Tag Archives: Kingsville

AG Josh Hawley (r): CAFO manure trumps Powell Gardens

01 Saturday Sep 2018

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Attorney General Josh Hawley (r) (and 2018 republican candidate for the U.S. Senate) just literally shit on Powell Gardens (“Kansas City’s botanical garden”) by intervening against a Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission stay of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and a confined animal feeding operation [CAFO] up wind of the gardens.

At Powell Gardens, Kingsville, Missouri. F 5, 1/500, ISO 500, 200 mm – June 2018.

Powell Gardens (located in Kingsville, Missouri in Johnson County, east of the Kansas City metro area) and many of their neighbors have been engaged in a legal battle against the permitting of a CAFO located on approximately 400 acres next to U.S. Highway 50 in western Johnson County. Powell Gardens, east of the CAFO location, is on 970 acres, also along U.S. Highway 50.

An e-mail from Powell Gardens to its patrons:

From: “Powell Gardens”
To: [….]
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2018 12:48:36 PM
Subject: CAFO Update: Unprecedented Legal Actions Unfold as MDNR Sues the AHC

August 31, 2018

Dear [….]

Thank you for your support as we continue to oppose the proposed expansion of the Valley Oaks confined animal feeding operation. The final permit hearing was Monday and Tuesday, August 27-28 in Jefferson City in front of the Administrative Hearing Commission.

Here are a few recent items of note regarding the stay on the expansion permit which was granted on July 26:

A nutrient feeding plan, submitted by Valley Oaks, shows that land application of manure would be over spraying surrounding acreage.

A manure storage plan would stack compacted manure up to 2.3 feet high, the same height as the containment walls of the open-air sheds that would house the cattle, burying the animals only source of drinking water and spilling outside onto the soil, potentially contaminating local water sources.

The DNR permit was issued to, Country Club Homes LLC, which is not a registered business in the state of Missouri.

Attorney General Josh Hawley and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has filed an injunction against the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission’s stay order against Valley Oaks Steak Co. LLC to clear the way for the largest beef CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) in the state to operate without a valid permit.

A final decision on the permit is scheduled for October 23, 2018. In the meantime, visit our website for updates.

Sincerely,

Tabitha Schmidt
Executive Director/President
[Powell Gardens]

It happens every time – money and shit trump community and cultural resources.

Previously:

Now that’s a CAFO (March 18, 2018)

Now that’s a CAFO – comments addressed to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (March 21, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? (April 3, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – photos (April 5, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Tabitha Schmidt, CEO President, Powell Gardens (April 5, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Karen Lux (April 5, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Al Weir (April 6, 2017)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Aimee Davenport on behalf of Powell Gardens (April 6, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Eric Tschanz (April 7, 2018)

Suppose you threw a DNR CAFO hearing in Warrensburg and everyone came? – Chuck Petentler (April 7, 2018)

And they have a CAFO (June 15, 2018)

Powell Gardens – CAFO permit stayed pending outcome of appeal (July 28, 2018)

Welcome to Missouri and America in 2017

02 Sunday Jul 2017

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Flag with a blue field and a single white star displayed by someone in the audience at the annual “Booms and Blooms” concert and fireworks display at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Missouri – July 1, 2017. Photo used with permission.

Last night the Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra played a two hour outdoor concert of patriotic music to celebrate the 4th of July preceding the annual “Booms and Blooms” fireworks show at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Missouri. Throughout the concert someone in the audience prominently displayed a large flag with a blue field and a single white five pointed star in front of the orchestra.

A flag with a blue field and a single white star is called the “Bonnie Blue” flag. It is most prominently known as an early flag of the confederacy.

Think about that for just a second.

Next to “Dixie’s Land,” perhaps no other song was as well loved by the Confederate soldier as “The Bonnie Blue Flag.” Written by Harry Macarthy (1834-1888) and sung to the old Irish tune “The Irish Jaunting Car,” the song lays out the order of secession of the States that went on to form the Confederacy.   The first flag of the Confederacy was a single white star on a blue background. This song, especially popular in the South during the early years of the war, counts out the eleven seceding states one by one….

More on the song:

….After the Civil War and the collapse of the Confederacy, “The Bonnie Blue Flag” developed a life of its own. In the second decade of the twentieth century, the song was revived as a symbol of “Lost Cause” mentality in the midst of fifty-year commemorations of the War. During the Civil Rights era, “The Bonnie Blue Flag” once again became a song of protest, this time against the integration of public spaces. It even found its way back into the classroom, as one New Orleans resident remembers learning it in his elementary school classroom in the 1950s….

The refrain from the song [pdf]:

[….]
Hurrah!
Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
[….]

We have no idea if the individual(s) who displayed the flag were aware of the history or of the symbolism implied. The flag in the photo appears to be displayed upside down (with the single point of the star pointed downward).

The only confederate flag that matters is a white rag on a stick.

Previously:

Celebrating a little early (July 2, 2017)

4th of July – 2015

04 Saturday Jul 2015

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“….It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more…” – John Adams – July 3, 1776

Last night in Kingsville, Missouri at Powell Gardens “Booms and Blooms”.

Thomas Jefferson – July 4, 1826

May (July 4) be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form (of government) which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

Amen, brother Jefferson, Amen.