Series of news reports

the kansas sentencing commission has been meeting last week they decided on two major issues to put in their recommendations to the nineteen ninety one legislator attorney general bob stephens the chairman of the commission kansas legislature last year set in motion a kinesthetic commission consisting of eleven members or for the purpose of preventing to the nineteen ninety one session of the legislature a grand plan to stand for that without has specific offenses for various crimes are committed and that when we went to overcrowding the states are going to have to be a motivation for looking at the guidelines there's no question but that this aging commission came about as a result of legislative concern in regard overcrowding and i can take it from the experience of other states there is no guarantee that we won't continue to have a prison problem it might be left without want but as long as crime an especially violent crime and drug crimes continue to increase that was april

seems like calm societal expectations are that outlawed them up and throw away the keys sometimes yet we know that we have to be able to manage prison populations and that can sometimes be frustrating the commission determined that her first priority in regard to sentencing should globe on violent offenders and so we're going to try to frame a sentencing structure that debut harshly with the violent offenders but that didn't provide better alternative mean that thing for those who commit non person raising their weaknesses are in the current system that we're using in kansas i suppose one of the biggest weaknesses in the disparity and throughout the state as well as the fact that there's no truth and then the public has lost a great deal of faith in the criminal justice system and i understand that and then think it's just a lot

i think on my help restore that is to cause a sentencing system that treats everybody the semi regardless of their race other side of the street they grew up all more the family that they're that happen to be born in so we're talking about maybe being sentenced in johnson county the same crime is being sentenced him in the reno county or aren't nasser someone somewhere else or sometimes a disparity and that really had no question but that our studies are showing that there is both regional and racial disparity in fencing and digital ocean floor the same period diamond and the same background and yet there is a difference in the time the people's servants i'm going to serve it a big turn in a way that it should i do think that it got so bad i guess i should ask first world to a degree are we talking

about in terms of disparity and secondly how did we get there i think then and it's all wrapped up in one ball at one thing that has happened to the years is that we just haven't carefully studied what has occurred and the gardens and things we've had a hodgepodge of broader press the from time to time by the legislature many times in a panic situation and although the legislature he knows all about a great deal of study and that's what has been done through the years with defending commission assuming the legislature will continue it is our hope that before changes are made it's a darker plan that they were offended that the commission for stadium and consider the recommendations of the commission the commission just met for a couple of days last week brought happen at that meeting and outcomes well there were several i think a very important steps taken by cameras and the commission one was to decide that the parole board as it presently

exists that would not cooperate oh i'm under a system that will be presented and that we've made a number of decisions in regard to those that would serve america's empty of incarceration and a time a sentence and those that would now and when we're talking about the problem surprise they're working very hard about legitimate felt really need to be changed that regard fact that their day jobs and begging that would change is that at a pre planned privately we voted not to have any good tell that once an individual is they would serve that plan with no parole and it would be a form

of a border may be called something other than a parole board that would assistant supervising or supervisory created the images them but they would be released after they have servers there and when we talk about the sentences then we wouldn't hear from five to ten years it'll be more specific there will be eight years served that's right so what you're having concluded that was then known only a more moderate damage and appliances and the five years or five years or ten years in the servant's hole that weigh on you when judges have then putting specific guidelines how much discretion what they have and deciding there would be some discretion know if a judge in regard to probably a five percent leeway if they found meditating are

aggravating circumstances that which would be a small only way oh chad ship could make certain findings and placed individuals who are present are going to be incarcerated on probation but in the main it does certainly women and the discretion about it to go out a judge to determine probation what if a person serves their sentence and maybe still is unfit for society maybe that record in prison isn't very good maybe there's some reason to believe that they aren't ready to be back in society then you would make those kinds of decisions and their sentence ever be extended no one says that has imposed its days there but i think its import recognize that that happens all the time in a window then there are crimes that are committed are committed on over again by recent events by those who committed crimes before and what we need to concentrate on the virtual criminal that there's been no showing that there are any

