At various times, every American likely has wished for less of some things that the First Amendment protects. Less hateful speech. One less noisy protest group. Or

maybe even the swift departure of a media outlet or personality whose stance or voice is just grating on a personal level.

For the most part, those wishes come and go – or the targets do, as media fortunes or political trends wax and wane.

But wishes don’t change constitutions. There’s no impact on what we can say, what we write, how we worship, or our ability to challenge and seek to change government policies and practices.
And the same 45 words of the First Amendment exist today as when they were ratified by the fledgling nation as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791.
But the just-released 2013 State of the First Amendment survey by the First Amendment Center gives us reason to worry about the future because of a repeating threat to our core freedoms: fear.

In this year’s survey, conducted in May – about a month after the Boston Marathon bombing – 34% of Americans said the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, up 21 points from the 13% recorded in the 2012 survey.
The increase is the largest one-year rise in the survey’s history, and more than double the point increase seen in the wake of 9/11 – when those fearing too much freedom went from 39% to the all-time high of 49%.

Fear has been a powerful force in American history. A mere seven years after we gained the Bill of Rights, amid fear that a critical press would tilt us into war with France, Congress passed the Sedition Act – authorizing jail for those who criticized Congress or the president. Some editors were jailed, but a nation repelled by those actions allowed the act to expire two years later.
President Lincoln suspended certain civil rights during the Civil War. Japanese-Americans were interned during WWII. There were “blacklists” during the McCarthy era. The unprecedented national-security restrictions and regulations adopted quickly after 9/11, embodied in the Patriot Act, resulted from wide fear of future terrorism. Even seven months later, in the 2002 SOFA survey, 49% of us said the First Amendment went too far – still the highest result recorded in the annual sampling.

We have been reminded many times by public officials – from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to several attorneys general – that “the First Amendment is not a suicide pact.” But protecting and preserving fundamental rights preserves the very character of the nation – those qualities of religious liberty and freedom of expression that make the United States unique in all the world.
As the old joke goes, “You’re not paranoid if they really are after you” – and certainly there are forces that aim to do this nation harm. And no constitutional rights are absolute. But history shows us that political leaders may overreact to threats, and gain at least temporary political support from a fearful citizenry. We’re arguing about that now, concerning the disclosure of massive government surveillance of our phone records and e-mails.
In the years after 9/11, the percentage of those saying we had too much liberty “reset” to between 25% and last year’s 13%. But this year’s results warn that even a single incident – even as authorities moved swiftly to arrest the Boston bombers – can endanger public support for freedoms we have had for 222 years.
The nation’s Founders didn’t waffle – or let fear dilute their support – when it came to standing behind the permanence of the First Amendment: Its first words are “Congress shall make no law … .”
In 1775, Ben Franklin bluntly offered his view of balancing national security and core freedoms: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Even when faced with real threats, we need to remember who we are as a nation – and what we stand for in the rest of the world.

Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center and COO of the Newseum Institute. E-mail him at [email protected].
Editor’s note: The 2013 State of the First Amendment survey of 1,006 adults nationwide was conducted in May 2013, by telephone, by the STATS Group, directed by Dr. Kenneth Dautrich. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.2% at the 95% level of confidence: There is one chance in 20 that results would differ by more than 3.2 points either way in sampling another group.

Food innovation is progress

By John Schlageck, Kansas Farm Bureau

Seems like not a day goes by without a media story on our country’s food supply. Some folks have concluded that the best plate may be an empty plate. How else are they going to avoid killer popcorn, monster tomatoes, drug-treated cattle, radioactive chicken or toenail hotdogs?

Some would argue we do not need GMOs. Others would say keep all antibiotics out of livestock. A few would even argue we have too much food and this is what has led to this this nation’s obesity problem.

If you are overwhelmed by news reports that question the safety of your food, you’re not alone. What can we do?

To begin with, exercise common sense.

Overconsumption and obesity are indeed health hazards, but generally speaking food scientists do not believe specific foods are health villains.

