WICHITA, KAN. – A man has been sentenced in connection with the sexual abuse of two little girls.

According to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office, Judge Bruce Brown sentenced Anthony Raya, 63 of Wichita, to life in prison after Raya admitted his contact with the children under the age of 10. 

On December 23, Raya pled guilty to two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

During sentencing last Friday, Judge Brown sentenced Raya to two life sentences. He will be eligible for parole in 25 years.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675697932064.png" alt="Raya-photo KBI offender registry" />
 <figcaption>Raya-photo KBI offender registry</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, KAN. – A man has been sentenced in connection with the sexual abuse of two little girls.According to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office, Judge Bruce Brown sentenced Anthony Raya, 63 of Wichita, to life in prison after Raya admitted his contact with the children under the age of 10. On December 23, Raya pled guilty to two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.During sentencing last Friday, Judge Brown sentenced Raya to two life sentences. He will be eligible for parole in 25 years.

Kansas man sentenced for sex abuse of two small children

GEARY COUNTY —A Kansas woman accused of abducting her three children turned herself in on Monday.

Just after 1p .m. Monday, 29-year-old Jeana Foley turned herself in to the Junction City Police Department, according to a media release.

Police took her into custody on her felony warrant on requested charges that include 3 Counts of Aggravated Interference with Parental Custody. All 3 children, Rosie, Camden, and Genevive, were recovered by Junction City Police Department Officers safe and unharmed.

Foley is currently being held at the Geary County Detention Facility.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1673546045642.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>GEARY COUNTY —A Kansas woman accused of abducting her three children turned herself in on Monday.Just after 1p .m. Monday, 29-year-old Jeana Foley turned herself in to the Junction City Police Department, according to a media release.Police took her into custody on her felony warrant on requested charges that include 3 Counts of Aggravated Interference with Parental Custody. All 3 children, Rosie, Camden, and Genevive, were recovered by Junction City Police Department Officers safe and unharmed.Foley is currently being held at the Geary County Detention Facility.&nbsp;

Kan. woman accused of abducting her 3 children turns herself in

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he will not grant clemency and halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who faces lethal injection for the deaths his girlfriend and her three children.

Taylor, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

“Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome quadruple homicide remain," Parson, a Republican, said in a statement. "The State of Missouri will carry out Taylor’s sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice for the four innocent lives he stole.”

Parson's decision came despite a letter from Derrick Johnson, president of the national NAACP, asking Parson to grant a stay of execution. Johnson wrote that “evidence presented at trial does not support Mr. Taylor's conviction.”

Separately, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to reconsider his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-state-government-california-st-louis-crime-f527565eb092ff8f1df97db3f216c37c">decision not to ask a judge for a new hearing</a>&nbsp;on Taylor's claim that he was not even in Missouri when the killings occurred.

The letter said Bell has a “clear opportunity here to free an innocent Black man whose case was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, police coercion and brutality, and ineffective assistance of counsel.”

But Bell said in a statement Monday that although his office would not have sought the death penalty, “we believe the jury got the verdict right" in finding Taylor guilty, and that he wouldn't seek a new hearing.

Meanwhile, former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, whose office prosecuted the 2004 case, told The Associated Press that Taylor's claims of innocence are “nonsense," and that the evidence against him is overwhelming.

Taylor himself called into the church service Sunday at Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. He thanked those who support him.

“Please continue to let God use you, to work through you, as a vessel because time is one of my most valuable commodities and we only have a small amount of that time, and none of it can be replaced,” Taylor told the congregation as the Rev. Darryl Gray held the cellphone to the microphone.

Taylor, who previously went by the first name Leonard, shared a house in the St. Louis suburb of Jennings with Angela Rowe and her children — 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley. Taylor boarded a flight to California on Nov. 26, 2004.

On Dec. 3, 2004, police were sent to the home after worried relatives said they hadn’t heard from Rowe. Officers found the bodies of Rowe and her children. All four had been shot.

Authorities first believed the killings happened only a few days before the bodies were discovered, at the time when Taylor was in California. But at Taylor’s trial, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the bodies were discovered.

Kent Gipson, one of Taylor's attorneys, said several people, including relatives of Rowe and a neighbor, saw Rowe alive in the days after Taylor left St. Louis. Meanwhile, Taylor’s daughter in California, Deja Taylor, claimed in a court filing that she and her father spoke by phone with Angela Rowe and one of the children during his visit. The court filing said Deja Taylor’s mother and sister corroborated her story.

McCulloch said those alibis provided by Taylor's daughter and her relatives were “completely made up.”

McCulloch said evidence suggested that Rowe and the kids were killed on the night of Nov. 22 or on Nov. 23, 2004, when Taylor was still in St. Louis County. He noted that Rowe typically made around 70 outgoing calls or texts each day. Starting Nov. 23, she made none.

Meanwhile, DNA from Rowe’s blood was found on Taylor’s glasses when he was arrested, and a relative taking him to the airport saw Taylor toss a gun into the sewer, McCulloch said. Authorities believe Taylor shot Rowe during a violent argument, then killed the children because they were witnesses.

The execution would be the third in Missouri in three months, following those of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-state-government-missouri-legal-proceedings-religion-dbc253bef85af688a63a42a836e00028">Kevin Johnson and Amber McLaughlin.</a>&nbsp;Johnson was executed Nov. 29 for killing a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. McLaughlin was executed Jan. 3 for fatally stabbing a woman in St. Louis County.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The president of the national NAACP is urging Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for the deaths of his girlfriend and her three children.

“There are many reasons to spare Mr. Taylor’s life, but they all come down to one: the State of Missouri has the life of a man in its hands, and, in this life and death decision, lies the weight of moral responsibility,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote to the Republican governor. “The evidence presented at trial does not support Mr. Taylor’s conviction.”

Bell said in his Jan. 30 decision that the “facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.” Meanwhile, former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, whose office prosecuted the 2004 case, told The Associated Press that Taylor's claims of innocence are “nonsense," and that the evidence against him was overwhelming.

Spokespeople for Parson and Bell both said they'll have updates later Monday.

Taylor, 58, who previously went by the first name Leonard, shared a house in the St. Louis suburb of Jennings with Angela Rowe and her children — 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley. Taylor boarded a flight to California on Nov. 26, 2004.

The execution would be the third in Missouri in three months, following those of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-state-government-missouri-legal-proceedings-religion-dbc253bef85af688a63a42a836e00028">Kevin Johnson and Amber McLaughlin.</a>&nbsp;Johnson was executed Nov. 29 for killing a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. McLaughlin was executed Jan. 3 for fatally stabbing a woman in St. Louis County

