OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Lack of rainfall and above-average temperatures are prolonging the drought conditions that have stressed crops and rangelands and placed new pressures on groundwater sources across the U.S. Southern Plains, climatologists from the region said Monday.

While some areas of the Texas Panhandle and southwestern Oklahoma have received plentiful precipitation in recent days, other parts of those states plus New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas have experienced only spotty precipitation since October, New Mexico State Climatologist Dave Dubois said during a national briefing.

“Over the majority of the area it’s been pretty light,” DuBois said.

Drought conditions are so severe across much of the Southwest that they rival those during the disastrous Dust Bowl period of the 1930s, when severe dust storms killed livestock and caused crops to fail.

Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus said some climatological stations in the western part of his state have recorded less than 2 inches of rain since October.

“Some of those stations are pegging the driest 7-to-8 months on record for those locations,” McManus said.

DuBois said the region’s low rainfall totals have been aggravated by temperatures that he said have been as much as 10 degrees above normal during the past couple of weeks. Higher temperatures cause what little rain that does fall to evaporate rather than soak into the ground and recharge water tables.

“Drought is not just precipitation, it’s a bunch of things,” DuBois said.

Less-than-normal rainfall affects the viability of vegetation in the region, including fields cultivated by the region’s farmers and open prairies that provide habitat for wildlife, DuBois said.

“That’s a big concern with croplands and also rangelands,” DuBois said. “There’s a lot more stress on our plant systems.”

He said there’s a link between drought conditions and a decline in Oklahoma’s wheat harvest in recent years. The Oklahoma Wheat Commission has estimated that farmers will harvest about 36 percent less wheat this year than they did a year ago.

“So far, the numbers coming in are not very good,” DuBois said.

Precipitation generally increases across the region during the winter and spring months as rainfall and snowmelt replenish water supplies, but DuBois said the Southern Plains has received “very little to no runoff” from snow this year.

Consequently, farmers and ranchers are being forced to rely more heavily on groundwater supplies, which could lead to a decline in the levels of many water wells.

“Irrigation can jump significantly in drought years,” DuBois said.

Dubois said the months from July to September could relieve the worst of the drought conditions in New Mexico and elsewhere in the arid Southwest, when monsoonal rains traditionally saturate the region.

“The further you go west, the further influence you get from monsoon,” DuBois said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an embarrassment for House Republican leaders, conservatives on Friday scuttled a bill that combines stricter work and job training requirements for food stamp recipients with a renewal of farm subsidies popular in GOP-leaning farm country.

Hard-right conservatives upset over the party’s stalled immigration agenda opposed the measure, which failed by a 213-198 vote. Some 30 Republicans joined with every chamber Democrat in opposition.

Kansas First District Congressman  Roger Marshall said, “We obviously wanted to see today’s vote go differently, and clearly we have more work to do. But I have faith that once members have to go home and face their producers they will rethink today’s outcome and will focus on the needs of Rural America. This effort is far from over. I am anxious to return to Congress next week to get back to work on providing our producers the certainty they deserve.”

The vote was a blow to GOP leaders, who had hoped to tout its new work requirements for recipients of food stamps. The work initiative polls well with voters, especially those in the GOP political base.

More broadly, it exposed fissures within the party in the months before the midterm elections, and the Freedom Caucus tactics rubbed many rank-and-file Republicans the wrong way. A handful of GOP moderates opposed the bill, too, but not enough to sink it on their own.

“You judge each piece of legislation on its own,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “You don’t hold one thing hostage for something that’s totally different and has nothing to do with it. I would say that’s a mistake in my view.”

Key conservatives in the rebellious House Freedom Caucus opposed the measure, seeking leverage to win procedural advantages to in a debate on immigration next month. Negotiations with GOP leaders Friday morning failed to bear fruit, however, and the unrelated food and farm measure was defeated.

Conservative Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said some members had concerns over the farm bill, but said, “That wasn’t my main focus. My main focus was making sure we do immigration policy right” and “actually build a border security wall.”

