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heartland - October 31 2024

Advance voting surges; Farming loans spike; Vaping sensor sparks privacy concerns; Arcade law; Ellis mural

Greg Loving

• 4 min read
heartland - October 31 2024
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1. Advance Voting in Kansas Doubles in Many Areas

Advance voting locations statewide and in Topeka are experiencing a surge of people voting early in-person. "We're not quite double, but it's — depending on which year you compare it to — it is double to some years," Howell told The Capital-Journal. Election offices across the state are experiencing a similar boom in in-person advance voting. The Kansas Secretary of State's Office reported that, through Tuesday, there had been 252,482 ballots statewide had been cast in person. That's 54% above 2020, when there had been 163,527 in-person advance ballots at this point. It's 80% above 2016, when there had been 139,912 early in-person voters. While in-person is up, mail voting is down locally and statewide. Kansas election offices had mailed out 161,410 advance ballots through Tuesday, of which 87,600 had already been returned, according to the Secretary of State's Office. Compared to this point in the last two presidential elections: In 2020 — in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — there had been 501,446 mail ballots sent with 279,950 returned, and in 2016, there had been 191,307 sent with 102,130 returned.

Article Source: Topeka Capitol-Journal

2. Farmers Facing Financial Strain as Loans Surge to Highest Levels Since 2017

Farmers are taking out loans at a rate and scale not seen in years as weakened crop prices weigh on the agricultural sector, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The volume of new operating loans increased at its fastest pace since 2017, the report said, with commercial banks issuing 40% more of these loans to farmers over last year. Farmers are not only taking out more loans, but also borrowing higher amounts. For the first time in at least two decades, loans larger than $1 million made up the majority of lending volume.

Article Source: Agriculture Dive

3. Valley Center Schools’ Vaping Sensors Spark Privacy Debate Among Parents

Conversations were sparked online after the Valley Center school district notified parents of a new way that it intends to stop vaping on two of its school campuses. Earlier this week, Valley Center Public Schools sent out a notice to parents and guardians, asking about a new installation that’s going inside the middle school and the high school. These are sensors intended to prevent vaping in schools, but the plans come with privacy concerns. The locations for the vaping sensors are in common areas around the campuses, including the student bathrooms. The privacy concern from some parents comes with the sensors detecting more than just chemicals from vape pens. The district said the sensors can also detect certain sounds to alert when students might be fighting and keywords like “help.” The technology allows the sensors to send notifications to school administrators. “We know that vaping is a serious problem, not only within our school district, but within schools around the country, and so these sensors are a little bit different that they detect not only vape, but they can detect aggressive language, loud noises,” Valley Center Public Schools Superintendent Greg Lehr said. “People have to go to school, so listening to their conversations without consent I think is going to run afoul of many constitutional rights, including the constitutional right to privacy,” said Charley O’Hara with O’Hara and O’Hara Law Office.

Article Source: KWCH

Chad Thompson once won $1,500 from the game Dragon’s Ascent, and it only cost him 10 cents to play.  The game looks like something from an arcade. Players work a joystick and a button to shoot at the dragons swarming the screen. The bigger the dragon, the bigger the payout for a kill.  Thompson, from McPherson, has played the game since it came out five years ago. He has a strategy to win, but …  “That’s for me to know,” he said, “and you to find out.”  But it’s the opportunity to win big that’s concerned state officials, some of whom have implied the game is an illegal gambling device. The game’s manufacturer disagrees and has filed multiple lawsuits demanding clarity in state law as to what is gambling and what is a game of chance or a game of skill.  Pace-O-Matic released Dragon’s Ascent in Kansas in 2019. In August 2020, a letter from the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission said there is too much luck and chance required to win the game — that would make it an illegal gambling device.  That’s one issue for the Kansas Supreme Court to sort out. The court will also decide whether Dragon’s Ascent is a skill-based game and whether state law on gambling is too vague.  State law defining gambling uses the word “chance” nine times. But what does that mean?

Article Source: Kansas Beacon

5. Artist Mindy Allen Paints Historic Mural on Ellis City Hall

Mindy Allen of Mindy’s Murals has completed another large project in Kansas. This time in the City of Ellis. Allen worked for several weeks to paint a mural on the side of the City Hall building at 815 N. Jefferson. The mural depicts several important buildings and includes some history about the town. It shows the year, 1888, when the town was incorporated. It also features Ellis’ all-woman council and mayor, one of the first to have an all-woman council in 1896. Allen says her next project will be in Herington. This past summer, she completed grain elevator projects in Kansas. One features wheat harvest in Inman, and the other features President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Abilene.  [pic]

Article Source: KSN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sources

1. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/31/early-in-person-voting-booming-in-kansas-in-topeka-its-about-double/75924299007/

2. https://www.agriculturedive.com/news/farm-loans-1m-agriculture-economy-downturn/731628/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202024-10-31%20Agriculture%20Dive%20%5Bissue:67413%5D&utm_term=Agriculture%20Dive

3. https://www.kwch.com/2024/10/31/vape-detecting-sensors-spark-discussion-concerning-privacy-safety-valley-center-schools/

4. https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2024/10/31/is-dragons-ascent-gambling-kansas-supreme-court-hears-case/

5. https://www.ksn.com/news/state-regional/artist-completes-another-large-mural-in-kansas

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