News

While Kansas is often the topic of jokes – including its appearance in National Lampoon’s Vacation – the small Kansas town of Coolidge, near the Colorado state line, has become a popular stop for westward travelers.

As The Wichita Eagle reports, Coolidge is one of those towns you can drive through – on gravel roads in this case - in less than a minute. And in the National Lampoon movie, was painted as “Hickville, USA.”

A low-key, low-turnout primary runoff election Tuesday set the slates for November's general elections — starting with the Democratic nominee for governor.

From The Texas Tribune:

Tuesday’s runoffs set the major party ballots for a November general election where Texas Republicans will be trying to maintain a 24-year winning streak in statewide elections while Democrats will be trying to breach the red seawall with a blue tsunami.

There are three Republicans and two Democrats on the June 26 primary ballot for the state’s treasurer job this year. The Denver Post recently published a rundown of each candidate.

On the Republican side is Justin Everett, Polly Lawrence and Brian Watson.

Everett is a state representative who left the Colorado General Assembly to get into the treasurer’s race to advance his hard-line positions on fiscal responsibility.

A black bear cub was killed in an accidental crash Monday near a Southwest Kansas town.

As the Wichita Eagle reports, the bear was found dead near Elkhart, Kansas. Black bears are an unusual sight for the area -- the last confirmed sighting in that county was in 2011.

But game wardens and biologists say there may be more bears in Southwest Kansas this year due to droughts and wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado. These conditions experts say, often push bears, especially young males, into Kansas.

Texas voters participated in a runoff election on Tuesday, with decisions being finalized in both major statewide races and local Panhandle races.

Statewide, in the race to decide Gov. Greg Abbot’s Democratic challenger this November, Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez defeated Texas businessman Andrew White. If she’s victorious this November, CNN notes, Valdez would be the state’s first lesbian and first Latina governor.        

High Plains Public Radio has filled the executive director position with an experienced leader who will be officially taking the reins in June.

Bob Davis is coming to HPPR from the Anniston Star, in Anniston, Alabama, where he worked for the past 12 years as editor and then publisher/editor.

The Colorado governor’s campaign is being pegged as the most expensive campaign in the state’s history but because of the way candidates are spending their money, it may not be information that is readily available. contracts, the level of spending likely won’t be made public.

As Colorado Public Radio reports, many of the state’s gubernatorial candidates have super PACs raising money to buy ads, much of them on TV. Because TV stations aren’t required by the FCC to disclose those.

As Texas reels from yet another school shooting, as 10 students were killed in the small suburb of Santa Fe over the weekend, officials in the Lone Star State are at loggerheads about how to deal with the problem.

As USA Today reports, Texas Attorney General Dan Patrick reiterated his belief that state lawmakers should not tighten gun laws in the wake of the tragedy. Meanwhile, the police chief of Houston, the largest city in Texas, of which Santa Fe is a suburb, said he did not believe that “thoughts and prayers” were enough.

Primary runoff elections will be held across Texas tomorrow.

As The Texas Tribune reports, in more than 30 races statewide, no candidate drew more than 50 percent of the vote. That means Texans will go to the polls to decide between the candidates who placed first and second in those races. The most high-profile race is for which Democratic contender will face off against Gov. Greg Abbott this November.

Businesses in the Lone Star State are growing increasingly worried that President Trump's “America first” economic policies might do harm to trade between Texas and Mexico.

As the BBC reports, Texas industry leaders are worried that Trump’s hostility toward the North American Free Trade Agreement could cut into profits and lead to job losses.

Joining Songbirds this week is Marla Matkin, a living historian and independent scholar.  We will be discussing the 100th grand reunion of Forsyth Scouts: Battle of Beecher Island.  Featuring Fort Harker, Fort Hays, Fort Wallace and Beecher Island in Wray, Colorado.  We'll also be enjoying some cowboy music from likes of Don Edwards, Michael Martin Murphy and Kansan, Dave Zerfas.  Join us this Saturday at 1 pm as we combine our love for music and history.

Last year, Texas rejected almost 2,500 vanity license plates that violated approval guidelines. As The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles turned down the requests for a variety of reasons, including messages that were too political or too sexy.

Some of the requested messages that ran afoul of political guidelines included plates reading NOTRUMP, NOBAMA, and N2TRUMP.

Oklahoma's Mary Fallin has been much in the news over the past week, as the governor signed one controversial piece of legislation and vetoed another.

As CBS news reports, late last week Fallin vetoed a bill that would have allowed Oklahoma residents to carry firearms without any type of license or certification. This so-called “Constitutional Carry” bill sailed through both houses of the Oklahoma Legislature with only opposition from some Democrats.

When it comes to the availability of help for those addicted to drugs, Texas performs worse than any other state.

According to a new study by the personal finance website Wallethub, Texas lands at the top of the list of states with the fewest substance abuse treatment facilities per 100,000 residents.

The State of Oklahoma is auctioning off an entire herd of buffalo, KOKH reports.

The herd of bison is currently located at Foss State Park, near Elk City, about 90 miles west of Oklahoma City. The herd consists of around 50 buffalo.

A new wind turbine in the Texas Panhandle is the largest in the United States.

As The Amarillo Globe-News reports, the turbine is located at the UL Advanced Wind Turbine Test Facility at West Texas A&M University, in Randall County.

The hub of the turbine stands 427 feet above the ground, and the tip of a blade at its highest point rises to 654 feet. By comparison, that’s one hundred feet taller than the Washington Monument, and over twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.

The Texas Panhandle has seen a high number of wildfires in recent years, as climate change and drought take their toll. Last year alone, grass fires in Potter, Gray, Wheeler and other Panhandle counties burned more than half a million acres and killed four people.  

Now, as The Texas Observer reports, that problem may be about to get worse. Experts say a federal initiative called the Conservation Reserve Program has exacerbated the fire risk.