“Current State Farm driving data and claims experience show a considerable decline in miles driven and fewer accidents,” said Stephanie Mollica, State Farm Agency Vice President. “As a result, we’re looking for ways to continue supporting our Kansas customers while we monitor and adjust to trends.”

In addition to the auto rate reduction, the discount for participating in Drive Safe & Save™ is increasing to 10%, and empowers drivers to save more on their auto premiums through driving behaviors.

Rate changes are subject to regulatory approval. Customer rate reductions will vary based on their individual renewals. Customers are encouraged to visit with their State Farm agent about individual policies, coverage and any opportunities for discounts, including Drive Safe & Save.

Rodgers (Green Bay Packers quarterback) remains the target of the one-sided rivalry between his on-screen sports agent Gabe Gabriel and real-life State Farm Agent Patrick Minnis. This season, Gabe introduces his new client Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback) in an attempt to one-up his rival agent.

“I’ve been involved in a few different campaigns over the years with State Farm, but this latest is one of my favorites," Rodgers said. "It’s been fun to see how these agents of mine try and out do each other. And, having Patrick (Mahomes) making a few cameos will be a nice surprise for the fans.”

Gabe's attempt to make Aaron jealous by bringing on last year’s MVP is futile. Throughout the various ads, Gabe tries to show his value. Instead, he sets up the State Farm agent who demonstrates how helpful and understanding State Farm can be.

“I’m pumped to be working with State Farm and Aaron," Mahomes said. "I’ve been a big fan of their ads for years, so it’s really exciting to be joining the team.”

The ads will run on broadcast, social media, radio, and elsewhere until the conference championship games which start Jan. 19, 2020.

DDB Chicago created the “Agent vs. Agent” campaign. It shows how State Farm is Here to help life go right®. It offers the care of an agent who knows you, matched with technology that makes doing business easier.

In the News:

• Forbes - Exclusive: Aaron Rodgers has new MVP 'Mahomie' in State Farm ads (09/05/19)

“At State Farm, we are committed to offering customers the highest quality products and services at competitive prices,” said State Farm Senior Vice President Phillip Hawkins. “This homeowners rate reduction in Kansas is a result of improved trends and positions us to deliver on our mission to help more people in more ways.”

The rate decrease is effective August 15 for new business and October 1 for renewals.

Overall changes in premiums for individual homeowners will vary depending on the specific details of an individual customer’s policy and chosen coverages. Customers with questions can contact their local State Farm agent to discuss their individual situation.

In addition to this rate reduction, State Farm agents are able to review with new and existing customers the many opportunities for additional discounts that may apply to an individual’s unique circumstances. A rate decrease combined with discounts offers an exceptional long-term value to State Farm customers.

Combined with a previous rate decrease in 2018, State Farm Mutual has reduced auto rates in Kansas by 5.8 percent over the last year, bringing the total savings to Kansas drivers to $20 million.

“We’re always evaluating how we can best serve our customers and are very pleased to be able to offer this rate decrease in Kansas,” said State Farm Senior Vice President Phillip Hawkins. “Improving expenses and losses were important factors, among many, that supported our decision to make this rate change.”

Overall changes in premiums for individual motorists will vary depending on the specific details of an individual customer’s policy and chosen coverages. The effective date for new and renewal business is May 13, 2019. Kansas customers with questions can contact their local State Farm agent to discuss their individual situation.

In addition to this rate reduction, State Farm agents are able to review with new and existing customers the many opportunities for additional discounts that may apply to an individual’s unique circumstances. A rate decrease, combined with discounts, offers exceptional long-term value to State Farm customers.

Jamie is entering the ring with Farm Bureau Financial Services Agent Derrick Hodam to encourage more donations to the nonprofit that fills the shelves of seven local food banks in the Topeka area.

“Every year, Project Topeka does a February food drive launch because the shelves are depleted after the holidays,” Jamie, who is the food drive campaign chair for Project Topeka, says. “They were looking at doing things differently this year and wanted someone to be a community cheerleader. That’s where I come in.”

Jamie brainstormed how she could make the food drive bigger and better. What better way to do that than turn it into a competition? Insurance agent versus insurance agent.

“Let’s put our competitor right up there next to us,” Jamie says. “Why not? It benefits the local economy. We employ people in the community, sponsor local Little League teams and promote food drives. What could we do to bring more to Project Topeka?” she asks. “Let’s do something funny and fun. I wanted to do an agent face-off – Farm vs. Farm. Two community members. It all came together perfectly.”

Her rival, Derrick, was on-board from the start. The two agents made a video promoting the face-off. Imagine this: two insurance agents getting ready to rumble, throwing it all down for a chance to win the glory of donating the most food and money to Project Topeka.

