It appears wealthy families in Johnson County owe a big “thank you” to many of Kansas legislators outside of the area. There have been several bills circulating through the Kansas Senate and House over the past few weeks that, if implemented, will shift millions of dollars in taxpayer funds from western parts of Kansas to Johnson County.
Both K–12 teachers and college professors are in major discussions over how to deal with the recently-released AI program that generates answers, essays and poetry upon request. However, Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) perhaps anticipated this situation in his classic “Gulliver’s Travels” released in 1726. While some youngsters today may remember reading excerpts from this tale, where Captain Gulliver ends up in countries where he is either a giant or a miniature dwarf, few will recall reading of his trip to the land of Lagano where he visits the Academy of Projectors and watches them use a machine called “The Engine.”
Anyone familiar with the plotline of the musical, Oklahoma, is aware of the possibilities for intrigue inherent in that favorite social custom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the box social, or basket social. With the ladies of the community preparing basket suppers, and the gentlemen bidding for the baskets and the company of the preparers, the possibilities were endless.
Dear Doctors: Our 7-year-old came home from school with an itchy eye. A few days later, all three of our kids, plus my husband and I, had pink eye. Our family doctor gave us antibiotic eyedrops, and it was gone in a few days. What causes pink eye? What can you do to keep it from spreading?
Now the Silicon Valley Bank has failed. As in 2008, we are warned other banks are “stressed.” Gee, who’d have thought? Interest rates were held near zero by the Fed for years, playing politics, driving money out of savings into the stock market.
The Kansas Legislature has been wading into areas where the waters are too deep for them, and they do not belong. Today, we’ll take a look at just one of those areas - and our stance on a bill will, initially, appear hypocritical.
On March 14, a Russian SU-27 fighter brought down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea. The exact details of where and how remain a mystery even after the release of drone video showing what appears to be a dump of jet fuel onto the drone, but those details don’t matter much. The incident mainly serves as an excuse for more ratcheting up of US-Russian tensions around the war in Ukraine.
After almost six years on the east coast, I’m moving back to Kansas this summer, which means I’ll soon be part of what Sarah Smarsh calls “the homecomers”: folks who return to — and fight for — the rural places they love.
Dear Doctors: What is the latest understanding, from a medical standpoint, about the safety of tattoos? I read about someone with a tattoo who received burns on his chest during an MRI. I also heard about tattoo ink interfering with X-ray results. Are these possible outcomes or simply urban legends?
Recently I attended the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Fusion Conference, which is a joint event between the Women’s, Programing & Education, and Young Farmers & Ranchers committees, in Jacksonville, Fla. One of my Collegiate Farm Bureau students won the state discussion meet and competed in the national event.