During the early days of our country, settlers hunted out of necessity. While farming and trading provided them with a great deal of food, it wasn’t enough for sustenance. In order to survive, they hunted, fished and trapped wildlife where they lived and worked.
Today, hunting in America offers two major benefits to society: wildlife management and an economic boost.
Protecting wildlife makes sense from an environmental standpoint in today’s society. This allows for future hunting seasons. Wildlife management also ensures overcrowding will be less likely.
Today, most wildlife populations continue to thrive under conservation programs put into place in the early 1900s. For example, the white-tailed deer population was a meager half a million 100 years ago. With careful conservation efforts, plentiful crops, well planned hunting seasons and reasonable limits for hunters, the population has grown to approximately 32,000,000.
Almost every other wildlife species has flourished as well. Most of these animals number in the millions today. This wasn’t the case before the efforts of hunters and wildlife enthusiasts became commonplace.
Just as impressive are the numbers on the economic impact of hunting. With approximately 6 percent of the U.S. population hunting today, business is booming.
For countless small businesses in rural communities in Kansas and across this nation, hunter spending plays a major role in economic success.
Local shops, outfitters, hotels, convenience stores, restaurants and landowners all benefit. In 2011, nearly 13.7 million hunters spent $38.3 billion, according to a 2011 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey.
In addition to the 680,000 jobs supported by hunters, hunting generated $11.8 billion in tax revenues for federal, state and local coffers. Wildlife agency positions are also supported by sportsmen through the purchase of hunting licenses and funds collected as excise taxes through the long-running Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration
These sportsmen contribute on average $8 million per day, much of which goes toward conservation efforts. Billions of dollars have been used to protect the habitats of fish and wildlife throughout the country.
Through conservation efforts, money generated and jobs created, hunting remains a positive engine in this country’s economic industry. What many fail to understand about this sacred tradition is that it isn’t just about the act itself.
Hunting provides the opportunity to experience nature. Some sportsmen will tell you the best part about hunting isn’t shooting; it is the peacefulness and serenity of being outdoors.
Some may even feel a connection with their ancestry while hunting. It’s also an opportunity to pass such traditions to their children and friends.
For generations, families have shared these experiences and it has strengthened their relationships. It is a visceral feeling that can strengthen family bonds. Hunting remains a way of sharing in nature’s beauty and the dynamic between human and animal have few comparisons in society today.
Hunting prevails as a part of our American identity. Millions of people take pride in hunting. Their experiences are much bigger than themselves and create this community called hunting.
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Obama administration official says the “safety culture” of the federal agency that oversees auto recalls is being reviewed.
The agency has been criticized for not acting aggressively enough regarding recalls of millions of vehicles with defective air bags or faulty ignition switches.
The official says a team is examining risk management and the safety posture in general at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The official also says that further action is possible involving air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. The inflators can rupture, ejecting shrapnel in a crash. Recalls have been limited to vehicles registered in regions with high humidity, but millions more could be affected if recalls are extended nationwide.
The official requested not to be named as a condition of briefing reporters.
Kylee Bliss, 18, has formed a nonprofit foundation to raise awareness about and spur research into post-concussion syndrome after sustaining life-altering concussions herself.-photo by Mike Sherry
By Mike Sherry
Hale Center for Journalism
LAWRENCE — A talented athlete, Kylee Bliss could have been a scholarship basketball player at a small college.
As a sophomore point guard at Blue Valley High School in Stilwell, she practiced hard and had a real feel for the game. That changed after she sustained two concussions on the court in the span of eight weeks nearly three years ago.
Since then, Bliss has been publicizing her symptoms, intent on informing other high school athletes of the seriousness of traumatic brain injuries.
That’s not where the story ends, however. Bliss still deals with the chronic headaches, dizziness and concentration lapses that are common after-effects of concussions.
Her depth perception also is askew. “I can’t tell you how many times I have run into doors because it looks a lot farther,” she says.
Now a freshman at the University of Kansas, Bliss, 18, is still involved in sports, but from the sidelines. Working part-time in the KU football office, she hopes to specialize in pediatric medicine one day.
She’s also taken another step to raise awareness about and spur research into post-concussion syndrome (PCS) by forming the nonprofit HeadsUp Foundation for PCS.