Most of us depend on advanced agricultural practices and food technology to give us an abundant, safe, reliable and affordable food supply. As the world’s population continues to increase, U.S. farmers and ranchers need to continue to find new ways to produce more food, more efficiently. Much of the world continues to face food shortages that our country can address.

Why shouldn’t we have access to delicious fruits and vegetables all year round, especially when the increased intake of such food items has been scientifically proven to be healthy and reduce the risk of disease?

Technology critics have been around since the first caveman rounded off the square edges of a stone block and chiseled out the first wheel. People fought the coming of steam locomotives and buggy makers cried out against the coming of the Model T.

Food irradiation and bioengineered foods can be summarized in one word – progress.

Food safety has always been an emotional issue. Reactions to some of these food scares confirm the old adage that a rumor can travel half way around the world before the truth pulls on its boots.

Too often today, most news translates to bad news. The prospect of sensationalism is often irresistible and easier than digging a bit deeper and finding the truth.

If more scientists stepped forward to correct this misinformation we would all be better off.

Until that occurs, be wary of food scares. On the other hand, don’t forget to eat and drink from our food supply brought to you by this nation’s farmers and ranchers. It remains the safest, best tasting in the world.
John Schlageck is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas. Born and raised on a diversified farm in northwestern Kansas, his writing reflects a lifetime of experience, knowledge and passion.

Book Review: Three Graves Full (Author Jamie Mason)

Over a year ago, mild-mannered Jason Getty killed someone and buried him in the backyard. Just as he’s learning to live with what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property — and neither is the one he put there.

TGF is really enjoyable once you give into Mason’s style of writing. She uses strange metaphors and complicated analogies that sometimes work against the flow of the narrative by trying to over-describe the action. However, she always brings the reader back around by changing the narrative viewpoint, allowing another character to share their interpretation, that usually cleared things up for me. So the book became better the more that I just went with it.

I will admit that I was very hesitant when the narrative focus given over to Tessa, it just didn’t seem to work at first. Again, once I gave in to the novel, those sections became very insightful.

And beyond Tessa, Mason’s characters are also highly complicated in all the right ways.

All in all, it was good though I sometimes felt like I didn’t get what the book was trying to say…

3 out of 5 stars.

Marleah Augustine is the Adult Department Librarian at the Hays Public Library

You can see more of her blog here https://hayspubliclibrary.wordpress.com

Opinion: Education On The Brink: Kansas Schools Short Over A Billion Dollars

Kansans already know that Governor Brownback has short-changed our schools since he took office, having cut funding over $100 million for public schools before cutting $66 million for higher education this year.

This week though it became painfully clear exactly how deep the hole is that the governor and his anti-education allies have created. Based upon estimates crafted by Brownback’s own Kansas State Department of Education Kansas schools are short a mere $1.23 billion.

The governor’s own budget numbers show that this year the governor is funding education $574 million below the statutory amount required. That number balloons to $656.7 million for fiscal year 2015.

This shocking gap in statutory education funding places Brownback and his GOP allies on a collision course with the Kansas Supreme Court who has already ruled once that Kansas schools are not being suitably funded.

Kansas courts this winter found Brownback had acted unconstitutionally when he failed to suitably fund education, choosing instead to pass out billions in tax breaks to the richest Kansans. The three judge panel even called Brownback’s actions “illogical”, arguing that the state can’t claim that a weak economy forced education cuts be made while simultaneously handing out billions in tax breaks for the rich and big business.

Brownback and GOP lawmakers response to this rebuke has been to double-down on tax breaks for the rich and inaction on school funding. Now they are preparing themselves for a battle in 2014. GOP leaders admit as much, arguing that Kansas will see a “constitutional crisis” in 2014 should the Kansas Supreme Court again find the state has funded education at an unconstitutional level.

In the end, the actions of GOP legislators and Governor Brownback have demonstrated that their top priority is protecting tax breaks for rich Kansans. That’s why cuts have been made to K-12 education, higher education, and corrections. It’s also why Brownback fought to raise taxes on working Kansans by $777 million this session.

