Kansas fitness centers focus on providing exercise care to rural residents with Parkinson's disease

Kansas has the second-highest rate of 
Parkinson's disease cases in the U.S.

Among the nearly 1 million Americans living with Parkinson's disease, rural residents face more challenges accessing the exercise and support programs that could improve their quality of life.

In rural Kansas, some fitness centers have opened or expanded care to help area patients work out more regularly, according to Bek Shackelford of NPR. Regular exercise is one of the few proven ways Parkinson's disease sufferers can lessen the muscle stiffness, tremors, sleep problems and brain-health issues that often accompany the disease.

The Parkinson's Exercise and Wellness Center in Leawood, Kansas, which offers "gym services to around 280 people and offers classes ranging from Pilates and boxing to theater" serves as an example, Shackelford adds. The head coach and co-founder of the center, Sarrisa Curry, told Shackelford that the center's enrollment has been on the rise as more baby boomers are diagnosed with the disease.

Medical scientists are still unsure what causes Parkinson's disease to develop. Some studies indicate that the disease may have a genetic basis. Other research suggests that exposure to pesticides, such as those encountered in rural farming communities, could be partially to blame. Shackelford reports, "Recent data shows Kansas has some of the highest rates of Parkinson's diagnosis in the country." Only Nebraska has a higher rate.

Elaine Ptacek, who founded the Parkinson's Families of Northwest Kansas, a nonprofit that "offers things like physical therapy and art classes, says about 90% of her group's participants live on farms and are exposed to pesticides," Shackelford adds. "Ptacek's organization serves a rural area she says desperately needs Parkinson's support."

To reach as many patients as possible, Parkinson's Families of Northwest Kansas offers exercise classes to "groups in eight counties [who can] join Zoom calls and follow along with a fitness instructor," Shackelford adds.

As international grain sales dry up, Kansas farmers also face the loss of Food for Peace and other programs

Congressman Bob Dole of Kansas, standing, was a dedicated advocate for
the Food for Peace Act. (University of Kansas, Dole Archives photo)

Rich rivers of wheat have grown on the Kansas high plains for nearly 200 years. In 1953, a Kansas farmer believed he could help ease Cold War tensions by providing some of his surplus grain to a hungry world. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, another Kansan, endorsed the idea and created a program to support it.

"Food for Peace has sent sacks of grain stamped 'From the American People' to more than four billion people in 150 countries around the world," reports Elizabeth Williamson of The New York Times. "Now it is effectively dead."

In February, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, ended the program when he cut the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had administered it. Williamson writes. "Kansas’s Republican lawmakers tried to save it but failed to persuade President Donald Trump, who last month proposed cutting the entire 2026 budget for Food for Peace as well as another food aid program dear to Kansans, the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program," which began in 2003.

With Food for Peace fading, many Kansas farmers are hurting. "It was the latest blow to farmers, particularly in Kansas, where about 80% of those on the high plains voted for Trump and agriculture makes up almost half of the state’s economy," Williamson explains. Instead of a more competitive market for their crops, which Trump campaigned on, Kansas farmers are sitting on grain and facing tariffs that have choked off import sales.

The Pawnee County Co-op in Larned, Kan., is "owned by its farmers, and is one of the biggest brokers of high plains wheat. Before Trump took office in January, the co-op sold half its grain abroad, to European, Asian and African buyers," Willaimson adds. "Now the co-op’s foreign sales are 'zero,' said Kim Barnes, its chief financial officer. . . .The co-op was stuck with 1.5 million bushels of grain sorghum after Trump started his tariff war with China."

Tom Giessel, a retired farmer, is disappointed with this administration. He told Williamson, "These people really don’t know the story of Food for Peace and the roots of it. . . . Farmers shipping grain to where people were hungry — that we did these kinds of things is really what made America great.”