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1673437071153.png" alt="Leonard Taylor, 58, is scheduled to die by injection Feb. 7 for the 2004 killings of Angela Rowe, 28, along with her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley.-photo MODOC" />
 <figcaption>Leonard Taylor, 58, is scheduled to die by injection Feb. 7 for the 2004 killings of Angela Rowe, 28, along with her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley.-photo MODOC</figcaption>
 </figure>ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he will not grant clemency and halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who faces lethal injection for the deaths his girlfriend and her three children.Taylor, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre.“Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome quadruple homicide remain," Parson, a Republican, said in a statement. "The State of Missouri will carry out Taylor’s sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice for the four innocent lives he stole.”Parson's decision came despite a letter from Derrick Johnson, president of the national NAACP, asking Parson to grant a stay of execution. Johnson wrote that “evidence presented at trial does not support Mr. Taylor's conviction.”Separately, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to reconsider his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-state-government-california-st-louis-crime-f527565eb092ff8f1df97db3f216c37c">decision not to ask a judge for a new hearing</a>&nbsp;on Taylor's claim that he was not even in Missouri when the killings occurred.The letter said Bell has a “clear opportunity here to free an innocent Black man whose case was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, police coercion and brutality, and ineffective assistance of counsel.”But Bell said in a statement Monday that although his office would not have sought the death penalty, “we believe the jury got the verdict right" in finding Taylor guilty, and that he wouldn't seek a new hearing.Meanwhile, former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, whose office prosecuted the 2004 case, told The Associated Press that Taylor's claims of innocence are “nonsense," and that the evidence against him is overwhelming.Taylor himself called into the church service Sunday at Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. He thanked those who support him.“Please continue to let God use you, to work through you, as a vessel because time is one of my most valuable commodities and we only have a small amount of that time, and none of it can be replaced,” Taylor told the congregation as the Rev. Darryl Gray held the cellphone to the microphone.Taylor, who previously went by the first name Leonard, shared a house in the St. Louis suburb of Jennings with Angela Rowe and her children — 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley. Taylor boarded a flight to California on Nov. 26, 2004.On Dec. 3, 2004, police were sent to the home after worried relatives said they hadn’t heard from Rowe. Officers found the bodies of Rowe and her children. All four had been shot.Authorities first believed the killings happened only a few days before the bodies were discovered, at the time when Taylor was in California. But at Taylor’s trial, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the bodies were discovered.Kent Gipson, one of Taylor's attorneys, said several people, including relatives of Rowe and a neighbor, saw Rowe alive in the days after Taylor left St. Louis. Meanwhile, Taylor’s daughter in California, Deja Taylor, claimed in a court filing that she and her father spoke by phone with Angela Rowe and one of the children during his visit. The court filing said Deja Taylor’s mother and sister corroborated her story.McCulloch said those alibis provided by Taylor's daughter and her relatives were “completely made up.”McCulloch said evidence suggested that Rowe and the kids were killed on the night of Nov. 22 or on Nov. 23, 2004, when Taylor was still in St. Louis County. He noted that Rowe typically made around 70 outgoing calls or texts each day. Starting Nov. 23, she made none.Meanwhile, DNA from Rowe’s blood was found on Taylor’s glasses when he was arrested, and a relative taking him to the airport saw Taylor toss a gun into the sewer, McCulloch said. Authorities believe Taylor shot Rowe during a violent argument, then killed the children because they were witnesses.The execution would be the third in Missouri in three months, following those of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-state-government-missouri-legal-proceedings-religion-dbc253bef85af688a63a42a836e00028">Kevin Johnson and Amber McLaughlin.</a>&nbsp;Johnson was executed Nov. 29 for killing a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. McLaughlin was executed Jan. 3 for fatally stabbing a woman in St. Louis County.------------ST. LOUIS (AP) — The president of the national NAACP is urging Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for the deaths of his girlfriend and her three children.“There are many reasons to spare Mr. Taylor’s life, but they all come down to one: the State of Missouri has the life of a man in its hands, and, in this life and death decision, lies the weight of moral responsibility,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote to the Republican governor. “The evidence presented at trial does not support Mr. Taylor’s conviction.”Separately, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to reconsider his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-state-government-california-st-louis-crime-f527565eb092ff8f1df97db3f216c37c">decision not to ask a judge for a new hearing</a>&nbsp;on Taylor's claim that he was not even in Missouri when the killings occurred.The letter said Bell has a “clear opportunity here to free an innocent Black man whose case was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, police coercion and brutality, and ineffective assistance of counsel.”Bell said in his Jan. 30 decision that the “facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.” Meanwhile, former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, whose office prosecuted the 2004 case, told The Associated Press that Taylor's claims of innocence are “nonsense," and that the evidence against him was overwhelming.Spokespeople for Parson and Bell both said they'll have updates later Monday.Taylor himself called into the church service Sunday at Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. He thanked those who support him.“Please continue to let God use you, to work through you, as a vessel because time is one of my most valuable commodities and we only have a small amount of that time, and none of it can be replaced,” Taylor told the congregation as the Rev. Darryl Gray held the cellphone to the microphone.Taylor, 58, who previously went by the first name Leonard, shared a house in the St. Louis suburb of Jennings with Angela Rowe and her children — 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley. Taylor boarded a flight to California on Nov. 26, 2004.On Dec. 3, 2004, police were sent to the home after worried relatives said they hadn’t heard from Rowe. Officers found the bodies of Rowe and her children. All four had been shot.Authorities first believed the killings happened only a few days before the bodies were discovered, at the time when Taylor was in California. But at Taylor’s trial, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the bodies were discovered.Kent Gipson, one of Taylor's attorneys, said several people, including relatives of Rowe and a neighbor, saw Rowe alive in the days after Taylor left St. Louis. Meanwhile, Taylor’s daughter in California, Deja Taylor, claimed in a court filing that she and her father spoke by phone with Angela Rowe and one of the children during his visit. The court filing said Deja Taylor’s mother and sister corroborated her story.McCulloch said those alibis provided by Taylor's daughter and her relatives were “completely made up.”McCulloch said evidence suggested that Rowe and the kids were killed on the night of Nov. 22 or on Nov. 23, 2004, when Taylor was still in St. Louis County. He noted that Rowe typically made around 70 outgoing calls or texts each day. Starting Nov. 23, she made none.Meanwhile, DNA from Rowe’s blood was found on Taylor’s glasses when he was arrested, and a relative taking him to the airport saw Taylor toss a gun into the sewer, McCulloch said. Authorities believe Taylor shot Rowe during a violent argument, then killed the children because they were witnesses.The execution would be the third in Missouri in three months, following those of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-state-government-missouri-legal-proceedings-religion-dbc253bef85af688a63a42a836e00028">Kevin Johnson and Amber McLaughlin.</a>&nbsp;Johnson was executed Nov. 29 for killing a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. McLaughlin was executed Jan. 3 for fatally stabbing a woman in St. Louis County

Gov. denies clemency; execution Tues. for killer of girlfriend, 3 kids

By RACHEL MIPRO <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/05/educators-say-attacking-kansas-teachers-is-gop-strategy-to-push-private-schools/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA
 — Buhler teacher Sam Neill worked late into the night Sunday, Jan. 29, 
networking with fellow teachers to sculpt a testimony that would 
adequately describe the issues educators are facing statewide.

After making the two and half hour 
drive into Topeka to give lawmakers her opinion on educational issues in
 the state on Monday, she was told by a lawmaker that people like her 
were the reason no one wanted to become teachers.

“It really took me off guard,” Neill 
said during an interview. “I was not expecting to have that kind of a 
response at the end of a very long day. I was asked to come up and share
 reasons why teachers are leaving the profession, and that’s what I did.
 And just because some of those reasons are not what wants to be heard, 
we can’t assume that that means they’re invalid.”

Neill has been teaching for 20 years. She was the 2018 Kansas Teacher of the Year and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usd313.org/article/483208">a 2021 Lowell Milken Center fellow</a>, a prestigious national honor.

During the Monday House K-12 
Education Budget Committee hearing, Neill asked lawmakers to support 
teachers by implementing better pay, giving teachers more of a voice in 
public education policy, and fully funding schools.

She also asked lawmakers to stop using harmful rhetoric, such as the “sexualized woke agenda,” and promoting false ideas.

“Here are some of the words that we 
hear every day as educators: Groomers, indoctrinators, indoctrination 
camps, agenda pushers, radicals, leftists, socialist, communist, 
government schools,” Neill said during the committee hearing. “None of 
them are positive. They all have negative connotations. There’s also a 
false narrative that we supply kitty litter boxes for students, one that
 representatives in this House have shared and never retracted. Recent 
reference to a sexualized woke agenda that is supposedly being taught in
 our classrooms was made.”

Rep. Joe Seiwert, R-Pretty Prairie, made the false claim during <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/HutchChamber/videos/706196440791728">a March 5, 2022, legislative forum</a> in Hutchinson that teachers were advised by mental health professionals to put litter boxes in school bathrooms.

“The mental health people are telling
 them to go ahead and put sandboxes in the restroom for these kids, 
encouraging them to express themselves,” Seiwert said.

Politicians have claimed public schools are providing litter boxes 
for children who identify as cats, despite a lack of evidence of 
this.&nbsp;Some politicians have used the claim as an argument against LGBTQ 
student accommodations, saying allowing people to express their 
identities could lead to this sort of scenario.

Nationwide, false claims about schools accommodating students who 
identify as “furries” have been routinely debunked, and the stories are 
viewed as <a target="_blank" href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/02/14/silly-school-litter-box-rumors-front-a-darker-agenda/">an attack on the LGBTQ community</a>.

Republicans in the House and Senate have made fighting the <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/10/kansas-gop-rails-against-woke-agenda-will-work-toward-stricter-abortion-rules/">“sexualized woke agenda”</a>
 a legislative priority this session, with a common sentiment that 
Kansas students are struggling with mental health as a result of being 
taught an unnecessary and radical curriculum.

Republicans also promoted the idea of
 parental rights, trying to pass legislation that would give parents 
authority over what is being taught in schools. Several lawmakers, 
including Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who serves as the 
K-12 Education Budget Committee’s vice chairwoman, have criticized 
public schools, saying kids were graduating without the ability to 
properly read and write.

Landwehr said the negativity of teachers like Neill discourages others from joining the profession.

“I find it ironic that the very 
people that come up here and say that they’re the advocates for our 
education and our teachers are actually the ones that’s doing the 
fearmongering, and it’s making people not want to become teachers,” 
Landwehr said.

Landwehr said educators who testified
 before the committee were stirring up trouble for personal gain, 
including people like Neill, who testified against expansion of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/26/holy-tax-scams-kansas-lawmakers-fight-over-plan-to-fund-private-schools-with-tax-write-offs/">a private school tax credit program</a> in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/hb2048/">House Bill 2048</a>.

“All those people want is more money,” Landwehr said. “And to protect a system.”

Program critics say the bill would 
incentivize the privatization of Kansas education, ultimately taking 
funds away from Kansas public schools. Under the program, organizations 
and taxpayers currently can write off 70% of scholarships they provide 
to private schools, with a maximum allowable credit of $500,000 per 
year. HB2048 would expand student eligibility for the program and allow a
 100% tax write-off.

A hearing for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/hb2218_00_0000.pdf">House Bill 2218</a>,
 which would establish a full-blown private school voucher program, is 
scheduled for Monday in the House. The Senate Education Committee will 
have a Tuesday hearing on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/sb83_00_0000.pdf">Senate Bill 83</a>, which would
 expand student eligibility for the tax credit scholarship program and 
increase tax credit reimbursement for program contributions.

Marcus Baltzell, director of 
communications for the Kansas National Education Association, said he 
was concerned about lawmakers’ attitudes toward teachers.

“When a former teacher of the year, a
 Milken fellow, gets up to give testimony about what’s going on in terms
 of teacher recruitment and retention or what’s going on in a classroom,
 and that person is vilified openly, or ridiculed or denigrated, that 
tells you everything about where their attitude is on teachers,” 
Baltzell said.

