News

Coffey retiring on a piece of history

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

The USS Missouri was launched from the Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1944, and the ship played parts in not only World War II, but also the Korean War and Gulf War throughout its half-century career in the world’s waters.

This coming Thursday, a Liberal native will officially retire aboard the historic battleship. Aaron Coffey joined the Navy in November 2000 in the branch’s nuclear propulsion program, with his boot camp taking place in Great Lakes, Ill., at the end of the summer that year.

Moran, Cantwell introduce legislation to boost AI education

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

The implementation of artificial intelligence and similar programming has been a hot topic in many sectors and recently, some legislation was introduced to help boost education in the matter.

Thursday, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced the bipartisan NSF AI Education Act of 2024 to expand scholarship and professional development opportunities to study artificial intelligence (AI) with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Kansas DCF launches 2024 Summer EBT Program

Special to the Leader & Times

The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) is launching Summer EBT, a new program to help eligible families offset some of the costs of buying food for their school-aged children over summer break. Summer EBT, also known as SUN Bucks in other states, is a partnership between DCF and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. The program provides families $120 for each eligible school-aged child to buy groceries.

Seward County area to benefit from recent bills

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Times have been busy for Seward County and soon, the area will be seeing some major benefits thanks to a couple of recent bills.

Tuesday, Gov. Laura Kelly announced $3.5 million will be awarded to 13 projects through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Innovative Technology Program. The program makes investments that improve safety, access, or mobility and implement new transportation technology. Seward County Community College was awarded $335,625, which will go toward truck simulators for the college’s CDL program expansion.

Seward county receives $9,841 for emergency food

SEWARD COUNTY, KANSAS HAS BEEN AWARDED FEDERAL FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS)/FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY UNDER THE EMERGENCY FOOD AND SHELTER NATIONAL BOARD PROGRAM.

Seward County has been chosen to receive $9,845 in phase 41 Set Aside Funds to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the county.