Wichita Story (https://wichitastory.com/2019/08/)
Shine’s career itself mirrors the life of the American newspaper: with a rapid rise, glory years and ending with radical change. But his attitude toward his profession, and the perseverance with which he pursues it, show that despite the setbacks that the newspaper business faces, newspapermen will continue to seek out the truth and tell it to the people.
The party differences between Mayor Longwell (who kicked off his campaign while surrounded by all sorts of Republican notables) and Brandon Whipple (who has served as a Democrat representing south Wichita in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2013) are pretty obvious, and seem likely to shape the race all the way up to Election Day. This is, to my mind, a good thing.
Freddy High & XV perform a song together at the XV album release party at the Wave live music venue in downtown Wichita. Antimosity rocking the stage at Barleycorn’s in downtown Wichita, getting the crowd hyped before hip-hop legend Keith Murray hits the stage. This was a very underground show, but all the usual hip-hop heads from around Wichita were there. DJ Carbon looking for the right track. He threw an event called “Vintage Vinyl” at Abode in Wichita.
Well before Clarence Thomas joined the Reagan administration; before Benedict Arnold switched to King George’s side; even before Romeo forsook the Montagues, solitary human beings found reasons to separate themselves from their tribal identity.
At a recent mayoral candidate
forum focused on matters of health, those in attendance had the opportunity to
listen to seven of the nine individuals running for mayor (Mark Gietzen and
Joshua Atkinson were no shows) respond to questions about water quality, local
mental health facilities, funding for transit and other transportation
alternatives, Wichita’s own Community Health Improvement Plan, and more. Most
of it was informative, but little of it, in my view, provided any points of
distinction between the six men and one woman on the stage. There was, however,
one exception. When a question was asked
whether, as mayor, any of the candidates would join with numerous other local
and state groups and organizations in pushing the Kansas state government to accept
the Medicaid expansion provided under the Affordable Care Act (a priority of
Governor Laura Kelly which almost certainly would have happened during the last
session if Kansas Senate majority leader Susan Wagle hadn’t refused to allow
the matter to come up for a vote), five of the candidates–Brock Booker, Ian
Demory, Amy Lyon, Lyndy Wells, and Brandon Whipple–expressed strong support for
expansion, one–Marty Mork–strongly denounced the idea, and one–Mayor Jeff
Longwell–punted, saying that he couldn’t settle the argument over expansion as
a city leader, so instead preferred to focus his attention on finding local
sources of funding for Wichita-area hospitals and the like. Depending on your political
preferences, you might find yourself on the (I think entirely wise and
responsible) side of the majority of the candidates, or you might find yourself
on the (I think ideologically blinkered and unreasonable) side of Mr. Mork.