Midwest
City of Kansas City has 'separated' from employee who doxxed Harrison Butker following speech, mayor says
Mayor Quinton Lucas revealed on Thursday that Kansas City has “separated” from the social media employee who shared where Harrison Butker lives after his commencement speech at Benedictine College last week.
The Kansas City Chiefs kicker urged women graduates to embrace being a “homemaker” and criticized the LGBTQ community and President Biden for his stance on abortion.
In the speech, Butker added, “things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for the degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder.”
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker celebrates after kicking the point after touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Nov. 20, 2023. (Denny Medley-USA Today Sports)
The city’s X account posted the city where Butker lives.
“There’s been accountability from the city of Kansas City,” Lucas said to KCMO radio. “We all look forward to moving on, letting the Chiefs play, [and] letting the city do what it’s supposed to do in delivering basic services.”
The social media account deleted the post and later posted a brief apology.
“We apologies [sic] for our previous tweet. It was shared in error,” the post read.
Lucas addressed the controversy after the post was deleted last week, calling it “clearly inappropriate.”
“A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account. The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.”
Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs speaks to media during Super Bowl LVIII opening night at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas. ( Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
ROGER GOODELL PRAISES ‘DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS’ IN NFL, USA FOLLOWING HARRISON BUTKER’S SPEECH
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey vowed to pursue action against the city following the post, saying in an interview with Outkick’s Charly Arnolt he had “demanded certain records from the city related to their management of that social media account that doxxed Harrison Butker in retaliation for his free expression of religious beliefs.”
“Let’s paint this with the proper brush – that is government retaliating against an individual for the expression of their sincerely held religious beliefs. That could not be more of a clear case of a violation of his constitutional freedoms and the Missouri Human Rights Act,” Bailey added.
The specific employee remains unidentified.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker speaks to the media before Super Bowl LVIII 58, Feb. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
Butker’s jersey sales have since skyrocketed on NFL Shop, while many in the media remain split about the speech.
Butker played in his third Super Bowl earlier this year with Kansas City, helping them go back-to-back in February.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
Nebraska
Starting fires helped contain a Nebraska wildfire — and ignited another – Flatwater Free Press
This story is made possible through a partnership between Flatwater Free Press and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
As the fast-moving blaze rolled toward Fire Chief Jason Schneider’s district in Cozad, he and his crew faced a literal uphill battle.
The Cottonwood Fire was tearing through the Loess Canyons, an area defined by steep slopes, narrow valleys, few roads and pockets of invasive eastern red cedar trees, which can throw embers and ash — and even explode — when they burn.
“You think you would have it put out, and you keep on moving north, and you’d look back south and it’s just going again behind you,” Schneider said.
But the situation started to improve when they connected with a prescribed burn group. They had equipment and showed Schneider and his volunteer crew how to use fire to contain the wildfire.
“It would have burned a lot more if they hadn’t showed up and helped us get it stopped where we did,” Schneider said.
Already, 2026 has marked Nebraska’s worst year on record for wildfires. As of May 6, wildfires have burned about 981,502 acres and dealt a blow to ranchers. They also have brought to the forefront the best arguments for and against a controversial and centuries-old land-management practice: Using fire to fight fire.
In March, the Cottonwood Fire, contained by prescribed burn techniques and past prescribed fires, made the case for the practice. In the Nebraska National Forest that same month, heavy winds turned the smoldering remnants of a prescribed burn into the Road 203 wildfire, bringing to life some landowners’ and managers’ worst fears.
The debate over prescribed burns had been simmering long before those wildfires and has grown louder in recent years as more Nebraskans turn to the practice. The Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council estimates that during modern times, 2025 saw the most acres burned in a single year by prescribed fire.
But in areas of the state like the western Sandhills, the practice has sparked backlash.
“There was a (prescribed burn) group that tried to establish a couple of years ago up around the Tryon, Mullen area up in there. And they almost lynched that group,” Keystone-Lemoyne Fire and Rescue Chief Ralph Moul said. “They said, ‘No, we do not want fire in the Sandhills,’ because there’s nothing to stop it up here.”
Despite the fear, there is overwhelming evidence that prescribed burns, when done correctly, can help prevent massive wildfires by burning up volatile fuels like cedar trees. They can make the land ecologically healthier and save ranchers money.
“The wildfires you’ve seen here in Nebraska the last few years are also a consequence of removing fire from the landscape,” said Kent Pfeiffer, program manager for the Northern Prairies Land Trust. “You don’t get rid of fire, you just change the nature of it … instead of having frequent, low-intensity fires, you end up with infrequent, high-intensity fires.”
