Logan County Research Articles

First Report of Dollar Spot of Sandbur Caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa in Oklahoma.

Sandbur (Cenchrus incertus Curtis) is a warm-season, annual, noxious, grassy weed native to southern North America. It is common in sandy, disturbed soils and can also be found in home lawns and sport fields where low turf density facilitates its establishment. In July 2013, after a period of frequent rainfall and heavy dew, symptoms of dollar spot-like lesions (1) were observed on sandbur plants growing in a mixed stand of turf-type and native warm-season grasses in Logan County, Oklahoma. Lesions, frequently associated with leaf sheaths, were tan and surrounded by a dark margin. Symptomatic leaves were surface sterilized and plated on potato dextrose agar amended with 10 ppm rifampicin, 250 ppm ampicillin, and 5 ppm fenpropathrin. After incubation, a fungus morphologically identical to Sclerotinia homoeocarpa Bennett was consistently isolated. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of two different isolates, SCL2 and SCL3, were amplified using primers ITS4 and ITS5 (2). The DNA products were sequenced and BLAST analyses were used to compare sequences with those in GenBank. The sequence for isolate SLC2 was 869 bp, contained a type I intron in the 18S small subunit rDNA, and was identical to accession EU123803. The ITS sequence for isolate SLC3 was 535 bp and identical to accession EU123802. Twenty-five-day-old seedlings of C. incertus were inoculated by placing 5-mm-diameter agar plugs, colonized by mycelia of each S. homoeocarpa isolate, onto two of the plants' leaves. Plugs were held in place with Parafilm. Two plants were inoculated with each isolate and sterile agar plugs were placed on two leaves of another seedling as control. Plants were incubated in a dew chamber at 20°C and a 12-h photoperiod. After 3 days of incubation, water-soaked lesions surrounded by a dark margin appeared on inoculated plants only. Fungi that were later identified as S. homoeocarpa isolates SLC2 and SLC3 by sequencing of the ITS region were re-isolated from symptomatic leaves, fulfilling Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of dollar spot on sandbur.

Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism by Al Smith (review)

Reviewed by: Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism by Al Smith Tracy Campbell (bio) Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism. By Al Smith (Louisville: Clark Legacies, 2011. Pp. 412, $34.95 cloth) On his deathbed, Thomas D. Clark admonished Al Smith to keep his memoirs from becoming a multivolume set. "Just one book, Al," Clark said. After reading Wordsmith, one understands why Smith labored to limit his autobiography to a single volume. He has experienced a remarkable life both professionally and personally, and he tells his own story with candor, humor, and insight. Many Kentuckians know Al Smith as a fixture on the airwaves and in newsprint. Few progressive causes have escaped his support [End Page 125] or comment. While seemingly synonymous with Kentucky, it might surprise some to learn that he spent his formative years outside the commonwealth. Born in Sarasota, Florida, in 1927, his family faced difficult circumstances during the Depression. As a young boy he listened to FDR and witnessed firsthand the ravages of the economic catastrophe battering the South. "I didn't acquire my 'liberal' social conscience from books," Smith writes, "my parents gave it to me during the Depression" (p. 17). His family moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, in 1940, and the precocious Smith won a national oratorical contest soon after Pearl Harbor. He attended Vanderbilt and Tulane Universities, admittedly more interested in a growing fondness for whisky than an education. Following a short stint in the army, he landed in New Orleans as a newspaper reporter for the Times-Picayune, a vocation for which he was well suited. "Journalism was in my genes," he acknowledges, "printer's ink in my veins" (p. 117). He aspired to be a crusading investigative journalist like his hero Lincoln Steffens. In locations not well-suited to his brand of politics, Smith fought for civil rights and economic fairness early on. Along the way, he encountered iconic Americans such as Robert Penn Warren, Earl Long, George C. Marshall, and Tennessee Williams. Smith's fall from big city reporter to backwater journalist captures the central theme of Wordsmith. He bottomed out in Louisiana because of his alcoholism. Friends have heard Smith curse that "damned whisky bottle" but did not fully appreciate the toll of his addiction until this book. Sober for the first time as an adult in 1962, Smith soon began a new life with his wife, Martha Helen, and their children and became part owner of the Logan County newspaper where he had been working. He soon bought more newspapers, and with the support of KET director Len Press started his television career, and Comment on Kentucky became one of the primary centers of public discussion in Kentucky. Smith unabashedly used KET and his newspapers' editorial pages to influence many public-policy debates underway. When President Jimmy Carter appointed Smith to head the Appalachian [End Page 126] Regional Commission (ARC), Smith understood how local and state politics worked as well as anyone. Smith served briefly under President Ronald Reagan but by the time he left the ARC, one would have thought he was a lifelong Appalachian. Demonstrating his new-found affection for the region, upon returning to Kentucky Smith purchased the London, Kentucky, newspaper. The result of writing only one volume is that these later years are reviewed in less detail, including his efforts to revitalize one of his true loves, rural journalism. Smith has lived through the transformation of American journalism, experiencing firsthand the decline of print journalism in a digital age. All the while, he has remained the unrepentant New Dealer, convinced through experience that "government has to keep the economy strong, education accessible, the laws equitable, and a safety net to protect all citizens" (p. 391). Brimming with stories both humorous and poignant, Wordsmith is a crisply written and honest testament to Al Smith's personal courage to rebuild a life when others might have given up. Kentuckians are the beneficiaries of his life lived well and full. Tracy Campbell Tracy Campbell is a professor of history at the University of Kentucky and codirector of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Copyright © 2011 Kentucky Historical Society

Lack of CYP1A responsiveness in species inhabiting chronically contaminated habitats: Two varieties of resistance?

