By ANDREW NEWMAN <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-high-school-classics-have-been-taught-for-generations-could-they-be-on-their-way-out-188197">The Conversation</a>

If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 
1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: 
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John 
Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”;
 Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and William Golding’s “The Lord 
of the Flies.”

For many former students, these books and other so-called “classics” 
represent high school English. But despite the efforts of reformers, 
both <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=multicultural+canon&amp;id=ED371401">past</a> and <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">present</a>, the most frequently assigned titles have never represented America’s diverse student body.

Why did these books become classics in the U.S.? How have they 
withstood challenges to their status? And will they continue to dominate
 high school reading lists? Or will they be replaced by a different set 
of books that will become classics for students in the 21st century?

The set of books that is taught again and again, broadly across the 
country, is referred to by literature scholars and English teachers as 
“the canon.” 

The high school canon has been shaped by many factors. Shakespeare’s 
plays, especially “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar,” have been taught 
consistently <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1488191">since the beginning of the 20th century</a>,
 when the curriculum was determined by college entrance requirements. 
Others, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize 
for fiction, were ushered into the classroom by current events – in the 
case of Lee’s book, <a href="https://time.com/3928162/mockingbird-civil-rights-movement/">the civil rights movement</a>.
 Some books just seem especially suited for classroom teaching: “Of Mice
 and Men” has a straightforward plot, easily identifiable themes and is 
under 100 pages long.

Titles become “traditional” when they are passed down through generations. As the education historian Jonna Perrillo observes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/12/todays-book-bans-might-be-more-dangerous-than-those-past/">parents tend to approve</a> of having their children study the same books that they once did.

The last period of significant change to the canon was during the 
1960s and 1970s, when the largest generation of the 20th century, the 
baby boomers, went to high school. For instance, in 1963, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/810053">a survey of 800 students</a>
 at Evanston Township High School in Illinois revealed that “To Kill a 
Mockingbird,” first published in 1960, was by far the “most enjoyed 
book,” followed by two books that had been published in the 1950s, J.D. 
Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and Golding’s “The Lord of the 
Flies.” None of these books were yet traditional, yet they became so for
 the next generation.

A comparison of national surveys conducted in 1963 and 1988 shows how
 several books that were introduced to the classroom when the boomers 
were students had become classics when boomers were teachers.

During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers even reframed “Romeo and Juliet”
 as a contemporary work. Lesson plans from the era referred to its 
adaptations into “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/811316">West Side Story</a>” – a musical that <a href="https://www.westsidestory.com/1957-broadway">initially came out in 1957</a> – and Franco Zefferelli’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=zeffirelli+romeo&amp;id=ED026386">risqué 1968 film version</a>
 of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. It became the perfect 
hook for ninth graders in a study of Shakespeare that would conclude in 
12th grade with “Macbeth.”

English education professor <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED309453">Arthur Applebee observed in 1989</a>
 that, since the 1960s, “leaders in the profession of English teaching 
have tried to broaden the curriculum to include more selections by women
 and minority authors.” But in the late 1980s, according to his 
findings, the high school “top ten” still included only one book by a 
woman – Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and none by minority authors.

At that time, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/opinion/the-mosaic-and-the-melting-pot.html">raging debate</a>
 was underway about whether America was a “melting pot” in which many 
cultures became one, or a colorful “mosaic” in which many cultures 
coexisted. Proponents of the latter view argued for a multicultural 
canon, but they were ultimately unable to establish one. A 2011 survey 
of Southern schools by Joyce Stallworth and Louel C. Gibbons, published 
in “English Leadership Quarterly,” found that the five most frequently 
taught books were all traditional selections: “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo
 and Juliet,” Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and 
“To Kill a Mockingbird.”

One explanation for this persistence is that the canon is not simply a
 list: It takes form as stacks of copies on shelves in the storage area 
known as the “book room.” Changes to the inventory require time, money 
and effort. Depending on the district, replacing a classic <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/material-selection-ela/">might require approval by the school board</a>. And it would create more work for teachers who are already maxed out.

“Too many teachers, probably myself included, teach from the 
traditional canon,” a teacher told Stallworth and Gibbons. “We are 
overworked and underpaid and struggle to find the time to develop 
quality lessons for new books.” 

Esau McCauley, the author of “Reading While Black,” describes the list of classics by white authors as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/what-should-high-schoolers-read.html?searchResultPosition=1">pre-integration canon</a>.” At least two factors suggest that its dominance over the curriculum is coming to an end.

First, the battles over which books should be taught have become more
 intense than ever. On the one hand, progressives like the teachers of 
the growing <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">#DisruptTexts movement</a> call for the inclusion of books by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">Black, Native American and other authors of color</a>
 - and they question the status of the classics. On the other hand, 
conservatives have challenged or successfully banned the teaching of 
many new books that deal with gender and sexuality or race.

