March 8, 2017
By L.A. Times

The hundreds of immigrant detainees (click here) housed in Orange County’s largest detention facility have been served foul, slimy lunch meat; use moldy showers; and contend with inoperable phones, according to the findings of an internal inspection issued Wednesday.

Some detainees said they had to rinse their acrid lunch meat off with water before eating it, according to the report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.

The review, which was based on an unannounced inspection in October and interviews with detainees and staff members, found that the poor conditions violate standards set by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In addition to unsafe food handling, the inspectors found that high- and low-risk detainees were housed together and that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s method for imposing solitary confinement for discipline violated ICE standards....

Business must be good for Wall Street.

June 1, 2011

A private management company (click here) will house up to 1,300 immigration detainees in Southern California after an agreement between the company, the city of Adelanto and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

The city approached ICE to express interest in housing a detention facility and in turn negotiated with Florida-based GEO Group Inc. to house the facility, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

The company purchased the 650-bed facility from Adelanto last year for about $28 million and invested $22 million to renovate and retrofit it, according to company officials. A 650-bed expansion on adjacent land is expected to be complete by the end of 2012. 

At full occupancy, GEO is expected to generate about $42 million in yearly revenue with a 75% occupancy guarantee, company officials said.

The agreement “marks another important step in the agency’s long-term effort to reform the immigration detention system,” ICE officials said in a statement. 

ICE also is currently in negotiations with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to extend an existing contract at the Mira Loma Detention Facility in Lancaster and is in discussions with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to expand its detention contract with that agency.

Geo Group Inc (The) Revenue & Earnings Per Share (EPS) (click here)

GEO $43.62

0.54

1.25%

Hutchinson, Kansas 

March 9, 2017

As of Wednesday night, (click here) the Highlands fire in Reno County was 85 percent contained. Firefighters from across the state were on hand to douse the flames - a fact not lost on Hutchinson fire crews.

"This is the worst fire I have ever seen," said Chris Ledbetter, a Hutchinson firefighter.

Ledbetter never thought that he would see a fire as bad as the Highlands fire in his own backyard. "It was just all hands on deck," he explained.  "Trying to get in there and do the best we could, which proved to be a difficult task."

It is a difficult task, because wildfires are not fought like structure fires. The best tools for it can be found in most garages.

"The number-one tool being used out there right now is a chainsaw," said Ledbetter as he held a 25-pound saw. They help fire crews get to fires in areas of heavy brush. Pitchforks help clear brush and shovels help douse flames. 

The Hutchinson Fire Department knew it could put out the fire on their own. But support from people like Caleb Johnson with the Junction City Fire Department has been invaluable....

There is devastation currently in 23 of Kansas' counties.

March 7, 2017
By Michael Pearce
...“It’s horrible, just horrible. I left the house with (60) shells and used them all,” Konrade said. He said he probably killed 40 cows, “and in a lot of places there weren’t even very many left alive to put down.”

Konrade, (click here) an accountant by trade, had spent the day helping a local Clark County rancher destroy cattle maimed in the wildfire that he says burned almost the entire county.

“All in all, I’d guess I seen between 300 and 400 dead cattle,” he said. “It was just a matter of putting animals out of their misery, doing them a favor. They were going to die anyway.

“It’s horrible out there, the things I saw today. The fire was so big, and so much of Clark County burned, I don’t see how anything lived through it.”...

March 7, 2017

By the Journal Star editorial board

Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon (click here) apparently wants state employees to do homework for people who want to demonize the refugees that church groups and other good-hearted Nebraskans are trying to help.

In the name of transparency, Brewer has introduced a bill that would require the state to collect information and compile it into a report.

But Brewer wants to collect only negative information -- nothing positive about the contributions that refugees make to Nebraska, and nothing about the horrors they are fleeing. And he wants to make that cherry-picked negative information easily accessible on a state website.

If senators think that state resources ought to be used for that purpose, they ought to at least require the legislation to undergo major revision so that it presents information in an even-handed fashion.

Brewer’s bill (LB505) would require resettlement agencies to report the number, age, gender, family status and nation of origin for all refugees settled in Nebraska.

Apparently Brewer didn’t do his own homework, because much of that information is already available....

Sponsorship of refugees into the USA has been ongoing for decades. I don't expect much will stop it and that goes for immigrants that are undocumented as well. There are churches that actively look for and advertise for any undocumented that needs sanctuary.

