If you want to see fireworks up close, this is your chance. Fly into this spectacular firework display over West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday. It was filmed from a drone.
Special thanks to Jos Stigling

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

Television, newspapers, magazines and the web are filled with images of starving children – skeleton-like figures crouched like dogs on their haunches while their mothers wail in anguish. Sometimes these pictures from such far-away places as Sudan, Ethiopia or Somalia also include children eating bread, bowls of rice and other staples that may have come from food produced on the fertile land of Kansas farmers and their counterparts across the United States.

The idea for food aid for these hungry people originated 60 years ago in Kansas. Named Food for Peace, this program started as an outgrowth of our country’s foreign-aid policy.

Here’s how it all began. A few years after the conclusion of World War II, the United States implemented plans to help countries devastated by the war. The Marshall Plan in Western Europe became the cornerstone of this newly emerging program.

While some of the funding was used for reconstruction, other monies were  used to help feed starving people left homeless and unemployed by the war. During this same period, the United States enjoyed bumper crops and began stockpiling huge commodity surpluses.

In September 1953, Cheyenne County Farm Bureau – in northwestern Kansas – held a countywide policy development meeting. In that meeting, Peter O’Brien, a young farmer and rancher, suggested that it would make more sense to give aid in the form of food items than in the form of money.

Cheyenne County Farm Bureau drafted a foreign-aid resolution that called for exporting grain to other countries. The northwestern Kansas farm leaders believed that if underdeveloped countries were able to secure food they would become major buyers of U.S. commodities once they became more prosperous.

The Kansas farmers also saw this as a “sure-fire” method to help reduce grain inventories and increase shipments of U.S. agricultural products that could generate more business for American processors, packers, shippers, railroads and ocean vessels.

The county Farm Bureau resolution became a state resolution at the Kansas Farm Bureau annual meeting and later part of the official policy of the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 1954, Kansas Sen. Andy Schoeppel sponsored legislation known as Food for Peace that passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by Kansas’ own native son, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Since its beginning in Cheyenne County, Kan., Food for Peace has gone through many changes. It remains, however, a key ingredient in our overseas plan to aid countries with food rather than money.

Food for Peace has worked in more than 150 countries and provided food assistance to more than 3 billion people since 1954.

In 2013, Food for Peace provided approximately 1.1 million metric tons of food aid valued at approximately $1.4 billion in 46 countries. It also provided $577.6 million in grants in 29 countries for local and regional purchase of food commodities, food vouchers and cash transfers under the Emergency Food Security Program.

Using food for humanitarian relief programs helps everyone. Without Food for Peace and the output of Kansas producers and their counterparts across the United States, millions of people will continue to go hungry.

It is only fitting we pay tribute to the Farm Bureau leaders in rural northwestern Kansas for planting this fertile seed that has grown to feed people and peace around the world.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

TORONTO, Kan- Five people were injured in an ATV accident at 11:30 p.m. on Independence Day evening in Woodson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Polaris ATV driven by Blair A. Sebastian, 12, Wichita, was southbound on West Shore Road at Lake Toronto.

The vehicle attempted to make a left turn on Black jack Road and overturned.

Sebastian and passengers on the ATV Katy Janae Sebastian, 36, Wichita, Nicole R. Alumbaugh, 28, Mulvane, Ashlyn Alumbaugh, 8, Mulvane, and Amanda Jo Crow, 26, Mulvane, were transported to Greenwood County Hospital.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Attorney General Derek Schmidt says a pair of door-to-door meat salesmen who have been operating in Kansas are banned from selling meat in the state because of consumer protection violations.

The Wichita Eagle  reports Rodney Creighton and Christopher Maselka were operating under the name America’s Choice in 1998 when a court instituted the ban.

Schmidt’s office says it has received reports the two have been operating in Kansas under a variety of names that include Iowa Steak, Direct Foods or Ur Local Butcher.

Anyone selling meat door to door is required to inform customers of a three-day right to cancel and must also have a retail meat license from the state.

LAWRENCE — The Kansas Young Democrats plan to protest the ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. on July 7.  On a 5-4 decision on June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that closely held corporations may object to the birth control provision of the Affordable Care Act.

The Kansas Young Democrats released the following statement on the ruling: “We are disappointed in the actions of the United States Supreme Court.  Women’s equality is incontrovertible.  Young women are especially burdened by the costs of reproductive healthcare.  The all-male side that ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. this past Monday has grossly expanded the rights of corporations by stepping on those of women’s.  This ruling will only expand the ways in which corporations can ‘object’ to any alleged burden.”

The Kansas Young Democrats believe that due to last Monday’s ruling – more young women will be galvanized to vote in this November’s election.  “We’re excited for the opportunity this has presented us.  Young people are interested in equality.  Young people are interested in the equitable treatment of their mothers, sisters and daughters.  Young people vote when they have a reason and the Supreme Court, like the backwards-thinking of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, made a serious mistake that will require showing up to the polls in November to voice our displeasure.  This moves young Democrats closer to victory in November.”

The Kansas Young Democrats expect over fifty people to be in attendance this coming Monday.  The protest will occur on the sidewalks outside of the Lawrence, KS Hobby Lobby at 1801 W. 23rd Street. More information can be found on the Kansas Young Democrats Facebook Page.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas education officials say the state’s remedial education plan for incoming college students isn’t working.

The remedial courses, sometimes called developmental education, are offered to students who need to improve their capabilities in math, English or reading before taking college-level courses.

The state says 42 percent of the first-time students in two-year colleges and 16 percent in public, four-year colleges take at least one remedial course. Most of those students don’t graduate.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports a new report recommends that the state increase funding and make changes to the program.

Susan Fish, state director of developmental education, says students should be allowed to take the college level and remedial course simultaneously. And, she says schools need to do a better job of helping students cope with life’s demands.