You’ve almost gotta wonder whether those candidates for the Legislature know what they’re getting in for this election year—and once elected, whether they’re going to have a good time.

The luckiest, or at least those with the least to worry about, are the 35 House candidates who don’t have a major party opponent. They’re virtually already elected, unless they do something very wrong, or lose to a Libertarian or an independent candidate in the general.

Scattered across the state are those 23 Republicans and 12 Democrats who, if they’re smart, still turn out for the parades and toss candy to the children in the crowd and act like they’re losing. That’s showing character that they might need two years from now if they want to come back to Topeka for the winter.

And for another 15 would-be House members—all Republicans—if they can make it through the low-turnout primary election, they’re ready to start thinking about business cards and letterhead.

Wow, by Aug. 5, we’ll have 50 of the House’s 125 seats likely filled.

Nineteen House districts have primary elections that are warm-ups for the November general election which ought to give the voters a chance to see what sort of candidate the other party chose to toss at them. It’s a chance for those primary candidates to get some experience, learn a few tricks of the campaign trade, and probably learn how to be absolutely un-bashful when it comes to asking for campaign contributions.

Those warm-up elections will see 14 Republican vs. Republican primaries and just four Democrat/Democrat contests. Busiest primary? Look to Johnson County’s 16th District, where incumbent Rep. Amanda Grosserode, R-Lenexa, has two Republicans to fight off, and Democrats have their own primary to select a challenger for whoever emerges from the GOP tiff.

For much of the state—that’s 56 House seats—this is a one-shot hunt. No primary elections, just the title bout in November.

All that campaigning for what is likely to be the toughest legislative session we’ve seen in decades.

Statehouse-dwellers are looking for an upcoming session—yes, just a couple weeks after final adjournment of this session—for which there will be no tax breaks to hand out and a merciless effort to squeeze spending to avoid red ink in the budget.

That doesn’t mean that social issues that don’t cost any money won’t be the first bullet point on campaign handouts. But it means that they become distractions when the state has to cut spending on programs ranging from schools to health care to law enforcement.

It may be a little like completing your wedding ceremony, and then having to tell your newly official spouse that you can’t afford the honeymoon and to hold down on the rice-tossing because you may need it for dinner.

Or…maybe there’s a candidate out there who has the answer, a plan to make an anorexic budget work; find ways to cut spending that most Kansans won’t notice. Or, to find a group of Kansans, or an industry or product that most people won’t mind raising taxes on. Maybe folks who didn’t vote?

And, there is of course that standby for the Legislature: Sending programs and spending down to the local level. Protect programs that Kansans are interested in, just make them and the responsibility for financing them something that counties or cities or school districts have to levy property taxes to pay for. Call it “local control.”

Gotta wonder whether the new candidates to the Legislature had that in mind when they ponied up the filing fee, or whether they were just embarrassed by the ties or purses that incumbents in their districts are photographed wearing and carrying.

This might be interesting. But some successful candidates—once they emerge from the campaign and get sworn in—may find that the best part of being a legislator is that the work is indoors.

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.

Police cars blocked the street, parked front bumper to back bumper, forming a barricade to traffic. Five blocks ahead, a similar barricade prevented any oncoming traffic. I had told my taxi driver “Yangling High School” and we had arrived. I faced the quietest scene in China since I landed in Beijing one week after the Wenchuan earthquake and the whole country came to a halt in a moment of silence.

But this was an annual event. It is the most critical time in the life of any Chinese youth. This was the second day of the two day national high school leaving exam (or college entrance exam), the gao kao. About 9 million graduating seniors across China were taking this test today. A little over 7 million will have scores high enough to enter college. And the higher the score, the higher rank the college.

Those that fail? Their life will be harder; their pay far, far lower. And it is not just the student that fails, but parents and grandparents too. China has not yet achieved a social security system and for many, their child remains the “social security” for two parents and four grandparents.

That is why parents and grandparents crowded this street outside the school fence. As I walked among them, the quietness was eerie. China is a country of constant chatter. But the little being said was in low and somber voices. You did not have to speak Chinese to detect the fretting and the anxiety.