Just three months after its establishment in August 2013, the foundation raised about $12,000 through its initial HeadsUp 10K trail run and 5K walk/run at Shawnee Mission Park. The second annual event is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Oct. 25 at Shelter No. 2.
Bliss recently answered some questions about her condition and the events that inform her efforts today.
Please start by taking me through the events that led to your concussions.
My first concussion was my first night of basketball tryouts my sophomore year, so 2011, and it wasn’t a big enough deal to stop practice. I just collided with another girl. … And so after practice in the locker room, I was just walking around. I had no clue who I was, where I was, when my birthday was, address, any of those things. And so the trainer, she called my Dad to come pick me up, and then I went to the doctor the next day, and it was confirmed I had a concussion. He said I should get brain rest — no talking on the phone, no texting, no watching TV. And that was Tuesday when I went to see him, and then Wednesday morning I went to school.
Was that the wrong or right thing to do?
No, that was wrong. But I begged my parents to let me go, and I told them that I was fine and that I didn’t really have a headache and all my other symptoms were gone. They weren’t, and I lasted, I think, a few hours, and then they sent me home.
What was happening? How come you only lasted a few hours?
My headache was really bad. I was dizzy. I asked my teacher to go fill up my water bottle, and I was gone for like 30 minutes, and nobody knew where I was. Eventually, they sent someone to come find me and I was sitting down, I was like, “I don’t know where I came from; I don’t know where I’m supposed to be.”
Not many people would be eager to go back to school.
When I was diagnosed with a concussion, I had to be out until all my symptoms were completely gone, and then after that I had to have a week of working into playing. So I knew it was going to be at least a week, if my symptoms were completely gone, so I was trying to speed that process up as quickly as possible.
The trainer would not let me practice until I was cleared by a doctor, and I knew that the doctor who had seen me before still wouldn’t clear me, so I had my Mom take me to a different doctor — just my family doctor, and I lied to him. I was just like, “No, I don’t have any headaches.” And for him, it was not fair at all to him. I put everyone in a bad situation. I wanted to play, and I didn’t want to let my team down, and so I did that, and he cleared me, and then I just had to wait a week, and then I went back.
So when did the second concussion occur?
It was my third game back. Somewhere, I think around the fourth quarter, it was a really close game and my team hadn’t won a game yet, so that was another reason for me to get back. So I dove for a loose ball like I normally would, not thinking, “Oh my head still hurts. I probably shouldn’t do that,” and I collided with a girl and then I hit my head on the floor. And then after that, I came out for a few minutes. I was like “please put me back in the game,” and so (the coach) did. I got fouled right after I went back in, and I went to shoot the free throw to put us ahead. I got up there and I couldn’t see the basket. I was just disoriented and I shot. I got close; I didn’t make it. That was the last time I ever played basketball.
What happened after the second concussion?
I went to speech therapy, vestibular therapy, and then I can’t even remember the other (therapists). There were a lot because the symptoms were still so bad every day. The first (concussion) happened right around winter break. So over that time, I wasn’t able to concentrate; I wasn’t able to remember. But once I went back, I took my finals. I failed every single one. On one, I got about a 12 percent because I just could not focus; I could not remember any of it. So that was kind of like when everyone said, “OK, there is something really wrong here.” Because I have always gotten straight A’s. OK there was like one B, but we don’t like to talk about that.
How long did it take before you started feeling decent again after the second one?
They started me on all these different types of medicines. Some of it helped, some of it didn’t. So until I really started to feel better a little bit, it would’ve been more than a month, probably three, because I had to do the therapies and do all that stuff. It was more just learning how to manage the symptoms as opposed to them getting better because they are still all here.
You specifically wanted to make the 10K more difficult during the fundraiser. Why is that?
Running on a paved surface, for most people, is a challenge. But to run on a mountain bike trail is just an added challenge. It takes more concentration and more effort. It is just kind of symbolic of how things that I used to be able to do very easily now just take extra time, and more work and more effort.
How are you working through the rigors of college classes?
I use pretty much all the time that I am not sleeping to study or work on other things. When I read, I have to take notes over every chapter, which takes longer. But if I don’t, I can read something and I can read it 400 times and not tell you a word of what it says.
