MANHATTAN, Kan. – A member of the Labette County FFA Chapter was recognized Thursday for having one of the best career development programs in the state at the 81st Kansas FFA Convention.

Bradley Don Bohnenblust received a State FFA Proficiency award during the convention for outstanding accomplishments he has made in developing programs that will prepare him for a career in agriculture. Read more

Editor:
My daughter, Hannah’s, preschool home of the past four years, SEK Interlocal USD #637, is housed in a nondescript, boxy white building by the bus barn on North Wisconsin Street in Oswego.  The exterior would benefit from a fresh coat of paint and a little landscaping and the sandy playground has seen better days.  Yet the outside of the school is like an old oyster shell whose jewel is found within.
Inside you’ll discover a group of professionals—teachers, paraprofessionals, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist—devoted to preparing a diverse group of children for kindergarten.  Their students consist of 50% “model” (which I’ve always taken to be the politically correct term for “normal”) children and 50% special needs children like Hannah.  The special needs children benefit not only from direct help from a teacher or therapist (with a six-to-one student-teacher ratio, this is possible), but also from watching the model children.
When I’ve told locals that Hannah was attending this preschool, the universal response has been some version of, “Oh, Ann’s school?  Aren’t they great!”  The parent would then go on to give an example of how her child or friend’s child had loved going there, of how well-prepared the child was for kindergarten or of some specific situation that the staff had addressed and overcome.  Read more

Several students from southern Labette County will participate in the state track meet at Wichita this coming weekend.
From Labette County High School, Matthew Weil won the 100 high hurdles (14.96) in the regional meet and took third in the 300 intermediates.
Leighann Omarkhail from LCHS placed second in the 1600 meter run at 5:42.89 and will compete at Wichita.
Kandie Vorhees took fourth place in the 3200 meter run at regionals with a performance of 13:00.62 and also will compete at Wichita.
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On the cool and cloudy Memorial Day morning, members of the Chetopa Memorial VFW Post #10508 and it’s Ladies Auxiliary and citizens of Chetopa gathered at Oak Hill Cemetery to remember and honor those who gave the supreme sacrifice for our country.
The service was opened with the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” and the reciting of the “Pledge of Allegiance.”   Rev. Clarence Newman, pastor of the First Baptist Church gave the invocation followed by the welcome from Toni Crumine, Chetopa City Clerk.
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There are so many rumors about the amount of contamination at KSAAP that many people envision it as the next Superfund site.
Here in southeast Kansas, visions of Tar Creek (Treece, Kan., and Pitcher, Okla.) pop into one’s mind where acres and acres lie in waste. Worse though than the lead and zinc of those areas, here people think about TNT and explosives lying about everywhere – and then of course there are the rumors of that semi trailer filled with contamination that is buried in the ground somewhere out there. Of course no one knows where or when that occurred.
The definitive word is in though, and the news is amazingly good. Read more