WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today issued the following statement applauding the inclusion of $2 billion in NIH funding in the FY2017 omnibus bill:

“Funding for the National Institutes of Health is absolutely essential to investing in the next generation of Americans. The priority we place on NIH research now has the capacity to save millions of lives long into the future. This $2 billion increase assists our nation’s top researchers in finding ground-breaking discoveries, including new treatments and cures for diseases, which makes our healthcare system more effective and efficient while also lowering overall healthcare costs.”

VA Eastern Kansas will host a health professions job fair on Wednesday, May 3rd from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

The event will be at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center Hawley Auditorium at 2200 SW Gage Blvd in Topeka.

Applicants are being sought in the following fields: APNs, RNs, LPNs, CNLs, and NAs. There will also be nursing applications for areas to include medical/surgical inpatient units, inpatient and outpatient behavioral health, and community living centers.

Other medical specialty areas being sought, include: Physicians (psychiatry, primary care, hospitalist), Medical Technologists, Medical Technicians (phlebotomists), Pharmacy Technicians, Psychologists, Ultrasound Technicians, Medical Support Assistants, and Diagnostic Radiologic Technologists.

All applicants are asked to bring a copy of their resume, photo ID, and a list of four professional references.

To pre-register for the event email EKHCSHRSTFG@va.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today joined U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in announcing much-needed regulatory flexibility for the National School Lunch Program.

Secretary Perdue signed a proclamation that carries out the following, which Chairman Roberts has long raised concerns over:

A postponement of target II sodium requirements for three years,
An allowance for occasional non-whole grain rich products to be served, and
An allowance for 1 percent milkfat flavored milk to be served.
Chairman Roberts also ate a school lunch with elementary school students and visited with school meal providers at Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Va.

Below is Chairman Roberts’ remarks as prepared for delivery:

Thank you Secretary Perdue for your remarks, and thank you to the teachers, administrators, and everyone at Catoctin Elementary School for hosting us. I am glad to be here today, among the very folks this proclamation supports, for this important meal standards announcement.

I am excited and relieved to finally be moving forward on this issue of school meal standards. Today’s proclamation announces much-needed flexibility for school food operators and schoolchildren across the country.

I had the opportunity in the last Congress to visit schools across Kansas to eat lunch, from the rural town of Fowler to the large district of Olathe. Time and time again, I heard the same story: yes, we are serving more nutritious meals, but certain aspects of the standards have gone too far. Kids are rejecting the food, and we’re seeing a lot of it end up in the trash.

We worked really hard the last two years to provide flexibility, but after unanimously passing a bipartisan bill out of Committee, our effort stalled. The policies that Secretary Perdue has declared here today will provide the flexibility to ensure that schools are able to serve nutritious meals that children will actually eat. Because that is really what these programs are about: serving meals to hungry children so that they can learn and grow.

It is sure nice to have the Secretary in place, and I am glad he has hit the ground running.

Thank you for having me here today.

Chairman Roberts has long been an advocate for flexibility in school meal standards, repeatedly calling on the Obama Administration to provide regulatory relief to local school districts. Roberts has joined students for lunch in both urban and rural areas in Kansas, listening to school nutritionists and students’ concerns regarding the Obama Administration’s rigid school meal standards.

NOTE – Rainfall and temperature information is based on data kept at Milford Lake by the Corps of Engineers. For more information contact Chuck Otte, 238-4161.

April 2017 Weather Summary

If April showers bring May flowers, then May should be beautiful this year. In spite of what the last few days of April may have felt like, we ended the month with slightly above average temperatures.

The average daily high for April was 64.7, 1.2 degrees below normal. However, the average overnight low was 46.9, 4.7 degrees above normal. This resulted in a monthly mean temperature of 55.8, 1.7 degrees above normal. The temperatures for the first week of April were below average and the last ten days of the month were average or below. But the days in between were enough above average that the month was a little above average. There were no temperature records set or tied during the month. The highest temperature for April was 80 degrees on April 15th, 18th, and 19th. The lowest temperature for the month was 31 degrees the morning of
April 10th. Assuming we have no other sub-freezing temperatures this spring, that will be the official last frost of the year, although scattered frost was observed around the area the morning of April 27th. The warmest April on record was in 1955 when we had a monthly mean temperature of 63.2. The coldest April was in 1983 when we had a chilly monthly mean temperature of only 45.9 degrees.

Out of 30 days in April, we had measurable precipitation on 17 of them. Average April rainfall is 2.95 inches. Milford Lake recorded 4.87 inches for the month and Junction City had 4.65 inches. Normal year to date precipitation through the end of April is 7.06 inches. Milford Lake has received 13.19 inches for the year and Junction City 11.07 inches. Fortunately we were a long ways off the wettest April on record. April of 1944 came in with 12.59 inches of rain. The driest April on record was in 1989 when only 0.36 inches of rain was tallied. While there was a trace of snow noted early in April, that was it for the month. This likely closes out our snowfall season with only 3 inches of snow recorded for the October through April snowfall season. Long term average is 18 inches.

May typically brings us closer to those summertime temperatures and is also our second wettest month of the year. Average daily highs in May range from 72 on May Day to 81 by the end of the month. Overnight lows begin May at 48 and by the 31st are up to 58 degrees. Long term average
rainfall for May is 4.79 inches making it the second wettest month of the year by the narrowest of margins. Average June rainfall is 4.80 inches!