Yangling is not a tourist town. You can count the number of Westerners here on one hand. So I am accustomed to heads turning as I pass through. But today, no one looked up or noticed me. I was like a ghost drifting invisible through this crowd. Their minds were on their student who had now come to this decisive moment in their lives. If he or she failed, they all failed.

My boss here is a vice president at the university and has oversight of this high school. He had explained how his team had tested out the cameras the week before. In every one of the test classrooms, cameras were mounted that could scan every corner of the room. And they were all linked to Beijing. In some cities, parents can even watch their child on camera during these two days of testing, but not here.

Tests were delivered in armored cars by armed police (normal police in China are not armed). Students filed in for the test through security scanners, similar to our airport security, and are patted down and wanded. During these two days, police also man full-frequency scanners to detect any transmissions from inside the classrooms. Last year over 60 such cases were detected nationwide. Not only the student, but the parents, the equipment salesmen and anyone remotely involved received the harshest of sentences. This is one issue for which China has “zero tolerance.”

These students and parents will not learn their scores today. It will take weeks to grade the Chinese, math and English papers, plus the sub-tests. That process is also under high security. A professor colleague in Nanjing regularly graded exams, and he was incommunicado for a solid week, locked on a floor of a hotel. I could never visit him the second week of June.

Scores will be posted when finished. The names will be there for all to see, from top score to bottom, with the cut-off clearly marked. We fret about privacy and have our FERPA laws to hide our students’ failures. But here in China, this total transparency is absolutely essential so that all can see that admission to college did not give preference to the wealthy and powerful.

This test has always been a one-time event, with students all across China beginning and ending at the same time. But today, television is making a big deal over two students who cannot take the test. They were victims of a knife attack on a train the day before the test, and are in the hospital. The news media has focused heavily on their plight. Security camera footage of the stabbing is on all the channels. The Ministry of Education will administer a special test to them when they recover.

But how about those who had less dramatic medical events or became sick with normal but debilitating illnesses on these days? With nearly 7 million students, those cases would run into the thousands, and the opportunity for cheating would rapidly get out of control. They get no dispensation. It has to be that way–for the good of all.

By BARRY GRISSOM
U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas

President John Kennedy did not know when he delivered his historic civil rights address on June 11, 1963, that he would not live to see what he had done. He well knew, though, that while America was facing a legal and moral crisis he needed to strike a steady tone and to point the way toward higher ground.

“This is not a sectional issue,” Kennedy said. “Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every state of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.”

Only a year later — July 2, 1964 — President Lyndon Johnson signed a landmark civil rights act outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin and ordering the end of racial segregation in schools, workplaces and public facilities. While lobbying for the bill, Johnson drew heavily on Kennedy’s legacy.

“No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory,” Johnson told Congress, “than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long.”

Today, the 1964 Civil Rights Act remains the foundation on which we strive to assure equal rights and equal justice for all Americans. It provides critical protections against discrimination and disenfranchisement. Yet, despite all we have achieved, there is more work to do. We should seize on our opportunities to expand the legacy of inclusion, equality and justice that we have inherited.

I am proud to say that I am from Kansas, where we recently celebrated the 60 anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing racial discrimination and segregation in our nation’s schools. I am also proud to support Attorney General Eric Holder and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in their work to broaden our commitment to civil rights.

Enforcing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a high priority for our office. Likewise, we have increased federal prosecution of human trafficking cases in Kansas, especially sex trafficking cases in which women and girls are subject to force, fraud or coercion to get them to work as prostitutes. We have refocused our immigration enforcement to prioritize the prosecution of business owners who knowingly hire undocumented workers, not just the undocumented workers they are attempting to exploit. And we are working with the Justice Department to re-evaluate mandatory minimum sentencing policies for certain low-level drug crimes and to bolster prevention and re-entry programs to deter crime and reduce recidivism.

We are working hard every day to build and maintain a system based on equal justice and equal rights that Americans respect and trust.

Barry Grissom is the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas.

The dead do speak.