The issue may be growing more urgent as the state faces dual threats. Large swaths of Nebraska’s native grasslands are in danger of becoming cedar woodlands — an already costly headache for ranchers. Meanwhile, climate change is bringing more extreme conditions, including intense stretches of drier and hotter weather that can lead to more destructive wildfires.
Drought conditions and major wildfires
“It’s time to innovate a bit more on the wildfire and prescribed fire side,” said Dirac Twidwell, a rangeland and fire ecologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “What we know is that overall, our fire management is not working.”
‘I burned them’
Tucker Thompson was in his 30s when he first helped out on a prescribed burn on another person’s property near Gothenburg back in the early 2000s. The rancher, who summers cattle in the Loess Canyons, knew some neighbors would be upset, but cedar trees were starting to sprout across his land. He wanted to get ahead of the problem, and he was curious.
By today’s standards, the group’s equipment was basic and their knowledge limited. Even though everything went fine, Thompson left thinking the entire practice was insane. He went home and took a chainsaw to the cedar trees across about 400 acres of his property.
“And then five years later, they all start coming back. Ten years later, it’s like, I have no choice. There’s no way of killing these dang things, so I burned them,” Thompson said.
Now, Thompson continues the practice and is a member of two burn groups. He helped firefighters contain the Cottonwood Fire, even as it ravaged his grazing lands.
Prescribed burns “decrease the fuel load in these canyons, so we can control these fires to some degree,” Thompson said.
The Loess Canyons area has one of the most advanced prescribed fire cultures in the entire country, Twidwell said. It has reduced the risk of catastrophic fire and made the land more suitable for grazing, which has boosted landowners’ profits, he said.
Up until the last 150 years, fire was common in Nebraska. Wildfires would naturally control species like eastern red cedar. Indigenous peoples have also used fire for a variety of reasons in this region.
Prescribed burns are common in other Great Plains states like Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. In Nebraska, it’s more prevalent in the eastern and central parts of the state. The benefits extend beyond fire protection — it also increases biodiversity and wildlife. Even the grass that comes back after a burn is preferred by the cattle.
More than 92,700 acres burned in prescribed fires between Jan. 1 and June 30 last year, according to a survey of 26 organizations by the Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council.
But conducting these burns requires a lot of planning, post-burn monitoring, money, machinery and manpower. And even when it comes together, a change in weather can cancel the whole operation at a moment’s notice.
In order to conduct a land management burn, a landowner or tenant has to apply for a permit and submit a plan to their local fire chief, who decides whether to waive Nebraska’s open burn ban. By law, the plan requires serious documentation, including a list of on-hand equipment and a description of weather conditions needed to burn safely.
Fairbury Fire Chief Judd Stewart’s jurisdiction is filled with landowners and managers who use prescribed burns. Stewart says he had to cancel almost 50 burn permits in March when Gov. Jim Pillen ordered fire chiefs statewide to temporarily stop issuing them during the wildfires. Stewart wishes the governor would have given more consideration to areas like southeast Nebraska, where fire danger was lower. Those areas still have heavy fuel loads, and the window to burn is closing.
“As we approach mid- to late summer, when we start getting high temperatures … that vegetation will carry fire again, and now we’ve got those heavy fuel loads that are going to be hard to contain,” Stewart said.
Austin Klemm, a board member of the burn group that helped Schneider and others contain the Cottonwood Fire, said he is working with about six landowners who have invested roughly $250,000 to $275,000 to plan a burn that might not happen this year due to the ban.
“Some of these guys have invested tens of thousands of dollars in prep work to be able to burn,” Klemm said. “These guys have deferred grazing, did not graze at all last year, had to go find a place to stick cows or feed cows all last year.”
‘It’s dangerous’
Becky Potmesil doesn’t have to look far to see the devastation wildfire can cause. Potmesil raises cattle in the Alliance area of the Panhandle, on the western edge of the Sandhills. To the south, the Morrill Fire burned an estimated 642,000 acres, making it the largest on record in the state’s history. To the southeast, the Ashby Fire burned another 36,000 acres.
The winds have blown away the black, burnt grass, leaving behind only sand dunes. It looks like a moonscape, she said.
Drought conditions in 2026
“Anybody who’d do a prescribed burn out here in the (western) Sandhills in western Nebraska is crazy, and it’s dangerous,” she said. While she sees how there could be benefits in some Sandhills meadows, she doesn’t think it’s worth the risk in her area.
