For the first time in a long time, I won’t have to spend a Saturday defrosting an upright freezer in anticipation of the local meat processer calling to say our half steer is ready for…

New data show that more U.S. women are dying from alcohol than ever before. Public health authorities need to adopt more effective strategies to help women realize when their drinking is a problem. Considering the…

By now, you’ve likely read or heard about the police raid on the Marion County Record this past Friday. It’s all over the news, here in Kansas, across the nation and even internationally. I’ve just…

At the age of 92, attorney and activist Clarence Jones reminds us of the life Martin Luther King Jr. might have enjoyed if he had been a simple church pastor or a seminary professor. Jones,…

It’s common for American presidents to grow in our estimation over time. Decisions once deemed unwise can look wiser or prescient with the perspective of decades. Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ulysses S.…

Not long ago, I moved from a tiny town to a small city of about 8,000 people in central Illinois to be closer to the action. You know: band concerts, ice cream socials, veterans’ sandwich…

County commissioners voiced interest in recycling at their meeting Tuesday.  Of tires and electronics. That’s certainly a blow to local volunteers who for the last year have been pleading with city and county officials to…

When Georgia O’Keeffe moved to New Mexico in 1929, she spent a month at the Taos ranch of novelist D. H. Lawrence. For portions of each day, she lay down on an old bench beneath…

Public officials’ actions can be flawed or a fraud. Yet some people applaud. June 12, Salina’s city commission offered a prime example. A routine proclamation was read and signed by the mayor. It recognized Pride…

After decades of decline, fatal traffic crashes increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s traffic deaths are falling harder and harder on bicyclists and pedestrians. In Kansas, pedestrian deaths increased 261%, from 18 in 2019 to…