plans available to changes in the rate at which people return to crime that thats just that we need to have the various programs but to say that they work is ignoring all the facts that we may attorney general bob stephens is the chairman of the state's sentencing commission richard krueger is the deputy secretary of operations for the department of corrections he also is a member of the sentencing commission but on the two big issues that came out of last week's meeting the elimination of parole and the elimination of good time credits kerner voted against it good time credits are is the amount of time that is deducted from an inmate to determine their record eligibility paid it is not killing people it simply washes the date at which time the case would be presented to the pole ward for parole consideration kerner says current guidelines either prisoners can earn one day of good credit for each of the day served that's evaluated as you mentioned and that's determining when they are up for

their parole hearing he says he's not in favor of totally eliminating good time credit he said it helps do much to control the population of the inmates to see it all gone forever we support the retention of some form of good time credit because of the incentive the videos im thinking or in having heard bb arguments presented by other members of the sentencing commission last week the head of the many of the members seemed to have is that now well and then it's our climate the inmates should be required to serve that should be reflected in the sense that they say he was sentenced to a one year term through the prison sentencing comes out many of the member spoke with that should mean the image still of what your position is that good time and treatment seventeen are

not necessarily end in conflict with one another so long as we are weight of good time is announced and they'd made known as to how much time could be taken off the set so it is about an aussie are repealed right amendment tom we are awaiting a letter from the director of transportation get formal position from the the administration on the wright amendment i am hopeful and optimistic that we will be plentiful at get the matter resolved by at least a modification of the wright amendment so that we could get lower cost character of the wichita airport point out specifically how will appealing the right amendment help wichita and lowered their fares and it will maybe if we cannot try or the old viola part of reporting about what would be opened up to

traffic places like wichita and southwest airlines which is a low cost carrier why only out of that airport in the dallas area could not live the wichita which means they can start first with much lower for the week and they are served with american or delta which means that american and delta would probably then reduce their affairs as well he's been pushing and i would stutter and sharif that they contact the letters and things that local people who are interested in this and so right so quite frankly i'm initiator of the idea i thought for sure we're their airfares are too high out of the wichita airport and a lot of my we are here to do or was your goal to try to deal with it with this issue now we have the chambers of commerce in wichita hutchins center and surrounding areas who are interested in it because they see how much more we are pained to go to dallas to go to point in fact the antidote a point

but they have a general public religion and people do at that point from takara on work and doing so well in this region if ariana further reduced by at least half of those point it will mean that the business costs for travel will be substantially reduced which means that more businesses could come in and located in our area but more importantly it means that people who live in central and western kansas will be able to spend less money on airfares and that will be a positive thing what you had to do to lobby your colleagues to support this measure i tell my colleagues the characters would come down as well not just wichita but at that point like memphis omaha outside of what we call the right amendment protected area which is texas and the four states around texas the opposition are folks within the dow's area who are comfortable with the current arrangement which protect dallas fort

worth airport and particularly protect american airlines which is the carrier which is headquartered in dallas fort worth airport but more and more people who live outside of that area and particularly new places like birmingham wichita nashville all modern one are beginning to recognize how important group you write a moment is kansas congressman dan glickman the law known as the wright amendment was created in nineteen eighty to encourage airlines to move from an old airport in dallas called love field to a new larger airport between dallas and fort worth the right amendment restricts airlines for providing service between love field and destinations located outside of texas or before surrounding states something glickman says he's trying to change because he claims flights to the southwest out of wichita could then be reduced by at least fifty percent in hutchinson forced you know to dodd's job completed

<unk> era the deputy state's statistician for the kansas agricultural statistics and eighties and says the department has just released its june estimates kansas farmers intend to harvest about eleven point eight million acres of lead an average rank of approximately thirty nine bottles which would result in florida sixty point two million bushels from nineteen ninety and then clayson says it's been about a year since kansas has seen a crop that's good dees and says the crowd estimate from a has not changed its the same

engine that's not quite the same in each part of the state what's occurred in the condition had deteriorated they have improved in town they cancel each other out leaving us with a misdemeanor for cattle production it was unchanged from the one and the changes over the last year are drastic at this time last year the percentage of the cooperative poor was much higher than this year tyson says most farmers have at least a good crop to brag about this year oh and that they'll be a condition deteriorated forty one percent employee forty three percent fifteen percent there and only one percent before we talk about that one percent or is that concentrated in one area not really

and important to love and manipulation and unhealthy and one still where there seems to be collaborating with temperatures ever month of may i think a great deal and unlike a lot of the fed and we have adequate moisture most militaries is a bed and a great deal what you know what i do we need to i continue to harvest thats already started in the southern state well the rain and we've made me your phone and