PEN America, a nonprofit organization that fights for free expression for writers, reports “<a href="https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/">a profound increase</a>”
 in book bans. The outcome might be a literature curriculum that more 
resembles the political divisions in this country. Much more than in the
 past, students in conservative and progressive districts might read 
very different books.

Second, English Language Arts education itself is changing. State standards, such as those <a href="http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/912elastandardsglance.pdf">adopted by New York in 2017</a>, no longer make the teaching of literature the primary focus of English class. Instead, there is a new emphasis on “<a href="http://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/teaching-learning-information-literacy">information literacy</a>.” And while preceding generations of teachers voiced concerns about the distractions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42832830">radio</a> and then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42799566">television</a>, books may have an even smaller share of students’ attention in <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its-drastic-aftermath/">the age of cellphones, the internet, social media and online gaming</a>.

“We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world,” the National Council of Teachers of English proclaims in <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/">a 2022 position statement</a>.
 The group calls for English teachers to put less emphasis on books in 
order to train students to use and analyze a variety of media. 
Accordingly, students across the country may not only have fewer books 
in common, but they also may be reading fewer books altogether.

Over generations, English teachers have voiced many reasons to teach books, and the canon in particular: to instill a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/816405">common culture</a>, foster <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED027289">citizenship</a>, build <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/820324">empathy</a> and cultivate <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128931">lifelong readers</a>.
 These goals have little to do with the skills emphasized by 
contemporary academic standards. But if literature is going to continue 
to be an important part of American education, it is important to talk 
not only about what books to teach, but the reasons why.

Andrew Newman is Professor and Chair of Stony Brook University (The State University of New York).

