I spend big chunks of my day in my head, processing some of the experiences, interactions, successes, failures, and thoughts that surfaced along the road.

I also spend time contemplating ways I could make spending all day on a bike a bigger part of my everyday life. A week of absolute clarity in one’s goal, one’s purpose - getting to the next stop and the freedom to determine how - stands in stark contrast to the often muddy reality of ordinary life. Also, doing something that feels so big then stepping back into the world of corporate normalcy can feel somewhat depressingly empty.

It reminds me to always question and evalutate how I’m spending my one wild and precious life, and this poem -

If joy is an act of resistance, then we must steal it where we can.

Generations of joyless men have built structures to contain us, and to keep us chasing a manufactured joy that costs us daily payments from our souls. Give more of ourselves, over a whole lifetime, and one day we’ll, maybe, reach that destination we’ve all been told is the goal.

And the destination, if you haven’t noticed, keeps moving further away.

Yet, given enough space from the busyness of life, we feel the tension in our chest. The very old knowledge that someone else’s goal is not the point.

Biking Across Kansas helps me remember.

There is a start and an end, daily and for the entire week.

But the ride is the the thing.

And the ride is a different sunrise everyday.

The changes in the weather, the clouds, the heat, and the wind.

It’s the welcoming warmth of a Kansas town, and the people who put so much of themselves into making our time there feel special.

It’s the curiosity of strangers.

It’s kids with impromptu lemonade stands, whose eyes fill with wonder about how far they could ride their bikes, too.

It’s sharing a few beers with friends.

It’s making new friends with new people who live along the route.

It’s waking up every hour worried that you’ll be late, and oversleeping because you finally got comfortable and tired enough to let yourself.

The ride starts and ends at points on a map, and there’s clarity and purpose to move along that path.

But the ride?

That’s everything that isn’t on the map.

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During our stop in Burden, Kansas last week, Christopher came down to record a bonus episode. At only 67 miles long, the day’s route was one of our “shorter” days - so it seemed a good time to record. I brought in a few friends to share their experiences, too, so we had a pretty fun conversation.

Since it was shot on location, immediately after a day’s ride, I think you’ll get a unique perspective on life as it unfolds during BAK.

Oh, and if you listen to the end, you’ll hear one of the funniest stories ever - but be warned if some light bathroom humor isn’t your thing, this might not be the story for you.

Evidence of the wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the area marks the hills and valleys throughout the area.

The ride from Montezuma to Ashland was 67 miles. We started the day off with thick fog, cool temperatures, and damp air. We had a stretch into a southern headwind, before turning East toward Clark County.

We came over a rise, and we could smell the charred earth before we could see it.

The prairie restores itself after adversity; its resilence lying in the earth ready to emerge and grow, turning fire’s destruction into new life.

BAK staff and leadership told us that after the fires, there was a storm that tore part of the roof from the Ashland High School. Then another storm that caused some flooding. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to stay here but the town wanted us to come, in spite of the difficulties they had faced.

We were welcomed to the school and the town, and our accommodations didn’t show a hint of the strain these communities have endure.

It’s the sort of spirit and determination that comes from people who have spent their lives learning lessons from the prairie.

Aside from a mechanical issue nearly halfway into the ride, it was a nearly perfect ride. I threw my chain near Meade, it because lodged between chain rings and slightly damaged. I lost a good part of my gearing, so had to crank up the hills a little harder than I’d have rather. It’s not the first time I’ve had to limp a bike into the next town. Probably not the last, either.

We spent a good chunk of time in Meade, checking out the town and revisiting the Dalton Gang Hideout, before heading east toward Ashland.

The area between Meade and Ashland is the start of some of the Red Hills we’ll see more of tomorrow as we head toward Medicine Lodge. This area is gorgeous and the photos I’ve taken and shared here will never come close to showing its real beauty.

A few other highlights from today that I want to share.

My riding partners so far this week - Tyler and Arlynn - have been a lot of fun. We kicked off the morning with around an hour of bike-related Dad jokes.

“Your jokes are breaking my chain of thought.”

”Your jokes are all re-cycled”

”You should tread lightly”

”You never should’ve spoke up.”

Yeah, they’re bad. But we were cracking each other up, and it was a great way to start out the morning.

The other thing that stood out to me that really struck me is when I could sense a change in the air temperature as the wind blew over a creek full of water. I don’t know how to describe it, really, but you can feel a noticable change in the air. It’s cooler, and fresher. It smells different.

I don’t ever notice that when I’m in town, or in a car. And I couldn’t help but wonder if we’ve gotten so far away from the outdoors, from our connection to nature, that we fail to notice what I suspect is an ancestral signal to help us find life’s most essential element.

Tomorrow we’ll ride we’ll ride about 73 miles to Medicine Lodge. It’ll be hotter, and with more hills, so I’ll be sure to appreciate the water I have even more.

As they grow, we tell them they can be anything, do anything, have anything. If they’re willing to work hard for it, fight for it, you can build a world of your making - and our mass media and marketing shows them all the examples of men who have done exactly that.

We tell them to be strong. We tell them crying is for sissies. We tell them asking for help is weak. We tell them to turn pain into power, shame into action, and fear into anger.

We tell boys all of this, and never warn them that a heart emptied of love, passion, hope, and desire, doesn’t sit empty long. And if we’re not careful what takes love’s place is anger, rage, and suffering.

I know.

Three years ago, I rode this bike for the first time on Biking Across Kansas. As is the tradition amongst my friends, we name our bikes after spending some time with them.

I named mine Hope.

Because life was opening up before me in all the ways I had hoped.

I was physically healthy and strong.

My work was challenging, meaningful, and rewarding.

I was deeply in love with a woman, and it seemed she was in love with me, too. We’d talk about how our souls had been made for each other, and how our love made the world feel more vibrant, more full of color.

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Then late 2024 and parts of 2025 broke me.

The election of 2024 fractured my spirit, and my humiliation and loss was displayed in front of my family, friends, and entire community. I have a lot of loving friends who supported me, even while others celebrated.

My already bruised heart broke when the love that once helped me feel so safe and secure vanished, without much discussion, concern, or care.

Then my body failed me. Well, my body and a healthcare and insurance system that left me without critical medication I need to manage my chronic illness for nearly 6 months.

I desperately wanted to ride Biking Across Kansas last year. I needed it, and wanted it more than anything. For me, it’s the way I start anew. It’s how I discard the ugliness of the past and sort of hit the reset button for the future.

The events of 2024 and 2025 left my soul tattered, and in desperate need of repair. And BAK is the activity that most restores my soul.

I struggled to find the motivation to train, and even then, my legs would cramp after a only a few miles.

My chronic disease is Ulcerative Colitis, a condition where the immune system attacks the colon, creating ulcers that lead to inflammation, intestinal cramping, and frequent trips to the restroom. I was diagnosed with it in my late 20s and have endured years of various levels of treatment - some effective, and some not at all. It has, at times, been horrifically painful and debilitating.

Treated properly, it doesn’t affect my life too badly. But left untreated it’s a disease that can consume a person’s life, lead to fatigue and weakness, severe depression, and the inability to live much of a life at all.

I lost my health insurance in January, which meant I also lost access to medication - at the time a very expensive injectable biological, Humira. It took several months for me to find another job with insurance, but then had to jump through the absurd prior authorization process, and subsequent rejections from the insurance company, before I was able to secure medication in late May.

After 12 weeks on the medication that had once worked, my body wasn’t responding to it any longer - thus starting again the prior authorization process to move to a different medication. It wasn’t until September/October of 2025 that I felt my disease was moving into remission.

I tried to ride, but couldn’t manage without severe cramps or weakness. I intentionally didn’t eat much food to sort of self manage the effects of UC - but that doesn’t work on long bike rides. Calories are essential to prolonged physical activity.

I had signed up for BAK in January, an attempt to create some new Hope in my life. But I had to concede that I wasn’t physically able to do BAK. Probably not mentally or emotionally fit, either, and that only added to my already growing depression.

We do tell boys not to talk about the difficulties in their lives. We largely encourage them to keep their challenges to themselves. No one wants to hear about the things that make you sad, that make you question or doubt yourself, or reconsider the decisions you’ve made in your life. When love runs cold, we’re trained to do just about anything except look inside ourselves.

Sadness and vulnerability are to be avoided, we’re told, and you certainly shouldn’t admit to any single bit of humanity if you’re doing something like running for office or otherwise living a public facing life.

I’ll not hide from my humanity.

I have been ill and unhealthy and it has affected my life. I have shown bare my heart, and have struggled with the rejection of that love. I know, too, that I have caused that same sort of pain in others. I have been sad, depressed, and broken. I have made mistakes, some of them terrible, some embarrassing, some of them momentary lapses in judgement, others carrying longer lasting effects.

As I write this, I’m sitting next to my friend Tyler, driving through the windswept land towards Johnson City for the start of Biking Across Kansas.

It’s been two years since I’ve been here.

I’ve been training and feel confident - or as confident as I ever feel on this front. I will be excited to see friends I’ve not seen in two years - even though one of my dearest biking friends - Kimberly - won’t make it this year.

I’m happy I’ll get to explore these towns along the route, and I’m eager to ride through the countryside of Kansas, meeting more of the kind and earnest people who make our state great.

I’m excited about doing this thing that for the past 11 years has been crucial to my overall wellbeing.

The physical work strengthens my body.

Managing myself through heat, wind, adversity restores my mind.

Feeling connected to my friends and these Kansas communities heals my heart.

Spending all my effort to reach a new goal each day repairs my soul.

After a few years of enveloping darkness shrouded so much of my world, this drive westward through the changing landscapes of Kansas is stirring something familar.

It feels something like Hope.

