October 30, 2024 | By The Active Age
Share the Season is a holiday program that helps working families in Sedgwick County who are experiencing financial hardship due to a major life event or difficult circumstance. The funds raised through this program are used to fill the gaps left by other assistance programs. Since 2000, the Wichita community has contributed over $4.5 million […]
| By The Active Age
Since retiring as a federal judge 14 months ago, Ken Gale has more time than ever for one of his lifelong passions — music. Gale recently joined Jazz in the Heartland, a group that specializes in Dixieland jazz, as its banjo player. “They’re a great bunch of guys,” he said. “It’s great to have another […]
| By Joe Stumpe
It’s the birthright of every American to complain about politics and politicians. After all, that’s pretty much how our country got started in the first place. But the griping rings a little hollow when it comes from someone who doesn’t participate in the political process by voting. It’s kind of like a sports team forfeiting […]
| By Nancy Wheeler
November is a great month for eating and entertaining. Try these questions to see if you are a turkey expert or just a lame duck. The answers appear below. 1. What main dish consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck and then stuffed into a deboned turkey? 2. What Thanksgiving staple was […]
| By Ted Blankenship
Early in 1943, my family moved from Madison, Kan., to Eureka, some 25 miles to the south. We had been there about three weeks and I was out riding my bicycle. And there on the front lawn sunning herself was a pretty redhead. Somehow, I managed to get a conversation going, which eventually became long […]
| By Ted Ayres
“Like What You Do” by Dr. W. Walt Menninger and Todd Fertig (Flint Hills Publishing, 2024, 457 pages, $40.00) There are a few names associated with Kansas that have become recognizable on an international basis: Earp, Earhart, Landon and Eisenhower, to name a handful. Another such name is Menninger. Four generations of Menningers created and ran a world-renowned […]
| By Diana Morton
Forum Theatre, at the Wilke Center, 1st United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. Dial M for Murder. A new version of the celebrated murder mystery that inspired Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Tony is convinced that his wife Margot has been cheating on him. Now it seems that the affair is over, but in his jealousy, Tony spins […]
October 28, 2024 | By The Active Age
Kansans have a more positive view of the state’s overall quality of life than they did a year ago, according to a new survey. Their view of the economy was also brighter although a majority felt they’d been significantly affected by inflation. Former President and current Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Gov. Laura Kelly, […]
October 25, 2024 | By The Active Age
Sedgwick County will operate a total of 20 early voting centers from Tuesday, Oct. 29 through Saturday, Nov. 2. These will operate daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. through Friday, Nov. 1 and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2. Click here for a complete list. “We are thrilled by the record turnout we’ve seen at the […]
October 24, 2024 | By The Active Age
Wichita Transit is again providing free rides on Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 5 — no matter where you’re going. The offer proved popular last year, as ridership jumped over 10 percent. Wichita Transit will offer free bus rides on all traditional bus routes and paratransit service. Free rides are valid for everyone riding to or from polling locations as well as any other trip during the day. Riders do not […]
October 16, 2024 | By The Active Age
United Way of the Plains is recruiting 160 volunteers for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program that will operate Feb. 1 through April 15 in 2025. According to a news release, the service is offered at no charge to households making $64,000 or less annually. Funded through an annual grant secured from the Internal […]
October 14, 2024 | By Stefania Lugli/The Journal
The deaths of more homeless residents are being counted this year after local officials implemented a formal process to identify them – the latest symptom of the intensifying conversation around homelessness in Wichita. As of September, 46 homeless people had been confirmed dead by Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center investigators. That’s more than the 42 that […]
October 11, 2024 | By The Active Age
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Laura Rainwater is reminding voters of several important dates this month, including next week’s voter registration deadline, in preparation for the 2024 General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Tuesday, Oct. 15 – Last day that Sedgwick County residents can register to vote and be able to cast a ballot in the […]
October 10, 2024 | By The Active Age
Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase 2.5% in 2025, the Social Security Administration announced today (Oct. 10). On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month starting in January. Over the last decade the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase has averaged […]
October 9, 2024 | By The Active Age
A woman who stole thousands of dollars from her great uncle has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison, according to a news release from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office. Sedgwick County District Judge David Kaufman sentenced Stephanie Bracks, 43, of Dallas, Texas to 47 months in prison and ordered her to pay […]
October 3, 2024 | By The Active Age
Wichita home prices will rise by nearly 8 percent next year, slightly more than the statewide average, according to the 2025 Kansas Housing Markets Forecast series published by the Wichita State University Center for Real Estate. “Inventories of homes available for sale remain quite tight,” said Dr. Stan Longhofer, director of the WSU Center for […]
October 1, 2024 | By Joe Norris
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, there’s a beautiful town square park that you enter through one of two huge arches made of elk antlers. When huckleberries are in season, you can sit in the park and enjoy a huckleberry lemonade or one of several other tasty huckleberry concoctions. They’re crazy for huckleberries in that part of […]
| By Becky Funke
GODDARD — The Goddard Senior Center is on a roll. What had been a group of older residents getting together informally cut the ribbon on the new Goddard Senior Center last month, days after the Goddard City Council approved $46,000 in funding for it ($6,000 of which came from Sedgwick County). This month, the center […]
| By The Active Age
Three new members have joined the board of directors of The Active Age. Steve Criser is one of the founders and owners of CGP Group, LLC, a tax and accounting firm. A Wichita native, he graduated from East High and Wichita State University. Criser jokes that a job he held during college — drawing blood […]
| By The Active Age
Diabetes fair offers free testing Free testing for diabetes, flu vaccines, foot exams and more will be offered during the 8th annual Live Well with Diabetes Fair, held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Wichita State Metroplex, 5015 E. 29th St. N. Sponsored by the Great Plains Diabetes Center, the […]
| By Lynn Avants
“Wichita Blues: Music in the African American Community” by Patrick Joseph O’Connor (2024, University Press of Mississippi, 282 pages, $30 on Amazon) The traditions and history of the blues as a music form have been well-documented in some regions of the United States. The new book “Wichita Blues” does the same for the genre in […]
| By The Active Age
The Active Age is now available in audio form through NFB-Newsline, a service of the National Federation of the Blind and State Library of Kansas. NFB-Newsline is intended to help those who are visually impaired or have difficulty because of a physical impairment or reading disability. There is no charge for the service, but users […]
| By The League of Women Voters Wichita-Metro
Whether you’re 19 or 99, you are an important member of our democracy. Be sure to exercise your right to vote in the November 2024 election. Here’s how to plan ahead. Check your registration Go to KSvotes.org or call the Sedgwick County Election Office at (316) 660-7100 to see if you are registered and if your information […]
| By The Active Age
Here are some facts you might not know about Lincoln Heights Village, which became Wichita’s first shopping center when it opened in 1949. It was named for Abraham Lincoln, whom realtor and developer Walter Morris greatly admired. Morris bought the property at Douglas and Oliver in 1926 from a wealthy St. Louis financier, Harry F. […]
| By Ted Blankenship
If you are a genuine Kansan, say born in Bazaar, you probably already know this. But if you’re a native of, say, Dallas or Minneapolis, you probably grew up mispronouncing the name of a native Kansas animal, the coyote. It’s co-yote, not co-yot-ee. The frustrating part of this is that people who put the “ee” […]