ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Rams have cut Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team.
The 7th-round draft pick has been outspoken and confident as his progress was watched as closely as any rookie in the league. He has been cheered by athletes and celebrities. In the end, the defensive end couldn’t make a team stocked with pass-rushers.
He still can be picked up by another team or make the Rams’ practice squad.
The Rams selected the SEC co-defensive player of the year at Missouri with the 249th overall pick out of 256 overall during May’s draft. Sam came out as gay following his final season at Missouri.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher was proud to have made the landmark pick, but he made clear from the start that he chose Sam because he thought he had the talent to make it.
GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. (AP) — A Labor Day weekend rally of what the government calls an outlaw motorcycle gang has some suburban Kansas City residents and law enforcement officers a little on edge, but one of the motorcycle group’s local leaders says those fears are overblown.
The Kansas City Star reports an estimated 2,000 members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club are expected to be in Grain Valley for the weekend rally at Thunder Valley Sand Drags, adjacent to Valley Speedway. Each group of motorcycles that rolled into the town of about 13,000 on Thursday tended to have a police SUV or patrol car following along.
Local Bandidos leader Jeremiah Britt says the rally is a reunion for members and there’s no reason for the locals to be in fear.
Some people have the mistaken idea that farmers and ranchers are harming our environment. You hear it everywhere: at the coffee shop, church, public forums, traveling, even in the grocery.
Children arrive home from school and tell parents about harmful practices farmers are using on the land. Everywhere you go today people are concerned about the food they eat.
John Schlageck writes for the Kansas Farm Bureau.
Few businesses are as open to public scrutiny as a farm or ranch in the United States. While farming and ranching practices occur in the open, the only picture many have of agriculture is what they read in newspapers, or see on television or social media. Even fewer people have set foot on a modern farm.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to engage with our customers and tell them about what we do in agriculture.
Today’s farmer and ranchers are doing their part to protect and improve the environment. They use such agricultural practices as early planting, pest control, good soil fertility conservation tillage and many other innovations that help grow more food while protecting the environment.
Tell them about this.
Farmers adjust practices to meet individual cropping conditions. Such practices may vary from farm to farm – even from field to field.
As in any other business, farmers and ranchers must manage their operations on a timely basis and use all available technology to improve quality and productivity. If they don’t they will not stay in business for long.
Tell them.
Today’s farmer has cut chemical usage by approximately 40 percent in many cases during the last couple of decades. Many no longer apply chemicals before planting. Instead, as the crop matures, farmers gauge potential weed pressure and apply herbicides only if needed.
Because farmers and ranchers are the first to come in contact with chemicals, they use them with care and according to instructions on the label. Farmers know chemicals can be toxic or harmful to people and the environment.
Tell them.
Throughout the growing season, farmers do their best to provide nutritious healthy food. From planting through harvest, they battle weather, weeds, insects and disease. Efficiency is their best defense against unstable world markets, political barriers and fringe groups who may attack their farming methods.
Farmers and ranchers must live in the environment they create. They know all too well the importance of keeping ground water clean and free of harmful products. More often than not, farmers drink from wells on their land. They understand their family drinks from the water they pump from the ground every day.
Farmers and ranchers can and will do more to improve their environment. They can continue to rely less on herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers. Agricultural producers can also conserve more water, plug abandoned wells, monitor grassland grazing and continue to implement environmentally sound techniques that will ensure preservation of the land.
Production agriculture works because it is flexible enough to accept and adapt to change. No agricultural system – or any other system for that matter – is perfect. Farmers and ranchers will continue to search for better ways to farm and ranch through research and education.
In the meantime, farmers and ranchers must engage through every avenue to tell our customers what goes on in agriculture. Take every opportunity to explain to customers that you are providing them with the safest food in the world.
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas. Born and raised on a diversified farm in northwestern Kansas, his writing reflects a lifetime of experience, knowledge and passion.
Organizations often try to identify their “special sauce” as a way of describing what makes them special. This fall, Northwest has adopted two simple but powerful words to portray the advantages of being part of the University community.
Those words, “Bearcats Connect,” are the pillar of a comprehensive marketing campaign designed to drive Northwest recruitment efforts and advertising strategies.
“The new slogan personifies what it means to be a Bearcat, not only for students who begin making connections as soon as they arrive on campus, but it also acknowledge the lifelong connections made through network of Northwest alumni and friends,” said Brandon Stanley, Northwest’s chief officer of marketing and design.
With more than 70,000 connected alumni and friends working throughout the world, an astounding 97.5 percent of Northwest undergraduate degree earners get a job or continue their education within six months of earning their degrees; the rate is higher at 99 percent for graduate degree earners. Thus, Bearcat connections have an impact.
The slogan will enhance Northwest’s marketing of its successes on and off the field, such as Northwest’s 14 national titles – in athletic and academic contests – during the last five years. The strategy also highlights students’ connections to the Maryville community, with 25,000 volunteer hours in the last year. And it ties to the comprehensive education that allows Northwest students to stay connected with more of their dollars, providing them with laptops and textbooks within one of the lowest tuition increases in the country during the last five years.
“Bearcats Connect” is now being incorporated into the University’s marketing and advertising materials. Followers of Northwest’s social media accounts also are encouraged to use the #bearcatsconnect hashtag to connect with other Bearcats and see what is happening throughout Bearcat Nation.
“The ‘Bearcats Connect’ slogan encompasses the support Bearcats have for one another, from the first-year student to our passionate alumni,” Stanley said. “The campaign has been met with enthusiasm and, as always, we encourage all Bearcats to make a connection to Northwest.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — University researchers and utilities are conducting solar panel research that could make the energy source more attractive for Kansas users.
