jam-packed for my family, and this year is no exception. Attending my son’s football games, finishing up our calving season, celebrating birthdays, continuing fall harvest and preparing to sow wheat have taken up the majority of my family’s attention and effort this month. My ...
As a prosecutor, the No. 1 question I get asked isn’t about crime, justice, or courtroom drama — it’s this: “How do I get out of jury duty?” The second-most common question? “How do I get called for jury duty?” Funny how that works. First things first — I have no control ...
“Why me?” I asked myself as I knelt on the grass at Washburn University, picking up a fortune’s worth of law books that had just spilled from a torn plastic bag. It was orientation day at law school — and it felt like everything in my life was unraveling. My dad had just been told ...
Agriculture needs you. Maybe I should give you a little more background. There are people and groups who attack agriculture, and we need you to be an advocate to help our consumers better understand what we do. I admit it is scary when you start looking into who we are up against. The money ...
A milestone birthday earlier this month got me thinking about my parents and what their lives looked like at my age, which is vastly different from my life. In reflecting on the differences, it was easy to see how my parents’ choices in their 20s and 30s have had a foundational impact on who ...
I love a good road trip, especially one around Kansas. That is why I am so excited about the listening tour Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) President Joe Newland and I will be embarking on July 21-23 and 30-31. Tour stops are listed at www.kfb.org, and you can register there also. Joe and I along with ...
I took my young son to a ballgame. After buying way more snacks than we needed, we found our seats just in time for the National Anthem. I reminded him to remove his hat and place it over his heart. As the anthem ended and the crowd cheered, he turned to me and asked, “Why do we say ...
If you’re reading this, it’s fair to assume you have decent eyesight. Now, just for a moment, close your eyes and picture your favorite fireworks memory — the smells, the booms, the cheers. Go ahead — I’ll wait. Alright. Now, I’d like to share a personal story with you. I was 9 ...
Good friends can have a good time no matter what they are doing together. That is how I ended up helping with a Yoga on the Farm event at Hildebrand Dairy near Junction City recently. It was organized by CommonGround Kansas, an organization of farm women in Kansas who share information and ...
After an election cycle in which virtually every legislative leader in Topeka admitted that property taxes was “the” issue, The Kansas Legislature’s response was much like Marie Antoinette’s response to starving peasants during the French Revolution “let them eat cake.” No systemic ...