<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/b9675572-dea2-47d5-95d3-d95230f3b4b1">Second in a two-part series</a>

By ELIZABETH REMBERT, DAVID CONDOS and XCARET NUNEZ <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-11-29/a-hotter-drier-future-could-change-how-we-eat-how-we-breathe-and-where-we-get-our-water">Kansas News Service</a> and Harvest Public Media

Droughts like the one that’s parched crops, drained rivers and 
ignited wildfires this year in the Midwest foreshadow more frequent, 
more severe droughts in the decades ahead.


Long, deep dry stretches could mean you'll click a weather app in the
 morning not to check the forecast for rain — although you may wish for 
it — but to see if dust storms and wildfires are kicking up again.


Growing crops with little water might mean you'll eat cereal made 
from a perennial grain rather than your Corn Flakes or Wheaties. And if 
you want meat, which takes a lot of water to feed cattle, it might not 
be grown in a field.

<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/b9675572-dea2-47d5-95d3-d95230f3b4b1">RELATED:&nbsp;Here's how drought has battered the Midwest — and what it might mean for next year</a>

Climate change patterns in the Midwest are expected to accelerate 
drastically in the coming decades. Daniel Whitesel said rainstorms will 
be intense and short, depositing months of rain in days. The hard, 
sun-baked soil won’t be able to take in the moisture.


“There won’t be as many average years,” the climatologist with the 
High Plains Regional Climate Center and the National Drought Mitigation 
Center said. “You’ve heard about 1,000-year precipitation events, right?
 So in a similar light, we could have 1,000-year droughts.”


Life will have to change to find its place in the drier, hotter future, Whitesel said.


Water restrictions could mandate people to abandon their sprinkler 
systems and replace green lawns with native, drought-resistant plants. 
Wildfire precautions may mean skipping the fireworks on the Fourth of 
July to prevent <a href="https://www.klkntv.com/at-least-6-fires-spark-up-in-3-days-as-nebraska-authorities-send-firework-warnings/" target="_blank">errant sparks</a> from scorching consistently-parched neighborhoods.

In the past, the Ogallala Aquifer managed to stave off the worst 
effects of drought. The groundwater nest egg lies beneath much of 
Nebraska and western parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It supplies 
30% of the nation’s irrigation and drinking water for millions of 
people.


But the aquifer’s savior days are numbered — <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1220351110" target="_blank">scientists estimate</a> its southern half in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/11/from-droughts-to-floods-water-risk-is-an-urgent-business-issue" target="_blank">will run out of water in less than 30 years.</a>

Drier, hotter days and a depleted aquifer could spark water trades between states or all-out <a href="https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/why-nebraska-is-igniting-a-western-water-war-with-colorado/" target="_blank">water wars</a>, Whitesel said.

The city of Lincoln, Nebraska, has already started to think about how
 it will provide water to its growing population as the Midwest gets 
hotter and drier.


It can no longer rely on the Platte River, which runs through central
 Nebraska and dried up at some parts throughout the summer, to replenish
 wells.


Liz Elliott stood near the river’s edge recently at the Platte’s eastern tail and looked across its shallow stream.


“Every time I drive across the Platte and you see the dryness, you 
kind of just hold your breath a little bit,” she said, “because if we 
don’t come up with a solution now, we might be too late.”


Elliott is Lincoln's director of transportation and utilities and is 
leading the search for another source of water for the second-largest 
city in Nebraska. The city established the project in 2005, but she said
 this year’s drought emphasized its importance.


“We’re kind of at that apex of ‘What’s next year going to be like if 
we don’t get any snow this winter?’” Elliott asked. “And to make sure we
 have water for the next 100 years, we need to find a second source of 
water.”


Water for public use only <a href="https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water" target="_blank">makes up about 12% of the nation’s freshwater use.</a> Agriculture uses nearly three times as much to irrigate thirsty crops like corn and soybeans.

Nick Jordan, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota, said 
drought will “substantially limit the ability of this part of the world 
to function as one of the major — quote, unquote — breadbasket regions.”


It could mean fewer corn and soybean fields. They have to be planted every year and take a lot of water.


“We have to move away from that or we're going to have a food system 
that's really vulnerable and there's going to be a lot of collateral 
damage to society,” Jordan said.


Tim Crews — who leads research at The Land Institute, a non-profit 
research organization focused on agriculture — sees an opportunity for 
perennial crops, which don’t have to be planted every year and can suss 
out water with deep roots.


Crews said he hopes corn and soybean fields don’t dominate Midwestern
 horizons in the future. He’d like to see a variety of crops on the 
landscape, especially perennials like the wheat-like grain Kernza, or 
perennial peas and alfalfa.


“It is going to require some cultural evolution and adaptation to 
come to terms with new foods in our diet,” Crews said. “But, boy, they 
will be far better suited to the conditions we’re about to face.”


Perennial crops have a difficult path ahead of them. There are 
endless ways to sell corn: to make fuel, corn syrup, antibiotics, 
livestock feed.


“How do we advance perennial agriculture so it becomes a significant 
part of our food system and supports byproducts like ethanol?” Jordan 
asked. “Is there a market? Can farmers stay in business if they grow 
these crops?


The meat industry is also vulnerable to drought. It’s hard to keep cattle comfortable <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-07-28/the-heat-killed-so-many-kansas-cattle-in-june-that-the-only-place-to-take-carcasses-was-a-landfill" target="_blank">and alive</a> in hot weather, and dry conditions zap the pastures they graze in and raise the cost of feed corn.

Enter lab-grown meat. Emma Ignaszewski researches alternative proteins with the non-profit think tank Good Food Institute.


“Communities have been forced to adapt to increasing droughts, 
floods, fires and crop failures, all while the demand for meat is set to
 double by 2050,” she said. “Cultivated meat could really be part of an 
effort to adapt to climate change.”


She said meat that’s grown from animal cells can get people their 
protein fix. After all, labs don’t need Mother Nature for ideal growing 
conditions.


Dry ground doesn’t just hurt agriculture. It can also hurt people, by
 making its way into their lungs through dust storms like the ones that 
hit western Kansas earlier this fall.


Jesse Bell studies water, climate and health at the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center. He said when drought hits, public health 
declines — even if that’s not immediately clear.


“When you look at other weather-related disasters, you can see the 
impacts on society pretty quickly,” he said. “Drought itself in the 
United States typically isn’t a cause of death. But drought changes the 
environment, and that change in the environment can lead to human health
 outcomes.”


Air pollution from dust-storms and wildfires could cause serious 
problems for people with asthma. Or hot, dry conditions could increase 
heat-related deaths and suicides from farmers struggling with growing 
conditions.


A recently-published study from Bell and his colleagues showed deaths among middle-aged white people in Nebraska <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35710006/" target="_blank">ticked up</a> during drought periods.

“The problems could get worse in the future,” Bell said. “If we can 
start building support within our public health systems to better 
understand the challenges during drought events, that’ll help us better 
prepare for the future.”


