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Newton mayor, and president of the Harvey County Economic Development Council, Rod Kreie gave a few numbers he compiled during the EDC annual meeting he believes shows the importance of the EDC’s work.

OAK HARBOR, Wash.

WICHITA — Food experts in Kansas say food waste is a growing problem in the state and solutions to food insecurity may lie within local connections.ICT Food Rescue executive director Stephanie Merritt, in a presentation Wednesday at the inaugural Kansas Local Food Summit in Wichita, said food waste and food insecurity are two concerns that go together.

TOPEKA — Kansas Republicans pressing to reform the Legislature’s annual budget-writing process want to displace governors from the lead role in proposing state spending changes, alter a Statehouse culture that embraced the three-day workweek, and make it difficult for lobbyists to slip special-interest earmarks into bills.House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republicans who formed an interim legislative committee to work on the budgeting overhaul, said the plan involved formation of a powerful permanent committee of a dozen or so legislators who would start work on a version of the state budget as much as three months before the legislative session began in January.

TOPEKA — More than 100,000 Kansans have lost health care coverage through the state’s Medicaid program since April 2023 after the rocky “unwinding” of pandemic-era protections, but the agency in charge of the review has seen progress recently based on incremental changes.The state’s review of eligibility for KanCare, as Medicaid is known in Kansas, was plagued by havoc in its early months.

Newton Fire/EMS is about to purchase a new truck to use in rural and wildfire operations, an water tender.