They need no free speech protection — no government can forever silence their message. No dictator can prevent the living from taking notice. And no earthly authority can erase or demean their sacrifice.

On several occasions recently, we are reminded of the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the greater good of many.

There are news reports from France, and the beaches of Normandy, on the 70th anniversary, June 6, 1944 — D-Day — and of the survivors then and their dwindling numbers today. There are the televised images of the flowering of free expression in China 25 years ago, in 1989, when student-led demonstrations showed the power of speech, assembly and petition — and of an indelible news photo from June 9 of one man standing up to a tank in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

And on June 9, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., we once again will be reminded that there are journalists from many nations, in many places, who risk their lives to gather and report information, and to offer informed opinion, so that “we” may know the news.

A number of international organizations, from the Committee to Protect Journalists, to Reporters Without Borders, to the International Press Institute and more, track and combat crimes against reporters, photographers and others who gather the news.

Those organizations also update regularly their lists of journalists who have been killed and imprisoned in a given year. This year, they report more than 20 journalists have been killed and more than 100 have been jailed. In 2013, as many as 77 journalists were killed, the groups say.

The Newseum’s Journalists Memorial — a gallery marked by soaring glass panels bearing more than 2,200 names dating back to 1837 — will add 10 representative names on June 9 to its long list. The memorial is intended to remind us of all of the deadly challenges facing journalists globally, from firefights to death squads funded by organized crime to kidnapping and execution by terrorists and political factions — of fatal wounds from shrapnel to death by bullets fired from speeding motorcycles to beatings with iron bars.

The stories from the Newseum’s biographies of this emblematic group are chilling testimonies to courage and commitment. Among those accounts:

Killers were waiting for Akmednabi Akmednabiyev, editor for Novoye Delo newspaper in Russia, outside his home in the volatile republic of Dagestan. He was shot in the head at virtually the same spot where he survived an assassination attempt six months earlier.
Helicopters circled overhead and clouds of tear gas filled Cairo streets as British cameraman Mick Deane — a 40-year veteran of reporting on war and world events — filmed a clash between security forces and supporters of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Deane was shot by a sniper.
Philippines radio commentator Fernando Solijon, a relentless critic of government corruption, received an on-air death threat that “Your coffin’s already made” just hours before he was shot multiple times by gunmen who fled on a motorcycle.
Some weeks ago, at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama said the event “reminds us that we really are lucky to live in a country where reporters get to give a head of state a hard time on a daily basis. … But we also know that not every journalist, or photographer, or crew member is so fortunate, because even as we celebrate the free press tonight, our thoughts are with those in places around the globe like Ukraine, and Afghanistan, and Syria and Egypt, who risk everything — in some cases, even give their lives — to report the news.”

On rare occasion, death visits journalists in the United States. In a corner of the Newseum’s News Corporation News History Gallery sits a small white car with a buckled hood, a driver-side door flung open, and the floorboard peeled up into metal shards — the result of a 1976 bomb that fatally injured Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. He had been lured to a meeting with a source who offered information on local mobsters.

In the Newseum’s 9/11 Gallery, the battered cameras and personal items of William Biggart can be found. Biggart, a freelance news photographer, was killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Biggart had rushed to the scene shortly after hearing about the attacks. His body was recovered near those of several firefighters.

The First Amendment protects freedom of the press and of speech — and the ability of critics of the news media to both to point out legitimate shortcomings and imagined slights.

But that valuable exercise in “monitoring the monitors” ought rightly to pause briefly on June 9, when the world is again reminded that journalism is a profession in which many face danger each day — and in every year, some make the ultimate sacrifice.

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]

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

The population estimates are in. Census Bureau data show the most recent estimates of population change in Kansas counties, with a pattern of urban growth and rural population loss – except for a few counties which have bucked the trend. For example, the northernmost tier of counties in Kansas all demonstrated population loss, with one exception: Rawlins County. Why is this so? At least one source of the population growth in Rawlins County has been the advent of a private sector, entrepreneurial agribusiness enterprise.