Organisms chronically exposed to organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can develop resistance to these chemicals, a condition associated with reduced inducibility of the biomarker enzyme cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A). This study addresses the CYP1A response of members of the families Ictaluridae and Centrarchidae, two fish families found throughout much of the United States. We measured CYP1A expression, PCB body burdens, and conducted CYP1A challenge experiments in species from these families residing in the Town Branch/Mud River system (Logan County, KY, USA), a stream system historically contaminated with high levels of PCBs. Despite PCB concentrations in muscle tissue typically associated with elevated CYP1A (16.7 to 75.2μgPCB/g wet edible flesh), resident fish in the contaminated Town Branch/Mud River sites (yellow bullhead [Ameiurus natalis], green sunfish [Lepomis cyanellus], and spotted bass [Micropterus punctulatus]) had hepatic CYP1A activity levels similar to, rather than higher than, those in reference fish, suggesting reduced sensitivity to CYP1A induction. Lack of CYP1A expression following direct contaminant exposure has often been associated with resistance to those contaminants. To determine if CYP1A in resident populations was resistant to induction by PCBs, we exposed resident fish to a single, intraperitoneal injection with a potent CYP1A inducer, 3,4,3′,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB 77). PCB 77 treatment significantly induced hepatic CYP1A activity and protein in yellow bullhead from reference, but not contaminated, sites and had no effect on CYP1A in green sunfish from either site. The low CYP1A expression levels in resident fish with elevated PCB body burdens, together with the failure of PCB injection to induce CYP1A in certain populations, indicate an acclimatory CYP1A response in yellow bullheads and likely an inherently resistant CYP1A in green sunfish. This work demonstrates for the first time acclimation of CYP1A to PCBs in a species within the family Ictaluridae and provides further support for our previous work indicating an apparent inherent lack of CYP1A sensitivity to chlorinated inducers in Centrarchids. These traits may explain, at least in part, the common association of these families with degraded habitats and indicate Lepomis members are likely to be excellent candidates for exploring the mechanistic basis of ‘inherent’ CYP1A resistance. This study also underlines to the need for thorough characterization of the CYP1A responsivity of a population and/or species prior to using CYP1A as a reliable biomonitoring tool.

Cover-collapse sinkholes in Kentucky, USA: geographic and temporal distribution

Sudden and unpredictable collapse of unconsolidated cover over soluble bedrock defines cover collapse. Cover collapse in Kentucky frequently damages buildings, roads, utility lines, and farm equipment. It has killed livestock, including thoroughbred horses, and has injured people at an estimated annual cost of $20 million. The Kentucky Geological Survey began developing a file of case histories of cover collapse in 1997 and now receives approximately 24 reports annually. The case history file contains 247 individual entries and spans some 30 years, yet is thought to represent only a fraction of the annual occurrences. The reported sites are distributed statewide but are concentrated in urban settings. The largest cover collapse recorded was in Logan County and was 15.5 m in diameter and 18 m deep. The Dishman Lane collapse in Bowling Green, KY, although larger, included some bedrock collapse. Collapse features have an average long axis length of 3.1 m and an average observable depth of 2.6 m. The ratio of the long and short axes of the collapse at ground level is 1.30. When plotted on a digitized topographic overlay showing outlines of mapped sinkholes, 11 % of the cover-collapse sites are inside a mapped sinkhole. Of a total of 124 observations that noted the presence or absence of buried trash, 10.7 % of sinkholes had trash present. Nearly 52 % of collapses are underlain by Mississippian rocks, whereas 39.7 % are underlain by Ordovician carbonates. The remaining percentage is underlain by Silurian and Devonian carbonates or lithology is undetermined. The most common months for cover collapse are April, May, and June. Continued accumulation of case histories of cover collapse in Kentucky will result in a better understanding of where, when, how, and why cover collapse occurs.

