A long time ago I lay awake for hours, terrified that they would be my last ones on earth. I had committed myself to quitting cocaine, which was my second addiction, the first being years…

In late September, the Kansas Legislature’s Special Elections Committee gathered to study election topics such as voting machine integrity, mail ballots, drop boxes and more. The special committee was presented as an educational opportunity for…

There’s a huge disconnect between the government that Kansans want and the government Kansans get.  That probably doesn’t sound all that intuitive. After all, Kansans vote for the mostly Republican, mostly conservative governance they get.…

I’ll start with a segment from Ann Patchett’s new novel, “Tom Lake.” “Turn your head in the other direction —’’ I pointed to the explosion of white petals out the window. “You can’t pretend this…

Mike has been worshiping at our church off and on for the last year. When he walks up on a Sunday morning, you can’t miss him making his way with a white mobility cane. A…

For about a year, I worked as a receptionist at KTWU Channel 11, a Kansas public television station on the Washburn University campus in Topeka. KTWU has been broadcasting local public television in eastern Kansas…

The Kansas economy is doing well, by many measures.  So, why do so many Kansans think otherwise?  To paraphrase James Carville—it’s housing costs, stupid. Just released from the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort…

A few days before New Year’s Eve, an unfamiliar health insurance card for me arrived in the mail. I assumed there must have been an error and called the human resources department of the medical…

When Casey Stengel had the misfortune to be the manager of the historically inept 1962 New York Mets, his famous plaint was, “Can’t anybody here play this game?” The question for House Republicans, mired in…

Wednesday morning I received a phone call accusing The Register of sympathizing with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7. “How dare you print stories by terrorists,” she said. “You are spreading…