David Condos and Xcaret Nuñez contributed to this report, a 
collaboration between Harvest Public Media and the Kansas News Service.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1669754093058.png" alt="Parts of the Platte River in central Nebraska dried up completely this summer, like this stretch near Chapman, Nebraska. " />
 <figcaption>Parts of the Platte River in central Nebraska dried up completely this summer, like this stretch near Chapman, Nebraska. </figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/b9675572-dea2-47d5-95d3-d95230f3b4b1">Second in a two-part series</a>By ELIZABETH REMBERT, DAVID CONDOS and XCARET NUNEZ <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-11-29/a-hotter-drier-future-could-change-how-we-eat-how-we-breathe-and-where-we-get-our-water">Kansas News Service</a> and Harvest Public MediaDroughts like the one that’s parched crops, drained rivers and 
ignited wildfires this year in the Midwest foreshadow more frequent, 
more severe droughts in the decades ahead.
Long, deep dry stretches could mean you'll click a weather app in the
 morning not to check the forecast for rain — although you may wish for 
it — but to see if dust storms and wildfires are kicking up again.
Growing crops with little water might mean you'll eat cereal made 
from a perennial grain rather than your Corn Flakes or Wheaties. And if 
you want meat, which takes a lot of water to feed cattle, it might not 
be grown in a field.<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/b9675572-dea2-47d5-95d3-d95230f3b4b1">RELATED:&nbsp;Here's how drought has battered the Midwest — and what it might mean for next year</a>Climate change patterns in the Midwest are expected to accelerate 
drastically in the coming decades. Daniel Whitesel said rainstorms will 
be intense and short, depositing months of rain in days. The hard, 
sun-baked soil won’t be able to take in the moisture.
“There won’t be as many average years,” the climatologist with the 
High Plains Regional Climate Center and the National Drought Mitigation 
Center said. “You’ve heard about 1,000-year precipitation events, right?
 So in a similar light, we could have 1,000-year droughts.”
Life will have to change to find its place in the drier, hotter future, Whitesel said.
Water restrictions could mandate people to abandon their sprinkler 
systems and replace green lawns with native, drought-resistant plants. 
Wildfire precautions may mean skipping the fireworks on the Fourth of 
July to prevent <a href="https://www.klkntv.com/at-least-6-fires-spark-up-in-3-days-as-nebraska-authorities-send-firework-warnings/" target="_blank">errant sparks</a> from scorching consistently-parched neighborhoods.
In the past, the Ogallala Aquifer managed to stave off the worst 
effects of drought. The groundwater nest egg lies beneath much of 
Nebraska and western parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It supplies 
30% of the nation’s irrigation and drinking water for millions of 
people.
But the aquifer’s savior days are numbered — <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1220351110" target="_blank">scientists estimate</a> its southern half in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/11/from-droughts-to-floods-water-risk-is-an-urgent-business-issue" target="_blank">will run out of water in less than 30 years.</a>
Drier, hotter days and a depleted aquifer could spark water trades between states or all-out <a href="https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/why-nebraska-is-igniting-a-western-water-war-with-colorado/" target="_blank">water wars</a>, Whitesel said.
<h2>Finding a new water supply</h2>The city of Lincoln, Nebraska, has already started to think about how
 it will provide water to its growing population as the Midwest gets 
hotter and drier.
It can no longer rely on the Platte River, which runs through central
 Nebraska and dried up at some parts throughout the summer, to replenish
 wells.
Liz Elliott stood near the river’s edge recently at the Platte’s eastern tail and looked across its shallow stream.
<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1669754184207.png" alt="Liz Elliott stands near the edge of the Platte River, where the river replenishes the wells that provide Lincoln with water. Elizabeth Rembert / Harvest Public Media" />
 <figcaption>Liz Elliott stands near the edge of the Platte River, where the river replenishes the wells that provide Lincoln with water. Elizabeth Rembert / Harvest Public Media</figcaption>
 </figure>“Every time I drive across the Platte and you see the dryness, you 
kind of just hold your breath a little bit,” she said, “because if we 
don’t come up with a solution now, we might be too late.”
Elliott is Lincoln's director of transportation and utilities and is 
leading the search for another source of water for the second-largest 
city in Nebraska. The city established the project in 2005, but she said
 this year’s drought emphasized its importance.
“We’re kind of at that apex of ‘What’s next year going to be like if 
we don’t get any snow this winter?’” Elliott asked. “And to make sure we
 have water for the next 100 years, we need to find a second source of 
water.”
<h2>Changing agriculture</h2>Water for public use only <a href="https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water" target="_blank">makes up about 12% of the nation’s freshwater use.</a> Agriculture uses nearly three times as much to irrigate thirsty crops like corn and soybeans.
Nick Jordan, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota, said 
drought will “substantially limit the ability of this part of the world 
to function as one of the major — quote, unquote — breadbasket regions.”
It could mean fewer corn and soybean fields. They have to be planted every year and take a lot of water.
“We have to move away from that or we're going to have a food system 
that's really vulnerable and there's going to be a lot of collateral 
damage to society,” Jordan said.
Tim Crews — who leads research at The Land Institute, a non-profit 
research organization focused on agriculture — sees an opportunity for 
perennial crops, which don’t have to be planted every year and can suss 
out water with deep roots.
<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1669754225735.png" alt="The wheat-like, perennial grain kernza can be made into cereal, pasta and beer. But it'll be a challenge to convince farmers there's a viable market in perennial crops and sway them from growing reliable annuals like corn and soybeans. The Land Institute" />
 <figcaption>The wheat-like, perennial grain kernza can be made into cereal, pasta and beer. But it'll be a challenge to convince farmers there's a viable market in perennial crops and sway them from growing reliable annuals like corn and soybeans. The Land Institute</figcaption>
 </figure>Crews said he hopes corn and soybean fields don’t dominate Midwestern
 horizons in the future. He’d like to see a variety of crops on the 
landscape, especially perennials like the wheat-like grain Kernza, or 
perennial peas and alfalfa.
“It is going to require some cultural evolution and adaptation to 
come to terms with new foods in our diet,” Crews said. “But, boy, they 
will be far better suited to the conditions we’re about to face.”
Perennial crops have a difficult path ahead of them. There are 
endless ways to sell corn: to make fuel, corn syrup, antibiotics, 
livestock feed.
“How do we advance perennial agriculture so it becomes a significant 
part of our food system and supports byproducts like ethanol?” Jordan 
asked. “Is there a market? Can farmers stay in business if they grow 
these crops?
The meat industry is also vulnerable to drought. It’s hard to keep cattle comfortable <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-07-28/the-heat-killed-so-many-kansas-cattle-in-june-that-the-only-place-to-take-carcasses-was-a-landfill" target="_blank">and alive</a> in hot weather, and dry conditions zap the pastures they graze in and raise the cost of feed corn.
<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1669754263532.png" alt="Cultivated meat, like this cheeseburger, is grown in a lab from animal cells and require no slaughter. When produced at a commercial scale, cultivated meat uses up to 95% less land and 78% less water, according to a study commissioned by the Good Food Institute. Mosa Meat" />
 <figcaption>Cultivated meat, like this cheeseburger, is grown in a lab from animal cells and require no slaughter. When produced at a commercial scale, cultivated meat uses up to 95% less land and 78% less water, according to a study commissioned by the Good Food Institute. Mosa Meat</figcaption>
 </figure>Enter lab-grown meat. Emma Ignaszewski researches alternative proteins with the non-profit think tank Good Food Institute.
“Communities have been forced to adapt to increasing droughts, 
floods, fires and crop failures, all while the demand for meat is set to
 double by 2050,” she said. “Cultivated meat could really be part of an 
effort to adapt to climate change.”
She said meat that’s grown from animal cells can get people their 
protein fix. After all, labs don’t need Mother Nature for ideal growing 
conditions.
<h2>Health consequences</h2>Dry ground doesn’t just hurt agriculture. It can also hurt people, by
 making its way into their lungs through dust storms like the ones that 
hit western Kansas earlier this fall.
Jesse Bell studies water, climate and health at the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center. He said when drought hits, public health 
declines — even if that’s not immediately clear.
“When you look at other weather-related disasters, you can see the 
impacts on society pretty quickly,” he said. “Drought itself in the 
United States typically isn’t a cause of death. But drought changes the 
environment, and that change in the environment can lead to human health
 outcomes.”
<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1669754304901.png" alt="Strong winds in Pawnee County, Kansas whipped dust into the air in October 2022. Hot, dry conditions prime the way for dust storms and wildfires, which cause air pollution and may present serious problems for people with respiratory illnesses like asthma. David Condos / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Strong winds in Pawnee County, Kansas whipped dust into the air in October 2022. Hot, dry conditions prime the way for dust storms and wildfires, which cause air pollution and may present serious problems for people with respiratory illnesses like asthma. David Condos / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>Air pollution from dust-storms and wildfires could cause serious 
problems for people with asthma. Or hot, dry conditions could increase 
heat-related deaths and suicides from farmers struggling with growing 
conditions.
A recently-published study from Bell and his colleagues showed deaths among middle-aged white people in Nebraska <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35710006/" target="_blank">ticked up</a> during drought periods.
“The problems could get worse in the future,” Bell said. “If we can 
start building support within our public health systems to better 
understand the challenges during drought events, that’ll help us better 
prepare for the future.”
David Condos and Xcaret Nuñez contributed to this report, a 
collaboration between Harvest Public Media and the Kansas News Service.

Hotter, drier future could change how we eat, breathe, get our water

Helen Gee, 73, of Oberlin, KS passed away December 1, 2022, in 
Oberlin. She was born March 18, 1949, in Freeport, TX to George and Ruth 
(Akins) Pennington.

Helen graduated from Pueblo South High School 
and went on to attend Pueblo Jr. College and Colby Community College. 
Helen married Gene Gee on October 18, 1968, in Boone, CO, in the home of 
Gerald and Stella Gee, his parents. She had worked at the Beamgard 
Learning Center, Golden Age Center, and as a paraprofessional at DCHS. 
Most importantly she worked from home, taking care of her family, and 
supporting her husband in his ministry. She attended the Oberlin 
Community Fellowship and was a member of the Church of the Nazarene.  
She loved to sing in church and often sang with her husband, Gene.  
Helen enjoyed reading, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, and playing the 
piano. She was a wonderful cook and gardener and canned the food she 
grew in her garden.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents and
 brother, Dwight Garnhart. She is survived by her husband, Gene of the 
home; children, Kenny Gee and wife Denise of Oberlin, KS and Beverly 
Keys and husband Robert of Topeka, KS; grandchildren: Justin Gee of 
Hurricane, UT, Jacob Gee of Hays, KS, Robbie, James, Katherine, and 
Nathan Keys all of Topeka, KS.

Funeral services will be held 11:00
 am Monday, December 5, 2022, at the funeral home. Burial will follow at 
the Oberlin Cemetery. Visitation will be from 9-11:00 am before the 
service. 