Beyond the drama and infighting among Republicans, the debacle appears to make it even more likely that Congress will simply extend the current farm bill when it expires in September.

The farm bill, a twice-per-decade rite on Capitol Hill, promises greater job training opportunities for recipients of food stamps, a top priority for House leaders. Democrats are strongly opposed, saying the stricter work and job training rules are poorly designed and would drive 2 million people off of food stamps. They took a victory lap after the vote.

“On a bipartisan basis, the House rejected a bad bill that failed farmers and working families,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Republicans wrote a cruel, destructive Farm Bill that abandoned farmers and producers amid plummeting farm prices and the self-inflicted damage of President Trump’s trade brinkmanship.”

Currently, adults 18-59 are required to work part-time to receive food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or agree to accept a job if they’re offered one. Stricter rules apply to able-bodied adults 18-49, who are subject to a three-month limit of benefits unless they meet a work or job training requirement of 80 hours per month.

Under the new bill, the tougher requirement would be expanded to apply to all adults on SNAP, with exceptions for of seniors, pregnant women, caretakers of children under the age of 6, or people with disabilities.

“It sets up a system for SNAP recipients where if you are able to work, you should work to get the benefits,” said Ryan, R-Wis.” And if you can’t work, we’ll help you get the training you need. We will help you get the skills you need to get an opportunity.”

The measure would have greatly expanded funding for state-administered job training programs, but Democrats and outside critics say the funding for the proposed additional job training would require huge new bureaucracies, extensive record-keeping requirements, and that the funding levels would fall far short of what’s enough to provide job training to everybody covered by the new job training requirements.

“While I agree that there are changes that need to be made to the SNAP program, this is so clearly not the way to do it,” said Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, top Democrat of the Agriculture Committee. “The bill cuts more than $23 billion in SNAP benefits and will result in an estimated 2 million Americans unable to get the help they need.”

He said it “turns around and wastes billions … cut from SNAP benefits to create a massive, untested workforce training bureaucracy.”

In addition to food stamps, the measure would renew farm safety-net programs such as subsidies for crop insurance, farm credit and land conservation. Those subsidies for farm country traditionally form the backbone of support for the measure among Republicans, while urban Democrats support food aid for the poor.

On Thursday, supporters of the agriculture safety net easily defeated an attempt to weaken the government’s sugar program, which critics say gouges consumers by propping up sugar prices.

The measure mostly tinkered with farm programs, adding provisions aimed at boosting high-speed internet access in rural areas, assist beginning farmers, and ease regulations on producers. But since the measure makes mostly modest adjustments to farm policy, some lawmakers believe that the most likely course of action this year is a temporary extension of the current measure, which expires at the end of September.

In the Senate, the chamber’s filibuster rules require a bipartisan process for a bill to pass. There, Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., promises a competing bill later this month and he’s signaling that its changes to food stamps would be far more modest than the House measure.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities conducted a traffic stop just before 9:30p.m. Thursday in Topeka on a 2005 GMC Denali for a turn signal violation, according to a media release.

Police arrested the driver, 37-year-old Robert Stan Williams for felon in possession of a firearm, distribution of cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia for sales and criminal possession of a firearm and the traffic violation.

Williams has previous convictions for drugs and flee, attempt to elude law enforcement, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. birth rates declined last year for women in their teens, 20s and – surprisingly – their 30s, leading to the fewest babies in 30 years, according to a government report released Thursday.

Experts said several factors may be combining to drive the declines, including shifting attitudes about motherhood and changing immigration patterns.

The provisional report, based on a review of more than 99 percent of the birth certificates filed nationwide, counted 3.853 million births last year. That’s the lowest tally since 1987.

Births have been declining since 2014, but 2017 saw the greatest year-to-year drop – about 92,000 less than the previous year.

That was surprising, because baby booms often parallel economic booms, and last year was a period of low unemployment and a growing economy.

But other factors are likely at play, experts said.

One may be shifting attitudes about motherhood among millennials, who are in their prime child-bearing years right now. They may be more inclined to put off child-bearing or have fewer children, researchers said.