At every turn Brownback has gutted programs and raised taxes to protect his ticket back to national prominence – experimental and reckless tax breaks for big business and the top 1%.

Brownback and company continue to protest this assertion, claiming to support education despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. While the evidence was already substantial, we just found 1.23 billion dollars in new evidence that contradict the governor’s protestations and prove once again that the future of our children and our state matter less than Brownback’s political ambition and dogmatic belief in trickle-down economics.

 

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural
Pat Lyons – Lyons Twin Mansions

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

“Hey, Pat. I’m going to a bed and breakfast meeting in Topeka. Want to come along?” It was a simple request, but it led to the creation of a remarkable bed and breakfast in an amazing, historic home. That bed-and-breakfast is now one of the longest running B&B’s in the state of Kansas

Pat Lyons, or Miss Pat as she is sometimes called, is the innkeeper of the Lyons Twin Mansions bed, breakfast, hotel and spa in Fort Scott, Kan.

Pat was a military child. “I grew up in an Oldsmobile on Route 66,” she said with a smile. While her father was stationed in Mississippi, she met and married Larry Lyons, a young Air Force officer from Kansas.

Larry grew up near the rural community of Fulton, population 162 people. Now, that’s rural.

He went on to an Air Force career. While preparing for a one-year overseas deployment, he and Pat came to Fort Scott to see his family. She spotted a home where she could stay with the kids while he was overseas. Soon after, Pat visited a gorgeous mansion for sale in Fort Scott. It was a four-story Victorian Italianate home built in 1872-76 by wealthy bankers who had come to Fort Scott from New York.

“It was a dream house, a treasure,” Pat said. They purchased the home, had repairs done and moved in after Larry retired in 1979.

In the late 1980s, as the kids were growing up, Pat had a request from a friend who had opened her home as a bed and breakfast. The friend was going to a meeting in Topeka and wanted Pat to come along, so she agreed.

Bed and breakfasts were a growing trend in the 1980s, encouraged by the work of K-State business professor Fred Rice. When Pat’s friend had more guests than she could hold in her B&B, she asked if Pat could open up a room or two to hold the overflow. Pat did so and the business began to take off. Ultimately Pat’s friend closed her B&B. Pat’s business continued to develop.

Next door to the Lyons home was a virtually identical mansion which was also built by those New York bankers in the 1870s. In 2007, Pat and Larry’s son Nate purchased the mansion next door and went into the business with his parents.

Today, Lyons Twin Mansions is one of the leading bed and breakfast enterprises in Kansas. Both historic mansions have guest rooms with plasma TVs and all the amenities, plus there is a day spa. The homes are exquisitely furnished, including items Larry purchased on Air Force tours, including Persian rugs from Persia.

Nate has opened Nate’s Place, a restaurant and lounge, in the mansion he purchased. In addition, the Lyons family has a cottage across the street and upstairs apartments downtown for extended stays, while managing yet another nearby mansion for an owner in Texas. Altogether, there are ten guest rooms.

Through the years, Pat has hosted guests from coast to coast and beyond. The average life span of a bed and breakfast business is five to six years, while Pat has been going for 22 years.

“We have reinvented ourselves many times,” she said.

Why is this transplanted Kansan so passionate about her community and her state? “When we first moved here, I took my daughter in for her school shots,” Pat said. “The next morning, the doctor’s wife was at my door with a plate of cookies. My neighbor brought a loaf of bread. I cherish the people of Kansas.”

“We are modernizing the rooms and embracing new technology,” she added. “I appreciate this wonderful business and wonderful community.”

For more information, go to www.lyonstwinmansions.com.

“Hey, Pat, want to go to a bed and breakfast meeting in Topeka?” That chance contact has led to a remarkable innkeeping career for Miss Pat and the Lyons family. We salute Pat and Larry Lyons, Nate and all those involved with the Lyons Twin Mansions for making a difference with their entrepreneurship. They offer historic hospitality.

