Opinion

RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator

Welcome to the 2026 session of the Kansas Legislature — and thank you for the honor and privilege of representing you at our Capital. As I start my 12th year in elective office and sixth as your 38th District Senator, I will be sharing leadership of the Committee on Local Government, Transparency and Ethics as its Vice-Chair, along with membership on three other committees — Agriculture and Natural Resources, Commerce, and Judiciary. I am here to help you interact with your state government on any issue, however, so please stop by my Capitol Office in Room 236-E right off the Rotunda; send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; or give me a call at 785-296-7359 if I can be of assistance in any way. I will look forward to hearing from you, or — if you come in person and are from Jetmore or Hanston — showing you my prominently-displayed 2026 “KANSAS” calendar with a famous Hodgeman County winter sunset as the first-month featured pictorial.

GUEST COLUMN, Shannon Francis, 125th District Representative

Thank you for trusting me to serve as your representative to our state government. There is no greater honor than being chosen to represent my hometown in the Kansas House of Representatives. On Jan. 12, the House convened for our 2026 Session. This Session I will again serve as Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and as a member of the Kansas Turnpike Authority Board, Appropriations, Tax, Legislative Post Audit, House Oversight, and Rules Committees and the Build Kansas advisory committee.

President Bennett and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Luke Dowell of SCCC were in Topeka for meetings last week.  We talked about the challenges of our community colleges and about their work to solve the teacher shortage in our area.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

If cell phones were around when I went to school, chances are I would not have the opportunities I have had thanks to receiving a quality education.

Mrs. Sprague confiscated my Frogger watch in seventh grade English, and that was advanced for the day. We had distractive devices. They just weren’t allowed.

There was a reason.

I wasn’t attending school to develop relationships with educators or for hugs and butterflies.

I was there to work.

As were generations before me.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

For the most part, I congratulate myself on being relatively competent at managing technology. I don’t have an overwhelming fear of learning new apps or platforms and have even caught myself feeling a little smug when others profess terror at the prospect of updating their website or mastering a new program.

All smugness disappeared this week.

I got caught in a technology black hole over a $20 bill. I owed a company $20 for forwarding my email to me. This is something that should have taken less than a minute to resolve. Three days later, I was still battling.

The company was based in India. I won’t bore you with the details of why it was based in India or how this company was chosen (I had plenty of opportunity to question the choice over the last three days), but it has provided excellent service, and I had had no reason to believe it wasn’t a good choice. Until this week.