TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A national gun control group is trying to bolster its legal and public case against a Kansas law challenging federal firearms regulations by arguing that it revives an old, discredited states-rights doctrine.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s linking of Kansas’ gun-rights policy to the rhetoric of Southern segregationists is particularly striking because Topeka is home to a national historic site commemorating the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.
The Brady Campaign filed a federal lawsuit last week against a 2013 state law declaring that the federal government has no authority to regulate guns manufactured, sold and kept only in Kansas. Brady officials argue that it is an unconstitutional attempt to nullify federal laws.
Supporters of the law accuse the Brady group of political grandstanding.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A mosquito-borne illness that a top Kansas State University researcher says can knock people down for weeks or months at a time has come to Kansas but usually isn’t fatal.
Stephen Higgs, director of the university’s Biosecurity Research Institute, is a world expert on the chikungunya virus. The Wichita Eagle reports the name is an African Makonde word that means “to bend up,” with intense joint and body pain.
About 100 people in the United States have contracted the illness, most while traveling. Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials say they include two people from Sedgwick County who recently traveled separately to the Caribbean.
The danger here will be if infected travelers come home, get bitten, and infect local mosquitoes that could then spread the illness widely.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. (AP) — For the second day in a row, lightning has been blamed in the death of a visitor at Rocky Mountain National Park.
Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson says officials were notified late Saturday afternoon of four people being struck by lightning near Trail Ridge Road. The four were rushed to a hospital, but 52-year-old Gregory Cardwell, of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, died of his injures.
On Friday afternoon, park officials said lightning killed one woman and injured seven other people. That also occurred near Trail Ridge, which is the nation’s highest continuously paved road.
Patterson says they are the park’s first lightning fatalities since 2000.
No other key details were released on Saturday’s strike, including the names of those hit.
A park news release identified the woman who died Friday as 42-year-old Rebecca R. Teilhet, of Yellow Springs, Ohio.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center on Thursday afternoon, Eyvette Carter struggled to carry on a basic conversation with her husband, Warren.
She was distracted in no small part by Karl Chaney whispering in her ear.
“Don’t trust him. Is he looking at you? Why would he want to talk to you?” Chaney said.
The group was taking part in an auditory hallucination simulation, designed to demonstrate the experience of a psychotic episode.
Kansas City’s first-ever Mental Health First Aid day offered teachers, social workers, faith leaders and others a day of free classes to learn about mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
“We want people to talk openly about their mental health. We hope that, by doing that, when folks are more comfortable talking about it and bringing it to the attention of their friends and families, that we can get people into treatment earlier,” said Mark Wiebe, public affairs director of Wyandot Inc., parent company of a group of organizations that includes a community mental health center.
All nine of the courses – which were held at six sites and attended by more than 250 people – were filled to capacity, according to the Metropolitan Council of Community Mental Health Centers, the event’s organizer.
The event included separate training on adult and youth mental health.
Larry Lee said his work as a math tutor and youth mentor motivated him to attend the sessions focusing on youth mental health issues.
“Sometimes you run across situations where (you think), I don’t know why this student’s not catching on. There’s got to be something more going on,” Lee said.
The event included classes on identifying symptoms of mental illness and coping with emergencies.
Wiebe thinks much of the interest in mental health training resulted from high-profile shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn.
“That, for better or worse, sparked a conversation about mental health nationally. It’s been on the radar, and it’s been sustained on the radar ever since then,” he said.
He noted, however, that the sessions were not intended as “violence prevention” measures. He said the vast majority of people with mental illness don’t commit acts of violence and are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.
The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City funded sessions in Clay and Jackson counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. Additional funding for the Jackson County sessions came from the Jackson County Community Mental Health Fund
Wiebe said another mental health first-aid day is planned for later this year, although a date has not yet been set.
