Old World bluestem is crowding out native grass specie

By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/2021-09-02/kansas-needs-to-hurry-to-stop-an-invasive-grass-from-changing-the-prairie-forever">Kansas News Service</a>

Keith Harmoney crouches down in a pale yellow field outside his 
office in Hays. He pushes back a cluster of tightly packed two-foot-tall grass, 
revealing the ground underneath.

In a typical native Kansas 
grassland, he’d expect to find roughly a dozen different plant species 
in the square foot of earth between his boots.

“Here, all we see — basically for 10, 11, 12 yards — is just one single species,” Harmoney said. “That's Old World bluestem.”

The
 invasive grass has turned this piece of northwest Kansas prairie into a
 monoculture, where a single species crowds out all the others until 
it’s the last one standing. 

And as it creeps its way across the Plains, Old World bluestem is taking over more and more fields like this one.

Harmoney, a range scientist at the Kansas State University 
Agricultural Research Center in Hays, is one of the people charged with 
finding ways to stop it. But he isn’t overly optimistic about his 
chances.

“It has the upper hand right now,” Harmoney said, “It kind of feels like the Old World bluestem is going to win.”

Decades ago, humans introduced Old World bluestem, or OWB, to this part of the Plains. But some of the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">characteristics</a>
 that made the plant an attractive import — its aggressive growth, 
prolific seed production and hardy tolerance to drought, fire and 
grazing — are the same ones that make it so difficult to rein in. Once 
it dominates a field, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate.

Now, 
Old World bluestem is transforming pastures and grasslands into 
biodiversity wastelands. Some researchers and landowners are rushing to 
sound the alarm in hopes of helping more people understand how Kansas 
can keep this invasive grass from overtaking the state — if it’s not 
already too late.

Both types of Old World bluestem growing 
in Kansas — yellow bluestem and Caucasian bluestem — are native to Asia 
and Europe. And like many invasive species, people brought them to the 
Great Plains on purpose.

The federal government planted OWB to <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">rehabilitate land</a> after the Dust Bowl. Highway departments have used it to control <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">roadside erosion</a>.

In
 the latter half of the 20th century, K-State’s research center planted 
the grass in Hays to study its potential for cattle grazing. The 
monoculture fields in the surrounding areas today stand as metastasized 
remnants of those studies.

Even the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program has <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">encouraged</a> landowners to plant it widely, particularly in Oklahoma and other parts of the southern Plains.

Those purposeful plantings allowed OWB to get a foothold. And the invasive grass took off from there.

“It's
 highly competitive,” Karen Hickman, director of Oklahoma State 
University’s environmental science program, said. “It can outcompete and
 outgrow — and inhibit the growth of — other native plants.”

One of the more sinister ways the plant does this is by chemically 
changing the soil to be less habitable for neighboring vegetation. 

The invasive grass releases substances, known as allelopathic chemicals, into the dirt that surrounds it. Hickman’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266555107_Experimental_evidence_that_invasive_grasses_use_allelopathic_biochemicals_as_a_potential_mechanism_for_invasion_chemical_warfare_in_nature" target="_blank">research</a>
 shows that this biochemical warfare significantly inhibits the future 
growth, reproduction and survival of nearby native grasses.

Once an Old World bluestem infestation takes root, its impact on the native ecosystem can be dramatic. 

Fewer native plants means <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">fewer insects</a>, especially bees and butterflies that rely on wildflowers. Fewer native plants and insects means <a href="https://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article39664398.html" target="_blank">fewer birds</a>, such as lesser prairie chickens and songbirds.

“Native
 prairie is important to our system...from carbon storage to erosion 
control to pollinators,” Hickman said. “When we start forgetting 
that...that gets to be a sad day.”

It’s not just about wildlife. Old World bluestem could also <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ks/newsroom/features/?cid=nrcseprd1336646" target="_blank">threaten ranchers' livelihoods</a> due to the extreme cost of managing it once it's established.

Even though it has long been planted for grazing, it’s not generally as <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">nutritious or appetizing</a>
 as traditional Great Plains prairie grasses. So in pastures that 
include both invasive and native plants, cattle will often avoid eating 
OWB and overgraze the others instead. That can damage native species and
 give the invader another leg up.

Climate change may also benefit 
Old World bluestem. One of the plant’s weaknesses is that it’s less cold
 tolerant than native grasses. But as temperatures warm, its range could
 inch farther north. It’s now found in some parts of <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">southern Nebraska</a>.

Yet, humans continue to give Old World bluestem a helping hand. 

Hickman
 said people commonly — and often unknowingly — spread its seeds along 
roadside ditches with mowers and across fields in the undercarriages of 
trucks and farm implements. The seeds can also travel from one property 
to another in <a href="https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/05/oldworldbluestem051816.html" target="_blank">contaminated hay</a> bales.

Kansans
 can help keep OWB in check by removing any small patches that sprout up
 on or around their property and cleaning the seeds off vehicles before 
they drive through.

“As with all invasive species,” she said, “prevention is key.”

If
 someone discovers widespread Old World bluestem on their land today, 
their options for eliminating it are limited. Hickman said the best 
results are likely to come from some combination of herbicide, burning, 
grazing and tilling to try to push the invasive grass into decline.

But
 all that could cost tens of thousands of dollars, and even if those 
efforts succeed, landowners would need to remain vigilant for the 
plant's return for years to come.

“It's going to require a 
long-term investment,” Hickman said, “and the fear I have is that no 
one's going to see the importance of that.”

That’s the dilemma facing western Kansas
 landowners like Randy Rodgers: If you find Old World bluestem, how much
 effort do you want to put into getting rid of it?

Rodgers 
finished his career as a state wildlife biologist in 2010 and planned to
 spend his retirement fulfilling his long-time dream of caring for his 
land — a mix of pasture, prairie and farmland in southwestern Rush 
County.

When he began buying the property over a decade ago, he 
wasn’t familiar with the invasive grass. But a few years in, he realized
 it already covered large sections of his fields.

“You're left 
with a choice: Do you kill the Old World bluestem off and give your 
remaining native grasses a chance to repopulate those spaces?” Rodgers 
said. “Or do you just give up and let the Old World bluestem take it?”

He decided to fight back, first with a backpack herbicide sprayer and then with his own two hands.

Over
 the past three years, he’s spent hundreds of hours pacing back and 
forth across his fields removing the remaining plants one at a time with
 a shovel and a bucket. He estimates he killed roughly one thousand Old 
World bluestems this way last year alone.

“I know it's crazy,” Rodgers said. “A rancher can't do that...they’re too busy, there’s no way.”

And
 even with all the time and effort he’s put into clearing the invasive 
grass from his property, Rodgers doesn’t expect to declare victory 
anytime soon.

“Did I get them all? No,” he said. “That's the thing...you have to keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back.”

That’s because if even a few plants remain, the species's aggressive 
growth capabilities could help it eventually take over again, if it’s 
left unchecked.

In Keith Harmoney’s research plots in Hays, Old 
World bluestems have grown at a rate of 15% compounded each year. And 
the plant is similar enough to native grasses that it largely avoids 
being singled out by herbicides, although a couple of the weed killers 
Harmoney studies <a href="https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/eu_article.throck?article_id=643" target="_blank">show promise</a>.

With the invasive grass already showing up in <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">just about every county</a> in the state, he said trying to slow down its spread may be the best case scenario for Kansas at this point.

“Exponential growth,” Harmoney said, “is probably what we're going to be seeing in the near future.”

The state has held at least one public hearing on potentially <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">quarantining</a>
 the plant. Harmoney said some Kansas counties have had discussions 
about designating it as a noxious weed, which would mean stricter 
regulations for limiting its spread, but none have taken action yet.

And
 as the Old World bluestem invasion continues, it endangers a lot of the
 natural features that make Kansas what it is. Tallgrass, mixed grass 
and short grass prairies — and the wildlife habitats that depend on them
 — will all be at risk.

“Long term, it has the potential to impact what we see,” he said, “and the beauty of (Kansas) as we know it.”

