News

Grant allows baggage car to get makeover

EARL WATT

• Leader & Times

While Liberal considers ways over and around the railroad tracks, there is no doubt the community owes its existence to being connected to the rail.

When the Rock Island Railroad chose Liberal as its termination spot more than 130 years ago, that gave the fledgling community the edge over other regional competitors. Liberal became the county seat and is the largest community along the rail line west of Wichita in Kansas.

Once the spike hit the hard dusty prairie, it forged a connection that has continued to move products and people across the continent.

Vazquez to speak at Latino Leadership Luncheon

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

Janeth Vazquez is a leader in the Liberal community, working as the marketing and business development director at Southwest Medical Center and a member of the Liberal City Commission as well as a variety of other positions in the community, area and state.

This coming Friday, Vazquez will be the keynote speaker at a Latino Leadership Luncheon hosted by the Kansas Latino Community Network (KLCN) in Dodge City.

Vazquez said her talk will focus primarily on the correlation between civic engagement and health equity.

Commerce Committee passes Moran-Cantwell bills to boost AI education, help small businesses leverage AI tools

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

The use of artificial intelligence continues to be a hot topic among people and recently, a bipartisan bill was passed to possibly ease some of that hesitation.

Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed the bipartisan National Science Foundation AI Education Act, to expand AI educational opportunities across all levels, and the bipartisan Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training Act, to help small businesses leverage AI in their operations. Both bills were introduced by U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), according to a release from Moran’s office.

Full field of qualified candidates for Register of Deeds position

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

Born in Nebraska, Lina Hill would soon move south in her childhood after her parents found work in Tyrone, Okla., about 10 miles from Liberal.

Hill would go on to graduate from Tyrone High School in 1990, and after attending Oklahoma State University briefly, she found herself back in the Panhandle.

“My parents needed help here,” she said. “I came back, and we did the restaurant business for quite a while. I started working in my adult life in the appraiser’s office, and today, I’m in the treasurer’s office.”