Status of the Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex spp.; Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Fauna of Arkansas

Pogonomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) species are collectively termed harvester ants due to their well-described habit of collecting seeds for food (Cole, 1968). North of Mexico, the genus is most speciose in western and southwestern portions of the United States (Johnson, 2000b). Harvester ants are generally associated with xeric, open natural community types such as deserts, grasslands, and woodlands (Taber, 1998). Nests are constructed in soil and characterized by craters or small to large mounds of soil. Some harvester ant species actively clear vegetation from a roughly circular area surrounding nest mounds (Cole, 1968) making these sites conspicuous landscape elements. Once established, a harvester ant colony can persist for decades (MacMahon et al., 2000). Warren and Rouse (1969) list three Pogonomyrmex species as occurring in Arkansas, P. badius (Latreille), P. barbatus (Smith), and P. comanche Wheeler. Their records were gleaned from, what is today, the University of Arkansas Arthropod Museum (UAAM). In an attempt to reassess the status of the genus in Arkansas, I visited the UAAM to examine their Pogonomyrmex holdings and also conducted field surveys for harvester ant colonies in remnant natural communities across the state from 2007–2009. Survey methodology consisted of visually searching sites for foraging workers and nest mounds or craters. A total of 32 sites, in or near counties with occurrence records of harvester ants, were surveyed across Arkansas. Sites surveyed comprised a number of different natural community types including blackland prairie, saline barrens, sandhill woodlands, and tallgrass prairie. The record of P. badius in Arkansas is interesting as this the only Pogonomyrmex species known to occur primarily east of the Mississippi River (Cole, 1968). Its distribution is centered on the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States and is generally described as ranging from North Carolina, south to Florida, and west to Louisiana (Johnson, 2000b). Warren and Rouse’s (1969) records for P. badius are from Logan and Scott Counties in west-central Arkansas far from the species main range. The authors hypothesized the species potential occurrence ‘‘in the grassland extension of the Oklahoma prairie into western Arkansas.’’ However, neither county cited as hosting P. badius contains the soil types that would support the species colonies. Pogonomyrmex badius colonies are associated with open, xeric natural communities (sand barrens, sandy ridges along streams) on deep, well-drained sandy soils (Cole, 1968; MacGown et al., 2008). Most of Logan County, and a portion of Scott County, are situated in the Arkansas Valley Plains and Scattered High Ridges and Mountains of the Arkansas Valley (Woods et al., 2004). Prior to European settlement, these areas were typified by oak-hickory-pine forests, savannas, and tallgrass prairies. The remainder of Scott County lies in the Fourche Mountains dominated by extensive oak-hickory-pine forests. Both counties are devoid of the deep sand habitats preferred by P. badius. Given these facts, the occurrence of P. badius in Arkansas seemed questionable. My visit to the UAAM supported the notion that Warren and Rouse’s (1969) records for Arkansas were dubious as the specimens once attributed to P. badius have since been re-determined to be workers of P. barbatus. Until contradictory evidence is presented, the presence of P. badius in Arkansas should be considered as tentative. Pogonomyrmex barbatus is a harvester ant that would be expected in Arkansas given its habitat affinities (McCook, 1880; Taber, 1998) and presence in Oklahoma and Texas (Johnson, 2000b). Warren and Rouse (1969) list the species as occurring in Bradley, Crawford, Scott, and Washington Counties. Logan County can now be added to that list given information presented herein. The UAAM also contained specimen records of P. barbatus from Van Buren County not previously noted by Warren and Rouse (1969). Crawford, Logan, Scott, Van Buren and Washington Counties are all along or very near Arkansas’s western border. Bradley County is located in south-central Arkansas. Unlike P. badius, P. barbatus colonies are associated with more mesic areas, especially those sites with higher clay content in their soils (Taber, 1998; Johnson, 2000a).

Rediscovery of theHesperornis regalisMarsh 1871 Holotype Locality Indicates an Earlier Stratigraphic Occurrence

The type specimen of a large, flightless marine bird, Hesperornis regalis, was collected by O.C. Marsh in 1871. Due to the practices of the time, and the lack of accurate maps, the type locality was initially recorded by Marsh in a letter simply as the “upper Cretaceous of Western Kansas,” and then later reported as “the gray shale near the Smoky Hill River in Western Kansas.” Since the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation is exposed along the Smoky Hill River in present day Wallace, Logan and Gove counties over a distance of more than 75 miles, this vague locality information encompasses about 5 million years of depositional history. An 1880 account by Marsh narrows the locality down to the south bank of the Smoky Hill River about 20 miles east of Fort Wallace in Logan County. The results of a recent field investigation of the eastward route traveled by Marsh's 1871 Yale College Scientific Expedition sheds light on the probable locality of both the type specimen (YPM 1200) of Hesperornis regalis, and also the first specimen with a skull and teeth (YPM 1206) collected in 1872. In turn, this provides important new data supporting an earlier occurrence (Upper Santonian) of this species in the Western Interior Sea over Kansas than previously assumed.

Psychic aftershocks: Crisis counseling and disaster relief policy.

Though crisis counseling following disasters has become a commonplace in the 21st century, we have little to no sense of how and when it became part of federally supported disaster relief services. In 1974, as part of a broad overhaul of federal disaster policy, an authorization to fund counseling services, and mental health training to disaster relief workers, was inserted into the Disaster Relief Act passed in that year--despite little to no empirical evidence that such counseling was necessary or effective. As this article demonstrates, unlike the drive for community mental health programs at mid-century, federal support for disaster mental health did not come as a result of a long campaign waged from well-connected institutions. Rather, it was largely the result of local practitioners, informed by larger currents in thinking about crisis intervention, who discerned these needs in a spontaneous and ad hoc manner. Disaster mental health services came into being thanks to the flourishing of a broad network of therapeutic practitioners in places as far flung as Rapid City, South Dakota, Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, and Logan County, West Virginia, who implemented mental health pilot projects in response to disasters in the early 1970s. Their efforts caught the attention of journalists already attuned to therapeutic discourse, and to sympathetic national legislators, to whom the proposition that disaster victims would suffer from psychological damage simply seemed like common sense and a logical service to include as part of a general broadening of federal assistance to disaster victims.