Rev. Emad, Shireen, Samer, and Steve with members of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Omaha.

POBLO International (click here) is seeking volunteers to assist at our International Friendship Centers at Atonement Lutheran Church in Dearborn, MI and St. Florian Convent in Hamtramck, MI. In particular, we are looking for volunteer teachers/assistants for our sewing classes and English classes....

This is Iceland, but, there are churches in the USA just as obvious regarding immigrants.

August 24, 2016

JUDY WOODRUFF: (click here) But, first: Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise in Europe, and it has spread to Iceland, one of the more unusual destinations for refugees from the war in Syria.

But many people on this island nation in the middle of the North Atlantic welcome the prospect of their traditionally white, Christian country becoming more multicultural.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

MALCOLM BRABANT, Special Correspondent: Outside Iceland’s tiny Parliament, pro-refugee supporters outnumber and encircle a group from a new party called the Icelandic National Front, which objects to recent legislation relaxing rules on immigration.

One of their standard-bearers is nurse Maria Magnusdottir.

MARIA MAGNUSDOTTIR, Icelandic National Front: We do not want people that are not adapting to our culture, like, for example, Muslims. I’m not saying that all Muslims are bad people. But, unfortunately, they are not adapting to cultures. So, like, in Europe, we can see two cultures in most of those countries. And that is what we are afraid of....

Continued from previous entry...

SEC. 102. COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER PROGRAM

          Effective as if included in the enactment of the Medicare Access and 
CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-10, 129 Stat. 87),
Paragraph (1) of section 221 (a) of such Act is amended by inserting", and an additional $422,000,000 for fiscal year 2017" after "2017".

Now the Republicans are getting into Medicare Access and CHIP reauthorization.

OTHER LAW WILL APPEAR IN BLACK.

shown Here:

Public Law No: 114-10 (04/16/2015) (click here)
[114th Congress Public Law 10]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

[[Page 129 STAT. 87]]

Public Law 114-10
114th Congress

                                              An Act

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare 
sustainable growth rate and strengthen Medicare access by improving
physician payments and making other improvements, to reauthorize the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, and for other
purposes. <<NOTE: Apr. 16, 2015 - [H.R. 2]>> 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 

United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Medicare 

Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. 42 USC 1305 note.>> 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS...

Here it is.

EC. 221. EXTENSION OF FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS, THE 

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE CORPS, AND TEACHING HEALTH CENTERS.

     (a) Funding for Community Health Centers and the National Health Service 

          Corps, --

         (1) Community health centers, -- Section 10503(b)(1)(E) of the

          Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 254b-2(b)(1)(E) 

          is amended by striking "for fiscal year 2015" and inserting "for each

          of fiscal years 2015 through 2017". ", and an additional $422,000,000 

          for fiscal year 2017".

Section 102 of the American Health Care Act adds $422 million to cover fiscal

year 2017 for costs incurred by the ACA. I am curious where these numbers 

come from and why. See, I am skeptical as to where all the rescinded funding 

has gone, including the taxes which I assume will be addressed later.

January 30, 2017

By Rachel Roubein

A little-discussed side effect (click here) of the ObamaCare repeal effort could be losing gains that community health centers — a lifeline for the nation’s most vulnerable — have made.

Republicans’ vow to gut President Obama’s signature domestic achievement 

has thrust all facets of the health system into uncertainty — and community 

health centers are no different. Nearly 25 million people receive care through 

the nonprofit groups, and in interviews, nearly a dozen state community 

health associations expressed concerns over whether advances under the 

law would be reversed.

“Talking points are wonderful, but we live in a reality here that talking points 

don't help,” Alan Pruhs, executive director of the Association for Utah 

Community Health, told The Hill Extra. “So we're really going to be vigilant 

and watching what the replacement strategies look like and how that's going 

to affect the populations that we’re focused on serving.”...

The next section of The American Health Care Act is Section 103. Federal 

payments to states. It is an exceptionally long section, so it will be covered

tomorrow.

Thank you for your interest.

SEC. 101. THE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND

     (a) In General subsection (b) of section 4002 of The Patient Protection 

      SEC. 4002 ø42 U.S.C. 300u–11¿. PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
FUND.

