A golden opportunity

The announcement came out of the blue Tuesday, like a bolt of lightning from a Kansas storm cloud. The Kansas Department of Agriculture's lease of the historic Mills Building in Topeka was set expire in September 2013 and the agency was shopping around for a new site for its headquarters.

Holy sweet tooth

There is a disturbing commercial on television for a leading national buffet-style restaurant chain. Basically, it advertises that the same dining establishment that brought their customers the endless chocolate fountain that oozes molten chocolate ad nauseam now offers unlimited cotton candy. One's blood sugar spikes just watching this ad.

Editorial cartoon of the day

Kicking the can

The State of Kansas has a website dedicated to the redistricting process. The home page reads as follows:

Take a shot

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that vaccine-preventable disease levels are at or near record lows, said Barton County Health Department Director Lily Akings. She and Public Health Nurse Melissa Hagerman will share this good news when they address the Barton County Commission Monday morning. They might gloat a little as well.

Way to go

Congratulations Great Bend and Barton County, you pulled it off this past very busy weekend.

Be vigilant

It seems to have become a major campaign issue – who is to blame for the high gasoline prices. Why hasn't the president done more to lower them? Why hasn't Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican challenger this fall, outlined a specific plan to bring the prices down? Drill more? Build more pipelines?

Editorial cartoon of the day

Spellebration

This week the 85th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in the Maryland Ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center south of Washington, D.C. All of the 278 contestants were "spellebrities" for the duration of the event, a scholastic Olympics of sorts.

Election year 2012: Politics imitates TV art?

The 2012 campaign season is shaping up as a possible "transformational" election, but not the kind that Barack Obama and many Democrats had in mind. It's a year when, if Democrats don't get their act together ASAP, they could suffer a trifecta of losses that will trigger further erosion of threatened New Deal and Great Society legacies and fulfill many conservatives' longtime dreams.

Cell phones should be outlawed while driving

e've all been driving down the highway and have seen a vehicle swerving wildly. Suddenly, we see a cell phone hanging out of the driver's ear-no more explanations needed.

A complex issue

The Great Bend City Council Monday night discussed the convention center, which it now owns, and the center's relationship with the adjacent and privately owned Highland Hotel

Remembrance

A day to say thanks

For many, Memorial Day signals the unofficial start of Summer. Kids are out of school, swimming pools are open and grills across America are sizzling with burgers and hot dogs. Area lakes are choked with boaters and the shorelines are packed with folks ready to usher in the season and work on their tans.

Maybe Obama needs to AT&T oil producers

Being older means being able to remember the interesting things in life- John and Yoko, "Pet Sounds", and "Stairway to Heaven" along with sit ins, Kent State and life-size David Cassidy posters. It means remembering being able to drive a 1970 Impala with a small block engine that could single handedly take a out telephone pole with a barely visible dent and that 13 people could actually fit in one. (It was okay, I was ...

Of pedals and petrol

A week ago Friday, cyclist Gail Kline of Salina was struck from behind and killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding. The driver, who was later found, left her to die beside the road.