i'm not going the zen says they still cautiously optimistic about the projection of four hundred sixty million bushels of wheat being harvested in kansas this year and the forecasts will continue to be updated each month thank you open season is the deputy state's statistician for kansas agricultural statistics in hutchinson i'm nancy finken were there any part of what was considered a liberal coalition on the court didn't really dominated over a period of a half late nineteen seventies ed appeared in cases

ranging from the new york times doing what and why the law then the people have a right to speak freely in that context and can only be prosecuted in the event that they're going to ask what would not ban in the pre reagan content then relating to avoid any mental white voted to protect minority concerns in the context of art on the broad range of ruined people are but when one man

has even the most liberal justice so far i don't know no one did and he became because of recent appointments of much more conservative voters so i guess it's all putting it into perspective for looking at it from mom comparison points oh

no do you think that some merely because of what reagan and other conservatives have been able to do in terms of appointments or is it because of the way young americans are are swaying towards a more conservative view than maybe they were when justice brennan first became a part of the supreme court years ago are you and cosby movement toward a lot more like a kind of of what the movement with a crime with it an important part of harm the opinion running and that's what we

want members of the supreme court now that one vacancy how balance do you think it is between conservatives and more liberal members i want to go individual who want wood by any one in terms of the legal gun at the little overwrought individuals on that in a little bit of a relatively quickly made your outfit the plan when chandler and the people who claim their wages said justice sandra day

o'connor fall all right and we have an abortion they're going to block a vote on the court and then the end of a quarter the canadian up in the window and she's been known to man change my mind of your patients whalen now members of the court have been monitoring them on i think would probably be the most important weapon i'm good

when we look at the appointment that president bush is about to make or at least probably within the next week or two what kinds of consequences do you think this somewhat appointment could make for some of those big issue some of the issues you mentioned earlier abortion on freedom of religion prayer in schools windows and things that have been part of his platform yet tongue not necessarily getting the votes that maybe his administration would hope for with the supreme court and there's no question but that there may be a major impact can a quote or that that group has been i don't know oh really

when we look at the way the supreme court works and it's some appointing iowa the method that they are appointed and depending on who's in power and it's sort of the lack of that the trial as to when one is going to step down such as in the case of justice brennan supposedly his illness is causing him to step down and could have certainly happened with other far less conservative person in the white house so my question is is this a good way to administer the highest court in the land is to have the sort of appointment method with with no set ten year i do think that a critical report which is relatively a new political pressures and that's what kate open ended up on a lot of the

negative ads that on the lead that appointment is going to be made on the military and political position rather than on the quality that that could harm being done what's going on the court and won and they didn't want them we do a big job of predicting what are going to be and that only can't control in january people will go to thank you and a lot of

it and i'm covering some background issues surrounding some of reagan's potential appointees how do think the media plays into the eye appointment of where was the coverage of this whole supreme court issue isn't an issue it is doing well that's right today bill ridge is a professor at washburn university's law school and to be done in hutchinson i'm nancy finken

the biggest management tool recently emerged as the southwest kansas groundwater management district board voted to require meters on all of the nearly eleven thousand big boil water wells in the tough county districts surrounding garden city the majority of the eight hundred billion gallons of water pumped per year comes from the huge oglala aquifer or and is used for irrigation according to the hutchinson news reports the metering system will allow the implementation of water use taxes for large volume water consumers in nineteen ninety two assessments are currently paid but well son could start paying more with exact measurements from the meters others might start paying less steve frost with the state department of water explains why i'm hearing is being proposed the state of kansas is always require that each water right holder reportedly is use of water annually to the water

resources in those reports where they have been foiled in and filed irregularly or infrequently have often been estimates or an educated guesses at best you might say the purpose of them hearing requirement will be too that really measure the quality of water that's been withdrawn from the law which will give us a much better indication of what the demands on supply requirements actually are ultimately the meaning of the plan for future years idea behind metering requirement will be to more accurately evaluate what we actually have in storage for the future as world to determine what are actually uses or use requirements are there by giving us aid or relative comparison

