OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The families of three people who were shot to death outside two Jewish sites in Kansas are planning a week to remember and heal.

The week of events, called SevenDays: Make a Ripple, Change the World, will be April 7-13.

The events will remember 69-year-old William Corporan and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, who died last April in a shooting at the Jewish Community Center, and 53-year-old Terri LaManno, who was shot to death at Village Shalom in Overland Park.

The families said they hope the week will help people overcome acts of hate and embrace diversity.

The Kansas City Star reports  relatives announced the events Tuesday, the same day a judge ruled that the suspected shooter, Frazier Glenn Miller, will stand trial for capital murder.

BY STEWART TRUELSEN

A demographic study of farming and ranching in Wyoming forecasts there will be no operators under the age of 35 by the year 2033. The study in Rangelands, a publication of the Society for Range Management, found that the average age of farmers has increased in every county in Wyoming since 1920, and will reach 60 by the year 2050. Based on these results, the authors predict a bleak farming future for Wyoming and the rest of the country where trends are similar.

Believe it or not, the fear of not having enough farmers and ranchers has been around as long as the first county Farm Bureau, founded a little over a hundred years ago in Broome County, New York. The concern back then was that too many young men were leaving the hard life of farming to seek gainful employment in the big cities. Farm Bureau was formed out of a desire to make farming more socially and financially rewarding.

The exodus from farms and ranches continued, however, but became far less worrisome because of mechanization and the tremendous increase in farm productivity. In fact, the pendulum swung the other way. During much of the 20th century there were too many people trying to make a living from farming, and too much land was in production.

The aging of the farm workforce became noticeable in the 1950s and has continued relatively unabated ever since. The average age of farmers was 48.7 years in 1945, the first year it was officially reported in the Census of Agriculture. The average age now is 58.3 years. The share of farmers age 65 and older was 14 percent in 1945: It is now 33 percent. Only 6 percent of farmers are under the age of 35.

Do all these numbers spell big trouble for the nation’s agriculture? Not necessarily. The entire American workforce is aging. By the year 2020, 25 percent of the labor force will be over 55, up from 12 percent in 1990. Agriculture, real estate and education are the three employment categories with the highest number of workers over 55. An older agricultural workforce is nothing new, at least not in the last half century.

Generally speaking, today’s 65-year-old is better educated, healthier and more willing to extend their working years than seniors in the past. It seems fair to say that a 58-year-old farmer today is comparable to a 48-year-old farmer in 1945.

According to the Stanford Center on Longevity, agriculture will need to rely on a larger share of older workers and use them as well to train young workers. The U.S. birth rate is projected to average 4.6 million per year from 2015 to 2060, that’s more than the peak year of the baby boom.

American agriculture has a recruiting job to do, but it has never been in a better position to convince future generations to become farmers and ranchers.

Stewart Truelsen, a food and agriculture freelance writer, is a regular contributor to the Focus on Agriculture series.
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By Amelia Arvesen
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA – In effort to bring horse racing back to Kansas, horse racers, breeders and ranchers want to see the Woodlands Racetrack in Wyandotte County reopened.

In a Thursday hearing, advocates of Senate Bill 192 said lower taxes on slot machines operating at horse tracks would revitalize the industry. The tax reduction from 40-to-22 percent would provide greater incentive for investment in the Leavenworth facility that has sat vacant for seven years, Republican Sen. Steve Fitzgerald’s district.

“Folks actively engaged in racing today are doing so outside the state of Kansas, fostering none of the economic benefits associated with a vibrant horse-racing culture,” Fitzgerald said.

Currently, horse racers must travel to Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and many other states to compete.

Proponents of the legislation said a racetrack cannot afford to stay open with the current Kansas tax rate. Oklahoma horse racetracks pay between 10 and 30 percent on gaming tax revenue, according to the American Gaming Association.

In Kansas, state-owned casinos are taxed 22 percent under current law. Whitney Damron with the Kansas Entertainment, LLC, said reopening the racetrack would jeopardize the viability of casinos such as the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway located six miles from Woodlands Racetrack.

“Changing the rules…puts us at a competitive disadvantage and risks future investment that we have indicated we would like to see made at that facility,” Damron said.

A study by Oxford Economics found that three commercial casinos contributed more than $672 million to the Kansas economy and supported more than 4,000 jobs in 2013.

SB 192 would not require additional costs from state agencies, according to the fiscal note. However, because a market study has not been conducted a full revenue estimation was not provided.

Proponents have attempted to pass this bill for several years. No action was taken Thursday. The Federal and State Affairs Committee has not scheduled to revisit the bill next week.

Amelia Arvesen is a University of Kansas senior from San Ramon, Calif., majoring in journalism

By JIM MCLEAN
Bills that would further tighten eligibility for public assistance programs will be among the first that Kansas lawmakers consider this week when they return to the Capitol from a short mid-session break.

The bills — House Bill 2381 — and Senate Bill 256 ­— would write into state law several controversial administrative changes made in recent years as part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to move people from welfare to work.

The bills would codify and in some cases expand limits on eligibility for programs that provide cash assistance and child-care subsidies. They also would prohibit spending public money to increase participation in the food stamp program.

Officials at the Kansas Department for Children and Families didn’t immediately respond to requests for information about the measures, which face opposition from several social service organizations.

Christie Appelhanz, vice president of public affairs for Kansas Action for Children, said the bills expand policies that already have reduced the number of children eligible for assistance.

“Poor Kansas children cannot afford to wait for basic necessities,” Appelhanz said in testimony pre-filed with the committee.

