By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief
Good morning! I hope to see some of you Thursday night in Emporia, where I'll lead an educational discussion with retired Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier, Rep. Mark Schreiber and local school board president Art Gutierrez on the Aug. 4 ballot question about electing Supreme Court justices.
Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector
OPINION
The ‘developer’ of a Kansas data center swore under oath he wasn’t involved. My town is bamboozled.
By Max McCoy
The sales pitch for what could be the state’s largest data center is built on a hyperscale whopper.
In sworn testimony from a federal bankruptcy proceeding, Gary Pinkston, the businessman touted as the developer of the proposed “Flint Hills Digital Campus” at Emporia, said he wasn’t familiar with the project.
Come again?
“I have no interest at all in that project,” Pinkston said under oath last month in reply to a question about the Emporia data center.
Pinkston has been the folksy plaid-shirt-and-jeans ambassador for the hyperscale project since shortly after its announcement last month. The scheme aims to transform 1,000 mostly rural acres on the west edge of Emporia into a data center complex that might eventually attract billions of dollars in investment. Mentally stress “might” in that sentence, because not enough information in the project has been released to judge its chances of success.
Amanda Watford/Stateline
Tick season is getting longer. So is the list of states trying to keep up.
The tiniest menace of summer doesn’t care if you’re hiking through the woods, walking the dog or pulling weeds in your backyard.
It just wants a ride and a meal.
As ticks spread into new parts of the country and emergency room visits for tick bites climb higher than usual, states are scrambling to monitor where the pests are showing up, what diseases they may be carrying and how to warn residents before a bite turns into something far more serious.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
5:30 p.m. July 23, Emporia Arts Center. 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.
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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