Spatial Distribution of Enhanced Atrazine Degradation across Northeastern Colorado Cropping Systems

Reports of enhanced atrazine degradation and reduced residual weed control have increased in recent years, sparking interest in identifying factors contributing to enhanced atrazine degradation. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess the spatial distribution of enhanced atrazine degradation in 45 commercial farm fields in northeastern Colorado (Kit Carson, Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, and Yuma counties) where selected cultural management practices and soil bio-chemo-physical properties were quantified; (ii) utilize Classification and Regression Tree (CART) Analysis to identify cultural management practices and (or) soil bio-chemophysical attributes that are associated with enhanced atrazine degradation; and (iii) translate our CART Analysis into a model that predicts relative atrazine degradation rate (rapid, moderate, or slow) as a function of known management practices and (or) soil properties. Enhanced atrazine degradation was widespread within a 300-km radius across northeastern Colorado, with approximately 44% of the fields demonstrating rapid atrazine degradation activity (laboratory-based dissipation time halflife [DT50] < 3 d). The most rapid degradation rates occurred in fields that received the most frequent atrazine applications. Classification and Regression Tree Analysis resulted in a prediction model that correctly classified soils with rapid atrazine DT50 80% of the time and soils with slow degradation (DT50 > 8 d) 62.5% of the time. Significant factors were recent atrazine use history, soil pH, and organic matter content. The presence/absence of atzC polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product was not a significant predictor variable for atrazine DT50. In conclusion, enhanced atrazine degradation is widespread in northeastern Colorado. If producers know their atrazine use history, soil pH, and OM content, they should be able to identify fields exhibiting enhanced atrazine degradation using our CART Model.

Managing prairie dogs for prairie heritage, biodiversity, and wildlife tourism

The black-tailed prairie dog is a keystone species of the North American short-grass prairie, large parts of which are devoted to cattle ranching. However, the prairie dog population has been dramatically reduced by eradication programs developed in response to the animals' competition for, and consumption of, grasses that would otherwise feed cattle and to the long-held belief that their burrows pose a threat to livestock. This article will discuss the important role the black-tailed prairie dog plays in biodiversity as ecosystem engineer and prey as well as in the natural and cultural heritage and economy of the short-grass prairie, which has been dramatically transformed by Euro-American settlement. It will focus on the case study involving a group of ranchers in western Kansas' Logan County whose alternative land management practices include rotation grazing and maintaining prairie dogs for the animals' role in supporting other wildlife, despite fierce opposition by neighboring ranchers and government officials, These ranchers' lands provide opportunities for wildlife watching and tourism centered on the prairie dogs and their predators such as the endangered and recently reintroduced black-footed ferret.

“Yours, for the cause”: The &lt;em&gt;Christian Recorder&lt;/em&gt; Writings of Lizzie Hart

Lizzie Hart was neither a major presence in the Black press or Black literature nor a central figure in early feminism. (1) She never achieved national prominence and perhaps never aspired to it. Her whole (re)discovered oeuvre--fourteen publications in 1864-1865 in the African Methodist Episcopal Church's flagship newspaper, the Christian Recorder--will probably never be referred to as an important find within the process of recovering early African American literature. Even among nineteenth-century Black women periodical authors like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Jennie Carter, and Ida B. Wells--much less in the wider field of nineteenth-century women involved in journalism and literature--her career seems minor. And yet her Recorder work, reprinted here in its entirety for the first time since its original publication, is notable both in and of itself and as an example of the riches scholars might find if they turn to women who wrote for the early Black press. What we know of Hart's biography can be summarized briefly. Jane Elizabeth Hart, born in late 1837 to free African American parents Cupid and Judith Hart, grew up along with two brothers and a sister in and around Russellville, a small city in Logan County, Kentucky. (2) Cupid Hart, a carpenter, moved the family to Warren County, Ohio, in the 1850s; though the Harts lived in several locations in the area--Roachester, Morrowtown (sometimes simply listed as Morrow), and Lebanon--they and their descendents remained in Ohio for the next several decades. The Harts prospered there, edged toward the middling classes, and, by 1870, had raised enough capital to purchase their own home. The family attended the local African Methodist Episcopal Church. They may have been involved in its founding in 1858, and they attended services in the neat little brick meeting-house the congregation built in 1861 and the History of Warren County noted some twenty-one years later (Beers 500). They seem to have placed immense value on both faith and literacy: While censuses prior to 1880 list Cupid Hart as illiterate and the 1870 census notes Judith Hart as being able to read but not write, all post-1850 censuses list their children as literate. Lizzie Hart first subscribed to the Christian Recorder in April 1863 via her minister, the young William Hunter, a graduate of Wilberforce University. Hart's $2.25 would have purchased a full year of the four-page weekly. In making that commitment, Hart was following the pattern of a growing number of A. M. E. Church members across the nation: looking to her minister and her church as sources of educational and cultural literacy and as conduits to early Afro-Protestant print culture. Hart also chose to subscribe at a germinal moment in Black periodical culture. While several Black newspapers entered American public spaces after the initial publication of Freedom's Journal in 1827, few were able to sustain publication, in part due to continuing struggles for funds and support. After working with Bishop Daniel Payne to successfully birth the similarly short lived A. M. E. Church magazine the Repository of Religion and Literature in the late 1850s, Elisha Weaver answered the national church hierarchy's call to resurrect the Christian Recorder, which had been sporadically published in the 1850s and was essentially defunct by 1860. The version of the newspaper he began publishing in 1861 did not miss an issue again for decades--long after Weaver was forced from the editorial chair in 1868--and became one of the longest running and most important early Black periodicals. Through tireless advocacy--including especially the building of a network of local ministers and contributors like William Hunter and Lizzie Hart--Weaver expanded the paper's circulation to reach not only readers across the North (from Maine to Kansas and even to California) but also those among the newly freed in the South. As could be expected, he published copious theological and church-related tracts--from sermons to devotional poetry to reports of church meetings--but also offered a rich range of political and social commentary, national news, children's stories, more secular poetry, occasional fiction, and multi-generic letters from across the country. …

