In September 2024, I spoke to former U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker for one of her last interviews. I didn’t know that at the time, of course. Kassebaum died Friday at age 94, nearly…

This August marks the twentieth anniversary of my family’s arrival in Kansas, after I was hired to teach at Friends University in Wichita. After two decades here, what have I learned? That’s a complicated question…

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly voted Tuesday morning, offering a laughing “halleleujah” when she was asked about seeing a ballot that didn’t have her name on it. “I have told you that I would never…

“To rule is easy, to govern difficult.” (Goethe) On August 4, Kansans have a watershed moment to narrow their party’s field for governor. Issues within the campaigns are well documented like property taxes, school funding,…

Kenny Rogers famously sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.”   This summer, two candidates for Kansas Governor…

TOPEKA — Intraparty skirmishing among Kansas Democratic gubernatorial candidates Ethan Corson, Cindy Holscher and Curt Skoog intensified as Gov. Laura Kelly pushed a new TV commercial reaffirming her preference of Corson ahead of the August…

In the classic 1972 film “Jeremiah Johnson,” a character tells the mountain man (Robert Redford) “A tribe’s greatness is figured on how mighty its enemies be.” The same is true in politics. And Vicki Schmidt…

TOPEKA — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said at a celebration Wednesday that she accomplished her “No. 1 priority” by opening the Kansas Office of Early Childhood. The office consolidates programs and staff from the state…

Imagine you need to buy groceries for dinner, but the meat is at one store, the produce at another and the bread somewhere else entirely. Most would give up before ever making it to a…

We wallow through late June, the long days alternating between prickling rain and sodden heat, news of the world outside obscured by the muggy haze of long weekends, summer vacations and evenings spent streaming “Widow’s…