Barnett for Gov.

by RICK DANLEY // August 12, 2017 CHANUTE — The summer has hardly reached its down-curve and already a string of Kansas politicians are launching themselves across this imperfect rectangle in their 2018 run for governor. Topeka physician and former state senator Jim Barnett met with local residents and healthcare professionals at the Neosho Regional Medical … Continue reading Barnett for Gov.

Arts Ed

by RICK DANLEY // November 18, 2016 Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, a professor of music at Wichita State University and an amiable evangelist for the importance of the arts in public education, appeared before a small crowd in the recital hall at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center on Wednesday to make, as the title of his lecture … Continue reading Arts Ed

The Neosho

by RICK DANLEY // March 21, 2016 In the fall of 1911, President Taft was presented with a case of bottled water from the Iola Booster Club. Attached to each bottle was a label: “This bottle contains Neosho river water, nothing else. … We use this water on our streets, lawns, tables. We drink it, … Continue reading The Neosho

Shauna

by RICK DANLEY // July 15, 2016 In 2003, Shauna Berntsen entered Allen Community College on a softball scholarship. Not long after Valentine’s Day of that year, her enrollment was annulled and the 19-year-old was deployed to Iraq. She had completed basic training the previous year, but had hoped to postpone active duty service until … Continue reading Shauna

God in Neosho Falls

by RICK DANLEY // February 17, 2015 NEOSHO FALLS — Sitting at a long table beneath the fluorescent lights of the Senior Center in Neosho Falls, Thelma Bedenbender, 84, searches for something amid a pile of papers. While she does that, the Rev. Russell Anderson, the soft-spoken, genial pastor of the town’s United Methodist Church, … Continue reading God in Neosho Falls

On Brownback

by RICK DANLEY // April 22, 2015 CHANUTE — Having heard that Gov. Sam Brownback would be addressing a group of business leaders Tuesday morning at a reception hall in downtown Chanute, four participants from the local Circles Out of Poverty program assembled outside the building’s entrance to protest the substance of recent legislation. Their … Continue reading On Brownback

The Kamangas

by RICK DANLEY // January 2, 2015 HUMBOLDT — In 2008, as Thabo Mbeki was entering his final year as president of South Africa, the country was still feeling its way toward a racially integrated economy after decades of apartheid rule. Mining — gold, platinum, diamonds — remained the country’s industrial backbone. And Sandvik, a … Continue reading The Kamangas