Ag roundup: Screwworm update; Prop 12 egg suit; zoning officials close15-year-old's bait shop; disaster aid opens

Screwworm concerns closed U.S.-Mexico livestock trading 
again. (Meredith Corp. photo via Successful Farming)

Continuing its uphill battle to prevent screwworms from re-entering the U.S., the Department of Agriculture suspended its plan to "gradually resume imports through four further ports in the coming months," reports Oliver Ward of Successful Farming. "The announcement came just two days after USDA reopened a single port of entry for Mexican livestock in Douglas, Arizona."

Chickens and eggs are back in the news as the Trump administration files suit against California over its Proposition 12 egg rules that require cage-free housing for egg-laying hens. The suit claims the state's restrictions "violate the federal Egg Products Inspection Act, which it said trumps state egg regulations," reports Philip Gruber of Lancaster Farming. "California law raises egg prices for consumers by preventing farmers across the country from using standard agricultural practices that would help keep prices down, President Donald Trump’s administration said in a July 9 filing."

Max McKinney and his bait stand that officials have
now closed. (Photo by Foss Farms via Farm Journal)

At 15 years old, Max McKinney was already an entrepreneur running his own bait and snack shop until zealous county officials shut him down. McKinney’s 6’x15’ shop "was deemed a zoning violation by Washburn County, Wis., officials," reports Chris Bennett for Farm Journal. "After snapping photographs of the stand as proof of McKinney’s assault on county code, zoning officials issued a cease-and-desist letter, ordering closure under penalty of daily fines." Read how the McKinney family responded here. McKinney's bait shop isn't the only one to get zapped by rule-strapping officials.

Farmers with crops battered by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can now apply for USDA aid payments. "The program, referred to as the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, will be administered in two stages," reports Lydia Johnson of Successful Farming. "The first application stage begins this week for producers with eligible crop losses caused by hurricanes, wildfires and other weather events who received assistance under crop insurance or the non-insured crop disaster assistance program. The second stage will begin in the fall for producers with eligible shallow or uncovered losses."

A Kansas district will open its ag-focused center in a remodeled grade school 
that was closed years ago. (USD 269 photo via The Daily Yonder)

After years of declining student enrollment, the Palco-Damar-Zurich school district (Unified School District 269) in western Kansas found a way to harness its farming history and grow again. "About a dozen new students have signed on, drawn by a new Ag-Focused School model and the opening of USD 269’s Northwest Kansas Agriculture Education Center program," reports Lane Wendell Fischer of The Daily Yonder. "Their vision is to provide some form of agriculture education from preschool through high school. At the elementary levels, students will be engaged in ag-related activities, lessons, and will even roll up their sleeves to do some chores."

Few people are more obsessed with the weather than farmers. While American farmers have a myriad of tools to use, many rely on the U.S. Drought Monitor to measure critical rainfall information. But the Drought Monitor also informs scientists, academics, water management experts and regular citizens about national rainfall across time. Below are examples of July Drought Monitor maps, where the difference of a year can be easily compared. 

 

Quick bits: Christmas trees are big business; revival of the Cherokee language; growing tomatoes with less water

Holiday boughs cash in around $3 billion
a year.(Photo by Mourad Saadi, Unsplash)

Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree, How lovely is your profit margin! Chopped, bought or pre-decorated, Christmas trees are big business. "The markup on Christmas trees is around 400% to 500%. That's about the same as a pair of designer jeans or a drink from a hotel minibar," write Jay L. Zagorsky and Patrick Abouchalache for The Conversation. "Multiplying the $80 to $100 price by the 15 million natural trees and 20 million artificial trees sold in 2022 means Christmas trees are roughly a $3 billion business annually — without including any extra money spent on the decorations."

Kansas is so parched that drought covers nearly three-fourths of the state. This past summer was brutally hot and arid, but there are a few drops of good news. "The Kansas Geological Survey reported groundwater levels in the High Plains Aquifer could be sustained for at least one decade in moisture-imperiled areas of western Kansas through pumping reductions of 18% to 32%," reports Tim Carpenter of Successful Farming. "The aquifer, the state's most economically important groundwater resource, published a report summarizing regional conditions and options for prolonging the life of the aquifer."

