Category: Latest News

Dig deep: Chicago-style pizza

October 1, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe

Hunger-inducing. That’s one good description of a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza when it’s pulled out of the oven.  The fact that it takes only a handful of inexpensive store-bought ingredients to put together makes it even more appetizing.   Chicago-style Deep-dish Pizza  Olive oil 1 bag (16 oz.) refrigerated pizza dough, brought to room temperature   1/2 […]

Read Article

October quiz: Consult your crystal ball for these answers

| By Nancy Wheeler

Paranormal events are phenomena whose existence cannot be explained by science. As Halloween approaches, let’s review our working knowledge of these reported occurrences. The answers appear below. 1. What name is given to the colorful spiritual energy that surrounds a person’s physical body and indicates a person’s emotional or physical well-being? 2. What term is […]

Read Article

October Theatre

| By Diana Morton

Forum Theatre, at the Wilke Center, 1st United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. Dial M for Murder. A jealous husband, his wealthy wife and the seemingly perfect crime are at the center of this new version of the celebrated murder mystery that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s film masterpiece. Oct 31- Nov 17. 8pm; Tickets $34 – […]

Read Article

Savvy Senior: How to assess what you need in a walker

| By Jim Miller

How to Assess What You Need in a Walker Dear Savvy Senior, Can you give me some tips on choosing an appropriate walker for my elderly father? He has some balance issues along with arthritis in his hips and could use a little more help than a cane provides. Wobbly in Wisconsin Dear Wobbly, When […]

Read Article

Records set straight for two Wichita big leaguers

| By Bob Rives

Like their Major League careers, the news was welcome but a bit late for two Wichita baseball stars. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball announced that Negro League statistics would be considered big league stats. For Bob Thurman, who started a Major League career at age 38 after three seasons of Negro League play, and […]

Read Article

Calendar art choosen

| By The Active Age

Vera Jane Davis, seen with her “Sunset on the Farm,” and Naomi Ullum, pictured with “Peonies-Sunlit Luminescence,” are among artists chosen to have their work featured in the 2025 Art is Ageless calendar, postcards and greeting cards produced by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. Others include Patt Sharpe, for “Catus;” Paulette Mattingly, for “Giraffe Fabric Collage”; […]

Read Article

Cheney Lake is drying up. Wichita says the drought plan is working

September 30, 2024 | By Meg Britton-Mehlisch/The Beacon

One big rainstorm won’t fix Wichita’s water shortage. Dark storm clouds that hovered over Wichita one mid-September softened the ring of cracked dirt that’s inched wider around Cheney Lake each week, but it didn’t erase the underlying problem. Kansas is in a drought. For much of the last year, Cheney Lake, Wichita’s primary water source, […]

Read Article

Property tax dominates housing forum in Sedgwick County Commission District 3 race

| By Chance Swaim/The Wichita Eagle

The two candidates for Sedgwick County Commission District 3 have different visions for how county government should raise and spend money in the face of increasing property taxes and a housing shortage in the Wichita area. Celeste Racette, a fiscally conservative Democrat with a background in accounting, said she wants to offer property tax relief […]

Read Article

In District 2 race, Lopez and Blubaugh disagree on property tax issues, and who’s to blame for higher taxes

| By Chance Swaim/The Wichita Eagle

Sedgwick County Commission District 2 candidates Sarah Lopez, the Democratic incumbent, and Jeff Blubaugh, the Republican challenger, disagree about how the county should address affordable housing in Sedgwick County. But they both said they think county property taxes play a key role. Lopez said she plans to offer property tax relief by consolidating services offered […]

Read Article

The Active Age welcomes new board members

September 26, 2024 | By The Active Age

Three new members have joined the board of directors of The Active Age newspaper. 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 […]

Read Article

Wichita’s first shopping center turns 75

| 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. […]

Read Article

Renovations, security upgrades in store for elementary school turned emergency shelter

September 25, 2024 | By Matthew Kelly/The Wichita Eagle

For the first time in over 100 years, Park Elementary School did not welcome students and teachers back for another school year. Instead, the recently shuttered elementary in the heart of Midtown is set to reopen around Thanksgiving as an emergency winter shelter. The Wichita City Council last month finalized its $1 purchase of Park […]