For the whole 30-second pre-roll, I was mesmerized by all the things that could harm our country if I didn’t jump out of my chair to stand, salute, and pledge my allegiance to these United Data Centers of America.

My heart rate returned to normal when I realized that I was not probably contributing to the destruction of Western Civilization with my thoughts, ideas, and opinions about data centers. I went back and watched the video again - this time to see who had sponsored, paid for, and promoted it.

The answer was a familiar name: NetChoice

NetChoice is the trade association that represents the biggest and richest companies in the world, including Meta, Google, OpenAI, Amazon, and JP Morgan Chase bank.

In Kansas, NetChoice has two registered lobbyists, a husband and wife duo, one of whom introduced and testified on legislation that would later become Senate Bill 98 - which grants data centers in Kansas a comprehensive sales tax exemption for 20 years.

(I say later because the bill morphed along the way into a Conference Committee Report so that legislators don’t have an opportunity to amend or change the bill)

Now, if you didn’t watch the video above, go watch it with a critical eye. Consider the imagery and the message its sending to viewers.

The basic message NetChoice is pushing goes something like this: China is building data centers and if they beat us we’ll be in imminent danger. The president supports them so you should too. And if you don’t support them, the economy will tank, you’re unpatriotic, and we’ll never be able to win another war again. Data Centers aren’t dangerous - but not wanting them in your town is.

Now watch this video, which was published in 2021 when Florida, Texas, and a number of other Republican state legislators were passing laws to prohibit social media companies from restricting content - which at the time many believed was suppressing politically conservative points of view. The states’ argument was that since social media had effectively become the “public square” it had a duty to provide space for all points of view - and the legislation sought to keep social media companies from deciding which content people would be fed.

Did you see it? Did you catch what they did?

Different issue. But relatively the same vibe, same imagery, same talking points.

I’m going to say this as plainly as I can and I hope I say it loud enough for everyone to hear it…

These people, these companies, think we’re all stupid.

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For the better part of 20 years, I’ve watched business groups and political action committees play this trick on the American public and on Kansans. Heck, they did it to me in the last several elections on a number of issues.

It turns out President Trump recently celebrated renewed trade agreements with the Communist nation, brushed aside worries and defended the purchase of additional farmland purchases by Chinese Nationals.

Ope.

These groups deploy a simple formula to confuse and trick people.

If it’s an issue, tie it to some liberal cause, or some radical agenda, some anti-American idea. Exploit fear about economic uncertainty, tease a few emotional images of the flag and U.S. soldiers, and the truth becomes difficult to see through the imagery and emotion of the message.

If it’s someone running for office - might be a Democrat, might be a moderate Republican, might be a far-right Republican, but always the candidate who won’t do big business’s bidding - just run an ad showing candidate X with the boogeyman du jour - Obama, Biden, Pelosi, AOC, Kamala, China, Immigrants, Environmentalists, Terrorists. It doesn’t matter who, so long as people get mad, or scared, so these companies can watch the stacks of money pile up.

Here we have two videos, with two distinctly different issues, yet the message is crafted in a way that’s designed to move the same audience, the same group of voters. And where they hope to move them is to NetChoice’s side of the issue.

The only thing they are loyal to is profit. The only sense of patriotism they feel is to their bottom lines. The only thing they hope to strengthen is their grip on our government so that it will continue to serve them well.

I’m going to say it again…

These people, these companies, think we’re all stupid.

I remembered that NetChoice had a few issues in the statehouse over the years, so I decided to, somewhat ironically, use AI to help do some research for me.

It’s worth noting a process point here. NetChoice is the overall trade organization, but Google, Amazon, etc., also employ their own lobbyists in Topeka, in other states, and in Washington, D.C. Generally, these hired contract lobbyists work together with other groups, such as the Kansas Chamber, National Federation of Independent Businesses, etc., - both during session and in the next election cycle - to create an overwhelming force against lawmakers who might object or oppose their legislation.

NetChoice is also quite proud of it’s activities in the judicial branch of government, giving itself some glowing praise in stopping efforts to restrict underage access to pornography, regulations that require digital warning labels for harmful online content, and numerous other cases.

In 2019, NetChoice launched its effort to “help” states adopt laws for data centers, in particular a series of sales tax exemptions on the construction, equipping, and upgrading data centers. This site has some information about their responses to questions about the tax relief plan included in SB 51, which was the basis for SB98.

In NetChoice’s testimony in support of SB 51/98, there was this familiar nugget, which for my entire adult life has been the veiled threat looming behind every economic development deal - be it data centers or a widget factory.

(Of course, such logic doesn’t apply when it comes to legalizing cannabis, expanding access to healthcare, reducing the state’s debt load, or anything that might help people more than billionaires).

The threat of loss, of missing an opportunity, is a well-worn tactic in rural areas that have suffered incredible economic loss over the years. We wish for better days, new opportunities, and the possibility of becoming again what we once were - and in this there are some who see desperation that is ripe for exploitation.

This invocation of fear has been used as the justification for compelling elected officials to sign non-disclosure agreements, to develop ever bigger tax incentive structures, and invent creative cash payout systems.

And it’s the fuel that ignites the fire of urgency around the dire need of those without enough, who are struggling to get by, to let the Googles, Amazons, Metas, and Xs of the world take just a little bit more.

Again, I’ll ask the question: If AI and data centers are so profitable, transformative, and inevitable, why is the public being asked to fund incentives to support them?

I’ll say it once more, just so we’re clear…

These people, these companies, think we’re all stupid.

Calling a man weak generally gets up his dander and makes him see red. That might explain why the lone woman on the council has seemed to understand the gravity of the moment we’re in, and been trying to pump the brakes.

Now, thanks to the reporting of the Hutchinson Tribune, we have it on record that there’s a plan for a smaller scale data center east of town, on 4th and Duffy Road.

Weirdly, or maybe not so weirdly in this world, the conversation around data centers appears to be developing an undercurrent of partisan politics, with a splash of international political espionage.

The Trump administration is a full-throated supporter of building more data centers across the country. Together with billionaire investors like Kevin O’Leary (from SharkTank) they’re creating a narrative that there’s not real life opposition to data centers, just Chinese operatives and leftist agitators. I even saw a report today that the CIA, FBI, and DHS are launching online surveillance efforts at what they describe as “Anti-Technology Extremism.”

That narrative falls apart, though, when we examine the local level.

There has been a lot of emerging activism about the possibility of a data center around here, and that opposition runs across the political spectrum. Folks who agree on very little else are finding common ground on this issue.

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I genuinely hope we’re on the cusp of realizing that it never really was a left vs right fight - it’s always been a uber-wealthy vs the rest of us fight. For as long as there have been people, there have been other people who work to keep us all fighting against one another so they can reap the spoils. No group in history has done that better than the billionaire class today - and with the technology they now own, they’ve perfected the art of social manipulation and media exploitation.

But I digress.

I am generally against the development of data centers without explicit consent from the public. I retain the possibility that my mind could be changed, and I’d become more accepting of data centers - but for that to happen, there are a list of questions I think we all deserve to haven answered - clearly and plainly - before we subject our community to the potential coming onslaught of our digital and billionaire overlords.

Today the conversation is about data centers, but this is a familiar pitch we know quite well.

We’ve been sold economic development pipe dreams before. The promised boom of related suppliers around the Siemens plant never took off. Eaton took its taxpayer money and then cruelly forced soon-to-be unemployed workers to train their replacements at the shiny new plant in Mexico. Over the years, we’ve celebrated “wins” that are just on the horizon, only to watch them disintegrate before they ever got started.

And for years, we’ve been dealing with the fallout from industries that irresponsibly polluted and mistreated our community. The industrial area east and south of the Hutchinson Mall was heavily polluted and there’s an EPA Superfund Site east of town due to years of solvent and chemical pollution. In addition to making parts of our community functionally useless, such abuses also increase the burden on local and state taxpayers. In fact, the city has spent roughly $200,000 a year for decades to maintain water testing wells due to pollution that happened in the 1970s and 80s.

Locally, we’ve been told that any restriction on data centers would be “weak.”

Well, color me stupid, but I think it’s even weaker to stand flat footed and not defend yourself against the blows you can see coming - especially against the gazillionaires who own the world’s technology companies and have nearly all the world’s wealth.

The argument that we have no agency, no right to self determination to create policy that protects the long term interests of our community is absurdly vapid. No one is going to save us, and no one is going to look out for our best interests in the same way that we will.

I’m no Luddite - which I guess is the new-old insult we are throwing out at anyone who dares question the benevolence of our digital overlords. I have often been an early adopter of technology and am always curious about how it might improve my work or life. But I’m also skeptical of people who sell me a bill of goods without being authentic about the downsides. I’ve been around long enough to know that money is always the ultimate goal in these sort of deals - and historically the love of money leads people to compromise communities, relationships, health, wellbeing, and the environment.

Regardless of whether you lean for or against these data centers, or haven’t made up your mind, I’ve compiled a list of questions I think are worth the asking - for Hutchinson and any community.

1. How much water will the proposed data center use? And I need specifics - not “just about the same amount as an average Reno County farm.” Gallons per day, and where it’s coming from. I want to know how that will affect Hutchinson water, or water in our rural water districts, and private wells. We deserve to know where the water comes from, how it’s handled, and what’s done with it when you’re done with it. We don’t need another company pumping bad water into the Arbuckle formation and reawakening the Reno County fault that caused so many earthquakes several years ago.

2. How will this data center affect electricity generation and delivery in Hutchinson and Reno County? Will homes suddenly have large transmission lines in their front yards? Will there be an effect on residential and commercial users?

3. What can we expect in terms of noise, light, and emissions pollutions? How will neighbors be affected by an “always-on” high capacity data processing center?