“The more reach we can get, the more we can educate on hunger and how it affects children and the elderly,” Jamie says. “We all win, and that’s important. If somebody calls me about insurance because of the video, that’s a win for me, too, but not the goal.”

At the food drive kickoff event, Jamie began by talking about the barrels located in the community to drop off food. Then she pretended the two agents didn’t have the whole competition planned and called Derrick out in front of everyone.

“I said, ‘Aren’t you an insurance agent for the Farm Bureau? Derrick, I’m going to call you out.’ People in the audience gasped, and then we played the video and everyone started laughing,” Jamie says.

Jamie likes having fun, but she likes promoting good causes even more.

“I want to do these things in our community because it makes my heart happy. Being out there and helping the community helps me become better known as an agent, too,” she says. “Being involved in local nonprofits is a way to have an impact. We like to win, have fun and be involved. I like being part of this community.”

Jamie and Derrick are going into Round Two of their battle, which will end April 30.

State Farm sponsored assist patrols in 18 states help keep the nation’s highest-trafficked roadways safe and clear. They reduce congestion, help stranded motorists, and provide traffic control and safety at incident scenes.

Safety patrols are operated by state departments of transportation and toll road authorities. They are known by a variety of names in 40 states. Their free services include changing flat tires, providing a jump-start or small amount of gasoline, and minor safety repairs.

“The safety patrols embody our ‘good neighbor’ philosophy and underscore our commitment to auto safety,” said Ed Gold, advertising director. “They help people recover from the unexpected, which is the heart of the State Farm mission.”

State Farm sponsorship helps increase coverage areas and raises awareness about the patrols. This helps the motoring public feel more secure when traveling the nation’s interstate system. Sponsored highway signs mark coverage areas. The bright red State Farm reflective markings also improve patrol vehicle visibility.

State Farm sponsors the safety patrols in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

State Farm has been committed to roadway safety since its founding in 1922. The company seeks to increase the safety of all drivers and passengers from infancy to the driver’s seat.

*Safety Service Patrol Priorities and Best Practices: USDOT Federal Highway Federal Highway Administration, April 2017

“The company’s current financial strength is allowing us to pass along a rate reduction to our Kansas customers," said State Farm Senior Vice President Phillip Hawkins. “We continually evaluate how we can best serve our customers and are very pleased to be able to offer this rate decrease in Kansas.”

Overall changes in premiums for individual motorists will vary depending on the specific details of an individual customer’s policy and chosen coverages. The effective date for new and renewal business is October 15, 2018. Kansas customers with questions can contact their local State Farm agent to discuss their individual situation.

In addition to this rate reduction, State Farm agents are able to review with new and existing customers the many opportunities for additional discounts that may apply to an individual’s unique circumstances. A rate decrease combined with discounts offers an exceptional long-term value to State Farm customers.

That’s not the case with dyslexia.

The learning disability is best known as children reading letters out of order. But, it is actually a disability where readers have trouble matching the letters they see with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. This affects a child’s ability to read fluently, spell words correctly, learn a second language and much more.

Many teachers do not receive education or specific cues to look for when it comes to dyslexia, and therefore numerous children progress through the education system struggling with reading and writing their entire lives.

This was the case for Nick and Katie Reed’s children.

“Our youngest was 4 when we first noticed she was having trouble. She turned out to be severely dyslexic,” says Katie, who works in her husband’s office. He is a State Farm® agent  in Shawnee, Kan. “In preschool, the students would work on one letter all week, and she would have no idea what the letter was at the end of the week. We were reading and practicing at home and nothing was clicking. Everything else was developing on track, but something about letters wasn’t clicking.”

Katie began doing research. She found a specialist in learning disabilities to see her daughter, Josie. After further testing and assessing, Josie was deemed at a high risk for dyslexia.

“We started reading about it and went to the school district expecting them to help us on this journey. The school district said they weren’t able to help because she technically doesn’t need to know her letters until kindergarten,” Katie says.

At this time, Katie and Nick began to realize their older son, Spencer, was showing signs of dyslexia. Dyslexia is hereditary and if one child has it, there’s a 50 percent chance another child will be diagnosed. Spencer was taken to the same specialist and he was diagnosed dyslexic.

“We brought that information to the school and they still said just because you have a diagnosis, doesn’t mean the student needs help. Basically, your kid has to be failing in order to get help,” Katie says.

Nick adds, “Dyslexia isn’t something you can see like other disabilities. They have to have parameters around it – they could just be slow learners, not dyslexic. This brought on the question, as a parent, do we wait for them to fail or do we do something to fix it without support of the state school board?”

