The Kansas Water Authority will meet Thursday, August 8 at the J.H. Robbins Memorial Library, 219 N. Lincoln in Ellsworth.  The meeting will begin at 1 p.m.

The agenda and meeting materials are available on the Kansas Water Office (KWO) web site, www.kwo.org or you may request copies from KWO at 901 S. Kansas Avenue, Topeka, KS 66612-1249 or call (785) 296-3185 or (888) 526-9283 (KAN-WATER).

If accommodations are needed for persons with disabilities, please notify the KWO at least five working days prior to the meeting.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reminds parents and caregivers about immunizations required for students in grades K-12.

Kansas immunization school requirements are designed to protect all children against vaccine-preventable diseases.

The 2013-2014 kindergarten through 12th grade school immunization requirements and recommendations are based on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations and the consensus of the Governor’s Child Health Advisory Committee Immunization Workgroup.

The 2013-2014 school required immunizations are:

Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (DTaP): Five doses required. A single dose of Tdap is required at Grades 7-12 if no previous history of Tdap vaccination regardless of interval since the last Td.

Poliomyelitis (IPV/OPV): Four doses required. One dose required after age 4 regardless of the number of previous doses, with a 6 month minimum interval from the previous dose.

Measles, Mumps, Rubella: two doses required.

Hepatitis B: three doses required through grade 12.

Varicella (chickenpox): two doses required for grades K-4 and 7-9; one dose required for grades 5-6 and 10-12 unless history of Varicella disease documented by a licensed physician.

“Vaccination saves the lives and prevents others from suffering from diseases and permanent disabilities. If children aren’t vaccinated, they can spread disease to other children who are too young to be vaccinated or whose medical condition prevents them from being vaccinated,” said Brenda Walker, director of disease control and prevention at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“Because almost all parents vaccinate their children in the United States, we all derive protection from ‘community immunity.’ Children are best protected if they are vaccinated.”

In addition to the immunizations required for school entry listed above, the 2013 ACIP recommendations also include the following for school children:

 Meningococcal (MCV4): one dose recommended at 11 years with a booster dose at 16 yrs of age; not required for school entry.

 Human Papillomavirus (HPV): three doses recommended for males and females at 11 years of age; not required for school entry.

 Influenza: yearly vaccination recommended for all ages 6 months and above; not required for school entry.

For more information, visit the Kansas Immunization Program website at kdheks.gov/immunize.

The Kansas Legislature passed House Bill 2249 in 2013 requiring the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to perform a study that assesses the adequacy of solid waste reduction practices in Kansas and to report those findings  to the Legislature in January 2014.

In performing this study, KDHE has been directed to seek input from a variety of parties including any person or organization that generates solid waste and uses disposal and/or recycling services.

“Since everyone generates solid waste, we invite all Kansans to complete this survey to help us understand the opinions of our citizens regarding waste management in general, waste reduction services, and related state policies, ” requests Bill Bider, Director Bureau of Waste Management.

KDHE has for the past 20 years encouraged and assisted local governments and private businesses in the implementation and operation of waste reduction programs.  Significant progress has been made over this period to increase waste diversion from landfills and nearly one third of all municipal solid waste, or more than one million tons, was recycled or beneficially used in 2011.  These efforts conserve valuable natural resources and limited landfill space.

The results of the survey and the report prepared by KDHE will be made available on the KDHE Bureau of Waste Management webpage when available.

FROM THE NATURE CONSERVANCY OF KANSAS:

Over the past ten days the Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve has gone from bone dry to plumb full with nearly nine inches of rain.

We are always amazed at how dynamic Cheyenne Bottoms can be, going from a dry grassland environment to a wetland almost overnight.

Water birds that we haven’t seen for a very long time are now common.

Cheynne Bottoms, located in Barton County, is the largest interior marsh in the United States.  More than half of all shorebirds that migrate east of the Rockies pass through this 40,000-acre lowland.

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, (R)-Kansas, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, late last night was selected to serve on the conference committee tasked with ironing out the differences in the Senate and House passed Farm Bills.

