News

‘Same as last year’ — County passes Revenue Neutral budget

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

Seward County now has an adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2025.

After three days of budget work sessions in July, a public hearing in early September that saw several local property owners contest a proposed hike of nearly 8 mills to the Revenue Neutral Rate and two more work sessions since then to see if more could be trimmed from the budget, Thursday morning, county commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a Revenue Neutral budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Liberal’s Night Out 2024 slated for Oct. 5

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Those looking to spend an evening out among other members of the community while supporting local law enforcement will soon have just that opportunity.

Liberal's Night Out will be happening from 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5 at Light Park and as Community Police Coordinator Dalanie Underwood tells, it, there is a lot to be excited about.

New CDC data shows adult obesity prevalence remains high

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Obesity continues to be a major health issue throughout the U.S. and recently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report with some new findings about just that.

A CDC report released last week shows population data from 2023 show that in 23 states more than one in three adults (35 percent) has obesity. Before 2013, no state had an adult obesity prevalence at or above 35 percent. Currently, at least one in five adults (20 percent) in each U.S. state is living with obesity.

New CDC report shows suicide risk tied to local economic and social conditions

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. and in 2022 alone, 49,476 Americans died by suicide in an estimated 1.6 million attempts, according to statistics from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

“In 2022, rates were highest for adults ages 85+ years (23.02 per 100,000) and next highest for those 75 to 84 years (20.26 per 100,000). Compared with rates in 2021, the suicide rates increased for those age 35 and older and decreased for those age 34 and below,” the AFSP noted. “Youth below age 25 have had consistently lower suicide rates than middle-aged and older adults. In 2022, adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24 rates declined from 15.15 per 100,000 to a suicide rate of 13.62 per 100,000. In 2022, the highest U.S. age-adjusted suicide rate was among American Indians and Alaskan Natives (16.11 per 100,000) and the second highest rate was among Whites (15.83 per 100,000). Much lower rates were found among Black or African Americans (8.60 per 100,000) and Asians and Pacific Islanders (6.93 per 100,000).”

Smoky Hills helping exposed children to ‘Cool Careers’ in Kansas

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Introducing children to potential career paths has become extremely important and thanks to a big collaboration, they will get to learn about just that.

Smoky Hills PBS recently announced a new educational series, ‘Cool Careers,’ which premiered Sept. 15. The series will introduce children and their families to multiple career opportunities available in Kansas. In the show, a crew of real Kansas children will explore various high-demand careers across the state.