Matt Wolters is a co-founder of Surefire Ag Systems in Rawlins County, the site of unexpected growth. Matt grew up here at Atwood, studied agricultural economics at K-State and came back to northwest Kansas. He went to work for another company but saw an opportunity in the fertilizer industry.

Matt contacted his brother Josh who had been an engineer with larger companies but was ready to leave the big corporate structure. They partnered with their friend Blaine Ginther. Their idea was to create a system of equipment that could attach to a farmer’s existing farm implements and be used to dispense liquid fertilizer.

The three went to work. They set out to create a company to produce such a product and found they had complementary skills. Josh Wolters is an engineer and Blaine Ginther had worked in management and sales, while Matt specialized in operations and strategic management.

The three entrepreneurs launched a company known as Surefire Ag Systems. The purpose of the company was to deliver customized equipment for application of crop inputs. They began the business in August 2007 on a farmstead north of their hometown of Atwood.

“The foundation of our business is configuring a package of components to make a system that attaches to existing equipment to apply liquid fertilizer, chemicals, or herbicides,” Matt said.

For example, adding their system to a corn planter makes it possible to apply fertilizer also. “Our system can be customized to each specific piece of equipment,” Matt said.

Surefire Ag got started at the time that GPS guidance and tractor autosteer systems were really growing in popularity. Being able to integrate the Surefire Ag systems with those technologies was a key to success. Surefire Ag experienced significant growth and continued to innovate.

“By God’s guiding hand, we hired our first electrical engineer in 2011,” Matt said. This highly-trained engineer, originally from Hoxie, happened to be moving back to the area when he and his wife decided they wanted to raise their kids here. He joined SureFire and his skills enabled the company to do more product development. SureFire Electronics was launched in 2012 and SureFire’s QuickDraw system was introduced in 2013. QuickDraw is an automated, electronically controlled spray tender system which automates batch mixing of crop inputs. The company continues to grow.

“One of our objectives is to be an economic engine for Rawlins County,” Matt said. The company now employs 35 people and has sold products to 47 states, six Canadian provinces and beyond. Such market breadth is remarkable for a young company from rural Atwood, population 1,258 people. Now, that’s rural.

In addition to generating employment, the company created the Dream Big Education Foundation to support Rawlins County schools. SureFire made a $100,000 donation which has been used to put smart boards and iPad carts in the grade schools and significantly upgrade the information technology infrastructure in the high school.

“Our people are our greatest asset,” Matt said. “We’ve been blessed with the most dedicated, committed group of people who have come together to make it happen. They grew up with a work ethic and the moral compass to take care of people.”

For more information about the company, go to www.surefireag.com.

We just had our Russell Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Golf Outing Saturday, May 31. It was a success! I think the participants enjoyed themselves and the weather was impeccable.

The winners were as follows: Champion Flight first place winners were Jamie Pasek, Michael Pasek, Tom Hart, and Ken Krannawitter. Second place winners were Ray Vombardir, Mark Robben, Craig Ptacek, and Jeff Billinger. Third place winners were Mike Moreland, Cody Hamlin, Tyler Hamlin, and Jake Pellant.

Flight 1 first place winners were Harold Courtois, Chris Zielinski, Randy Boxberger, and Shae Veach. Second place winners were Kenny Vink, Craig Vink, Steve Black, and Gavin Vink. Third place winners were Mike Rohr, Matt Lyon, Chauncey Baxter, and Mark Jensen.

Flight 2 first place winners were Brad Hutchison, Aaron Schilde, John Malone, and Brandon Schaffer. Second place winners were Alex Lofland, Michael Jones, Duane Banks, and Dale Weimaster. Third place winners were Dave Couch, Doug Hecker, Terry Weis, and Warren Nietling.

Jenny Conn is executive director of the Russell Area Chamber of Commerce.

All across our country, Americans are checking their automobiles, studying road maps and adding another item to their “to do” lists in preparation for long-awaited summer vacations.

Anticipation will soar and expectations will rise as husband and wife teams take to this country’s highways and byways in search of rest, peace and tranquility. Children will ensure this dream remains only partially fulfilled with road questions like: “I’m hungry, I want a hamburger and fries.” “Mommy, Billy is teasing me.” “Are we there yet?” and “I don’t want to go on vacation, I want to go back home.”