“I look forward to representing the views of Kansas farmers and ranchers as we continue to work toward a farm bill,” Roberts said. “I want certainty for producers and will fight to protect crop insurance and programs critical to livestock producers who are still suffering due to drought.”

Senator Roberts voted against the Senate Farm Bill in committee and on the floor because it creates a new target price program, Adverse Market Payments, that sets certain commodity prices so high it will pay producers more than the cost of production.

Roberts said the bill looks in the rearview mirror for outdated policies that cause the farmer to plant for the government and not the market. The effect of this interference will be extended periods of depressed prices and excess supplies.

“I will work to preserve some of the provisions in the Senate bill including restored disaster aid to livestock producers, enhanced conservation programs, innovative approaches for agriculture research and improved crop insurance,” Roberts said.

The House passed Farm Bill does not contain language on nutrition programs.

“Obviously there is much work to be done on the nutrition title. I have called for more reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),” Roberts said. “We can restore integrity to the program and save the taxpayer more than the $4 billion included in the Senate bill.”

Senator Roberts introduced legislation, S. 458, The Improve Nutrition Program Integrity and Deficit Reduction Act to save the taxpayer $31 billion and restore integrity to SNAP.

Senator Roberts is a former Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Last year the full Senate passed a bipartisan Farm Bill introduced by then Ranking Member Roberts and Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) that eliminated target prices. He is the first member of Congress in history to serve as both Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and Ranking of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s (KDA) Agricultural Advocacy, Marketing and Outreach team (marketing program team) is seeking talented Kansans to serve on the program’s newly created advisory board.

Any interested Kansan who currently resides in the state is eligible to apply.

The mission of the KDA marketing program team is to serve all Kansans through innovative programming and deliver solutions designed to create an environment that facilitates growth and expansion in agriculture while increasing pride in and awareness of the state’s largest industry – agriculture.

Highlights of the program’s accomplishments include:

• Leading eighteen international trade missions (12 outbound and six inbound) in 2012;
• Developing a series of licensing guidelines to aid existing and prospective agribusinesses in navigating state regulatory requirements;
• Rebranding and launching the state’s agricultural and food trademark program, From the Land of Kansas; and
• Raising more than 75,000 meals for food insecure Kansans through the first-ever statewide food drive in celebration of Kansas Agriculture Day on March 19, 2013.

The marketing program team is seeking nine to 12 members for the advisory board with experience in at least one of the following sectors: livestock industry, commodity production, specialty crop production, local foods or farmers’ markets, restaurant and food service industry, value-added agriculture, agricultural education, rural economic development, food processing, finance and banking, agricultural cooperatives and marketing/economics.

Members will be appointed by Secretary Rodman to either a two-year of four-year term.

For more information about the marketing team, visit the KDA website.

Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman will take over as the chairman of the board of directors for the Kansas Bioscience Authority(KBA) after the group’s annual meeting Tuesday in Olathe.

The KBA  was established in 2004 by the state legislature to help grow the bioscience sector into a pillar of the Kansas economy.

The Kansas Bioscience Park is a 92-acre development in Manhattan, within the KC Animal Health Corridor which is home to one-third of total sales in the $19 billion global animal health market.

Helping families at the first sign of trouble and offering stability to children in State care are among the top priorities that have emerged from a recent national meeting on foster care.

Kansas leaders returned this week from Philadelphia, Pa., following the first meeting of the national Governor’s Association’s (NGA) Three Branch Institute on Child Social and Emotional Well-Being.

In May, Governor Brownback and Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Phyllis Gilmore announced the State of Kansas was selected to participate in the Institute.

Kansas was one of seven states chosen to focus on improving the social and emotional well-being of children in foster care through an integrated and comprehensive approach that aligns the work of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

The goal of the institute is to develop state-specific plans to promote and measure well-being among children and youth who receive child welfare services; consider evidence-based and research-informed strategies that will have a positive effect; and coordinate and enhance existing efforts through cross-system collaboration and by leveraging Medicaid and other federal and state dollars to fund innovative practices.

