The Liberal Redskins football team will have a new face at the helm this coming fall with Joel Baker, and as he tells it, he is no stranger to the game.
“I'm originally from San Antonio, and I played for Smithson Valley, which is on the north side of San Antonio. After I graduated from high school, I went to Sul Ross State University, where I played college football,” Baker said. “After that, I've spent the past 33 coaching, 30 of which have seen me in Texas, and I've coached every level from Class A to 6A throughout that time. I actually retired in Texas, then made my way to New Mexico, and I've been in Hobbs, N.M. for the past three years, and they're a 6A school with 2,800 students, so it's pretty big.”
The patrons of Baker Arts Center have expressed interest in having more events in the center’s kitchen, and leaders at the center have answered with two events, both centered around the taste and pairing of adult beverages.
Following the success of its Wine Pairing Workshop last Friday, this coming Monday, Baker Arts, in conjunction with Tortuga Brewing Company, is giving beer lovers a chance to pair some of their favorite ale with food favorites as part of a Beer Flight Night called Flights & Flavors.
Baker Director Misty Martin recently met with Tortuga co-owner Shelly Williams to pick an assortment of beers and foods for patrons to pair up during what Martin promises to be a fun night to try some beers crafted at the brewery and the foods that go with them.
Salaries continue to be a big topic of discussion as Seward County returns to a Revenue Neutral Rate for Fiscal Year 2026.
At the county commission’s Feb. 19 regular meeting, Human Resources Director Angela Johnston brought a request to establish a baseline for starting wages for open positions at the county.
Part of the request was for a detention officer who began work Monday, Feb. 23, to start at $18.54 an hour.
“I just received another request for a sheriff’s deputy starting date to be determined at $22 an hour,” Johnston said. “All detention officers start at $18.54 an hour. We have a records clerk proposed at $17 an hour. The county attorney has hired two secretaries who are starting at $15 an hour.”
Seward County said goodbye to one of its employees Thursday afternoon, this time of the four-legged variety.
K-9 Britt got a farewell reception in his honor. The canine officer most recently has been handled by Deputy Bryan Flohr, and Flohr’s supervisor, Sgt. Bo Jacobs, said having a dog as a guest of honor was a much bigger draw than any human.
“I’ve had the pleasure to supervise K-9 handler Deputy Flohr and K-9 Britt since March 2023,” Jacobs said. “K-9 Britt came to us from the retired life after serving the Liberal Police Department for two years. In March 2023, K-9 Britt decided to see what life was like on the better side of life here at the sheriff’s office, though I’m sure our friends over at the PD might have a different opinion.”
Statistics show an estimated 6.9 to 7.2 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2024-2025, a number projected to reach nearly 14 million by 2060. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., with deaths more than doubling between 2000 and 2022. Women make up nearly two-thirds of cases, and the disease disproportionately affects African-American and Hispanic populations.
Family members are often the ones called in to help with these patients’ care at home and recently, Dr. Macie Smith released “The Complete Dementia Caregiver’s Guide” to help navigate the process. The book is available in multiple media forms and can be searched for online.
As Smith tells it, she was inspired to enter the medical field and work in gerontology several years ago.
Hannah McCarter leads the pack down Lincoln Avenue toward the finish line of the International Pancake Race earlier today. McCarter won Liberal’s leg in her first attempt. L&T photo/Earl Watt
By EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
With wind gusts reaching as high as 65 miles per hour hitting right in the face of the women running the Liberal leg of the International Pancake Race, Hannah McCarter was able to maintain a pace ahead of the pack and earn the Liberal title.
While this was the 77th running of the International Pancake Race, a friendly competition between the women of Olney, England and Liberal, the real number of the day was three.
The Liberal City Commission has new yet familiar leadership after the commission selected a new mayor and vice mayor Tuesday evening.
Jeff Parsons and Janeth Vazquez were ultimately unanimously voted as mayor and vice mayor, respectively, and both said they are excited to get to work.
“I feel really good. The responsibilities of the mayor really aren’t too much different from a commissioner,” Parsons said. “I’m excited about being able to continue being part of this commission and working with everyone.”
“I absolutely agree with Jeff – yes, we have the official titles, but at the end of the day, I feel like each of us commissioners contributes in our own unique way,” Vazquez added. “I feel like we’re a really strong team all together, and we were able to accomplish a lot in 2025, so I’m looking forward to continuing the great work we have on the agenda for 2026. Our commission is definitely headed in the right direction.”
GUEST COLUMN, Shannon Francis, 125th District Representative
Carol and I enjoyed attending the Rosa Parks Black History Banquet last week at Seward County Community College. Congratulations to the scholarship winners and thanks to all the people that contributed and work so hard to put it on every year.
While there have been plenty of distractions in our community recently as the county continues to operate in chaos from one manufactured crisis to another, there are plenty of good things happening in our community that can get lost in the dysfunction.
Scholarships were awarded at the Rosa Parks banquet.
The City of Liberal is moving forward with the preliminary stages of a second overpass. Rail traffic has changed significantly since the first overpass was built with trains coming more often and at greater lengths. This has caused major delays in traffic movement crossing the tracks.
Eventually many attempt to go around by heading to the overpass, and it is usually packed because all other motorists have made the same choice.
A second overpass is critical to easing the flow of traffic, especially when some train stoppages have lasted more than half an hour.
I’ve always known I was lucky when it came to family.
I saw classmates who had impossible siblings, and I knew my curly-headed younger sister was a catch. I knew people who really hated spending time with their parents, and I always had fun with mine — and I still do.
I grew up with 36 cousins, 34 of whom were on my mother’s side. It was a lot easier to keep track of my father’s side of the family, but I always felt somehow rich, having so many cousins spread over so much of the country.
When I married, I acquired another family, a boisterous Catholic family who laughed and drank and cussed more than my own. I immediately loved my mother-in-law who stayed up well past midnight with me, discussing big ideas, and my father-in-law who would listen in for a few minutes, shake his head and say, “I’m going to bed!”
Kansas families feel the squeeze. Prescription drugs are expensive. Credit card balances are heavy. Rents and groceries are up. When people are hurting, it’s understandable that lawmakers reach for a simple-sounding fix: cap the price.
But that’s where good intentions collide with bad economics. Milton Friedman’s warning applies perfectly here: don’t judge policy by its stated goal, judge it by its results. And Frédéric Bastiat’s “seen and unseen” is the cheat code every legislator should keep on their desk: the “seen” is the lower posted price; the “unseen” is the shortage, the quality drop, the access loss, and the costs pushed into other corners of the economy.
GUEST COLUMN, Kristen Osenga, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar
The Justice Department has fired a shot across Big Tech’s bow. In a recent speech, Dina Kallay, a deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s antitrust division, criticized Big Tech for using supposedly “free” patent-licensing initiatives to poach smaller competitors’ technologies.
Her remarks come at a pivotal moment. The Alliance for Open Media — a consortium led by Amazon, Meta, Google, and other tech giants — announced a new video-streaming format that could soon be embedded in televisions and tablets.
The group claims the technology will be “royalty-free.” But such promises often come with strings attached.
Kallay didn’t mention the Alliance for Open Media by name, but her message was clear. Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department will defend small businesses from Big Tech’s anticompetitive depredations.