(b) FUNDING.—There are hereby authorized to be appropriated,
and appropriated, to the Fund, out of any monies in the Treasury
not otherwise appropriated—
(1) for fiscal year 2010, $500,000,000;
(2) for fiscal year 2011, $750,000,000;
(3) for fiscal year 2012, $1,000,000,000;
(4) for fiscal year 2013, $1,250,000,000;
(5) for fiscal year 2014, $1,500,000,000; and
(6) for fiscal year 2015, and each fiscal year thereafter,
$2,000,000,000.

(c) USE OF FUND.—

and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. - 11), as amended by section 5009 of the 

SEC. 5009. AMENDMENT TO THE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.
Section 4002(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (42 U.S.C. 300u–11(b)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘$1,250,000,000’’ ($1,000,000,000) and
inserting ‘‘$900,000,000’’;
(2) in paragraph (4) , by striking ‘‘$1,500,000,000’’ ($1,250,000,000 and
inserting ‘‘$1,000,000,000’’; and
(3) by striking paragraph (5) and inserting the following:
‘‘(5) for fiscal year 2022, $1,500,000,000;
‘‘(6) for fiscal year 2023, $1,000,000,000;
‘‘(7) for fiscal year 2024, $1,700,000,000; and
‘‘(8) for fiscal year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter,

$2,000,000,000.’’...

I believe paragraph 6 from the ACA is removed with the above amounts taking
it's place.

21st Century Cures Act, is amended 

(1) in paragraph 2 by adding "add" at the end

Paragraph 2 of The 21st Century Cures Act already has "and" at the end.

(2) in paragraph 3 

    (A) by striking each of the fiscal years 2018 and 2019 and inserting 2018

          and

The 21st Century Cures Act does not have any fiscal years listed. The ACA has 

fiscal years listed. The fiscal year of paragraph 3 of the ACA reads: 

(3) for fiscal year 2012, $1,000,000,000;

I am looking at both these documents, the ACA and The 21st Century Cures Act

and they do not read as the American Health Care Act states. The Republican

document has inaccuracies in it. It is flawed.

FOX News doesn't have an illegal document on their website, does it? (click here)
It is not Fake News, is it?

    (B) By striking the semicolon at the end and inserting a period; and 

(3) by striking paragraphs (4) through (8)

I  have to assume what is meant is that the fiscal year 2019 as mentioned in 
The American Health Care Act will end with the funding in 2018 with a
period at the end. Then removing paragraphs 3 through 8 of The 21st Century
Cures Act. Four through eight of the ACA deals with far earlier years.

The American Health Care Act is highly flawed in it's verbiage.

    (b) RESCISSION OF UNOBLIGATED FUNDS - Of the funds made available
         by such section 4002, the unobligated balance at the end of fiscal year
         2018 is rescinded.

Section 4002 refers to the ACA and some funding through 2018 which is unclear 
from the ACA law at this point as referred to in the American Health Care Act
will end any further funding of the ACA.

Okay, so the funding is suppose to stop, I suppose at the end of the fiscal year
2018. Fine. What happens to the taxes that pay for that funding are they 
rescinded too? OR. Are the Republicans maintaining the tax structure in the ACA 
to pay for their budgets?

continued in next entry...

I think Trump is absolutely correct, this needs to be a 2018 issue!

March 8, 2017

By Jim Acosta

Washington (CNN) - In an Oval Office meeting (click here) featuring several leaders of conservative groups already lining up against the House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Donald Trump revealed his plan in the event the GOP effort fails: Allow Obamcare to fail and let Democrats take the blame, sources at the gathering told CNN.

During the hour-long meeting, sources said Trump chastised the groups -- including Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots -- for calling the House GOP proposal "Obamacare lite," warning the tea party activists, "you are helping the other side."

In true Trump fashion, the President jumped into salesman mode, sources at the meeting said.

"This is going to be great. You're going to make it even greater," the President told the group. "I'm going to work hard to get it done."

The meeting between Trump and the conservative leaders also included White House senior advisers Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway and Marc Short, as well as other top West Wing staff.

Sources at the meeting said White House aides showed some openness to one aspect of the House GOP plan that has become an irritant to tea party aligned groups: the provision that pushes back an overhaul of the expansion Obamacare Medicaid funding until 2020.

The conservative groups at the meeting asked that the date be moved up to January 1, 2018. White House aides said they were "open to discussing" it, sources said...

Bloomberg says the China deficit is nothing to worry about. Really?

I don't think this is about trade tariffs either. China is working to correct it's climate record. Importing is a way of transitioning during the change in China's infrastructure.