Regardless of such comments, mom and dad will remain true to their plans – determined as the Griswold’s heading to “Walley World”  – and push ahead. After all, the money spent for the family vacation usually represents cash left over after paying for the family’s food, clothing and other necessities. Oftentimes money to pay for vacations goes on plastic and is paid for later with interest.

Parents will think to themselves and comment, “We worked hard for this time off. We deserve it and we’re going to enjoy it.”

Americans remain the luckiest, most pampered people in the world. Try to imagine what it would be like if we had to be self-sufficient. What would happen to leisure time if others did not produce the many things families need?

Although we all work throughout the year, we should not forget those people who also work hard and help us free up time so we can vacation with loved ones. One such group is the Kansas farmer and rancher. They help meet our food, fuel and fiber needs. These needs are met without worry of availability.

The next time you walk into your local supermarket remember that milk comes from carefully cared for dairy cows on someone’s Kansas farm. Remember the butcher performs a service in cutting and packaging the hamburger, chops and steak you and your family eat. But, don’t forget the Kansas farmer and rancher cares for and produces that pork and beef. Styrofoam cartons only hold the eggs which are laid by hens on the farm.

No other nation of people on this planet enjoys the amount of free time we do. No other country can claim that so few people feed so many. Today less than 2 percent of our nation’s population is farmers. They are capable of supplying the other 98 percent with most of our food and fiber.

Remember as you plot your vacation course this summer, and as you motor through the state’s highways, notice the fields of corn, soybeans, milo and alfalfa. Take a look at the cattle, hogs and sheep grazing in the many pastures. Don’t forget Kansas farmers and ranchers help fulfill our food and fiber needs. These professionals also care for the livestock and crops you see as you drive by. They do so with as much care as they possibly can.

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

Kansas and China share a similar educational problem: getting our bright but narrow kids into college when they are not a “jack of all trades.”

College access is limited over here in China. There are only 7 million freshman seats in China’s universities and there are 9 million students who want to attend. This is a big deal. If you have a college degree you can earn decent money. If you don’t, you will likely earn coins a day.

So, China has a rigid end-of-high school college entrance exam that students-study-for and teachers-teach-to. It is called the gao kao and it has had three major sections: math, Chinese and English. There are additional minor subsections but you have to score high on these big three topics or your total score will fall too low to get into the first or second rank universities, and two million will fail to get into any university.

The dilemma they face is that they have students who are brilliant during elementary and high school in one specific subject—such as physics. But they are not likewise high achievers in English or even Chinese. Just physics. And China—that has yet to get a Nobel Prize in the sciences—knows that they are losing some brilliant talent because these little Einsteins are not broad-based scholars. And this situation also occurs with other narrowly brilliant kids in art, music, literature and other fields as well.

China’s Ministry of Education proposed to let principals write letters of exemption for a brilliant student to bypass the gao kao. The public protested—too much likelihood that some affluent parents would buy their academically-challenged offspring these end runs. “Guanxi” which can be translated as relationships, knowing the right people, or you-scratch-my-back-and-I-scratch-yours, is big over here. The people were right. The Ministry backed off.

So high school graduates are sitting for the gao kao test this first weekend in June. But there will be a difference this time. The weighting on English has been cut dramatically. A lot of Chinese college graduates have been complaining that they don’t use English much at all when they graduate and take jobs in China; this action addresses that grumbling. But the real purpose is to save the young Einsteins, Hemingways, and Gershwins—the unique but narrowly talented geniuses who were excluded by a test that required mastery of a fuller range of academics.

This story has direct relevance to Kansas students going to state universities next year. With good intentions but bad judgement, the Kansas Board of Regents implemented new Qualified Admissions requirements that will boost the math requirement “one course too far.” And by making all QA requirements concurrent in 2015, there will be a dramatic drop in Kansas students able to go to state universities—because they are not all super good in math.