Brownback has defended the changes in welfare policy, saying they’re aimed at pushing non-disabled Kansans off the welfare rolls into jobs. He touted the strategy in a commercial during his re-election campaign.

The claim in the commercial referred to a reduction in the number of Kansans enrolled in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. At the time, DCF officials said that TANF enrollment had fallen by 54 percent, dropping from 38,963 in the 2011 budget year to 17,681 in the 2014 budget year.

The number of low-income parents — single mothers, mostly — receiving monthly child care subsidy payments dropped by 27 percent during the same four-year period, according to the agency.

“We’re seeing individuals moving out of poverty through employment,” Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said at the time.

Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, took issue with the commercial, saying that cutting the number of Kansans on public assistance wasn’t the same as reducing poverty.

Cotsoradis cited the increasing percentage of Kansas children receiving free or reduced-price lunches at school as evidence that Brownback’s policies were taking a toll on poor families.

“So here we have more kids relying on free and reduced school meals, and at the same time we’re seeing significant declines in the numbers of families that are accessing TANF and child care subsidies,” Cotsoradis said. “I don’t see how that’s good news. It means fewer poor people are receiving services that are meant to lift them out of poverty.”

Brownback administration policies also have raised the eligibility bar for participation in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

One of those changes took place in 2013, when DCF dropped its participation in a federal grant program designed to help poor families apply for food stamps.

“We simply do not believe taxpayer dollars should be used to recruit people to be on welfare,” Freed said at the time.

The bills under consideration this week would expand that policy by prohibiting the spending of any state or federal money on SNAP outreach.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

PRATT – One person died in a small plane crash Saturday afternoon in Pratt County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the 1995 fixed wing RV6 piloted by Harrison D. Rosenbaum, 85, Pratt, was coming in to land northbound, two miles south of South East 60 Avenue just east of South East 20 Avenue on a private landing strip.

The plane made contact with the ground, went off the east side of the runway and overturned in a pasture.

Rosenbaum was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Sedgwick County Forensic Center.

The KHP reported he was not wearing a safety restraint at the time of the crash.

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PRATT – One person died in a small plane crash on Saturday afternoon in Pratt County.
Law enforcement authorities reported the crash occurred two miles south of South East 60 Avenue just east of South East 20 Avenue on a private landing strip.

Check the Post for additional details as they become available..

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a staffer for U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp has been arrested and charged with 17 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

A Ford County jail official told The Associated Press on Saturday that Matthew P. Pennell is being held on $75,000 bond. The official said he couldn’t release the name of Pennell’s attorney or make Pennell available for an interview. No information is available in online court records.

KWCH-TV reports that Pennell was arrested Thursday after an investigation by Dodge City police and the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Chief of Staff Mark Kelly said in a written statement that Huelskamp’s office has placed Pennell on unpaid leave. The statement said there would be no further comment.

Huelskamp is a Republican representing Kansas’ 1st Congressional District.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas labor officials say the state’s private-sector job growth last year was stronger than previously reported and the highest rate since 2007.

The state Department of Labor reported Friday that the number of people employed in private sector jobs was 1.9 percent higher on average each month than in 2013.

The department said the new rate was based on more comprehensive federal data. The previous figure was 1.3 percent.

An average of about 1.14 million Kansas residents held private-sector jobs each month in 2014. The department had calculated the figure was 14,000 higher than in 2013, based on preliminary data.

But federal officials provide more comprehensive data after about six months, and it showed Kansas having an average of 20,800 more private-sector workers each month, compared with 2013.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House committee is preparing to review a plan from top Republican lawmakers to overhaul how the state distributes money to public schools.

The Appropriations Committee’s hearing Monday would be the first on the plan. The committee drafts budget measures, and aid to public schools is the biggest spending item each year.

The Kansas Department of Education was preparing an analysis Friday of how the GOP plan would affect individual school districts.

The measure incorporates Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to give districts “block grants” based on their current aid until lawmakers write a new formula.

Republican leaders said the plan increases aid to schools. Figures from legislative researchers show that most of the increase over the next two school years would cover rising state contributions to teacher pensions.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — One of the four applicants seeking to build a casino in southeast Kansas with the state’s last remaining casino license has dropped its bid.

The Kansas Lottery said in a news release Friday that SE Kansas Casino Partners LLC is withdrawing its application for a $140 million facility. Its proposal called for a casino to be built on 123 acres along U.S. 400 along with hotels, an equestrian center, a concert venue, restaurants, a lake and retail shops.

A letter dated Thursday from a SE Kansas Casino Partners representative said the company was unable to move forward. It cited “the remaining time available” and the company’s “ongoing due diligence.”

The three remaining applicants are Kansas Crossing Casino & Hotel; Emerald City Casino & Resort; and Castle Rock Casino Resort.

TOPEKA. — The Kansas Court of Appeals Friday upheld the sentence for a Hutchinson man convicted for the killing of another man on Halloween night in 2012.

22-year-old Isaac Beltran was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison by Judge Tim Chambers who said the aggravating factors required him to give the aggravated sentence of 154 months.

He says the aggravating factor was the fact that Beltran was on community corrections when the shooting of Dustin Brooks occurred. The judge says he shouldn’t have had a gun in his possession because of a previous felony conviction for possession of cocaine.

Beltran was convicted for shooting 26-year-old Brooks in the alley behind the home where Beltran lived at 203 North Cleveland on Halloween night in 2012.

Brooks suffered a gunshot wound to the torso and died after emergency surgery failed at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.

There was some question on appeal of whether the judge should have sentenced him to the aggravated number without a jury deciding guilt and also questions of his criminal history. The appeals court ruled those issues had no merit.