The Black Panther Party the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a revolutionary political organization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California. The party was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982, with chapters in numerous major cities, international chapters in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, in Algeria from 1969 to 1972. At its inception on October 15, 1966, the Black Panther Party's core practice was its open carry armed citizens' patrols to monitor the behavior of officers of the Oakland Police Department and challenge police brutality in the city. In 1969, a variety of community social programs became a core activity; the Party instituted the Free Breakfast for Children Programs to address food injustice, community health clinics for education and treatment of diseases including sickle cell anemia, HIV/AIDS. Black Panther Party members were involved in many fatal firefights with police. Newton declared:Malcolm, implacable to the ultimate degree, held out to the Black masses... liberation from the chains of the oppressor and the treacherous embrace of the endorsed spokesmen.

Only with the gun were the black masses denied this victory. But they learned from Malcom that with the gun, they can recapture their dreams and bring them into reality. Huey Newton killed officer John Frey in 1967, Eldridge Cleaver led an ambush in 1968 of Oakland police officers, in which two officers were wounded and Panther Bobby Hutton was killed; the party suffered many internal conflicts, resulting in the murders of Alex Rackley and Betty Van Patter. In 1967, the Mulford Act was passed by the California legislature and governor Ronald Reagan, establishing strict gun laws that stripped legal ownership of firearms from Black Panther members and prevented all citizens and white, from carrying firearms in public. In 1969, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover described the party as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." He developed and supervised an extensive counterintelligence program of surveillance, perjury, police harassment, many other tactics, designed to undermine Panther leadership and assassinate party members and criminalize the Party, drain organizational resources and manpower.

The program was responsible for the assassination of Fred Hampton, is accused of assassinating other Black Panther members, including Mark Clark. Government persecution contributed to the party's growth, as killings and arrests of Panthers increased its support among African Americans and the broad political left, who both valued the Panthers as a powerful force opposed to de facto segregation and the military draft; the party enrolled the most members and had the most influence in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. There were active chapters in many prisons, at a time when an increasing number of young African-American men were being incarcerated. Black Panther Party membership reached a peak in 1970, with offices in 68 cities and thousands of members, but it began to decline over the following decade. After its leaders and members were vilified by the mainstream press, public support for the party waned, the group became more isolated. In-fighting among Party leadership, fomented by the FBI's COINTELPRO operation, led to expulsions and defections that decimated the membership.

Popular support for the Party declined further after reports of the group's alleged criminal activities, such as drug dealing and extortion of Oakland merchants. By 1972 most Panther activity centered on the national headquarters and a school in Oakland, where the party continued to influence local politics. Though under constant police surveillance, the Chicago chapter remained active and maintained their community programs until 1974; the Seattle chapter persisted longer than most, with a breakfast program and medical clinics that continued after the chapter disbanded in 1977. The Party continued to dwindle throughout the 1970s, by 1980 had just 27 members; the Party's history is controversial. Scholars have characterized the Black Panther Party as the most influential black movement organization of the late 1960s, "the strongest link between the domestic Black Liberation Struggle and global opponents of American imperialism". Other commentators have described the Party as more criminal than political, characterized by "defiant posturing over substance".

During World War II, tens of thousands of blacks left the Southern states during the Second Great Migration, moving to Oakland and other cities in the Bay Area to find work in the war industries such as Kaiser Shipyards. The sweeping migration transformed the Bay Area as well as cities throughout the West and North, altering the once white-dominated demographics. A new generation of young blacks growing up in these cities faced new forms of poverty and racism unfamiliar to their parents, they sought to develop new forms of politics to address them. Black Panther Party membership "consisted of recent migrants whose families traveled north and west to escape the southern racial regime, only to be confronted with new forms of segregation and repression". In the early 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement had dismantled the Jim Crow system of racial caste subordination in the South with tactics of non-violent civil disobedience, demanding full citizenship rights for black people. However, not much changed in the cities of the North and West.

As the wartime and post-war jobs which drew much of the black migration "fled to the suburbs along with white residents", the bl

George Edward Barr is an American science fiction and fantasy artist. Barr's work shows influences from Hannes Bok and Virgil Finlay; the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes him as one of the least appreciated SF/fantasy artists. His work is romantic and whimsical, his technique involves overlaying ink line work with pastel watercolors. Barr began his art career in 1960 by contributing artwork to various high-profile science fiction fanzines in fandom and for many years displaying and selling his artwork in the art shows of both regional science fiction conventions and at the annual World Science Fiction Convention. A collection of his professional fantasy and science fiction paintings, Upon the Winds of Yesterday and Other Explorations, was published by Donald M. Grant, Inc. in 1976. The volume debuted at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, where Barr was the convention's Fan Guest of Honor, along with Robert A. Heinlein, the convention's professional writer Guest of Honor.

Barr provided the full color wrap around dust jacket for the convention's hardcover program book. Since Barr has provided numerous black and white interior illustrations and dozens of full color covers for various professional science fiction magazines and for dozens of science fiction and fantasy book covers, he has illustrated Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game supplements, including 1987's Dragonlance Adventures, the Dungeon Master's Design Kit, several books in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks line. George Barr was born in Tucson, grew up in Salt Lake City and lived in Northern California. Clute, John; the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. P. 93. ISBN 0-312-13486-X; the Enchanted Thingamajig - official site Illustrated biography from Bud Plant site George Barr on DeviantArt Works by or about George Barr at Internet Archive George Barr at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database "George Barr at Pen & Paper". Archived from the original on March 10, 2005

National Weather Service – Topeka, Kansas is a local National Weather Service forecast office based in Topeka, the state capital of Kansas. Its offices are located near Philip Billard Municipal Airport, it provides weather and emergency information to 23 counties in north-central and east-central Kansas. Communities that rely on the Topeka Weather Office for forecasts and severe storm warnings include Abilene, Clay Center, Council Grove, Hiawatha, Junction City, Manhattan, Marysville and Topeka; the Topeka NWS Office operates five NOAA Weather Radio transmitters to provide timely weather forecasts, watches and statements to the public. All transmitters operate on 1000 Watts of power. WXK91, based in Maple Hill, broadcasts at 162.475 MHz and serves the following Kansas counties: Douglas, Jackson, Morris, Pottawatomie, Shawnee and Atchison§. § Atchison County falls under the responsibility of MO Forecast Office. WXK94, based in Concordia, broadcasts at 162.550 MHz and serves the following Kansas counties: Clay, Ottawa, Washington, Jewell§, Mitchell§.

§ Jewell and Mitchell counties fall under the responsibility of NE Forecast Office. WXL71, based in Abilene, broadcasts at 162.525 MHz and serves the following Kansas counties: Clay, Geary, Ottawa, Ellsworth§, Marion§, McPherson§, Saline§. § Ellsworth, Marion, McPherson and Saline counties fall under the responsibility of the Wichita, KS Forecast Office. KZZ67, based in Blue Rapids, broadcasts at 162.425 MHz and serves the following Kansas counties: Marshall, Pottawatomie and Washington. KGG98, based in Halls Summit, broadcasts at 162.425 MHz and serves the following Kansas counties: Anderson, Douglas, Lyon, Allen§, Chase§, Greenwood§, Woodson§. § Allen, Chase and Woodson counties fall under the responsibility of the Wichita, KS Forecast Office. Official NWS Topeka Website