Memorial contributions may be made to the Decatur County EMS or
 the Oberlin Community Fellowship Church of the Nazarene and may be sent
 in care of Pauls Funeral Home, 121 N Penn Ave., Oberlin, KS 67749. 
Condolences may be left at www.paulsfh.com.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670175736386.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Helen Gee, 73, of Oberlin, KS passed away December 1, 2022, in 
Oberlin. She was born March 18, 1949, in Freeport, TX to George and Ruth 
(Akins) Pennington.Helen graduated from Pueblo South High School 
and went on to attend Pueblo Jr. College and Colby Community College. 
Helen married Gene Gee on October 18, 1968, in Boone, CO, in the home of 
Gerald and Stella Gee, his parents. She had worked at the Beamgard 
Learning Center, Golden Age Center, and as a paraprofessional at DCHS. 
Most importantly she worked from home, taking care of her family, and 
supporting her husband in his ministry. She attended the Oberlin 
Community Fellowship and was a member of the Church of the Nazarene. 
She loved to sing in church and often sang with her husband, Gene. 
Helen enjoyed reading, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, and playing the 
piano. She was a wonderful cook and gardener and canned the food she 
grew in her garden.Helen was preceded in death by her parents and
 brother, Dwight Garnhart. She is survived by her husband, Gene of the 
home; children, Kenny Gee and wife Denise of Oberlin, KS and Beverly 
Keys and husband Robert of Topeka, KS; grandchildren: Justin Gee of 
Hurricane, UT, Jacob Gee of Hays, KS, Robbie, James, Katherine, and 
Nathan Keys all of Topeka, KS.Funeral services will be held 11:00
 am Monday, December 5, 2022, at the funeral home. Burial will follow at 
the Oberlin Cemetery. Visitation will be from 9-11:00 am before the 
service. Memorial contributions may be made to the Decatur County EMS or
 the Oberlin Community Fellowship Church of the Nazarene and may be sent
 in care of Pauls Funeral Home, 121 N Penn Ave., Oberlin, KS 67749. 
Condolences may be left at www.paulsfh.com.

Helen Marie Gee

October 27, 1957
 &nbsp;-&nbsp;
 November 29, 2022

An obituary is pending with Mickey-Leopold Funeral Home.

Click <a href="https://www.mickeyleopoldfuneral.com/obituaries/David-Clinton-Bingham?obId=26487964#/celebrationWall">HERE</a> for service details.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670175665151.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>October 27, 1957
 &nbsp;-&nbsp;
 November 29, 2022An obituary is pending with Mickey-Leopold Funeral Home.Click <a href="https://www.mickeyleopoldfuneral.com/obituaries/David-Clinton-Bingham?obId=26487964#/celebrationWall">HERE</a> for service details.

David Clinton Bingham

Over Labor Day Weekend ,many&nbsp;Nicodemus descendants gathered to&nbsp;re-enact&nbsp;their ancestors’ story&nbsp;of leaving&nbsp;1877&nbsp;Kentucky&nbsp;to&nbsp;immigrate&nbsp;to Western Kansas&nbsp;to homestead and found a town. Descendant Angela Bates&nbsp;devoted decades to researching and recording her family’s&nbsp;Western Kansas story&nbsp;and has written a script to share&nbsp;it. &nbsp;The&nbsp;ripples, like those of a pebble tossed into a still pond, continue to affect&nbsp;participants’ lives.

Angela&nbsp;researched the Ellis/Nicodemus Trail, collaborated with Walz families who own land the trail crosses, wrote the script, encouraged cousins to participate,&nbsp;and&nbsp;discovered&nbsp;Nick Abt&nbsp;Films.&nbsp;Finally, she, with the help of others, and funding from the National Parks Foundation and Trust for Public Lands,&nbsp;tied up loose ends necessary to film the&nbsp;Ellis to Nicodemus Trail&nbsp;segment&nbsp;of the documentary in&nbsp;only three days.&nbsp;After a storm threatened filming on Friday evening,&nbsp;they&nbsp;shot&nbsp;the rest of the weekend’s footage&nbsp;with&nbsp;sunshine,&nbsp;gentle breezes, and moderate temperatures.&nbsp;Everyone involved&nbsp;thanked God&nbsp;that local snakes sunbathed&nbsp;elsewhere&nbsp;while&nbsp;participants&nbsp;traipsed&nbsp;the path their forebears&nbsp;walked&nbsp;145 years earlier.&nbsp;

I&nbsp;participated&nbsp;as the&nbsp;proverbial fly on the wall, taking&nbsp;photos and listening&nbsp;to conversations among computer techs, business people, realtors, vet techs, university professors, United States Park Service employees, chefs,&nbsp;and&nbsp;others&nbsp;who peeled&nbsp;away&nbsp;layers of shared family history.&nbsp;Several descendants&nbsp;traveled from&nbsp;urban areas&nbsp;as far away as Atlanta and Cincinnati&nbsp;because&nbsp;Nicodemus like most western Kansas&nbsp;small towns has outsourced&nbsp;many&nbsp;dreamers and visionaries.&nbsp;

These cousins&nbsp;proudly&nbsp;connect to this community that birthed their&nbsp;futures&nbsp;through their&nbsp;annual&nbsp;Emancipation&nbsp;Celebration&nbsp;and its huge gathering.&nbsp;Only a&nbsp;few&nbsp;live&nbsp;nearby so&nbsp;hiking through&nbsp;grasses&nbsp;so&nbsp;dense&nbsp;walkers&nbsp;couldn’t see&nbsp;snakes or ticks added realistic drama.&nbsp;Experiencing&nbsp;mosquito&nbsp;bites and&nbsp;a badger-hole-induced&nbsp;tumble,&nbsp;re-enactors&nbsp;demonstrated the&nbsp;same&nbsp;hardy spirit their ancestors&nbsp;displayed following wagons&nbsp;35 miles&nbsp;northwest&nbsp;from&nbsp;Ellis&nbsp;across unbroken&nbsp;prairie to&nbsp;undeveloped&nbsp;Nicodemus.&nbsp;

On Pioneer Day in October,&nbsp;ripples widened as&nbsp;documentary&nbsp;participants&nbsp;provided the Nicodemus Historical Society&nbsp;Program.&nbsp;Actors&nbsp;emotionally&nbsp;voiced&nbsp;either in person or through Zoomhow the filming impacted them.&nbsp;Several told how children,&nbsp;grandchildren, and friends&nbsp;had never heard of&nbsp;relatives who left Kentucky and&nbsp;traveled&nbsp;to Kansas to homestead.&nbsp;They&nbsp;discussed&nbsp;what homesteading required.&nbsp;All&nbsp;took pride in&nbsp;descending&nbsp;from sturdy stock.&nbsp;Actors&nbsp;playing the&nbsp;very&nbsp;pregnant&nbsp;Emma Williams,&nbsp;her mom&nbsp;Zerina, and dad&nbsp;Tom&nbsp;Johnson&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;a deep spiritual connection to&nbsp;ancestors they portrayed.&nbsp;Those observing filming watched their characters develop&nbsp;and deepen.&nbsp;

Many&nbsp;participants&nbsp;noted original settlers’&nbsp;physical&nbsp;stressors&nbsp;due to traveling with&nbsp;a very pregnant woman&nbsp;and&nbsp;several older family members.&nbsp;They commented that their&nbsp;ancestors relied entirely on themselves during that first&nbsp;trek&nbsp;to Nicodemus. Re-enactors knew&nbsp;they&nbsp;could call help if&nbsp;necessary. Someone&nbsp;mentioned&nbsp;farmsteads with wells&nbsp;now&nbsp;exist that didn’t back then.&nbsp;Those newcomers&nbsp;either carried water or drank from creeks and the river along the way.

The circle widens as this story impacts&nbsp;more than&nbsp;the descendants recreating&nbsp;it. Their&nbsp;formerly enslaved&nbsp;ancestors’&nbsp;desire for freedom and the right to&nbsp;homestead&nbsp;came to life for&nbsp;the film crew, land owners, support crews, and&nbsp;wagon and horse&nbsp;teams&nbsp;who had no relatives in Nicodemus.&nbsp;The filming&nbsp;touched everyone involved.&nbsp;That effect will grow as more audiences view it.&nbsp;

Completing all aspects of the documentary takes time.&nbsp;In the future, when it hits the screen, ripples will expand beyond Western Kansas and these&nbsp;participants’&nbsp;lives.&nbsp;This&nbsp;story&nbsp;of strength and determination adds not only to the&nbsp;legacy&nbsp;of our state but also our nation. &nbsp;

Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and
 sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1669931782533.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By KAREN MADORINOver Labor Day Weekend ,many&nbsp;Nicodemus descendants gathered to&nbsp;re-enact&nbsp;their ancestors’ story&nbsp;of leaving&nbsp;1877&nbsp;Kentucky&nbsp;to&nbsp;immigrate&nbsp;to Western Kansas&nbsp;to homestead and found a town. Descendant Angela Bates&nbsp;devoted decades to researching and recording her family’s&nbsp;Western Kansas story&nbsp;and has written a script to share&nbsp;it. &nbsp;The&nbsp;ripples, like those of a pebble tossed into a still pond, continue to affect&nbsp;participants’ lives.Angela&nbsp;researched the Ellis/Nicodemus Trail, collaborated with Walz families who own land the trail crosses, wrote the script, encouraged cousins to participate,&nbsp;and&nbsp;discovered&nbsp;Nick Abt&nbsp;Films.&nbsp;Finally, she, with the help of others, and funding from the National Parks Foundation and Trust for Public Lands,&nbsp;tied up loose ends necessary to film the&nbsp;Ellis to Nicodemus Trail&nbsp;segment&nbsp;of the documentary in&nbsp;only three days.&nbsp;After a storm threatened filming on Friday evening,&nbsp;they&nbsp;shot&nbsp;the rest of the weekend’s footage&nbsp;with&nbsp;sunshine,&nbsp;gentle breezes, and moderate temperatures.&nbsp;Everyone involved&nbsp;thanked God&nbsp;that local snakes sunbathed&nbsp;elsewhere&nbsp;while&nbsp;participants&nbsp;traipsed&nbsp;the path their forebears&nbsp;walked&nbsp;145 years earlier.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658158605319.jpeg" alt="Karen Madorin" />
 <figcaption>Karen Madorin</figcaption>
 </figure>I&nbsp;participated&nbsp;as the&nbsp;proverbial fly on the wall, taking&nbsp;photos and listening&nbsp;to conversations among computer techs, business people, realtors, vet techs, university professors, United States Park Service employees, chefs,&nbsp;and&nbsp;others&nbsp;who peeled&nbsp;away&nbsp;layers of shared family history.&nbsp;Several descendants&nbsp;traveled from&nbsp;urban areas&nbsp;as far away as Atlanta and Cincinnati&nbsp;because&nbsp;Nicodemus like most western Kansas&nbsp;small towns has outsourced&nbsp;many&nbsp;dreamers and visionaries.&nbsp;These cousins&nbsp;proudly&nbsp;connect to this community that birthed their&nbsp;futures&nbsp;through their&nbsp;annual&nbsp;Emancipation&nbsp;Celebration&nbsp;and its huge gathering.&nbsp;Only a&nbsp;few&nbsp;live&nbsp;nearby so&nbsp;hiking through&nbsp;grasses&nbsp;so&nbsp;dense&nbsp;walkers&nbsp;couldn’t see&nbsp;snakes or ticks added realistic drama.&nbsp;Experiencing&nbsp;mosquito&nbsp;bites and&nbsp;a badger-hole-induced&nbsp;tumble,&nbsp;re-enactors&nbsp;demonstrated the&nbsp;same&nbsp;hardy spirit their ancestors&nbsp;displayed following wagons&nbsp;35 miles&nbsp;northwest&nbsp;from&nbsp;Ellis&nbsp;across unbroken&nbsp;prairie to&nbsp;undeveloped&nbsp;Nicodemus.&nbsp;On Pioneer Day in October,&nbsp;ripples widened as&nbsp;documentary&nbsp;participants&nbsp;provided the Nicodemus Historical Society&nbsp;Program.&nbsp;Actors&nbsp;emotionally&nbsp;voiced&nbsp;either in person or through Zoomhow the filming impacted them.&nbsp;Several told how children,&nbsp;grandchildren, and friends&nbsp;had never heard of&nbsp;relatives who left Kentucky and&nbsp;traveled&nbsp;to Kansas to homestead.&nbsp;They&nbsp;discussed&nbsp;what homesteading required.&nbsp;All&nbsp;took pride in&nbsp;descending&nbsp;from sturdy stock.&nbsp;Actors&nbsp;playing the&nbsp;very&nbsp;pregnant&nbsp;Emma Williams,&nbsp;her mom&nbsp;Zerina, and dad&nbsp;Tom&nbsp;Johnson&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;a deep spiritual connection to&nbsp;ancestors they portrayed.&nbsp;Those observing filming watched their characters develop&nbsp;and deepen.&nbsp;Many&nbsp;participants&nbsp;noted original settlers’&nbsp;physical&nbsp;stressors&nbsp;due to traveling with&nbsp;a very pregnant woman&nbsp;and&nbsp;several older family members.&nbsp;They commented that their&nbsp;ancestors relied entirely on themselves during that first&nbsp;trek&nbsp;to Nicodemus. Re-enactors knew&nbsp;they&nbsp;could call help if&nbsp;necessary. Someone&nbsp;mentioned&nbsp;farmsteads with wells&nbsp;now&nbsp;exist that didn’t back then.&nbsp;Those newcomers&nbsp;either carried water or drank from creeks and the river along the way.The circle widens as this story impacts&nbsp;more than&nbsp;the descendants recreating&nbsp;it. Their&nbsp;formerly enslaved&nbsp;ancestors’&nbsp;desire for freedom and the right to&nbsp;homestead&nbsp;came to life for&nbsp;the film crew, land owners, support crews, and&nbsp;wagon and horse&nbsp;teams&nbsp;who had no relatives in Nicodemus.&nbsp;The filming&nbsp;touched everyone involved.&nbsp;That effect will grow as more audiences view it.&nbsp;Completing all aspects of the documentary takes time.&nbsp;In the future, when it hits the screen, ripples will expand beyond Western Kansas and these&nbsp;participants’&nbsp;lives.&nbsp;This&nbsp;story&nbsp;of strength and determination adds not only to the&nbsp;legacy&nbsp;of our state but also our nation. &nbsp;Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and
 sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.

MADORIN: Ripples beyond Nicodemus

PAWNEE COUNTY — Judi Lynn Allison, 50 of Delphos, Kansas, faced a jury trial in&nbsp;Pawnee County District Court this week regarding a felony criminal complaint, according to County Attorney Doug McNett.

The jury heard testimony that on September 28, 2019, the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to a residence north of Garfield, Kansas, regarding a possible theft. Upon arrival, the deputy was advised the owner of the property passed away in December of 2018 and his eldest daughter named executrix of the estate. 

The deceased had been a self-employed farm mechanic. An estate auction was scheduled for October 5, 2019, to sell his equipment and shop tools. However, when the executrix and auctioneer arrived at the property to start putting items on trailers in preparation for the upcoming auction, they discovered all of the tools had been removed from her father's service truck which had been locked in a tool shed. There was no evidence of forced entry.

The auctioneer testified that approximately a month before he had gone through the property with the executrix’s husband making notes for a sale bill, and at that time the service trucks’ approximate eight toolboxes had been full of miscellaneous shop tools. At trial, the auctioneer valued the missing property at approximately $1,200 but acknowledged he had testified at the Preliminary Hearing he believed the items to be worth between $1,700 and $2,500.

Additional testimony was presented that over Labor Day weekend the executrix had invited her father’s siblings to come to the property and take items that held sentimental value to them from the house and outbuildings. Allison, who was the deceased’s youngest sister, selected a few large items that would not fit in her vehicle. The family moved those selected items to the locked tool shed and granted Allison permission to come back to the property at a later date to retrieve them.

A neighbor came forward after the auction and advised law enforcement that one evening he’d noticed the tool shed door open and so he stopped because he knew no one should be there. He testified at trial that he discovered Allison and her husband in the shed. He further testified that he saw approximately six large boxes of what he believed to be tools loaded in their enclosed trailer. Trail cam video confirmed that the Allisons spent approximately two hours on the property the evening of September 5, 2019.

When contacted by family and law enforcement, Allison denied any knowledge of the missing tools. A search warrant was executed on the Allison’s Ottawa County rural residence on December 12, 2019. The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for 21 missing shop tools that were clearly identified on the auction sale bill. Law enforcement seized nine items from the Allison residence which they believed matched the property descriptions. At the time the search warrant was executed, Allison claimed the items seized were her husband’s.

At trial, however, Allison took the stand in her own defense and testified that four of the nine tools seized from her home had in fact came from her brother’s estate but argued her niece had given her permission to take the items.

The jury made up of 7 women and 5 men deliberated for approximately 30 minutes before returning Guilty verdict Wednesday evening of Theft of Property worth less than $1,500.

After accepting the verdict, Pawnee County District Judge Bruce Gatterman ordered a presentence investigation report be completed to determine a restitution amount. Sentencing will scheduled once the report is completed. The defendant remains free on her own recognizance.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618667325929.jpeg" alt="Allison photo from an earlier arrest in Saline Co." />
 <figcaption>Allison photo from an earlier arrest in Saline Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>PAWNEE COUNTY — Judi Lynn Allison, 50 of Delphos, Kansas, faced a jury trial in&nbsp;Pawnee County District Court this week regarding a felony criminal complaint, according to County Attorney Doug McNett.The jury heard testimony that on September 28, 2019, the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to a residence north of Garfield, Kansas, regarding a possible theft. Upon arrival, the deputy was advised the owner of the property passed away in December of 2018 and his eldest daughter named executrix of the estate. The deceased had been a self-employed farm mechanic. An estate auction was scheduled for October 5, 2019, to sell his equipment and shop tools. However, when the executrix and auctioneer arrived at the property to start putting items on trailers in preparation for the upcoming auction, they discovered all of the tools had been removed from her father's service truck which had been locked in a tool shed. There was no evidence of forced entry.The auctioneer testified that approximately a month before he had gone through the property with the executrix’s husband making notes for a sale bill, and at that time the service trucks’ approximate eight toolboxes had been full of miscellaneous shop tools. At trial, the auctioneer valued the missing property at approximately $1,200 but acknowledged he had testified at the Preliminary Hearing he believed the items to be worth between $1,700 and $2,500.Additional testimony was presented that over Labor Day weekend the executrix had invited her father’s siblings to come to the property and take items that held sentimental value to them from the house and outbuildings. Allison, who was the deceased’s youngest sister, selected a few large items that would not fit in her vehicle. The family moved those selected items to the locked tool shed and granted Allison permission to come back to the property at a later date to retrieve them.A neighbor came forward after the auction and advised law enforcement that one evening he’d noticed the tool shed door open and so he stopped because he knew no one should be there. He testified at trial that he discovered Allison and her husband in the shed. He further testified that he saw approximately six large boxes of what he believed to be tools loaded in their enclosed trailer. Trail cam video confirmed that the Allisons spent approximately two hours on the property the evening of September 5, 2019.When contacted by family and law enforcement, Allison denied any knowledge of the missing tools. A search warrant was executed on the Allison’s Ottawa County rural residence on December 12, 2019. The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for 21 missing shop tools that were clearly identified on the auction sale bill. Law enforcement seized nine items from the Allison residence which they believed matched the property descriptions. At the time the search warrant was executed, Allison claimed the items seized were her husband’s.At trial, however, Allison took the stand in her own defense and testified that four of the nine tools seized from her home had in fact came from her brother’s estate but argued her niece had given her permission to take the items.The jury made up of 7 women and 5 men deliberated for approximately 30 minutes before returning Guilty verdict Wednesday evening of Theft of Property worth less than $1,500.After accepting the verdict, Pawnee County District Judge Bruce Gatterman ordered a presentence investigation report be completed to determine a restitution amount. Sentencing will scheduled once the report is completed. The defendant remains free on her own recognizance.

