By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A United States Senator from Kansas hopes more federal resources will help fight a growing problem in rural America:  farmer suicides.

Sen. Jerry Moran says it is a disturbing trend.

“Well, sadly, there are a significant number of farmers, family farm members, who commit suicide and the numbers are increasing,” according to Moran.

Moran of Kansas inserted the allocation in the Farm Bill.

“I think about farmers who look back and they recognize that their great-grandparents, their grandparents, their parents; they were able to keep the farm together and succeed and pass it on to another generation and I’m sure there’s this concern, this worry that, ‘Why can’t I do that? Why are things so difficult? Why can’t I manage this farm, operate it in a way that allows me to pass it on to my kids?’ So, there’s tremendous stress in agriculture today,” Moran says.

Moran sponsored the Farmers First Act with Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

“We’ve set out to be helpful,” Moran says. “There are, of course, not enough mental health services in rural America, probably not enough mental health services anyplace in the country and so we’re trying to strengthen the ones that we have and encourage them, provide them the resources to help farmers and ranchers in rural America.”

While Moran succeeded in getting more federal money to tackle the problem, he suggests a little neighborly concern could make a big difference.

“What I would say is that all of us know farmers and ranchers. We need to check in. We need to have conversations with them. We need to pay attention to how they’re doing and we need to encourage them if it is suggested that it’s needed to see a professional, to seek out counseling, to talk to their minister, their pastor, to talk to friends,” Moran says. “We can’t allow farmers to be isolated.”

Moran says a 2016 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found agricultural workers have a higher suicide rate than individuals with any other occupation.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

It will cost a lot to replace the levees damaged by this year’s flood.

It will also take a lot of time.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released an estimate of the cost of repairing 100 damaged levees along the Platte River and the Missouri River.

“Right now, we’re estimating at $1.15 billion,” Tom Brady with the Northwest District of the Corps of Engineers tells those on a conference call. “That number will change, because there are many levees we haven’t had access to.”

Brady emphasizes that is only a preliminary estimate.

“A lot of those estimates are based on desktop recon, because we’re not able to get to some of those levees that are under water,” Brady says. “So, we don’t have a full magnitude of the damage. And, so until we get ground truth, we really can’t give you a good targeted amount.”

Brady says that price tag is likely to go higher when floodwaters recede and inspectors can actually view the damage. Also, more requests for repairs are likely to be field by the Corps.

Brady does hold out the possibility that costs could go down.

“Because when we see the damage on the ground, we may find that we are able to cut back on some of our estimates,” Brady says. “We won’t know until we can get engineers out on those 850 miles of levees.”

The Corps also estimates it will take at least a couple of years to fully restore the levees damaged by this year’s flood.

 

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A Missouri Western State University economics professor applauds the Trump Administration for taking a strong stand against China on trade, but doubts its tactic will work.

Professor Reza Hamzaee says the United States has needed to get serious with China for some time, because China doesn’t play fair with its trading partners.

“They have had tariffs on American products, which are already expensive when it is converted to Yuan, their currency,” Hamzaee tells St. Joseph Post during an interview in his office. “So, it’s very hard to sell American products in the first place and then putting high tariffs is not a fair game.”

Hamzaee lays out a case against Chinese trade practices.

He says China manipulates its currency, making its products cheaper when sold abroad, undercutting domestic competition. It might give a little when a country complains, but China continues to play with the value of the Yuan in violation of international trade norms.

Intellectual property has long been a sticking point between the two countries. The United States accuses China of stealing its intellectual property and using it to manufacture cheap electronics, such as computers, which it sells in the U.S.

U.S. officials further complain China keeps such tight controls on what can be imported into the country, it makes it difficult for American businesses to sell products to Chinese consumers.

While Hamzaee says the complaints are for the most part legitimate, he doesn’t believe President Trump’s threatened tariffs will prove effective. He says increasing tariffs on Chinese imports will do little to change Chinese trade policies, but will increase prices for American consumers, businesses, and farmers.

“He is taking a wrong approach, a wrong style of tackling a right issue,” according to Hamzaee.

Much is at stake.

The United States imported $539 billion from China last year. China purchases from the United States as well, but mostly confines those purchases to agricultural goods, such as soybeans. China imported $9 billion in soybeans from China last year. In fact, Hamzaee says agricultural goods are the United States’ only net surplus in trade with China. China does import some American transportation equipment, computers, and electronics.

Hamzaee does believe something has to give.