David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684835330.png" alt="Range scientist Keith Harmoney inspects a research plot that's being overtaken by Old World bluestem at the K-State agricultural center in Hays. David Condos / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Range scientist Keith Harmoney inspects a research plot that's being overtaken by Old World bluestem at the K-State agricultural center in Hays. David Condos / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Old World bluestem is crowding out native grass specie</h2>By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/2021-09-02/kansas-needs-to-hurry-to-stop-an-invasive-grass-from-changing-the-prairie-forever">Kansas News Service</a>Keith Harmoney crouches down in a pale yellow field outside his 
office in Hays. He pushes back a cluster of tightly packed two-foot-tall grass, 
revealing the ground underneath.In a typical native Kansas 
grassland, he’d expect to find roughly a dozen different plant species 
in the square foot of earth between his boots.“Here, all we see — basically for 10, 11, 12 yards — is just one single species,” Harmoney said. “That's Old World bluestem.”The
 invasive grass has turned this piece of northwest Kansas prairie into a
 monoculture, where a single species crowds out all the others until 
it’s the last one standing. And as it creeps its way across the Plains, Old World bluestem is taking over more and more fields like this one.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684961400.png" alt="Keith Harmoney holds up an Old World bluestem seed head in a field that the invasive grass has taken over. The K-State research center can be seen in the distance. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Keith Harmoney holds up an Old World bluestem seed head in a field that the invasive grass has taken over. The K-State research center can be seen in the distance. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>Harmoney, a range scientist at the Kansas State University 
Agricultural Research Center in Hays, is one of the people charged with 
finding ways to stop it. But he isn’t overly optimistic about his 
chances.“It has the upper hand right now,” Harmoney said, “It kind of feels like the Old World bluestem is going to win.”Decades ago, humans introduced Old World bluestem, or OWB, to this part of the Plains. But some of the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">characteristics</a>
 that made the plant an attractive import — its aggressive growth, 
prolific seed production and hardy tolerance to drought, fire and 
grazing — are the same ones that make it so difficult to rein in. Once 
it dominates a field, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate.Now, 
Old World bluestem is transforming pastures and grasslands into 
biodiversity wastelands. Some researchers and landowners are rushing to 
sound the alarm in hopes of helping more people understand how Kansas 
can keep this invasive grass from overtaking the state — if it’s not 
already too late.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684997395.png" alt="A lone sunflower plant survives at the edge of a field of Old World bluestem in Hays. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>A lone sunflower plant survives at the edge of a field of Old World bluestem in Hays. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Bluestem blues</h2>Both types of Old World bluestem growing 
in Kansas — yellow bluestem and Caucasian bluestem — are native to Asia 
and Europe. And like many invasive species, people brought them to the 
Great Plains on purpose.The federal government planted OWB to <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">rehabilitate land</a> after the Dust Bowl. Highway departments have used it to control <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">roadside erosion</a>.In
 the latter half of the 20th century, K-State’s research center planted 
the grass in Hays to study its potential for cattle grazing. The 
monoculture fields in the surrounding areas today stand as metastasized 
remnants of those studies.Even the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program has <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">encouraged</a> landowners to plant it widely, particularly in Oklahoma and other parts of the southern Plains.Those purposeful plantings allowed OWB to get a foothold. And the invasive grass took off from there.“It's
 highly competitive,” Karen Hickman, director of Oklahoma State 
University’s environmental science program, said. “It can outcompete and
 outgrow — and inhibit the growth of — other native plants.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685032231.png" alt="This field in Rush County illustrates how Old World bluestem takes over a pasture. In the foreground, mixed grass prairie is home to a variety of plants. In the distance, monochromatic patches of yellow bluestem block native grasses from growing. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>This field in Rush County illustrates how Old World bluestem takes over a pasture. In the foreground, mixed grass prairie is home to a variety of plants. In the distance, monochromatic patches of yellow bluestem block native grasses from growing. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>One of the more sinister ways the plant does this is by chemically 
changing the soil to be less habitable for neighboring vegetation. The invasive grass releases substances, known as allelopathic chemicals, into the dirt that surrounds it. Hickman’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266555107_Experimental_evidence_that_invasive_grasses_use_allelopathic_biochemicals_as_a_potential_mechanism_for_invasion_chemical_warfare_in_nature" target="_blank">research</a>
 shows that this biochemical warfare significantly inhibits the future 
growth, reproduction and survival of nearby native grasses.Once an Old World bluestem infestation takes root, its impact on the native ecosystem can be dramatic. Fewer native plants means <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">fewer insects</a>, especially bees and butterflies that rely on wildflowers. Fewer native plants and insects means <a href="https://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article39664398.html" target="_blank">fewer birds</a>, such as lesser prairie chickens and songbirds.“Native
 prairie is important to our system...from carbon storage to erosion 
control to pollinators,” Hickman said. “When we start forgetting 
that...that gets to be a sad day.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685064677.png" alt="Tightly bunched clumps of yellow bluestem crowd out other native plants in this Rush County pasture. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Tightly bunched clumps of yellow bluestem crowd out other native plants in this Rush County pasture. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>‘Prevention is key’</h2>It’s not just about wildlife. Old World bluestem could also <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ks/newsroom/features/?cid=nrcseprd1336646" target="_blank">threaten ranchers' livelihoods</a> due to the extreme cost of managing it once it's established.Even though it has long been planted for grazing, it’s not generally as <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">nutritious or appetizing</a>
 as traditional Great Plains prairie grasses. So in pastures that 
include both invasive and native plants, cattle will often avoid eating 
OWB and overgraze the others instead. That can damage native species and
 give the invader another leg up.Climate change may also benefit 
Old World bluestem. One of the plant’s weaknesses is that it’s less cold
 tolerant than native grasses. But as temperatures warm, its range could
 inch farther north. It’s now found in some parts of <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">southern Nebraska</a>.Yet, humans continue to give Old World bluestem a helping hand. Hickman
 said people commonly — and often unknowingly — spread its seeds along 
roadside ditches with mowers and across fields in the undercarriages of 
trucks and farm implements. The seeds can also travel from one property 
to another in <a href="https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/05/oldworldbluestem051816.html" target="_blank">contaminated hay</a> bales.Kansans
 can help keep OWB in check by removing any small patches that sprout up
 on or around their property and cleaning the seeds off vehicles before 
they drive through.“As with all invasive species,” she said, “prevention is key.”If
 someone discovers widespread Old World bluestem on their land today, 
their options for eliminating it are limited. Hickman said the best 
results are likely to come from some combination of herbicide, burning, 
grazing and tilling to try to push the invasive grass into decline.But
 all that could cost tens of thousands of dollars, and even if those 
efforts succeed, landowners would need to remain vigilant for the 
plant's return for years to come.“It's going to require a 
long-term investment,” Hickman said, “and the fear I have is that no 
one's going to see the importance of that.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685101895.png" alt="Randy Rodgers holds one of the hundreds of Old World bluestem plants he has removed from his land with a shovel and bucket. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Randy Rodgers holds one of the hundreds of Old World bluestem plants he has removed from his land with a shovel and bucket. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The fight ahead</h2>That’s the dilemma facing western Kansas
 landowners like Randy Rodgers: If you find Old World bluestem, how much
 effort do you want to put into getting rid of it?Rodgers 
finished his career as a state wildlife biologist in 2010 and planned to
 spend his retirement fulfilling his long-time dream of caring for his 
land — a mix of pasture, prairie and farmland in southwestern Rush 
County.When he began buying the property over a decade ago, he 
wasn’t familiar with the invasive grass. But a few years in, he realized
 it already covered large sections of his fields.“You're left 
with a choice: Do you kill the Old World bluestem off and give your 
remaining native grasses a chance to repopulate those spaces?” Rodgers 
said. “Or do you just give up and let the Old World bluestem take it?”He decided to fight back, first with a backpack herbicide sprayer and then with his own two hands.Over
 the past three years, he’s spent hundreds of hours pacing back and 
forth across his fields removing the remaining plants one at a time with
 a shovel and a bucket. He estimates he killed roughly one thousand Old 
World bluestems this way last year alone.“I know it's crazy,” Rodgers said. “A rancher can't do that...they’re too busy, there’s no way.”And
 even with all the time and effort he’s put into clearing the invasive 
grass from his property, Rodgers doesn’t expect to declare victory 
anytime soon.“Did I get them all? No,” he said. “That's the thing...you have to keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back.”That’s because if even a few plants remain, the species's aggressive 
growth capabilities could help it eventually take over again, if it’s 
left unchecked.In Keith Harmoney’s research plots in Hays, Old 
World bluestems have grown at a rate of 15% compounded each year. And 
the plant is similar enough to native grasses that it largely avoids 
being singled out by herbicides, although a couple of the weed killers 
Harmoney studies <a href="https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/eu_article.throck?article_id=643" target="_blank">show promise</a>.With the invasive grass already showing up in <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">just about every county</a> in the state, he said trying to slow down its spread may be the best case scenario for Kansas at this point.“Exponential growth,” Harmoney said, “is probably what we're going to be seeing in the near future.”The state has held at least one public hearing on potentially <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">quarantining</a>
 the plant. Harmoney said some Kansas counties have had discussions 
about designating it as a noxious weed, which would mean stricter 
regulations for limiting its spread, but none have taken action yet.And
 as the Old World bluestem invasion continues, it endangers a lot of the
 natural features that make Kansas what it is. Tallgrass, mixed grass 
and short grass prairies — and the wildlife habitats that depend on them
 — will all be at risk.“Long term, it has the potential to impact what we see,” he said, “and the beauty of (Kansas) as we know it.”David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

Kansas needs to hurry to stop invasive grass from changing prairie forever

LOGAN COUNTY—A child was injured in an accident just before 8:30p.m. Sunday in Logan County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chrysler Pacifica driven by Julian A. Hernandez, 38, North Platte, was northbound on U.S. 83 twenty six miles south of Oakley. The vehicle struck a deer that came out of the east ditch.&nbsp;

EMS transported a 4-year-old boy from North Platte to the Logan County Hospital.&nbsp;Hernandez and a second passenger were not injured. The boy was not properly restrained, according to the KHP.

LOGAN COUNTY—A child was injured in an accident just before 8:30p.m. Sunday in Logan County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chrysler Pacifica driven by Julian A. Hernandez, 38, North Platte, was northbound on U.S. 83 twenty six miles south of Oakley. The vehicle struck a deer that came out of the east ditch.&nbsp;EMS transported a 4-year-old boy from North Platte to the Logan County Hospital.&nbsp;Hernandez and a second passenger were not injured. The boy was not properly restrained, according to the KHP.

4-year-old injured after van strikes deer in NW Kan.

Agribusinesses, entrepreneurs, community supporters to be honored Sept. 22&nbsp;

MANHATTAN — Officials with Kansas State University’s Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development say that "making a difference" is a common theme of those to be honored as Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year for 2021.&nbsp;

“We are pleased to recognize these innovative Kansans who make a difference by supporting our communities and our rural economy,” said Gary Doane of Downs, chair of the Board of Directors of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development. “They are excellent examples of value-added agriculture, entrepreneurship and community service.”&nbsp;

The winners will be honored during a hybrid Zoom/in-person awards presentation on Wednesday, Sept. 22 in Manhattan.&nbsp;

This year’s award categories and winners include: &nbsp;

When the pandemic hit in 2020, community organizations in Beloit rallied to support local businesses.&nbsp;

Mitchell County community development director Heather Hartman joined Julia Rabe of the Beloit Area Chamber of Commerce and Colleen Eberle of the Solomon Valley Community Foundation in an initiative that became known as Mitchell County Strong.&nbsp;

The initiative included marketing gift certificates from local businesses, donating gift cards to needy families, creating a local disaster relief fund, offering free meals to locally nominated “hero” workers and more.&nbsp;

Mitchell County Strong was able to get more than $150,000 into the hands of local citizens and businesses. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mitchellcountystrong.com/">www.mitchellcountystrong.com</a>.&nbsp;

When Jennie Andersen showed her husband Scott a neat-looking candle she had seen online, he said: “I think I could make that.”&nbsp;

After a lot of research and experimenting, they were able to make soy-based candles which were so popular that the Andersens started their own business called Kansas Earth and Sky Candle Company in the historic Cyclone building on Main Street in Ellinwood.&nbsp;

The fragrances they use reflect rural Kansas themes with names such as Greener Pastures, Sweet Clover and Alfalfa, Fresh Baked, Dirt Therapy and more.&nbsp;

Their candles, soy wax melts, room spray and lip balm go to customers across North America and beyond. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kansasearthandskycandle.com/">www.kansasearthandskycandle.com</a>.&nbsp;

When daughters Tonya and Julie were kids, they would sell sweet corn from the Gaeddert family garden at the grandparents’ house in town.&nbsp;

Now married and with families of their own, Tonya Martisko and Julie Ball have taken the sweet corn business to a whole new level. They now operate 11 seasonal retail stands across central Kansas, plus selling at farmers’ markets.&nbsp;

In addition to operating a sunflower agritourism venue, they have donated more than 454,000 pounds of fresh produce to the Kansas Food Bank at the Cargill Cares complex in Wichita. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gaeddertfarms.com/">www.gaeddertfarms.com</a>.&nbsp;

Thaddeus Perry worked as a butcher and occasionally fried pork rinds in the backyard as a hobby.&nbsp;

When he and his wife Kelly decided to sell some of their pork rinds at a fair in Missouri, it went so well that this became a business. The business has expanded with help from K-State Research and Extension specialists, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program, and others.&nbsp;