While some small Kansas high schools could not offer the additional math, there are many more students for whom this advanced math is too difficult. These Kansas students who are aiming for fields not involving advanced math are simply going to have to attend community or private colleges in 2015

The Ministry of Education in China knew how to fix their problem and save their young Einsteins. Our KBOR does not, and we will sacrifice some Hemingways and Gershwins.

Dear Dave,
How should I handle my 401(k) when moving from one job to another?
Tracy

Dear Tracy,
I would roll it to an IRA. Your new company, if you move it there, will have limited choices for your 401(k). You’d also probably have a lengthy waiting period for verification and the potential add-on fees and taxes.

Plus, with an IRA you can cash it out if something really bad happens. But I rarely ever advise people to cash out their IRAs. The only exceptions are extreme cases, like to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure. Even then, hardship withdrawals are very difficult to get. And again, this kind of thing should never be done except in an absolute, worst-case scenario.

Just roll your money into a traditional IRA, Tracy. It’s called a direct transfer IRA, and that way there will be no taxes on it. You want the money to go directly from the 401(k) to the IRA. Then, you’ll have the freedom to choose from about 8,000 mutual funds and move the money around, if you like.

In other words, you’re in control. That’s the way it should be when it comes to your money!
—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. His newest best-seller, Smart Money Smart Kids, was written with his daughter Rachel Cruze, and recently debuted at #1. 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.

June may be my favorite month in Kansas. I love watching the wheat fields turn from green to gold and then watching the harvest. There are few things I have seen that are as beautiful as a landscape made up only of blue and gold.

That being said, I wish our landscape was a little more grey and muddy than bright and sunny these days. Every time it clouds up and it starts to sprinkle, I go to the window, hoping that a downpour will begin and last for several days.

No such luck … yet. Rain will come, and when it does, I fully intend to stand at the window and watch until my thirsty brain is convinced that the water is not a mirage.

Notwithstanding the drought, did you know that part of the reason western Kansas is so dry is because it is in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains? Ah yes, those Rocky Mountains we all love so much are a big part of why we receive so little rain. As moist air from the west heads to Kansas, it has to climb the Rocky Mountains. When air rises, it cools and condenses causing rain showers on the western side of the Rockies.

The air, which is now dry, continues its journey east. This leaves the land in the leeward “shadow” of the Rockies with far less rain and more arid conditions. In homage to the rain shadow, I’ve created a display in the basement of the library illustrating the principle, juxtaposed against pictures from the great floods of Hays.

I suppose one advantage to dry weather is that there isn’t anything, other than heat, to prohibit outdoor activities. Saturday, June 7, is National Hiking Day, and to celebrate, I’ll be leading a hike at the Dr. Howard Reynolds nature trails near the Sternberg Museum. If you need transportation to the trail, please meet at the library at 9 a.m. Otherwise, the hike will begin at 9:15 a.m. at the trail head. Please dress coolly and comfortably, wear sunscreen and bring a bottle of water. The trail head is located on the west side of the Sternberg Museum.

On June 12 at 5 p.m., I’ll be hosting the quarterly installment of Kansas Cooks! If you are a lover of pie than this is the program for you! To participate bring your favorite pie and a copy of your recipe. Participants will sample each other’s pies and swap recipes. I’m having a hard time deciding between French silk, strawberry rhubarb and coconut cream as my pie of choice. Too bad there aren’t any gooseberries around here…gooseberry pie is one of my favorites!

Speaking of favorites, I’ll be showing “The Wizard of Oz” on Thursday, June 26th at 6 p.m. This film has been a family favorite for generations and never fails to entertain people of all ages. I’ll be providing free popcorn, soda and movie theater candy. Beat the heat this summer with “The Wizard of Oz” and complimentary refreshments.

My next staycation is happening this month. I’ll be taking a group to Prairie Lavender Farm, north of Salina, for the fourth annual lavender festival on June 21 at 9 a.m. Transportation, but not admission to the festival will be provided. Admission will be $5 and you will also be responsible for any food or extras. I have one spot left, so make sure you call me at (785) 625-9014 or email me at [email protected] to reserve your spot. In July we’ll be heading to Abilene and Greensburg, so call for more information if you’re interested.