A documentary still. (Photo by ᎤᎶᎩᎳ /
Schon Duncan via The Daily Yonder)

The Cherokee language faced extinction until younger generations decided that saving it was vital to preserving their cultural identity, reports Kim Kobersmith of The Daily Yonder. Kobersmith interviewed ᎤᎶᎩᎳ / Schon Duncan, a proud member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, a Cherokee language activist, and co-director of the feature-length film ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) to discuss the film's history. Duncan said the film showcases Cherokee activists, artists and educators efforts to revive and teach the Cherokee language. To learn what this "new wave" of Cherokee speakers is doing, click here. To watch for new film screenings coming in January/February 2024, click here.

Peace and political opinions don't always go together, but the shared pull of the harvest and a reunion celebration help this rural couple in Chickasaw County, Iowa, come together, offers Jose A. Del Real in his Washington Post immersive read. "Rage wasn’t Verna’s style. She believed in decency. She believed in nurturing community, not sowing division. Her life was animated by gentler questions than the ones at the heart of national politics in 2023: What do people owe one another? When can the past teach us something about ourselves, and when does it blind us to the present?"

There aren't enough tomatoes to go around.
(Photo by Fernando Andrade, Unsplash)

What would french fries be without ketchup? What about hot dogs? Researchers in California don't want Americans to find out. "In the heart of one of the world's top vegetable-growing regions in California, scientists are on a mission to save ketchup," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Plant breeders at the Woodland, Calif., facility of German pharmaceutical and agriculture giant Bayer are testing whether tomatoes meant for processing into pizza sauces and ketchup can survive on a fraction of their traditional water needs, without sacrificing taste or juiciness. . . . Bayer’s tomatoes are one example of how the agriculture industry is now trying to stay ahead of a changing climate that could disrupt the food supply chain and drive up prices for consumers.

 

Signs of the times: Kansas using turnpike banners to lure out-of-staters to its rural 'opportunity zones'

Kansas really wants people to relocate to its rural areas. Signs that read "Live tax free in Kansas" and "Let Kansas pay your student loans" have been placed on overpasses in clear view of motorists driving the busy Kansas Turnpike between Topeka and Wichita to promote Rural Opportunity Zones that offer income-tax waivers for up to five years and student loan payments up to $15,000 for out-of-staters who move to designated rural counties, Tim Carpenter reports for The Topeka-Capital Journal. (Photo submitted to Capital Journal)

The list of counties participating in the three-year-old program will increase to 77 next month. So far, the program has approved 800 applicants, with 250 more pending. (Read more)

Kansas panel will examine whether injection of fracking fluids is causing small earthquakes

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has assigned a committee to determine whether or not deep injection of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is connected with the recent bout of small earthquakes in a part of Kansas that doesn't often have them, Dion Lefler writes for The Wichita Eagle. "Recent seismic activity in south-central Kansas has raised concerns that fluid injection might be related," Brownback said in a statement.

"It's not the fracking itself; it's this re-injection of the fluids into formations that are considered safe to hold it," Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., told Lefler. "It's waste disposal."

Fracking injects water and chemicals underground, and saltwater comes up along with the gas and oil. The water and used fluids are then pumped underground elsewhere. Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey and an appointee to the governor's panel, told Lefler that if the disposal process is to blame for the quakes, the main problem is likely the more volumnious saltwater. Sometimes reinjection "seems to change the pressure environment on subsurface faults," making them slip, he said. "There's a lot of complex physics going on down there."

In two months, Caldwell, which is near the Kansas-Oklahoma state line, experienced three earthquakes ranging in magnitdue from 3.3. to 3.9. "By Kansas standards, that's a good earthquake," Buchanan said. The debate about the potential correlation between fracking and quakes is a hot topic in adjoining Oklahoma, where gas and oil production is even more common. The Sooner State has had some earthquakes in the 5.6 range, and that's quite serious—even for a place like California that gets a lot of quakes, Buchanan told Lefler.