Mornings are really hard just because my head, when I wake up, always hurts in the morning. So pushing yourself to get out of bed is rough. It hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be; being able to go to a class for 50 minutes and go home and take a nap and then study and go back to class has been a lot easier than going to school for seven or eight hours a day.
I just have to find my places where I can go study, like the Natural History Museum (on the University of Kansas campus). People don’t go there during the day, so it’s very quiet. I have to find things that work for me — and just knowing Thursday nights, it’s going to be loud; Saturday nights, it’s going to be loud. So I just have to do other things to counteract what everybody else does.
Do you think your symptoms will ever go away?
No, just because of the fact that I have lived with them every day for practically three years. But at the same time, that is OK. I have learned how to deal with them. You know, there are people who go through a lot worse. Obviously, I hope they will go away.
How do you feel about having established a foundation by the age of 18?
I am pretty proud of it, but more than anything, I just want to be able to hopefully prevent other people from going through the same things. All my friends go out and have a good time, and go to football games and go to basketball games and go to concerts and stuff. I can’t do those things without feeling bad for a week after. So I’ve had to grow up a lot quicker, and I’ve had to make those choices that, “Hey, I’m not going to go this concert because I have to do what is best for my health.”
Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
BARNARD- A Missouri man was injured in an accident just after 11:30 p.m. on Friday in Nodaway County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported the crash occurred as a 2004 Mazda RX8 driven by Treston A. Morgan, 25, Savannah, was northbound on Keystone Road two miles south of Barnard.
The driver failed to negotiate a T intersection, travelled off the north side of the intersection and struck a ditch.
Morgan was transported to St. Francis Hospital. The MSHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
GARNETT, Kan – Two Kansas teens were injured in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Friday in Anderson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Ford Taurus driven by Jessica Pollitt, 18, Olathe, was northbound on U.S. 169 one mile north of the business junction and traveled off the right side of the roadway.
The driver overcorrected and the vehicle overturned.
Pollitt and a passenger Avery Pollitt, 16, Overland Park, were transported to Anderson County Hospital.
The KHP reported they were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Independent candidate Greg Orman has outlined proposals for helping veterans as he campaigns against Republican Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas.
Orman had a Statehouse news conference with several veterans Friday to tout his initiatives. They include a loan program to help tide over veterans who are waiting to receive disability payments.
The independent candidate also said the federal government needs to act to protect veterans from predatory loans for higher education. He said steps include forgiving some loans and greater resources to investigate abuses.
Orman also proposed expanded federal funding for special courts aimed at providing treatment rather than prison for veterans with legal problems and expanded efforts to combat homelessness among veterans.
Roberts is a former Marine who has touted his past work on national security issues and military projects.
MARYSVILLE, Wash. (AP) — A student recently crowned freshman class Homecoming prince walked into his Seattle-area high school cafeteria Friday and opened fire, killing one person and shooting several others in the head before turning the gun on himself, officials and witnesses said.
Students said the gunman was staring at his victims as he shot them inside the cafeteria at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. The shootings set off a chaotic scene as students ran from the cafeteria and building in a frantic dash to safety, while others were told to stay put inside classrooms at the school 30 miles north of Seattle.
The gunman was identified as student Jaylen Fryberg, a government official with direct knowledge of the shooting told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Students and parents said Fryberg was a member of a prominent family from the nearby Tulalip Indian tribe and a freshman who played on the high school football team. He was introduced at a football game as a prince in the 2014 Homecoming court, according to a video shot by parent Jim McGauhey.
Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux said the gunman died of a self-inflicted wound, but he could not provide more details.
Shaylee Bass, 15, a sophomore at the school, said Fryberg had recently gotten into a fight with another boy over a girl.
“He was very upset about that,” said Bass, who was stunned by the shooting.
“He was not a violent person,” she said. “His family is known all around town. He was very well known. That’s what makes it so bizarre.”
Three of the victims had head wounds and were in critical condition. Two unidentified young women were at Providence Everett Medical Center, and 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg was at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital officials said.
Another victim, 14-year-old Nate Hatch, was listed in serious condition at Harborview, the hospital said. Family members told KIRO-TV that Andrew Fryberg and Hatch are cousins of Jaylen Fryberg.
Witnesses described the shooter as methodical inside the cafeteria.
Brian Patrick said his daughter, a freshman, was 10 feet from the gunman when the shooting occurred. She ran from the cafeteria and immediately called her mother.