It was a 40 percent surge in imports. That is not a minor surge. Additionally, one has to look at the imports such as pork from their purchase of "Smithfield Farms." China may own Smithfield, but, it is still imports.

China is changing and not in minor ways. I would be surprised if March does not show a significant import market in China as well.

June 2013
By Dominic Barton

The explosive growth of China’s emerging middle class (click here) has brought sweeping economic change and social transformation—and it’s not over yet. By 2022, our research suggests, more than 75 percent of China’s urban consumers will earn 60,000 to 229,000 renminbi ($9,000 to $34,000) a year....

I find it a little disheartening and flat out wrong that a more detailed analysis of the imports does not appear in any financial paper. China is suppose to be a guarantee in stability. That is nonsense.

China's economy is highly dynamic with a burgeoning income demographic that is new, exciting and good for the country. Better incomes for the Chinese means they want choices. Those choices can come in the form of imports.

China is becoming a country where human rights violations do not dominate the criticism of the leadership. We have waited for this for China and to ignore the particular facts and analysis of the choices made by the Chinese people is simply an insult.

They are people, not simply exploited workers that The West can take advantage of. The financial markets need to grow up, they don't have control and that is good for the people of any country. China is not catering to Wall Street, it is growing a better country and Wall Street is lost in the fog.

March 7, 2017

China’s imports surged in February (click here) from a year earlier with the nation posting a rare trade deficit as exports slipped. Analysts said seasonal factors mostly explain the swings.

Key Points

- Imports soared 38.1 percent in U.S. dollar terms, almost double economist projections

- Exports dropped 1.3 percent versus estimated 14 percent increase in Bloomberg survey.

- Trade deficit was $9.15 billion, the first negative reading in three years. That compared with projections for a $27 billion surplus

Big Picture

Economists said the results were skewed by the week-long Lunar New Year holidays that shutter factories and ports across the nation. The holiday occurred in February 2016 versus late January this year, distorting base year comparisons. Taking January and February data together, the imports figures suggest resilient domestic demand while exports are getting a boost from an improving global outlook....

Typical FOX News. They have no facts, they have no morality, they have no real purpose but to pump out propaganda.

So, when FOX News shortcomings are pointed out to them, they revert to personal attacks. Personal attacks accomplish nothing, EXCEPT, it promotes Hannity and FOX News as a hate filled bullies with no real journalist basis to his ranting. 

FOX News the channel for "Fake News."

Ratings. That is all that matters to FOX News. Not content or class or dignity. Simply put out a product that has "Truthiness" and anyone can harness the public. Rating is NOT content. Ratings at FOX News is how well they bowl over the public with a message that more judgmental than truth.

March 8, 2017
By Brian Flood

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” has beef with Fox News. (click here)

On Tuesday’s edition of Fox’s “Outnumbered,” the panel mocked “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski’s for emotionally speaking out against actions taken by President Trump, calling her a “commentator,” not a “journalist.”

“Nothing sexist there,” Brzezinski’s male co-host Joe Scarborough sarcastically noted on Wednesday morning’s show, which just so happened to fall on International Women’s Day.

Brzezinski went on to describe “Outnumbered” as a program where “all these people with long legs and short skirts talk about how people feel about the news.”

Scarborough continued: “They had like 30 women or something and like one guy in the middle and its called ‘Outnumbered.’ Yesterday it was poor Eric Bolling and he was wonderful.”...

Hey, Comey, Osama bin Laden is dead! Get rid of the Patriot Act and send the FBI back to work in the field.

In April 2003, the FBI Laboratory moved into its first standalone facility. The building, located on the campus of the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia, tripled the Lab’s workspace and included new state-of-the-art technologies and equipment.

What do you need next, Comey? Another half trillion $ US? Will that give you the dreamscape of computer capacity to detect terrorists in the next moon base?

March 8, 2017
By Adam Vaccaro 

FBI Director James Comey, (click here) speaking at Boston College Wednesday morning, said widespread digital encryption of devices and apps has made the FBI’s work more difficult.

“In October, November, and December, the FBI received to our examiners 2,800 devices for which we had lawful authority to open,” he said. “Twelve-hundred of those devices, so about 43 percent, we could not open with any technique.”

Speaking at BC’s cybersecurity conference, Comey said encryption used to be utilized by “the sophisticated actor.” Now, he said, it is used by drug dealers and other lower-end criminals.