Determining the cause of a quake is not easy, said Blakeman, who works in the center's locating unit. "It takes a lot more study, typically more instruments on the ground and collaboration with companies to know when they're re-injecting fluids and so forth, so you can tell the timeline," he said. This is one type of study Brown's committee will examine, Buchanan said. The committee's first meeting will be on April 16 at Wichita State University's Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex. Buchanan said that by that time, he hopes the committee will have drafted a plan for stakeholders to look over, Lefler writes. (Read more)

Most Kansas counties are now in program offering incentives to draw out-of-staters to rural places

A Kansas program designed to boost rural populations by giving tax incentives and help repaying student loans to people moving in from out of state will add 23 more counties to the program in 2014, bringing the total number of counties to 73 of the state's 105 counties. The Rural Opportunity Zones program had been focused on the western part of the state, but will now add more counties in other parts of Kansas, Brent Wistrom reports for The Wichita Eagle. (Photo by Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Center: Fort Scott, Kansas)

"The program abates income taxes for up to five years for anyone who lived outside of Kansas for more than five years, hasn't earned more than $10,000 in Kansas-based income for five years and moves into an opportunity zone county," Wistrom reports. "Eighty-three taxpayers have claimed the Rural Opportunity Zone tax credit on their 2012 tax returns, with $234,000 in credit claimed."

Wistrom adds, "In many of the counties, people can also get up to $15,000 worth of student loans repaid if they recently moved into a rural county, got a degree and have remaining student loan debt." At least 864 people from 39 states have applied for the student-loan repayment; 510 have been approved, while 125 more are pending. (Read more)

Sparsely populated counties, such as Clay, population 8,500, are pleased to be included in the program. "Clay County commissioners are considering signing on for the student-loan program, which requires the county to match any loan repayment with the state of Kansas," reports the Clay Center Dispatch.  Economic Development Group director Lori Huber told the Dispatch, “I think it’s a great opportunity. And I’m glad Clay County is now being able to be included in it.”

Bourbon County, pop. 15,000, and Grant County, pop. 8,000, were among those added. Grant County Economic Development Director Bob Dale said in a press release, "Grant County commissioners enthusiastically passed the resolution to participate in the student-loan repayment option at their first opportunity, and here at Economic Development we already have a ROZ inquiry that looks promising to bring us a new restaurant. It is a great program for rural Kansas," Laurie Sisk reports for The Fort Scott Tribune. (Counties with stars have signed up for the Student Loan Repayment Program.)

Small towns breed more diverse friendships, research suggests

According to a new study by researchers from Wellesley College and the University of Kansas, the size of a community influences the scope of friendships. The study was done on college campuses, but  Julie Ardery (right) of the Daily Yonder writes that it matches her experience in small and large towns in Texas. The smaller the town, the broader a person's criteria for friend selection, and the more diverse their friends, she says. In other words, people in small and rural towns are more likely to form friendships with people less like themselves, contradicting the belief that small towns suppress diversity.

The researchers call the study of these relationships "social ecology." To test their hypothesis, researchers compared friendships of college students at the University of Kansas with those at four smaller colleges in eastern and central Kansas. They handed out surveys to pairs of students they found in public places that asked about their attitudes concerning various social issues. Researchers then looked at similarities between the friends at all schools and concluded that because people at larger universities are able to "choose among greater variety, they will also be able to match their interests and activities to partners more closely" than people at smaller schools. They hypothesized: "Greater human diversity within an environment will lead to less personal diversity within" human pairs.