Baltzell said he believes rhetoric 
vilifying teachers and programs like the tax credit program are meant to
 reduce parents’ confidence in public schools and push students into 
private education.

“Their game is to weaken public 
schools, to make incentives around people leaving public schools. And 
then to point to the schools and say, ‘See, you’re failing,’ ” Baltzell 
said.

Neill said she was concerned about 
the public vs. private school narrative and distrust promoted by 
lawmakers, saying people looked to the Legislature for guidance.

Between poor pay, long hours and 
increasing hostility toward teachers, Neill said some days were a 
struggle for her. She also mentioned feeling unsafe, referencing the 
time Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/11/07/teacher-alarmed-by-kansas-house-republican-taking-photos-of-her-house/">took pictures of her house last year</a> and refused to tell her why.

“On some days I feel like I’m a 
violinist going down on the Titanic,” Neill said to lawmakers during the
 hearing. “I’ll be honest. I’m playing that violin and trying to bring a
 sense of direction and a sense of calm and purpose to my students.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675700537623.png" alt="Rep. Brenda Landwehr scolded a high school teacher during an Monday education committee hearing, saying public school educators were protecting a system instead of children. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Rep. Brenda Landwehr scolded a high school teacher during an Monday education committee hearing, saying public school educators were protecting a system instead of children. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By RACHEL MIPRO <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/05/educators-say-attacking-kansas-teachers-is-gop-strategy-to-push-private-schools/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA
 — Buhler teacher Sam Neill worked late into the night Sunday, Jan. 29, 
networking with fellow teachers to sculpt a testimony that would 
adequately describe the issues educators are facing statewide.After making the two and half hour 
drive into Topeka to give lawmakers her opinion on educational issues in
 the state on Monday, she was told by a lawmaker that people like her 
were the reason no one wanted to become teachers.“It really took me off guard,” Neill 
said during an interview. “I was not expecting to have that kind of a 
response at the end of a very long day. I was asked to come up and share
 reasons why teachers are leaving the profession, and that’s what I did.
 And just because some of those reasons are not what wants to be heard, 
we can’t assume that that means they’re invalid.”Neill has been teaching for 20 years. She was the 2018 Kansas Teacher of the Year and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usd313.org/article/483208">a 2021 Lowell Milken Center fellow</a>, a prestigious national honor.During the Monday House K-12 
Education Budget Committee hearing, Neill asked lawmakers to support 
teachers by implementing better pay, giving teachers more of a voice in 
public education policy, and fully funding schools.She also asked lawmakers to stop using harmful rhetoric, such as the “sexualized woke agenda,” and promoting false ideas.“Here are some of the words that we 
hear every day as educators: Groomers, indoctrinators, indoctrination 
camps, agenda pushers, radicals, leftists, socialist, communist, 
government schools,” Neill said during the committee hearing. “None of 
them are positive. They all have negative connotations. There’s also a 
false narrative that we supply kitty litter boxes for students, one that
 representatives in this House have shared and never retracted. Recent 
reference to a sexualized woke agenda that is supposedly being taught in
 our classrooms was made.”Rep. Joe Seiwert, R-Pretty Prairie, made the false claim during <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/HutchChamber/videos/706196440791728">a March 5, 2022, legislative forum</a> in Hutchinson that teachers were advised by mental health professionals to put litter boxes in school bathrooms.“The mental health people are telling
 them to go ahead and put sandboxes in the restroom for these kids, 
encouraging them to express themselves,” Seiwert said.Politicians have claimed public schools are providing litter boxes 
for children who identify as cats, despite a lack of evidence of 
this.&nbsp;Some politicians have used the claim as an argument against LGBTQ 
student accommodations, saying allowing people to express their 
identities could lead to this sort of scenario.Nationwide, false claims about schools accommodating students who 
identify as “furries” have been routinely debunked, and the stories are 
viewed as <a target="_blank" href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/02/14/silly-school-litter-box-rumors-front-a-darker-agenda/">an attack on the LGBTQ community</a>.Republicans in the House and Senate have made fighting the <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/10/kansas-gop-rails-against-woke-agenda-will-work-toward-stricter-abortion-rules/">“sexualized woke agenda”</a>
 a legislative priority this session, with a common sentiment that 
Kansas students are struggling with mental health as a result of being 
taught an unnecessary and radical curriculum.Republicans also promoted the idea of
 parental rights, trying to pass legislation that would give parents 
authority over what is being taught in schools. Several lawmakers, 
including Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who serves as the 
K-12 Education Budget Committee’s vice chairwoman, have criticized 
public schools, saying kids were graduating without the ability to 
properly read and write.Landwehr said the negativity of teachers like Neill discourages others from joining the profession.“I find it ironic that the very 
people that come up here and say that they’re the advocates for our 
education and our teachers are actually the ones that’s doing the 
fearmongering, and it’s making people not want to become teachers,” 
Landwehr said.Landwehr said educators who testified
 before the committee were stirring up trouble for personal gain, 
including people like Neill, who testified against expansion of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/26/holy-tax-scams-kansas-lawmakers-fight-over-plan-to-fund-private-schools-with-tax-write-offs/">a private school tax credit program</a> in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/hb2048/">House Bill 2048</a>.“All those people want is more money,” Landwehr said. “And to protect a system.”Program critics say the bill would 
incentivize the privatization of Kansas education, ultimately taking 
funds away from Kansas public schools. Under the program, organizations 
and taxpayers currently can write off 70% of scholarships they provide 
to private schools, with a maximum allowable credit of $500,000 per 
year. HB2048 would expand student eligibility for the program and allow a
 100% tax write-off.A hearing for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/hb2218_00_0000.pdf">House Bill 2218</a>,
 which would establish a full-blown private school voucher program, is 
scheduled for Monday in the House. The Senate Education Committee will 
have a Tuesday hearing on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/sb83_00_0000.pdf">Senate Bill 83</a>, which would
 expand student eligibility for the tax credit scholarship program and 
increase tax credit reimbursement for program contributions. Marcus Baltzell, director of 
communications for the Kansas National Education Association, said he 
was concerned about lawmakers’ attitudes toward teachers.“When a former teacher of the year, a
 Milken fellow, gets up to give testimony about what’s going on in terms
 of teacher recruitment and retention or what’s going on in a classroom,
 and that person is vilified openly, or ridiculed or denigrated, that 
tells you everything about where their attitude is on teachers,” 
Baltzell said.Baltzell said he believes rhetoric 
vilifying teachers and programs like the tax credit program are meant to
 reduce parents’ confidence in public schools and push students into 
private education.“Their game is to weaken public 
schools, to make incentives around people leaving public schools. And 
then to point to the schools and say, ‘See, you’re failing,’ ” Baltzell 
said.Neill said she was concerned about 
the public vs. private school narrative and distrust promoted by 
lawmakers, saying people looked to the Legislature for guidance.Between poor pay, long hours and 
increasing hostility toward teachers, Neill said some days were a 
struggle for her. She also mentioned feeling unsafe, referencing the 
time Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/11/07/teacher-alarmed-by-kansas-house-republican-taking-photos-of-her-house/">took pictures of her house last year</a> and refused to tell her why.“On some days I feel like I’m a 
violinist going down on the Titanic,” Neill said to lawmakers during the
 hearing. “I’ll be honest. I’m playing that violin and trying to bring a
 sense of direction and a sense of calm and purpose to my students.”

Kan. educators: Attacking teachers a GOP strategy to push private schools

SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas felon accused in a high speed chase and crash that killed a woman passenger made a court appearance in the case Feb. 2.

Harry Rediker, 22 of Wichita, was charged with 2nd degree murder, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, and drive while suspended or canceled, according to the Sedgwick County District attorney's office. 

Just before 5:30 a.m. Jan. 29, deputies attempted to stop a Hyundia Elantra for alleged traffic infractions on Kellogg Drive, according to Sheriff's Lt. Nathan Gibbs. The driver of the vehicle <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20054606">Harry Rediker 22,</a> Wichita,&nbsp; failed to stop and fled from deputies.

The Preliminary Investigation shows Rediker’s vehicle left the roadway at Hoover and Taft and struck a utility pole ending the pursuit.

EMS transported Rediker to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries. EMS also transported the passenger in the vehicle identified as 38-year-old Lindsey Garmon of Wellington to a local hospital with serious injuries. Gamon later died at the hospital, according to Gibbs.

Rediker being held on a $250,000 bond. His next court date is February 13, according to the district attorney's office.

Rediker has previous convictions for theft, criminal possession of a weapon and flee or attempt to elude law enforcement had had been reported as absconder on Jan. 9, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. The agency issued a warrant for his arrest on Jan. 28.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1675092662469.png" alt="Rediker has previous convictions for theft, criminal possession of a weapon and flee or attempt to elude law enforcement, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Rediker has previous convictions for theft, criminal possession of a weapon and flee or attempt to elude law enforcement, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas felon accused in a high speed chase and crash that killed a woman passenger made a court appearance in the case Feb. 2.Harry Rediker, 22 of Wichita, was charged with 2nd degree murder, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, and drive while suspended or canceled, according to the Sedgwick County District attorney's office. Just before 5:30 a.m. Jan. 29, deputies attempted to stop a Hyundia Elantra for alleged traffic infractions on Kellogg Drive, according to Sheriff's Lt. Nathan Gibbs. The driver of the vehicle <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20054606">Harry Rediker 22,</a> Wichita,&nbsp; failed to stop and fled from deputies. The Preliminary Investigation shows Rediker’s vehicle left the roadway at Hoover and Taft and struck a utility pole ending the pursuit.EMS transported Rediker to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries. EMS also transported the passenger in the vehicle identified as 38-year-old Lindsey Garmon of Wellington to a local hospital with serious injuries. Gamon later died at the hospital, according to Gibbs.Rediker being held on a $250,000 bond. His next court date is February 13, according to the district attorney's office.Rediker has previous convictions for theft, criminal possession of a weapon and flee or attempt to elude law enforcement had had been reported as absconder on Jan. 9, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. The agency issued a warrant for his arrest on Jan. 28.