Kansas woman found guilty of estate sale theft

PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-china-united-states-beijing-4521a349b4171b4e9792a5ed96f6f44f">concerns over a future conflict with China</a>.

The B-21 Raider is the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-air-force-technology-mo-state-wire-politics-df0e81b91ad9a945032ba4972c754426">first new American bomber aircraft</a>&nbsp;in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.

As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony. It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.

“This isn’t just another airplane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It’s the embodiment of America’s determination to defend the republic that we all love.”

The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-nuclear-weapons-politics-01ec89ceb9224443880acd4213ef6c73">its nuclear triad</a>, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China’s rapid military modernization.

China is on track to have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-europe-china-united-states-beijing-af4dd76e993f450df7af8e63d1a0187c">1,500 nuclear weapons</a>&nbsp;by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present “the most consequential and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said this week in its annual China report.

”We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we fear we would one day face from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-china-beijing-moscow-europe-3d694c61d318e083076b681cd913102d">China, Russia,</a>&nbsp;” said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in 2015.

While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.

“The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,” Warden said.

Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.

“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Austin said. “Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”

Other advances likely include new ways to control electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.

“It is incredibly low observability,” Warden said. “You’ll hear it, but you really won’t see it.”

Six Raiders are in production. The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider’s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.

The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it’s unclear how much is actually being spent. The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.

“We will soon fly this aircraft, test it, and then move it into production. And we will build the bomber force in numbers suited to the strategic environment ahead,” Austin said.

The undisclosed cost troubles government watchdogs.

“It might be a big challenge for us to do our normal analysis of a major program like this,” said Dan Grazier, a senior defense policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight. “It’s easy to say that the B-21 is still on schedule before it actually flies. Because it’s only when one of these programs goes into the actual testing phase when real problems are discovered." That, he said, is when schedules start to slip and costs rise.

The B-2 was also envisioned to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but the Air Force built only 21, due to cost overruns and a changed security environment after the Soviet Union fell. Fewer than that are ready to fly on any given day due to the significant maintenance needs of the aging bomber.

The B-21 Raider, which takes its name from the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range, Warden said. It won’t make its first flight until 2023. However, Warden said Northrop Grumman has used advanced computing to test the bomber’s performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one unveiled Friday.

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will house the bomber’s first training program and squadron, though the bombers are also expected to be stationed at bases in Texas and Missouri.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican of South Dakota, led the state’s bid to host the bomber program. In a statement, he called it “the most advanced weapon system ever developed by our country to defend ourselves and our allies.”

Northrop Grumman has also incorporated maintenance lessons learned from the B-2, Warden said.

In October 2001, B-2 pilots set a record when they flew 44 hours straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The B-2 often does long round-trip missions because there are few hangars globally that can accommodate its wingspan, which limits where it can land for maintenance. The hangars also must be air-conditioned because the Spirit’s windows don’t open and hot climates can cook cockpit electronics.

The new Raider will also get new hangars to accommodate its size and complexity, Warden said.

However, with the Raider’s extended range, ’it won’t need to be based in-theater,” Austin said. “It won’t need logistical support to hold any target at risk.”

A final noticeable difference was in the debut itself. While both went public in Palmdale, the B-2 was rolled outdoors in 1988 amid much public fanfare. Given advances in surveillance satellites and cameras, the Raider was just partially exposed, keeping its sensitive propulsion systems and sensors under the hangar and protected from overhead eyes.

“The magic of the platform,” Warden said, “is what you don’t see.”

PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-china-united-states-beijing-4521a349b4171b4e9792a5ed96f6f44f">concerns over a future conflict with China</a>.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Unveiled today, the B-21 Raider will be a dual-capable, penetrating-strike stealth bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. The B-21 will form the backbone of the future Air Force bomber force consisting of B-21s and B-52s.(U.S. Air Force photo) <a href="https://t.co/X6KSU7sy6U">pic.twitter.com/X6KSU7sy6U</a>&mdash; U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) <a href="https://twitter.com/usairforce/status/1598858254615912448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The B-21 Raider is the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-air-force-technology-mo-state-wire-politics-df0e81b91ad9a945032ba4972c754426">first new American bomber aircraft</a>&nbsp;in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony. It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.“This isn’t just another airplane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It’s the embodiment of America’s determination to defend the republic that we all love.”The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-nuclear-weapons-politics-01ec89ceb9224443880acd4213ef6c73">its nuclear triad</a>, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China’s rapid military modernization.China is on track to have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-europe-china-united-states-beijing-af4dd76e993f450df7af8e63d1a0187c">1,500 nuclear weapons</a>&nbsp;by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present “the most consequential and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said this week in its annual China report.”We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we fear we would one day face from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-china-beijing-moscow-europe-3d694c61d318e083076b681cd913102d">China, Russia,</a>&nbsp;” said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in 2015.While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.“The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,” Warden said.Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Austin said. “Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”Other advances likely include new ways to control electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.“It is incredibly low observability,” Warden said. “You’ll hear it, but you really won’t see it.”Six Raiders are in production. The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider’s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it’s unclear how much is actually being spent. The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.“We will soon fly this aircraft, test it, and then move it into production. And we will build the bomber force in numbers suited to the strategic environment ahead,” Austin said.The undisclosed cost troubles government watchdogs.“It might be a big challenge for us to do our normal analysis of a major program like this,” said Dan Grazier, a senior defense policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight. “It’s easy to say that the B-21 is still on schedule before it actually flies. Because it’s only when one of these programs goes into the actual testing phase when real problems are discovered." That, he said, is when schedules start to slip and costs rise.The B-2 was also envisioned to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but the Air Force built only 21, due to cost overruns and a changed security environment after the Soviet Union fell. Fewer than that are ready to fly on any given day due to the significant maintenance needs of the aging bomber.The B-21 Raider, which takes its name from the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range, Warden said. It won’t make its first flight until 2023. However, Warden said Northrop Grumman has used advanced computing to test the bomber’s performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one unveiled Friday.Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will house the bomber’s first training program and squadron, though the bombers are also expected to be stationed at bases in Texas and Missouri.U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican of South Dakota, led the state’s bid to host the bomber program. In a statement, he called it “the most advanced weapon system ever developed by our country to defend ourselves and our allies.”Northrop Grumman has also incorporated maintenance lessons learned from the B-2, Warden said.In October 2001, B-2 pilots set a record when they flew 44 hours straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The B-2 often does long round-trip missions because there are few hangars globally that can accommodate its wingspan, which limits where it can land for maintenance. The hangars also must be air-conditioned because the Spirit’s windows don’t open and hot climates can cook cockpit electronics.The new Raider will also get new hangars to accommodate its size and complexity, Warden said.However, with the Raider’s extended range, ’it won’t need to be based in-theater,” Austin said. “It won’t need logistical support to hold any target at risk.”A final noticeable difference was in the debut itself. While both went public in Palmdale, the B-2 was rolled outdoors in 1988 amid much public fanfare. Given advances in surveillance satellites and cameras, the Raider was just partially exposed, keeping its sensitive propulsion systems and sensors under the hangar and protected from overhead eyes.“The magic of the platform,” Warden said, “is what you don’t see.”

Pentagon debuts new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider

Bernice Marie (Basgall) Herrman, age 87&nbsp;joined the Lord,&nbsp;Saturday, December 3, 2022,&nbsp;at home with family by her side.&nbsp;

Bernice was born October 16,&nbsp;1935,&nbsp;in Hays, Kansas.&nbsp;She was the daughter of Clarence and Regina (Degenhardt) Basgall.&nbsp;She was the oldest of six siblings, and she&nbsp;attended Marian Girls Catholic High School in Hays.&nbsp;

On October 15th, 1952, she confessed her love to LeRoy Herrman, her soul mate.&nbsp;Later, they ventured to San Diego, California for Leroy’s Marine Corps military career.&nbsp;They lived on the base for about three years, where Bernice had her daughter,&nbsp;Brenda.&nbsp;They eventually moved back to Hays, Kansas and had their son,&nbsp;Roger.&nbsp;&nbsp;

They built their first home on Eisenhower and eventually built their final home on MacArthur in Hays.She&nbsp;was a devout Catholic and raised her children and grandchildren in the catholic church.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bernice was typically known around Hays as “Bernice the Boss” for her many successful business adventures with her husband Leroy, “Herrman the German”.

Bernice and LeRoy began their adventure with Herrman Electric, where Bernice was the secretary and took care of the finances, and LeRoy was the handyman/electrician.&nbsp;They had many business dealings after Herrman Electric.&nbsp;&nbsp;Next came Shady Rest Campgrounds, and then Camper &amp; RV &nbsp;Center.&nbsp;They eventually added Great Plains&nbsp;Chrysler&nbsp;Plymouth &amp; Dodge dealership to Camper &amp; RV Center.&nbsp;Bernice was the heart and soul of all of their business’.