4. How will existing neighborhoods around the proposed site be held harmless? There are people there who have owned their homes for years, or recently built. What has been the affect on property values and quality of life for residents near other data centers? Is there a method to compensate them for their real property loss?

5. Who will own and operate the center, and who benefits or profits from its construction?

6. Will this data center benefit from SB98, which exempts data centers from state and local sales tax on the initial construction and all updates for the next 25 years?

7. Will this data center apply for additional state incentives? County, city, and other local incentives?

8. What’s will be the total public investment into this private, for-profit venture?

9. Will this data center pay local property taxes, or are they going to ask for abatements? Will any offset payments be one-time offers, or ongoing payments that could offer long-term relief to local taxpayers?

10. Will construction jobs be local, or does this company bring in its own construction crews for the build-up?

11. How many permanent employees will be employed by the data center in Reno County?

12. Will there be a cost/benefit analysis done to determine the net good for the community? Will we be able to weigh how much public investment is used for this project against how much economic, employment, and tax benefit will be created for our community?

13. Will there be claw back provisions if requirements aren’t met, or regulations disregarded? How will those be enforced?

14. Do local governments have the ability and resources to litigate disputes or violations against larger, wealthier corporations if they don’t comply with local laws or challenge our legal zoning rules?

    From the Detroit News, about one township’s legal fight against an AI data center:

    Saline data center sparked statewide outcry

    The Saline Township data center project was controversial from the start. Township officials didn’t want it and denied a conditional rezoning request in September. Related Digital sued two days later, arguing the township used exclusionary zoning to prevent the sprawling tech development.

    The township stopped fighting. Losing would have been too expensive to justify and “a hindrance on each resident here in this township,” township clerk Kelly Marion said in May.

    Instead, the township settled. It agreed to rezone the property, while Related Digital promised to put $2 million into a farmland preservation trust, $2 million into a community investment fund, $8 million into local fire department budgets, preserve 200 acres of farmland, not to expand the data center, not to build solar arrays, to use water-efficient cooling methods and more.

15. What do we know about the company that plans to come here? Is it connected to a tech giant? Do they have a history of being good community partners, or do they have a history of legal issues or violation of local codes?

16. What happens when this data center closes or becomes obsolete? Just like previous complains about decommissioned wind turbines, these facilities have lifecycles. Computing power will improve over time, and the foot print of data centers will likely shrink in coming years. Who is responsible for decommissioning, cleanup, and remediation when they’re done?

17. What data will actually be stored here, and who has legal access to it? If there’s a national security conversation happening at the federal level around data centers, Flock cameras, etc, and residents deserve to know what’s sitting in their backyard and under what legal authority it can be accessed.

18. What is this company’s track record at other facilities? Not the press release. What do residents near their other data centers actually say about water, noise, property values, and whether promises were kept?

19. Who negotiated this deal, and how much of that conversation happened outside public view? When did this actually start? Executive sessions and letters of intent have a way of producing facts on the ground before the public ever gets a seat at the table. What mechanisms and opportunities exist for the broader public to engage?

20. If AI and data centers are so profitable, transformative, and inevitable, why is the public being asked to fund incentives to support them?

This marketing around this vote is going to be built around the idea of “who could possibly be against elected judges? That’s freedom, democracy, and America all wrapped together.”

But that doesn’t provide any context.

First you have to know about a famous scandal called the Kansas Triple Play - which angered so many Kansans they demanded in 1956 the system we still use today.

Fred Hall served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, but he was wildly unpopular with the Republican party bosses. Yet, the party still begrudgingly gave him the nomination for Governor in 1954, because winning is everything, don’t you know.

Hall won the election in 1954 and took his seat as Governor. But by 1956 it was clear that the party had abandoned him and he became the only sitting governor to ever lose his party’s primary for re-election as Governor.

So Hall is a lame duck, with a party that dislikes him, and a short amount of time to figure out his next career move. Here’s a summary of what became known as the Kansas Triple Play:

“His next move was a conspiracy that was both sleazy and genius. Fred Hall had no plans to move back to Dodge City as a loser, as a one-term governor. He concocted the only judicial scandal in Kansas history. It even has a cool name: the Triple Play.

In addition to Hall, there were two other actors in the Triple Play. First, there was the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, William Smith, a long time Republican party stalwart. Remember, Kansas was electing judges back then.

How long had Smith been a player in GOP politics? Remember the Archiver episode on John Brinkley, the goat gland doctors who ran a write-in campaign for governor in 1930? Well, many believed Brinkley might have won had not so many ballots been disallowed. The man in charge of deciding which ballots were legal? William Smith, who was state attorney general at the time.

The other player was Lt. Governor John McCuish. He was a newspaperman by trade, he owned the Harvey County Times in his hometown of Newton.

So, here’s the triple play:

On December 31st, 1956, Smith sent a letter to the Secretary of State resigning as Chief Justice. Smith was ill and wanted to resign, but being a good Republican, he didn’t want to quit and let the newly elected Democratic Governor George Docking pick his replacement. Then on January 3, 1957 Hall sent a similar letter, quitting just 11 days before his term ended. McCuish was in the hospital in Newton and Hall dispatched a Highway Patrolman to bring him back to Topeka. McCuish was automatically elevated to Governor and he immediately appointed Hall to the state’s highest court and The Triple Play was done. Hall was on the supreme court where he hoped to launch a future bid for governor.”

Kansans were so appalled by this abuse of power, they demanded that we STOP electing judges and create a better process to ensure our judiciary is selected on merit, experience, and ability - and not on political favoritism.

Another point worth making here is how the Corporate world has worked to capture the levers of political power, specifically the courts, and it was all outlined in a memo produced in 1971 by Lewis Powell.

Powell was a corporate attorney and board member for what we now call “Big Tobacco” arguing in court that smoking was harmless. He was later appointed as a Supreme Court Justice - but before taking that seat he wrote to his friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about how important it was for the ruling business elite to pool their resources and energy to capture all the branches of government. He had this to say about the courts: “Under our constitutional system, especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic, and political change.”

And indeed it is. Because within 48 hours of the Trump-dominated United States Supreme Court striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Southern states raced to revive Jim Crow laws and redraw maps that disenfranchise black voters. Louisiana even tossed out nearly 45,000 legally cast ballots so they could hold the election under new maps that favor Republican power holders in the state.

It sounds pretty appealing to directly elect Supreme Court justices, but let’s play a scenario closer to home - one that in many ways is already underway and in progress.

Let’s say a city and county located in central Kansas, maybe close to the Arkansas River, are having private, off-the-record conversations with an AI company that wants to build a data center, use that community’s water and electricity, get property tax and sales tax abatements.

Maybe the public catches wind of a development being planned somewhere east of that town, or out in the county somewhere, and people start to demand transparency and protections, even specific zoning and planning laws that would require these companies to protect our resources and be a positive addition and fit for our town.

And the city council/county commission responds to the public outcry! Hooray!

They pass these additional protections and now this company can’t just have its way with these communities. It can’t just use their water, make a bunch of noise, etc., without going through a more public process - thanks to responsive and responsible local government and the actions of an engaged, concerned citizenry.

But wait!

There’s a judicial election coming up, and now that Supreme Court justices can be partisan, elaborate on policy philosophy, and state how they’ll probably rule on cases, the likes of Elon Musk, Kevin O’Leary, Jeff Bezos, and the other billionaires trying to ruin all our lives know exactly where to make their “investments.”

(An aside: If you want to have a good laugh and be horrified all at once, watch this video. Kevin O’Learly accused these two women who publicized his proposed data center of being “Chinese Operatives.” They are not. But they’ve made some great videos highlighting so many connections to powerful people and policymakers.)

Remember that Musk spent upwards of $25 million to try and buy a judge in Wisconsin in what became the most expensive judicial election in American History at $90 million. The election of judges and justices have helped sow doubt about the independence of our judiciary across the country - and has led to dramatic increases in judicial campaign spending over the years.

So back to our little town by the river with our new, cute little ordinances designed to ensure the people who live there will still be able to live and thrive if a giant AI data center comes to their town.

During the campaign season, however, what might happen if the richest companies in the world decided to invest heavily in supporting the Supreme Court justices of their choosing?

What if they threw millions upon millions of dollars trying to convince the body politic that the same Supreme Court justices that are good for billionaires are also good for the everyday citizen of our Central Kansas City by the River?

History tells us they’ll likely be successful and the election will go their way.

Then I expect they would file a number of legal cases arguing our efforts at protections violate the Kansas Constitution, and they’d quickly run the case up to the Highest Court - where their newly seated justices sit.

And since we have new competitive, partisan elections for these positions, it’s also quite likely that during their deliberations, those justices are likely to remember who brought them to the dance in the first place, what outsized influence that money had in the election - and whose support they’ll need in the next election cycle.

So the justices strike down our quaint city’s codes and protections, or uphold some state law that says local ordinances restricting business is not allowed - ensuring unfettered access and freedom to build as many data centers, in as many other quaint little prairie cities as they please - all without the concern of even a hint of regulation, responsibility, or commitment to any of those communities.

The motivation behind the Republican supermajority pushing for this change isn’t based on data centers - it’s rooted in frustration with rulings on education funding and reproductive care.

But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched monied interests leverage social concerns - which corporations don’t care about at all - to secure policy wins on taxes, regulations, and to get themselves some nice big taxpayer-funded welfare.

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Generally speaking, the Kansas Legislature is filled with followers who will do as they’re told, so instead of writing smarter, cleaner laws, or directing state resources in a way that is constitutional, the Kansas Legislature has decided it’s easier and less effort to just buy up the courts.