Kan. felon charged with murder for chase, crash that killed woman

By CLARA BATES <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/06/still-no-timeline-for-missouri-families-awaiting-summer-2022-food-assistance/">Missouri Independent</a>

Marie Moorehead has been asking Missouri agencies the same question since last fall.

When will her family receive roughly $1,200 in one-time grocery benefits?

The benefits were part of a COVID federal relief program designed to help cover last summer’s food costs.&nbsp;

But more than five months since the summer ended, the single mother of three young children says she is no closer to an answer.&nbsp;

The state’s education department has 
told her they are still working on collecting eligibility data and the 
social services department will then need to process and issue the 
benefits.&nbsp;

“But they’ve been saying that since last year,” said Moorehead, who lives in St. Louis.

“For them to be not rushing the 
benefits out the door to people who really need them, like myself, is 
very depressing,” she said. “Because you’ve got to figure out where that
 next meal is going to come from.”

With the rising cost of food and a 
limited budget, Moorehead has had to make sacrifices to feed her 
children — sometimes not paying her full utility bill in order to put 
food on the table, or borrowing money from family and friends.

She can only visit her local food 
bank once a month, and said lately she has been “lucky” to get “one box 
with a couple of cans” there.

Her children’s school district is 
short on buses, so she has to pay someone to pick them up from school. 
It all adds up, and each month without the benefits, she becomes more 
worried they will never arrive.

“It’s just too long,” she said, “These benefits were supposed to be for last year.”

Moorehead and thousands of other 
Missouri families are waiting for benefits called summer Pandemic EBT, a
 federal program administered by the states, which provides a one-time 
deposit of $391 in grocery benefits for every eligible child to cover 
summer 2022 costs.&nbsp;

Children who qualified for subsidized
 school lunches last academic year are eligible, along with children 
under 6 who qualify for the federal food assistance program SNAP. The 
state <a target="_blank" href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/MO_DESE_State_Plan_Summer_2022_with_child_care_children_10-12-22.pdf">estimated</a> 454,000 schoolchildren and nearly 158,000 children under age 6 qualify for the benefit.&nbsp;

Many states had trouble getting the 
benefits out in time for the summer — due in part to the challenges of 
operating an emergency program with shifting federal guidelines each 
year, that requires interagency collaboration between social services 
departments and education departments.&nbsp;

But Missouri’s delays have been especially pronounced.&nbsp;

In each of the eight states bordering
 Missouri, benefits have already been distributed for summer Pandemic 
EBT. Oklahoma began issuing the benefits in July.&nbsp;

Missouri has made progress toward 
gathering the necessary eligibility data to begin distributing the 
benefits, but state officials still will not provide a timeline for when
 benefits will be disbursed.&nbsp;

“As
 I have shared several times, we don’t have a set timeline,” Mallory 
McGowin, spokesperson for the Department of Elementary and Secondary 
Education, said in an email last week, though she said the agency is in 
the “final testing stages” of data and “anticipate administering 
benefits in the coming weeks.”&nbsp;

Last October, the education department said they expected the benefits to be distributed <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/10/17/missouri-families-still-waiting-for-summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-children/">by the end of 2022</a>. None have been issued so far.

One of the main hurdles to getting the benefits out sooner, officials have <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/10/17/missouri-families-still-waiting-for-summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-children/">said</a>,
 was that the state needed a new data collection portal to track 
students’ COVID-related absences, for the school-year benefits.&nbsp;

Pandemic EBT includes a more 
narrowly-targeted benefit for school year 2021-2022 for children who had
 COVID-related absences — which the state said it needed to administer 
before the summer benefits and involves more complicated data collection
 on the part of schools.

The state needed to secure a contract with a vendor to build the portal and test it before schools could submit the data.

The contract wasn’t signed until last
 August with the vendor, Carahsoft, according to records obtained by The
 Independent through the Missouri Sunshine Law.

In late August, some states had already begun distributing the benefits, including Michigan, Alabama, and Vermont.

Missouri’s plan to distribute benefits was not approved by the federal government <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/12/05/summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-missouri-children-likely-delayed-until-well-into-winter/">until Oct. 19</a>, at which point it was one of just six remaining states which hadn’t yet been approved.&nbsp;

In <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/12/05/summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-missouri-children-likely-delayed-until-well-into-winter/">November</a>,
 the state provided the first instructions to school districts on how to
 submit student data and held training sessions for school nutrition 
staff in December.

Now, McGowin said, the state is testing data files to ensure they can be processed accurately by the social services department.

Of the handful of large school 
districts reached by The Independent, Columbia, Lee’s Summit, and Kansas
 City schools had submitted both the school year and summer eligibility 
data.&nbsp;

Others, including Springfield and 
Rockwood, had submitted one but not the other. Parkway, Fox, and St. 
Joseph had not yet submitted either.

None of the districts reached by The Independent said they had received a timeline from the state.

“When families ask,” said Michelle Baumstark, a spokesperson for Columbia Public Schools, “we tell them we don’t know.”

A spokesperson from Fox School District, JP Prezzavento, said:
 “The most updated information we have from the state is that benefits 
will be dispersed at some point in the spring of 2023.”

Several districts shared, too, that collecting and submitting the student absence data had been time-consuming and difficult.&nbsp;

A spokesperson from Mehlville School 
District, which finished submitting the data, said the district “did not
 have the luxury of hiring additional staff” so their food and nutrition
 services director spent “an entire week working to get this data 
entered.”&nbsp;

Elaine Waxman,
 a senior fellow in the income and benefits policy center at the public 
policy think tank Urban Institute who has studied administration of 
P-EBT, said nationally it has been challenging for schools to collect 
more detailed data than they are used to, and then for education 
departments to collaborate with social service departments.&nbsp;

“If I’m a school district, I have so 
many other priorities, with trying to manage schools post pandemic 
shutdown that I can imagine that that’s very challenging for them,” 
Waxman said. “But ultimately, those two systems do have to work together
 in order for it to happen.”

Several of the parents interviewed by
 The Independent said the extra summer benefits are especially urgent 
because their monthly SNAP food benefits are stretched thin.

Moorehead’s family, for example, qualifies for SNAP but receives only $487 per month.

Missouri was one of the states that opted to end COVID emergency SNAP allotments earlier than required.

Beginning in March 2020 as a result 
of COVID, states could raise benefits for SNAP participants by providing
 emergency supplemental benefits, called emergency allotments, to 
provide the maximum benefits amount for their household size.

Missouri cut off the additional benefits beginning <a target="_blank" href="https://dss.mo.gov/press/07-28-2021-p-snap-benefits.htm">October 2021</a>, although the state could’ve kept providing them until March 2023, which <a target="_blank" href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/poverty/3831423-snap-payments-to-shrink-in-32-states-as-emergency-benefits-end-next-month/">32 states did.&nbsp;</a>

Another single mother waiting for the
 benefits, Aimee Antrim of Springfield, said since receiving a slight 
raise at work a few months ago, her SNAP benefits have fallen to $377 
per month for her family of four.&nbsp;

The P-EBT money “would allow me to be
 able to make all my other bills on time, for at least a month,” Antrim 
said, because she wouldn’t have to devote so much of her income to food.
 The boost would allow her to afford to buy food in bulk, which she said
 would be more cost efficient, and keep her family “stocked up for a few
 months.”&nbsp;

Atrim said when she reaches out to her school or the state to ask about the benefits, she is often redirected.

“It’s like nobody knows what’s going 
on,” Antrim said, “and there’s a lot of families destitute and needing a
 lot of help with food right now.”

Antrim and other parents have been corresponding about the benefits online — trying to share information where it is scarce.&nbsp;

“It’s just desperately needed or we 
wouldn’t be reaching out to find out where it’s at,” she said. “My 
standpoint is that they’re leaving us all out in the cold — no answers.”