Today, Perry’s Pork Rinds offers 13 flavors of pork rinds and has sent products to all 50 states and as far away as Saudi Arabia. The company was named the Kansas Department of Commerce Minority-Owned Business of the Year in sales and distribution. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.perrysporkrinds.com/">www.perrysporkrinds.com</a>.&nbsp;

In 2010, Melinda Williamson was working as a senior research specialist at Oklahoma State University when she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. She sought to improve her health through an improved diet of whole foods, including consuming a fermented drink called kombucha.&nbsp;

In 2015, she started brewing kombucha of her own, and it was so popular that she created her own business called Morning Light Kombucha. She has expanded her business with help from the Small Business Development Center, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program, and Kombucha Brewers International.&nbsp;

A descendant of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Melinda is now living back in Kansas.&nbsp;&nbsp;Her product is a trademarked American Indian Foods product through the Intertribal Agricultural Council.&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.morninglightkombucha.com/">www.morninglightkombucha.com</a>.&nbsp;

During the pandemic, Rick McNary was surprised to learn that the meat cases in local grocery stores were empty while he was enjoying beef from a local rancher. He thought a Facebook group might help connect consumers with local growers, so he created a site called Shop Kansas Farms.&nbsp;

The number of members grew quickly overnight, and in four weeks had more than 130,000 members. Interest is so great that a Shop Kansas Farms website is now being created. For more information, search on Facebook or see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shopkansasfarms.com/">www.shopkansasfarms.com</a>.&nbsp;

The Kansas PRIDE program celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in 2020. Kansas PRIDE is a partnership of K-State Research and Extension, the Kansas Department of Commerce, Kansas Masons, and Kansas PRIDE, Inc.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Through the program, local volunteers identify their community’s priorities and work with the resources of these partners to create their ideal community future. Through the years, Kansas PRIDE has served more than 400 Kansas communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kansasprideprogram.ksu.edu/">www.kansasprideprogram.ksu.edu</a>.&nbsp;

The 2021 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year winners were selected by entrepreneurship students in K-State’s College of Business and by agricultural communications students in K-State’s College of Agriculture. Each year the Huck Boyd Institute selects its leaders of the year from among those featured on its weekly Kansas Profile radio program and column during the previous year.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/4/1587396580203.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Agribusinesses, entrepreneurs, community supporters to be honored Sept. 22&nbsp;</h2>K-State Research &amp; ExtensionMANHATTAN — Officials with Kansas State University’s Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development say that "making a difference" is a common theme of those to be honored as Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year for 2021.&nbsp;“We are pleased to recognize these innovative Kansans who make a difference by supporting our communities and our rural economy,” said Gary Doane of Downs, chair of the Board of Directors of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development. “They are excellent examples of value-added agriculture, entrepreneurship and community service.”&nbsp;The winners will be honored during a hybrid Zoom/in-person awards presentation on Wednesday, Sept. 22 in Manhattan.&nbsp;This year’s award categories and winners include: &nbsp;<ul>
 <li>Community Service&nbsp;--&nbsp;Heather Hartman, Julia Rabe, and Colleen Eberle, Mitchell County Strong, Beloit. &nbsp;</li><li>Entrepreneurship&nbsp;-- Scott and Jennie Andersen, Kansas Earth and Sky Candles, Ellinwood. &nbsp;</li><li>Value-Added Crop Production&nbsp;-- Tonya Martisko and Julie Ball, Gaeddert Farms, Buhler. &nbsp;</li><li>Value-Added Snack Foods&nbsp;-- Kelly and Thaddeus Perry, Perry’s Pork Rinds, Bronson. &nbsp;</li><li>Value-Added Specialty Products&nbsp;-- Melinda Williamson, Morning Light Kombucha, Hoyt. &nbsp;</li><li>Value-Added Food Marketing&nbsp;-- Rick McNary, Shop Kansas Farms, Potwin. &nbsp;</li><li>Community Betterment&nbsp;-- Kansas PRIDE.&nbsp;</li>
 </ul><h2>Mitchell County Strong&nbsp;</h2>When the pandemic hit in 2020, community organizations in Beloit rallied to support local businesses.&nbsp;Mitchell County community development director Heather Hartman joined Julia Rabe of the Beloit Area Chamber of Commerce and Colleen Eberle of the Solomon Valley Community Foundation in an initiative that became known as Mitchell County Strong.&nbsp;The initiative included marketing gift certificates from local businesses, donating gift cards to needy families, creating a local disaster relief fund, offering free meals to locally nominated “hero” workers and more.&nbsp;Mitchell County Strong was able to get more than $150,000 into the hands of local citizens and businesses. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mitchellcountystrong.com/">www.mitchellcountystrong.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Kansas Earth and Sky Candles&nbsp;</h2>When Jennie Andersen showed her husband Scott a neat-looking candle she had seen online, he said: “I think I could make that.”&nbsp;After a lot of research and experimenting, they were able to make soy-based candles which were so popular that the Andersens started their own business called Kansas Earth and Sky Candle Company in the historic Cyclone building on Main Street in Ellinwood.&nbsp;The fragrances they use reflect rural Kansas themes with names such as Greener Pastures, Sweet Clover and Alfalfa, Fresh Baked, Dirt Therapy and more.&nbsp;Their candles, soy wax melts, room spray and lip balm go to customers across North America and beyond. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kansasearthandskycandle.com/">www.kansasearthandskycandle.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Gaeddert Farms, Buhler&nbsp;</h2>When daughters Tonya and Julie were kids, they would sell sweet corn from the Gaeddert family garden at the grandparents’ house in town.&nbsp;Now married and with families of their own, Tonya Martisko and Julie Ball have taken the sweet corn business to a whole new level. They now operate 11 seasonal retail stands across central Kansas, plus selling at farmers’ markets.&nbsp;In addition to operating a sunflower agritourism venue, they have donated more than 454,000 pounds of fresh produce to the Kansas Food Bank at the Cargill Cares complex in Wichita. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gaeddertfarms.com/">www.gaeddertfarms.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Perry’s Pork Rinds&nbsp;</h2>Thaddeus Perry worked as a butcher and occasionally fried pork rinds in the backyard as a hobby.&nbsp;When he and his wife Kelly decided to sell some of their pork rinds at a fair in Missouri, it went so well that this became a business. The business has expanded with help from K-State Research and Extension specialists, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program, and others.&nbsp;Today, Perry’s Pork Rinds offers 13 flavors of pork rinds and has sent products to all 50 states and as far away as Saudi Arabia. The company was named the Kansas Department of Commerce Minority-Owned Business of the Year in sales and distribution. For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.perrysporkrinds.com/">www.perrysporkrinds.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Morning Light Kombucha&nbsp;</h2>In 2010, Melinda Williamson was working as a senior research specialist at Oklahoma State University when she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. She sought to improve her health through an improved diet of whole foods, including consuming a fermented drink called kombucha.&nbsp;In 2015, she started brewing kombucha of her own, and it was so popular that she created her own business called Morning Light Kombucha. She has expanded her business with help from the Small Business Development Center, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program, and Kombucha Brewers International.&nbsp;A descendant of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Melinda is now living back in Kansas.&nbsp;&nbsp;Her product is a trademarked American Indian Foods product through the Intertribal Agricultural Council.&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.morninglightkombucha.com/">www.morninglightkombucha.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Shop Kansas Farms&nbsp;</h2>During the pandemic, Rick McNary was surprised to learn that the meat cases in local grocery stores were empty while he was enjoying beef from a local rancher. He thought a Facebook group might help connect consumers with local growers, so he created a site called Shop Kansas Farms.&nbsp;The number of members grew quickly overnight, and in four weeks had more than 130,000 members. Interest is so great that a Shop Kansas Farms website is now being created. For more information, search on Facebook or see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shopkansasfarms.com/">www.shopkansasfarms.com</a>.&nbsp;<h2>Kansas PRIDE&nbsp;</h2>The Kansas PRIDE program celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in 2020. Kansas PRIDE is a partnership of K-State Research and Extension, the Kansas Department of Commerce, Kansas Masons, and Kansas PRIDE, Inc.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through the program, local volunteers identify their community’s priorities and work with the resources of these partners to create their ideal community future. Through the years, Kansas PRIDE has served more than 400 Kansas communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kansasprideprogram.ksu.edu/">www.kansasprideprogram.ksu.edu</a>.&nbsp;The 2021 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year winners were selected by entrepreneurship students in K-State’s College of Business and by agricultural communications students in K-State’s College of Agriculture. Each year the Huck Boyd Institute selects its leaders of the year from among those featured on its weekly Kansas Profile radio program and column during the previous year.&nbsp;

Huck Boyd National Institute announces leaders of the year 

Three-day weather outlook

	Sitting down together at the family dinner table may seem hard to manage with the busy lives people lead these days. However, a family meal helps create an environment where parents and children can have a conversation.&nbsp; And that family interaction is an important factor to protect children from the dangers of smoking, drinking and drugs.

	The Hays office of the Cottonwood Extension District is teaming up with Papa Murphy’s and the Hays Kiwanis Club to offer a family pizza activity to encourage families to cook and eat together. Families with young children will have the opportunity to collect the ingredients for a pizza and return home to make a low-cost meal to bake and enjoy together.

	Family Pizza Night will be held on Monday, Sept. 20, from 4:15-6:15 pm at the Extension Office meeting room, 601 Main Street in Hays. Check-in will be at the front door on Main Street. The cost is $3 per pizza, with a limit of two pizzas per family. Quantities are limited, so registration is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register and pay at the Extension Office, 601 Main Street in Hays. If you have questions, please call 785-628-9430.&nbsp; This is an event for parents with their young children. Registration will be complete when the fee for the pizza is paid.

	Papa Murphy’s will donate pizza crusts for the make-and-take event and toppings are purchased by funding from the Hays Kiwanis Club and Cottonwood Extension District. We’ll also provide some fruit and veggies to balance your healthy family meal.

The goal of Family Pizza Make and Take Night is to create awareness that regular conversations between parents and children are an important prevention tool to help safeguard Kansas youth and that family meals are an important way to regularly engage in those conversations. &nbsp;

Parental influence is known to be one of the most crucial factors in determining the likelihood of substance abuse by teenagers. Research done by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. The statistics reveal that teens who almost always eat dinner with their families are 31 percent LESS likely than the average teenager to smoke, drink or use drugs, while teens who virtually never eat dinner with their families are 72 percent MORE likely than the average teenager to use illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

	Additionally, research shows that children who eat dinner often with their families are more likely to be emotionally content, do well in school, have positive peer relationships, have lower levels of stress and be bored less often. What amazing benefits from something as simple as a family meal!