In addition to all the other problematic doors that will be opened if we move to a partisan system for Supreme Court justices, we will 100-percent be inviting billionaire control of our judicial system.

And they will use that control to invalidate any local level laws that get in the way of their mission, which is clear and simple: Extract as much wealth from every person, everywhere, until there’s nothing left to take all.

The connection between this upcoming judicial election process and the growing debate and discussion of community protections around data centers doesn’t yet exist.

But it will. If we allow it.

It’s a special thing to be able to share in and celebrate in our community life - and more so to share in the development of children on the cusp of adult life.

The mission of MidTown Center is to provide real-world, relevant learning in a safe, smaller setting that is conducive for all students to achieve.

That’s extra special for me, since, admittedly, I wasn’t always the most focused, determined, or typical student when I was young.

Here’s the message I shared with the graduates, their family and friends, and the Midtown and USD 308 staff.

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher asked the class to draw a picture of a tornado.

Before I go on, can we just acknowledge for a moment how special it is to live in a place where you can ask just about any 5 or 6 year old to draw a picture of one of mother nature’s most devastating forces - and it’s likely that they’ll know how without explanation.

So I was asked to draw a tornado. That was it.

Nothing about the background, or the size, or anything else. One simple instruction - draw a tornado. The rest was up to me to decide.

Or so I thought.

I quickly went to work, drawing my tornado, then put down my crayon and proudly held up my drawing, expecting that my teacher would offer glowing praise for my exceptional artistic ability, creativity, and hard work.

She looked down at me and said: “You did it wrong.”

I looked across the room and saw every other student holding up their interpretation of a Kansas tornado.

To a person, they had drawn their tornados from a side view perspective - with the wide part of the funnel at the top, gradually shrinking toward the small part of the funnel touching the ground.

Not me, though.

For some reason, I drew mine as if I was inside the tornado, looking down. Mine was not a funnel from the side, but a funnel with wide circles leading into smaller and smaller circles.

Immediately my face turned red with embarrassment. I felt really dumb and weird and different from everyone else.

I was confused about how I could misunderstand the assignment so badly, and how I could fail to understand what everyone else in my class clearly had no trouble comprehending.

It took some time, experience, and the help of a number of people throughout my life to see the truth of that early memory.

Sure, my drawing didn’t meet the unspoken expectations of my teacher, or the established norms of my classmates.

But I was not wrong.

My colorful crayon drawing wasn’t wrong.

My interpretation of how to draw a tornado wasn’t wrong.

It was simply a different perspective. The same thing, presented in a completely different way.

Something different isn’t wrong, or a threat, though it’s not uncommon to be labeled as such.

Difference, when embraced, can help protect us from the chaos of the world.

It can offer us advance warning of dangers we might not otherwise be able to see or understand.

It can show us solutions to complex problems that evade conventional thinking.

Difference, welcomed, nurtured, and cultivated, is essential to building communities that are physically, economically, politically, and socially resilient.

We know this is true in nearly every aspect of our lives.

When you all are a little older and start saving for retirement, you’ll be told how important it is to diversify your stock portfolio. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.

Community leaders and planners often talk about the need to build different types of economic development opportunities to provide a stable workforce for residents.

Economists talk about how a multi-faceted economy that creates wealth from agriculture, heavy industry, technology, commerce and retail - builds a stronger economy that can better withstand downturns.

We see this perhaps most clearly when we look to nature.

Healthy, diverse ecosystems allow the opportunity for more life at every level of the food chain to flourish. An ecosystem that favors the predator too much, or eliminates diversity in plant and animal life, faces its eventual, but certain, collapse.

Yet, in the human systems we’ve developed there are countless examples where sameness is rewarded and encouraged, while differences are discouraged, or even punished.

It’s baked into our culture and we hear it all the time.

Stay in your lane

Fall in line

Get with the program

Don’t rock the boat

Or, you did it wrong

And sometimes we can feel it in judgemental looks, rolling eyes, and lingering stares of others.

Being the same might be an easier path, but it is not necessarily a healthier one.

And it does not build strong communities capable of adapting and adjusting to modern challenges.

Tonight, I look out and see in each of you a spark of uniqueness, a spirit of individuality that is wholly yours.

You, your perspectives, your views and ideas, your energy and talents, are an essential part of building and enriching our future world.

I also see in this room the people who saw and recognized all of that first. Your family and friends, your teachers, counselors, your principal - all people who had their own choices to make in their lives about where to spend their talents and effort.

And they chose you.

People who really worked to see you for who you are, and made the active, ongoing, decision to accept you, support you, nudge you, hold you accountable, and to walk alongside you - not just when it was easy, but when it was hard.

We are here today to celebrate the achievement of graduation. To commemorate the work you’ve put into moving your life forward, to its next natural phase.

It’s also an opportunity for all of us to acknowledge the people in our lives who helped construct a community in which we could thrive.

To take a moment to appreciate the strength and power of a community that embraces and supports all of us, our experiences and perspectives - and the people who gave a part of themselves as an investment in our shared future.

We can also use this moment to ask what we owe to them, and what you owe tomorrow’s version of yourself.

What role do we owe in the lives of others in our community?

What effort are we willing to expend to build the life we might imagine for ourselves?

Do we have a moral obligation to use our experiences and perspectives to light a path for those around us, and to help those who will follow behind us?

The answer to those questions is complex, nuanced, and entirely yours to make.

But you don’t ever need to feel alone in that decision.

You are stepping away from the structures and systems that have shaped and guided most of your young lives. And you’ll soon emerge into new systems and new structures, with new people, new rules, new expectations, and new norms.

That can be exhilarating, liberating, overwhelming, confusing, and terrifying all at once.

I know that it was for me, when I was sitting where you are right now - unsure of how to navigate what seemed like a pivotal moment in life.

But I’m going to give you for free the hack that took far too many years of my life to figure out.

The more I gave and invested in building and fostering my community, the richer my life grew.

I felt safer in the world around me.

I felt supported in difficult times.

I had fun.

I made mistakes. A lot of them.

But I had people who helped me recover.

I made enemies.

But I also made friends who had my back.

I found people who loved me.

And I found people to love.

I found a sense of belonging.

And I have tried to use that to help others feel like they belonged, too.

Together, it all helped me find purpose and meaning in my everyday life.

And I really hope you’ll hear it with your whole heart when I tell you there’s a richness in community, connection, meaning, and purpose that can’t be found in wealth, or fame, or any of the traditional measures of success.

The people here today know that.

They felt that sense of meaning and purpose and community when they made the choice to invest themselves in you.

That’s part of why we’re all so very happy to celebrate this achievement today.

But most of all, we’re excited to watch all the future ways you’ll invest in yourselves, too.

Congratulations and Good Luck in All you do.

Yet when we ran into each other around town every now and then, we'd always spend too long catching each other up on our lives. I last ran into Don maybe a month ago, and it was no different then.

He loved his family and friends with incredible deepness.

His sons talked about how willing Don was to give someone his time. To visit, to help with a project, to offer insight, or to just visit and catch up.

During the service, I found myself remembering the conversations I had with Don, but more so I remembered the unhurried time he gave me. He never rushed a conversation, and he was always warm. For a few moments, the rest of the world took a step back, creating space for genuine connection.

His children also talked about how skilled Don was at making the most of tough times.

In some of our conversations, Don expressed to me frustration about a few things going on in his life. But he always smiled and laughed. He’d find a joke to make. He kept his outlook positive, even when the subject matter might have given him permission to feel otherwise.

There are people in our lives, in our communities, who are fixtures we sometimes take for granted. We just figure they’ll always be around. Don, for me, was one of those.

You never know when you are going to see someone for the last time. But there’s always going to be a last time.

I didn’t know that my last time with Don would be that brief encounter downtown.

I’m sad that won’t happen again.

And it makes me want to be better about sharing my time, be more intentional about showing people how much they mean to me, and find joy in even some of the hardest moments of life.

Take care, Don.

I’m sure you’ll get a real jolt out of it!

It might be the most shocking episode yet!

OK. Enough with the Dad jokes.

This week’s episode features a couple of standout Allen STEM Magnet School students - and their coach - who are headed to the World KidWind Competition in Madison, Wisconsin after taking tops the Statewide Competition.

You’ll hear Clayton Hatfield, Milo Miller, and coach Keith Gable discuss the work that goes into designing a winning wind turbine, designed to generate the most electricity possible, and all the skills the students learn in the process.

Before we get into that, however, I am going to ask a favor.

Allen STEM Magnet School has two teams headed to the world competition: the Whirlwinds (4th and 5th grade) and the Mavericks (6th-8th grades). Both teams won first place in their division at the state competition and need to raise about $15,000 to cover travel costs for the students and their sponsors. While these students learn a great deal in the KidWind competition, it’s not something covered by normal school expenses.

You can mail a check to to Allen STEM Magnet School: KidWind Team, 403 W 10th Ave, Hutchinson, KS 67501. The Checks can be made out to Allen PTO c/o KidWind Team. Alternately, you can also drop a check off at the Allen office.

They also have a gofundme where the money goes directly to help with these expenses. That’s how I’ll donate this week, and I hope you will too!

As you listen to this episode, I think you’ll find the KidWind competition is a valuable and enriching experience for these students. I was most impressed with they way Clayton and Milo talked about the process of trial and error. As they develop their ideas and plans, they must put those ideas into practice; when they fail, they revise their plans and try again.

Projects like this give students permission to be imperfect. It’s teaching them how to think. How to problem-solve, and how to create. It was such a shining example of what is happening in our education systems—something that often isn’t highlighted as prominently as it should be.

I know you’ll find this episode informative and adorable. And I hope when you listen you’ll also consider supporting our local kids who are looking to do some really big things on a really big stage.