were actually dealing with the present time it's it's really an educated guess the keynote this will be a much more effective management tool to two of intense or our management strategies frost says he's concerned about managing the water not just for the future but for the present as well there are areas which are of concern in the present both from a water quality and a water quality standpoint certainly our focus is directed into the future as well as the quantity of water in the oxford decreases through it all the quality also tends to deteriorate because it compounds the concentration of the minerals in order are showing we're domestic supply

in india her there are all those supporters are determined in rapidly inequality too just to put things into perspective for us says the oglala aquifer is one supply of kansas water covering certain parts of the western part of the state in addition the allowable for is responsible for about eight states water supplies dr crowe are sometimes refer to the high plains not for colors the region of all parts of a different states and it's present in western kansas and about one third of the kansas house the deepest and most official reserves of water and the logo and kansas and in some areas ranges from thickness of between zero and up to six hundred feet but by the same token southwest kansas as you were mentioning earlier uses a lot of water for irrigation purposes it's true he really with

emotion most large reserves of bach were for storage we also have that area host irrigation to run away on all of the colors from the oglala so where we have a high concentration of rock for storage we also have a heavy hand we are so with that in mind what kind of reaction do you think of that area farmers will have to this idea of metering in the dia concept of mandatory me hearing has been a subject of discussion and debate for quite a member of years of field but large most people are ready for that end in itself unready to accept that and

see it as a necessity but some more than others based on the degree of the police in an area of the law and both in how they perceived importance of irrigation to their livelihood the fuel costs and okra characteristics and technology involved in irrigation is so variable across the area especially southwest kansas that you'll see a mixture of reactions but generally i hope to see and expects a gradual acceptance of the idea of requiring hearing steve frost with the kansas division of water resources the lee resolution is now part of the district's nineteen ninety one management program proposal which now must be approved by david pope pope is the chief engineer in the kansas division of water resources office in topeka there will be public meetings throughout the district to gather

comments on the planned between now and next winter followed by one major hearing in hutchinson i'm nancy finken fb explain first about what do all odds are homegrown he's an author and whoa whoa whoa you do right

right i want to do when you look at the survey results from the first year we're rural communities in each part of the

state finding concerns or problems that were similar or were you seeing maybe in the southwest part of kansas they had these concerns concerns there were different kinds you know you know

yeah right so do you think about going into the third year that the real arts program is doing something to change that feeling among folks living in rural areas mm hmm you know

soon how innovative or regional is this real arts programming kansas isn't something that our neighbors are doing is lowery kind of other cutting edge so this week well you need help with the way that stimulates the cold war and local

communities oh good mm hmm i know and you are so it's not so much of their traveling exhibits over other out performing arts that would come into a community it's not so much fun that as it is to nurture the talent already there you

know fb schools can say well the focus on stimulating the local involvement in america joan jaeger is with the rural arts program through the kansas arts commission there are two grand category several arts program one can be for in depth information and significant underwriting support to the tune of seventy five percent of the total program budget up to seventy five hundred dollars the other is going to fund a broad range of choral organizations up to one thousand are lawyers or seventy five percent of the budget committee and

he's interested in applying for these grants should contact the kansas arts commission in topeka a letter of intent needs to be sent there by july twentieth and the money will be awarded by november first in hutchinson i'm nancy finken the kansas agricultural education foundation will sponsor a symposium entitled a scientist perspective and camel phobia as the second in a series of symposiums on agricultural chemicals symposium will feature dr clifton malone of k state university he's a professor of chemistry uses the term camel phobia describes people and doing afraid of small amounts of chemicals lee on parade of when they need not be

an animated but that they're in orbit but thanks to tour with the kansas rural center says it's not exaggerated there are true concerns well the idea is that one of the new buzzword america garrick a little bit our reading every day but if the market in them alibi content conveniently in voluntarily rejecting chemical when we don't know what we're eating our food all the time for me there at a high rent to their aware that many of them are being a lot more careful at the way that they applied chemical how they tore them what they do with their huge container the arm think of a word that meant to ear and out argue i guess maybe am and you the word trick but kind of persuade to think that that type of phobia to be aware of the chemical and about all

it does i know what's right proper education is something that's gender and dr malone would agree on they both say that education is not in line with what's really going on out there and dinner is there a month you're right and then

around the world on monday i don't know caroline former head

writer all right oh i'm right here michael graham a day not you know nobody and nobody around

