A plan to search for unmarked graves at a former Native American boarding school in Kansas is on hold amid a disagreement between the Shawnee Tribe and state and city officials overseeing the site.

The Kansas Historical Society announced last year that the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas would conduct a ground-penetrating radar survey at the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway.

However, Fairway officials said last week the proposal was on hold indefinitely after Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes raised concerns that the tribe was not consulted about the proposal and future plans for the 4.86-hectare (12-acre) site.

The Shawnee Tribe pushed last year for a study of the site, formerly known as the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School. It was one of hundreds of schools run by the government and religious groups in the 1800s and 1900s that removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them into white culture and Christianity.

Fairway City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier said in a statement that the Kansas Historical Society (KHS), which owns the site, met with Barnes in August and offered him the opportunity to consult before the work began.

On Monday, Barnes said that as he was leaving a meeting at the historical society he was given a short paper saying the organization had begun the process of working with the university on the ground-penetrating work.

“That’s not consultation,” Barnes said. “Consultation is a well-defined term. It’s not as I’m leaving stuff a piece of paper into my hands.”

Several experts told the tribe the proposal was insufficient and didn’t follow federal law concerning consulting with tribes in such situations, Barnes said.

In his statement, Nogelmeier said the historical society and the city of Fairway expect the Shawnee Tribe to try to persuade the Kansas Legislature next year to convey the land from the state to the Shawnee Nation.

“The KHS is on record opposing such a conveyance due to its historical significance to Kansas not just while it operated as the manual labor training school but due to other events and time periods as they related to Kansas’s history,” Nogelmeier said. “Further, Chief Barnes has not made any commitments about what he and the Shawnee Nation view as the future use of the land if they become owners of the site.”

While acknowledging that the tribe is not opposed to conveyance, Barnes suggested the state and Fairway officials are trying to use the issue as a political ploy and the timing of last week’s statement raises questions about whether the tribe is welcome in the process.

“I find that insinuation troubling,” Barnes said. “We have always been clear about our vision for the site. Regardless of who owns it, it centers on protection and restoration. To say otherwise is patently false, and they know it’s patently false.”

The move to inspect the mission’s grounds came after the U.S. Department of Interior announced a nationwide initiative last year to investigate federally operated Indian boarding schools. That would not have included the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School, which was founded in 1939 and run by Methodist minister Thomas Johnson.

At one point, it had 16 buildings on about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) and nearly 200 students a year ranging in age from 5 to 23. The current 4.86-hectare (12-acre) site holds three buildings, which are on the national and state historic registries.

Source: Voice of America

The Powerball jackpot keeps getting larger because players keep losing.

It happened again Saturday night as no one matched all six numbers and won the estimated $825 million grand prize. That means the next drawing Monday night will be for a massive $1 billion, according to a statement by Powerball.

The winning numbers Saturday night were: white balls 19, 31, 40, 46, 57 and the red power ball 23.

The increased jackpot will be the second largest in U.S. history. The biggest prize was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won by three ticketholders in 2016.

Although the advertised top prize will be an estimated $1 billion, that is for winners who receive their winnings through an annuity paid over 29 years. Winners almost always opt for cash, which for Monday’s drawing will be an estimated $497.3 million.

The $825 million jackpot for Saturday’s draw increased from $800 million on Friday as a result of strong ticket sales, Powerball said.

Players who missed out on the latest grand prize in the 30-year-old lottery shouldn’t immediately toss away their receipts.

A Florida ticket holder matched all five white balls in Saturday’s drawing and increased the prize to $2 million by including the game’s “Power Play” feature. Six tickets won a $1 million prize by matching five white balls, including two in California, two in Michigan, one in Maryland and one in Texas.

Another 17 tickets won a $150,000 prize while there were 80 winners of $50,000 each. More than 3.8 million tickets won cash prizes totaling above $38 million, Powerball said.