To listen to Clayton, Milo, and Keith, visit Salt City Podcasts or your favorite podcast streaming service.

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For more information on KidWind

www.kidwind.org

kansasenergyprogram.org/events/2026-state-kidwind-challenge-salina

facebook.com/AllenSTEMKidWind

kidwind.org/worlds/2026-2/

For additional questions, contact the school at 620-615-4900

In our conversation, you’ll learn about her motivation for renovating the once-dilapidated building - including her initial battle with the pigeons who had taken up residency in the building.

You’ll also learn about her vision and spirit for downtown, and how the work she’s doing to redevelop the Meyer Landmark is building on the legacy of her father, Nation Meyer, who was a strong advocate for downtown Hutchinson.

If you’ve been curious about what’s happening at the corner of 5th and Main, you’ll want to make sure to listen to this episode of That Podcast in Hutch.

Instead of taking the advice of nearly everyone in the city to just leave HutchRec alone and move on to one of the many other very real and pressing issues in our city, the city has taken the odd approach of adding an educational session on the agenda.

The topic will be how Recreation Commissions exist throughout the state, and the professor will be the City of Hutchinson, which hasn’t ever run its own Recreation Commission. Also, we’ve had this lesson already.

We’ll be told this is being done in the spirit of education, and to have a conversation about whether there are efficiencies to be found by absorbing HutchRec into the city. And, we’ll be told that’s not the ultimate goal - we’re just asking questions here, and what could be wrong with asking questions? But anyone with a lick of sense who’s been paying attention at all knows there’s no other goal at all. For any member of City Staff or the City Council to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.

If you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a quick rundown of the past couple months - at least the parts I’ve been privy to be a part of or know about.

• On March 2, a young man made his first public appearance into Hutchinson government/politics by making a very specific open records request to the city for a memo from 1994 that suggested the idea of pulling HutchRec and the Hutchinson Public Library under the city. (It’s worth noting that this same person also served as treasurer for an ad hoc committee that purchased electronic billboards in support of the city’s sales tax initiative.) His request was fulfilled in less than a day, and on March 3, he spoke in public comment to the council, suggesting that they should again consider saving money by bringing HutchRec and the library under city control.

Note: I can confidently say that I have more experience with open records requests than probably anyone in Hutchinson. I have never had a request completed in a day. Normally, the agency has 3-days to respond to even acknowledge receipt of a request and they take it. Making a request specific and time bound enough is difficult - unless you have information that allows you to craft a very detailed request. Even then, documents from the 90s are not often digitized, and not often so close at hand they can be processed and delivered on such short notice. That has been my experience in more than 20 years of work in journalism and advocacy. And I want to be very clear about something - the issue here isn’t that a young person got involved in politics. Quite the contrary - I wish an entire legion of young people would start asking questions about how and what local government is doing. The part that feels unusual and, frankly, untoward, here is the city’s robust, immediate, and enthusiastic response to that question. The city council is setting precedent where anyone who presents anything to the council must be taken just as seriously, or risk accusations that they are applying their power unevenly and unfairly. I imagine if a resident asked for a similar study about efficiency in the police or fire department, we wouldn’t be witnessing the rush to study that we’ve seen here. That brings into the question the validity of claims that this isn’t about personalities.

• During the next month or so, there are a number of conversations among stakeholders about the matter. There were questions about why this is coming up now, and why the city council seemed so poised to act on this young man’s suggestion - which if you watch the video wasn’t simply to study HutchRec, it was to study the absorption of HutchRec. Again, from the outset of this, the clear intent was to eliminate HutchRec. It was never about how to make HutchRec work better, or more efficient. On the same night that the City won its sales tax vote, the effort to make its grab was taking place in council chambers.

  In some of the conversations I had with HutchRec board members, there was a great deal of confusion about what had happened between December and March to reignite old tensions. The City Manager had come to the HutchRec board meeting in December and expressed a desire to want to get past their differences and build a productive relationship. The board chair at the time also sent an email to the city manager thanking him for his graciousness and willingness to work together. But something changed between December and March, and no one on the HutchRec knows what. They all felt blindsided by the movements in March.

• Later in March and early April, I visited with several council members and City Manager Enrico Villegas, who had previously been on my podcast to talk about the city’s proposed 3/4 cent sales tax, which won a slim margin on March 3. Some of the conversations were lengthy. I expressed my concern that a protracted and public fight between the City of Hutchinson and HutchRec would harm the city - and throw away any of the goodwill that had been found in the conversations of the previous month or so around the sales tax vote. There, to me, seemed to be a sense of renewed optimism about the future of our city. A belief that maybe we had turned a corner and there was reason to feel good about our city. I thought such a fight would fracture the people most involved in the city, and would eventually pit different parts of the community against one another. I also anticipate that should the city move to eliminate HutchRec, there will be a protest petition to force a public vote - which the city must pay to hold. I saw no good coming from such a fight and determined the underlying issue is that HutchRec and the City have not developed a comprehensive MOU or operating agreement.

  On the afternoon of April 2, I secured a promise by both the city manager and the management and board of HutchRec to call a truce, and work toward developing an agreement that would create a better framework for working together. I suggested the use of a mediator, and the inclusion of a dispute resolution process to handle future agreements. Here’s the email I sent to all parties.

• On the afternoon of April 7, just a few hours before the now-infamous city council meeting, the city manager called me and said he was in a “political quagmire” and asked if I could help him navigate it. He indicated that three city council members asked him to draw his display of how recreation commissions are formed. I told him that I thought if he did that and brought up the topic of absorbing HutchRec, that would be seen as a violation of the agreement and all the good faith discussions would fall apart. I’ve also gotten word that as early as noon that day, the city IT department was setting up for the city manager’s anticipated presentation about HutchRec. Early on in the meeting, the same young man who approached the council on March 3 expressed his frustration that some had accused him of being a “plant.” That, and comments that followed, reignited the entire fight and conversation about eliminating HutchRec.

  That is in no way a comprehensive examination - a lot of other people have had a lot of other conversations and asked a number of other questions about these issues.

I had really hoped there could be a reasonable resolution that would’ve strengthened the relationship between HutchRec and the City and move this issue forward. Instead, it seems like we’re going to be in for a long, drawn out battle that doesn’t need to happen. At all. It’s nonsense, and it’s going to damage relationships across the board - and we’ll spend good money for yet another study when we have a study that already told us there’s no savings to be found.

And on that, I’ll add another point - if the City of Hutchinson is really interested in saving money and finding efficiencies, I’d argue that it makes far more sense to look at its own messes before trying to point a finger at someone else’s. And like I said before - now that I know it just takes a few minutes of public comment to whet the City Council’s appetite for any study anyone might suggest, I expect we might be in for a mighty fun ride.

But I’ll start with a free money-saving idea that doesn’t require a bit of study to find a significant amount of savings.

Stop paying out-of-state production companies $26,300 to produce a feel-good video to help win awards from a professional organization - that might make a person feel mighty specials, but don’t do one worthwhile thing for our city.

And if you are going to pay that much for promotional work to professional organizations, maybe think about shopping local.

Note: I want to be clear here that I have in the past, and continue to work directly with HutchRec in a number of ways, including serving as a member of Bike/Walk Hutch. For a number of years, I’ve partnered with HutchRec, participated in their events, and volunteered to help with some of their activities. I coached boys playing basketball for a couple years when my kids were young. I have also partnered with the city to promote some of their initiatives, and publicly supported their additional sales tax efforts, and will continue to serve the best interests of our city however I can - be it through the city of Hutchinson or HutchRec.

First, thank you for your service to our community. It is a difficult, and often thankless job - one in which everyone at one time or another is a critic - even though few of those critics seem willing to put their thoughts and ideas into action by running for the seats you currently hold.

I’m writing today to summarize my thoughts on the matter of the Hutchinson Recreation Commission and the idea that it might come under control of the city government. I’ve visited with a number of you, and with other stakeholders, and I have made my position clear. I believe that any move toward dissolving HutchRec is a misguided idea that would lead to a reduction in service to the community, increased staffing costs for the city, and a future in which community events, activities, camps, and more are compromised in the name of efficiency.

Currently, the city of Hutchinson is warning residents of a nearly failing water treatment plant. Recently, a collapsed storm water pipe created a washout that forced the closure of a busy intersection (11th and K-61). The limestone walking trail at Rice Park is nearly grown over in places with crabgrass. The Martinez trail is functionally unsafe to ride a bike or jog in places due to the lack of upkeep. Several potholes have become the subject of regional news stories.

Yet, I’m supposed to believe, despite all the evidence and history to the contrary, that moving HutchRec underneath the city’s stewardship will ensure it is protected and improved for future generations. HutchRec has demonstrated its ability to manage its meager budget well. It has grown its services and offerings in Hutchinson, all without ever increasing its mill levy. The City of Hutchinson cannot say the same.

Talk of this study has been presented as an effort to find efficiencies. I might suggest that the City first take the plank from its own eye before worrying about the splinter in another’s. If efficiency in city government is the goal, I might offer that more savings could be found by looking at the biggest portions of the city’s budget first, rather than an outside agency with a relatively small budget. This is a far more common sense approach.

If you need help with suggestions on possible cuts that are worth additional study, I have a variety of ideas I’m happy to offer. I’m sure I could find a number of residents who likewise would enjoy the opportunity to present their suggestions during public comment at city council meetings - and have them met with the same vigorous support from a majority of the council.

The 2011 study - commissioned by lay people on the city council and the school board at the time - indicated the city would incur additional costs and staffing if it absorbed HutchRec. I don’t know that those supporting yet another study have considered that they might be spearheading another, far more expensive effort, that will yield the same results. Using taxpayer dollars to conduct a study in the uncertain hopes of finding something that wasn’t found in a previous study might be the most inefficient way possible to find efficiencies.