She made sure things were done the right way!.&nbsp;Bernice received the award of “Business&nbsp;Woman of the&nbsp;Year” in 1980.&nbsp;One of Bernice’s favorite past times was polka dancing and following her husband throughout his musical career with “The Herrmanette’s." She had many hobbies like, cooking, sewing, and traveling in their camper.&nbsp;Bernice and LeRoy enjoyed going to south Texas in the wintertime to stay warm.They spent many years going on weekend trips to the lake with family and friends.&nbsp;During her down time, she would like to go on “joy rides” in one of their many convertibles (typically to get ice cream).&nbsp;Mostly, Bernice was a very loving mother, grandmother, and sister.

Bernice belonged to many organizations,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Hays&nbsp;VFW&nbsp;Auxiliary&nbsp;and American Legion&nbsp;Auxiliary, Kansas Association for the&nbsp;Blind and Visually&nbsp;Impaired, the&nbsp;Business&nbsp;Women’s&nbsp;Association, and a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.

Bernice’s surviving family include her&nbsp;two&nbsp;children, Brenda Herrman Morrissey of Hays,&nbsp;KS;&nbsp;Roger Herrman of&nbsp;Hays KS;&nbsp;her&nbsp;two grandchildren,&nbsp;Jacine&nbsp;Morrissey and Spencer (Megan Press) Herrman;&nbsp;her&nbsp;five great grandchildren, Lindsey Morrissey;&nbsp;Jaide&nbsp;Herrman;&nbsp;Brayden Grizzle;&nbsp;Scarlett&nbsp;Herrman;&nbsp;Adaline Herrman;&nbsp;her&nbsp;one sister, Lillian Basgall;&nbsp;her&nbsp;four brothers, Alfred;&nbsp;Thomas;&nbsp;Theodore;&nbsp;and Darrell (Carelyn) Basgall. &nbsp;

Bernice was preceded in death by her parents,&nbsp;Clarence and Regina Basgall;&nbsp;her husband LeRoy;&nbsp;and her niece,&nbsp;Tiffany Basgall.

Mass of Christin Burial will be&nbsp;10:00 A.M. Wednesday, December 7, 2022,&nbsp;at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 18 &amp; Vine, Hays, Kansas with Father Donald Zimmerman and Father Nick Parker officiating. &nbsp;Burial will be in Saint Joseph Cemetery, Hays, Kansas.

A vigil service / V.F.W. Auxiliary Memorial Service/&nbsp;and&nbsp;rosary will be at 6:30 P.M. Tuesday,&nbsp;at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary of Hays, 1919 East 22nd&nbsp;Street, Hays, Kansas 67601.

Visitation is from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Tuesday, at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary of Hays and from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. Wednesday, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.

The family suggests memorials made payable to: Hospice of Hays Medical Center in care&nbsp;of the mortuary.&nbsp;Condolences can be sent via e-mail to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:clinesmortuary@eaglecom.net">clinesmortuary@eaglecom.net</a>&nbsp;or can be left &nbsp;by guestbook at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/">www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670102483524.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Bernice Marie (Basgall) Herrman, age 87&nbsp;joined the Lord,&nbsp;Saturday, December 3, 2022,&nbsp;at home with family by her side.&nbsp;Bernice was born October 16,&nbsp;1935,&nbsp;in Hays, Kansas.&nbsp;She was the daughter of Clarence and Regina (Degenhardt) Basgall.&nbsp;She was the oldest of six siblings, and she&nbsp;attended Marian Girls Catholic High School in Hays.&nbsp;On October 15th, 1952, she confessed her love to LeRoy Herrman, her soul mate.&nbsp;Later, they ventured to San Diego, California for Leroy’s Marine Corps military career.&nbsp;They lived on the base for about three years, where Bernice had her daughter,&nbsp;Brenda.&nbsp;They eventually moved back to Hays, Kansas and had their son,&nbsp;Roger.&nbsp;&nbsp;They built their first home on Eisenhower and eventually built their final home on MacArthur in Hays.She&nbsp;was a devout Catholic and raised her children and grandchildren in the catholic church.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bernice was typically known around Hays as “Bernice the Boss” for her many successful business adventures with her husband Leroy, “Herrman the German”.Bernice and LeRoy began their adventure with Herrman Electric, where Bernice was the secretary and took care of the finances, and LeRoy was the handyman/electrician.&nbsp;They had many business dealings after Herrman Electric.&nbsp;&nbsp;Next came Shady Rest Campgrounds, and then Camper &amp; RV &nbsp;Center.&nbsp;They eventually added Great Plains&nbsp;Chrysler&nbsp;Plymouth &amp; Dodge dealership to Camper &amp; RV Center.&nbsp;Bernice was the heart and soul of all of their business’.She made sure things were done the right way!.&nbsp;Bernice received the award of “Business&nbsp;Woman of the&nbsp;Year” in 1980.&nbsp;One of Bernice’s favorite past times was polka dancing and following her husband throughout his musical career with “The Herrmanette’s." She had many hobbies like, cooking, sewing, and traveling in their camper.&nbsp;Bernice and LeRoy enjoyed going to south Texas in the wintertime to stay warm.They spent many years going on weekend trips to the lake with family and friends.&nbsp;During her down time, she would like to go on “joy rides” in one of their many convertibles (typically to get ice cream).&nbsp;Mostly, Bernice was a very loving mother, grandmother, and sister.Bernice belonged to many organizations,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Hays&nbsp;VFW&nbsp;Auxiliary&nbsp;and American Legion&nbsp;Auxiliary, Kansas Association for the&nbsp;Blind and Visually&nbsp;Impaired, the&nbsp;Business&nbsp;Women’s&nbsp;Association, and a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.Bernice’s surviving family include her&nbsp;two&nbsp;children, Brenda Herrman Morrissey of Hays,&nbsp;KS;&nbsp;Roger Herrman of&nbsp;Hays KS;&nbsp;her&nbsp;two grandchildren,&nbsp;Jacine&nbsp;Morrissey and Spencer (Megan Press) Herrman;&nbsp;her&nbsp;five great grandchildren, Lindsey Morrissey;&nbsp;Jaide&nbsp;Herrman;&nbsp;Brayden Grizzle;&nbsp;Scarlett&nbsp;Herrman;&nbsp;Adaline Herrman;&nbsp;her&nbsp;one sister, Lillian Basgall;&nbsp;her&nbsp;four brothers, Alfred;&nbsp;Thomas;&nbsp;Theodore;&nbsp;and Darrell (Carelyn) Basgall. &nbsp;Bernice was preceded in death by her parents,&nbsp;Clarence and Regina Basgall;&nbsp;her husband LeRoy;&nbsp;and her niece,&nbsp;Tiffany Basgall.Mass of Christin Burial will be&nbsp;10:00 A.M. Wednesday, December 7, 2022,&nbsp;at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 18 &amp; Vine, Hays, Kansas with Father Donald Zimmerman and Father Nick Parker officiating. &nbsp;Burial will be in Saint Joseph Cemetery, Hays, Kansas.A vigil service / V.F.W. Auxiliary Memorial Service/&nbsp;and&nbsp;rosary will be at 6:30 P.M. Tuesday,&nbsp;at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary of Hays, 1919 East 22nd&nbsp;Street, Hays, Kansas 67601.Visitation is from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Tuesday, at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary of Hays and from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. Wednesday, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.The family suggests memorials made payable to: Hospice of Hays Medical Center in care&nbsp;of the mortuary.&nbsp;Condolences can be sent via e-mail to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:clinesmortuary@eaglecom.net">clinesmortuary@eaglecom.net</a>&nbsp;or can be left &nbsp;by guestbook at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/">www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bernice Marie (Basgall) Herrman

Julia M. “Jules” Otter, 79, Hays, died Monday, November 28, 2022, at Brookdale Hays surrounded by her family.

She was born October 26, 1943, in Colby,
 the daughter of Cleo and Leone (Mottin) Anderson.&nbsp;&nbsp;On June 12, 1963, she
 was united in marriage to Gerard A. Otter in Selden, and he preceded 
her in death on August 17, 1988.&nbsp;&nbsp;She was a former member of Sacred 
Heart Catholic Church in Selden and the Sacred Heart Altar 
Society.&nbsp;&nbsp;Julia attended Fort Hays State University, beauty school in 
McCook, Nebraska, and Colby Community College.&nbsp;&nbsp;She worked at Decatur 
County Hospital as a CNA and for six years at Wal-Mart.&nbsp;&nbsp;While raising 
her children, Julia was involved with 4-H, Girl Scouts, and taught 
catechism.&nbsp;&nbsp;She was an avid KU Basketball and KC Chiefs fan, loved cats,
 stray animals, quilting, sewing, crafting, and embroidery.&nbsp;&nbsp;With her 
big heart, Julia generously helped others, was genuine, accepting, 
embraced underdogs, and sprinkled in a little bit of colorful language 
along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Survivors include her son: Bruce C. 
Otter and wife Sara of Englewood, CO, three daughters: Kelly Otter 
Jorgensen and husband Blake of Ottawa, Pamela Gassmann of Olathe, and 
Traci Ditter and husband Aaron of Hays, two sisters: Connie Bryan and 
husband Joel of Scott City and Lorraine Ackerman and husband Gerald of 
Montana, eight grandchildren: Carlyn Lemon and husband Jess, Darrah 
Steffen and husband Dylan, Kinley Jorgensen and fiancé Myles, Austin 
Gassmann, Dylan Gassmann and significant other Carter, Lakin Ditter and 
significant other Brandon, Loganne Ditter, and Gillian Otter, three 
great grandchildren: Amara Lemon, Anderson Lemon, and Julia Gassmann, 
and her beloved cat Crosby.