In November 2017, Nick and other State Farm associates met with Kansas Rep. Tom Cox to discuss insurance legislation. During that conversation, Nick discovered he and Katie faced a similar struggle with the representative. Tom struggled with mild dyslexia as a child. He agreed to co-author and introduce legislation to address the issue of dyslexia. Instead of immediate legislation, a task force was created.

The Kansas Dyslexia Legislative Task Force began meetings this month. Findings and recommendations are expected in January 2019.

“I had a first grade teacher who noticed I was struggling to read out loud and called my parents. My parents were lucky they had the ability to get me tested,” says Tom. “I'm very conscious of the kids who don't have that. That's what led me to work on this and talk to parents like the Reeds. We need to make sure our teachers, parents and everyone is informed on this topic and identifying it early and creating a system, culture and structure in our education system that embraces that.”

Katie and Nick know they are lucky to have the ability to get their kids the support they need outside of their school district. “It’s expensive. There are families who don’t know about dyslexia and don’t know why their kids are struggling. They don’t have a strong advocate for them,” she says.

Nick adds, “Our family had been going through it for a couple years just to help our kids. We acknowledged that we had to do this ourselves. State Farm agents are part of their communities. This experience has shown that State Farm connections help not only with insurance issues, but people like us who identified a problem but didn’t know what to do.

“If there’s a call to action, I encourage my peers to be active in their communities. If there is something you see that needs to be changed, use your connections to start the process.”

The Reeds hope the task force will address appropriate screenings for teachers, tools for remediation, appropriate avenues to help children and ensure education majors in college have courses for teachers to help spot dyslexia and teach them how to work with dyslexic children in the classroom.

From coast to coast, people are joining together to encourage people to put down their phones and other distractions and drive during April.

One of them is Corporal Justin Noel of the Cherokee County, Kan., Sheriff’s Department.

Six years ago, Justin had an idea. He wanted to build a driving simulator on wheels to teach teen driver safety.

As a school resource officer, Justin’s goal was to help protect teens during that first year behind the wheel by giving them an interactive way to experience texting while driving via a driving simulator.

“I wanted something that would allow me to pull up at a school and let the students participate immediately without having to set up anything,” he says.

His idea started small. He asked the county school board for a bus to use as a driving simulator. They approved his request and gave him a small school bus that was no longer in use.

“It sat in my driveway for months because I didn’t have enough money to turn it into a driving simulator vehicle,” he says. “I got a few hundred dollar donations here and there but not enough to build it.”

A chance encounter with a State Farm^® representative at a Kansas Department of Transportation safety conference led to $32,500 in grants from the insurance company to The SEAT (Safer Education About Traveling) since 2012. This includes a $20,000 grant awarded in 2017 to replace the primary vehicle used for the SEAT programs.

Thanks to these grants, the SEAT bus and its texting and driving simulators travel the tri-state district of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

“Most schools send students out in groups to use the three simulators,” he says. “You can tell who plays video games and who does not but most of them get comfortable fairly quickly.”

Times have changed during his 18 years as a deputy. Driving distracted has grown with all the options available in vehicles. Phones, GPS screens, music, movies and other distractions take drivers’ eyes off the road.

“I tell these kids that, before cell phones, no one ever drove with their eyes in their lap,” he says.

For the texting simulator, Justin has one student “drive” while several others watch. Once the simulator begins, he sends a text message to the driver’s phone.

“They start texting and most of them will crash,” he says. “At first, they think they’ve got it down pretty good. But when they pick up that phone, they end up hitting a tree or veering off a cliff.”

SEAT works with 8th graders through high school and even college students. Justin says the 8^th graders do not know how to drive, the high school students know it’s dangerous to text and drive, and the college students may have gotten complacent and are impressed with the realistic simulators as reminders to drive safe.

“Most students are eager to try out the simulators,” he says. “Occasionally there will be a Donnie Downer who pretends that he’s too cool to try it but, in all likelihood, is embarrassed he’ll mess up. I tell them there’s no pressure. That usually works.”

“Without the grants from State Farm, that original bus would probably still be taking up space in my driveway instead of helping save lives of teen drivers,” Justin says. “I’m grateful to the company and the grants it has provided over the past six years.”

If weather conditions are likely to produce hail you can take steps around the home like moving cars, boats, RVs, lawn and patio furniture into a covered area.

Personal safety is a number one priority and if you are indoors when a hailstorm hits, stay there. Hail can shatter windows so close drapes, blinds or window shades in an attempt to reduce the amount of broken glass that might blow inside. Stay away from skylights and doors.

As a rural Kansas town deals with a tragedy, K-9 Tana and her handler, Kansas State Fire Marshal Chief Investigator Rose Rozmiarek, try to determine fact from fiction after a fatal home fire. Follow the story of K-9 Tana and other accelerant detection dogs from their training in Maine to careers and years of service in their communities as Arson Dogs.

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