By CLARA BATES <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/06/still-no-timeline-for-missouri-families-awaiting-summer-2022-food-assistance/">Missouri Independent</a>Marie Moorehead has been asking Missouri agencies the same question since last fall.When will her family receive roughly $1,200 in one-time grocery benefits?The benefits were part of a COVID federal relief program designed to help cover last summer’s food costs.&nbsp;But more than five months since the summer ended, the single mother of three young children says she is no closer to an answer.&nbsp;The state’s education department has 
told her they are still working on collecting eligibility data and the 
social services department will then need to process and issue the 
benefits.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/10/1666034195280.png" alt="Jennifer Sheils pictured with three of her five children, who are 10, 12, and 15 years old. Without P-EBT benefits, Sheils struggled to put food on the table over the summer (Photo submitted)." />
 <figcaption>Jennifer Sheils pictured with three of her five children, who are 10, 12, and 15 years old. Without P-EBT benefits, Sheils struggled to put food on the table over the summer (Photo submitted).</figcaption>
 </figure>“But they’ve been saying that since last year,” said Moorehead, who lives in St. Louis.“For them to be not rushing the 
benefits out the door to people who really need them, like myself, is 
very depressing,” she said. “Because you’ve got to figure out where that
 next meal is going to come from.”With the rising cost of food and a 
limited budget, Moorehead has had to make sacrifices to feed her 
children — sometimes not paying her full utility bill in order to put 
food on the table, or borrowing money from family and friends.She can only visit her local food 
bank once a month, and said lately she has been “lucky” to get “one box 
with a couple of cans” there.Her children’s school district is 
short on buses, so she has to pay someone to pick them up from school. 
It all adds up, and each month without the benefits, she becomes more 
worried they will never arrive.“It’s just too long,” she said, “These benefits were supposed to be for last year.”Moorehead and thousands of other 
Missouri families are waiting for benefits called summer Pandemic EBT, a
 federal program administered by the states, which provides a one-time 
deposit of $391 in grocery benefits for every eligible child to cover 
summer 2022 costs.&nbsp;Children who qualified for subsidized
 school lunches last academic year are eligible, along with children 
under 6 who qualify for the federal food assistance program SNAP. The 
state <a target="_blank" href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/MO_DESE_State_Plan_Summer_2022_with_child_care_children_10-12-22.pdf">estimated</a> 454,000 schoolchildren and nearly 158,000 children under age 6 qualify for the benefit.&nbsp;Many states had trouble getting the 
benefits out in time for the summer — due in part to the challenges of 
operating an emergency program with shifting federal guidelines each 
year, that requires interagency collaboration between social services 
departments and education departments.&nbsp;But Missouri’s delays have been especially pronounced.&nbsp;In each of the eight states bordering
 Missouri, benefits have already been distributed for summer Pandemic 
EBT. Oklahoma began issuing the benefits in July.&nbsp;Missouri has made progress toward 
gathering the necessary eligibility data to begin distributing the 
benefits, but state officials still will not provide a timeline for when
 benefits will be disbursed.&nbsp;“As
 I have shared several times, we don’t have a set timeline,” Mallory 
McGowin, spokesperson for the Department of Elementary and Secondary 
Education, said in an email last week, though she said the agency is in 
the “final testing stages” of data and “anticipate administering 
benefits in the coming weeks.”&nbsp;<h2>Data challenges</h2>Last October, the education department said they expected the benefits to be distributed <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/10/17/missouri-families-still-waiting-for-summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-children/">by the end of 2022</a>. None have been issued so far.One of the main hurdles to getting the benefits out sooner, officials have <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/10/17/missouri-families-still-waiting-for-summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-children/">said</a>,
 was that the state needed a new data collection portal to track 
students’ COVID-related absences, for the school-year benefits.&nbsp;Pandemic EBT includes a more 
narrowly-targeted benefit for school year 2021-2022 for children who had
 COVID-related absences — which the state said it needed to administer 
before the summer benefits and involves more complicated data collection
 on the part of schools.The state needed to secure a contract with a vendor to build the portal and test it before schools could submit the data.The contract wasn’t signed until last
 August with the vendor, Carahsoft, according to records obtained by The
 Independent through the Missouri Sunshine Law.In late August, some states had already begun distributing the benefits, including Michigan, Alabama, and Vermont.Missouri’s plan to distribute benefits was not approved by the federal government <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/12/05/summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-missouri-children-likely-delayed-until-well-into-winter/">until Oct. 19</a>, at which point it was one of just six remaining states which hadn’t yet been approved.&nbsp;In <a target="_blank" href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/12/05/summer-food-benefits-for-low-income-missouri-children-likely-delayed-until-well-into-winter/">November</a>,
 the state provided the first instructions to school districts on how to
 submit student data and held training sessions for school nutrition 
staff in December.Now, McGowin said, the state is testing data files to ensure they can be processed accurately by the social services department.Of the handful of large school 
districts reached by The Independent, Columbia, Lee’s Summit, and Kansas
 City schools had submitted both the school year and summer eligibility 
data.&nbsp;Others, including Springfield and 
Rockwood, had submitted one but not the other. Parkway, Fox, and St. 
Joseph had not yet submitted either.None of the districts reached by The Independent said they had received a timeline from the state.“When families ask,” said Michelle Baumstark, a spokesperson for Columbia Public Schools, “we tell them we don’t know.”A spokesperson from Fox School District, JP Prezzavento, said:
 “The most updated information we have from the state is that benefits 
will be dispersed at some point in the spring of 2023.”Several districts shared, too, that collecting and submitting the student absence data had been time-consuming and difficult.&nbsp;A spokesperson from Mehlville School 
District, which finished submitting the data, said the district “did not
 have the luxury of hiring additional staff” so their food and nutrition
 services director spent “an entire week working to get this data 
entered.”&nbsp;Elaine Waxman,
 a senior fellow in the income and benefits policy center at the public 
policy think tank Urban Institute who has studied administration of 
P-EBT, said nationally it has been challenging for schools to collect 
more detailed data than they are used to, and then for education 
departments to collaborate with social service departments.&nbsp;“If I’m a school district, I have so 
many other priorities, with trying to manage schools post pandemic 
shutdown that I can imagine that that’s very challenging for them,” 
Waxman said. “But ultimately, those two systems do have to work together
 in order for it to happen.”<h2>‘Desperately needed’&nbsp;</h2>Several of the parents interviewed by
 The Independent said the extra summer benefits are especially urgent 
because their monthly SNAP food benefits are stretched thin.Moorehead’s family, for example, qualifies for SNAP but receives only $487 per month.Missouri was one of the states that opted to end COVID emergency SNAP allotments earlier than required.Beginning in March 2020 as a result 
of COVID, states could raise benefits for SNAP participants by providing
 emergency supplemental benefits, called emergency allotments, to 
provide the maximum benefits amount for their household size.Missouri cut off the additional benefits beginning <a target="_blank" href="https://dss.mo.gov/press/07-28-2021-p-snap-benefits.htm">October 2021</a>, although the state could’ve kept providing them until March 2023, which <a target="_blank" href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/poverty/3831423-snap-payments-to-shrink-in-32-states-as-emergency-benefits-end-next-month/">32 states did.&nbsp;</a>Another single mother waiting for the
 benefits, Aimee Antrim of Springfield, said since receiving a slight 
raise at work a few months ago, her SNAP benefits have fallen to $377 
per month for her family of four.&nbsp;The P-EBT money “would allow me to be
 able to make all my other bills on time, for at least a month,” Antrim 
said, because she wouldn’t have to devote so much of her income to food.
 The boost would allow her to afford to buy food in bulk, which she said
 would be more cost efficient, and keep her family “stocked up for a few
 months.”&nbsp;Atrim said when she reaches out to her school or the state to ask about the benefits, she is often redirected.“It’s like nobody knows what’s going 
on,” Antrim said, “and there’s a lot of families destitute and needing a
 lot of help with food right now.”Antrim and other parents have been corresponding about the benefits online — trying to share information where it is scarce.&nbsp;“It’s just desperately needed or we 
wouldn’t be reaching out to find out where it’s at,” she said. “My 
standpoint is that they’re leaving us all out in the cold — no answers.”

Still no timeline for Mo. families awaiting 2022 food assistance

By IAIN BOYD <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinese-spy-balloon-over-the-us-an-aerospace-expert-explains-how-the-balloons-work-and-what-they-can-see-199245">The Conversation</a>

The U.S. military <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">shot down</a>
 what U.S. officials called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast
 of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023. Officials said that the U.S. Navy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/04/us/china-spy-balloon">planned to recover the debris</a>, which is in shallow water.

The U.S. and Canada tracked the balloon as it crossed the 
Aleutian Islands, passed over Western Canada and entered U.S. airspace 
over Idaho. Officials of the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on 
Feb. 2, 2023, that the military was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-found-northern-us-rcna68879">tracking the balloon</a>
 as it flew over the continental U.S. at an altitude of about 60,000 
feet, including over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The base 
houses the 341st Missile Wing, which operates nuclear intercontinental 
ballistic missiles.

The next day, Chinese officials <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202302/t20230203_11019484.html">acknowledged that the balloon was theirs</a>
 but denied it was intended for spying or meant to enter U.S. airspace. 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the balloon’s incursion
 led him to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-antony-blinken-china-314302278a5f05bdc2df146ed5b35ec6">cancel his trip to Beijing</a>. He had been scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Feb. 5 and 6.

The Pentagon has reported that a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/03/second-chinese-spy-balloon-pentagon/">second suspected Chinese balloon</a>
 was seen over Latin America. On Feb. 4, officials told reporters that a
 third Chinese surveillance balloon was operating somewhere else in the 
world, and that the balloons are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">part of a Chinese military surveillance program</a>.

Monitoring an adversary from a balloon dates back to 1794, when the French <a href="https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Lighter_than_air/Napoleon%27s_wars/LTA3.htm">used a hot air balloon</a> to track Austrian and Dutch troops in the Battle of Fleurus. We asked aerospace engineer <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&amp;user=0vO6w7MAAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works&amp;sortby=pubdate">Iain Boyd</a> of the University of Colorado Boulder to explain how spy balloons work and why anyone would use one in the 21st century.

