The Affordable Care Act is the centerpiece for Republicans willing to keep government funding in limbo.The ACA has been maligned as the worst thing since the bubonic plague.And yet, a majority of Americans look forward…

The current debate to reopen the U.S. government’s doors includes language to remove a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices such as hip and knee implants.The tax on the manufacturers, not the patients, brings in…

In the wee hours of Sunday morning members of the House were absolutely giddy of their 231-192 vote to immobilize the new health care act for one year as a precondition for keeping the U.S.…

Merger of Allen County and Iola ambulance services should be completed soon. The lone sticking point for county commissioners is  concern for county personnel transferring to the city’s side in regard to accrued vacation time,…

No one likes to make a mistake.When I do in a story, it is there for everyone to see. It leaves me with a terrible feeling, because no matter how much I apologize — always…

A well-to-do couple in Pretoria, South Africa, recently spent one month living in the slums on the outside of town. As reported in the New York Times, the young couple, Julian and Ena Hewitt, moved…

Mass killings in the United States haven’t reached the point where we’ve become desensitized to tragic loss of life, but it seems that efforts to place any controls on firearms sales, or even the size…

An impromptu trip out west last week provided a good perspective of Iola and other towns our size.We drove along Highway 54 west to Tucumcari, N.M., before going north to Santa Fe for a couple…

Iolan Joe Lilly put us in touch with local history that’s meaningful in Moran today.Lilly dropped by a yellowed copy of The Moran Herald from Oct. 30, 1947, which contained a lead story entitled, “Moran…

Jim Yonally’s visit to Iola Tuesday came on the eve of Democrat Paul Davis announcing he was entering the 2014 governor’s race.If Davis is to have a chance of unseating Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, he…