 

Our turn

By John Schlageck, Kansas Farm Bureau

Once in a long while all the chips fall the right way and a Kansas farm family raises the best wheat crop it ever had. The Kent Winter family of northwestern Sedgwick County harvested such a crop in late June of this year.

“It’s just incredible when the weather cooperates and you manage to have a few things in place – but it’s rare, it’s not customary, it’s unusual to have such a crop,” says Kent Winter. “It was a real blessing for us.”

The Sedgwick County farmer started working with his father 30 years ago. He’s farmed on his own since his dad retired in the late ‘90s.

Winter recalls many a year when wheat harvest didn’t pan out so well. The year 1967 stands out as a “very thin” harvest because of a dry winter.

However, 2013 will be a wheat harvest the Winter family remembers for a long time. The majority of the 800 acres produced 60 bushels-per-acre or a bit more. A couple of wheat fields pushed the low 70s.

“It was a combination of small incremental things that added up” Winter says. “Most of them were out of our control. We had a lot of help from Mother Nature and a higher power.”

The genesis of this outstanding wheat crop started last summer during the multi-year drought in southern Kansas. In the back of his mind, Winter kept remembering what the “old-timers” always said.

“Wheat is a dry-weather crop.”

This prompted Winter to plant more than half the acres he farmed to wheat. Some timely fall rains helped establish a good stand back in October of 2012.

Another factor that led to this year’s bumper crop was planting the wheat into some failed fields of dry-land corn and soybeans from the summer of 2012. Because of last summer’s drought, this corn and bean cropland had a good amount of residual fertilizer available for the newly sewn wheat crop.

Planting this year’s wheat crop in these fields just seemed right, Winter says. Being able to rotate this row crop land into wheat also seemed like the right thing to do.

The real game changer for this year’s wheat crop occurred occurred in mid-February when the crop was blanketed with 20 inches of snow.

“We’d already top dressed the crop,” Winter says. “The snow came out of nowhere. It stayed on our fields and the moisture went deep into the soil.”

Timely spring rains followed the snowstorm and a cool period ensued as the wheat crop filled.

Five inches of rain fell during this late spring period and really capped off a tremendous growing season, Winter says.

“We were fortunate to dodge the hail and bad weather that often accompanies such spring moisture events,” the Sedgwick County farmer says. “In the back of our minds, we all know it may be our turn to have less than favorable weather and a more normal growing period.”

Still, this year’s crop remains the culmination of a great harvest for the south-central Kansas farmer. Winter is thankful for his bumper crop. He also understands that next year someone else in another region of Kansas will have a turn at harvesting a great crop like his of 2013.

Let’s hope, this will be the case for farmers in western Kansas where some have suffered recent crop failures, especially in the southwest, where drought has plagued this region of the state for three consecutive years..

John Schlageck is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas. Born and raised on a diversified farm in northwestern Kansas, his writing reflects a lifetime of experience, knowledge and passion.

Journalism’s new world – literally

By Gene Policinski
Inside the First Amendment –

Glenn Greenwald is a writer for the British newspaper The Guardian. He lives most of the time in Brazil. And he is a central figure in the sensational disclosures of covert surveillance programs conducted by the U.S. that have touched nations around the planet.

Welcome to the new global world – quite literally – of journalism that is challenging both the notions and definitions of a free press and who is a journalist.

The news media have a direct, obvious stake in how the issues are resolved. But now close behind are government officials roiled over what they see as questionable motives of Greenwald and other writers involved in the disclosure of classified government information about the National Security Agency programs.

And then there are First Amendment advocates and government advocates of a proposed national “shield law” protecting journalists and sources, who face a thorny problem of deciding in upcoming months who is covered by that law and who is not.

A little perspective: Acerbic media critic A.J. Liebling essentially was correct for his time when he wrote more than 60 years ago that “freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

For many years, the matter of “who is a journalist?” largely was settled along his observation. In practice, if not statute, the free press was seen as a print or broadcast news operation or as a publishing organization. “Journalism” was what those entities did, and those employed by them were “journalists.”