A spy balloon is literally a gas-filled balloon that is flying quite 
high in the sky, more or less where we fly commercial airplanes. It has 
some sophisticated cameras and imaging technology on it, and it’s 
pointing all of those instruments down at the ground. It’s collecting 
information through photography and other imaging of whatever is going 
on down on the ground below it.

Why would someone want to use a spy balloon instead of just using spy satellites?

Satellites are the preferred method of spying from overhead. Spy satellites are above us today, typically at one of two <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OrbitsCatalog">different types of orbit</a>.

The first is called <a href="https://www.space.com/low-earth-orbit">low Earth orbit</a>,
 and, as the name suggests, those satellites are relatively close to the
 ground. But they’re still several hundred miles above us. For imaging 
and taking photographs, the closer you are to something, the more 
clearly you can see it, and this applies to spying as well. The 
satellites that are in low Earth orbit have the advantage that they’re 
closer to the Earth so they’re able to see things more clearly than 
satellites that are farther away.

The disadvantage these low Earth orbit satellites have is that they 
are continually moving around the Earth. It takes them about 90 minutes 
to do one orbit around the Earth. That turns out to be pretty fast in 
terms of taking clear photographs of what’s going on below. 

The second type of satellite orbit is called <a href="https://www.space.com/29222-geosynchronous-orbit.html">geosynchronous orbit</a>,
 and that’s much farther away. It has the disadvantage that it’s harder 
to see things clearly when you’re very, very far away. But they have the
 advantage of what we call persistence, allowing satellites <a href="https://satelliteobservation.net/2016/10/17/persistent-surveillance/">to capture images continuously</a>.
 In those orbits, you’re essentially overlooking the exact same piece of
 ground on the Earth’s surface all the time because the satellite moves 
in exactly the same way the earth rotates – it rotates at the exact same
 speed.

A balloon in some ways gets the best of those. These balloons are 
much, much closer to the ground than any of the satellites, so they can 
see even more clearly. And then, of course, balloons are moving, but 
they’re moving relatively slowly, so they also have a degree of 
persistence. However, spying is not usually done these days with 
balloons because they are a relatively easy target and are not 
completely controllable.

What types of surveillance are spy balloons capable of?

I don’t know what’s on this particular spy balloon, but it’s likely 
to be different kinds of cameras collecting different types of 
information.

These days, imaging is conducted across different regions of the <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/emspectrum1.html">electromagnetic spectrum</a>.
 Humans see in a certain range of this spectrum, the visible spectrum. 
And so if you have a camera and you take a photograph of your dog, 
that’s a visible photograph. That’s one of the things spy aircraft do. 
They take regular photographs, although they have very good zoom 
capabilities to be able to magnify what they’re seeing quite a lot.

But you can also gather different kinds of information in other parts
 of the electromagnetic spectrum. Another fairly well-known one is 
infrared. If it’s nighttime, a camera operating in the visible part of 
the spectrum is not going to show you anything. It’s all going to be 
dark. But an infrared camera can pick up things from heat in the dark.

Most of these balloons literally go where the wind blows. There can 
be a little bit of navigation, but there are certainly not people aboard
 them. They are at the mercy of whatever the weather is. They sometimes 
have guiding apparatus on them that change a balloon’s altitude to catch
 winds going in particular directions. According to reports, U.S. 
officials said the Chinese surveillance balloon <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">had propellers to help steer it</a>. If this is confirmed, it means that its operator would have much more control over the path of the balloon.

What are the limits to a nation’s airspace? At what altitude does it become space and anybody’s right to be there?

There is an internationally accepted boundary called the <a href="https://astronomy.com/news/2021/03/the-krmn-line-where-does-space-begin">Kármán Line</a> at 62 miles (100 kilometers) altitude. This balloon is well below that, so it is absolutely, definitely in U.S. airspace.

Which countries are known to be using spy balloons?

The Pentagon has had programs over the last few decades studying what
 can be done with balloons that couldn’t be done in the past. Maybe 
they’re bigger, maybe they can go higher in the atmosphere so they’re 
more difficult to shoot down or disable. Maybe they could be more 
persistent. 

The broad interest in this incident illustrates its unusual nature. Few people <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/84ca852e-8653-43ac-ae76-023f8829229c">would expect any country to be actively using spy balloons</a> these days.

The U.S. flew many balloons over the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 
1950s, and those were eventually replaced by the high-altitude spy 
airplanes, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/U-2">U-2s</a>, and they were subsequently replaced by satellites.

I’m sure a number of countries around the world have periodically 
gone back to reevaluate: Are there other things we could do now with 
balloons that we couldn’t do before? Do they close some gaps we have 
from satellites and airplanes? 

What does that say about the nature of this balloon, which China confirmed is theirs?

China has complained for many years <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3153916/us-ships-and-planes-conducted-2000-spying-missions-aimed-china">about the U.S. spying</a> on China through satellites, through ships. And China is also well known for engaging in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-accuses-china-increased-south-china-sea-provocations-2022-07-26/">somewhat provocative behavior</a>,
 like in the South China Sea, sailing close to other nations’ boundaries
 and saber-rattling. I think it falls into that category.

The balloon doesn’t pose any real threat to the U.S. I think 
sometimes China is just experimenting to see how far they can push 
things. This isn’t really very advanced technology. It’s not serving any
 real military purpose. I think it’s much more likely some kind of 
political message.

