Opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Carolyn Huddleston, Liberal

Does the leadership of the Seward County Health Department want to work more than four days a week? Yes, every other Friday a nurse practitioner goes to the Health Department and has appointments with some pregnant women who are being seen under the Maternal and Child Health grant. Some staff must be showing up for that. But the clinic is not open to the general public on Fridays, and the most any of the staff have worked per week in the last three years is 36 hours, so to get to 40 hours per week, they all need at least four more hours. I have been told that there isn’t the funding for staff to work any more than they do, but there is clear evidence that isn’t the case.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Separating free nations from socialists societies starts with holding government accountable.

When government controls the information and the data, the people would be at the mercy of government without any way to know if the information they receive is accurate.

To make sure the people of Kansas are protected from nefarious government action, the Kansas Open Meetings Act and the Kansas Open Records Act protect the people’s right to the information in possession and control of the government.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

My sister and I told my mother we were throwing her a party for her 90th birthday.

“Not everyone knows I’m 90!” she said.

“Well, it’s good we tell them,” I said. “We told everyone that Dad turned 90 last year, and we don’t want people to think he robbed the cradle.”

Mom saw the sense in that, and we sent out invitations to friends and family, and even though a few people couldn’t make it at the last minute, we still had 34 guests. A spattering of rain sent everyone indoors, but everyone found a place to sit and eat appetizers and snacks and salads and cake, and we toasted to Mom’s 90th year.

GUEST COLUMN, Vance Ginn, Kansas Policy Institute

Panasonic’s special rate deal shows how corporate favoritism quietly shifts costs onto Kansans

Kansas taxpayers have already given Panasonic nearly $829 million in incentives to build its massive electric-vehicle battery plant in De Soto — the largest economic-development deal in state history. Now, as Sunflower State Journal reports, Kansans could soon be paying again — this time through their monthly Evergy utility bills.

Evergy has asked the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to approve a 10-year “special contract” that would grant Panasonic electricity rates lower than what other large industrial users pay. The company insists this will make Kansas more competitive and ultimately help other customers. But when a state-regulated monopoly–with guaranteed profits–offers discounts to one of the world’s largest corporations, someone else has to make up the difference. That “someone else” is you — the ratepayer.