At Monday night’s political forum Rep. Kent Thompson warned those upset with school finance, or the lack thereof, to sit tight.Better to wait out the two-year block grant funding method enacted last year than to…

One issue that begs revisiting by legislators this year is a measure passed in 2015 that limits how much cities and counties can spend monies garnered from property taxes.The new law, which was to be…

A scandal back in 1957 changed the way judges to the Kansas Supreme Court are appointed.Known as the “triple play,” the cover-up involved the state’s governor, lieutenant governor and chief justice of the Kansas Supreme…

What on earth, asked a friend, is a haint.Genesis of the question was me cautioning him not to rap his knuckles on the wall. Why? came the response. Because my grandmother, born and raised in…

You wouldn’t know Gov. Sam Brownback was addressing Kansans Tuesday night in his annual address.He didn’t mention the budget and its projected $190 million shortfall for fiscal year 2017. Not a whisper of Osawatomie State…

Allen County commissioners annually strive to keep property tax levies in check. They often spend several meetings dissecting the coming year’s budget, looking for fiscal efficiencies and ensuring that money spent is done so wisely.The…

This year, Kansas legislators want nothing more than to lay low.And get re-elected.And they’ve been very smart about how they can make that happen through, since 2013, the implementation of a two-year budget, which, they…

Next week the legislative session begins for Kansas. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep better tabs on what goes on in Topeka and to let my representatives know my thoughts on matters.To…

In late July 2013, a man wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap robbed Great Southern Bank in downtown Iola. He darted away. Surveillance cameras in the bank’s lobby captured images, but the man was…

Over the weekend, 47 men were executed in Saudi Arabia for allegedly instigating violence. Most were beheaded, the others shot by a firing squad.Of those, was Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric in Saudi Arabia who…