“I think it will be resolved, partially resolved, during the next few months, in my opinion, not necessarily to an ideal situation.”

Hamzaee says the Trump Administration would be better off by returning to negotiations with China, and might well benefit from having other countries participate.

The trade dispute between the two largest economies is expected to be a matter of discussion during the G20 summit now underway in Japan.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A body recovered in DeKalb County has been identified as that of Leah Dawson, missing for more than three weeks.

A number of law enforcement agencies, led by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, executed a search warrant on a house in Maysville Wednesday and recovered an unidentified body. Law officers also searched another Maysville location earlier in the month.

In a news release, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department says the preliminary results from an autopsy identified the body recovered as that of Dawson. It says the department continues to investigate the case.

The boyfriend of Leah Dawson, Kenneth Wykert, has been taken into custody in DeKalb County, but has not been charged in connection with her disappearance. He is being held on failing to register as a sex offender.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Downstream Missouri River levee districts are asking the Army Corps of Engineers to greatly reduce water releases from Gavins Point Dam so they can drain backed-up floodwaters and take pressure off badly strained levees.

The Corps is dropping the releases from 75,000 cubic feet per second to 70,000.

Joel Euler with the Elwood-Gladden Drainage District in Doniphan County, Kansas tells Corps officials during a conference call that floodwaters need to be drained from behind downstream levees.

“So, we can service the 70,000 if we have some leeway, but right now at least two of these districts, the South St. Joseph Drainage and Levee District and the Elwood-Gladden District are out of room and we can’t pump down, we can’t pump the water,” Euler tells Corps officials during the conference call. “All we can do is maintain. We can’t get enough pumps from the Corps of Engineers and, to be candid, if we could get enough pumps we can’t afford to run them.”

The suggestion is getting a cool reception from the Corps, which says it has to maintain high releases from Gavins Point as snowmelt and additional rains enter the upper Missouri River basin.

Northwest Division Chief John Remus with the Missouri River Basin Water Management Office tells Euler there is more than 11 million acre feet of water stored in the flood control pools of the six reservoirs upstream on the Missouri River. Even though most of the snowmelt is gone, it and recent rains still poured 20,000 to 50,000 acre feet a day into the reservoir system the last several days.

“If we had zero inflow into the system, zero, none whatsoever, we would still have to release 35,000 cubic feet per second just to evacuate the water before next year’s runoff,” according to Remus. “A substantial reduction, in the order where you could probably drain, is just not going to be possible just based on that simple arithmetic alone.”

Euler counters something has to give or the levees will.

“But, at some point, we have to have a break. And, I’m not saying that you have to keep it low indefinitely. I’m saying that we don’t have the capability to mechanically pump this water and if we can let nature to do its work for a brief period then we’re ready to get back in the game,” Euler replies to Remus. “But, at some point, you have to hold more up there so we can get rid of some down here so we can participate. If not, all you’re doing is flooding everybody. So, nobody wins.”

Corps officials will only say they plan to speak with levee representatives.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Floodwaters continue to plague northwest Missouri roads.

The Missouri Department of Transportation reports it had to close U.S. Route 24 between Brunswick and De Witt only six days after reopening it.

MoDOT says its crews closed both lanes of Highway 24 between Route 11 and Route 41 this morning after floodwaters closed around and then spilled onto the roadway, covering it.

Several roads remain closed, due to flooding.

Route 41 to Miami, Route 10 east of Carrollton, and U.S. Route 65 from Carrollton to Waverly remain closed as the area fights a sometimes losing battle against floodwaters.

MoDOT warns motorists not to drive through floodwaters and not to drive around road closure barricades.

If you come upon a flooded roadway without barricades, do NOT drive through the water. Pull over to a safe location and call the MoDOT’s 24-hour Customer Service line at 888 ASK MODOT (1-888-275-6636) to report it.

Click here for the website MoDOT is maintaining on flooding in northwest Missouri.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A 22-year-old St. Joseph man has been charged in connection with the shooting and wounding of a three-year-old girl this past weekend.

Riandten C. E. Brant also faces drug charges.

The Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office this afternoon charged Brant with a Class C felony of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, claiming that on June 22^nd, Brant possessed methamphetamine at 1610 Beattie Street, the residence of the child, identified only as “A.B.” in the felony complaint.

Court papers disclose that police issued a search warrant at the residence and found Brant with 28.5 grams of methamphetamine in the basement of the residence.

Police first went to the residence on a shooting call.

St. Joseph Police says the three-year-old was shot late Saturday morning. She is listed in stable condition.