It has been nearly three months since anyone hit all six numbers and took the lottery’s top prize, with a $206.9 million jackpot win in Pennsylvania on Aug. 3. Thanks to Powerball’s long odds of one in 292.2 million, there have now been 37 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Source: Voice of America

“Our building is definitely haunted,” said Dwayne Sanburn, owner and creative director of The 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, one of the top-rated Halloween haunted house attractions in the United States.

Located in a warehouse that began as a brick foundry 150 years ago, the house comprises 13 nightmarish realms where your worst fears may come true, and anything can happen.

That includes riding an elevator with one of the characters, played by an actor, who suddenly disappears and is replaced by another character actor.

But there also could be real paranormal activity.

“I have heard voices, doors slam, and watched a ghostly figure on our security cameras,” Sanburn told VOA. It was particularly unnerving to hear a woman crying and realize no one was there.”

“One time, when I heard banging on a wall, I told myself, ‘I can’t be scared of my own haunted house,’ ” he said and laughed.

Sanburn said he always looks forward to Halloween on October 31 and was drawn to haunted houses the first time he visited one as a teenager.

The 13th Gate is among the 13 best Halloween haunts recognized this year by Hauntworld Magazine, the world’s largest directory of haunted houses and horror attractions in the United States.

Others on the list include Pennhurst Haunted Asylum, located in a former asylum in Pennsylvania, and Fear Factory in Salt Lake City, Utah, which used to be a cement factory.

Besides being scary, the attractions are frightening artistic masterpieces.

“At 13th Gate, our level of detail can equal Hollywood movies, including the sets, lighting, costumes and makeup,” said Sanburn.

Tony Wohlgemuth, president of Kersey Valley Spooky Woods in Archdale, North Carolina, said this year’s theme focuses on a town taken over by ghastly spirits.

He said haunted house attractions have incredible visual and audio effects, in part due to the latest technology.

“At Spooky Woods we use effects to create lightning and thunder that feel real,” Wohlgemuth said, “and computer-controlled lighting with different colors and flickering effects.”

“The effects are used as a distraction,” he added, “but it’s really the actors that scare people. It’s the unknown and sudden scare you didn’t see coming.”

Alan Bennett, owner of Bennett’s Curse near Baltimore, Maryland, said animatronics (the technique of making and operating lifelike robots for film and other entertainment) and other scary effects, triggered by a motion detector, are used.

Bennett said the Halloween attraction is known for its large animated monsters like demons and giant pumpkins.

“There’s a haunted castle with creatures from the underworld, and an asylum with skeletons and evil pumpkins,” he said.

Jacob Preston, 15, from Alexandria, Virginia, came with his parents. He said that even though the castle was really scary, it was also fun. “I like horror movies and this kind of felt like I was in one,” he said.

“People get scared and then they are laughing,” said Michael Jubie, owner of the Headless Horseman Haunted Attractions in Ulster Park, New York. “Part of the appeal is that they want to be scared but also feel they are in a safe place.”

Jubie is a former undercover detective who used to wear disguises.

“We have the headless horseman on a live horse,” he said.

“One of our haunted houses has an underground tomb,” he added. “Another has a medical center with real operating room equipment from an old, abandoned hospital, including items from the morgue.”

These top-rated attractions draw thousands of visitors during the Halloween season in September and October.

“We’ll get about 70,000 this year,” Wohlgemuth said. “For some families it is an annual tradition.”

“We have parents who came when they were younger and are now taking their older children,” said Jubie.

Source: Voice of America

A battle is brewing around Europe’s rooftop over the planet’s most precious resource.

The crystal-clear waters from the Alps could become increasingly contested as the effects of climate change and glacier melt become more apparent. Italy wants them for crop irrigation in the spring and summer. Swiss authorities want to hold up flows to help hydroelectric plants rev up, when needed.

For the first time in four years, government envoys from eight Alpine countries — big, small and tiny — were meeting under a grouping known as the Alpine Convention, which was set up 30 years ago to help coordinate life, leisure and the limited resources from Europe’s most celebrated peaks.