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663343729968.jpg" alt="High school students have studied many of the same books for generations. Is it time for a change? Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>High school students have studied many of the same books for generations. Is it time for a change? Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANDREW NEWMAN <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-high-school-classics-have-been-taught-for-generations-could-they-be-on-their-way-out-188197">The Conversation</a>If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 
1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: 
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John 
Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”;
 Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and William Golding’s “The Lord 
of the Flies.”For many former students, these books and other so-called “classics” 
represent high school English. But despite the efforts of reformers, 
both <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=multicultural+canon&amp;id=ED371401">past</a> and <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">present</a>, the most frequently assigned titles have never represented America’s diverse student body.Why did these books become classics in the U.S.? How have they 
withstood challenges to their status? And will they continue to dominate
 high school reading lists? Or will they be replaced by a different set 
of books that will become classics for students in the 21st century?<h2>The high school canon</h2>The set of books that is taught again and again, broadly across the 
country, is referred to by literature scholars and English teachers as 
“the canon.” The high school canon has been shaped by many factors. Shakespeare’s 
plays, especially “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar,” have been taught 
consistently <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1488191">since the beginning of the 20th century</a>,
 when the curriculum was determined by college entrance requirements. 
Others, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize 
for fiction, were ushered into the classroom by current events – in the 
case of Lee’s book, <a href="https://time.com/3928162/mockingbird-civil-rights-movement/">the civil rights movement</a>.
 Some books just seem especially suited for classroom teaching: “Of Mice
 and Men” has a straightforward plot, easily identifiable themes and is 
under 100 pages long.Titles become “traditional” when they are passed down through generations. As the education historian Jonna Perrillo observes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/12/todays-book-bans-might-be-more-dangerous-than-those-past/">parents tend to approve</a> of having their children study the same books that they once did.The last period of significant change to the canon was during the 
1960s and 1970s, when the largest generation of the 20th century, the 
baby boomers, went to high school. For instance, in 1963, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/810053">a survey of 800 students</a>
 at Evanston Township High School in Illinois revealed that “To Kill a 
Mockingbird,” first published in 1960, was by far the “most enjoyed 
book,” followed by two books that had been published in the 1950s, J.D. 
Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and Golding’s “The Lord of the 
Flies.” None of these books were yet traditional, yet they became so for
 the next generation.A comparison of national surveys conducted in 1963 and 1988 shows how
 several books that were introduced to the classroom when the boomers 
were students had become classics when boomers were teachers.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663343804822.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers even reframed “Romeo and Juliet”
 as a contemporary work. Lesson plans from the era referred to its 
adaptations into “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/811316">West Side Story</a>” – a musical that <a href="https://www.westsidestory.com/1957-broadway">initially came out in 1957</a> – and Franco Zefferelli’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=zeffirelli+romeo&amp;id=ED026386">risqué 1968 film version</a>
 of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. It became the perfect 
hook for ninth graders in a study of Shakespeare that would conclude in 
12th grade with “Macbeth.”<h2>Efforts to diversify</h2>English education professor <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED309453">Arthur Applebee observed in 1989</a>
 that, since the 1960s, “leaders in the profession of English teaching 
have tried to broaden the curriculum to include more selections by women
 and minority authors.” But in the late 1980s, according to his 
findings, the high school “top ten” still included only one book by a 
woman – Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and none by minority authors.At that time, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/opinion/the-mosaic-and-the-melting-pot.html">raging debate</a>
 was underway about whether America was a “melting pot” in which many 
cultures became one, or a colorful “mosaic” in which many cultures 
coexisted. Proponents of the latter view argued for a multicultural 
canon, but they were ultimately unable to establish one. A 2011 survey 
of Southern schools by Joyce Stallworth and Louel C. Gibbons, published 
in “English Leadership Quarterly,” found that the five most frequently 
taught books were all traditional selections: “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo
 and Juliet,” Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and 
“To Kill a Mockingbird.”One explanation for this persistence is that the canon is not simply a
 list: It takes form as stacks of copies on shelves in the storage area 
known as the “book room.” Changes to the inventory require time, money 
and effort. Depending on the district, replacing a classic <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/material-selection-ela/">might require approval by the school board</a>. And it would create more work for teachers who are already maxed out. “Too many teachers, probably myself included, teach from the 
traditional canon,” a teacher told Stallworth and Gibbons. “We are 
overworked and underpaid and struggle to find the time to develop 
quality lessons for new books.” <h2>The end of an era?</h2>Esau McCauley, the author of “Reading While Black,” describes the list of classics by white authors as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/what-should-high-schoolers-read.html?searchResultPosition=1">pre-integration canon</a>.” At least two factors suggest that its dominance over the curriculum is coming to an end.First, the battles over which books should be taught have become more
 intense than ever. On the one hand, progressives like the teachers of 
the growing <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">#DisruptTexts movement</a> call for the inclusion of books by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">Black, Native American and other authors of color</a>
 - and they question the status of the classics. On the other hand, 
conservatives have challenged or successfully banned the teaching of 
many new books that deal with gender and sexuality or race.PEN America, a nonprofit organization that fights for free expression for writers, reports “<a href="https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/">a profound increase</a>”
 in book bans. The outcome might be a literature curriculum that more 
resembles the political divisions in this country. Much more than in the
 past, students in conservative and progressive districts might read 
very different books.Second, English Language Arts education itself is changing. State standards, such as those <a href="http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/912elastandardsglance.pdf">adopted by New York in 2017</a>, no longer make the teaching of literature the primary focus of English class. Instead, there is a new emphasis on “<a href="http://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/teaching-learning-information-literacy">information literacy</a>.” And while preceding generations of teachers voiced concerns about the distractions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42832830">radio</a> and then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42799566">television</a>, books may have an even smaller share of students’ attention in <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its-drastic-aftermath/">the age of cellphones, the internet, social media and online gaming</a>.“We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world,” the National Council of Teachers of English proclaims in <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/">a 2022 position statement</a>.
 The group calls for English teachers to put less emphasis on books in 
order to train students to use and analyze a variety of media. 
Accordingly, students across the country may not only have fewer books 
in common, but they also may be reading fewer books altogether.<h2>Why teach literature?</h2>Over generations, English teachers have voiced many reasons to teach books, and the canon in particular: to instill a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/816405">common culture</a>, foster <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED027289">citizenship</a>, build <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/820324">empathy</a> and cultivate <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128931">lifelong readers</a>.
 These goals have little to do with the skills emphasized by 
contemporary academic standards. But if literature is going to continue 
to be an important part of American education, it is important to talk 
not only about what books to teach, but the reasons why.Andrew Newman is Professor and Chair of Stony Brook University (The State University of New York).<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188197/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1"></iframe></div>

These high school ‘classics’ have been taught for generations – could they be on their way out?

By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/opening-of-kansas-sports-betting-reveals-appeal-of-online-apps-even-among-missourians/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA, Kansas — Mobile platforms for legal sports gambling in Kansas
 proved so enticing that more than 16,000 people in Missouri tried to 
place wagers in the first weekend of live betting.

As those cross-border residents discovered, many of whom were located
 in Kansas City, Missouri, the gambling law established by Kansas 
required a person to be somewhere within the state’s 82,000-square-mile 
domain to place an online bet. Geofencing technology is in place to 
create a virtual perimeter blocking out-of-staters from taking part in 
the state’s legal sports gambling.

“It’s so sophisticated that it knows exactly where you are across the
 country,” said Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas 
Lottery. “We had a guy who is located over on State Line Road on the 
Kansas side and he called and said, ‘I’m having trouble wagering.’ He 
says, ‘I can only wager if I go to my backyard where I’m away from State
 Line Road.’ ”

Durrell said early returns indicated sports betting was the most 
popular introductory gaming option since advent of at the Kansas 
Lottery. The presumption is a majority of bets in Kansas would be placed
 online rather than by individuals present in casinos.

“It looks like, you know, wagering is a very healthy venture right now in the state,” Durrell said.

