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There are many times that the views of this Centrist Moderate line up with those that are further to the right of the political spectrum.  There are even times that my views line up with those that are about as far right as you can get.  This is one of them.

The federal government's frequent abuses of the Clean Water Act over the past two or three presidential administrations are nothing short of uncompensated takings of private property rights, to me even more egregious than the frequent misuse of eminent domain.

This particular case involves 445 acres of fairly level land that is several miles from the Sacramento River and has a USDA FSA use base for wheat, as that is what it has been used for in the past.  Suddenly, with change of ownership, the Corps comes in and says the new owner can't do what the previous owner had done, which is use the land for agricultural production, because it is "in a water of the U. S."  This land may have been within a water body during Noah's biblical flood, but is not within any flood zone, designated or observed.  The Corps further claims that the land is a wetland based on a 1994 delineation, yet a resurvey in 2012 says it is not, making that part of the Corps' case mute.

It boils down to the Corps of Engineers deciding that this new owner can't do what the previous owner did to the same land.  To me that is a taking plain and simple and I hope the Duarte family wins this in court, otherwise many other "new" landowners will be facing the same overzealousness of the Corps.

Charles

I believe that is just an anomaly.  I can find no plat or land parcel map that shows there ever having been a street there. 

Just saw another Facebook post.  Some of the Grenola firemen went out to the Medicine Lodge fire on Thursday, hauling two of their 6x6 trucks on semis.  From another post, I believe they are back in Elk County now.

From Facebook posts, I know there were some Elk County volunteer firefighters that headed out to assist with the OK/KS fire as early as Wednesday evening.  I do not know if they went in any of Elk Counties equipment, or just on their own to help relieve crews with local equipment.

"Federal agents raided a hunting lodge in Kansas' Flint Hills as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal hunting and baiting that included the use of undercover hunters, GPS tracking of vehicles and camera surveillance, court documents show.

No federal charges have been filed against Eagle Head Outfitters Lodge in Grenola, its owner or employees, Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas, said in an email. The lodge's owner, Josh Hedges, did not respond to telephone and email messages left Monday and Tuesday seeking comment on the federal raid."

http://ksnt.com/2016/02/02/kansas-hunting-outfitters-target-of-federal-investigation/

Only used a pop-up once or twice, was not overly impressed, but it was better than the ferris wheel style.  Nearly every bale I and my crew handled came up a slant loader. 

I also have a copy of that 1927 Elk County map.  I took it up to Topeka and had the KSHS scan it and add it to their digital domain.  The entire map can be found at:

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/307618/page/1

The 1899 Sanborn has that same building labeled "Hanna & Co. Training".

The 1905 Sanborn has it labeled "Breeding".

It's still there in 1912, but just labeled "Private".

From the time it was built in 1978 untill the time the grade schools were consolidated to the Jr-Sr high campus, the building on the south edge of Howard was called "Howard West Elk Jr-Sr High School". 

That is what my diploma from the mid '80s says. 

This information is from the KSDE and can be found at  http://uapps.ksde.org/k12/building.aspx?org_no=D0282&bldg_no=2442

Sharing two and a quarter miles of fence-line with Paul was . . . what is the right word . . . challenging? unique? problematic?