Comey said he was not calling for weaker encryption, and that “strong encryption is a great thing” for cyber security efforts. But should Americans have an expectation of total privacy through encryption? That still needs to be answered, he said....

That still needs to be answered? Here is the answer, get out from behind the desk and work for a living.

The FBI has some of the worst attacks on citizens on record and how does Comey get a pass to dead Americans? He had no clue about the 2014 Isla Vista killing, 2015 San Bernardino killing and the 2016 Orlando killings. This wasn't even a near miss as with Zacarias Moussaoui, these deaths resulted because of complete FBI failure.

THAT IS YOU COMEY!

There is scant water vapor at the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

March 8, 2017
2130.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)

Water vapor has been in the Arctic Circle over the past month. Earth has distinct patterns in it's physics. Minor and occasional movements of its physics shows up and then it grows into a permanent change. Then the change becomes enormous and overwhelming and very damaging. if the sequestering of water vapor at the Arctic Circle continues beyond a seasonal trend as this has been we are looking at a drying planet.

The United Nations determination of 2 degrees centigrade is accurate and every country in the world needs to pay attention and put their best effort forth to eliminate CO2 emissions. 

While some folks feel blessed by god because they beat the odds, Midwest farmers DON'T!

Nothing like complete devastation from an inferno completed by tornadoes.

This is March and the USA is experiencing tornado outbreaks. This is not normal, nor has it been. If the summer of 2017 is as hot as I expect it to be, there may not be crops harvested at all in the USA.

March 7, 2017
By Margaret Stafford

Mark and Jennifer Swartz (click here) moved into their first home in November. On Tuesday, only a section of floor was left of their three-bedroom, two-bath house in Oak Grove, Missouri, after a storm system that dropped more than 30 tornadoes across the Midwest tore it apart.

"It's all we got left, just a slab," Swartz said as he surveyed the damage to his home in the town about 25 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri. "Right now, I'm in total shock. We're blown away, figuratively and literally."

Despite the destruction, Swartz said he and his wife felt blessed by God because they were eating dinner at a restaurant Monday night when the storm hit. Their home had no basement, so they would have had nowhere to hide.

"If we'd been here, we'd be dead," he said, adding, "We'll try to pick up the pieces and move on."

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said dozens of tornadoes struck overnight in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. The National Weather Service was assessing the exact number and strength of twisters Tuesday. The same storm system brought huge hailstones and powerful winds as far south as the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and as far north as Wisconsin....

Small farmers may prove invaluable this year as they can manage to protect crops and their outcomes better than larger operations. Local economies should prepare for the possibilities of seasonal food shortages. The produce farmers may prove to be the best outcome for crops. As a rule the growing season for produce is shorter than grain crops. The plants tend to repeat their success in production of vegetables. The produce crops can also be maintained in greenhouses as well.

Svalbard global seed bank is a vital resource, but, if the weather doesn't permit growth of crops, seeds aren't going to valuable at all.

March 7, 2017
By Thomas Geyer

Twisted steel and rubble are all that is left of one of the silos on Jeff Dietz's farm on Wisconsin Avenue in Davenport. Two other silos along with a large cattle shed and utility shed were damaged beyond repair by Monday night's tornadoes.

As storms rolled (click here) through the area and tornadoes danced along the ground Monday night, Jeff Dietz knew something bad was afoot.

“It got real quiet,” said Dietz, 57, who has lived in the same farmhouse at 6535 Wisconsin Avenue in Davenport for 52 years. While he has not farmed the land since his last crop in 2001, he maintained the four silos, a large cattle shed and a large utility shed on the property.

When it got quiet, Dietz said Tuesday as he and friends picked up the debris about his place, “I knew this wasn’t going to be good.”

Dietz said he took a look out a window and saw the sheet metal siding on the cattle barn and shed being blown away.

Another peek out the window and he could tell he’d lost one silo completely while two others lost about 30 feet from their tops. Only the silo with the flat roof survived unscathed.

Kansas winter wheat are planted the year before the expected harvest. This is an example of research conducted to help Kansas farmers with crop yields.

