Reopening Kansas schools this fall is a gamble.  The COVID-19 new infections rate and death rate are still rising at this writing.  Will returning to school-site learning be safe?  Will it increase the spread of COVID-19? 

Today I received an anonymous letter with a screen shot showing two people debating the requirement of masks. Had the person chosen to sign the note, I would have been happy to discuss the topic.  In sum, it compared requirements for masks to reduce coronavirus spread to others with a theore…

Congratulations, Kansas. When all of the mail-in ballots are counted in the next few days, a historic number of you will have voted in the pandemic primary. It was an extraordinary display of democracy.

Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease is raging anew because corporate-serving public officials rushed to “open the economy,” causing more infections and deaths.

On the afternoon of Monday, Aug, 3, I became the recipient of generosity.  I had spent several hours doing some tree trimming and loading my pickup with that and other brush and trimmings that had accumulated since spring.  I then headed to the Cowley County Landfill.

Don Hineman is such a gentleman he still calls the man who booted him from his leadership position a friend.

I have been enamored for years with the Carnegie libraries that can be spotted in so many of the small towns off the Kansas backroads. They are all unique in their construction and choice of material. A few of them are still libraries. Many of them have been torn down and many more are being…

The stack grows a little higher every day, those oversized postcards that political consultants seem to love so much these days.

Once again the election rules and procedures have produced an anomaly that effectively blocks nearly two-thirds of an electorate's right to vote for their choice to represent them in an elective office. This time it is for the Cowley County Commission, District 2 and District 3. 

I have lost count of the number of, appliances, computers, cell phones and other pieces of equipment that I have had to lay aside, dispose of or replace for lack of repair parts. It seems I have a knack for purchasing equipment that becomes outdated minutes after I purchase it. 

Elections work best when campaigns highlight policy contrasts for voters. As the Republican primary for Senate in Kansas closes, this election has been a missed opportunity to discuss policy and force candidates on record about their policy views.

Our local school administrators, teaching staff, support teams and school boards should be thanked for their massive efforts to get schools ready to re-open next month. 

Bunny was literally between a rock and a hard place. Her hiking group, the Mountain Marching Mamas, had come to a steep rock cleft on the Appalachian Trail, a challenging granite ascent that Charme, Ellen, Mary, and Sylvia had traversed — but not Bunny.

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Derek Schmidt weighed in last week that Kansas school boards could likely sidestep Gov. Laura Kelly’s request that teachers, staff and students wear face masks in an effort to ward off the spread of COVID-19 when school resumes in the next month or two.

In less than two weeks, Kansas will face another coronavirus-related test: an election under pandemic conditions. How will we fare? That depends on state and county preparation, of course — but it also depends on voter preparation as well.

With fears looming around the current Covid-19 environment, remote classrooms and distance learning models have become a serious topic of discussion where some districts have already resorted to this option for their schools. While remote learning may seem like the “best” solution, it is har…

Questions have followed U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins from the campaign trail to Washington, D.C.

Working in public school finance was the most rewarding job I had. I watched as public money was being used to benefit the public. Every cent, whether upgrading and building schools, meeting demands of regular maintenance or, the most important, maintaining a good teaching staff, was spent f…

I can honestly say that the old saying “something  good comes out of a bad situation” is true to life. I think it is wonderful that Walmart employees finally get to spend Thanksgiving with their families. I always feel bad that Walmart employees have  to work on Thanksgiving Day while the ma…

The big decision of the past week was the governor’s delay of the start of public schools in Kansas, which strikes us as a prudent move.

COVID-19 update: Almost 22,000 cases, and 300 deaths in Kansas at the time of this writing. Kansas has seen a spike in cases, but death rates are not increasing proportionally. KDHE often speaks of clusters occurring around the state. A telephone call to KDHE revealed they count two cases as…

“WHAT DO you tell parents, who look at this, who look at Arizona where a schoolteacher recently died teaching summer school; parents who are worried about the safety of their children in public schools?” That was the question posed Monday to President Trump about teacher Kimberley Chavez Lop…