City councils in Cleveland, Alexandria (Virginia) and Chicago have all recently passed resolutions banning the administration of antibiotics to farm animals, unless they’re sick — the animals, not the city councils. City councils pass resolutions all the time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if each of these distinguished groups has opinions on football team names, investments in the Middle East and global warming as well. It’s much easier to pass resolutions than it is to actually govern. Perhaps when Chicago’s murder rate is lower than rural Missouri’s, when their pension plan is fully funded and when the potholes are fixed, then we might have some interest in their thoughts on the food supply.
It seems that the further people get from the farm, the more opinions they have about how food ought to be produced. When your only connection to the growing of crops and animals is paying the monthly bill to a lawn care company, farming seems pretty darned easy. I’m convinced there are more than a few of our city cousins who unknowingly hire the local yard service to spread a monthly dose of pesticides and chemical fertilizers on their lawns, while at the same time frequenting the organic aisles of their local grocery store.
This is why I’m in favor of backyard chickens and community gardens. Spend a little time treating coccidiosis, squish a few horn worms that are eating your tomatoes, watch bacterial blight wipe out the neighborhood tomato crop, perhaps clean up after a weasel (ferret) who has visited your free-range chickens, and city dwellers will perhaps start to understand why farmers do the things they do.
Farming is risky, dirty, dangerous, demanding and always comes down to working hard to surmount the challenges that nature puts in the way of food production. Sure, I understand that we have to work with nature, that we have to protect nature, that the environment is important. But I also understand what army worms can do to a hay crop or root worms to a corn crop. We need to cooperate with the environment, but sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t get the memo about how we should all get along. Sometimes raising a crop is a battle, and it’s always hard.
On August 5, voters will have the chance to help ensure our food supply. They’ll have a chance to be part of the annual adventure of raising crops and tending to animals. We’re so very fortunate in America, and particularly Missouri, to have farmers who get up early and stay up late to produce an amazing cornucopia of food, at prices that make it available to everyone. That’s never happened before in history. It is a blessing to everyone who eats, and farmers need your support so we can continue to do what we do. I hope that every citizen of Missouri has a successful gardening year, that those backyard chickens are laying, that the community gardens across the state produce tomatoes that find a home next to some bacon from a Missouri farm. And I hope everyone interested in farming and eating will support Amendment #1.
Blake Hurst, of Westboro, Mo., is the president of Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.
Fraser, Dana and Rebecca Wilson explored KAWG board member Justin Knopf’s wheat farm as winners of the “Bringing Mom to the Farm: Get the Dirt” competition.
By JORDAN HILDEBRAND Kansas Wheat
Farming is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, less than one percent of Americans are farmers that dot the rural landscape. So, many Americans don’t have the opportunity to get “farm ” dirty. But, the Kansas Farm Food Connection changed that for one suburban family.
On June 28, Fraser, Dana and Rebecca Wilson of Roeland Park in Johnson County explored two Kansas farms as winners of the “Bringing Mom to the Farm: Get the Dirt” event. The Wilsons made their way to meet with the Knopf family of Knopf Family Farms near Gypsum in order to learn about Kansas crops.
Eight-year-old Rebecca Wilson had her first opportunity to ride in a combine around the farm with Justin Knopf, a Kansas Association of Wheat Growers board member. The Knopf farm had received rain right before the visit, so no harvesting was done that day, but the experience for the Wilsons was still rewarding.
“I’m from Kansas; I live in Kansas. And now I love Kansas even more, knowing what these farmers do for us each and every day,” said Dana. “They’re ambassadors for the state and Kansas has one of the best products you can find anywhere. Not very many people realize what goes into these farms, how hard these families work and the science behind it all.”
While on the farm, the Wilsons were able to take a closer look at Kansas’ famous amber waves of grain and learn about the importance of wheat, the history of Knopf Family Farms, partake in some pedal tractor races and even had some photo opportunities inside the giant combine tire.
Marsha Boswell, director of communications at Kansas Wheat, met the Wilsons at the Knopf farm.