Additionally, while this council might make commitments to protect parks and recreation funding, you have no control or power over the actions of future councils. During every meeting this year, you’ve had a group of people who have expressed their passionate belief that the city government should not manage any such amenities. It is not unlikely that people with such a mindset might secure a temporary majority on the council, and while there, enact policies that create lasting and permanent harm to our community’s future.

The core issue is not whether HutchRec would be better managed under the city, but the inability to draft a suitable agreement to govern the relationship between HutchRec and the City of Hutchinson. When everyone is getting along, the old gentleman’s agreement might work, but where there is conflict, contracts are required. The public doesn’t care who is to blame for the impasse - they want you to figure it out without all this public bickering.

And that brings me to my next, and perhaps most crucial reason in asking you all to move beyond the moment we’re currently in with dignity, respect, and real stewardship and leadership.

This effort around HutchRec is a war of choice.

There was no real public outcry demanding the city take over the organization. It is clear there are personality differences and lingering grievances that are the primary drivers of this effort. Some people have been treated poorly. Mistakes have been made, and relationships have been damaged. There was a suggestion made during one public comment segment of one city council meeting - but there has not been a groundswell of demand from the broader public for change on this front - save the handful of people bending the council’s ears.

However, this discussion is hurting our community. It is creating unnecessary divisions. It is asking people to choose sides, and it is spilling over into other areas of government and community life, and it is highlighting a level of dysfunction that negatively affects community morale, and the view residents have of our hometown.

Most perplexing to me is that you’ve chosen to have this fight on the heels of the community’s support for an additional sales tax to support the City’s ongoing efforts to move us to a better, more hopeful place. Three weeks before the March 3 vote, I’d never have given the sales tax question a shot of winning - but a number of community advocates lent their support for the effort and voters approved the measure. Yet on the very night those votes were being tallied in support of the City, the first public salvo of this unnecessary fight was launched during the public comment section of that night’s city council meeting.

For a moment, there was a sense of hope and belief that our community had a plan and the resolve to move ahead. I talked to so many people who thought that maybe after so many years of just getting by and trying to survive, that there might be a path forward, that we might have the right leadership in place to realize our full potential.

I will never understand why city leadership chose to immediately waste all the goodwill that was created in that moment. To squander the faith and hope it had created in residents, and to trade it in for a petty fight that isn’t rooted in public demand, public safety, economic development, or community good.

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In fact, I worry that should this fight continue, this moment and this council’s actions will become part of the lore that’s told about Hutchinson’s slow and continued decline.

You likely know the stories - that Hutchinson leaders in the 1950s declined its chance to have an Interstate Highway come through town and that’s why we never grew. Or how USD 308 in the 1960s didn’t want the hassle of running buses, thus leaving the district landlocked and ceding much of its potential tax base growth to nearby districts.

We have voluntarily converted a moment of hopefulness and unity into a moment of anger and division. There are plenty of forces working to sow division in our communities without creating it ourselves where none naturally exists. In fact, I’d argue that at this moment we’re behaving exactly as those at the federal and state levels of government want us to behave. In their long-term starvation of local governments - through the deployment of unfunded mandates, changes in tax policy that have stripped local governments of resources, and a refusal to fund property tax relief and assistance for more than a generation - they hope to further erode the effectiveness of local government. And done right, local government is the last place that puts people above party or politics. Instead of fighting amongst ourselves, we ought to be joining together to protect our community and demand better from our state and local governments.

Hutchinson has long struggled with its view of itself, and I believe that has been the biggest barrier to realizing our full potential and effectively building the future our children and grandchildren deserve. We have endured loss, and we’ve struggled to adapt to a changing world and economy, just like nearly every small or mid-sized town in America. We have allowed the naysayers to wield the biggest microphones, and as a result, they often have an outsized voice around policy discussions. Those of us who love and care for this community often aren’t eager to speak up for ourselves, or our community - especially in an environment where people feel free to harass and ridicule others in public. This practice must stop if we hope to be a part of building a stronger, more resilient, more hopeful community - one that can envision a future that’s more than the loss we’ve experienced in our lifetimes.

In this moment, that can start with you - the people who have been entrusted to lead our community for the next several years. You have a choice in this moment - a choice that will set a tone for the community’s future and send a signal to our residents about whether or not our leaders are committed to real change in Hutchinson.

We can continue to engage in this fight, and move forward with efforts to move a popular 80-year-old organization under City control. But the fight won’t end with a study or a city council vote. Kansas Statute allows for a protest petition and a public vote, the cost of which will be borne by the city. There will be a very public battle between the supporters of HutchRec and the supporters of the City. I’d place my money on HutchRec prevailing in such an election, and we will end up right back here - with the City of Hutchinson and HutchRec forced to find a way to work together. Except there will be more bad blood, more resentment, and numerous fractures and collateral damage created throughout the city’s institutions and residents.

Let’s suppose the city should prevail, any cut, any program that isn’t run as it was before, will be cause for additional criticism of the City. The grievances that are now directed toward HutchRec will be lobbed at the City - and it will be added to an already large pile of grievances people readily hold against their city government.

And all the while, there would have been efficiencies and savings to be found if only the City had looked inward and sought to clean its own House first.

If it’s a fight you want, there will be enough reason to fight in the future. There are conversations and decisions on the horizon that will eclipse by magnitudes the discussions surrounding the proper role of HutchRec. I hope you’ll foster an environment today that preserves our ability to approach those conversations with clarity and purpose.

The most direct and cost effective solution to any disagreement with HutchRec is to create a framework for working together in the future, not to dismantle what is proven to be working well. After my conversations with stakeholders, I mapped out a plan to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies - something I know has been promoted by Councilwoman Goss for at least a year. The immediate solution is for this council to compel staff to engage in those conversations, and for the HutchRec Board of Directors to do the same - and commit in good faith to reaching a fair and workable compromise.

I believe that every problem in the world can be solved, if the people involved really want a solution. We owe it to the residents of Hutchinson to work toward a solution that doesn’t create unnecessary divisions, doesn’t ask the community to pick sides, and that elevates the long-term wellbeing of our community above all else.

Sincerely,

Jason Probst

If at times, it seems that I’m frustrated/upset/exhausted/irritated/depressed/tired, it’s because I see in us the capacity for such love and kindness, and the teachings of Jesus Christ offer a clear road map of how to be the best versions or ourselves. And yet, I’ve watched over my life as the Easter Message of love, sacrifice, and hope is perverted by those who work to blend faith and fear to secure their own power and use it as a means of control.

You are free to believe as you please, but I will believe what Christ said - “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

On this Easter Morning, I am grateful that I have people to love. I am grateful for the love of my family. I am grateful for the love of my friends and for the ways we help and support one another through life. I am grateful for a community that is rich and vibrant. And I am grateful for the people who support the good I try to do in the world.

March 26, 2016

Shouldn’t Easter Sunday last more than just one day?

Today is Easter Sunday.

Churches will hold sunrise services to watch a new day take shape and reflect on the symbol of the cross and Christ’s power over death. Children will awaken to baskets filled with unexpected goodness, and they’ll search for Easter Eggs and find them in places where yesterday there was nothing out of the ordinary. Families will gather around a table, from the oldest to the youngest, share a bountiful meal and celebrate the promise of spring and Christ’s resurrection. Christians throughout Kansas, the nation, the world, will hear the message that Jesus has risen and the hope and faith that God’s love conquers even the universal fear of death.

Then it will be Monday again.

And frankly, on Monday I expect it will once again feel as if Jesus has died all over again. We won’t hear the message of hopefulness that fills the Easter holiday. We won’t hear that Christ’s love is more powerful than fear. Experience tells us that all the hope and faith of Easter is largely contained to one day in the spring – the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox – and that all the days after it will return to being just like all the days before it.

In Kansas, we’ll return to hearing about legislation that contradicts Christ’s message. We’ll hear about legislation that doesn’t include people or show them an ounce of compassion but instead excludes them from our community and works actively to deny Christ’s love to those most in need and, perhaps, who want it. Nationally, we’ll return to talk about how America is faltering, and it’s the fault of this person or that person, one policy or another, people who don’t try hard enough at life or people who hope to find refuge and sanctuary in America’s abundance.

We’ll forget all the messages in the Bible that preceded Christ’s death and resurrection. We won’t reflect on the man who healed a leper, who defended a prostitute, who reached out and showed mercy and compassion to those with physical and mental ailments. We’ll ignore our covenant with God that in exchange for his grace and love for us, we will extend the same to others, to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We’ll hear about what’s good for business and very little about what’s good for people, and we’ll gloss over the fact that Christ chased the merchants and money-changers from the temple, saying: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

On Monday, we’ll hear about how we should be scared of the world. There is ISIS and immigrants and refugees and in each of those groups, a danger lurks that threatens our way of life, even our very existence. Yet, the Christian way of life, as the Bible teaches, is one of faith and love that does not carry troubled hearts or fear any worldly force.

On Monday, less than a full rotation around the sun from Easter, we will hear that the world is falling apart, that kids don’t know what’s good for them, that people just want a handout, that in order to make the world better we must fear more, hide what we already have and give more to the wealthy.

And with it, all the promise and hope of Easter will have withered.

In America’s most dynamic and prosperous times, some of our greatest achievements occurred when our actions aligned with the message of Easter Sunday. When a group of people fought for the idea that all men are created equal. During a Great Depression when the rest of the world propped up dictators, we elected someone who told us everyone deserved a new deal and that the only thing to fear was fear itself. Or when we elected a relatively young man who hopefully asked us to dream bigger than we had ever thought imaginable.