The envoys in Brig, Switzerland, representing pint-sized principality Monaco and small Slovenia as well as powerhouses like France, Germany and Italy, focused attention Thursday on what’s known as the Simplon Alliance. Named after an Alpine pass between Italy and Switzerland, it aims to make transportation in the mountains eco-friendly, such as by favoring rail over roads, electric vehicles and public transportation over private cars.

But with global warming causing a worrying shrinkage in Alpine glaciers this year, the issue of water frozen up in the mountains, or showered and snowed on them, is growing in importance. Environmental advocates say jockeying for water isn’t being addressed with enough urgency; they want the Alpine countries to do more to secure the future of the resource that’s been bountiful for centuries.

While many parts of the world have grappled with water woes, well-irrigated and relatively rich Europe has been largely spared so far. Droughts and wildfires raise seasonal worries, but there typically is enough water for agriculture, hydropower, ski resorts, and human consumption. Swiss children were once taught their country was home to the continent’s “water tower,” according to Maria Lezzi, head of Switzerland’s territorial development office.

However, factors like global warming, the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine on energy supplies and economic demands have made the issue more pressing.

Last month, Swiss authorities authorized a seven-month increase in the amount of water available for electricity generation from 45 of Switzerland’s 1,500 hydraulic plants — hoping to churn out up to 150 gigawatts more power. Alluding to the possible knock-on effect, the Swiss said the move could temporarily affect fish migration, “which could make replenishing fish populations more difficult in 2023.”

Meanwhile, sparse summer rainfall and a punishing heat wave in northern Italy — which melted snowfields and glaciers in the area — dried up the Po River, jeopardized drinking water and threatened irrigation in what’s known as the Italian food valley.

The “9th report on the State of the Alps” — drafted by the Swiss hosts — notes that water supply is a “particularly pressing issue” because the Alps are a huge reservoir of water, which ultimately flows to the benefit of 170 million people along some of Europe’s most famous rivers, including the Danube, Po, Rhine and Rhone.

A draft of the report, obtained by The Associated Press, noted the need for “consistent availability of Alpine water” for industry, agriculture, hydropower and other uses, adding: “Climate change puts these functions under pressure, as glaciers are receding, and precipitation regimes are constantly changing.”

“Reduced quantities of water and limited reliability of water supply will be a major issue in the coming decades,” it added.

Kaspar Schuler, director of CIPRA International, a commission devoted to protecting the Alps based in tiny Liechtenstein, said governments have done well to put water on the agenda but stopped short of steps to tackle the issue — by setting up working groups, expanding research, or coming up with ways that water can be better shared in the future.

“The description of the difficulties is well done by the Swiss, but they have still no courage to really address the elephant in the room,” said Schuler.

While Alpine resorts and villages rely on water, the major upstream users are Switzerland’s hydropower plants, which want to hold on to the water until it’s most needed to power turbines that provide some 60% of the country’s electricity.

But the biggest consumers of the water are downstream — industrial areas like Grenoble and Annecy in France, Austria’s capital Vienna, and areas around Bolzano in Italy’s South Tyrol are likely to feel an impact.

The southern Alpine towns, especially in France and Italy with their drier climates, are more likely to undergo water shortages than the northern towns, the report said. “This is particularly true of inner-Alpine dry valleys such as the Aosta Valley in northwestern Italy, already affected by significant water stress.”

CIPRA’s Schuler suggested that many have become too complacent about the Alps’ bountiful waters — and those days may be over soon.

“Until now, all the non-Alpine countries — the lowlands — were happy that the Alps have been providing so much: landscape for leisure and sports, ski resorts, and the water as much as everybody needs,” he said. “So far, everybody was happy, and the Alps delivered.”

“In future it will be a battle … about these resources because especially the lack of water can really harm a lot of people,” he said.

Environment Minister Uros Brezan of Slovenia, which is set to take over the Alpine Convention’s presidency, said regional authorities were not taking the issue lightly.

“I think the member states of the European Union and also members of the Alpine Convention are well aware that [the] water scarcity problem cannot be solved only within the national borders, but has to be addressed internationally,” he said.

Source: Voice of America