<figure>
 <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WglPIjZeC58"></iframe>
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By IAIN BOYD <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinese-spy-balloon-over-the-us-an-aerospace-expert-explains-how-the-balloons-work-and-what-they-can-see-199245">The Conversation</a>The U.S. military <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">shot down</a>
 what U.S. officials called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast
 of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023. Officials said that the U.S. Navy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/04/us/china-spy-balloon">planned to recover the debris</a>, which is in shallow water.The U.S. and Canada tracked the balloon as it crossed the 
Aleutian Islands, passed over Western Canada and entered U.S. airspace 
over Idaho. Officials of the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on 
Feb. 2, 2023, that the military was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-found-northern-us-rcna68879">tracking the balloon</a>
 as it flew over the continental U.S. at an altitude of about 60,000 
feet, including over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The base 
houses the 341st Missile Wing, which operates nuclear intercontinental 
ballistic missiles.The next day, Chinese officials <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202302/t20230203_11019484.html">acknowledged that the balloon was theirs</a>
 but denied it was intended for spying or meant to enter U.S. airspace. 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the balloon’s incursion
 led him to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-antony-blinken-china-314302278a5f05bdc2df146ed5b35ec6">cancel his trip to Beijing</a>. He had been scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Feb. 5 and 6. The Pentagon has reported that a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/03/second-chinese-spy-balloon-pentagon/">second suspected Chinese balloon</a>
 was seen over Latin America. On Feb. 4, officials told reporters that a
 third Chinese surveillance balloon was operating somewhere else in the 
world, and that the balloons are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">part of a Chinese military surveillance program</a>.Monitoring an adversary from a balloon dates back to 1794, when the French <a href="https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Lighter_than_air/Napoleon%27s_wars/LTA3.htm">used a hot air balloon</a> to track Austrian and Dutch troops in the Battle of Fleurus. We asked aerospace engineer <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&amp;user=0vO6w7MAAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works&amp;sortby=pubdate">Iain Boyd</a> of the University of Colorado Boulder to explain how spy balloons work and why anyone would use one in the 21st century.<h2>What is a spy balloon?</h2>A spy balloon is literally a gas-filled balloon that is flying quite 
high in the sky, more or less where we fly commercial airplanes. It has 
some sophisticated cameras and imaging technology on it, and it’s 
pointing all of those instruments down at the ground. It’s collecting 
information through photography and other imaging of whatever is going 
on down on the ground below it.<h2>Why would someone want to use a spy balloon instead of just using spy satellites?</h2>Satellites are the preferred method of spying from overhead. Spy satellites are above us today, typically at one of two <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OrbitsCatalog">different types of orbit</a>.The first is called <a href="https://www.space.com/low-earth-orbit">low Earth orbit</a>,
 and, as the name suggests, those satellites are relatively close to the
 ground. But they’re still several hundred miles above us. For imaging 
and taking photographs, the closer you are to something, the more 
clearly you can see it, and this applies to spying as well. The 
satellites that are in low Earth orbit have the advantage that they’re 
closer to the Earth so they’re able to see things more clearly than 
satellites that are farther away. The disadvantage these low Earth orbit satellites have is that they 
are continually moving around the Earth. It takes them about 90 minutes 
to do one orbit around the Earth. That turns out to be pretty fast in 
terms of taking clear photographs of what’s going on below. The second type of satellite orbit is called <a href="https://www.space.com/29222-geosynchronous-orbit.html">geosynchronous orbit</a>,
 and that’s much farther away. It has the disadvantage that it’s harder 
to see things clearly when you’re very, very far away. But they have the
 advantage of what we call persistence, allowing satellites <a href="https://satelliteobservation.net/2016/10/17/persistent-surveillance/">to capture images continuously</a>.
 In those orbits, you’re essentially overlooking the exact same piece of
 ground on the Earth’s surface all the time because the satellite moves 
in exactly the same way the earth rotates – it rotates at the exact same
 speed.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675706952787.png" alt=" A U.S. satellite photo showing a Soviet submarine in port in 1982. National Reconnaissance Office " />
 <figcaption> A U.S. satellite photo showing a Soviet submarine in port in 1982. National Reconnaissance Office </figcaption>
 </figure>A balloon in some ways gets the best of those. These balloons are 
much, much closer to the ground than any of the satellites, so they can 
see even more clearly. And then, of course, balloons are moving, but 
they’re moving relatively slowly, so they also have a degree of 
persistence. However, spying is not usually done these days with 
balloons because they are a relatively easy target and are not 
completely controllable.<h2>What types of surveillance are spy balloons capable of?</h2>I don’t know what’s on this particular spy balloon, but it’s likely 
to be different kinds of cameras collecting different types of 
information.These days, imaging is conducted across different regions of the <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/emspectrum1.html">electromagnetic spectrum</a>.
 Humans see in a certain range of this spectrum, the visible spectrum. 
And so if you have a camera and you take a photograph of your dog, 
that’s a visible photograph. That’s one of the things spy aircraft do. 
They take regular photographs, although they have very good zoom 
capabilities to be able to magnify what they’re seeing quite a lot. But you can also gather different kinds of information in other parts
 of the electromagnetic spectrum. Another fairly well-known one is 
infrared. If it’s nighttime, a camera operating in the visible part of 
the spectrum is not going to show you anything. It’s all going to be 
dark. But an infrared camera can pick up things from heat in the dark.<h2>How do these balloons navigate?</h2>Most of these balloons literally go where the wind blows. There can 
be a little bit of navigation, but there are certainly not people aboard
 them. They are at the mercy of whatever the weather is. They sometimes 
have guiding apparatus on them that change a balloon’s altitude to catch
 winds going in particular directions. According to reports, U.S. 
officials said the Chinese surveillance balloon <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/04/chinese-balloon-shoot-down/">had propellers to help steer it</a>. If this is confirmed, it means that its operator would have much more control over the path of the balloon.<h2>What are the limits to a nation’s airspace? At what altitude does it become space and anybody’s right to be there?</h2>There is an internationally accepted boundary called the <a href="https://astronomy.com/news/2021/03/the-krmn-line-where-does-space-begin">Kármán Line</a> at 62 miles (100 kilometers) altitude. This balloon is well below that, so it is absolutely, definitely in U.S. airspace.<h2>Which countries are known to be using spy balloons?</h2>The Pentagon has had programs over the last few decades studying what
 can be done with balloons that couldn’t be done in the past. Maybe 
they’re bigger, maybe they can go higher in the atmosphere so they’re 
more difficult to shoot down or disable. Maybe they could be more 
persistent. The broad interest in this incident illustrates its unusual nature. Few people <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/84ca852e-8653-43ac-ae76-023f8829229c">would expect any country to be actively using spy balloons</a> these days.The U.S. flew many balloons over the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 
1950s, and those were eventually replaced by the high-altitude spy 
airplanes, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/U-2">U-2s</a>, and they were subsequently replaced by satellites. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675707001950.png" alt=" Project Moby Dick was an early Cold War-era effort by the U.S. to monitor the Soviet Union using high-altitude balloons. United States Air Force Public Affairs " />
 <figcaption> Project Moby Dick was an early Cold War-era effort by the U.S. to monitor the Soviet Union using high-altitude balloons. United States Air Force Public Affairs </figcaption>
 </figure>I’m sure a number of countries around the world have periodically 
gone back to reevaluate: Are there other things we could do now with 
balloons that we couldn’t do before? Do they close some gaps we have 
from satellites and airplanes? <h2>What does that say about the nature of this balloon, which China confirmed is theirs?</h2>China has complained for many years <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3153916/us-ships-and-planes-conducted-2000-spying-missions-aimed-china">about the U.S. spying</a> on China through satellites, through ships. And China is also well known for engaging in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-accuses-china-increased-south-china-sea-provocations-2022-07-26/">somewhat provocative behavior</a>,
 like in the South China Sea, sailing close to other nations’ boundaries
 and saber-rattling. I think it falls into that category. The balloon doesn’t pose any real threat to the U.S. I think 
sometimes China is just experimenting to see how far they can push 
things. This isn’t really very advanced technology. It’s not serving any
 real military purpose. I think it’s much more likely some kind of 
political message.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199245/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

🎥 Aerospace expert explains how spy balloons work, what they see

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve raised its key rate by a quarter point last week, bringing it to the highest level in 15 years as part of an ongoing effort to ease inflation by making borrowing more expensive.

The rate increase will likely make it even costlier to borrow for homes, autos and other purchases. But if you have money to save, you'll probably earn a bit more interest on it.

The latest rate increase is smaller than the Fed's half-point rate hike in December and its four straight three-quarter-point increases earlier last year. The slowdown reflects the fact that inflation, while still high, is easing, and some parts of the economy seem to be cooling.

But it's still an increase, to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. And many economists say they still fear that a recession remains possible — and with it, job losses that could cause hardship for households already hurt by inflation.

The short answer: Inflation. Over the past year, consumer inflation in the United States has clocked in at 6.5% — a figure that reflects a sixth straight monthly slowdown but still uncomfortably high.

The Fed's goal is to slow consumer spending, thereby reducing demand for homes, cars and other goods and services, eventually cooling the economy and lowering prices.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has acknowledged in the past that aggressively raising rates would bring "some pain" for households but said that doing so is necessary to crush high inflation.

Anyone borrowing money to make a large purchase, such as a home, car or large appliance, will likely take a hit. The new rate will also increase monthly payments and costs for any consumer who is already paying interest on credit card debt.

"It's already been a really rough year with folks with credit card debt, and it's only going to get worse," said credit analyst Matt Schulz of LendingTree. "The immediacy of the increase is what's hard — that it affects not just future purchases but current balances."

That said, Scott Hoyt, an analyst with Moody's Analytics, noted that household debt payments, as a proportion of income, remain relatively low, though they have risen lately. So even as borrowing rates steadily rise, many households might not feel a much heavier debt burden immediately.

Even before the Fed's latest move, credit card borrowing rates had reached their highest level since 1996, according to Bankrate.com, and these will likely continue to rise.

There are also signs that Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards to help maintain their spending. Total credit card balances have topped $900 billion, according to the Fed, a record high, though that amount isn't adjusted for inflation.

"Right now, most people may have jobs and rising incomes, but they're looking to the horizon and seeing storm clouds start to build," said Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers. "It's really an inflection point for the economy."

As rates have risen, zero percent loans marketed as "Buy Now, Pay Later" have become popular with consumers. But longer-term loans of more than four payments that these companies offer are subject to the same increased borrowing rates as credit cards.

For those who don't qualify for low-rate credit cards because of weak credit scores, the higher interest rates are already affecting their balances.

John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult, a survey research firm, said its polling suggests that more Americans are spending down the savings they accumulated during the pandemic and are using credit instead. Eventually, rising rates could make it harder for those households to pay off their debts.

For those who have home equity lines of credit or other variable-interest debt, rates will increase by roughly the same amount as the Fed hike, usually within one or two billing cycles. That's because those rates are based in part on banks' prime rate, which follow the Fed's.

The rising returns on high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) have put them at levels not seen since 2009, which means that households may want to boost savings if possible. You can also now earn more on bonds and other fixed-income investments.

Though savings, CDs, and money market accounts don't typically track the Fed's changes, online banks and others that offer high-yield savings accounts can be exceptions. These institutions typically compete aggressively for depositors. (The catch: They sometimes require significantly high deposits.)

In general, banks tend to capitalize on a higher-rate environment to boost their profits by imposing higher rates on borrowers, without necessarily offering juicer rates to savers.

Last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year mortgage dipped to 6.13% from 6.15% the week prior. A year ago, the average rate was much lower: 3.55%. That means the rate on a typical home loan is still almost twice as expensive as it was a year ago.

Mortgage rates don't always move in tandem with the Fed's benchmark rate. They instead tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.

Sales of existing homes have declined for 11 straight months as borrowing costs have become too high a hurdle for many Americans who are already paying much more for food, gas and other necessities.

WILL IT BE EASIER TO FIND A HOUSE IF I'M STILL LOOKING TO BUY?

If you're financially able to proceed with a home purchase, you're likely to have more options now.

With shortages of computer chips and other parts easing, automakers are producing more vehicles. Many are even reducing prices or offering limited discounts. But rising loan rates and lower used-vehicle trade-in values have erased much of the savings on monthly payments.

"With the interest that you're going to pay, those payments might not look too dissimilar to what they were a few months ago," said Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.com. "It's like every single time we hear one piece of good news, it's being offset by pieces of bad news."

Since the Fed began raising rates in March, the average new vehicle loan has jumped from 4.5% to 6.9%, according to Edmunds data. Used vehicle loans are up 2.5 percentage points to 10.6%. Loan durations are averaging roughly 70 months — nearly six years — for both new and used vehicles.

Edmunds says that since March, monthly payments have risen by an average of $71 to $728 for new vehicles. For used vehicles, it's up just $3 a month to $546.

Financing a new vehicle, with an average price of $48,516 as of December, now costs $8,769 in interest, Drury said. That's enough to chase many out of the auto market.

