Dear Doctors: I’ve recently been diagnosed with benign essential blepharospasm. Would you please explain what this is? How serious is it? Does it spread? I know it’s not deadly, but I’ve read that it can be debilitating, and I’m a little concerned about my future.
Recently, an amazing but rarely seen native Kansas bird has gained national attention. After years of measurable population decline, the lesser prairie chicken was listed under the Endangered Species Act as “threatened.”
The saying “April showers bring May flowers” is what runs through my mind every spring. It’s a saying that has held true for almost every year I have lived on our Kansas farm.
Between conservatives’ outrage after Budweiser partnered with a transgender influencer, liberals’ indignation after Dominion voting systems settled with Fox News, and Kansas legislators trying desperately to hand out tax breaks to big business, I have to wonder — since when have we given corporations so much power over how we feel and act?
Like a car racing along the interstate, exiting onto a highway, and finally reaching the family farm along a dusty gravel road, our blood circulates inside our bodies. There are the major blood vessels, such as the aorta running out of the heart, and there are the tiny capillaries allowing blood cells one at a time to carry oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in our bodies. The network of capillaries is so complex it is estimated there are over 40 billion in one person, and if stretched out in a single line they would cover over 100,000 miles.
They waited ‘til the midnight hour, almost, it was the evening of the final day of the 2023 legislative session when lawmakers compromised on school funding and school choice voucher bills. Republicans, Democrats, legislators from rural counties, and urbanites from up-scale Northeast suburbs had been arguing almost nonstop since January.
Our active duty U.S. Air Force needed 26,877 new airmen this last fiscal year. They only recruited 11,200. As a result, the Air Force Recruiting Service announced in early April that they have raised the maximum body fat for males from 20 to 26 percent, and for females from 28 to 36 percent. While the prior levels were within normal range, the new upper limits now allow in individuals who are obese as defined by the American Council on Exercise and graphed on a Body Mass Index.
Recently I was cleaning out the basement. Or trying to; having lived in this house since 1976, our basement has many distracting things in it. Anyway, early on I came across a manila envelope with some photographs of and a couple of newspaper clippings about Wayne Rogler, a prominent Flint Hills rancher, and that ended the basement cleaning for that day.
The press release received on Star Wars Day was welcomed, with a statement that was welcome to start the notice off. “Increasing active transportation opportunities across Kansas – whether walking, cycling, using a wheelchair, skateboarding, etc.
I recently attended the Veto Session Conversation hosted by the Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County and the Mainstream Coalition, where Gov. Laura Kelly’s recent vetoes of several disturbing bills were discussed. These bills targeted vulnerable Kansans, particularly the LGBTQ community, and neglected pressing issues affecting all Kansans.