Berny Unruh is the Family and Community Wellness Agent for the Cottonwood Extension District.&nbsp; She can be reached at 785-628-9430 or at <a href="mailto:bunruh@ksu.edu">bunruh@ksu.edu</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/4/1588274071306.jpeg" alt="Berny Unruh is Family and Community Wellness agent for the Cottonwood Extension District." />
 <figcaption>Berny Unruh is Family and Community Wellness agent for the Cottonwood Extension District.</figcaption>
 </figure>	Sitting down together at the family dinner table may seem hard to manage with the busy lives people lead these days. However, a family meal helps create an environment where parents and children can have a conversation.&nbsp; And that family interaction is an important factor to protect children from the dangers of smoking, drinking and drugs.	The Hays office of the Cottonwood Extension District is teaming up with Papa Murphy’s and the Hays Kiwanis Club to offer a family pizza activity to encourage families to cook and eat together. Families with young children will have the opportunity to collect the ingredients for a pizza and return home to make a low-cost meal to bake and enjoy together.	Family Pizza Night will be held on Monday, Sept. 20, from 4:15-6:15 pm at the Extension Office meeting room, 601 Main Street in Hays. Check-in will be at the front door on Main Street. The cost is $3 per pizza, with a limit of two pizzas per family. Quantities are limited, so registration is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register and pay at the Extension Office, 601 Main Street in Hays. If you have questions, please call 785-628-9430.&nbsp; This is an event for parents with their young children. Registration will be complete when the fee for the pizza is paid.	Papa Murphy’s will donate pizza crusts for the make-and-take event and toppings are purchased by funding from the Hays Kiwanis Club and Cottonwood Extension District. We’ll also provide some fruit and veggies to balance your healthy family meal.	 The goal of Family Pizza Make and Take Night is to create awareness that regular conversations between parents and children are an important prevention tool to help safeguard Kansas youth and that family meals are an important way to regularly engage in those conversations. &nbsp;		Parental influence is known to be one of the most crucial factors in determining the likelihood of substance abuse by teenagers. Research done by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. The statistics reveal that teens who almost always eat dinner with their families are 31 percent LESS likely than the average teenager to smoke, drink or use drugs, while teens who virtually never eat dinner with their families are 72 percent MORE likely than the average teenager to use illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.	Additionally, research shows that children who eat dinner often with their families are more likely to be emotionally content, do well in school, have positive peer relationships, have lower levels of stress and be bored less often. What amazing benefits from something as simple as a family meal!	Berny Unruh is the Family and Community Wellness Agent for the Cottonwood Extension District.&nbsp; She can be reached at 785-628-9430 or at <a href="mailto:bunruh@ksu.edu">bunruh@ksu.edu</a>

UNRUH: Make-and-take a pizza for family meal together

By MAX MCCOY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/05/who-got-rich-from-februarys-cold-wave-we-may-never-know/">Courtesy Kansas Reflector</a>

When the historic cold came stealing around Valentine’s Day, there 
were two things I knew for certain. The first was that the kitchen pipes
 in our 120-year-old house in central Emporia were likely to freeze. The
 second was that consumers would be footing the bill for the most 
predictable economic disaster ever.

It was the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weather.gov/top/February2021ColdSnap">longest cold streak</a>
 in the state’s history, with temperatures never climbing above 15 
degrees Fahrenheit at Topeka, according to the National Weather Service.
 The low temperature was -21, on Feb. 16.

The cold wave placed <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/16/regional-power-shortages-record-chill-force-more-blackouts-in-kansas/">an unbearable strain on utilities</a>
 across the central United States, freezing pipelines and sending 
natural gas prices into the stratosphere. In Kansas, utilities scrambled
 to meet demand, the governor urged homeowners to turn down their 
thermostats, and <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/23/rolling-blackouts-in-kansas-helped-regional-power-grid-avoid-cascading-failures/">rolling blackouts were adopted to keep the state from going dark</a>.
 With coal piles and machinery literally frozen, electric utilities 
turned to natural gas to generate power, increasing the demand.

But the real problem wasn’t the historic cold. After all, cold is to 
be expected in winter, and it doesn’t take Jim Cantore to figure out 
that once in a while the cold is going to break records. No, the problem
 was the lack of economic circuit breakers that would prevent the 
ruinous wholesale energy rate hikes we saw in February.

The price tag that consumers will pay for those seven days of power is <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/08/15/as-economic-impact-of-winter-storm-nears-1b-some-large-kansas-customers-want-to-investigate/">$1 billion</a>.

It is among the greatest short-term wealth transfers in state 
history. To put that in perspective, for a Kansan making the minimum 
wage, that amounts to more than 66,000 years of 40-hour work weeks, with
 no vacations.

It is also an outrageous example of the socialization of risk and the privatization of profit.

State regulators have so far rebuffed efforts by consumer groups to 
compel utilities such as Kansas Gas Service to reveal the identities of 
their wholesale suppliers. Despite promises from officials to launch 
investigations to get to the bottom of the rate hikes, we may never know
 who made bank on our misery.

“This is the most economically impactful event in our state in my 
lifetime, and I’m 70,” attorney and consumer advocate Jim Zakoura told 
me. “The system is clearly broken.”

In filings before the Kansas Corporation Commission — the state 
agency responsible for regulating utility rates — Zakoura asked to 
subpoena a national gas price index, S&amp;P Global Gas Platts Daily, 
for evidence of market manipulation. The index set the market price of 
natural gas from Feb. 13 to 16 on just seven trades, he said. Zakoura 
also sought to compel Kansas Gas Service to reveal the names of its 
high-charging suppliers.

KGS has submitted a rate plan seeking $451 million, to be paid over a
 period of five to 10 years, to cover the cost of natural gas in 
February. That amount represents about $60 million in carrying costs, 
including interest on securities. Evergy, the largest electric utility 
in Kansas, has filed to recover $152 million. Taking into account the 
utility rate proposals, costs to municipalities that supply residential 
and industrial power, and cooperatives across the state, Zakoura 
estimates the total cost of the February storm to be $1 billion.

It may take the KCC up to a year to determine a rate plan, Zakoura 
said. If granted as proposed, residential customers could see their 
utility bills increase $5 to $12 a month.

Recently, KCC staff recommended against Zakoura’s motions to make KGS
 identify its suppliers and to subpoena Platts Gas Daily. Zakoura said 
he was disappointed because instead of the KCC’s promised robust 
investigation into possible price gouging, it signals an inquiry limited
 to helping utilities recoup actual costs.

No reasonable person, he said, could look at natural gas prices in 
February and conclude there wasn’t some type of price fixing, 
manipulation, or disaster profiteering at work. He also contends that 
rates are subject to the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, which limits 
price hikes during disasters to no more than 25%. The act went into 
effect Feb. 14, when Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of emergency.

“Natural gas suppliers have largely taken the position the act does 
not apply to them,” Zakoura said. “We are having to litigate the 
application of this anti-profiteering law in every case, most 
prominently in the city of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/03/04/mulberry-files-lawsuit-accusing-bp-energy-of-price-gouging-during-extreme-cold/">Mulberry, Kansas, versus BP Energy</a>.”

Mulberry, a town of about 500 in southeast Kansas, saw its wholesale 
rates skyrocket during the cold wave. Many other Kansas towns also 
provide natural gas to their residents, businesses and institutions, and
 were hit with financially devastating increases in February.

Zakoura praised Kelly’s response, saying things would have been much 
worse if she hadn’t asked Kansans to lower their thermostats. He also 
said he did not want his remarks to be taken as critical of the KCC, 
which was operating under tightly prescribed guidelines.

Zakoura said there are about 50 natural gas suppliers in the state, 
but only about half of those were in a position to effectively deliver 
gas during the storm. While utility rates are regulated by the state, 
and the cost of pipeline transportation is also set by the government, 
the price of natural gas is not.

“The cost of natural gas itself, the commodity, is unregulated,” KGS 
spokeswoman Dawn Tripp said in an email. “(Meaning) that the price paid 
for natural gas is dictated exclusively by market forces of supply and 
demand.”

Because supplies are purchased in an unregulated and competitive 
market, Tripp said, the utility purchases natural gas through sealed 
bids.

“Because of this competitive bid process,” she said, “Kansas Gas 
Service considers the contracts and invoicing surround the winning bids 
to be confidential.”

So, if the utility has its way, consumers will never know who 
pocketed most of $1 billion from what appears to be a clear case of 
price gouging during an emergency. If this kind of 255% price hike had 
occurred during any other emergency — the price of bread during the 
Greensburg tornado, for example — you can bet that criminal charges 
would have been filed damned quick against the offenders.

But in this case, the very system seems to be made to protect those 
who would exploit a disaster for maximum profit. When it’s 21 below 
zero, natural gas becomes even more important than food, because you’ll 
freeze to death quicker than you’ll starve. And yet, Americans are at 
the mercy of an unregulated market for an essential commodity.

I remember watching the mercury drop during that week in February, 
all the while feeling guilty because I feared lowering the thermostat in
 our old house would result in thousands of dollars of burst pipes and 
several days without water. It was also near the depth of the pandemic 
winter, pre-vaccination, and I imagined the risk of having a stranger, a
 plumber, in our home. If the pipes burst, and anybody was going to fix 
them, I was the one who would be crawling under the house with a 
toolbox. Fortunately, the pipes endured.

I remember the relief I felt when temperatures warmed. By the 
afternoon of Feb. 23, according to the National Weather Service, it was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weather.gov/top/February2021ColdSnap">71 degrees</a>. That’s a difference of 92 degrees in just a week. That’s global warming for you.

It’s easy to forget just how close the state came to catastrophe that
 Valentine’s Day week. So much has happened in six months. It also might
 be tempting to dismiss another $20 or so in our monthly utility bills, 
and feel some relief that the masters of the universe didn’t make us 
immediately shell out a couple of thousand bucks.

If we don’t impose some regulation on the commodity prices of natural
 gas, we’ll be in the fix again, and it won’t take a historic cold wave 
to put us there. We are in danger of showing utilities and the suppliers
 that we will put up with any kind of outrageous price gouging as long 
as the pain is spread out over years. We consumers are at a serious 
disadvantage because we’re dealing with monopolies buying a commodity in
 an unregulated market, with suppliers claiming the Kansas Consumer 
Protection Act doesn’t apply to them.

It won’t take too many billion-dollar sprees to bankrupt us all.

Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. A native Kansan, he started his career at the Pittsburg Morning Sun and was soon writing for national magazines. His investigative stories on unsolved murders, serial killers and hate groups earned him first-place awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and other organizations. McCoy has also written more than twenty books, the most recent of which is "Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River," named a Kansas Notable Book by the state library. "Elevations" also won the National Outdoor Book Award, in the history/biography category. Max teaches journalism at Emporia State University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630866602884.jpeg" alt="Max McCoy" />
 <figcaption>Max McCoy</figcaption>
 </figure>By MAX MCCOY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/05/who-got-rich-from-februarys-cold-wave-we-may-never-know/">Courtesy Kansas Reflector</a>When the historic cold came stealing around Valentine’s Day, there 
were two things I knew for certain. The first was that the kitchen pipes
 in our 120-year-old house in central Emporia were likely to freeze. The
 second was that consumers would be footing the bill for the most 
predictable economic disaster ever.It was the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weather.gov/top/February2021ColdSnap">longest cold streak</a>
 in the state’s history, with temperatures never climbing above 15 
degrees Fahrenheit at Topeka, according to the National Weather Service.
 The low temperature was -21, on Feb. 16.The cold wave placed <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/16/regional-power-shortages-record-chill-force-more-blackouts-in-kansas/">an unbearable strain on utilities</a>
 across the central United States, freezing pipelines and sending 
natural gas prices into the stratosphere. In Kansas, utilities scrambled
 to meet demand, the governor urged homeowners to turn down their 
thermostats, and <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/23/rolling-blackouts-in-kansas-helped-regional-power-grid-avoid-cascading-failures/">rolling blackouts were adopted to keep the state from going dark</a>.
 With coal piles and machinery literally frozen, electric utilities 
turned to natural gas to generate power, increasing the demand.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575913663048.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>But the real problem wasn’t the historic cold. After all, cold is to 
be expected in winter, and it doesn’t take Jim Cantore to figure out 
that once in a while the cold is going to break records. No, the problem
 was the lack of economic circuit breakers that would prevent the 
ruinous wholesale energy rate hikes we saw in February.The price tag that consumers will pay for those seven days of power is <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/08/15/as-economic-impact-of-winter-storm-nears-1b-some-large-kansas-customers-want-to-investigate/">$1 billion</a>.It is among the greatest short-term wealth transfers in state 
history. To put that in perspective, for a Kansan making the minimum 
wage, that amounts to more than 66,000 years of 40-hour work weeks, with
 no vacations.It is also an outrageous example of the socialization of risk and the privatization of profit.State regulators have so far rebuffed efforts by consumer groups to 
compel utilities such as Kansas Gas Service to reveal the identities of 
their wholesale suppliers. Despite promises from officials to launch 
investigations to get to the bottom of the rate hikes, we may never know
 who made bank on our misery.“This is the most economically impactful event in our state in my 
lifetime, and I’m 70,” attorney and consumer advocate Jim Zakoura told 
me. “The system is clearly broken.”In filings before the Kansas Corporation Commission — the state 
agency responsible for regulating utility rates — Zakoura asked to 
subpoena a national gas price index, S&amp;P Global Gas Platts Daily, 
for evidence of market manipulation. The index set the market price of 
natural gas from Feb. 13 to 16 on just seven trades, he said. Zakoura 
also sought to compel Kansas Gas Service to reveal the names of its 
high-charging suppliers.KGS has submitted a rate plan seeking $451 million, to be paid over a
 period of five to 10 years, to cover the cost of natural gas in 
February. That amount represents about $60 million in carrying costs, 
including interest on securities. Evergy, the largest electric utility 
in Kansas, has filed to recover $152 million. Taking into account the 
utility rate proposals, costs to municipalities that supply residential 
and industrial power, and cooperatives across the state, Zakoura 
estimates the total cost of the February storm to be $1 billion.It may take the KCC up to a year to determine a rate plan, Zakoura 
said. If granted as proposed, residential customers could see their 
utility bills increase $5 to $12 a month.Recently, KCC staff recommended against Zakoura’s motions to make KGS
 identify its suppliers and to subpoena Platts Gas Daily. Zakoura said 
he was disappointed because instead of the KCC’s promised robust 
investigation into possible price gouging, it signals an inquiry limited
 to helping utilities recoup actual costs.No reasonable person, he said, could look at natural gas prices in 
February and conclude there wasn’t some type of price fixing, 
manipulation, or disaster profiteering at work. He also contends that 
rates are subject to the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, which limits 
price hikes during disasters to no more than 25%. The act went into 
effect Feb. 14, when Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of emergency.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630866501800.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>“Natural gas suppliers have largely taken the position the act does 
not apply to them,” Zakoura said. “We are having to litigate the 
application of this anti-profiteering law in every case, most 
prominently in the city of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/03/04/mulberry-files-lawsuit-accusing-bp-energy-of-price-gouging-during-extreme-cold/">Mulberry, Kansas, versus BP Energy</a>.”Mulberry, a town of about 500 in southeast Kansas, saw its wholesale 
rates skyrocket during the cold wave. Many other Kansas towns also 
provide natural gas to their residents, businesses and institutions, and
 were hit with financially devastating increases in February.Zakoura praised Kelly’s response, saying things would have been much 
worse if she hadn’t asked Kansans to lower their thermostats. He also 
said he did not want his remarks to be taken as critical of the KCC, 
which was operating under tightly prescribed guidelines.Zakoura said there are about 50 natural gas suppliers in the state, 
but only about half of those were in a position to effectively deliver 
gas during the storm. While utility rates are regulated by the state, 
and the cost of pipeline transportation is also set by the government, 
the price of natural gas is not.“The cost of natural gas itself, the commodity, is unregulated,” KGS 
spokeswoman Dawn Tripp said in an email. “(Meaning) that the price paid 
for natural gas is dictated exclusively by market forces of supply and 
demand.”Because supplies are purchased in an unregulated and competitive 
market, Tripp said, the utility purchases natural gas through sealed 
bids.“Because of this competitive bid process,” she said, “Kansas Gas 
Service considers the contracts and invoicing surround the winning bids 
to be confidential.”So, if the utility has its way, consumers will never know who 
pocketed most of $1 billion from what appears to be a clear case of 
price gouging during an emergency. If this kind of 255% price hike had 
occurred during any other emergency — the price of bread during the 
Greensburg tornado, for example — you can bet that criminal charges 
would have been filed damned quick against the offenders.But in this case, the very system seems to be made to protect those 
who would exploit a disaster for maximum profit. When it’s 21 below 
zero, natural gas becomes even more important than food, because you’ll 
freeze to death quicker than you’ll starve. And yet, Americans are at 
the mercy of an unregulated market for an essential commodity.I remember watching the mercury drop during that week in February, 
all the while feeling guilty because I feared lowering the thermostat in
 our old house would result in thousands of dollars of burst pipes and 
several days without water. It was also near the depth of the pandemic 
winter, pre-vaccination, and I imagined the risk of having a stranger, a
 plumber, in our home. If the pipes burst, and anybody was going to fix 
them, I was the one who would be crawling under the house with a 
toolbox. Fortunately, the pipes endured.I remember the relief I felt when temperatures warmed. By the 
afternoon of Feb. 23, according to the National Weather Service, it was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weather.gov/top/February2021ColdSnap">71 degrees</a>. That’s a difference of 92 degrees in just a week. That’s global warming for you.It’s easy to forget just how close the state came to catastrophe that
 Valentine’s Day week. So much has happened in six months. It also might
 be tempting to dismiss another $20 or so in our monthly utility bills, 
and feel some relief that the masters of the universe didn’t make us 
immediately shell out a couple of thousand bucks.But here’s the thing.If we don’t impose some regulation on the commodity prices of natural
 gas, we’ll be in the fix again, and it won’t take a historic cold wave 
to put us there. We are in danger of showing utilities and the suppliers
 that we will put up with any kind of outrageous price gouging as long 
as the pain is spread out over years. We consumers are at a serious 
disadvantage because we’re dealing with monopolies buying a commodity in
 an unregulated market, with suppliers claiming the Kansas Consumer 
Protection Act doesn’t apply to them.It won’t take too many billion-dollar sprees to bankrupt us all.Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. A native Kansan, he started his career at the Pittsburg Morning Sun and was soon writing for national magazines. His investigative stories on unsolved murders, serial killers and hate groups earned him first-place awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and other organizations. McCoy has also written more than twenty books, the most recent of which is "Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River," named a Kansas Notable Book by the state library. "Elevations" also won the National Outdoor Book Award, in the history/biography category. Max teaches journalism at Emporia State University.

OPINION: Who got rich from February’s cold wave? We may never know

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/chromaquilting">Chroma Quilting</a> in Hays is seeking to finish a project that will help keep veterans warm.

<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/5e2763747d7daa72b30eb6c4">In January 2020, Amanda&nbsp;Legleiter, owner of Chroma Quilting in Hays, took on a project to provide 75 quilts and bedding sets for a new housing project for homeless veterans and their families in Wichita.</a>

However, the pandemic hit. Passageways' Homefront Veteran Neighborhood was supposed to be completed by the end of 2020. The pandemic derailed both the housing project and&nbsp;Legleiter's quilt project.

Legleiter is resurrecting the quilt and bedding project with a goal of delivering 75 quilts and bedding sets to Passageways by Veterans Day on Nov. 11.&nbsp;

"When you think about a house and all the things in needs in it — silverware, plates, furniture, towels — I thought this would be something that we could help with to help that project move along," she said.

<a href="https://passagewaysltd.org/">Passageways</a>, a Wichita-based nonprofit, assists both veterans and active-duty military and their families. The program has a clearinghouse at Town West Mall in Wichita, which provides necessities, including bedding for those they serve.

Jennifer Garrison, Passageways co-founder, said although the pandemic has temporarily halted the Neighborhood project, the program is raising funds to purchase a seven-bedroom home that has been used by Starkey, a nonprofit that serves intellectually and developmentally disabled adults.

This seven-bedroom house will serve female veterans. There is no other housing project in Kansas that serves female veterans, Garrison said.

Not only is housing an issue for female vets, but the suicide rate among female veterans is four times higher than for male veterans, she said.

Passageways has already raised $50,000 toward the $175,000 needed for the purchase of the home.

Garrison said the quilts that were started for the Hometown project could be used for veterans in the new housing project or by other veterans and service personnel the program serves who need a "hand up." Passageways assists a couple of hundred veterans per year through its programs.

Garrison said last week the program provided beds and bedding to a service family who had seven children.

Legleiter has been involved in the American Legion for years in honor of her grandfather who served in the Army during World War II. She was an American Legion Rider for a time and wanted to become involved again in a service project for veterans.

Legleighter has quilts in various states of completion from quilts that were shipped to her fully finished to quilt blocks and tops that need to be completed.

Legleighter reached out to friends on several quilting Facebook groups so she has received donations not only from local quilters but from donors from across the country.

Legleighter is seeking monetary donations to help pay for supplies to finish the quilts, as well as donations of bedding sets, mattress pads and pillows. Donors can also donate Hobby Lobby gift cards or Walmart gift cards that could be used to purchase quit backing, bedding sets and pillows.

Legleighter is hoping to have all donations by Nov. 5.

The quilt project is also looking for volunteers to help finish the quilts. The project is needing quilt tops and help finishing quilts that are already started.&nbsp;Legleighter said she could use assistance from long-arm quilters to finish the quilting and binding.