“The Wilson family came to the farm ready to learn more about where their food comes from,” said Boswell. “They asked some wonderful questions and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Dana assured us that she would share what she learned with others.”
The Wilsons also visited Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc. farm in Herington and learn about the Kansas livestock industry. There they got nose to nose with some Kansas cattle, learned a little about the diet of the animals and even helped out with the morning feeding.
he “Bringing Mom to the Farm” event is one of the first hosted by KFFC, a Manhattan-based coalition of eight farm organizations formed to connect consumers and the people who grow their food, said Meagan Cramer, co-director of communications at the Kansas Farm Bureau. The coalition members include Kansas Wheat, Kansas Corn Growers Association, Midwest Dairy, Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Pork Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Soybean and Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.
Justin Knopf believes that the event had a strong impact on the Wilsons, and was more than willing to become involved in the event.
He said, “Lindsey and I thoroughly enjoyed hosting Dana, Fraser and their wonderful daughter Rebecca. As a farmer, I think that’s part of my responsibility, part of stewardship.”
For more information on the Kansas Farm Food Connection and the “Bringing Mom to the Farm: Get the Dirt” contest, visit raisingkansas.com.
MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Those with an eye toward healthy living have probably noticed the words “aronia berry” in everything from juices and powdered supplements to baby food.
Midwesterners probably know it as chokeberry, the name European settlers centuries ago gave the berry they found tart, astringent and more pretty than palatable.
The native North American plant is in the midst of a transformation, prized for its exceptional health benefits and easy cultivation. The almost black-purple, pea-sized berry gets its more agreeable name from its genus, Aronia melanocarpa.
Now dubbed a “superfood,” research shows the berries packing more antioxidants than blueberries, acai and goji berries. Producers are also taking notice, with thousands of the shrubs being planted by farmers — mostly in Iowa, but also in other upper Midwest states — every year.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A 25-year-old Kansas City man gets two suspended sentences and 120 days in jail for a hit-and-run accident that killed a 57-year-old motorcyclist whose wife and daughter were killed by a drunken driver two years earlier.
Ronald O’Kelly was sentenced Friday to seven years for involuntary vehicular manslaughter due to intoxication and four years for leaving the scene of an accident. The Kansas City Star reports both sentences were suspended and O’Kelly was ordered to serve 120 days, followed by probation.
O’Kelly pleaded guilty in May to the April 2013 crash that killed Leroy “Buddy” Bronson at a south Kansas City intersection.
Bronson’s wife, Diane, and their 11-year-old daughter, Anna, died July 4, 2011, when a drunken driver going the wrong way on Interstate 435 plowed into their car.
ST. JOSEPH- A St. Joseph woman was injured in an unusual parking log accident on Saturday afternoon.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Buick Park Avenue driven by Wilma N. Miller, 89, St. Joseph, entered the private parking lot of the probation and parole office on Faraon Street and attempted to park the vehicle.
The vehicle’s accelerator stuck which caused the vehicle to travel onto the sidewalk, strike a handicap sign and a flagpole and come to a stop. The driver backed the vehicle up striking another handicap sign, returned to the parking lot and struck a 1997 Ford F250 with its driver’s side door.
Miler was transported to Heartland Regional Medial Center for minor injuries.
The MSHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Four new Kansas measles cases have been traced to a Wichita restaurant where one employee might have picked up the virus during a recent outbreak in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is urging anyone who ate at Sal’s Japanese Steakhouse on Kellogg Drive on various dates in June and July and developed symptoms to call their doctor.
A KDHE news release says three employees at the steakhouse and an unvaccinated infant who was exposed to the virus at the restaurant became infected.
Measles cases have been rare in the U.S. since indigenous measles were declared eliminated in the country in 2000.
KDHE says there has been a resurgence in cases this year, with 554 confirmed in 20 states through July 3
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A national gun control group is trying to bolster its legal and public case against a Kansas law challenging federal firearms regulations by arguing that it revives an old, discredited states-rights doctrine.
