By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief
Good morning! This week, we are kicking off our summer fundraiser by highlighting our opinion section, including Sunday columnist Max McCoy.
His article today is a deep dive into secretive plans to build a data center in Emporia. This work is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce. If you can, consider supporting McCoy, and all of our local contributors, today.
Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector
OPINION
My rural Kansas town has a bad case of data center fever. Boom or bust, we will never be the same.
By Max McCoy
Does a town have a soul?
My town does.
You can catch glimpses of it in the hours before dawn on our streets and sidewalks, when the only others you’re likely to see are early rising pedestrians or the seasonal bicyclist. It’s present on Saturdays in June when the steps of the old church on the corner are crowded with the family and friends of the hopeful, and it sits thoughtfully on front porch steps when the first fireflies of summer punctuate the dusk.
It’s also there in kitchens and at dining room tables across town, where the occupants talk in quiet tones about rising prices, foreign wars, and the awful consequences of a major illness or a job loss.
This is a town built on the work of the human mind and of human hands, a town celebrated a hundred years ago by its most famous citizen, a country newspaper editor, for its essential goodness.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
What you need to know about the flesh-eating New World screwworm
The New World screwworm has arrived in the United States.
For years, ranchers across Southern states have prepared for a potential invasion of the flesh-eating parasite that can wreak havoc on livestock, pets and even humans.
Though the United States went decades without a confirmed case of the invasive pest, it’s now made its way across the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials have confirmed one case in a New Mexico dog and five cases in Texas, including cattle, a dog and a goat.
The New World screwworm poses potentially life-threatening risks to pets, wildlife and livestock. While the risk is concentrated in a few states, experts say a massive invasion could ripple across the American economy through higher grocery prices.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
5:30 p.m. June 16, Bradbury Alumni Center at Washburn University in Topeka. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will lead a discussion on the proposed constitutional amendment to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices. Host: Kansas Appleseed. Register here.
6 p.m. June 24, Groover Labs in Wichita. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will lead a discussion on the proposed constitutional amendment to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices. Host: Kansas Appleseed. Register here.
6 p.m. June 25, Clint Bowyer Community Building in Emporia. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will lead a discussion on the proposed constitutional amendment to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices. Host: Kansas Appleseed. Register here.
7 p.m. June 27, Park City Senior Center. Host: Park City Community Pride.
1 p.m. July 11, South Branch Library in Kanass City, Kansas. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone joins a panel discussion: "Elected vs Appointed: Inform Your Choice." Hosts: Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, the League of Women Voters of Johnson County, and El Centro.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
If you're interested in having us talk in your town, email Sherman Smith at [email protected].
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