She was preceded in death by her 
parents, stepfather: Francis Porsch, husband: Gerard, a brother-in-law: 
Robert Rogers, and many cats, too numerous to name (although she could 
name them all).

Funeral services will be at 10:30 am on
 Friday, December 16, 2022, at Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home with 
Rev. Ron DeVore officiating.&nbsp;&nbsp;Inurnment will be at 2:00 pm on Saturday, 
December 17, 2022, in Selden Cemetery, Selden.&nbsp;&nbsp;The family will receive 
friends from 9:30 am until service time on Friday at the funeral 
home.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Memorials are suggested to the Humane Society of the High Plains 
or to Brookdale Hays.&nbsp;&nbsp;Condolences and memories of Julia may be shared 
with her family at <a href="http://www.haysmemorial.com">www.haysmemorial.com</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670079431606.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Julia M. “Jules” Otter, 79, Hays, died Monday, November 28, 2022, at Brookdale Hays surrounded by her family.She was born October 26, 1943, in Colby,
 the daughter of Cleo and Leone (Mottin) Anderson.&nbsp;&nbsp;On June 12, 1963, she
 was united in marriage to Gerard A. Otter in Selden, and he preceded 
her in death on August 17, 1988.&nbsp;&nbsp;She was a former member of Sacred 
Heart Catholic Church in Selden and the Sacred Heart Altar 
Society.&nbsp;&nbsp;Julia attended Fort Hays State University, beauty school in 
McCook, Nebraska, and Colby Community College.&nbsp;&nbsp;She worked at Decatur 
County Hospital as a CNA and for six years at Wal-Mart.&nbsp;&nbsp;While raising 
her children, Julia was involved with 4-H, Girl Scouts, and taught 
catechism.&nbsp;&nbsp;She was an avid KU Basketball and KC Chiefs fan, loved cats,
 stray animals, quilting, sewing, crafting, and embroidery.&nbsp;&nbsp;With her 
big heart, Julia generously helped others, was genuine, accepting, 
embraced underdogs, and sprinkled in a little bit of colorful language 
along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp;Survivors include her son: Bruce C. 
Otter and wife Sara of Englewood, CO, three daughters: Kelly Otter 
Jorgensen and husband Blake of Ottawa, Pamela Gassmann of Olathe, and 
Traci Ditter and husband Aaron of Hays, two sisters: Connie Bryan and 
husband Joel of Scott City and Lorraine Ackerman and husband Gerald of 
Montana, eight grandchildren: Carlyn Lemon and husband Jess, Darrah 
Steffen and husband Dylan, Kinley Jorgensen and fiancé Myles, Austin 
Gassmann, Dylan Gassmann and significant other Carter, Lakin Ditter and 
significant other Brandon, Loganne Ditter, and Gillian Otter, three 
great grandchildren: Amara Lemon, Anderson Lemon, and Julia Gassmann, 
and her beloved cat Crosby.She was preceded in death by her 
parents, stepfather: Francis Porsch, husband: Gerard, a brother-in-law: 
Robert Rogers, and many cats, too numerous to name (although she could 
name them all).Funeral services will be at 10:30 am on
 Friday, December 16, 2022, at Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home with 
Rev. Ron DeVore officiating.&nbsp;&nbsp;Inurnment will be at 2:00 pm on Saturday, 
December 17, 2022, in Selden Cemetery, Selden.&nbsp;&nbsp;The family will receive 
friends from 9:30 am until service time on Friday at the funeral 
home.&nbsp;&nbsp;Memorials are suggested to the Humane Society of the High Plains 
or to Brookdale Hays.&nbsp;&nbsp;Condolences and memories of Julia may be shared 
with her family at <a href="http://www.haysmemorial.com">www.haysmemorial.com</a>

Julia M. 'Jules' Otter

See part two of the series Monday on Hays Post.

By DAVID CONDOS, XCARET NUNEZ and ELIZABETH REMBERT <a href="https://www.hppr.org/2022-11-25/heres-how-this-years-drought-has-battered-the-midwest-and-what-it-might-mean-for-next-year">Kansas News Service</a>&nbsp;&amp; Harvest Public Media

LA CROSSE — On G.W. Johnston’s ranch in west-central Kansas, the grass never got green this summer.

So he's had to buy hay to keep his cattle alive — in the middle of a widespread drought that's pushed those <a href="https://www.kgou.org/business-and-economy/2022-11-23/hay-shortage-means-high-costs-for-oklahoma-ranchers-as-winter-arrives" target="_blank">hay prices</a> way up.

He
 could sell all his cattle, at the cost of leaving behind the work 
that's defined his life. Watching his calves arrive in the spring, he 
said, is what counts as his therapy during a stressful year like this.

So he came here to the La Crosse Livestock Market to auction off 52 of his calves.

“You
 always think it’s gonna get better,” Johnston said. “Out of 60 years 
since I’ve been in the business, I’ve never run into it this bad.”

Johnston’s
 story marks just one example of the countless ways this historically 
dry, hot, windy year is wreaking havoc from coast to coast.

Drought now covers more than half of the continental U.S., and its 
ripple effects touch everything from the food we eat to the air we 
breathe to the water we drink. In one of the hardest hit regions, the 
Great Plains, there’s not much relief in sight.

In <a href="https://www.kmbc.com/article/drought-cold-weather-could-cause-problems-for-home-foundations-kansas-city/41696222#" target="_blank">Missouri</a>, the drought is cracking home foundations. In <a href="https://twitter.com/droughtdenise/status/1592932265004523520?s=43&amp;t=7dYaOKoht_gxnYcVioVBcQ" target="_blank">Minnesota</a>, it’s killing Christmas trees. Low water levels have shut down a hydroelectric plant in <a href="https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/iowa-news/low-river-levels-shut-down-iowa-hydroelectric-dam/" target="_blank">Iowa</a> and stranded barges on the <a href="https://grist.org/extreme-weather/as-drought-chokes-mississippi-river-barges-carrying-grain-shipments-have-nowhere-to-go/" target="_blank">Mississippi River</a>.

Frank
 Seidel, who owns the La Crosse cattle auction, has seen his share of 
bad droughts in this semi-arid part of the world. But never like this.

“Not to this severity,” Seidel said. “You look at them pastures, and they’re just grubbed down to nothing.”

Kansas cattle would normally be grazing on a buffet of prairie grass over the past few months. But in one of the <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSDodgeCity/status/1565355495870894081" target="_blank">driest, hottest summers</a> on record in western Kansas, oppressive drought scorched pastures across the region.

That
 left ranchers with a tough choice this fall: bring in expensive feed to
 get your livestock through the winter or sell however many cattle you 
must to keep your livelihood afloat.

“It’s everybody. There’s no 
one excluded from it,” Seidel said. “The conversation is always, ‘I 
ain’t got enough feed. I don’t have enough feed. So, I can’t keep them 
all.’ ”

This livestock market has auctioned off 12,000 more cattle this year than it did by this point last year, Seidel said, an increase of nearly 20%.

So
 many ranchers were calling Seidel clamoring to thin their herds in the 
late summer that he had to double the number of auctions from every 
other week to every week.

In the hallways outside the La Crosse auction ring, the historic gravity of this year’s drought comes into focus.

Max Prose’s ranch in Lane County got less than half of its paltry 
average rainfall this year. In the 71 years he’s farmed, this is the 
first that his land has no moisture left in its soil. He had to sell off
 his calves in August.

“There’s places in my pasture that didn’t get any rain at all,” Prose said. “The cactus have died.”

Gene
 Tilton, who farms and raises cattle near Quinter in northwest Kansas, 
said the only thing that could turn this drought around is a blizzard 
like the one that helped claw the region out of a similar drought <a href="https://www.weather.gov/ddc/1957Blizzard" target="_blank">65 years ago</a>.

“It’s dry. … Dry as it’s been since 1955,” Tilton said. “I was here.”

With roughly <a href="https://twitter.com/DroughtDenise/status/1595475164061265921" target="_blank">three-quarters</a> of U.S. cattle currently in drought-stricken areas, ranchers from <a href="https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/business/agricultural/2022/11/13/low-cattle-supply-may-drive-record-high-prices-next-year/69637966007/" target="_blank">Texas</a> to <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/montana/montana-ranchers-have-culled-back-significantly-because-of-drought-high-hay-prices/article_ce0f202e-f662-11ec-b15a-0b364b7321f5.html" target="_blank">Montana</a> face these same hard choices. And the impacts of those choices touch plenty of folks who’ve never seen an auction ring.

Because
 so many ranchers have to sell their animals months or even years ahead 
of schedule, there’ll be a shortage of cattle going to market next year. That will mean <a href="https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/beef-prices-to-rise-in-2023-poultry-costs-will-fall/632402/" target="_blank">higher beef prices</a> at the grocery store.

“That hamburger won’t be in the industry for the next two years,” Seidel said. “It’s gone.”

As climate 
change fuels more frequent, more intense droughts nationwide, it’s hard 
to count all the ways this parched year is transforming people’s lives.