On Sept. 1, Kansas joined a growing list of states trying to get a 
piece of the sports gambling pie. It took years of political wrangling 
in the Kansas Legislature, but the state established a framework for 
sports betting — both through in-person operations and with remote 
sports betting apps — at the four state-owned casinos in Dodge City, 
Mulvane, Pittsburg and Kansas City, Kansas. The tribal casinos located 
within Kansas’ boundary are expected to participate upon completion of 
new contracts with the state.

The business of sports betting got underway with state-owned casinos 
joining forces with DraftKings, FanDuel, Ceasars Sportsbook, Barstool 
Sportsbook, Points Bet and BetMGM.

BetMGM was the first to form a multi-year partnership with the Kansas
 City Chiefs, expected to be among Kansas’ biggest gambling targets. The
 bill signed into law by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who bet on the Chiefs 
with the state’s first official wager, required a portion of state 
revenue to be set aside to help attract a professional sports franchise 
to Kansas. The idea was to play up the slim chance the franchise would 
move across the border.

“With a rich history and a passionate fan base, the Kansas City 
Chiefs are an ideal partner,” said Matt Prevost, BetMGM chief revenue 
officer.

Durrell said on the Kansas Reflector podcast there was broad interest
 in Kansas sports betting, but it would take time to bring clarity to 
financial implications of the reform. The casinos and their partners 
began by offering an array of financial incentives in a pitch to develop
 brand loyalty, and those bets must be sorted out to get a better 
picture of the sports gambling footprint in Kansas.

He said U.S. professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey 
would draw signifcant betting interest in Kansas along with college 
football and basketball. There will be an international component to 
betting, he said, that would involve folks dedicated enough to watch 
preferred teams in the middle of the night.

“There are other people out there that really want to wager on other things, and they they find it entertaining,” Durrell said.

He said the advent of legal sports gambling in Kansas wouldn’t do 
away with illicit forms that have existed for years. It ought to make a 
dent in illegal gaming because a government regulated system offered 
gamblers greater assurance they would be paid their winnings, he said.

“There’s no reasonable way that illegal gaming is going to go away completely,” the state lottery director said.

Under state law, the four state-owned casinos in Kansas could 
participate in both in-person sportsbooks and mobile sports betting 
through a maximum of three apps. Each casino also will be allowed to 
form partnerships with businesses and nonprofit organizations.

So far, Hollywood Casino at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, 
Kansas, and Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane offer both in-person and 
mobile sports betting options. Hollywood Casino affiliated with Barstool
 Sports, while Kansas Star linked with FanDuel.