Pachybrachis nigricornis carbonariusHaldeman (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): Abundance, Distribution, and Host Plant Associations with Legumes (Fabales: Fabaceae) in Kentucky

Pachybrachis Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a very large and complex genus of small leaf beetles with >150 species in the United States. Pachybrachis nigricornis carbonarius Haldeman is an entirely (or nearly entirely) black subspecies that is relatively common in Kentucky. Abundance and distribution records for 288 specimens collected in Kentucky are presented. Adults were found feeding on two species of legumes (Fabales: Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) over 230 km apart in Kentucky: on Desmodium paniculatum L. DC in Henry County and on Lespedeza virginica (L.) Britton in Logan County. No-choice feeding trials using female beetles and six species of legumes revealed significant leaf disk consumption after 50 hrs on all plant species. Females with narrow lateral yellow markings on the elytra were significantly larger in body size than all-black females and consumed more leaf area. The yellow-margined females appear to represent a transitional form between two previously recognized subspecies, suggesting that the current subspecies taxonomy for P. nigricornis (Say) needs re-evaluation.

CYP1A Expression in Caged Rainbow Trout Discriminates Among Sites with Various Degrees of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Contamination

It has become increasingly apparent that resident fish can develop resistance to chemicals in their environment, thus compromising their usefulness as sentinels of site-specific pollution. By using a stream system whose resident fish appear to have developed pollutant resistance (Brammell et al., Mar Environ Res 58:251-255, 2005), we tested the hypothesis that the pollutant-inducible biomarker, cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A), as measured in field-caged juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), would reflect relative pollution differences between reference and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated sites. Trout were caged in the Town Branch/Mud River system (Logan County, KY), a stream system undergoing remediation for PCBs. Fish were held in remediated (Town Branch), unremeditated (Mud River), and reference sites for 2 weeks during spring 2002. At the end of this period, gill and hepatic CYP1A expression were measured. To evaluate the relative PCB exposure of caged trout and provide a reference point against which to calibrate CYP1A response, PCB levels were quantified in sediments from each site. Hepatic CYP1A expression in caged trout clearly detected the presence of PCBs in the Town Branch/Mud River stream system. Sediment PCB levels and hepatic CYP1A expression in caged trout produced identical pollution rankings for the study sites. Gill CYP1A expression, although suggestive of site differences, was not statistically different among sites. Unlike resident fish, which failed to show site differences in hepatic CYP1A expression in this waterway (Brammell et al. 2005), caged fish proved to be a sensitive discriminator of relative PCB contamination in this system. In summary, we determined that CYP1A expression in caged fish reflected relative in situ pollutant exposure. The exposure paradigm confirmed that 2 weeks was a sufficient caging period for evaluating CYP1A response in this species at these temperatures (13-19 degrees C). In addition, these studies demonstrate that tissue-specific CYP1A expression can provide insights into likely routes of exposure. We conclude that CYP1A expression in caged trout is a reliable and inexpensive first-pass determination of relative environmental pollutant exposure and bioavailability in aqueous systems.

First Record of Anomoeodus (Osteichthyes: Pycnodontiformes) from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk of Western Kansas

We describe the first occurrence of the Late Cretaceous pycnodont fish referred to Anomoeodus cf. A. barberi Hussakof, from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk in western Logan County, Kansas. The specimen is an incomplete right prearticular tooth plate that was surface collected from the upper Smoky Hill Chalk (lower Campanian), and represents the second and the youngest occurrence of Anomoeodus from Kansas. The addition of this taxon to the fauna of the Smoky Hill Chalk increases the total number of pycnodont taxa to four, bony fish taxa to 56, and total fish taxa to 72.