There were some notable achievements – and exceptions – under that system. CBS News documentaries such as 1960’s “Harvest of Shame,” exposing to the nation the deplorable conditions endured by migrant workers, is an example. The press of course had a pivotal role in helping to expose scandal and cover-ups ranging from the Pentagon Papers to Watergate.

And there were those practitioners like I.F. Stone, self-identified as both an independent investigative reporter and a political activist. In the spirit of colonial era “pamphleteers” and of later writers called muckrakers, I.F.Stone’s Weekly, which reached its circulation peak in the 1960s, was investigative reporting tinged proudly with advocacy, challenging the notion that good journalists were simply nonpartisan and objective.

Stone once wrote that a journalist’s duty was “to write the truth, to defend the weak against the strong, to fight for justice, to bring healing perspectives to bear on the terrible hates and fears of mankind in the hope of someday bringing about a world in which men will enjoy the differences of the human garden, instead of killing each other over them.”

A formal review of journalism in the United States came in the mid-20th Century, with the scholarly Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press. In 1947, it set out five goals for the news media, including “a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events, in context.” The commission bolstered the idea that a free press, with fairness and balance, provides the essential service of informing fellow citizens and contributing to self-governance – essentially, providing the mechanism of democracy.

Re-reading the commission’s work makes clear the generational bulwark it helped build for the news media’s constitutional role as a watchdog on government and as a news–gathering mechanism and surrogate for the public.

But the commission also advanced a theory of social responsibility: decisions about news should consider the good that such reporting would bring to society. At the time, its members were worried that a new generation of press moguls had little concern over social good, that there was little effective self-criticism in the press, combined with a declining ability for outsiders to be heard, in an increasingly powerful news and information media.
Enter the internet – and what is now shaping up as the next great “reset” in journalism.

The Web’s empowerment of bloggers and others to reach mass audiences has no history of self-restraint or media “gatekeepers” reflected in the Hutchins’ recommendations. It provides the ultimate in opportunity for individual engagement, reaction and response.

From aggregators to agitators, reporters to disclosers, from leakers to sources to whistleblowers – news, information and comment on the Web simply flows. Participants in this grand, new global network range from media stalwarts such as The New York Times, to individual writers such as Greenwald – who is also a lawyer and blogger – to innovative news operations such as The Guardian with a new eye to the international. And then there is the self-described journalism-and-activist enterprise WikiLeaks , which along with millions of bloggers and tweeters, owes no particular allegiance to companies, geography or political boundaries.

In this new world, it may be that the function of conveying news and information to others – not institution, tradition, means or method – is how journalists and journalism are best identified. Certainly, through our nation’s history, that ultimately is what the First Amendment has protected.

And Independence Day 2013 is as good a point as any to mark the start of this revolutionary – or at least evolutionary – debate.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute, which includes the First Amendment Center. E-mail him at [email protected].

As we celebrate our nation’s Independence this week, it is fitting that we recall the brave men and women who have defended America since then.

Last week I was honored to call the attention of the U.S. House of Representatives to one of these heroes: Lt. General Richard J. Seitz.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to the life of Lt. General Richard J. Seitz of Junction City, Kansas who died on June 8th at the age of 95.

A native Kansan and Kansas State University grad, Dick went through the sixth jump school class the Army ever had – becoming one of its first paratroopers. He was quickly promoted to be the Army’s youngest battalion commander, and led his battalion throughout its historic combat operations in Europe during World War II.

Dick ended World War II with the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and the Purple Heart, plus, besides his Parachute Wings, what he most treasured – the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. During his lifelong Army career, including nearly 37 years of active duty and later service in Vietnam, Brazil, Japan, and Iran, Dick also received numerous other decorations and awards including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor.

Dick retired to Junction City in 1975 but remained active in his community and at Fort Riley. Among other activities, he was on the Board of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, President of the Fort Riley-Central Kansas Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, and Chaired Junction City’s Economic Redevelopment Study Commission.

Dick was also honored as an Outstanding Citizen of Kansas, received the prestigious AUSA Creighton Abrams Award, and most recently had the General Richard J. Seitz Elementary School named in his honor on the post at Ft. Riley. He felt a particular affection for the faculty and students of that school whom he visited as often as he could. The best way to describe Dick is that he lived his life “Airborne all the way!” to the very end.