Read Article

County closes Swap & Shop during expansion

September 24, 2024 | By The Active Age

Sedgwick County is doubling the size of its Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 801 Stillwell and adding parking to the east side. According to a news release, the $1.9 million project is needed to handle growth in customer usage and to facilitate tours and school field trips in the future. Meantime, the facility’s Swap & […]

Read Article

City urges residents to cut back on water usage, may impose more restrictions

September 20, 2024 | By The Active Age

As Wichita’s drought continues, the city said this week that it will step up enforcement of water use restrictions — including the levying of fines when warranted — and may discuss prohibiting all outdoor watering in the future. “All water customers are urged to continue to find ways to cut back on water usage,” a […]

Read Article

Wichita puts $450 million bond issue on ballot

September 17, 2024 | By Suzanne Perez/KMUW

The Wichita school district will ask voters in February to approve a $450 million bond issue to finance school construction and other improvements — a plan leaders say will reduce the district’s overall footprint and make it more efficient. School board members voted 6-1 on Monday to hold a special election Feb. 25. It will […]

Read Article

State to provide grants to unpaid dementia caregivers

September 16, 2024 | By The Active Age

The state of Kansas will begin this fall to provide $1,000 to unpaid caregiers caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, it was announced today (Monday, Sept. 16). The Kansas Respite for Alzheimer’s & Dementia Program (K-RAD) will be overseen by Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) but managed and administered by […]

Read Article

City may cite owners of short-term rentals for nuisance parties

September 9, 2024 | By Laura McMillan/KSN

The Wichita City Council has been looking for ways to prevent problems at short-term rental sites like Airbnb and Vrbo. Should the property owner or just the renter be fined and possibly arrested? On Tuesday, council members approved an ordinance allowing law enforcement officers to shut down nuisance parties at short-term rental properties. The ordinance states […]

Read Article

Orpheum to close for a year for major restoration; work to start in June 2025

September 5, 2024 | By The Active Age

Leaders of Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday announced its Second Century Campaign and plans to fully restore the interior of the historic venue. “We are proud to announce that the Second Century Campaign launched during our 100th anniversary (in 2022) is at 73 percent of its $9.5 million goal,” said Glen Nilsen, chairman of the […]

Read Article

CNA sentenced for mistreating 90-year-old who died

September 4, 2024 | By The Active Age

A man who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of mistreating a 90-year-old resident of a Bel Aire nursing home was sentenced Wednesday to a year of probation and ordered not to be employed in any capacity where he would be providing medical care to patients. According to a news release from the District Attorney’s […]

Read Article

Rose show blooms again

August 30, 2024 | By Sherry Graham Howerton

Don Suderman discovered his passion for roses more than four decades ago. “I grew some roses starting in the 1980s. Then I went to a garden tour in Wichita and got invited to a Wichita Rose Society meeting, which increased my knowledge on how to grow them,” said Suderman, who is now president of that […]

Read Article

Book might be last chance to catch I-70 killer

| By Joe Stumpe

BTK wasn’t Wichita’s only serial killer to escape detection for decades. On April 11, 1992, 23-year-old Patricia Smith and 32-year-old Patricia Magers were shot to death while working late at Magers’ bridal shop, La Bride d’ Elegance, on east Kellogg. Less than a month later, police announced that their killer had murdered four other people […]

Read Article

Upcoming Events

| By The Active Age

Senior Carnival fun night Senior Services, Inc. is holding a Senior Carnival for people 55 and older from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13 at Linwood Senior Center, 1901 S. Kansas St. The $5 admission includes a hot dog dinner, games, goodie bag and more. RSVP to (316) 263-3703 by Sept. 11. Senior Services operates the […]

Read Article

Viva Tortillas: Flour version has long, well-traveled history

| By Joe Stumpe

I always assumed flour tortillas were an offshoot of corn tortillas, which have been made in Mexico and Central America since prehistoric times. Not so, says Gene Chavez, a Kansas City-based scholar specializing in Mexican-American history. Chavez believes the flour tortilla’s precursor originated in North Africa and was similar to what we know as pita […]

Read Article

When pigs cost 50 cents each: Kansas during the Great Depression

| By Diana Breit Wolfe

     My dad said there was no electricity on the family farm in the 1930s because they “didn’t need it.” Their water was pumped from the windmill. Their stove burned wood. They did have a phone on the wall for a while (electricity provided by the telephone company), but only got calls when somebody […]

Read Article