Kansas Crossing Casino in Pittsburg decided to offer mobile sports 
betting with BetMGM, Ceasars and PointsBet. Boot Hill Casino and Resort 
in Dodge City selected DraftKings for online betting. The Pittsburg and 
Dodge City casinos are expected to open in-person betting venues in a 
matter of weeks.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663341035576.png" alt="Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, discusses introduction of legal sports gambling in Kansas with the Kansas Reflector podcast. Online and in-person sports wagering is available at casinos in Mulvane and Kansas City, Kansas, while online bets through apps are being handled at Pittsburg and Dodge City casinos (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)." />
 <figcaption>Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, discusses introduction of legal sports gambling in Kansas with the Kansas Reflector podcast. Online and in-person sports wagering is available at casinos in Mulvane and Kansas City, Kansas, while online bets through apps are being handled at Pittsburg and Dodge City casinos (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector).</figcaption>
 </figure>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/opening-of-kansas-sports-betting-reveals-appeal-of-online-apps-even-among-missourians/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA, Kansas — Mobile platforms for legal sports gambling in Kansas
 proved so enticing that more than 16,000 people in Missouri tried to 
place wagers in the first weekend of live betting.As those cross-border residents discovered, many of whom were located
 in Kansas City, Missouri, the gambling law established by Kansas 
required a person to be somewhere within the state’s 82,000-square-mile 
domain to place an online bet. Geofencing technology is in place to 
create a virtual perimeter blocking out-of-staters from taking part in 
the state’s legal sports gambling.“It’s so sophisticated that it knows exactly where you are across the
 country,” said Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas 
Lottery. “We had a guy who is located over on State Line Road on the 
Kansas side and he called and said, ‘I’m having trouble wagering.’ He 
says, ‘I can only wager if I go to my backyard where I’m away from State
 Line Road.’ ”<div><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1339579519&color=%232b7fb4&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/kansas-reflector-podcast" title="Reflector Podcast" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Reflector Podcast</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kansas-reflector-podcast/2022-09-12-podcast" title="Kansas Lottery director talks launch of sports gambling" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Kansas Lottery director talks launch of sports gambling</a></div></div>Durrell said early returns indicated sports betting was the most 
popular introductory gaming option since advent of at the Kansas 
Lottery. The presumption is a majority of bets in Kansas would be placed
 online rather than by individuals present in casinos.“It looks like, you know, wagering is a very healthy venture right now in the state,” Durrell said.On Sept. 1, Kansas joined a growing list of states trying to get a 
piece of the sports gambling pie. It took years of political wrangling 
in the Kansas Legislature, but the state established a framework for 
sports betting — both through in-person operations and with remote 
sports betting apps — at the four state-owned casinos in Dodge City, 
Mulvane, Pittsburg and Kansas City, Kansas. The tribal casinos located 
within Kansas’ boundary are expected to participate upon completion of 
new contracts with the state.The business of sports betting got underway with state-owned casinos 
joining forces with DraftKings, FanDuel, Ceasars Sportsbook, Barstool 
Sportsbook, Points Bet and BetMGM.BetMGM was the first to form a multi-year partnership with the Kansas
 City Chiefs, expected to be among Kansas’ biggest gambling targets. The
 bill signed into law by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who bet on the Chiefs 
with the state’s first official wager, required a portion of state 
revenue to be set aside to help attract a professional sports franchise 
to Kansas. The idea was to play up the slim chance the franchise would 
move across the border.“With a rich history and a passionate fan base, the Kansas City 
Chiefs are an ideal partner,” said Matt Prevost, BetMGM chief revenue 
officer.Durrell said on the Kansas Reflector podcast there was broad interest
 in Kansas sports betting, but it would take time to bring clarity to 
financial implications of the reform. The casinos and their partners 
began by offering an array of financial incentives in a pitch to develop
 brand loyalty, and those bets must be sorted out to get a better 
picture of the sports gambling footprint in Kansas.He said U.S. professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey 
would draw signifcant betting interest in Kansas along with college 
football and basketball. There will be an international component to 
betting, he said, that would involve folks dedicated enough to watch 
preferred teams in the middle of the night.“There are other people out there that really want to wager on other things, and they they find it entertaining,” Durrell said.He said the advent of legal sports gambling in Kansas wouldn’t do 
away with illicit forms that have existed for years. It ought to make a 
dent in illegal gaming because a government regulated system offered 
gamblers greater assurance they would be paid their winnings, he said.“There’s no reasonable way that illegal gaming is going to go away completely,” the state lottery director said.Under state law, the four state-owned casinos in Kansas could 
participate in both in-person sportsbooks and mobile sports betting 
through a maximum of three apps. Each casino also will be allowed to 
form partnerships with businesses and nonprofit organizations.So far, Hollywood Casino at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, 
Kansas, and Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane offer both in-person and 
mobile sports betting options. Hollywood Casino affiliated with Barstool
 Sports, while Kansas Star linked with FanDuel.Kansas Crossing Casino in Pittsburg decided to offer mobile sports 
betting with BetMGM, Ceasars and PointsBet. Boot Hill Casino and Resort 
in Dodge City selected DraftKings for online betting. The Pittsburg and 
Dodge City casinos are expected to open in-person betting venues in a 
matter of weeks.

🎧 Opening of Kansas sports betting reveals appeal of online apps — even among Missourians

By PATRICK LOHMANN <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/09/15/nuclear-waste-site-could-be-open-forever-despite-2024-closure-date-advocate-warns/">Daily Montanan</a>

Shipments of nuclear waste to the nation’s only deep geological 
repository for the hazardous material show no signs of slowing in the 
coming years, despite the current permit calling for the plant to begin 
closing in 2024.

The future of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant east of 
Carlsbad was the subject of debate and scrutiny during a meeting among a
 New Mexico state legislative committee last month in Clovis. The site 
stores waste like clothing, rags, soils and tools contaminated with 
radioactive elements due to nuclear weapons research and assembly in 
places like Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho National 
Laboratory.

WIPP leaders are seeking renewal of the 10-year permit that allows 
the site to continue receiving shipments, plus the state’s approval of 
an expansion of the plant to store more waste. But advocates closely 
watching the plant for decades say such approval could open the door to 
an unending stream of radioactive waste transported across the country 
into New Mexico.

So far this fiscal year, WIPP has received 190 shipments. The 
material arrives from about 10 sites across the country, shipped in 
large drums on semi-trailers along state roads and interstates. The site
 has received more than 13,000 such shipments since 1999. When the waste
 arrives, and if it meets meets WIPP’s safety standards, the material is
 “emplaced” for permanent disposal in one of eight large panels a 
half-mile below ground that are sealed when full.

The 1990 federal law that allowed WIPP to be created and an 
agreement between the state of New Mexico and United States Department 
of Energy permits the site to permanently hold up to 175,000 cubic 
meters of the waste.

But WIPP needs more space to fulfill that mission, said Reinhard 
Knerr, manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office. Six of the eight panels
 are sealed, despite the facility having only disposed of 40% of the 
175,000 cubic meters it can receive.