Ardery writes that social ecology is an exciting field of research that is "of special interest to those of us trying to understand what, for good and ill, characterizes life in rural places." She makes her own observations from life in Smithville, Tex., where everyone "assumed diverse roles and dual occupations" that were both seen as legitimate by locals. She wonders if social ecology of small communities leads to greater inner diversity. "With many roles to fill and fewer people to assume them, small towns may tolerate or actually encourage dual working identities, even when such identities clash." (Read more)

Ardery's piece directly relates to the excellent book published in 2008 by her husband, Bill Bishop: The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing us Apart. The introduction of the book describes how Ardery and Bishop picked a neighborhood in Austin, Tex., "filled with Democrats" like themselves without even trying. The book explains how and why millions more Americans have done likewise.

In rural Kansas, landowners with small oil wells cash in on rising crude prices

Thanks to climbing prices for crude oil, some rural landowners in Kansas are finding their small oil wells might be quite profitable again, reports Rick Montgomery for The Kansas City Star.

"With the value of a barrel of oil around $100, "the word 'boom' is back in rural places like Barton County, Kan., where more than 1,600 oil wells operate," Montgomery writes. "Some produce 50 barrels daily, but most are so-called stripper wells, yielding fewer than 10 barrels. Last year, the assessed value of the county’s oil and gas properties topped $32 million. That’s about five times their 2000 value, and enough to pump millions of extra tax dollars into local coffers."

The prospect of such profits has investors such as Tim Cain, at right in Star photo, willing to spend $35,000 to drill a shallow well that might only produce a half barrel a day. He might even drill 20 wells on his land. Landowners who aren't willing to put up that money for their own drilling operations can cash in by leasing land to independent outfits such as Cain. Montgomery writes that "economic ripples" are easily seen in the "Land of Little Oil": "A repaved road with fresh stripes. A family’s new Denali. In Great Bend, no vacancy at the Angus Inn because of out-of-town crews laying pipe. A farm-implement dealership sold out of combines." (Read more)

Entrepreneurs and their local businesses spark economy in rural Kansas county

Entrepreneurs and the businesses they lead are essential to successful rural communities. Kansas' rural Harvey County offers multiple examples of how local businesses can help their towns thrive, reports Amy Bickel of The Hutchinson News. Burrton, a town of 932 about an hour north of Wichita, is home to Lang Architectural Millwork Products (in an uncredited photo from the News), which after four years of expansions now boasts 160,000 square feet in two buildings and 100 employees. "It would be a lot easier for us to move to Wichita, but I wanted to stay here," owner Steve Lang told Bickel. "Our town needs jobs." He is also working to restore some buildings in the Burrton's decaying downtown, and he hopes his business can help increase enrollment in the town's small high school.

Bickel says Lang's entrepreneurial spirit is not unique in Harvey County, where five towns are seeing homegrown businesses provide an economic spark. "Eleven companies in these cities, all with populations of fewer than 4,000 people, have added $39.4 million in new manufacturing investment in the past 18 months, as well as 255,650 additional square feet of manufacturing space and 267 new jobs, said Mickey Fornaro-Dean, executive director of the Harvey County Economic Development Council," Bickel writes. (Encarta map)

These success stories — some of which owe much to the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program — are just another lesson in the value of local entrepreneurs and any efforts to encourage them. (Read more)

Kansas governor signals veto of bill to circumvent her regulator's rejection of coal-plant expansion

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has signaled that she may veto a bill written to help a large rural electric cooperative in Western Kansas because its provisions aimed at reducing greenhouse gases "are so weak compared to other states that it could lead to rejected plants elsewhere coming to Kansas," report Jim Sullinger and David Klepper of The Kansas City Star.

The bill could make Kansas the nation's “coal capital,” said Sebelius, a Democrat who rarely comments on legislation before it reaches her desk. She said the “very troubling components of this bill (would) put Kansans at risk, and would put our state at odds with the rest of the country … I cannot support these components.” In Kansas, overriding a veto takes a two-thirds vote in both legislative chambers.