We used to look together at the world and see what needed to be done to build a nation, a state, a community, and then we set to work to make it happen. We believed that we held within us what was required to do good, even great, things. We believed that America was an exceptional country, that it was great, because we had compassion and love in our hearts for our neighbors and that our wealth obliged us to make the world a better place. Or at least try.

Fear is not what brings comfort, strength or power. Hate and exclusion do not create peace or understanding. Greed does not create prosperity. Judgment does not create compassion.

Love is the agreement we have with God. He loves us, and we show that love to others, and through our compassionate efforts the world discovers that Christ’s love is for them, too.

Jesus spent his life trying to show us that, and he died and rose again that we might have faith in his teachings. We recognize and celebrate that on Easter morning with a great amount of fanfare.

And then, it will be Monday again. And on that day we have a choice.

Jason Probst is news editor for The Hutchinson News.

Happy Easter!

I asked Jon to talk about the difficulty of managing a city budget, especially when faced with a changing landscape - and mandates - from the state and federal governments.

We discuss a number of different topics in our conversation, and the time flew by while we recorded. I am confident you’ll feel the same as you listen.

It’s both important and enlightening to hear Jon’s takeaways and insights from his time on the council. It’s also a good reminder that at the local level, the people serving in elected capacity - your city council members, county commissioners, and school board members - are effectively neighborhood volunteers who care about their communities. They don’t make real money, typically aren’t politically driven, and often are tackling big, complex issues. And in a town the size of Hutchinson, any decision you make is bound to make one group or another upset.

My conversation with Jon is Part 3 in That Podcast In Hutch’s multi-part series on property taxes. Part one is a conversation with Kansas Senator Mike Murphy, who introduced legislation this session aimed at eliminating property taxes in Kansas and replacing it with a surtax, which is a sort of sales tax on consumption. In Part 2, I visited with Reno County Appraiser Michael Plank, who discussed the property valuation process. In Part 4, I visit with Chris Courtwright, the Kansas Legislature’s lead economist for 34 years.

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This package of episodes of TPIH contains a lot of valuable information for anyone who is interested in learning more about property taxes, tax appraisals, and the ways in which policy decisions from years ago are affecting you today.

Now up, Jon Richardson, and his experience on the Hutchinson City Council.

The sad and unfunny truth is that while you’re out here working and trying to feed your family and pay your bills, there’s an entire industry that serves itself - an interconnected web of players across the political spectrum who make their entire living on the manipulation and mechanisms of a government system that should be serving the interests of ordinary people.

Behind these state and federal representative governments there is a sort-of shadow government - people whose names, histories, motivations, and positions never see the light of day and who never face the scrutiny of voters. Yet they work the halls of congress, and Topeka, using money and influence to enrich themselves, and the special interests that employ them. They influence elections to seat people more likely to comply with their demands. They align themselves behind shared goals - and lean collectively on lawmakers to see the world their way.

And if they don’t, they’ll be warned that non-compliance can result in a primary challenge, a withdrawal of financial support for a campaign, and the likely smearing of your name and reputation come August or November.

Lobbying has always been designed to secure a benefit for one interest or another. But it has become its own self-serving and self-replicating industry, and as such, we’ve experienced an intense rise of a lobbying-government complex in which lobbyists have a vested interest in keeping friendly lawmakers in power, and where those lawmakers are incentivized to keep their industry friends satisfied.

The old scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours dynamic has grotesquely morphed; grifting the taxpayer is the goal and the purpose, be it through lucrative government contracts for supposedly good causes, or tax breaks and incentives for some business or another.

I was once told a story (though unconfirmed) from a good source about a lobbying firm in Topeka that had been courting a lucrative contract with a well-known national ride sharing company. At the time, states were starting to require higher insurance coverage for rideshare drivers, on account of them engaging in a commercial venture and driving more miles than the average person.

This firm hoped to represent this national company in Kansas to keep any such requirements from emerging in the Sunflower State. But Kansas being Kansas, the company decided there was little chance a conservative legislature would initiate any sort of business requirement on the company.

This lobbying firm, however, didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to cash in on this payday - so they asked a friendly legislator to draft legislation that threatened to require higher insurance coverage. The bill had no chance of passing - it was a ruse the lobbyist could use to secure the contract, and the paycheck that came with it.

Similarly, when I served on the agriculture committee there was an interesting debate around the labeling of “meat analogs” - think Impossible Burger and other plant-based meat substitutes.

A representative for the beef industry at the time attempted to force state-level labeling requirements that would prevent such products from using the word or term “meat.” A member of the committee asked if that would create a hardship for this emerging industry, with different labeling requirements from state to state. The representative plainly stated that was the goal. Livestock groups across the country and at the national level hoped to create so much dysfunction in the market that it would force federal intervention to put limits on the market.

In Kansas, there are plenty of examples of this - and it’s not just from those typically viewed as the “bad guys.”

One year, while digging through the Kansas budget, I found a line item for $600,000 to a single non-profit in Wichita - a company that already benefits from a tax credit that’s billed as a way to employ people with disabilities, but that also helps offset tax liability for one of the country’s largest aerospace companies. I asked on the House floor why we were giving taxpayer money directly to a non-profit organization whose leadership team earned multi-million dollar salaries.

No one could give me an answer.

There are some truly dedicated and authentic and compassionate lobbyists who do the work for the right reasons, and whose hard work I value, though it often goes unrewarded. But there is also a corps of supposed “good guy” lobbyists who are more interested in securing their own contracts, and have for years taken money from passionate and concerned Kansans, while doing little more than cashing checks.

If you think I’m wrong, go down the rabbit hole of who quietly supported legislation last session to bring more money into Kansas politics. The allegiance was to money and power and the ability for lobbyists to have more control over elections.

This session has been rife with examples of grift:

We’re allowing “claims sharks” to make money from taking advantage of veterans trying to file disability claims when groups like the VFW do this work for free.

The legislative session shut down because a group of lawmakers planned to run over leadership’s efforts to protect the health insurance industry.

Even law enforcement doesn’t like this effort to require more bonds for more cases - and the courts say it will create problems. But it’s happening because there’s money to be made - both inside and outside the halls of government.

Government at these levels has largely become a business. I used to comment that in the Capitol we could see a person bleeding out on the floor and no one in the building would lift a finger to help until we could find a way for someone to make a buck. If we believe the old free market adage that self-interest is what drives people forward, compels them to work, and fuels their efforts - then we must also acknowledge that our political system has been corrupted by industrialization.

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Some people blame “the government” but that’s too simple. “The government” is little more than an extension of the people who control it. We like to think it’s voters who run the show, but more often than not, it’s the money.

The people working in this world might have wildly different views, they might serve diametrically opposed clients, but they all make their money from the same business model and have a vested interest in maintaining government dysfunction. Because if it ever works for people as well as it works for lobbyists, their means of income - which only exists in Capitol cities - would cease to exist.

The state level is problematic, but it’s reaching grotesque levels at the national level. Every day I get a news alert about some very direct conflict that a decade ago would have spelled political doom for the people involved. Nowadays, we just call it being good at business.

There’s Kristi Noem’s $220 million advertising campaign that she routed to an associate’s newly created company.

And the whole crypto mess, in which so many people in Washington, D.C. enmeshed in this it’s almost impossible to track and unpack.

Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate

While we are at war in Iran, the Trump offspring are $1.5B investors in an Israeli drone company that - I kid you not - “Specializes in Low Cost per Kill Drones.”

These suspicious trades in oil futures seem like they should be really hard to ignore.

Those things that could aid our lives and our society - real property tax relief, addressing healthcare costs, feeding hungry kids, rising energy expenses, containing insurance premiums, developing affordable housing - can’t seem to get much attention at all. Meanwhile, we’re never short of money for tax giveaways, lucrative sweetheart contracts, insider deals, government grift, and, of course, the never ending war machine.

So what’s the punchline?

We are.

Because the cruel joke is that we have the most representative form of government in the world, and it’s doing a really great job of representing how much we care about all the wrong things.

With a few selected photographs, I was ready to hit send and jump on board. But the photos caught my mind, and caused me to pause long enough to ask myself a question.

These photos show what I looked like in the 1990s. But they didn’t show what I was like. For that, I had to spend some time with myself considering the arcs and valleys of my life since then.

I think if we’re all honest, though, we probably don’t get a full accounting of ourselves without meaningful conversations with some of the people in our lives at the time. The people we hurt, the people who hurt us, our families, the friends we used to have.

Here’s what I can say with relative confidence - the 90s were a time of uncertainty.

In school, I had been a pretty good saxophone player, and for a while thought I might try to land a music scholarship. Or go try to make a life of it in a city. My folks didn’t graduate high school, and for them, college seemed like the sort of thing that was for other folks’ kids.

For a time, I sort of adopted their thinking.

I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. I thought I’d go into the Air Force, and started to join through one of those deals that recruits wayward teenagers who seem unlikely to leave their hometown for college or work.

Then I realized that was my father’s idea for my life, not mine. He thought I lacked discipline, and structure, and wasn’t bashful about saying it.

I got a job. Made some friends. Had some fun.

By 1994, I was a father.

Exciting, but also the most terrifying time of my life. I was 20 years old, earned $250 gross a week running a restaurant, had no health insurance, drove an unreliable car. Still didn’t know what I was doing. And knew even less about how to take care of a child.

By 1995, we launched a family business. A restaurant. Everything seemed new and exciting, and it felt like our family was building something that was ours, something that would move us closer to the life we dreamed.

We worked nearly every waking hour. We didn’t make any money. Our family had to help pay some of our personal bills so we could afford to keep the business running. I saw a close friend die in front of me in an automobile accident.