Patrick said his daughter told him, “The guy walked into the cafeteria, pulled out a gun and started shooting. No arguing, no yelling.”
A crowd of parents later waited in a parking lot outside a nearby church where they were reunited with their children. Buses pulled up periodically to drop off students evacuated from the school. Some ran to hug their mothers and fathers.
Patrick said after the shooting that his other daughter, a senior at the school, was “hysterical” when she called him from her classroom.
“I thought, ‘God let my kids be safe,” he said.
Many students described Fryberg as a happy, popular student, but social media accounts suggested he was struggling with an unidentified problem.
On Wednesday, a posting on his Twitter account read: “It won’t last … It’ll never last.” On Monday, another tweet said: “I should have listened. … You were right … The whole time you were right.”
Marysville-Pilchuck High School has many students from the Tulalip Indian tribe.
Ron Iukes, a youth counselor with the tribe, said Fryberg was from a well-known tribal family.
“They’re real good people, very loving, a big part of the community,” he said. “Jaylen was one of our good kids. It’s just a shock this happened. I’ve known this boy since he was a baby. It’s just devastating.”
Nathan Heckendorf, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, said he saw Fryberg Friday morning before the shooting and there was nothing to indicate he was upset.
State Sen. John McCoy, a tribal member, said the shooting devastated the community.
“I do know the family,” of the shooter, McCoy said. “We’re all related in one shape or form. We live and work and play together.”
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DOUG ESSER, Associated Press
MARYSVILLE, Wash. (AP) — A hospital says three victims are in critical condition after a school shooting near Seattle.
Providence Everett medical center spokeswoman Heidi Amrine said a total of four wounded students were brought to the hospital.
She says three were in very critical condition.
One considered stable was taken to Harborview Medical Center.
Police say a lone student shooter was dead after the attack at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
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MARYSVILLE, Wash. (AP) — Police say a lone shooter is dead after an attack at a high school north of Seattle.
Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux (LAM’-or-oh) said the shooter was a student, but he did not have any additional information including where in the school the shooting took place and if anyone else was killed or wounded.
Many students and staff members were seen walking out of Marysville Pilchuck High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle, after police and ambulance crews surrounded the campus. Lamoureux said police were going room by room, searching the school to make sure it was safe.
There were conflicting reports about the number of possible injuries. A spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said the facility was expecting one patient but had no other information.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A crowd-sourcing website aimed at helping Kansas communities has gone live with its first four projects.
Kanstarter is powered by the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The site, which went live Thursday, allows people to donate time, talent or money to the projects.
The Hutchinson News reports the four projects on Kanstarter all have a common theme of improving Kansas rural life. One project is aimed at helping Burdett update its public miniature golf course. Another wants to help Plains purchase land to build a grocery store.
The foundation’s director described the website launch as soft, since the projects are new and everyone involved is still in the learning process.
The foundation received $200,000 in community service tax credits from the state’s commerce department to build the website.
Former Kansas Medicaid official Andy Allison spearheaded the expansion effort in Arkansas as director of that state’s program. He says an infusion of young and relatively healthy Medicaid recipients into Arkansas’ private insurance market is pushing down rates for everyone else. Allison spoke Thursday at the 2014 Kansas Economic Policy Conference on Thursday at the University of Kansas- photo by Jim McLean
By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
LAWRENCE — Which of the following is true:
• The Affordable Care Act has provided thousands of low-income Kansas with greater access to affordable health insurance.
• A looming ACA mandate has caused some Kansas employers to hire fewer full-time workers and instead fill positions with part-time employees.
• The combination of reductions in Medicare rates and the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid eligibility has put Kansas hospitals in a financial bind.
The correct answer is “all of the above.”
Less than a year after the first plans were sold in the Obamacare marketplace, it’s clear that the law’s impact on consumers, providers and employers has been mixed. But it’s also clear that it’s too soon to fully gauge its impact.
“There is so much uncertainty going forward,” said economist Donna Ginther, wrapping up the 2014 Kansas Economic Policy Conference on Thursday at the University of Kansas.
Consumers are hopeful but confused. Employers are wary. Health insurers are shooting in the dark. And providers – particularly rural hospitals – are worried about surviving as they transform the way they deliver care.