Last year my family and I had the privilege to meet General Dick Seitz when he served as the Grand Marshal at the Independence Day parade in Junction City. I quickly came to understand why General Seitz was admired by so many. Not only was he revered for his extraordinary and dedicated military service, but also for the care, generosity and affection he offered others throughout his life.

General Seitz epitomized what it means when people refer to him and his peers as “America’s Greatest Generation.” Let us never forget men and women like General Seitz, especially on Independence Day. And May God bless them all!
Congressman Tim Huelskamp represents the First District of Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to his membership on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Rep. Huelskamp serves on the Small Business Committee, the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy & Trade, the Subcommittee on Health & Technology, and the Subcommittee on Contracting & Workforce.

Congratulations to Angel Rueschhoff, of Hays for finding the Eagle Golden Egg in Rolling Hills Disc Golf park at 41st Street and Autumn Lane.

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Starting its third year, the Eagle Communications Golden Egg Hunt began yesterday with the first clue. Each year during the week of Wild West Festival, someone from Eagle Communications hides a golden egg somewhere within a five-mile radius of the Wild West Festival grounds (Municipal Park). Daily clues are published on the company’s website, www.eaglecom.net/goldenegg until the egg is found. The lucky winner of the egg receives $500 for the safe return of the egg.

“Eagle has always been a part of the Wild West Festival and we thought this would be a fun addition to the week’s events,” Travis Kohlrus, Eagle Communications Broadband Division General Manager said. “It is always fun visiting with area folks who are searching for the egg each year and following the clues to see just where it will be found.”

The first clue was posted yesterday, July 1 and clues will be added each day until someone turns in the egg to Eagle’s office in Dillons on Vine Street.

Wild West Festival entertainment kicks off tomorrow night with Rusty Rierson & Forever Young, Dustin Lynch and Love & Theft at Hays Municipal Park.

Sweltering in the ‘dog days’ of summer…
Bring on the rain

By John Schlageck, Kansas Farm Bureau

In case you hadn’t noticed, much of the state may already be mired in the “dog days” of summer. You might be thinking, it’s too early for such hot temperatures, but think again.

Although it may be nothing to brag about, Kansans and the ancient Romans have a common appreciation (maybe aversion is a better word) to hot summer days.

While some Kansans are fortunate to work, and most of us live in air-conditioned homes, the Romans were forced to retreat to the seaside, a shady tree or a dip at the local bathhouse to keep cool.

So where did the term “dog days” actually come from?

Ancient Romans noted that the brightest star in the night sky – Sirius – appeared each year during hot, sultry weather. Sirius, which originates from the Greek word for “scorcher,” became known as the Dog Star. Consequently, the hot, steamy weather it brought was called, “dog days.”

Believing the star caused the miserable weather, ancient Romans sacrificed brown dogs to appease the rage of Sirius.

Instead of mythology, astrology or old wives’ tales, we have meteorology to help us define what’s going on with our weather. Based on the predictability of today’s weather – and it has improved dramatically – some people might argue we should revert to the techniques used by the early Romans.

Somehow, I seem to have started this column on the wrong foot. Maybe it’s the heat or lack of moisture. Anyway, let me begin again.

What does the rest of the summer and fall weather in Kansas look like?

In order to answer this question I turned to George Phillips with the National Weather Service in Topeka. Phillips has studied the weather in Kansas for many years.

Because of a large ridge of high pressure setting up above the Sunflower State, July and August temperatures will probably experience higher than normal temperatures. This could mean somewhere in the high 80s or mid 90s and even triple digit temperatures, Phillips says. This doesn’t bode well for western Kansas.

Moisture amounts could be above or below “normal,” whatever that is in today’s climate. It’s difficult to predict moisture amounts during the summer months in Kansas. There just aren’t enough signals to rely on.

Thunderstorms will continue to be spotty with the potential for some heavy rains with these isolated storms, Phillips says.