He said in a presentation that&nbsp; “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/RHMC%20080522%20Item%201%20DOE.pdf">waste packaging and emplacement inefficiencies</a>” contributed to the bind WIPP finds itself in, likely referring to the <a target="_blank" href="https://wipp.energy.gov/library/seis/DOE_EIS-0026-SA-12_SA_for_WIPP_Site-Wide_Operations_Rev0_Final_Sig_on_File.pdf">premature closure of the first disposal panel in 1999, plus the fallout from a 2014 truck fire and radioactive release</a> that resulted in about one and a half more panels being closed without being filled.

So WIPP is seeking to build two new panels for upcoming shipments, 
but they’ll need approval from the New Mexico Environment Department. 
Panels are built by mining more space in the WIPP footprint. WIPP sits 
in a 250-million-year-old salt bed deemed ideal for nuclear waste 
storage.

“We additionally are doing mining out to the west, so that if we were
 able to get those panels permitted by NMED we’ll be in a position to 
begin mining those panels at the time such approval might come through,”
 Knerr told members of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials 
Committee.

But Don Hancock, who runs the nuclear waste program at the Southwest 
Research and Information Center, said WIPP leaders are seeking to 
abandon the principles set out when WIPP began. He also fears the DOE is
 trying to prime the site to become the nation’s only recipient of this 
kind of radioactive waste for years to come.

Hancock testified Friday that WIPP was meant to be a site that would 
permanently dispose of waste only until new repositories would be opened
 up across the country. The legislation creating WIPP says it would 
store “up to” 175,000 cubic meters, he noted, and he said lawmakers at 
the time fully expected that the site could be decommissioned without 
being filled completely.

But instead, other potential sites across America have been 
identified but not opened in the intervening years, Hancock said, and an
 official told him recently at a public meeting that the DOE currently 
had “no plan” for a waste repository elsewhere.

“WIPP is the only repository. It was supposed to be the first, but 
not only. Other repositories are necessary for legal reasons, agreements
 with the state of New Mexico, technical reasons,” Hancock told 
lawmakers. “But now the Department of Energy is saying they have no plan
 for any other… waste repository.”

Hancock said the state should use its role to push the Department of 
Energy to open up other sites elsewhere and should push for specific 
closure dates when the permit comes up for renewal. He also is asking 
the state Legislature to push for more transparency from the DOE and 
more public involvement.

The state is hoping to have a revised permit for WIPP by May of 2023, a state official told the panel.

Hancock said the DOE has no longer even offered a potential closure 
date for WIPP in any of its recent permit applications. That’s another 
tell, he said, that shows the DOE no longer has any interest in finding 
an alternative to WIPP.

The New Mexico Environment Department recently asked the feds to 
provide a potential closure date. The DOE said it could take as long as <a target="_blank" href="https://hwbdocuments.env.nm.gov/Waste%20Isolation%20Pilot%20Plant/220626.pdf">2083 for WIPP to dispose of all current</a> and projected waste being produced across the country.

Hancock, speaking to Source New Mexico after the meeting, said the 
fact that DOE is being coy about the eventual closure of WIPP should 
concern generations of New Mexicans.

“When you’re supposed to be from 1999 to 2024 and are now say 1999 to
 2083, that looks like forever,” he said. “Because if you go 60 years 
more, why are you not going to say again, ‘Oh, well, we don’t have any 
other place. So guess what?’”

Knerr, pressed about the issue during the committee meeting, said the
 2083 date was just an estimate based on waste amounts being generated 
and projected at “waste generator” sites across the country. But he 
noted that it’s taken about 20 years to get WIPP at 40% of the capacity 
it’s allowed, so it’s reasonable to think it’ll take about 30 more years
 to fill the site.

A 2020 analysis by the <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/25593">National Academies of Sciences</a> found that all waste that has been generated or is planned to be, will exceed WIPP’s legal capacity by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559413/figure/fig_S-5/?report=objectonly">at least 10%</a>. That’s another issue the DOE has not responded to publicly, Hancock said.

The bipartisan legislative committee, made up of state senators and 
representatives, ultimately voted to send a letter to the Department of 
Energy asking questions about shipments and seeking more transparency.