The Star reports, "Sunflower Electric Power Corp. had asked the state for permission to expand its Holcomb plant, but the state’s top regulator, appointed by Sebelius, rejected the plans because of the project’s estimated emissions of 11 million tons of carbon dioxide. Lawmakers vowed to get the plant built anyway, and introduced legislation last week to take away the discretion the regulator used." (Read more)

Isolated county involves residents in economic plan

As our Encarta map illustrates, Phillipsburg, Kan., population 2,668, might be deemed in the middle of nowhere. But its residents seem to take the attitude that they're in the middle of everywhere, and a recent project called Discover Phillips County offers some lessons and encouragement for isolated, rural communities that want to maintain and improve their quality of life and spur economic development.

They had some help, from the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University and the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in Logan, pop. 603, also in Phillips County. A man who served on the boards of both entities got the foundation to give the institute a grant to prepare a new model for community development in the county, based on leadership and entrepreneurship.

The project included two components: Outreach to entrepreneurs and a county-wide community engagement process," Institute Director Ron Wilson writes. "Hundreds of citizens came to meetings at the Huck Boyd Community Center and provided great input on their hopes and goals for the future. A core group of volunteers stepped forward to serve on the steering committee for Discover Phillips County. They developed a vision statement and identified strategic focus areas plus action steps to be implemented. One goal was a county-wide cleanup implemented in spring 2007." (Read more)

New documentary finds 'hope endures' for economic development in rural Kansas

Rural communities across Kansas and in many other states are shrinking. (For some figures on the trend, check out this post.) A new television documentary from the Kansas Farm Bureau offers some solutions, and it suggests that communities can stem the tide, reports the High Plains Journal.

"Rural Kansas: Hope Endures" will air across the state and on some satellite and cable systems this week. In the documentary, Kansans speak about the importance of preserving rural life, and emphasize that it can be done by encouraging local entrepreneurs.

"This story will resonate with everyone in Kansas, regardless of their address," KFB Communications and Public Relations Director Mike Matson, who wrote, produced and directed the documentary, told the High Plains Journal. "Auntie Em and Dorothy were on to something. The things that matter -- that will allow rural communities to survive, have been here all along. Despite the trends, this is an uplifting story." (Read more)

GateHouse Media purchases 14 dailies, three non-dailies from Morris Publishing Group

A deal between two community newspaper chains will make 17 newspapers in eight states change hands. GateHouse Media Inc. announced late Tuesday its purchase of 14 dailies, three non-dailies and a commercial printing operation from Morris Publishing Group. The sale totals $115 million, reports Editor & Publisher.

The 14 daily newspapers, mainly in the rural Midwest, range in size from the 4,700-circulation York (Neb.) News-Times to the 21,000-circulation of The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent. Here is the complete list of the dailies and their circulations:

• Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe, 9,700
• The Newton Kansan, 7,647
• The Morning Sun, Pittsburg, Kan., 10,312
• Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News, 7,285
• The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel, 18,345
• Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post, 8,171
• The Examiner, Independence, Mo., 14,022
• The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent, 21,204
• York (Neb.) News-Times, 4,695
• The Daily Ardmoreite, Oklahoma, 9,753
• The Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star, 8,830
• Yankton (S.D.) Daily Press & Dakotan, 7,855
• The Oak Ridger in Tennessee, 7,554
• News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla., 9,817

The deal also includes three non-dailies:

• La Estrella (Spanish counterpart of Dodge City Daily Globe)
• The Girard (Kan.) City Press, 1,300
• Vermillion (S.D.) Plain Talk, 1,630

Morris Publishing CEO William S. Morris IV said the sale is "in line with our strategic plan to focus on our larger markets and will enable us to pay down our existing bank debt." Before the sale, the Augusta, Ga.-based Morris Publishing owned and operated 27 daily newspapers, while the Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse, one of the nation's largest community newspaper chains, owned and operated 86 dailies. "This is an excellent acquisition opportunity for GateHouse," GateHouse CEO Mike Reed said in a statement. "These are strong local media franchises in small markets, many of which are near existing GateHouse properties and offer compelling synergy opportunities." (Read more)