Chroma Quilting has set work dates between for 1 and 4 p.m. on Sept. 19, Oct. 3 and 17, and Nov. 7. at the quilt shop, 126 Ninth St., Hays.

Donations of physical items can be shipped to Chroma Quilting, 126 Ninth, Hays, KS 67601. Monetary donations can be mailed to Chroma Quilting, P.O. Box 1012, Hays, KS 67601.

• Four queen quilt tops 90 x 96 • Seven twin quilt tops 54 x 90 • 10 packaged queen sheet sets • 21 queen-sized waterproof mattress pads • 28 twin-sized waterproof mattress pads • 67 pillows or Walmart gift cards • Backing fabric for quilts or Hobby Lobby gift cards • Volunteers to do sewing, binding, and long-arm quilting • Monetary donations

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630612036781.jpeg" alt="Chroma Quilting owner&nbsp;Amanda&nbsp;Legleiter with a quilt that was donated for the 75 Beds project.&nbsp;Legleiter is seeking monetary donations and volunteers to complete the project. All of the quilts will go to veterans, active service personnel or their families." />
 <figcaption>Chroma Quilting owner&nbsp;Amanda&nbsp;Legleiter with a quilt that was donated for the 75 Beds project.&nbsp;Legleiter is seeking monetary donations and volunteers to complete the project. All of the quilts will go to veterans, active service personnel or their families.</figcaption>
 </figure>By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post<a href="https://www.facebook.com/chromaquilting">Chroma Quilting</a> in Hays is seeking to finish a project that will help keep veterans warm.<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/5e2763747d7daa72b30eb6c4">In January 2020, Amanda&nbsp;Legleiter, owner of Chroma Quilting in Hays, took on a project to provide 75 quilts and bedding sets for a new housing project for homeless veterans and their families in Wichita.</a>However, the pandemic hit. Passageways' Homefront Veteran Neighborhood was supposed to be completed by the end of 2020. The pandemic derailed both the housing project and&nbsp;Legleiter's quilt project.Legleiter is resurrecting the quilt and bedding project with a goal of delivering 75 quilts and bedding sets to Passageways by Veterans Day on Nov. 11.&nbsp;"When you think about a house and all the things in needs in it — silverware, plates, furniture, towels — I thought this would be something that we could help with to help that project move along," she said.<h2>Kansas nonprofit helps veterans</h2><a href="https://passagewaysltd.org/">Passageways</a>, a Wichita-based nonprofit, assists both veterans and active-duty military and their families. The program has a clearinghouse at Town West Mall in Wichita, which provides necessities, including bedding for those they serve.Jennifer Garrison, Passageways co-founder, said although the pandemic has temporarily halted the Neighborhood project, the program is raising funds to purchase a seven-bedroom home that has been used by Starkey, a nonprofit that serves intellectually and developmentally disabled adults.This seven-bedroom house will serve female veterans. There is no other housing project in Kansas that serves female veterans, Garrison said.Not only is housing an issue for female vets, but the suicide rate among female veterans is four times higher than for male veterans, she said.Passageways has already raised $50,000 toward the $175,000 needed for the purchase of the home.Garrison said the quilts that were started for the Hometown project could be used for veterans in the new housing project or by other veterans and service personnel the program serves who need a "hand up." Passageways assists a couple of hundred veterans per year through its programs.Garrison said last week the program provided beds and bedding to a service family who had seven children.<h2>Bedding for veterans</h2>Legleiter has been involved in the American Legion for years in honor of her grandfather who served in the Army during World War II. She was an American Legion Rider for a time and wanted to become involved again in a service project for veterans.Legleighter has quilts in various states of completion from quilts that were shipped to her fully finished to quilt blocks and tops that need to be completed.Legleighter reached out to friends on several quilting Facebook groups so she has received donations not only from local quilters but from donors from across the country.<h2>Volunteers and donations needed</h2>Legleighter is seeking monetary donations to help pay for supplies to finish the quilts, as well as donations of bedding sets, mattress pads and pillows. Donors can also donate Hobby Lobby gift cards or Walmart gift cards that could be used to purchase quit backing, bedding sets and pillows.Legleighter is hoping to have all donations by Nov. 5.The quilt project is also looking for volunteers to help finish the quilts. The project is needing quilt tops and help finishing quilts that are already started.&nbsp;Legleighter said she could use assistance from long-arm quilters to finish the quilting and binding.Chroma Quilting has set work dates between for 1 and 4 p.m. on Sept. 19, Oct. 3 and 17, and Nov. 7. at the quilt shop, 126 Ninth St., Hays.Donations of physical items can be shipped to Chroma Quilting, 126 Ninth, Hays, KS 67601. Monetary donations can be mailed to Chroma Quilting, P.O. Box 1012, Hays, KS 67601.<h2>Items that are needed</h2>• Four queen quilt tops 90 x 96 • Seven twin quilt tops 54 x 90 • 10 packaged queen sheet sets • 21 queen-sized waterproof mattress pads • 28 twin-sized waterproof mattress pads • 67 pillows or Walmart gift cards • Backing fabric for quilts or Hobby Lobby gift cards • Volunteers to do sewing, binding, and long-arm quilting • Monetary donations

Hays quilt shop to finish veterans quilt project, seeking donors, volunteers

Once again, hundreds of Ellis County residents came out to greet the Union Pacific Steam engine 4014, known as the Big Boy, in Ellis County Friday.

Crowds visited the heritage train through the afternoon and evening as the train stopped for the night in Hays during the last leg of a tour of the U.S.

After a delayed start on Saturday in Hays, the train would again stop in Ellis to another large crowd, near the Railroad Museum as residents also enjoyed coffee, donuts, hot dogs, and the train museum, with rides on their mini replica of a 1950's GM Aerotrain.

After stopping in Sharon Springs for the evening, the Big Boy is set to leave Kansas Sunday, then wrapping up the tour through Colorado, ultimately stopping in Cheyenne, Wyo. on Sept. 7.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630716751440.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure>Once again, hundreds of Ellis County residents came out to greet the Union Pacific Steam engine 4014, known as the Big Boy, in Ellis County Friday.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630778232769.jpeg" alt="Photo by James Bell" />
 <figcaption>Photo by James Bell</figcaption>
 </figure>Crowds visited the heritage train through the afternoon and evening as the train stopped for the night in Hays during the last leg of a tour of the U.S.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630703449966.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure>After a delayed start on Saturday in Hays, the train would again stop in Ellis to another large crowd, near the Railroad Museum as residents also enjoyed coffee, donuts, hot dogs, and the train museum, with rides on their mini replica of a 1950's GM Aerotrain.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630778255606.jpeg" alt="Photo by James Bell" />
 <figcaption>Photo by James Bell</figcaption>
 </figure>After stopping in Sharon Springs for the evening, the Big Boy is set to leave Kansas Sunday, then wrapping up the tour through Colorado, ultimately stopping in Cheyenne, Wyo. on Sept. 7.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630717694214.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630717729783.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630778190281.jpeg" alt="Photo by James Bell" />
 <figcaption>Photo by James Bell</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630702768753.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630778243848.jpeg" alt="Photo by James Bell" />
 <figcaption>Photo by James Bell</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630702944299.jpeg" alt="Photo by Cristina Janney" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Cristina Janney</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630778268422.jpeg" alt="Photo by James Bell" />
 <figcaption>Photo by James Bell</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630703402978.jpeg" alt="Hays mayor Sandy Jacobs speaks with Ed Dickens, Union Pacific manager of heritage equipment. Photo by Cristina Janney." />
 <figcaption>Hays mayor Sandy Jacobs speaks with Ed Dickens, Union Pacific manager of heritage equipment. Photo by Cristina Janney.</figcaption>
 </figure>

📷 Return visit of UP 4014 Big Boy delights Ellis Co. residents 

<a href="https://www.firstcallelliscounty.com/">First Call for Help</a> of Hays received a $10,000 donation from the Union Pacific Foundation on Friday.

Union Pacific officials were on hand for the arrival of the Big Boy steam locomotive into Hays Friday.

Linda Mills, executive director of First Call for Help, said the funds will be used toward general operating purposes.

The nonprofit provides rent and utility assistance, food, diapers, Meals on Wheels and housing for Ellis County residents facing homelessness through its new <a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/f4275259-f0d0-4be5-a159-5b7f0dd64e43">First Step Housing Project</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630701029381.jpeg" alt="Union Pacific officials present First Call for Help of Hays a $10,000 check to assist local residents with utilities, food and housing. Pictured from left to Right are Hays City Commissioner Shaun Musil; Terri Braun, First Call for Help board member; Samuel Allen, First Call for Help volunteer; Sandy Jacobs, Hays mayor; Scott Moore, Union Pacific; Linda Mills, First Call for Help executive director; Ed Dickens, Union Pacific manager of heritage equipment; Ben Jones, Union Pacific public affairs; Laura Shoaff, First Call for Help office assistant/program coordinator; and Laura Allen,&nbsp;First Call for Help client services specialist." />
 <figcaption>Union Pacific officials present First Call for Help of Hays a $10,000 check to assist local residents with utilities, food and housing. Pictured from left to Right are Hays City Commissioner Shaun Musil; Terri Braun, First Call for Help board member; Samuel Allen, First Call for Help volunteer; Sandy Jacobs, Hays mayor; Scott Moore, Union Pacific; Linda Mills, First Call for Help executive director; Ed Dickens, Union Pacific manager of heritage equipment; Ben Jones, Union Pacific public affairs; Laura Shoaff, First Call for Help office assistant/program coordinator; and Laura Allen,&nbsp;First Call for Help client services specialist.</figcaption>
 </figure>By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post<a href="https://www.firstcallelliscounty.com/">First Call for Help</a> of Hays received a $10,000 donation from the Union Pacific Foundation on Friday.Union Pacific officials were on hand for the arrival of the Big Boy steam locomotive into Hays Friday.Linda Mills, executive director of First Call for Help, said the funds will be used toward general operating purposes.The nonprofit provides rent and utility assistance, food, diapers, Meals on Wheels and housing for Ellis County residents facing homelessness through its new <a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/f4275259-f0d0-4be5-a159-5b7f0dd64e43">First Step Housing Project</a>.

First Call for Help receives $10,000 grant from Union Pacific

With the current rise of COVID-19 cases in our community, Jason Kennedy, Ellis County public health officer, is asking for your help.

<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/0568a814-d7c7-44a9-b937-babd0d70b736">RELATED:&nbsp;KDHE: 45 new COVID cases in Ellis Co. since Wednesday</a>

Our local schools have placed the safety of your children, staff and our community as priority No. 1. The following guidelines should help to ensure healthier school environments.

