical, but figure for a minute, which nearby school district do you want to merge with, and how long do you want those kids to spend on a bus getting to their new combined school? By the time that your local school officials and teachers know your kids, do you want to start over?

And, do you want the administrative jobs and such moved out of your town?

There are heavily populated counties in the state with several school districts. Think they want to combine? In some metropolitan areas, melding school districts will probably mean three or four superintendents looking for work…or competing for their jobs all over again.

Rope-climb contest, anyone?

And, even simpler, do you think they want to combine at the administration/management level while retaining the old district sports and debate teams? Who has final say on mascots, colors and even cheerleader uniforms?

The melding of districts is like a shotgun marriage; we’re thinking if the study commission delves into that apparently simple way to save money…well, the premiums for fire insurance on their homes is likely to rise…

This might be interesting, with members of the panel diverse enough in geography that they’ll each bring their local interests to the discussion, played out before the K-12 education industry—and yes, it is an industry, with labor and management and big and generally tax-dollar produced budgets at stake.

The money side, while the most visible, is just a part of this project. Improving public education statewide is the other goal, to make sure that the money spent on K-12 produces the smartest kids possible, the kids who are the key to the state’s economy in the future.

Sound like a committee that could be the focus of a lot of Kansans this fall?

We’re thinking, if they just move the meetings out of the Statehouse, they could demand a two-drink minimum…

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.

Fields across Kansas continue to dry up as farmers statewide are scrambling to finish harvesting their wheat. Yields have continued to be lower than average, but have remained above expectations for the year’s harvest. The quality of the wheat has dropped slightly due to the influx of rainfall, but still remains good overall.

Susan Galdanbach, a representative of Ag Valley Coop in Norton, said that they received their first load almost two weeks ago. So far the location has gotten around 475,000 bushels during those two weeks. Farmers in the area have reported yields ranging from 20-60 bushels an acre. Norton has not received much of the rains that have affected the state over the last few weeks, so test weights have remained steady at 59-64 pounds per bushel. Galdanbach predicts that this year the area’s harvest will actually be better than last year. She reported a protein content of 13-14% and no issues with dockage.

David Schemm, a farmer from Sharon Springs, said that his harvest has taken much longer than normal, but he hopes to be done Monday by noon. He reported that his lowest field average was about 15-18 bushels an acre while his highest yielding was about 50 bushels an acre. His test weights have dropped about half a pound since the rains. His earlier planted fields have averaged from 57-58 pounds per bushel and his later planted fields are around 61-62 pounds per bushel. Schemm noted that he has seen more freeze damage than he originally expected. He expects that his final totals will be much better than last year. Schemm said, “Last year is a year that we never want to repeat.”

Scott Cooperative representative Steve Kite, based in Scott City, reported that his company has received around 2.5 million bushels during this harvest season for all seven locations. Irrigated wheat has been averaging 55-60 bushels an acre while dryland wheat is averaging about 20-25 bushels an acre. Kite noted that many fields have totally been zeroed out because of the previously dry conditions. But, over the last three weeks, some fields in the Scott City area have received up to 12 inches of rain. The rain has taken its toll on the area’s test weights as they have fallen an average of 3 pounds per bushel from 62.5 to around 59.5 pounds per bushel. Protein value has also decreased due to the rains to around 12%. Kite sees no serious issues so far in dockage. He estimates that they will receive 20% less wheat this year than the cooperative saw last year.

The 2014 Harvest Report is brought to you by Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and Kansas Grain and Feed Association.

TOPEKA – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback today issued the following message in advance of Independence Day:

“America’s founders built this nation on a series of self-evident truths about natural rights and the purpose of government. They fought long and hard to win American liberty and the right to self-government. We have a responsibility to guard that inheritance carefully.

“As we celebrate our freedom this weekend, I encourage everyone to enjoy a safe holiday. Please do not drink and drive and be cautious while using fireworks.

“God Bless America. Have a happy Fourth of July.”

We’re celebrating the nation’s 237th birthday on this July 4th holiday weekend with fireworks of all kinds and colors, but there are some ongoing pyrotechnics around First Amendment issues from religious liberty to free speech.

On June 30, the last day of its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 vote in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc. that “closely-held” corporations do have certain religious freedom rights, and as such can refuse to provide women with no-cost access to some contraceptives as part of company health care obligation under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The decision set off verbal explosions on all sides of the issue. At the heart of the court’s decision is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law that says government rules and laws cannot create a “substantial burden” on a person’s ability to practice his or her religious faith unless the rule or law is needed to further a significant public interest. Even then, the rule or law must achieve its public benefit in the least restrictive way possible.

In the decision, Justice Samuel Alito said Hobby Lobby and another company involved in the dispute were “each owned and controlled by members of a single family” and the families’ “sincere religious beliefs have never been challenged.”

Alito cited an existing ACA exemption for religious non-profits, where the government pays for such contraceptive coverage. Alito said that there are a relatively small number of owners and companies similar to Hobby Lobby’s situation, so the added costs will not be a serious burden on the government.

In a dissent, Justice Ruth Ginsburg warned of a flood of such objections — noting that Jehovah’s Witnesses object on religious grounds to blood transfusions and that some Muslims, Jews and Hindus object to medicines and other health products produced from pigs.