Any Fed rate increase is typically passed through to auto borrowers, though it will be slightly offset by subsidized rates from manufacturers.

HOW HAVE THE RATE HIKES INFLUENCED CRYPTO?

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have dropped in value since the Fed began raising rates. So have many previously high-valued technology stocks.

Higher rates mean that safe assets like Treasuries become more attractive to investors because their yields have increased. That makes risky assets like technology stocks and cryptocurrencies less attractive.

Still, bitcoin continues to suffer from problems separate from economic policy. Three major crypto firms have failed, most recently the high-profile FTX exchange, shaking the confidence of crypto investors.

The nation's employers kept hiring in December, adding a healthy 223,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%, matching a 53-year low. At the same time, the jobs gain was the smallest in two months, suggesting a slowdown, with pay growth also easing.

"Things are moderating and slowing down, but the labor market is still relatively strong," said Nick Bunker, Economic Research Director at hiring site Indeed. "One of the reasons the Fed continues to raise rates is that it thinks the labor market is too strong."

Some economists argue that layoffs could slow rising prices, and that a tight labor market fuels wage growth and higher inflation.

While layoffs are now historically low, there's also the possibility there will simply be fewer job openings in coming months.

"I think a lot of the hikes are behind us," Bunker said. "But there's the potential the labor market is going to deteriorate for some people, so people should be alert to a continued slowdown."

Borrowers who take out new private student loans should prepare to pay more as as rates increase. The current range for federal loans is between about 5% and 7.5%.

That said, payments on federal student loans are suspended with zero interest until summer 2023 as part of an emergency measure put in place early in the pandemic. President Joe Biden has also announced some loan forgiveness, of up to $10,000 for most borrowers, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients — a policy that's now being challenged in the courts.

IS THERE A CHANCE THE RATE HIKES WILL BE REVERSED?

It looks increasingly unlikely that rates will come down anytime soon.

"We're expecting inflation will still be too hot for the Fed even by the end of the year," said Nationwide's Ayers. "We predict it won't be until next year that they begin to lower rates."

By CORA LEWIS Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve raised its key rate by a quarter point last week, bringing it to the highest level in 15 years as part of an ongoing effort to ease inflation by making borrowing more expensive.The rate increase will likely make it even costlier to borrow for homes, autos and other purchases. But if you have money to save, you'll probably earn a bit more interest on it.The latest rate increase is smaller than the Fed's half-point rate hike in December and its four straight three-quarter-point increases earlier last year. The slowdown reflects the fact that inflation, while still high, is easing, and some parts of the economy seem to be cooling.But it's still an increase, to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. And many economists say they still fear that a recession remains possible — and with it, job losses that could cause hardship for households already hurt by inflation.Here's what to know:WHAT'S PROMPTING THE RATE INCREASES?The short answer: Inflation. Over the past year, consumer inflation in the United States has clocked in at 6.5% — a figure that reflects a sixth straight monthly slowdown but still uncomfortably high.The Fed's goal is to slow consumer spending, thereby reducing demand for homes, cars and other goods and services, eventually cooling the economy and lowering prices.Fed Chair Jerome Powell has acknowledged in the past that aggressively raising rates would bring "some pain" for households but said that doing so is necessary to crush high inflation.WHICH CONSUMERS ARE MOST AFFECTED?Anyone borrowing money to make a large purchase, such as a home, car or large appliance, will likely take a hit. The new rate will also increase monthly payments and costs for any consumer who is already paying interest on credit card debt."It's already been a really rough year with folks with credit card debt, and it's only going to get worse," said credit analyst Matt Schulz of LendingTree. "The immediacy of the increase is what's hard — that it affects not just future purchases but current balances."That said, Scott Hoyt, an analyst with Moody's Analytics, noted that household debt payments, as a proportion of income, remain relatively low, though they have risen lately. So even as borrowing rates steadily rise, many households might not feel a much heavier debt burden immediately.HOW WILL THIS AFFECT CREDIT CARD RATES?Even before the Fed's latest move, credit card borrowing rates had reached their highest level since 1996, according to Bankrate.com, and these will likely continue to rise.There are also signs that Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards to help maintain their spending. Total credit card balances have topped $900 billion, according to the Fed, a record high, though that amount isn't adjusted for inflation."Right now, most people may have jobs and rising incomes, but they're looking to the horizon and seeing storm clouds start to build," said Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers. "It's really an inflection point for the economy."As rates have risen, zero percent loans marketed as "Buy Now, Pay Later" have become popular with consumers. But longer-term loans of more than four payments that these companies offer are subject to the same increased borrowing rates as credit cards.For those who don't qualify for low-rate credit cards because of weak credit scores, the higher interest rates are already affecting their balances.John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult, a survey research firm, said its polling suggests that more Americans are spending down the savings they accumulated during the pandemic and are using credit instead. Eventually, rising rates could make it harder for those households to pay off their debts.For those who have home equity lines of credit or other variable-interest debt, rates will increase by roughly the same amount as the Fed hike, usually within one or two billing cycles. That's because those rates are based in part on banks' prime rate, which follow the Fed's.HOW ARE SAVERS AFFECTED?The rising returns on high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) have put them at levels not seen since 2009, which means that households may want to boost savings if possible. You can also now earn more on bonds and other fixed-income investments.Though savings, CDs, and money market accounts don't typically track the Fed's changes, online banks and others that offer high-yield savings accounts can be exceptions. These institutions typically compete aggressively for depositors. (The catch: They sometimes require significantly high deposits.)In general, banks tend to capitalize on a higher-rate environment to boost their profits by imposing higher rates on borrowers, without necessarily offering juicer rates to savers.WILL THIS AFFECT HOME OWNERSHIP?Last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year mortgage dipped to 6.13% from 6.15% the week prior. A year ago, the average rate was much lower: 3.55%. That means the rate on a typical home loan is still almost twice as expensive as it was a year ago.Mortgage rates don't always move in tandem with the Fed's benchmark rate. They instead tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.Sales of existing homes have declined for 11 straight months as borrowing costs have become too high a hurdle for many Americans who are already paying much more for food, gas and other necessities.WILL IT BE EASIER TO FIND A HOUSE IF I'M STILL LOOKING TO BUY?If you're financially able to proceed with a home purchase, you're likely to have more options now.WHAT IF I WANT TO BUY A CAR?With shortages of computer chips and other parts easing, automakers are producing more vehicles. Many are even reducing prices or offering limited discounts. But rising loan rates and lower used-vehicle trade-in values have erased much of the savings on monthly payments."With the interest that you're going to pay, those payments might not look too dissimilar to what they were a few months ago," said Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.com. "It's like every single time we hear one piece of good news, it's being offset by pieces of bad news."Since the Fed began raising rates in March, the average new vehicle loan has jumped from 4.5% to 6.9%, according to Edmunds data. Used vehicle loans are up 2.5 percentage points to 10.6%. Loan durations are averaging roughly 70 months — nearly six years — for both new and used vehicles.Edmunds says that since March, monthly payments have risen by an average of $71 to $728 for new vehicles. For used vehicles, it's up just $3 a month to $546.Financing a new vehicle, with an average price of $48,516 as of December, now costs $8,769 in interest, Drury said. That's enough to chase many out of the auto market.Any Fed rate increase is typically passed through to auto borrowers, though it will be slightly offset by subsidized rates from manufacturers.HOW HAVE THE RATE HIKES INFLUENCED CRYPTO?Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have dropped in value since the Fed began raising rates. So have many previously high-valued technology stocks.Higher rates mean that safe assets like Treasuries become more attractive to investors because their yields have increased. That makes risky assets like technology stocks and cryptocurrencies less attractive.Still, bitcoin continues to suffer from problems separate from economic policy. Three major crypto firms have failed, most recently the high-profile FTX exchange, shaking the confidence of crypto investors.WHAT ABOUT MY JOB?The nation's employers kept hiring in December, adding a healthy 223,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%, matching a 53-year low. At the same time, the jobs gain was the smallest in two months, suggesting a slowdown, with pay growth also easing."Things are moderating and slowing down, but the labor market is still relatively strong," said Nick Bunker, Economic Research Director at hiring site Indeed. "One of the reasons the Fed continues to raise rates is that it thinks the labor market is too strong."Some economists argue that layoffs could slow rising prices, and that a tight labor market fuels wage growth and higher inflation.While layoffs are now historically low, there's also the possibility there will simply be fewer job openings in coming months."I think a lot of the hikes are behind us," Bunker said. "But there's the potential the labor market is going to deteriorate for some people, so people should be alert to a continued slowdown."WILL THIS AFFECT STUDENT LOANS?Borrowers who take out new private student loans should prepare to pay more as as rates increase. The current range for federal loans is between about 5% and 7.5%.That said, payments on federal student loans are suspended with zero interest until summer 2023 as part of an emergency measure put in place early in the pandemic. President Joe Biden has also announced some loan forgiveness, of up to $10,000 for most borrowers, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients — a policy that's now being challenged in the courts.IS THERE A CHANCE THE RATE HIKES WILL BE REVERSED?It looks increasingly unlikely that rates will come down anytime soon."We're expecting inflation will still be too hot for the Fed even by the end of the year," said Nationwide's Ayers. "We predict it won't be until next year that they begin to lower rates."___AP Business Writers Christopher Rugaber in Washington, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Damian Troise and Ken Sweet in New York contributed to this report.___The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.