If your child is sick, do not send them to school. If someone in the household is awaiting test results for COVID-19, do not send any of your children to school while you wait for the results. If your child is asymptomatic but you plan to have them tested for COVID-19 in the next two days, do not send them to school. Keeping them home from school prior to testing will remove subsequent quarantine from a positive test. If you are notified that your child is a close contact with a positive case, please quarantine them.&nbsp;

Our county’s COVID-19 Response Group includes school administrators for all K-12 schools, Hays Medical Center administrators and physicians and Kennedy. They meet on a weekly basis. They only desire to provide a safe environment for all students and staff to learn and succeed in an on-site learning environment. Please help us to preserve the current “normal” so that we may continue on-site learning.&nbsp;

In response to an increase in cases and notification from KDHE of limited or unavailable rapid testing supplies, we must return to stricter quarantine guidelines beginning Tuesday.

Ellis County Health DepartmentWith the current rise of COVID-19 cases in our community, Jason Kennedy, Ellis County public health officer, is asking for your help.<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/0568a814-d7c7-44a9-b937-babd0d70b736">RELATED:&nbsp;KDHE: 45 new COVID cases in Ellis Co. since Wednesday</a>Our local schools have placed the safety of your children, staff and our community as priority No. 1. The following guidelines should help to ensure healthier school environments.If your child is sick, do not send them to school. If someone in the household is awaiting test results for COVID-19, do not send any of your children to school while you wait for the results. If your child is asymptomatic but you plan to have them tested for COVID-19 in the next two days, do not send them to school. Keeping them home from school prior to testing will remove subsequent quarantine from a positive test. If you are notified that your child is a close contact with a positive case, please quarantine them.&nbsp;Our county’s COVID-19 Response Group includes school administrators for all K-12 schools, Hays Medical Center administrators and physicians and Kennedy. They meet on a weekly basis. They only desire to provide a safe environment for all students and staff to learn and succeed in an on-site learning environment. Please help us to preserve the current “normal” so that we may continue on-site learning.&nbsp;In response to an increase in cases and notification from KDHE of limited or unavailable rapid testing supplies, we must return to stricter quarantine guidelines beginning Tuesday.<ul>
 <li>If your child is determined to be a close contact, they will be required to quarantine for 1o days from the date of contact. &nbsp;</li><li>Individuals will not be allowed to test out of quarantine.</li><li>If both parties are wearing a mask for the duration of contact and social distancing of at least 3 feet is maintained, quarantine may not be enforced.</li><li>If your child is vaccinated and remains asymptomatic, they may stay in school and activities.</li><li>If your child is a close contact outside of school, they shall quarantine for 10 days.</li>
 </ul>

Stricter quarantines reinstated for Hays schools

Every 10 years, districts for Congress, state legislature, state school board, and local offices must be redrawn based on the latest Census.&nbsp;&nbsp;The 2020 Census numbers were recently released and we already know one thing:&nbsp;&nbsp;there will no longer be a KC-area district that incorporates all of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Here in Kansas, the Kansas City-area Third District has once again gained population, while the rural “Big First” has lost people.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Third must shed people and the Big First must gain them, all shuffled through the Second District, which lies in between and has also lost population.&nbsp;&nbsp;All districts to be of nearly equal population, with only 0.5% allowable variation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Removing the small piece of Miami County (Louisburg) currently in the Third will not be enough.&nbsp;&nbsp;All or part of the other two counties must be moved as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;This will not be popular among supporters of Rep. Sharice Davids, who fear a Republican gerrymander to break up that district’s Democratic majority.&nbsp;&nbsp;In fact, former Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle advocates this.

For this column, I drew a number of hypothetical districts using Dave’s Redistricting, an online app that makes it possible for anyone with a computer and some free time to draw their own districts.&nbsp;&nbsp;It&nbsp;&nbsp;is free, but users are encouraged to make voluntary contributions.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have no financial interest in the project. The maps I made can be viewed on my blog:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://moksline.blogspot.com/">moksline.blogspot.com</a>&nbsp;and I also did this for Missouri.

For my own proposed map, I ended up doing what was once considered unthinkable in Kansas politics — I split Johnson County.&nbsp;&nbsp;I tried splitting Wyandotte County, but to rebalance population that way would require me to split the city of Kansas City in half, whereas the people of most communities prefer to remain “whole” within a single district.&nbsp;&nbsp;By splitting Johnson County instead, I was able to keep all cities in the county whole.&nbsp;&nbsp;I moved the outlying, exurban communities of DeSoto, Gardner, Edgerton, and Spring Hill into the 2nd District along with rural, unincorporated parts of the county.&nbsp;&nbsp;The rest of Johnson County I kept together with Kansas City in the Third.&nbsp;

If Kansas Republicans do seek to gerrymander Wyandotte County, they will not put it in the adjoining Second District.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Second already includes Lawrence and Topeka, so adding Kansas City would make that a Democratic-majority district.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead, a GOP gerrymander would have to bring the Big First all the way to the Missouri line, wrapping around the Second and reaching down to put Kansas City in the same district as rural, western Kansas.&nbsp;&nbsp;The current Third District is not a majority-minority district but it does have plenty of diversity.&nbsp;&nbsp;If it is broken up in this way, court challenges are possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in cases of partisan gerrymandering but kept open the door to those involving racial gerrymandering — particularly when they dilute votes from people of color.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Keeping several outlying communities in Johnson County whole while moving them into the Second District avoids these difficulties.&nbsp;&nbsp;It also prevents an ungainly, Missouri-to-Colorado Big First.&nbsp;&nbsp;Readers are encouraged not to take my word for it.&nbsp;&nbsp;Try Dave’s for yourself and draw your own, proposed districts. Ultimately, the Kansas Legislature will draw the final maps — unless they deadlock and let the courts resolve it again.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In the meantime, Kansas already has three Republican-majority districts. Can they resist the temptation to get greedy for more?

Michael Smith is a professor at Emporia State University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579108824567.jpeg" alt="Michael Smith is a professor at Emporia State University." />
 <figcaption>Michael Smith is a professor at Emporia State University.</figcaption>
 </figure>Every 10 years, districts for Congress, state legislature, state school board, and local offices must be redrawn based on the latest Census.&nbsp;&nbsp;The 2020 Census numbers were recently released and we already know one thing:&nbsp;&nbsp;there will no longer be a KC-area district that incorporates all of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here in Kansas, the Kansas City-area Third District has once again gained population, while the rural “Big First” has lost people.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Third must shed people and the Big First must gain them, all shuffled through the Second District, which lies in between and has also lost population.&nbsp;&nbsp;All districts to be of nearly equal population, with only 0.5% allowable variation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Removing the small piece of Miami County (Louisburg) currently in the Third will not be enough.&nbsp;&nbsp;All or part of the other two counties must be moved as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;This will not be popular among supporters of Rep. Sharice Davids, who fear a Republican gerrymander to break up that district’s Democratic majority.&nbsp;&nbsp;In fact, former Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle advocates this.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575913663048.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>For this column, I drew a number of hypothetical districts using Dave’s Redistricting, an online app that makes it possible for anyone with a computer and some free time to draw their own districts.&nbsp;&nbsp;It&nbsp;&nbsp;is free, but users are encouraged to make voluntary contributions.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have no financial interest in the project. The maps I made can be viewed on my blog:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://moksline.blogspot.com/">moksline.blogspot.com</a>&nbsp;and I also did this for Missouri.For my own proposed map, I ended up doing what was once considered unthinkable in Kansas politics — I split Johnson County.&nbsp;&nbsp;I tried splitting Wyandotte County, but to rebalance population that way would require me to split the city of Kansas City in half, whereas the people of most communities prefer to remain “whole” within a single district.&nbsp;&nbsp;By splitting Johnson County instead, I was able to keep all cities in the county whole.&nbsp;&nbsp;I moved the outlying, exurban communities of DeSoto, Gardner, Edgerton, and Spring Hill into the 2nd District along with rural, unincorporated parts of the county.&nbsp;&nbsp;The rest of Johnson County I kept together with Kansas City in the Third.&nbsp;If Kansas Republicans do seek to gerrymander Wyandotte County, they will not put it in the adjoining Second District.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Second already includes Lawrence and Topeka, so adding Kansas City would make that a Democratic-majority district.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead, a GOP gerrymander would have to bring the Big First all the way to the Missouri line, wrapping around the Second and reaching down to put Kansas City in the same district as rural, western Kansas.&nbsp;&nbsp;The current Third District is not a majority-minority district but it does have plenty of diversity.&nbsp;&nbsp;If it is broken up in this way, court challenges are possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in cases of partisan gerrymandering but kept open the door to those involving racial gerrymandering — particularly when they dilute votes from people of color.&nbsp;&nbsp;Keeping several outlying communities in Johnson County whole while moving them into the Second District avoids these difficulties.&nbsp;&nbsp;It also prevents an ungainly, Missouri-to-Colorado Big First.&nbsp;&nbsp;Readers are encouraged not to take my word for it.&nbsp;&nbsp;Try Dave’s for yourself and draw your own, proposed districts. Ultimately, the Kansas Legislature will draw the final maps — unless they deadlock and let the courts resolve it again.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the meantime, Kansas already has three Republican-majority districts. Can they resist the temptation to get greedy for more?Michael Smith is a professor at Emporia State University.

INSIGHT KANSAS: Redistricting will break taboos — but which ones?

The last session at our recent agent update on campus provided important information about a timely topic: suicide. With September noted as Suicide Prevention Month, it is the perfect time to bring some thoughts about this subject to the forefront.

Research shows that the majority of those who attempt suicide give some warning signs – verbal, written, or behavioral. Depression in youth bears special attention, since it is often undetected in middle and high school students, and young adults, and therefore goes untreated. At the other end of the lifespan, the same is true of our elders. Most young people and elders enjoy life, but for those who become depressed – if effective treatment is not initiated – death by suicide can become a significant risk.&nbsp;

Failure to recognize and respond to suicide warning signs may reflect both our lack of knowledge about suicide, as well as our basic fear about the subject itself. From the research, we know how to restore, rebuild and maintain hope. What helps suicidal people most is connection to others, planning for the future, engagement with a helper, a return to core values and beliefs, and confirming or finding a sense of purpose in life.

Our suicide prevention task force which is a part of our Central Kansas Partnership brings passionate people together to discuss suicide and take action. There are two activities I want to bring your attention that are planned later this month. The ninth annual Golden Belt Glow Run for Life 5k/1 mile run is set for Saturday, Sept. 18, from 6-10 PM at Veterans Memorial Park in Great Bend. Glow for Life is an awareness and remembrance event that raises awareness for suicide prevention. This event supports suicide prevention by providing a quality walking and running event in memory of those we have lost and in honor of their family and friends. Proceeds will be used to sponsor community suicide prevention education. Event registration, sponsorship forms and luminary sales forms can be found at ckpartnership.org/prevention or thecentergb.org. Contact Holly Bowyer at <a href="mailto:Hollyb@thecentergb.org">Hollyb@thecentergb.org</a> for more information.