...Date of seeding (click here) greatly affects development of tillers in winter wheat, the source of as much 

Table 1. Winter wheat seeding dates and yields at North Platte.
Seeding date	Yield (bu/ac)
Sept. 2	2
Sept. 15	27
Sept. 25	42

as 70% of the grain yield in a normal year. Seeding during the optimum period enables wheat to form sufficient but not excessive tillers. Early seeding results in too many fall tillers, which may compete with each other, become diseased, and deplete soil moisture so that grain yields are low. Late seeding gives plants little time to develop tillers, resulting in an inadequate numbers of spikes (heads) for high yields the following spring....

Yes, the Kansas winter wheat crop is already in the ground.

The winter wheat crop is emerging in Kansas.

Yes, an inferno has just rolled through Kansas with it's winter wheat crop already seeded. The farmers are going to lose their first crop this season and will be facing fiscal decisions NOW!

The last fews days have been interesting.

March 7, 2017
1230.18z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here)

The intertropical 
convergence zone is attempting to repopulate over South America. The ITCZ has been absent from it's equatorial physics for at least the past month.

March 8, 2017
by Jeremy White and Henry Fountain

After a mild winter across (click here) much of the United States, February brought abnormally high temperatures, especially east of the Rockies. Spring weather arrived more than three weeks earlier than usual in some places, and new research released Wednesday shows a strong link to climate change...

The northern troposphere has become completely bizarre. This satellite below shows the power of the climate crisis. The ITCZ is completely absent of water vapor and the two vortexes in the Pacific off the west coast of North America has soaked up that water vapor.

March 2, 2017
1930.20z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here for current 12 hour loop - thank you)

The State of Kansas has become an inferno. It is because of the winds of a vortex that has taken residence in the center of the USA.

Flames and smoke (click here) envelope a grain elevator in Sitka, Kan., early Tuesday, March 7, 2017. Grass fires fanned by gusting winds scorched swaths of Kansas grassland Monday, forcing the evacuations of several towns and the closure of some roads. 

The Latest on wildfires burning in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

Three young friends, (click here) including a couple, were overcome as they tried to steer cattle away from the flames of a wildfire in the Texas Panhandle.

Gray County Judge Richard Peet said Wednesday it appears 20-year-old Cody Crockett was on horseback and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Sydney Wallace, was nearby on foot as fire and smoke swirled around them in Gray County.

Peet says Wallace may have tried to run at the last moment Monday evening but she couldn't escape the smoke. He says she died of smoke inhalation.

Crockett suffered burns, as did 35-year-old Sloan Everett who also was on horseback. The bodies of all three were found close to one another.

A fourth person who died in the Texas Panhandle — 25-year-old Cade Koch (cook) — was attempting to drive home Monday night when smoke from a separate fire enveloped him....

Large Incident Fire Maps (click here)
March 08, 2017

A surreal scene of a glowing tree covered in ash and cools after fire swept through. Firefighters from across Kansas and Oklahoma battle a major wildfire near Protection, Kansas, Monday night and early Tuesday morning. The fire driven by winds gusting up to 50 mph threatened the towns of Protection and Ashland. There were reports of numerous structures lost in the fire. (March 7, 2017) Bo Rader The Wichita Eagle

March 7, 2017
By Bryan Horwath, Michael Pearce, Oliver Morrison, Suzanne Perez Tobias and Time Potter

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=cpy

...Fire burned more than 400,000 acres in 21 counties in Kansas. (click here) By late Tuesday, a half-dozen counties were still burning.

“We’re not out of the woods, by any means,” Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve got to stay on top of this.”

Virtually all of Kansas was under a red flag warning on Tuesday. Fire risk is expected to continue through Thursday. Brownback urged residents to avoid roads near the fires, for their own safety.

“This is just too dynamic of a situation that we’re in now,” Brownback said.

An Oklahoma truck driver died after he was overcome by smoke in southern Kansas on Monday night. Another seven people have been injured in fire-related incidents, state officials said, though none of the injuries have been serious....

WS: 2 tornadoes hit Minn., earliest on record (click here)
March 7, 2017
AP and Dana Thiede, KARE

Grand Forks, Minn.  - The National Weather Service (click here) has confirmed that two rare March tornadoes are the earliest to ever strike Minnesota.

Forecasters say the tornado that damaged buildings and took down trees and power lines near Zimmerman Monday evening was the earliest twister recorded in Minnesota. Previously, the earliest tornado ever reported in Minnesota happened on March 18, 1968 in Truman.

Zimmerman is about 35 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Preliminary survey results indicate it was an EF-1 tornado with peak winds estimated at 107 mph that traveled nearly nine miles....

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=c