The legal concept of “corporations as people” — upheld in the Hobby Lobby ruling — could well produce another kind of First Amendment “big bang” later this month. The Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission eliminated limits on independent corporate spending in support of candidates running for federal office.

Opposition to the court decision has produced a proposed constitutional amendment to reestablish congressional authority to set “reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others,” and to allow Congress and states to ban campaign spending by “corporations or other artificial entities.”

If enacted, it would be the first such “amendment” of the First Amendment since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said the proposal will be considered later this month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, following passage June 18 in a Senate subcommittee.

Fiery confrontations of a more personal and emotional kind were forecast by “pro-choice” advocates in the wake of another free speech case, McCullen v. Coakley, in which the Court in June struck down a Massachusetts law establishing a buffer zone extending 35 feet from the doorway of any facility where abortions were performed — including public areas like sidewalks. Anti-abortion advocates had complained to the courts that at such a distance they could not effectively speak to women headed to the clinics, to counsel them on alternatives to an abortion.

While state officials and others warned of intimidating tactics or the potential for violence outside such facilities without such a limit, the court said state officials failed to show the 35-foot distance was the least restrictive method of impinging on the speech of ant-abortion demonstrators. The decision left open whether a smaller “no speech” zone would be acceptable to the justices.

Even the Supreme Court itself was not immune this term to a rare dramatic outburst. As First Amendment scholar and author Ron Collins noted in his recent FAN 21 (First Amendment News) blog, in May a spectator stood and spoke loudly during a court session. Asking the justices to reverse their Citizens United decision, he said, “I arise on behalf of the vast majority of the people of the United States who believe that money is not speech, corporations are not people and that our democracy should not be for sale to the highest bidder.” The incident secretly was recorded on video and released on the Web. Ironically, the Supreme Court does not permit any cameras in its courtroom, or videotaping of its proceedings.

The pops, bangs and bright explosions of Independence Day celebrations fade quickly, but not the figurative fireworks over how we apply — and at times balance against each other — our core freedoms of religion and free expression in matters of everyday life.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. The Institute’s Megan Chester contributed to this column.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

What is the Next Big Thing? Maybe it is the World’s Largest Thing. Today, in the third and final part of our series on grassroots art, we will meet an artist who has developed a specialty in the World’s Largest Things. When she’s not on the road, this artist can be found in rural Kansas.

Erika Nelson is a visionary artist, national researcher and speaker on the topic of roadside attractions such as the World’s Largest Things. As an expert in grassroots art, it is fitting that she makes her home in Lucas, the Grassroots Art Center of Kansas.

Erika grew up in Missouri.  As a child, she lived near a town which had painted its water tower to look like a giant billiard ball. In fact, it was called the World’s Largest 8 Ball. Her grandparents lived up north near the supposed home of Paul Bunyan and the Babe the big blue ox. Perhaps those experiences shaped an early appreciation of unusual, oversized artifacts.

Erika got her bachelor of fine arts degree from Central Missouri State University and an MFA from the University of Kansas. She enjoyed the creative and unusual. Her first public art endeavor was a Spam carving workshop. “I always had a soft spot in my heart for these odd, offbeat things (such as I had seen as a child),” Erika said. She started traveling to visit those attractions which might be termed the World’s Largest Things.

“I was mapping and recording these as I traveled,” Erika said. “Then I wanted souvenirs and reminders of them, so I started making small replicas.” Using her artistic talents, she started making small models of these distinctive landmarks.

In Kansas, she came to the community of Lucas which had become a center of grassroots art.  “The town was so open and welcoming,” Erika said. She volunteered at the Grassroots Art Center and then found a house next door to Lucas’ Garden of Eden. It was such a good value that she bought the house and stayed.

Erika continues to travel extensively. She is a part of the Kansas Humanities Council speakers bureau and the Kansas Arts Commission Arts on Tour roster. As a working artist, she is involved in various public art projects such as community murals. She has created exhibits as far away as Philadelphia and at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida.

In 2007, she created a non-profit organization relating to history, preservation, production and promotion of the distinctive roadside attractions known as the World’s Largest Things. These are those unusual artifacts such as the World’s Largest Ball of Twine as found in the rural community of Cawker City, Kansas, population 510 people. Now, that’s rural.

Erika’s travels have literally taken her coast to coast in her quest to study these attractions. For example, the World’s Largest Box of Raisins is found in Kingsburg, California, the World’s Largest Ketchup Bottle is found at Heinz Park in Pennsylvania, and the World’s Largest Beach Ball is in Pensacola, Florida. Erika has catalogued more than 500 of these remarkable, quirky attractions around the U.S. She has even appeared on the TV show Conan.

One might expect to find more of the World’s Largest Things in Texas, but that state ranks third behind California and Minnesota. (Kansas has a very respectable 17.)

As mentioned, Erika has created small replicas of these landmarks. That has now become – are you ready for this? – the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. Erika has created a traveling road show which displays this remarkable collection. She also consults with community members who want to create their own version of the World’s Largest something. “For many communities, these things can be a point of pride or hope,” Erika said.

For more information, and the entire list of biggies, go to www.worldslargestthings.com.

What is the Next Big Thing? Maybe it is the World’s Largest Thing. We commend Erika Nelson for supporting grassroots art and helping communities grow their identity through the World’s Largest Things. Such larger-than-life symbols can make a big difference.