of course the music and again tonight on more credit and the annual good enough one point where chemical advocates and environmentalists usually disagree is over testing for long term effects that alone says thirty or forty years is long enough and people like him who were still healthy is proof that agricultural chemicals are okay but vic studer with the kansas rural center is wary of that for us they're on the market they're opened on the while attending an event that by epa we don't know what their adult you're going to be home it's when we isolate one chemical at a look at the effect it will have on a rat that probably didn't tell us what we need to know but when we know that every day there are all kind of majestic effect going on when we're exposed to all kinds of different chemicals are coming out at the same time we don't know what the long term

goal it can be i think what the people wanted to hear that were knocking people dropped it in the states right now a poem they don't have that we receive on the farm and even in the food they were drinking water but you can enjoy a bit of it but we dont really know the long term health effects there are somebody that are showing a correlation between yet again have been found in our drinking water tank off approach women and drinking water are there the possibility of cancer there that are being damaged or their long prayer chronic health effect and you don't think of in atlantic and confounding <unk> acutely ill and down on that probably what's the way out here and nothing in brooklyn and ann mccullough we don't feel like i'm in one one day i can be fairly easily the

chemicals overland travel right down into different dollar compound and oftentimes we don't even know what they are we don't know what to look for the pentagon right down in connecticut because their you know their show not have immediate help that we don't call any of them stiller says things are changing in farming right here in kansas she says more consumers are demanding safer products and farmers are asking the right kinds of questions to ensure they are producing a safer crop if we keep demanding it can carry out here and asking for our land grant universities are doing research to get everybody that we need a bit of information we can began the transition and i think that the farmers are demanding that kind of information right now and part of the reason that the company had because in urban area they're demanding dave rubin gave drinking water and they know that there are problem being found in the drinking water and they're demanding that the pharma to pay

attention where fighting about whether to get the information and hideaway farm that way and in together we're all learning vix do tour is the executive director of the kansas rural center the discussion of camel phobia is slated for july eighteenth in to peak at the state historical society in hutchinson i'm nancy finken there was a lot of information and the secretary was very concerned about the alleged abuses that she believed existed throughout the nation and as a result she instituted this operation job watch it witcher we have three of them now and you know our worst fears are being realized you know children are being abused and the work environment in our first survey

investigators that routinely investigates in conjunction with the fair labor standards act and as a result a special emphasis was placed in the types of employment that most often using young people teenagers in particular so as a result the investigations were directed towards those kinds of establishments and again we found an awful lot of violations and that the results from number two at what i have in front of me is number three stump yesterday as planned you know you mind lola let your listeners here that i'm sure this will not be the end of this effort from the apartment you know the next few years secretary dollars maybe as a major commitment she wants are young people unemployed but she wants them employed legally i mean we've heard too many sixteen year old seventeen year old fifteen year old give the operating dangerous equipment and doing the kinds of things that the

law forbids but has been ignored by the business community just what are some interesting signs we found there were basically you have to be at least they came to operating kind of equipment or may your grocery your country area a lot of your order stuart taylor of buildup of cardboard boxes and i have a concussion type equipment you know you have to be eighteen years old to operate in the us the dangers are has equipment and without a fifteen sixteen year old kids that also in other than maybe they had been operating this equipment and we've had quite a few injuries for the country when you look at results from the first go round and then the second did you see that maybe there was a decline because those industries were taking notice that the label was serious about this child labor violations you know

oh really one animal to develop more criterion have more information about him to find out what point would you believe that the business community is aware that we're out there we're going to be out there will be at their dna and you know they had they would make sure that they are in compliance with the fair labor standards act long

and beyond the numbers of violations the numbers say teenagers that are employed establishment the other situation that the secretary has made it known that you would like to see this family structure increased but again it's up to congress to determine what the world patrick hand is with the us department of labor in kansas city for operation child watch faces one and two more than twenty thousand miners were found illegally employed during the strike force operations an estimated six point four million dollars in fines are being assessed in the four state region of iowa kansas nebraska and missouri one hundred twenty businesses were investigated during the june child labor enforcement strike force that means to face to about fifty three of these investigations revealed a parent child labor violations involving four hundred thirty youngsters illegally employed in many cases in these investigations are still in

progress and abundant labor plans at least face three and probably more in hutchinson i'm nancy finken