Moul, the Keystone-Lemoyne fire chief, is cautious about issuing burn permits in his Sandhills district. He likes for there to either be snow or green grass on the ground. The Sandhills have fewer fire breaks, less infrastructure and more extreme weather conditions like high-speed winds than other parts of the state, Moul and Potmesil noted.
Moul, an incident commander on the Morrill Fire, understands that prescribed fire has its place. But after seeing the damage caused by prescribed burn escapes over his career, he said fire chiefs shouldn’t allow them on or right before red flag days in their districts. Most of the burn groups know what they’re doing, Moul said, but a few have convinced local fire chiefs to issue permits on red flag days so they can “get the best kill of the trees.”
“But it was my experience when I worked with the state that we went to a lot of escaped fires because of prescribed burns that got away,” Moul said.
The Road 203 wildfire started as a prescribed burn in the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest. More than a day after the fire ignitions ended, heavy winds created a spot fire outside the original boundary as firefighters mopped up and patrolled the area, according to the Forest Service. The agency said 99.84% of its prescribed burns go according to plan. This one didn’t.
According to the Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council’s survey last year, 1.6% of burns escaped and required outside assistance, primarily from volunteer fire departments. Changing weather patterns and the spread of cedar trees are the primary reasons for escapes, the Fire Council said in an email.
“When the gap between prescribed fire acres and fuel load increases, it also increases fire behavior in both prescribed fire and wildfires causing us to adapt to riskier burns with increased planning and equipment.”
When Twidwell came to Nebraska in 2013, he was told prescribed fire would never be used in the Sandhills. Since then, he has seen multiple burns happen there as the culture continues to shift. Some of this is due to the spread of eastern red cedars in the area.
He knows some landowners will never be convinced, and he understands their concern. But beyond protecting the grasslands, Twidwell believes Nebraska needs to have more conversations on how to mitigate large wildfires by using fire.
“Everybody understands … the wildfire risk playing out,” he said. “Fewer understand the benefits and why certain groups are using prescribed fire.”
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Roads in northwest North Dakota are reporting extremely low visibility due to blowing dust and dirt.
The North Dakota Highway Patrol shared photos of an intense dust storm that led to a crash in Williams County on Highway 85 at 1:30 p.m.
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Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Highway Patrol -
Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Highway Patrol
The NDHP is advising the public to stay home if possible, and if you must travel, slow down, turn on your headlights, increase following distance, and be prepared for rapidly changing conditions.
KELOLAND News also received photos from our viewers of dust storms in South Dakota.
North Central Ohio Industrial Museum
North Central Ohio Industrial Museum houses hundreds of products made in north central Ohio — including appliances, tires, pumps and much more.
MANSFIELD ― If you’re interested in manufacturing, you can come and see hundreds of products made in North Central Ohio — including appliances, tires, pumps, Klondike bars, cigars and pieces made for streetcars.
The North Central Ohio Industrial Museum inside the lower east diagonal wing of the historic Ohio State Reformatory showcases the history of manufacturing in Mansfield and surrounding areas.
Location
The Ohio State Reformatory, 100 Reformatory Road, Mansfield.
Why it matters
The museum traces the history of manufacturing in North Central Ohio since the first steam locomotive came through town in 1846. Exhibits highlight the accomplishments of local residents and industry in peace and war, according to NCOIM President Jerry Miller.
What to see
The NCOIM has several themed sections of exhibits, beginning with “Every town had a mill,” then the Cast Iron Age, City of Stoves, Wires & Electric Exhibits, Cigar & Beer, Wheels, AG Industry and Mickey Rupp, which then begins an exhibit on what is currently manufactured in Richland County.
Miller said the late Bob Glasener started the museum and was responsible for saving many local industrial artifacts over the years. Miller said Glasener’s daughter has in her possession the 1939 World’s Fair Westinghouse (gold-plated) roaster, which she donated to the museum.
The museum is full of surprising finds.
Elektro the Westinghouse robot should be on display this summer at the North Central Ohio Industrial Museum after being restored.
A manhole and stormwater grate from 1935 made by the Tappan Stove Co. are among the treasures Miller helped to preserve. He also has the Tappan marquee and a Westinghouse marquee.
Plan your visit
Hours/admission: The museum will be open the same hours as OSR and will be free to tour with the purchase of a ticket to the prison-turned-museum.
Getting there: OSR is on the north side of Mansfield, just off U.S. 30.
Learn more: mrps.org (OSR is operated by the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society).
Contact Lou Whitmire at 419-5-21-7223. She can be reached at X at @lwhitmir.
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