I’m becoming more and more certain that Volodymyr Zelensky and I are cousins. As my father, who was born in Ukraine, often said when he uttered one of his ironclad dictums — e.g., you can’t…

In 1805, when the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the border of what is now North Dakota and Montana, they found herds of American buffalo so numerous, “the whole face of the country was covered”…

While over 80% of the land area across Kansas qualifies as rural, the population of our state — which is mostly concentrated in about 10 of the state’s 105 counties — is increasingly urban, something…

I saw Rosalynn Carter angry only twice. Both occasions involved Ronald Reagan, who had crushed Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, and both reflected her passion and decency. The first concerned a free public swimming…

On Monday I had a wide-ranging conversation with Sarah Haney, the Register’s new reporter who began last week.  Our discussion was very different from that of a job interview. This time, I could ask her…

It is a surreal state, padding to the kitchen to blend a smoothie, while less than 25 miles away the ground is poised to split open and swallow a village. The wild prospect — too…

More than a year ago, Iola council members voted 7-0 to extend water, electric and streets in the Cedarbrook Addition and followed through last spring by committing $1.7 million to the project with the goal…

A couple of weeks ago, a young crowd in Shanghai came out in force to celebrate Halloween. The street where I live filled with revelers dressed in a range of elaborate costumes — as the…

In the time Sam Brownback was our senator, and later governor, I’ve been to dozens of his speeches. But I never saw him deliver a sermon before.  I did Friday, at the Wichita Pachyderm Club. …

On Oct. 8, President Biden ordered a fleet of military ships and an aircraft carrier closer to the war between Israel and Hamas. Days later, he ordered a second carrier group to steam into the…