By 1996, the business failed. We filed bankruptcy and came back to Hutchinson. I was embarrassed and ashamed, and I felt like my ambition had failed my family.

I took a job that I wasn’t thrilled with, but it paid just enough that I couldn’t justify going somewhere else. It felt like some sort of a hopeless trap. But I didn’t want to fail again.

When 1997 rolled around, I was a father again. Still scared, but less than before.

We bought a house. It was old and in need of repair. We didn’t know what we were doing, but didn’t have the money to pay someone who did. Over time, we did what work we could, the best that we could.

We also made good friends, built memories for our children, and had fun where and when we could.

Somewhere in there, I started taking college classes at Hutchinson Community College, and later Baker University. I would pack a book bag in the morning before work, wash the cast iron dust from my face at the end of the day, change clothes, and head off to school.

It was hard, and it seemed like it took a very long time. And it wouldn’t have been possible without a partner who believed in and supported this goal for our family.

What was I like in the 90s?

I was a kid who hadn’t yet had his heart broken. Or broken anyone else’s.

I was an emerging adult, with dreams and ideas - and no sense of how to realize them.

I was a husband and father who had no idea how to do either.

I had the sort of hope that lives in a person who hasn’t yet experienced real defeat.

I began to see the world more as it is, and less how I hoped it would be.

I was an uncomfortable mixture of doubt and hope, faith and loss, ambition and fear.

I see it again in some of these young men now.

The ones who will one day be asked what they were like today.

I hope they know it’s OK if they say that they didn’t quite know themselves yet.

But they found him.

Like lots of people, you might still be reeling from the recent valuation statement that came in the mail. And like some, your first instinct might have been to cuss the county appraiser’s office - and I think a good number of people have done just that.

I asked Michael to help me better understand how those valuations are calculated. He also explained how much of their work in the appraiser’s office is governed by laws created by the Kansas Legislature. Michale unpacks the complicated and heavily mathematical world of valuations in a way that is easy to understand.

He even offers tips and suggestions on how to appeal your valuations.

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No matter how you feel about your valuations, it’s important to acknowledge Michael’s openness to the community about his work - which during a time of inflationary pressure and increasing demands on all of us is among the most unpopular roles in government. He could easily stay in his office and avoid the public altogether, instead he has held events across the county to help people understand the property valuation process.

My conversation with Mike is part two in That Podcast In Hutch’s multi-part series on property taxes. Part one is a conversation with Kansas Senator Mike Murphy, who introduced legislation this session aimed at eliminating property taxes in Kansas and replacing it with a surtax, which is a sort of sales tax on consumption. In coming episodes I visit with former Hutchinson City Council member Jon Richardson and Chris Courtwright, who served for 34 years as the chief economist for the Kansas Legislature.

This package of episodes of TPIH contains a lot of valuable information for anyone who is interested in learning more about property taxes, tax appraisals, and the ways in which policy decisions from years ago are affecting you today.

Now up, Michael Plank, to help us better understand the valuation process.

Residents dread opening their valuation statements for fear of what they’ll see. Politicians keep promising relief, and local governments try to balance meeting the wants and needs of their communities with ongoing demands for lower taxes.

Yet, for something that affects so many of us, it’s an area that is complex and layered and can be difficult to understand.

Today’s episode of That Podcast in Hutch kicks off a multi-part series in which we’ll try to unpack and simplify some of the discussion around property taxes in Kansas.

Part one is a conversation with Kansas Senator Mike Murphy, who introduced legislation this session aimed at eliminating property taxes in Kansas and replacing it with a surtax, which is a sort of sales tax on consumption.

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I asked Mike to sit down with me not necessarily because I think his bill is the right approach to property tax relief, but because I think that ideas are worth exploring - especially when the public is expressing a dire need for a change. I’ve not been scared of too many ideas in my life, and I think we find better solutions when we entertain thoughts that challenge the status quo and the established order. Mike’s idea is a foundational system change, one that is rightly met with questions and concern. But it is, in my opinion, an important part of a broader conversation.

In coming episodes, I’ll visit with Reno County Appraiser Michael Plank, former Hutchinson City Council member Jon Richardson, and Chris Courtwright, who worked for decades as the principal economist informing the Kansas Legislature on revenue and tax policy.

These next few episodes of TPIH contain a lot of valuable information for anyone who is interested in learning more about property taxes, tax appraisals, and the ways in which policy decisions from years ago are affecting you today. As I’ve recorded these episodes, I’ve learned things I didn’t know about the process and deepened my understanding around this issue. I think you’ll find the same as you listen.

First up, Sen. Michael Murphy on his plan to replace property taxes with a consumption surtax in Kansas.

As always, if you like what we’re doing consider subscribing to the newsletter and podcast, following me or the podcast on social media - and sharing these episodes with your friends.

1. Be sure to download this week’s episode of That Podcast in Hutch - featuring a conversation with Sen. Mike Murphy about his plan to end property taxes in Kansas and replace it with a surtax on purchases. His bill had a hearing in the Senate Tax Committee this week, where it met some expected resistance. If you’re curious about Sen. Murphy’s proposed legislation, property taxes, or the Kansas legislature in general this will be worth a listen. You’ll also get the chance to hear two people from two wildly different points on the political spectrum talk to each other with the decency and respect. 🤯 You can listen to That Podcast in Hutch on Spotify, Apple, Youtube, or just about anywhere you get your favorite podcast.

2. Why is censorship all the rage lately? I thought Americans loved freedom, and few more than a free press and the right to say what we like, however we like. Now I see the same people who used to fly those giant “F**k your Feelings” flags whining and complaining anytime someone says something the slightest bit unkind or who doesn’t toe the establishment line. And they’re not afraid to use massive wealth or the power to silence critics - or even basic reporting. Here’s our Fox and Friends weekend host-turned Secretary of War Pete Hegseth championing consolidation of news reporting under a single billionaire family:

   “He faulted numerous headlines, insisting that rather than report things like “Mideast War Intensifies,” the press should instead be “patriotic” and write headlines like: “Iran Increasingly Desperate.” The visibly angry Hegseth also ridiculed a CNN story reporting that Trump’s war planners “underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz.” He added: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

   And there’s the threat by Minister of Truth, er, I mean, FCC chairman Brendan Carr to revoke broadcasters’ licenses if they don’t start reporting the news in a more with a little more truthiness:

   “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote in a post on the social platform X.

   The powerful inconvenience of the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is that it protects both the speech that suits you and the speech that doesn’t. And during times of distress and discord our protection of free speech is most required - something Kansas’ most famous journalist articulated in his “Letter to an Anxious Friend”

   “You say that freedom of utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply with the sad truth that only in time of stress is freedom of utterance in danger. No one questions it in calm days, because it is not needed. And the reverse is true also; only when free utterance is suppressed is it needed, and when it is needed, it is most vital to justice.”

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3. Speaking of Kansas, there’s so much happening in the Kansas Legislature it’s a challenge to see what’s slipping under the radar. And there’s most certainly a lot of things sliding under the table. But here are a few headlines that caught my attention this week.

   Kansas bill would make it a crime to approach within 25 feet of first responders

   Students raise concerns over bill that limits First Amendment right to protest

   Kansas bill to expand free breast cancer screening likely killed by lawmaker

   Democrats exit election committee meeting after accusing chair of antisemitism

4. Locally, there are two big things that I want to share. First, the Food Bank of Reno County had it’s grand opening at its new location at corner of 4th and Severance. There have been a lot of people working very hard to make this moment a reality - and the new space will serve our community very well, and for a very long time.

   

   

Second, I attended the Trends in Data Centers event last week hosted by the Hutch Chamber. I am generally skeptical of data centers and what they mean for any community they want to set up in. BUT - I’m also trying to keep an open mind on the matter. I want to listen and gather information, but also to process that information critically. This is good and useful information that is being presented by a group of people who are pro-data center development. And that’s fair, but also worth noting as we launch into bigger conversations about what this could mean for Hutchinson, Reno County, and surrounding communities.

Do you believe Hutch has peaked?
Is this as good as it’s ever going to get?
Or is there a brighter future worth investing in?

That question sparked one of the most widely read essays here.

Now, ahead of the March 3 sales tax vote, he’s joining me on the podcast for a real conversation about what this moment means for Hutchinson.

Not just the tax.
Not just the politics.
But the history, and the trajectory.

If you care about where our community is headed, I think you’ll want to hear it.

We talked about delaying projects year after year, and how that can end up costing us more over the long run.

We talked about that trip to Japan that prompted a number of questions at the public meeting I attended. It cost the city $10,040 to send the city manager and two council members on a business recruitment/potential business expansion trip (Takako has a manufacturing facility in Hutchinson) - as well as efforts to establish a sister city relationship that could potentially lead to increased tourism.

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We talked about the issues with current restrictions on the current stormwater fee, and how much additional spending it would take to equal the amount we’ll all save from the elimination of that fee. AND - you’ll hear the city on record for everyone to hear that the fee will end shortly after the sales tax begins.

We talked about how federal and state policies create unfunded mandates for local governments - who are forced to comply with those laws while having limited ability to pay for the demands created by high levels of government.

We talked about the current need to upgrade our wastewater treatment plant, and how not doing so has and still could cost us more money over time.

We talked about the vision for our community’s future, and the strengths we can leverage to make that vision a reality.

I expected that Enrico and I would record for about an hour, but we talked for close to 90 minutes. I hope you’ll listen to this episode, and really hear what is behind the decision to ask to support the sales tax increase. And if you find our conversation useful and helpful, I hope you’ll share it with others.

I also hope you’ll listen with a mind toward possibly, toward growth, and not default to the scarcity, fearful mindset that I feel has plagued our community, and much of rural Kansas, for far too long.