This story was originally written and produced by&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://sourcenm.com">Source New Mexico</a>
 which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus, including 
the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 
501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial 
independence.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663276728528.png" alt="An aerial view of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy DOE)" />
 <figcaption>An aerial view of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy DOE)</figcaption>
 </figure>By PATRICK LOHMANN <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/09/15/nuclear-waste-site-could-be-open-forever-despite-2024-closure-date-advocate-warns/">Daily Montanan</a>Shipments of nuclear waste to the nation’s only deep geological 
repository for the hazardous material show no signs of slowing in the 
coming years, despite the current permit calling for the plant to begin 
closing in 2024.The future of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant east of 
Carlsbad was the subject of debate and scrutiny during a meeting among a
 New Mexico state legislative committee last month in Clovis. The site 
stores waste like clothing, rags, soils and tools contaminated with 
radioactive elements due to nuclear weapons research and assembly in 
places like Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho National 
Laboratory.WIPP leaders are seeking renewal of the 10-year permit that allows 
the site to continue receiving shipments, plus the state’s approval of 
an expansion of the plant to store more waste. But advocates closely 
watching the plant for decades say such approval could open the door to 
an unending stream of radioactive waste transported across the country 
into New Mexico.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663276802651.jpeg" alt="A truck carries waste to WIPP. (Photo courtesy DOE)" />
 <figcaption>A truck carries waste to WIPP. (Photo courtesy DOE)</figcaption>
 </figure>So far this fiscal year, WIPP has received 190 shipments. The 
material arrives from about 10 sites across the country, shipped in 
large drums on semi-trailers along state roads and interstates. The site
 has received more than 13,000 such shipments since 1999. When the waste
 arrives, and if it meets meets WIPP’s safety standards, the material is
 “emplaced” for permanent disposal in one of eight large panels a 
half-mile below ground that are sealed when full.The 1990 federal law that allowed WIPP to be created and an 
agreement between the state of New Mexico and United States Department 
of Energy permits the site to permanently hold up to 175,000 cubic 
meters of the waste. But WIPP needs more space to fulfill that mission, said Reinhard 
Knerr, manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office. Six of the eight panels
 are sealed, despite the facility having only disposed of 40% of the 
175,000 cubic meters it can receive.He said in a presentation that&nbsp; “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/RHMC%20080522%20Item%201%20DOE.pdf">waste packaging and emplacement inefficiencies</a>” contributed to the bind WIPP finds itself in, likely referring to the <a target="_blank" href="https://wipp.energy.gov/library/seis/DOE_EIS-0026-SA-12_SA_for_WIPP_Site-Wide_Operations_Rev0_Final_Sig_on_File.pdf">premature closure of the first disposal panel in 1999, plus the fallout from a 2014 truck fire and radioactive release</a> that resulted in about one and a half more panels being closed without being filled.So WIPP is seeking to build two new panels for upcoming shipments, 
but they’ll need approval from the New Mexico Environment Department. 
Panels are built by mining more space in the WIPP footprint. WIPP sits 
in a 250-million-year-old salt bed deemed ideal for nuclear waste 
storage.“We additionally are doing mining out to the west, so that if we were
 able to get those panels permitted by NMED we’ll be in a position to 
begin mining those panels at the time such approval might come through,”
 Knerr told members of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials 
Committee.But Don Hancock, who runs the nuclear waste program at the Southwest 
Research and Information Center, said WIPP leaders are seeking to 
abandon the principles set out when WIPP began. He also fears the DOE is
 trying to prime the site to become the nation’s only recipient of this 
kind of radioactive waste for years to come. 
Hancock testified Friday that WIPP was meant to be a site that would 
permanently dispose of waste only until new repositories would be opened
 up across the country. The legislation creating WIPP says it would 
store “up to” 175,000 cubic meters, he noted, and he said lawmakers at 
the time fully expected that the site could be decommissioned without 
being filled completely.But instead, other potential sites across America have been 
identified but not opened in the intervening years, Hancock said, and an
 official told him recently at a public meeting that the DOE currently 
had “no plan” for a waste repository elsewhere.“WIPP is the only repository. It was supposed to be the first, but 
not only. Other repositories are necessary for legal reasons, agreements
 with the state of New Mexico, technical reasons,” Hancock told 
lawmakers. “But now the Department of Energy is saying they have no plan
 for any other… waste repository.”Hancock said the state should use its role to push the Department of 
Energy to open up other sites elsewhere and should push for specific 
closure dates when the permit comes up for renewal. He also is asking 
the state Legislature to push for more transparency from the DOE and 
more public involvement.The state is hoping to have a revised permit for WIPP by May of 2023, a state official told the panel.Hancock said the DOE has no longer even offered a potential closure 
date for WIPP in any of its recent permit applications. That’s another 
tell, he said, that shows the DOE no longer has any interest in finding 
an alternative to WIPP.The New Mexico Environment Department recently asked the feds to 
provide a potential closure date. The DOE said it could take as long as <a target="_blank" href="https://hwbdocuments.env.nm.gov/Waste%20Isolation%20Pilot%20Plant/220626.pdf">2083 for WIPP to dispose of all current</a> and projected waste being produced across the country.Hancock, speaking to Source New Mexico after the meeting, said the 
fact that DOE is being coy about the eventual closure of WIPP should 
concern generations of New Mexicans.“When you’re supposed to be from 1999 to 2024 and are now say 1999 to
 2083, that looks like forever,” he said. “Because if you go 60 years 
more, why are you not going to say again, ‘Oh, well, we don’t have any 
other place. So guess what?’”Knerr, pressed about the issue during the committee meeting, said the
 2083 date was just an estimate based on waste amounts being generated 
and projected at “waste generator” sites across the country. But he 
noted that it’s taken about 20 years to get WIPP at 40% of the capacity 
it’s allowed, so it’s reasonable to think it’ll take about 30 more years
 to fill the site.A 2020 analysis by the <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/25593">National Academies of Sciences</a> found that all waste that has been generated or is planned to be, will exceed WIPP’s legal capacity by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559413/figure/fig_S-5/?report=objectonly">at least 10%</a>. That’s another issue the DOE has not responded to publicly, Hancock said.The bipartisan legislative committee, made up of state senators and 
representatives, ultimately voted to send a letter to the Department of 
Energy asking questions about shipments and seeking more transparency.This story was originally written and produced by&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://sourcenm.com">Source New Mexico</a>
 which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus, including 
the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 
501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial 
independence.