First Report of Dollar Spot of Buffalograss Caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa in Oklahoma.

Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.) is a perennial, warm-season grass native to the central plains of North America and a dominant plant over much of the shortgrass prairie ecosystem. Its prostrate growth habit and excellent drought tolerance make it a commercially promising turfgrass species, and numerous turf-type cultivars have been released. In the spring of 2007, the southern plains states experienced prolonged periods of excessive precipitation during which numerous buffalograss swards throughout north-central Oklahoma exhibited symptoms of dollar spot (1). A fungus morphologically identical to Sclerotinia homoeocarpa Bennett was consistently isolated from diseased buffalograss leaves collected from three locations in Oklahoma, two from Payne County and one from Logan County. Thirty-day-old seedlings of B. dactyloides ('Cody' and 'Topgun') and Agrostis stolonifera ('SR1020') were inoculated by placing potato dextrose agar (PDA) plugs, colonized by mycelia of each S. homoeocarpa isolate, onto the seedlings' leaves. Sterile PDA plugs were placed on plants as controls. Leaf lesions developed after 4 days only on inoculated plants, and S. homoeocarpa was reisolated from lesions, satisfying Koch's postulates. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified from DNA extracted from cultures of the three buffalograss isolates and a bentgrass isolate using primers ITS4 and ITS5 (2) and sequenced. Sequences were similar to one another (97 to 99% identical), however, two isolates shared a 420-bp, type I intron in the 18S small subunit rDNA. A search of GenBank at NCBI found the ITS sequences were most similar to the ITS regions of other S. homoeocarpa accessions (97% identical). The ITS sequences from the four isolates were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. EU123800-EU123803). To our knowledge, this is the first report of dollar spot on a native, warm-season grass in the United States and the disease appears to be endemic to buffalograss in Oklahoma and Kansas (N. A. Tisserat, personal communication).

New stratigraphic records (Albian-Campanian) of Rhinobatos sp. (Chondrichthyes; Rajiformes) from the Cretaceous of Kansas

Guitarfish (Rhinobatidae) are a conservative group of extant rays with worldwide distribution and a fossil record that extends as far back as the Jurassic (Toarcian). Modern representatives of the family inhabit shallow tropical and sub-tropical waters, at depths less than 200 m, as well as some fresh water environments. Although complete specimens are known, the most abundant fossil remains are small, isolated teeth (less than 2 mm, measured mesiodistally). In North America, the earliest record of Rhinobatos sp. is from Lower Cretaceous (Lower Albian) of Texas. Rhinobatos sp. has been reported from Cretaceous rocks in other areas of the U.S. Western Interior including the Albian-Campanian of Texas, the Turonian and Santonian of Kansas, Cenomanian of Nebraska, Cenomanian and Turonian of New Mexico and South Dakota, and Coniacian of Saskatchewan, Canada. Recent discoveries of Rhinobatos incertus teeth from the Upper Albian to the Lower Campanian in the Cretaceous of Kansas document a reasonably continuous presence of the species in a variety of marine environments within the Western Interior Sea. New Kansas records of R. incertus teeth are from: McPherson County, Kiowa Shale (Upper Albian); Russell County, Dakota - Graneros Shale contact (Middle Cenomanian); Jewell County, Codell Sandstone (Middle Turonian), and; Trego County, Smoky Hill Chalk (Upper Coniacian) and Logan County, Smoky Hill Chalk (Lower Campanian).

Alleged Evil Genius: The Life and Times of Judge James H. Ferguson (review)