Preliminary state goals outline at the Institute:

• Help struggling families at the first sign of trouble, while children can safely be kept in the home, in an effort to reduce the number of children placed in out-of-home care
• Provide a more stable environment for children in out-of-home care, by avoiding multiple transfers of custody and school placement
• Provide permanence for children in a shorter time period, whether through reintegration back into their home or, if needed, adoption

Kansas is represented on the team by the following members:

• Kathy Armstrong, DCF Assistant Director for Legal Services
• Brian Dempsey, DCF Deputy Director, Prevention and Protection Services
• Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler, Emporia
• Mark Gleeson, Kansas Supreme Court Director of Trial Court Programs, Office of Judicial Administration
• Representative Jene Vickrey, Kansas House Majority Leader
• Senator Forrest Knox, Kansas Senate

Group members say the coordinated effort between the different branches of government will ensure good outcomes.   “This is the only practical way that I see to bring positive, significant, achievable change in foster care outcomes,” Senator Knox said.

The Institute is supported by NGA, National Conference of State Legislatures, Casey Family Programs, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and national Council of State Courts.

Other states selected for the team include Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Catalyst Artificial Lift LLC, a Gainesville, Texas-based manufacturer and wholesaler of oilfield reciprocating rod pumps, announced today the purchase of a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Iola.

The expansion of Catalyst’s Kansas operations will allow the company to grow from 22 existing positions in Allen County to 120 total employees during the next five years.

“Catalyst is very excited to move its manufacturing operations into a significantly larger space in Iola,” said Bruce Jendusa, Catalyst Artificial Lift president. “This will enable Catalyst to increase production of its existing downhole pump products and expand its downhole pump product offering.”

Allen County was designated as Rural Opportunity Zones county in 2013. Catalyst’s expansion project is the largest job announcement in the county since Russell Stover announced construction of a new plant in Iola in 1994.

“Our state and local partners have worked seamlessly to make this deal a reality,” said Allen County Commission chairman Dick Works. “The Kansas Department of Commerce, city of Iola and Iola Industries have all been excellent partners in this recruitment effort, and we are very proud to see this project come to our county.”

The Kansas Historical Society announced that Kansas has been awarded additional funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue its participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The Historical Society will digitize an additional 100,000 pages of Kansas newspapers, dating from 1854 – 1922.

Launched in 2005, NDNP is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to provide enhanced access to U.S. Newspapers.The Chronicling America website currently has over six million pages published between 1836 and 1922 from 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Kansas was brought into the program in 2009 and has since digitized over 200,000 pages from 45 titles published in every region of the state. The selected titles cover Kansas territory and the Civil War, cow towns, the Exoduster movement, temperance, and the Populist and Progressive eras. These titles can be found at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.

 To track the progress of the digitization of Kansas newspapers, visit kshs.org/16126.

2:40 p.m. update  Authorities say three children and an adult were injured after an SUV collided with a car and sent it through the front of a Kansas City day care.

The crash occurred Tuesday at the Christian Academy Child Care east of downtown around 1 p.m.

Kansas City police Capt. Tye Grant says a Range Rover rear-ended a Cadillac, sending the car into the center. About 40 children were inside.

Two children were trapped under the Cadillac. That car’s driver ran from the scene. Three children were taken to the hospital, as was the driver of the SUV. Grant said all children inside the center are accounted for.

The conditions of the injured weren’t released.

Children who weren’t injured were being kept at a nearby house, where tearful parents embraced their kids.

2 p.m. Children were injured this afternoon when at least one vehicle went into a day care center in Kansas City, Missouri, police said.

The crash happened at the Christian Academy Child Care, Kansas City police Sgt. Marisa Barnes said.

The number of the children injured and the severity of the injuries weren’t immediately known, Barnes said.

Police got the call about the crash at 12:56 p.m. (1:56 p.m. ET), she said.

The crash occurred after two cars collided near the day care just east of downtown Kansas City.