Topeka joined the ranks last week in banning the sale of tobacco products to those under 21. That swells the total, including Iola, to 18 in Kansas. Altogether, 300 communities across 18 states have joined…

Kansas made national news Thursday night when PBS NewsHour reporter Paul Solman used us as a recent example of trickle-down economics.Solman, formerly of the Harvard Business School, regularly reports on business and economics news. In…

A Christmas letter to my friends who are poor: My Dear Ones,Please do not listen to this world. Please tell your children not to listen to this world.You are more valuable than the number of…

Anyone with a whit of propriety should reject Roy Moore in his bid come Tuesday to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate.Moore’s reported dalliances with six women when they were teenagers is unacceptable, plain and…

Those behind the “MeToo” movement were named Time Magazine’s collective Person of the Year on Wednesday.Called “The Silence Breakers,” the women and men have come forth with their personal tales of sexual harassment and abuse…

Of all things in life, we should be able to die in peace, take our last breaths in as comfortable circumstances as possible, free of temporal concerns.Unfortunately that’s not the case in Kansas, where a…

In the Middle Ages, if a young person fancied learning a trade, he or she would indenture themselves to a master.In exchange for learning skills such as blacksmithing, they promised seven years of work for…

President Trump has expressed confidence that the investigations into his presidential campaign and whether it colluded with Russia will wrap up soon.For the sake of the country, we hope so.To be overshadowed by such ominous…

This  is the time of year when we make plans to gather around a table, surrounded by family, and give thanks for the many things we have to be grateful for. It is a happy…

Tucked away in the middle of a 40-acre patch of brush and timber on the Allen-Neosho counties line stands a sycamore, its bark accentuated by dark splotches and limbs looking as though they suffer arthritis.The…