Reviewed by: Alleged Evil Genius: The Life and Times of Judge James H. Ferguson Paul D. Casdorph Alleged Evil Genius: The Life and Times of Judge James H. Ferguson. By Kenneth R. Bailey. (Charleston, WV: Quarrier Press, 2006. Pp. xiii, 210.) Professor Kenneth R. Bailey has produced a significant addition to West Virginia historiography with his excellent biography of Judge James Harvey Ferguson. With scholarly depth and good craftsmanship his study brings to life a little-known mover in the legal, political, and economic life of the state throughout much of the nineteenth century. In addition to his successful political career extending over fifty-two years, the self-taught Ferguson developed into one of the best lawyers ever produced in the state. Bailey tells the reader up front that his study "does not challenge earlier works but brings to light the life and works of a man whose contribution to the state's history has been under reported and largely ignored." After arriving in the Cabell County town of Barboursville in 1835 from cismontane Virginia, Ferguson worked as a cobbler and studied law until his 1840 admission to the bar. He served as jailor for Cabell County and then was appointed prosecuting attorney for Logan County in 1845, a post he held until 1848 when he won a seat in the Virginia legislature. His political stature grew considerably during 1850-1851 when he became one of three delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention from a district composed of Cabell, Mason, Putnam, Boone, and Logan Counties. Although Ferguson suffered financially while away from his legal practice during the extended stay in Richmond, he was able to rub shoulders with numerous prominent men. He had been reelected to the legislature in l850 which limited his participation in the convention, but he wholeheartedly supported the new constitution of 1851 which granted the franchise to all white males over the age of twenty-one and brought other reforms sought by the western counties. Although never a slave owner himself, he generally took a pro-slavery position throughout the pre-Civil War era. A genuine mystery engulfed Ferguson in the 1850s when he abruptly disappeared from western Virginia–probably bound for the West. Wild speculation from an association with Brigham Young to another woman surrounded his absence before and after the event. Ferguson, who would never discuss the matter, just as suddenly returned to Barboursville and hung out his shingle in April 1864. The author thinks "there will never be a definitive answer to his disappearance." Ferguson was elected judge of a district encompassing Cabell, Wayne, Lincoln, Logan, and Boone Counties in 1868 on the Unionist ticket, and, though he served but eighteen months, he was known for the rest of his life [End Page 104] as "Judge Ferguson." Despite financial troubles ending in bankruptcy, by 187l he had relocated in Charleston where he formed a legal practice with John E. Kenna, a congressman and later U.S. senator from West Virginia. He not only joined lawyers W. A. Quarrier and E. Willis Wilson (afterwards governor) in deflecting a legal challenge to permanent location of the capitol in Charleston, but he also began to amass a considerable fortune by representing New York bankers in complicated court proceedings over vast land holdings in the state. Ferguson was able to build still-standing "Grand View," a private home overlooking the Kanawha River and downtown Charleston. Further tenure in the West Virginia legislature ensued until 1891 when he won election for the last time, and where he generally took positions easing restrictions on former Confederates who sought reintegration into the state's political and economic fabric. Political and legal associations with men such as William A. McCorkle, Henry Gassaway Davis, Collis P. Huntington, and Johnson Newlon Camden, the latter an associate of the Rockefellers, enabled Ferguson to enhance his reputation. In short, he became "the Alleged Evil Genius of the West Virginia Democracy." Bailey asserts that "his years in the political arena placed him in a leadership role in the Democratic Party as it fought to wrest control of West Virginia from the Republicans following the Civil War." A long running struggle with alcohol led to his unsuccessful...

Lithic Analysis of an Early Archaic Knapping Area

Archaeological excavations at 15LO207 in Logan County, Kentucky documented a lithic reduction area associated with an Early Archaic Kirk Corner Notched component. High densities of flake debris were recovered, along with biface production failures, from this area. Analysis of these materials indicated that lithic manufacture focused on the reduction of early stage bifaces of the local Ste. Genevieve chert into late stage bifaces. These bifaces were transported elsewhere for further reduction and use. In addition, data indicate a staged approach to biface reduction for the Early Archaic.

Possible burrows of mylagaulids (Rodentia: Aplodontoidea: Mylagaulidae) from the late Miocene (Barstovian) Pawnee Creek Formation of northeastern Colorado

The massive siltstone beds of the late Miocene (Barstovian) Pawnee Creek Formation in Logan County, northeastern Colorado, contain abundant terrestrial vertebrate burrows. Among these are distinctive claw-marked burrows attributable to the extinct mylagaulid rodent Pterogaulus [= Mylagaulus] laevis Korth, 2000. These burrows differ in several respects from the spiraling Daemonelix burrows of fossorial beavers. The Pawnee Creek burrows are slightly ovate in cross-section, tubular, and sinuous rather than helical. They consist of primary tunnels of up to at least 7 m long and range from 11 to 18 cm in diameter. They occasionally branch into secondary tunnels. Burrow walls and terminations show prominent, parallel ridges in sets of two to three, up to 9.3 mm deep and 3.7 mm wide. The burrows are too large to have been made by anything but a vertebrate, and their considerable length and complexity implies a mammalian excavator. The meandering, branching morphology resembles the burrow systems of extant fossorial rodents, such as pocket gophers ( Geomys) and mole rats ( Spalax, Myospalax). Skeletal remains of P. laevis are abundant at sites where the burrows occur, with at least eight individuals represented by humeri in a collected sample. Although mylagaulid remains are not unequivocally associated with fossil burrows, the curved, laterally compressed claws and phalangeal arrangement of mylagaulids produce marks very similar in size and morphology to the ridges on the burrows. Position and pattern of the ridges indicate downward-and-backward motions of the mani, possibly supplemented by motions of the pedes to kick loosened soil backward. A new ichnogenus, Alezichnos, and new ichnospecies, chelecharatos, are erected to describe these burrows.