The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1trUNjC) reports that a lab at the University of Kansas is working on producing flexible panels that will be more cost-effective than current silicon models. The technology they’re using would print a “solar ink” on a panel and use that to generate electricity.
Meanwhile, Westar Energy recently made $1 million in grants to 15 schools and nonprofits around Kansas. The money will be used to install solar setups that have capacities ranging from 10 to 30 kilowatts.
The data will be available to residents and business owners who are considering installing solar panels and want to know what kind of results they can expect.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas City man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison in a federal drug trafficking case, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.
Christopher Craig, 32, Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana, and two counts of using a phone in furtherance of drug trafficking. He admitted that he was part of a drug trafficking ring that operated from January 2006 to December 2012 in Kansas City, Kan.
Prosecutors argued for a longer sentence on the grounds that Craig planned and participated in an attempted robbery on Aug. 14, 2012, that resulted in the shooting death of one of the robbers. Officers were called to Research Medical Center when a shooting victim was dropped off at the emergency room entrance. The victim died of three gunshot wounds to his upper body.
Investigators learned that Craig had planned the robbery. He had taken the victim and another man to a south Kansas City location where a large sum of money and drugs were kept. During the robbery, the target of the robbery shot the victim. Craig was a member of the MOB street gang.
Grissom commended the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, the Kansas City, Mo., Career Criminal Squad, the FBI, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri McCracken and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Trent Krug for their work on the case.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Democratic legislator still unknown to some Kansas voters is giving Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a tough re-election race.
State Rep. Paul Davis is tapping into doubts about tax-cutting that cemented Brownback’s reputation in conservative circles.
Davis has lived much of his life within walking distance of the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence. He’s a 42-year-old lawyer and a two-time Democratic National Convention delegate for President Barack Obama.
But Davis is wooing disaffected GOP moderates and promising a bipartisan administration if elected. Making headway in the political middle is crucial for him because only 24 percent of the state’s 1.74 million registered voters are Democrats.
The race so far is a tossup, but Brownback and his allies believe wavering Republicans and unaffiliated voters will move back to his fold.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has asked federal officials to issue an economic-injury disaster declaration in St. Louis County so that businesses can get aid following looting in Ferguson.
Nixon said he submitted a formal request Friday to the U.S. Small Business Administration to make low-interest loans available to businesses.
The request comes after the Aug. 9 police shooting of Michael Brown led to protests that occasionally turned violent in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Some businesses were looted while others lost customers or had to temporarily close because of clashes between police and protesters.
State and local governments also are offering aid to businesses affected by the events in Ferguson.
Kari Bruffett, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.-Photo by Dave Ranney
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Kari Bruffett was confirmed this week as secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. She said one of her first goals will be to continue the transition away from institutional care for people with disabilities in favor of home- and community-based services.
The Legislature’s Confirmation Oversight Committee approved Bruffett unanimously after she told committee members that her agency’s mission fits neatly with a personal mission statement she formed while working as a government affairs liaison at the University of Kansas Hospital.
“Kansans should have the freedom to choose where and how they want to live, and that choice should not define their outcomes,” Bruffett said. “To me, outcomes really meant, broadly, health and well-being.”
Bruffett replaces Shawn Sullivan, who is now the state budget director. She had been director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Division of Health Care Finance.
Sen. Ty Masterson, a member of the oversight committee, said his experience with Bruffett in that role made him comfortable confirming her.
“I’ve always been very impressed with her grasp of the subject matter,” said Masterson, R-Andover. “I’m glad to see her appointment, partly because she has the ability to articulate complex matters that deal with a lot of emotion, which is what KDADS deals with.”
Bruffett said one of her first tasks will be to ensure the state conforms to new regulations from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services intended to more clearly define what qualifies as home- and community-based services for the purpose of granting Medicaid waivers.
The regulations, released in March, state that provider-owned facilities must treat live-in clients like tenants, with rights provided under state and local rental laws. Clients must have freedom to eat when they wish, lock their doors for privacy and furnish their rooms within leasing requirements.
In short, home- and community-based providers must operate less like health care institutions and more like private homes.
Bruffett said she was confident Kansas’ waiver system had that feel, but “It’s a great time for the conversation” about moving further from institutionalization.
She also said one of the intents of the state’s switch to managed care Medicaid, or KanCare, was to increase the number of home- and community-based providers so Kansans in all communities can have that choice.
“It has yet to materialize, but one of the hopes for KanCare is that capacity-building is something the MCOs (managed care organizations) can do in partnership with the state and providers,” Bruffett said.
Tom Laing is executive director of Interhab, a Topeka-based organization of service providers for Kansans with developmental disabilities.
Laing said the state does not yet have enough providers to realize Bruffett’s vision of a Kansas in which residents can live wherever and however they please. “But we are poised to be able to do so if there is a commitment and a recognition to talk honestly about the need for resources,” he said.
“Building capacity includes having the resources to do so,” Laing said. “For us, capacity means being able to employ persons to provide services and supports.”
Laing said Bruffett and Sullivan have both been willing to listen to provider concerns. But he said the switch to managed care under three private insurance companies has not helped build the state’s home- and community-based provider network, nor has static state funding for that workforce.
“I think Bruffett will look at that issue, though,” Laing said, “and she gets a first shot in this upcoming budget.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is asking Americans this Labor Day to think about the rights and benefits that people often take for granted.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says he’s optimistic about the growing economy. He says decisions made now will determine whether the recovery will pick up speed.
Obama says workers and unions fought for things like Social Security, Medicare, workplace safety laws and the right to organize. He says those fights built a stronger middle class.
Obama says to strengthen the modern middle class, the U.S. must raise its minimum wage. He says states and businesses have raised wages already and Congress should, too.
In the Republican address, Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana says Republicans are focused on creating jobs, lowering costs and restoring opportunity