Another event that I am involved in is a Pedal for Prevention bike ride set for Friday, September 17th, beginning at 6 PM at the Great Bend Bike Park. Pilot Club members will be on hand before the ride to fit free bicycle helmets on riders of all ages. My husband, John, and I will be leading the bike ride from the Bike Park at Brit Spaugh to the large west shelter at Veterans Park. We will take riders by the Bicycle Campground that is being developed behind Central Baptist Church on the way. The ride is in remembrance of Devin. Devin’s parents have designed t-shirts that will be available for riders. Everyone is welcome at both of these events.

I would also like to invite you to take a look at our Cottonwood Extension District Facebook page. There are several “Wellness Wednesday” posts that include short videos created by staff at High Plains Mental Health, that address mental health topics.&nbsp;

I also want to recognize the good work our Great Bend Center for Counseling and Consultation is doing in the area of suicide prevention. I invite you to take a look at their website to learn more about the #Zero Reasons Why program that focuses on removing the stigma, building community support and committing to education.&nbsp;

Please take some time to raise your own awareness about suicide and participate in the community events that you can during the month ahead.&nbsp;

Donna Krug is the District Director and Family and Consumer Science Agent with K-State Research &amp; Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: (620)793-1910 or <a href="mailto:dkrug@ksu.edu">dkrug@ksu.edu</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1573141404420.png" alt="Donna Krug is the District Director and Family and Consumer Science Agent with K-State Research &amp; Extension – Cottonwood District.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Donna Krug is the District Director and Family and Consumer Science Agent with K-State Research &amp; Extension – Cottonwood District.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>The last session at our recent agent update on campus provided important information about a timely topic: suicide. With September noted as Suicide Prevention Month, it is the perfect time to bring some thoughts about this subject to the forefront.Research shows that the majority of those who attempt suicide give some warning signs – verbal, written, or behavioral. Depression in youth bears special attention, since it is often undetected in middle and high school students, and young adults, and therefore goes untreated. At the other end of the lifespan, the same is true of our elders. Most young people and elders enjoy life, but for those who become depressed – if effective treatment is not initiated – death by suicide can become a significant risk.&nbsp;Failure to recognize and respond to suicide warning signs may reflect both our lack of knowledge about suicide, as well as our basic fear about the subject itself. From the research, we know how to restore, rebuild and maintain hope. What helps suicidal people most is connection to others, planning for the future, engagement with a helper, a return to core values and beliefs, and confirming or finding a sense of purpose in life.Our suicide prevention task force which is a part of our Central Kansas Partnership brings passionate people together to discuss suicide and take action. There are two activities I want to bring your attention that are planned later this month. The ninth annual Golden Belt Glow Run for Life 5k/1 mile run is set for Saturday, Sept. 18, from 6-10 PM at Veterans Memorial Park in Great Bend. Glow for Life is an awareness and remembrance event that raises awareness for suicide prevention. This event supports suicide prevention by providing a quality walking and running event in memory of those we have lost and in honor of their family and friends. Proceeds will be used to sponsor community suicide prevention education. Event registration, sponsorship forms and luminary sales forms can be found at ckpartnership.org/prevention or thecentergb.org. Contact Holly Bowyer at <a href="mailto:Hollyb@thecentergb.org">Hollyb@thecentergb.org</a> for more information.Another event that I am involved in is a Pedal for Prevention bike ride set for Friday, September 17th, beginning at 6 PM at the Great Bend Bike Park. Pilot Club members will be on hand before the ride to fit free bicycle helmets on riders of all ages. My husband, John, and I will be leading the bike ride from the Bike Park at Brit Spaugh to the large west shelter at Veterans Park. We will take riders by the Bicycle Campground that is being developed behind Central Baptist Church on the way. The ride is in remembrance of Devin. Devin’s parents have designed t-shirts that will be available for riders. Everyone is welcome at both of these events.I would also like to invite you to take a look at our Cottonwood Extension District Facebook page. There are several “Wellness Wednesday” posts that include short videos created by staff at High Plains Mental Health, that address mental health topics.&nbsp;I also want to recognize the good work our Great Bend Center for Counseling and Consultation is doing in the area of suicide prevention. I invite you to take a look at their website to learn more about the #Zero Reasons Why program that focuses on removing the stigma, building community support and committing to education.&nbsp;Please take some time to raise your own awareness about suicide and participate in the community events that you can during the month ahead.&nbsp;Donna Krug is the District Director and Family and Consumer Science Agent with K-State Research &amp; Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: (620)793-1910 or <a href="mailto:dkrug@ksu.edu">dkrug@ksu.edu</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

KRUG: Suicide Prevention Month activities planned

Even though I am a grandpa, I try hard not to look or act like the stereotypical, frumpy, old grandpa who thinks the world should function like it did when I was a kid, but allow me to digress a little in starting this week’s column.

I’m the oldest of five kids, and my nearest sibling in age is six years younger than me, so growing up, I had to learn to amuse myself, a skill sadly missing in many kids today. I’ll come clean here that I love my smart phone. I’m a FOX News junky, and enjoy surfing through FOX news or Facebook on my phone when sitting in front of TV in the evening or when waiting on my wife in a store parking lot, so I understand the draw. But When I was a kid and on-my-own, I learned to build hay forts in the haymow, shoot blackbirds along the creek with mom’s old .410 shotgun, and to catch crawdads under the bridge that crossed the creek in our pasture.&nbsp;

That bridge had metal sides that were three or four feet high and was built like a tank, but the huge, thick wooden planks that were the floor, were not fastened down and just laid in place, so there were big gaps between them. I learned I could lay on the planks looking through at the creek below, and catch crawdads with a long, forked willow stick. The water below was shallow and clear, and the crawdads would lay in the mud there. I’d cut the forked ends of the stick three or four inches long, and when I jabbed the forked end across an unsuspecting crawdad, they would flex enough to trap it between them like a clamp, and I could often raise the captured crawdad up through the planks, where I’d pull it out, toss it back and try again.

In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes 1 in the Bible, verse 9 says “What has been, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.” Well guess what, speaking of crawdads, the Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) has discovered a new crawdad species in Kansas. The Aquatic Nuisance Species Program and Ecological Services section of the KDWPT recently funded a university project focused on sampling Kansas lakes for invasive “crayfish,” (which is the politically correct name for the little buggers.) This study establishes processes that can be used to monitor both native and invasive crayfish in KS, something that has never been done before, and a process that some questioned the need for. During capturing efforts at McPherson State Fishing Lake, the need for this process was validated early-on, as sampling found multiple Rusty Crayfish, an invasive species never before found in KS. Both males and females of various ages were found, indicating a reproducing population is established in McPherson State Fishing Lake. Rusty Crayfish are large aggressive crayfish known to attack the feet of unsuspecting swimmers, and outcompetes native fish and crayfish for forage that acts as important cover for select prey species.&nbsp;

Since Rusty Crayfish most likely arrived in Kansas as fishing bait, this a perfect place to remind everyone of the KS regulation regarding the use of live fishing bait here in our state. Quoting from the regulations, “Live baitfish, crayfish, leeches, amphibians and mussels, except for bluegill and green sunfish from non-designated aquatic nuisance waters, and baitfish, crayfish, leeches, amphibians and mussels from designated nuisance waters, may be caught and used as live bait only within the common drainage where caught.” In summary and in layman’s terms, this means, use wild bait ONLY where you catch it, DO NOT take it anywhere it couldn’t have gotten to on its own. This will help keep aquatic nuisance species like our “new” friend the Rusty Crayfish, from spreading to other KS waters… Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1574696211722.png" alt="Steve&nbsp;Gilliland" />
 <figcaption>Steve&nbsp;Gilliland</figcaption>
 </figure>Even though I am a grandpa, I try hard not to look or act like the stereotypical, frumpy, old grandpa who thinks the world should function like it did when I was a kid, but allow me to digress a little in starting this week’s column.I’m the oldest of five kids, and my nearest sibling in age is six years younger than me, so growing up, I had to learn to amuse myself, a skill sadly missing in many kids today. I’ll come clean here that I love my smart phone. I’m a FOX News junky, and enjoy surfing through FOX news or Facebook on my phone when sitting in front of TV in the evening or when waiting on my wife in a store parking lot, so I understand the draw. But When I was a kid and on-my-own, I learned to build hay forts in the haymow, shoot blackbirds along the creek with mom’s old .410 shotgun, and to catch crawdads under the bridge that crossed the creek in our pasture.&nbsp;That bridge had metal sides that were three or four feet high and was built like a tank, but the huge, thick wooden planks that were the floor, were not fastened down and just laid in place, so there were big gaps between them. I learned I could lay on the planks looking through at the creek below, and catch crawdads with a long, forked willow stick. The water below was shallow and clear, and the crawdads would lay in the mud there. I’d cut the forked ends of the stick three or four inches long, and when I jabbed the forked end across an unsuspecting crawdad, they would flex enough to trap it between them like a clamp, and I could often raise the captured crawdad up through the planks, where I’d pull it out, toss it back and try again.In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes 1 in the Bible, verse 9 says “What has been, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.” Well guess what, speaking of crawdads, the Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) has discovered a new crawdad species in Kansas. The Aquatic Nuisance Species Program and Ecological Services section of the KDWPT recently funded a university project focused on sampling Kansas lakes for invasive “crayfish,” (which is the politically correct name for the little buggers.) This study establishes processes that can be used to monitor both native and invasive crayfish in KS, something that has never been done before, and a process that some questioned the need for. During capturing efforts at McPherson State Fishing Lake, the need for this process was validated early-on, as sampling found multiple Rusty Crayfish, an invasive species never before found in KS. Both males and females of various ages were found, indicating a reproducing population is established in McPherson State Fishing Lake. Rusty Crayfish are large aggressive crayfish known to attack the feet of unsuspecting swimmers, and outcompetes native fish and crayfish for forage that acts as important cover for select prey species.&nbsp;Since Rusty Crayfish most likely arrived in Kansas as fishing bait, this a perfect place to remind everyone of the KS regulation regarding the use of live fishing bait here in our state. Quoting from the regulations, “Live baitfish, crayfish, leeches, amphibians and mussels, except for bluegill and green sunfish from non-designated aquatic nuisance waters, and baitfish, crayfish, leeches, amphibians and mussels from designated nuisance waters, may be caught and used as live bait only within the common drainage where caught.” In summary and in layman’s terms, this means, use wild bait ONLY where you catch it, DO NOT take it anywhere it couldn’t have gotten to on its own. This will help keep aquatic nuisance species like our “new” friend the Rusty Crayfish, from spreading to other KS waters… Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.

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