Just
 ask the person whose job it is to keep track of the drought’s impacts: 
the National Drought Mitigation Center’s Denise Gutzmer.

“I’m just swamped,” Gutzmer said. “I can work nonstop and still not be done.”

Deadly wildfires. Choking dust storms. Decimated crop harvests.

The
 amount of the country covered in drought and abnormal dryness this 
fall, Gutzmer said, is the most in the history of the Drought Monitor. 
More than half of the continental U.S. is <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/MapArchive.aspx" target="_blank">now covered</a> by some level of drought.

The impacts this year stretch even farther across the map, Gutzmer 
said, than the last major drought in 2012 — from fanning wildfires in <a href="https://www.khon2.com/top-stories/trade-winds-and-dry-air-has-fire-departments-busy/" target="_blank">Hawaii</a> to drying up <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/10/21/water-coalinga-california" target="_blank">water supplies</a> in California to rotting the wood pilings that support buildings in <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/03/science/we-need-rain-drought-threatens-very-foundation-some-boston-buildings/" target="_blank">Boston</a>.

“It just all snowballs so quickly,” Gutzmer said. “It’s just been horrifying.”

In
 the grasslands of Kansas, the extreme heat has threatened another 
creature that shares the state’s pastures with cattle: birds.

Iconic
 prairie songbirds like meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows build their
 nests down in the grass. Robert Penner, bird conservation manager with 
The Nature Conservancy, said that as ground temperatures climb north of 
100 degrees, it can roast the eggs where they lie.

“The eggs were just basically cooked,” Penner said. “The adults just gave up on them because the temperatures were too high.”

A lack of rainfall has also dried up the <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-11-04/up-to-1-million-birds-count-on-kansas-wetlands-during-migration-drought-has-left-them-high-and-dry" target="_blank">Kansas wetlands</a> that hundreds of thousands of birds use as vital stopover points during their long flights south for the winter.

In the 26 years Penner has worked in central Kansas, he said, it’s 
hard to think of another time when the area’s wetlands were this dry, 
especially this late in the year.

With no water in the Cheyenne 
Bottoms wetlands, for instance, he’s spotted migrating ducks and geese 
paddling around the sewage lagoons of a nearby town. He’s seen smaller 
birds gathering at livestock water tanks.

For shorebirds — some of
 which migrate thousands of miles and weigh only a few ounces — not 
being able to rest and refuel at wetlands that meet their specific food 
and habitat needs could push them beyond their limits.

“If they can’t stop and feed somewhere, they’re in trouble,” Penner said. “They’re not going to make it.”

Nearby, parts of southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma saw flash droughts 
rapidly develop over the summer as record-low precipitation totals 
paired with sweltering heat.

When a reservoir that provides 
drinking water for more than 1 million people in Oklahoma City dropped 
several feet below its normal level this summer, the city had to <a href="https://www.kosu.org/energy-environment/2022-10-19/oklahoma-city-requests-water-from-canton-lake-for-the-second-time-this-year" target="_blank">bring in billions of gallons</a> from another lake 100 miles away. It’s the first time that’s happened in a decade.

“We
 hoped that one water draw would be enough, and that we’d get a lot of 
rain after that,” utility department spokesperson Michelann Ooten said. 
“But that didn’t happen.”

So the city drew another <a href="https://www.okc.gov/Home/Components/News/News/4256/18?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery" target="_blank">4 billion gallons</a> from that reservoir, Canton Lake, this fall.

For the people who live in rural western Oklahoma near Canton Lake, 
watching that much water flow away in the middle of a drought was hard 
to swallow.

Curtis Hoskins, president of the Canton Lake 
Association, said it’s a critical blow to the area’s recreational 
tourism economy. The last time Oklahoma City drew away billions of 
gallons a decade ago, low lake levels forced businesses to close.

“Everybody
 was pretty upset, you know, because they’ve seen it happen before,” 
Hoskins said. “Everybody’s gun-shy that they don’t have control of the 
water.”

And cities aren’t the only ones scrambling for more water.

As the lack of rainfall pushes farmers to pump more water from underground aquifers to irrigate crops, parts of <a href="https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/dwr/managing-kansas-water-resources/local-enhanced-management-areas/gmd1-four-county-lema" target="_blank">Kansas</a> and <a href="https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/irrigation-systems-couldnt-keep-up-2022-drought-dealt-supply-problems-for-water-managers/" target="_blank">Nebraska</a> are considering new pumping limits.

Nate Jenkins, assistant manager of the Upper Republican Natural 
Resource District in southwest Nebraska, said the proposed limits in his
 area aren’t a direct response to this particularly dry year. But in a 
region where so much of the economy bends to the whims of the weather, 
the reality of life without water is easy to envision.

“It creates some worry,” Jenkins said. “Everybody knows farmers or is a farmer, so they know what they're struggling with.”

The depletion of the Ogallala aquifer in the High Plains isn’t a new problem — roughly a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/110/37/E3477" target="_blank">third</a>
 of the water under Kansas has already disappeared since European 
settlement, largely thanks to the development of irrigated farming. And 
some of the districts in charge of managing that underground water have 
already put plans in place to <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2021-05-05/farmers-trying-to-save-the-ogallala-aquifer-face-tension-from-peers-but-their-profits-are-improving" target="_blank">slow down</a> the aquifer’s decline.

But
 the reason the underground water is so vital is that there isn’t much 
surface water on the High Plains to begin with. So a drought like this —
 parts of Kansas and Nebraska are experiencing their driest year on 
record — highlights the need to conserve.

“When it gets this hot 
and dry and windy,” Jenkins said, “people kind of shake their head and 
say, ‘Geez, it’s getting kind of ridiculous, isn’t it? When’s it gonna 
stop?’ ”

On his family farm
 in Gray County, Kansas, Alex Millershaski crouches next to a line of 
wheat seedlings no taller than the grass on a ballfield.

He digs his hand down into the soil between rows of small, green plants and scoops up a fistful.

“We have about three or four inches of just basically loose, dry sand,” Millershaski said. “There's no moisture whatsoever.”

Across the Great Plains, months of drought made soil moisture <a href="https://twitter.com/droughtdenise/status/1587464853479772161?s=43&amp;t=WnvOqLdNizi5xRdK13G_JA" target="_blank">virtually nonexistent</a>. Millershaski’s county just experienced its <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/us-maps/1/202210?products[]=countypcpnrank" target="_blank">driest October</a> on record, dating back to the late 1800s.

The western Kansas plains are no stranger to howling gusts. But much of this year has brought winds that are <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/2022/05/03/why-kansas-so-windy-2022-meteorologist-explains-high-wind-warning-record/9611982002/" target="_blank">even stronger</a> than normal.

As Millershaski steps across his rows of wheat, he braces himself 
against the wall of roaring air. He can barely stand to hear it in his 
ears day after windblown day.

With no moisture to hold the soil in
 place, the wind easily sweeps it up and batters the seedlings with the 
fine grains of sand that collect into small dunes. For these young wheat
 plants, he said, it might as well be cutting them with glass.

“Just
 imagine yourself as a wheat plant planted in the ground getting hit in 
the face all day by that sand,” Millershaski said. “It’s just so dry.”

He said the last time this field got a good rain was May — of last year.

Even
 after years of adopting farming techniques that conserve soil and 
moisture, he said, his farm’s last wheat harvest was the worst in at 
least five decades. And the prospects for this new crop look 
discouraging.

Nationwide, winter wheat is in the <a href="https://twitter.com/kannbwx/status/1587179941682200579" target="_blank">poorest condition</a>
 it’s ever been on record. In Kansas, the country’s top wheat producer, 
less than a quarter of the crop is in good shape. Nebraska and 
Oklahoma’s wheat looks even worse.

This comes on the heels of a poor harvest <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-06-08/western-kansas-wheat-crops-are-failing-just-when-the-world-needs-them-most" target="_blank">this past summer</a>
 when the early stages of the drought dried plants to a crisp across 
western Kansas. And worldwide, the war in Ukraine and extreme weather 
continue to fuel <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-drought-and-war-are-really-affecting-the-global-food-supply/" target="_blank">global food shortages</a>.

Unfortunately for the drought-parched Great Plains, the outlook for the coming months doesn’t offer much relief.

A<a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf" target="_blank">rare triple dip</a> La Niña weather pattern is set to deliver the region a drier than average winter, which means<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/us-winter-outlook-warmer-drier-south-with-ongoing-la-nina" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/us-winter-outlook-warmer-drier-south-with-ongoing-la-nina" target="_blank">below-average precipitation</a> is likely to continue for at least a while longer.

Beyond that, drought conditions generally don’t improve much in the winter anyway. It takes an average of <a href="https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/winter/faq/" target="_blank">13 inches of snow</a> to equal the impact of one inch of rainfall.

So,
 the region’s hopes rest on the chance of a wet spring. But at this 
point, it would take a lot of moisture to get the region out of this 
hole. Gray County, for instance, is roughly <a href="https://mesonet.k-state.edu/precip/daily/#mtIndex=29&amp;tab=chart-tab" target="_blank">one foot of rain</a> below its historical average this year.

“An
 average year out here is extreme, but you can always find a way to 
manage around it,” Millershaski said. “(This year) we’re struggling to 
find answers.”

Next year, Millershaski said, his family is considering switching 
some of their acres to crops that might be even more drought-tolerant, 
such as cotton or sunflowers. But for these rows of wheat already in the
 ground, there’s not much else he can do.