“An isolated, small spot on the Kansas map may receive an inch or two while just a mile or less away may only pick up a trace of moisture,” says the National Weather Service science operations officer.

The chance of any wide-spread rains during the rest of the summer is unlikely although not impossible, Phillips says. Instead, Kansas will experience scattered showers and if you’re lucky enough to get one over your field, consider yourself fortunate – it’s going to be hit and miss for the rest of the summer.

As far as the extended drought on the High Plains of Kansas, Phillips reports the western 40 percent of Kansas is in the “D-3” category of extreme drought or higher. Some parts of western Kansas, especially the southwest are in a category “D-4,” considered the worst drought possible.

With three, going on four years of drought in some parts of Kansas, farmers are already speculating on the possibility of having enough moisture to put their next wheat crop in the ground. They’ll need some rain between now and mid-September to ensure the crop germinates.

The first estimates, and at this time they are little more than a guess, indicate above normal temperatures this fall, Phillips says. Predicting moisture amounts is impossible.

With the hottest days of summer bearing down on Kansas generally in mid-July hold on to your hat because 2013 may be a real scorcher – maybe even one for the record books.

Looking forward to the remainder of the summer, what happens with temperatures and rainfall amounts is anybody’s guess. Farmers and producers will keep a watchful eye toward the western sky, keep their fingers crossed and pray for rain.

As for brown dogs in farm country – beware.

John Schlageck is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas. Born and raised on a diversified farm in northwestern Kansas, his writing reflects a lifetime of experience, knowledge and passion.

From the Kansas Room, By: Lucia Flaim, Kansas Room Librarian, Hays Public Library

The 4th of July is one of the most important and celebrated holidays in my family. For years my mother’s entire extended family would gather at a lakeside cabin and celebrate our nation’s independence. The day was marked by pork steaks, homemade ice cream, and of course, fireworks. My brother and I would save our allowance for weeks before the 4th of July making lists of our favorite fireworks and planning what to buy. Later we’d arrange and rearrange our purchases, strictly adhering to a rule of never setting off any fireworks before the 4th. This lasted well into our college years.
This year will be my first 4th of July in Kansas and my first without setting off fireworks. It’s hard for me to imagine an Independence Day without bottle rockets and sparklers. However, the drought won’t last forever and I’m sure in future years the sale of fireworks will again be permitted in Ellis County.
To soothe the loss of one of my favorite traditions, I’ve decided to replace it with another. On July 3rd at 6 PM in the Schmidt Gallery the Kansas Room will be showing the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. Bring the whole family to enjoy this iconic film that immortalized the line “…we’re not in Kansas anymore.” There will be free popcorn, candy, soda and air conditioning.
Another of my favorite ways to celebrate our country’s freedom is by doing something to help someone else. One way to help someone else this July is by giving blood. The Red Cross has to collect 500 units of blood every day in Kansas and the need for donors often rises in the summer months. On July 17 the Kansas Room is sponsoring an Express Blood Drive through the American Red Cross in the Schmidt Gallery from 2:15 PM to 5:15 PM in the Schmidt Gallery to help meet this need. I still have several appointments available so if you’re interested stop by the library’s front desk or call 625-9014 to get your name on the list.
Some of you may know that the library offers several book clubs each month to people interested in cozy mysteries, books made into movies and books that feature exotic locations. This month, the Kansas Room will be sponsoring a different kind of book club. On July 29th at 5:30 PM in the Schmidt Gallery the Any Book Group will meet. Anyone who’s read any book recently is invited to attend. We’ll be providing free food and an informal setting for discussing books of all genres. Tell us why you loved a book or tell us why you hated it. Meet others who like the same books as you or begin building a list of recommended titles. Read a book and come to the Any Book Group…it’s as simple as A.B.G.!
Throughout the month of July the whole community will have the opportunity to participate in a photo scavenger hunt. Visit the library’s website or stop by the front desk to pick up your clue sheet and then solve ten clues that will lead you to different locations around Hays. Snap a photo of yourself at each location, then submit your photos via email or in person to Lucia Bain in the Kansas Room ([email protected]). All participants will have a chance to win a $25 Chamber Cheque but must submit their photos by July 31!
The Kansas Room is open from 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday and by request. If you wish to contact me, you may do so by calling 625-9014 or by emailing [email protected].