Chasing the Answers to the Questions Sago Raised

ARTICLE Chasing the Answers to the Questions Sago Raised________________________ Anna Sale Many Americans had the day off—Monday, January 2, 2006. It was an extra day to celebrate the dawning of a new year. But not the miners at International Coal Group's Sago Mine in Upshur County, West Virginia. They headed underground at six in the morning. Just half an hour later, the mine exploded. Thick smoke filled the mine, poisoning the air. And thirteen men were missing underground. Over the next forty-one hours, mine rescue crews headed to Upshur County. The families waited at the Sago Baptist Church. The media descended . The top executives of International Coal Group updated the world about the effort to bring the men out alive. I followed the saga from afar, from a newsroom in Charleston. I searched the records of regulatory agencies and business filings in the hours between updates from the company. Then, I stayed up through the night at home, waiting for a resolution. Like so many others, I went to sleep comforted by the flashing TV graphics that twelve of the thirteen men were alive. But a few hours later, I awoke to a different version of events, leaving me first disoriented, then deeply upset. I wasn't alone. Unlike so many media spectacles, the headlines continued after the dramatic climax. America needed them. This was no Quecreek, the mine search that ended in the heroic rescue of nine Pennsylvania miners in 2002. There was no closure. Instead of a madefor -TV ending, there was the botched communication and the dead bodies of twelve men. Instead of resolution, there was only the question —how could this have happened? In the process of chasing the answers, the world remembered coal mining. They paused to consider the long process of extraction, combustion and transmission that preceded the flickering images on their television. And they remembered Appalachia. Before long, though, that spotlight dimmed. Updates on Randall McCloy, Junior, and the mourning of a community moved to later in the broadcast and further back in the newspaper. Then, less than three weeks after the Sago explosion, I was on the road, heading southfrom Charleston, to watch as another tortuous waitunfolded. 67 In Logan County, just like in Upshur County three weeks before, there was the church of anxious families holding vigil, the encampments of media satellite trucks, and the briefings that didn't come soon or often enough. And the deaths of two more men. It was nearly inconceivable that we'd all be in the same position again, but it served as an emphatic reminder that it was too soon to move on. Then again, as an added insult, two separate mine accidents on the first day of February, and two more West Virginia miners dead. At press time, many of the facts surrounding the deadly accidents are not known. Speculation is whirling, but for now, it's not known what caused the accidents, or how preventable they were. Nevertheless , investigative reporters within and outside the region have done a laudable job sketching the broader context surrounding the disasters. And it's clear that like any historical moment that suddenly demands the public's attention, the deaths of fourteen miners have unearthed economic, social, and political trends that have been decades in development. Front and center in the story is the current market for coal. After bust-and-bust cycles through much of the 1980s and 1990s, the current coal boom has made coal a good investment. Case in point, the Sago Mine. International Coal Group bought the mine last year, after Sago's previous owner had struggled to stay out of bankruptcy. It's a newly-formed public company, a hybrid of management that knew coal and outside money and that liked the odds of a market rebound. Its cash comes from billionaire New York investor Wilbur Ross. Its CEO is Ben Hatfield, a career coal executive who'd previously worked for Arch Coal and Massey Energy. He's a native of eastern Kentucky, and coal's a family affair. His twin brother headed Martin County Coal when one of its impoundments failed, spilling 350 million gallons of coal slurry...

First Report of Ergot of Bermudagrass Caused by Claviceps cynodontis in Oklahoma.

During late June and early July of 2005, signs of bermudagrass ergot were reported from numerous northern and eastern counties in Oklahoma. Signs were observed primarily on forage-type bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.), as well as bermudagrass turf. During the "honeydew" stage, honeydew was frequently observed exuding from most of the ovaries of infected inflorescences. These signs of ergot have been observed previously on bermudagrass in Oklahoma and Texas (1). Sphacelia-type conidia were abundantly produced during the honeydew stage and were single-celled, hyaline, averaged 14 × 5 μm in size, and were reniform to allantoid in shape. When streaked on water agar, conidia produced terminal holoblastic secondary conidia. Single-spore cultures were isolated from the honeydew of bermudagrasses from Logan and Muskogee counties in Oklahoma and grew slowly as white mycelium on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Koch's postulates were fulfilled for these two isolates by spray inoculating four bermudagrass inflorescences at anthesis with mycelium scraped from a PDA plate and homogenized in water. Control plants' inflorescences were sprayed with a water suspension of a similar amount of sterile PDA as inoculated plants. Plants were placed inside plastic bags to maintain humidity and incubated in a growth chamber at 22°C (14-h photoperiod) and 20°C (10 h of darkness). After 9 days, honeydew exuded from the inoculated inflorescences, but not from the controls. Single-spore cultures were reisolated from the honeydew, and conidia streaked on water agar formed identical secondary conidia. The complete nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified from DNA extracted from honeydew and single-spore cultures using the ITS4 and ITS5 primers (4) and sequenced. All sequences were identical and a search of GenBank at NCBI found these sequences were most similar to the ITS regions of Claviceps cynodontis Langdon (100%, Accession No. AJ557074) and C. maximensis Theis (99%, Accession No. AJ133396). The ITS sequence from the Logan County isolate was deposited at Gen-Bank (Accession DQ187312). The morphology, secondary conidiation, and ITS sequences identify the causal fungus as C. cynodontis (2) and differentiate it from C. purpurea (Fr.) Tul., the previously identified cause of bermudagrass ergot (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. cynodontis on bermudagrass in Oklahoma and may represent a recent introduction to the United States (2; S. Pažoutová and M. Flieger, personal communication). A Claviceps sp. isolated from bermudagrass has been shown to produce ergot alkaloids possibly causing "bermudagrass tremors" in cattle (3). In regions where bermudagrass is the predominant forage for livestock, the toxicological significance of bermudagrass ergot caused by C. cynodontis is unclear and requires further research.