July 25 2024 - State

1 Kansas City grand jury indicts North Korean hacker
2 KC schools end year-round classes, despite test score benefits
3 Intra-GOP factions squabble over Farm Bill
4 Farming economics extremely challenged
5 Hays coffee shop battles mental illness
Sports

1 Kansas City grand jury indicts North Korean hacker

A man who officials say worked for one of North Korea’s military intelligence agencies has been indicted for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to hack American health care providers, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
A grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas indicted Rim Jong Hyok, who is accused of laundering ransom money and using the money to fund additional cyber attacks on defense, technology and government entities around the world. The hack on American hospitals on other health care providers disrupted the treatment of patients, officials said. “While North Korea uses these types of cyber crimes to circumvent international sanctions and fund its political and military ambitions, the impact of these wanton acts have a direct impact on the citizens of Kansas,” said Stephen A. Cyrus, an FBI agent based in Kansas City. Online court records do not list an attorney for Hyok. Justice Department officials said an attack on a Kansas hospital, which they did not identify, happened in May 2021 when hackers encrypted the medical center’s files and servers. The hospital paid about $100,000 in Bitcoin to get its data back.

Article Source: Salina Post

2 KC schools end year-round classes, despite test score benefits

The North Kansas City School District is ending year-round school in two elementary schools. Some parents are upset they didn’t get more input into the decision or are unhappy with the alternatives the district has suggested. Elsewhere in the metro area, Gordon Parks Elementary School also moved away from year-round school, but a Hickman Mills elementary school has adopted it for the second year in a row. 

In the Hickman Mills School District, test scores rose after the district moved an elementary school to year-round classes. Charter school Gordon Parks Elementary credits its two years on an extended calendar with helping it catch up after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Article Source: Beacon

3 Intra-GOP factions squabble over Farm Bill

Despite the landscape’s signature flatness, his land “rolls a little bit,” he said. So, 30 years ago, he decided to plant 60- to 100-foot strips of tall grasses within and along the edges of fields to prevent erosion. To pay for it, he enrolled a total of 14 acres, made up of those strips, in the federal government’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Through CRP, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays farmers not to farm on less-productive parcels of land, often in areas that are corn and soy fields as far as the eye can see, to be left alone to reduce runoff, improve biodiversity, and hold carbon. “It’s a great program, and a lot of these farms have some marginal ground on them that would be better off in CRP than growing crops,” Andrews said. As of March 2024, the most recent month for which data is available, more than 301,000 farms had close to 25 million acres enrolled in CRP; that’s a lot of acreage, but it represents less than 3 percent of U.S. farmland. Project 2025, a conservative Republican presidential transition blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, proposes eliminating CRP. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), an influential caucus of House conservatives, proposes ending enrollments in the program, as well. It’s just one of several cuts to federal programs serving commodity farmers that Republican operatives and lawmakers have recently proposed in policy documents. Project 2025 also proposes reducing crop insurance subsidies and “ideally” eliminating commodity payments altogether. The RSC’s budget, meanwhile, proposes putting new limits on commodity payments, reducing crop insurance subsidies, and ending enrollment in another popular conservation program called the Conservation Stewardship Program. While cutting government spending may seem like a run-of-the-mill party goal, many of these programs have long been politically sacred in farm states. If implemented, the plans could transform the nation’s safety net for farmers growing corn, soy, and other row crops. Most Washington insiders say that’s unlikely to happen and point to the RSC-heavy House Agriculture Committee’s recent farm bill draft, which puts more money than ever into commodity programs and leaves crop insurance intact. Plus, the most powerful groups representing commodity crop interests—the American Farm Bureau and the National Farmers Union—both typically lobby hard to keep farm payments flowing.

Article Source: Civil Eats

4 Farming economics extremely challenged

Net farm income is on track to plummet more than 25%, or $43 billion, the largest single-year decline on record, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The expected drop in income is coming after a 19% decline from 2022 to 2023, underscoring the significant pressures that farmers face across the country. According to the latest Beige Book, a summary of economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve districts, agricultural conditions have been mixed so far this year. Livestock and poultry farmers are capitalizing on lower feed costs amid strong demand, while row crop, fruit and vegetable growers struggle. Ultimately though, lenders expect farm incomes to continue deteriorating. “I have never known a worse time in my 40 years of farming,” David Dunlow, farmer and chairman of the American Cotton Producers, told the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday as part of a hearing on farm income. “Some of these expenses have nearly doubled, and my margins have narrowed over the last several years. Things have gotten so bad that these days a bumper crop is required just to break even.” Corn growers, for example, would have to produce 27% more bushels per acre compared to the past 10-year average just to break even, Allen-Tulley said. For soybeans, farmers would need a 12% increase in yields. The same sentiment is true for wheat, sorghum, peanuts, rice, cotton and other commodities, she said.

Article Source: Agriculture Dive

5 Hays coffee shop battles mental illness

Caffeine provides a burst of energy. Breathe Coffee House wants its cups to slow you down. “I don’t want you to go and get in your car. I want you to sit down with a nice hot 16-ounce cup of coffee or 12-ounce cup of coffee and enjoy it with another human being,” said Patrick McGinnis, owner of Breathe Coffee House and Dialogue Ministries. McGinnis created the nonprofit to help people connect to tackle a major epidemic. “There’s a mental health crisis in western Kansas,” McGinnis said. “We have suicide rates that are going crazy. We have anxiety and depression rates that are outlandish.”

Article Source: KSN

Sports

Kelce top TE per AP

All the off-field attention that Travis Kelce generated last season while dating pop star Taylor Swift may have overshadowed his ability as a football player. But Kelce still did more than enough in his day job as Patrick Mahomes’ most trusted pass catcher for the Kansas City Chiefs to be selected as the top tight end in the NFL by The Associated Press. A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at tight end, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points. Kelce got six of the eight first-place votes and two seconds to win the balloting.

Royals 6 v AZ Diamondbacks 8 (series 1-2)

Tomorrow
Royals begin series v Cubs

Article Source: KAKE

Sources

1. https://salinapost.com/posts/ae87f07e-bfcf-4a00-8040-7a58b5ee4817

2. https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2024/07/25/year-round-school

3. https://civileats.com/2024/07/22/republican-plans-for-ag-policy-may-bring-big-changes-to-farm-country/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202024-07-22%20Agriculture%20Dive%20%5Bissue:64124%5D&utm_term=Agriculture%20Dive

4. https://www.agriculturedive.com/news/farmer-income-declines-farm-bill-congress/722284/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202024-07-24%20Agriculture%20Dive%20%5Bissue:64232%5D&utm_term=Agriculture%20Dive

5. https://www.ksn.com/community/ksn-here-for-you-spotlight/hays-coffee-house-brews-up-conversation-and-community/

6. https://www.kake.com/news/travis-kelce-picked-as-the-top-tight-end-in-the-ap-s-nfl-top-5/article_8cad83fa-4aa7-11ef-9d6f-6b926c37a8de.html