“It’s really hard if you’re a provider out there … with one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat,” said Kansas Hospital Association President and CEO Tom Bell, referring to the difficulties that hospitals face transitioning from the old fee-for-service system to one that requires providers to manage the health of their patients.
Arthur Frable, CEO of the Bob Wilson Memorial Grant County Hospital in Ulysses, said creating a value-based system that rewards providers that meet certain quality measures and penalizes those that don’t can be a “very scary” proposition for rural providers serving higher proportions of elderly Kansans who require more acute care.
“My concern is that ultimately this is going to be the mechanism that’s going to be used to close many hospitals,” Frable said.
Insurers guessing on rates
The transition also continues to challenge Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest health insurer, said Matt All, senior vice president and general counsel. The company had to set premiums for the plans it will offer during the upcoming Obamacare enrollment period before it knew whether it had properly priced plans sold during the first round.
“There is a lot of guesswork going on,” All said. “It’s reasonably educated guesswork. But it’s guesswork all the same.”
The next open enrollment period starts on Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15, 2015.
During the first enrollment period, Oct. 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014, more than 57,000 Kansans purchased coverage through the online marketplace. About 78 percent of them received federal tax credits, meaning their incomes ranged between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. More than half of the almost 45,000 Kansans who received subsidies paid $50 or less per month for their coverage, according to a new report from the Kansas Health Institute, the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service.
The number of Kansans who purchased coverage in the marketplace and previously were uninsured is unknown, but it’s estimated that nationally about 30 percent of those who purchased Obamacare plans previously lacked coverage.
Arkansas Medicaid expansion touted
Many states have significantly reduced their uninsured rates by expanding Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of FPL – about $16,104 of annual income for an individual and $32,913 for a family of four. Arkansas engineered one of the biggest reductions.
“Arkansas had the seventh highest uninsurance rate in the country before this. We have now experienced the largest single percentage reduction in uninsurance in the country,” said Andy Allison, a former Kansas Medicaid official who spearheaded the expansion effort in Arkansas as director of that state’s program.
The Arkansas plan, which provides private coverage to 90 percent of new enrollees and leaves the 10 percent with the most serious health issues in traditional Medicaid, has served as a model for other “red” states where most elected officials are opposed to the ACA.
The infusion of young and relatively healthy Medicaid recipients into Arkansas’ private insurance market is pushing down rates for everyone else, Allison said.
“We’ve just made private insurance in Arkansas for people above 138 percent (of FPL) cheaper,” Allison said, estimating that 2015 premiums will average 2 percent less than those charged in 2014.
Bell, of the Kansas Hospital Association, said the organization is drafting a Medicaid expansion proposal for the 2015 legislative session that likely will include some features of the Arkansas plan. He said he hopes that after the election the governor – whoever that turns out to be – and lawmakers will be ready to discuss expansion.
Failure to act, Bell said, will leave more than 80,000 low-income adults in a kind of insurance limbo. They make too much for Medicaid but too little to be eligible for subsidies in the Obamacare marketplace.
“To me that’s a head-scratcher,” Bell said. “It raises the question of why we as a state are not having an official conversation about what can we do to help the people out in that bubble.”
However, if Rep. David Crum’s comments are any indication, many conservative Republicans may continue to oppose expansion on the grounds that its cost is not sustainable until Congress reforms entitlement spending.
“The idea that programs funded by the federal government are free has contributed to our $18 trillion federal debt,” said Crum, an Augusta Republican who is not running for re-election. “Until Congress can fix our entitlement system and balance our budget, I worry about expanding the Medicaid program.”
Under the ACA, the federal government has agreed to pay all expansion costs for three years. After that the federal share will gradually decline until it reaches 90 percent, where it will remain.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has spurned an effort by a heterosexual couple to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the Kansas ban on gay marriage.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled Friday that Phillip and Sandra Unruh, of Harper, have no legal right to join the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas.
The Unruhs claimed in a Wednesday filing that they have a property right in their traditional marital status. They argued an adverse decision on the constitutionality of the state’s same-sex marriage ban could diminish their marital status and harm their property right.
Crabtree concluded the Unruhs’ interests are already represented by the Kansas attorney general’s office, which is defending the ban.
But the judge also invited the couple to file a friend-of-the-court brief stating their arguments.
