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Monday, October 6, 2014
Neodesha startup builds farm drones NEODESHA, Kan. (AP) — A company in Neodesha is building drones that its owner believes could someday help farmers watch over their fields without spending hours walking or driving
he believes will grow quickly, despite current federal regulations that prohibit commercial use of drones. The unmanned aircraft could someday allow farmers to map out fields using imagery
Some people think of them as evil and bad. Here is one that can have a huge impact — billions of dollars in new jobs and, most importantly, it could grow agriculture. — Tom Nichol, AgEagle business developer
Biblesta Children from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Chanute ride on their float during the Biblesta parade on Saturday afternoon. Humboldt High School band members march in the 57th annual Biblesta parade. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
HIGH SPEED INTERNET
Google Fiber behind deadline in KC KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Even as Google Inc. warns that it might take longer to install gigabit-speed Internet across all of Kansas City and a handful of suburbs, other Internet providers are speeding up their broadband to compete. Akamai Technologies Inc., which helps companies distribute online content, reports that average peak connection speeds in the U.S. nearly tripled since Google started its work in Kansas City, The Kansas City Star reported. “We’re seeing faster speeds everywhere,” said David Belson, who authors the State of the Internet Report for Akamai. “Part of that is that the technology is improving to get better speeds out of existing networks. Part of it’s consumer demand. And part is the pres-
sure that Google Fiber’s existence creates on everybody else.” For instance, Time Warner Cable, which dominates the Kansas City market, sells speeds of 50 megabits per second for what it used to charge for just 15 megabits per second. AT&T now has a deal to sell speeds as fast as Google’s in Overland Park, Kansas. It’s not saying when it might deliver that service in the sprawling suburb, but neither has Google. After Google tabbed Kansas City for Internet service, it promised the same lightspeed hookups in Austin, Texas. It’s not yet installed the connections in homes there, but AT&T began firing data to residential customers there late last year at the speeds Google hopes to See GOOGLE | Page A4
Galena officials lay off 10 city workers GALENA, Kan. (AP) — The southeast Kansas town of Galena is shedding ten employees and raising taxes to correct a budget shortfall. The Joplin Globe reports that Mayor Dale Oglesby says the city had a $260,000 cash shortfall. After the 2011 Joplin tornado, the city’s construction and demolition landfill brought in additional revenue that was used to keep the mill levy from rising.
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that send data and photos back to a laptop for study by the farmer, The Hutchinson News reported. For example, the machines could help farmers quickly see areas that need to be treated or fertilized, without having to treat entire fields, See DRONES | Page A4
Poll: Voters sour on Congress WASHINGTON (MCT) — Most Americans view the country moving in the wrong direction and don’t see their financial futures getting better anytime soon, attitudes likely to make it harder for Democrats to do well this fall, according to a new McClatchyMarist poll. Sixty-one percent see the nation on the wrong track, down from 64 percent in August but still historically high. A big reason for the anxiety: Only 30 percent expect their personal family finances to improve in the coming year, down from 35 percent in February. Fifty-four percent see their finances staying about the same. People want their elected officials to make things better but don’t see much progress, so they give lawmakers low marks. “It has to do with paying bills and economic security at a personal level,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the
Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the Sept. 24-29 poll. The economic recovery, he said, “still hasn’t reached folks the way the macrodata suggest.” The wrong direction/right track number is considered a key barometer of voter sentiment, and people strongly disapprove of how their elected officials are performing. Seventy-one percent of registered voters disliked how Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, are governing, while 61 percent felt the same about Democrats, who control the Senate. President Barack Obama, whose job approval rating jumped to 46 percent last month thanks largely to his handling of the terrorism crisis, still got low marks from voters. Fifty-seven percent disapproved of his handling of the economy, and 41 percent said he was more likely See POLL | Page A4
BTK serial killer helps with book
But the landfill revenue has slowed, and the city’s new hospital hasn’t started showing a return yet. The three part-time and seven full-time employees who were laid off last week worked for the city’s public works and police departments. The mayor says the current mill levy of 43.23 will rise to 60.78. That will equate to an increase of about $100 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home.
Quote of the day
through their property. The company, called AgEagle, has shipped 125 unmanned aircraft systems to customers across the world since Jan. 1, said Bret Chilcott, a former aircraft employee who grew up on a farm near Udall. Chilcott said his firm is a pioneer in an industry that
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The BTK serial killer said in a letter from prison that he is cooperating with a book about the 10 people he killed in the Wichita area to help the victims’ families monetarily. “I can never replace their love ones, my deeds too ‘dark’ to understand, the book or movies, etc. is the only way to help them,” wrote Dennis Rader, whose self-coined moniker was BTK, which stood for “bind, torture, kill.” In a four-page, handwritten letter labeled “From the Desk of: Dennis L. Rader,” the
“It’s always too early to quit.”
former Park City code compliance officer explained that he is barred from profiting from his crimes by a court settlement, The Wichita Eagle reported. He signed over his media rights to the families of his victims he killed from 1974 to 1991 after he was sent to the state prison in El Dorado in 2005. Rader said “the long work on a book is close to a deal.” A percentage of any profits will go to the families, said James Thompson, a Wichita lawyer and one of the attorneys representing most of the BTK
— Norman Vincent Peale, minister
75 Cents
victim families. Katherine Ramsland, the author corresponding with Rader on the project, envisions an academic book that will help investigators and criminologists understand killers like Rader. “I’m trying to make this a serious effort that will have some benefit for people who study this kind of crime,” said Ramsland, a forensic psychology professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania who has written 54 mostly academSee BTK | Page A4
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