Nuclear waste site could be open ‘forever’ despite 2024 closure date, advocate warns

By JARED STRONG <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/15/dairy-farm-fined-for-200000-gallon-manure-discharge-into-creek/">Iowa Capital Dispatch</a>

The owner of a northwest Iowa 
dairy farm was ordered to pay the state more than $36,000 for a massive 
manure release last year that killed nearly 100,000 small fish in a 
nearby creek, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The manure discharge happened in April 2021 when a worker at Rock 
Bottom Dairy, near Lester, neglected one night to shut off an irrigator 
that spreads manure onto a nearby field.

An overrun of about 200,000 gallons of manure into Mud Creek and its 
tributary was discovered early the next morning. Signs of contamination 
stretched 13 miles downstream, with elevated concentrations of E. coli 
bacteria and ammonia, the DNR reported.

The dairy has about 3,800 cattle, and the DNR has documented four other manure releases there in the past two decades.

One of them, in 2009, similarly polluted the waterways with about 
100,000 gallons of manure and killed about 1,400 fish. That spill was 
caused by a clamp that came loose from a hose that was used to transfer 
manure from one location to another on the site, DNR records show. The 
dairy was fined $6,000.

The causes of the spills were different in each case, said Scott Wilson, supervisor of the DNR field office in that area.

“This is unfortunate,” Wilson said of the most-recent spill. “It was 
clearly a mistake, and we expect them to come up with procedures, some 
sort of remedy that would prevent this from happening in the future.”

The dairy’s owner Bernard Bakker agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for the
 most-recent spill — the maximum administrative penalty the DNR can 
levy. He must also pay restitution to the state for the estimated 96,168
 fish that were killed along with the costs for the DNR investigation 
into the fish kill. That totaled about $26,100.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663276576445.png" alt="A manure spill in April 2021 in northwest Iowa near the Minnesota border killed nearly 100,000 small fish. (Photo courtesy of Iowa DNR)" />
 <figcaption>A manure spill in April 2021 in northwest Iowa near the Minnesota border killed nearly 100,000 small fish. (Photo courtesy of Iowa DNR)</figcaption>
 </figure>By JARED STRONG <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/15/dairy-farm-fined-for-200000-gallon-manure-discharge-into-creek/">Iowa Capital Dispatch</a>The owner of a northwest Iowa 
dairy farm was ordered to pay the state more than $36,000 for a massive 
manure release last year that killed nearly 100,000 small fish in a 
nearby creek, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.The manure discharge happened in April 2021 when a worker at Rock 
Bottom Dairy, near Lester, neglected one night to shut off an irrigator 
that spreads manure onto a nearby field.An overrun of about 200,000 gallons of manure into Mud Creek and its 
tributary was discovered early the next morning. Signs of contamination 
stretched 13 miles downstream, with elevated concentrations of E. coli 
bacteria and ammonia, the DNR reported.The dairy has about 3,800 cattle, and the DNR has documented four other manure releases there in the past two decades.One of them, in 2009, similarly polluted the waterways with about 
100,000 gallons of manure and killed about 1,400 fish. That spill was 
caused by a clamp that came loose from a hose that was used to transfer 
manure from one location to another on the site, DNR records show. The 
dairy was fined $6,000.The causes of the spills were different in each case, said Scott Wilson, supervisor of the DNR field office in that area.“This is unfortunate,” Wilson said of the most-recent spill. “It was 
clearly a mistake, and we expect them to come up with procedures, some 
sort of remedy that would prevent this from happening in the future.”The dairy’s owner Bernard Bakker agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for the
 most-recent spill — the maximum administrative penalty the DNR can 
levy. He must also pay restitution to the state for the estimated 96,168
 fish that were killed along with the costs for the DNR investigation 
into the fish kill. That totaled about $26,100.

Misc