Stacy Campbell
K-State Research & Extension

Common bunt (stinking smut) on wheat

Each year wheat growers will save some of their best yielding varieties wheat seed to plant in the fall. This management practice works well in reducing seed costs by not having to purchase new certified seed wheat each year. However sometimes too much of a good thing can back fire. If growers continue to save seed wheat from the same seed lot each year for several years in a row, problems can eventually occur with seed borne disease of loose smut and common bunt or stinking smut.
Common bunt (stinking smut) occurs somewhere in Kansas almost every year, resulting in significant price penalties or rejected loads of grain. This fungal disease causes deformation of wheat kernels, and infected kernels often have a gray color. The infected kernels are filled with black powdery spores as opposed to the normal white starches of healthy kernels. The fungus produces volatile chemicals that have a strong fishy odor. This odor is readily detected in loads of grain and may persist through the milling and baking process.
Common bunt is a seed-borne disease. The disease persists between seasons on seed that was contaminated with the fungus during harvest or subsequent grain handling. The spores will survive on the outside of the kernels until fall, when they germinate and infect the developing seedlings shortly after planting. This infection process is favored by cool and wet fall conditions. Survival in the soil is considered rare in Kansas, because summer rainfall is normally sufficient to trigger germination of the fungal spores left in the field after harvest. The potential for survival in the soil is greater when soil conditions remain dry.
Unfortunately, there do not appear to be many options for using the rejected grain. Saving this grain for seed will increase the chances of having problems with bunt in following years. In some situations, I have heard of growers working with local feed lots to move rejected grain. The availability of this option will likely vary regionally within the state.
Management options for common bunt:
Fungicide seed treatments: Seed treatment fungicides are the first line of defense against seed-borne fungal diseases like common bunt. Even low levels of bunt can become a serious problem the following year and growers that have detected bunt or smut should use fungicide seed treatment for all their wheat. Products such as Dividend Extreme, Raxil MD, and Charter are all highly effective at controlling seed-borne diseases like common bunt and loose smut. Thorough coverage of the seed with the fungicide is very important and growers should consider having their seed commercially treated were possible. When used properly these seed treatments are able to protect more than 98% of the kernels from infection. Even at this high level of control, it may take several years of persistent use of the seed treatment fungicide to completely eliminate the disease.
Disease free seed: Common bunt is most likely to be a problem when wheat has been saved for seed for 2 or more years. Renewing the seed supply with certified seed every few years will greatly reduce the risk of future common bunt problems. On farms with a history of bunt problems, it is a good idea to have the new seed treated with a fungicide seed treatment. This seed treatment will reduce the risk of contamination from equipment (trucks, augers, grain charts used to move and handle the new seed) and eliminate the risk of infection from soil-borne sources of the fungus.
Crop rotation and volunteer wheat: It is also important to clean up volunteer wheat in fields with a history of common bunt. Any grain that passed through the combine during harvest is likely contaminated with the spores of the bunt fungus. If weather conditions are right, these volunteer plants could become infected with common bunt and negate the efforts to use clean seed or fungicide seed treatments. Because the infection is favored by cool and wet conditions, the late flushes of volunteer wheat are most at risk for infection. Therefore, crop rotation in fields with a history of bunt is probably the best option. Where rotation is not possible it is important to remain vigilant about volunteer control prior to planting the next wheat crop. Wheat varieties with the Clearfield technology that allows use of the herbicide Beyond to control volunteer wheat and feral rye may also be an option for some growers.
Common bunt can be a frustrating problem, but the disease can be controlled with a few adjustments to the production practices. Remain persistent and pay attention to details so that you receive maximum benefit for your efforts.
Information provided by Erick DeWolf, K-State Extension Plant Pathologists