Another may be changes in the immigrant population, who generate nearly a quarter of the babies born in the U.S. each year. For example, Asians are making up a larger proportion of immigrants, and they have typically had fewer children than other immigrant groups.

Also, use of IUDs and other long-acting forms of contraception has been increasing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report also found:

-The rate of births to women ages 15 to 44, known as the general fertility rate, sank to a record low of about 60 per 1,000.

-Women in their early 40s were the only group with higher birth rates in 2017, up 2 percent from the year. The rate has been rising since the early 1980s.

-The cesarean section rate rose by a tiny amount after having decreased four years. Studies have shown C-sections are more common in first-time births involving older moms.

-Rates of preterm and low birth weight babies rose for the third straight year, possibly for the same reason.

-Birth rates for teens continued to nosedive, as they have since the early 1990s. In 2017, they dropped 7 percent from the year before.

-Rates for women in their 20s continued to fall and hit record lows. They fell 4 percent.

-Perhaps most surprising, birth rates for women in their 30s fell slightly, dipping 2 percent for women ages 30 to 34 and 1 percent for women 35 to 39.

Birth rates for women in their 30s had been rising steadily to the highest levels in at least half a century, and women in their early 30s recently became the age group that has the most babies.

That decline caused some experts’ eyebrows to shoot up, but they also noted the dip was very small.

“It’s difficult to say yet whether it marks a fundamental change or it’s just a blip,” said Hans-Peter Kohler, a University of Pennsylvania demographer who studies birth trends.

Another notable finding: The current generation is getting further away from having enough children to replace itself.

The U.S. once was among a handful of developed countries with a fertility rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace it.

The rate in the U.S. now stands less than the standard benchmark for replacement. It’s still above countries such as Spain, Greece, Japan and Italy, but the gap appears to be closing.

A decade ago, the estimated rate was 2.1 kids per U.S. woman. In 2017, it fell below 1.8, hitting its lowest level since 1978. “That’s a pretty remarkable decline,” said Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health and pediatrics.

OSAGE COUNTY —A Kansas family is celebrating a special Mother’s Day weekend delivery.  Danielle Schilling and her husband were fishing at Overbrook City lake late Saturday when her contractions indicated it was time to get to a hospital, according to Con Olsen, Regional Executive Director of Osage County Emergency Services.

The couple didn’t travel far when Dallas Schilling pulled the couple’s van into the Grace Community Church parking lot and called 911.  Osage County EMS arrived and delivered a healthy baby boy in the back of the couple’s van at 11:16p.m

Baby Gunner weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces.  Mom and baby were transported to St. Francis Medical Center in Topeka and are doing just fine, according to Olsen.

 

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a weekend shooting death and have identified the victim.

Just after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a residence in the 1300 block of SE Madison in Topeka for report of a shooting, according to Lt. Jennifer Cross.

One female victim was pronounced deceased at the scene from apparent gunshot wounds. She has been identified as Patricia Sanders, 37, of Topeka.   The death is being investigated as a homicide, according to Cross. Police have not made an arrest.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Topeka Police Department at 785-368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at 785- 234-0007.

SEDGWICK COUNTY  — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of shots fired near East High School in Wichita and have made an arrest.

Just after 11a.m. Monday, police responded to a report of a disturbance with shots fired near the intersection of English and Poplar in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Officers on the scene did find numerous shell casings in the area.  Investigators learned that several individuals involved with the disturbance got into a white SUV type vehicle and traveled northbound on Poplar, according to Davidson.  Other witnesses told police that additional individuals involved ran to the west into the east side of East High School in the 2300 Block of East Douglas.

The school resource officers locked the school down for approximately an hour as a precautionary measure.

Police did locate the individuals who went into the east side of the school. They were not armed, according to Davidson.  Some were teens but it is not clear if they are students.

Police booked a 16-year-old boy into the Juvenile Detention Facility for criminal discharge of a firearm and juvenile in possession of a firearm, according to Davidson.  Investigators also located the white SUV seen leaving the area at the time of the shooting.

No damage or injuries have been reported as a part of the incident.