News

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Measles can cause many health complications in people and recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning about it.

“Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million cases of measles in 2023, a 20 percent increase from 2022, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases,” a release from the CDC noted. “Measles is preventable with two doses of the measles vaccine; yet more than 22 million children missed their first dose of the measles vaccine in 2023. Globally, an estimated 83 percent of children received their first dose of measles vaccine last year, while only 74 percent received the recommended second dose.”

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

The Friday after Thanksgiving, commonly known as Black Friday, is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season.

As part of a nationwide annual event championing small and local businesses, this Friday, the Friday before Thanksgiving, the Seward County Development Corporation is bringing Pink Friday to Liberal.

SCDC Entrepreneurship Director Raquel Arellano said Pink Friday, launched in 2020, is strategically scheduled on the Friday before Black Friday to motivate consumers to explore and support small retailers at the outset of the holiday shopping season.

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away, and soon, the holiday season will begin with all the sights and sounds of Christmas.

This Friday, Seward County Community College is bringing some of those sights and sounds to life prior to Thanksgiving with its annual holiday concert in the Clifford & Irene Pepper Showcase Theater.

EARL WATT

   • Leader & Times

A property sale dispute has resulted in a lawsuit filed against several defendants, including Liberal Mayor Jose Lara.

Ricardo Villareal has filed a suit claiming that after purchasing the property located at 25 S. Sherman from Lara and Imperial Rentals, LLC, of which Lara signed on behalf of the company, that Lara had also sold the property to Brianne Williams, even though the agreement with Williams was never signed.

According to the court filing, the dispute began when Lara executed a mortgage for Villareal on July 30, 2019 for a loan to Lara of $99,879.