Finally, I’ll be sponsoring a Red Cross Express Blood Drive on June 30 from 1:30 to 4:45 p.m. Up to 14 people can sign up for this blood drive. Participants will receive a free T-shirt. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in donating blood and helping meet the need for blood donations during the critical summer season!

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

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

OK, we got the news, Kansas revenues are down about $300 million from estimates in the past two months, and that’s not good for the budget that has just been passed and for the upcoming fiscal year which starts July 1.

And, we have an election-year summer ahead of finger-pointing and casting blame for the massive reduction in state revenues.

Democrats point at Gov. Sam Brownback for his tax cut program. Republicans point at President Barack Obama, who scared the wealthy back in 2012 when he proposed allowing those tasty President George Bush-era tax cuts to expire — but they didn’t.

Oh, you can further dissect the revenue drops: The then-moderate Republican Kansas Senate in 2012 loaded up the governor’s tax cut proposal with more cuts and less revenue-enhancers than he had proposed, sending him a bill with outrageous revenue implications — but he signed it anyway.

Or, you can take the tack that the entire national economy was shaken, not stirred, by the possibility of federal income tax changes in 2013 (which didn’t happen), and it took a year for canny federal taxpayers to square up their investment decisions. Oh, and then there’s always Obamacare and federal spending and the national deficit and whatever you want.

But the key for us folks who spend too much time in the Statehouse is that there is going to be a lot less money floating around the state treasury than anyone feels comfortable with.

Estimates — and they’re just estimates now — are that the Legislature and the governor are going to see for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and for which appropriations have already been approved at least $300 million less in the bank.

It’s enough of a reduction in receipts that you can count on whoever is governor next year and the Legislature to spend much of the session cutting budgets that agencies have already been handed.

It is starting to look like that Republican-estimated ending balance for the upcoming fiscal year—$288 million—isn’t going to happen. And it’s starting to look like a Democratic projection of ending balances is going to be closer to right—at maybe $70 million.

And then, whoever is governor is likely to have to make budget allocations—essentially cuts in spending already promised—single-handedly. Former Gov. Mark Parkinson had to do that several years ago during the national recession just to keep the government running…and he came under heavy criticism from nearly everyone.

So? The politics of this revenue drop are going to be bitter this election cycle. A canny candidate for reelection will hold off on those cuts until after the election and a smart challenger will wail that the governor is delaying those allotments for purely political reasons. Both, of course, are right.

Makes the upcoming election campaign more interesting. Nobody’s talking about the obvious fix: Raising taxes… And nobody’s talking about the other option: Cutting spending…

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.

During our May Membership Chamber Lunch, we honored 22 graduates from our Leadership Hays Class of 2014.

Serving as one of five facilitators, I have a unique opportunity to observe individual growth and group dynamics as everyone learns how to trust, share, experiment and grow with one another.

At our last session, we asked the class to share what they believe works well within the Leadership Hays program, and I quickly jotted down some notes. While the answers varied, several themes emerged.

First, the group felt the diversity of professions, age and experience of attendees provided multiple interpretations leading to different answers. The blend of classroom instruction with hands-on activities allowed for stronger understanding and sustainable growth. Plus, the homework assignments asked the participants to shift thinking from “in the classroom” to real-world application.

Through the six sessions, the program presented unusual ideas to leadership and what it truly means to be a Servant Leader. We facilitators repeated the basic concept that “Leadership is an activity, not a position,” while challenging the group to focus on things they really cared about and would be willing to invest time and energy to address.

Furthermore, we posed this question to them, and would ask you to consider this as well: “When you think about the future of Ellis County, what concerns you the most?” The answers might not be simple or easy to address.

However, each and every one of us has a responsibility to make this community a better place — not just those who serve in the traditional roles of authority.

So I leave you with these thoughts. If you were to stretch beyond your comfort zone, how would you exercise leadership? What different experiments would you try to make progress?

Lastly, how can the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce assist you to meet that challenge?

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