News – Page 1101 – Ranson Financial Group LLC

Most top Kansas schools are in Johnson County, but KCK high school ranks No. 1: Report

info2022-05-10T01:20:51-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Seven of the top 10 high schools in Kansas are in Johnson County, according to a new national ranking, but once again, the No. 1 school in the state is in Kansas City, Kansas. Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, in Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, was named the top school in the Kansas rankings, compiled by U.S. News & World Report. Nationwide, Sumner placed 32nd, making it the highest ranking public high school in Kansas or Missouri. Sumner has regularly landed at No. 1 in Kansas in recent years, including in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Source: Joco 913 News

Atchison Intern Earns Scholarship for Public Administration Program

info2022-05-10T07:03:39-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Current City of Atchison intern and Benedictine College senior Olivia Ortiz was awarded the Virgil Basgall Scholarship for next year as she is preparing to attend the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. Ortiz has been a management intern with the city since Spring of 2021. Ortiz is planning to pursue a Master’s in Public Administration, with an emphasis on city/county management. “This is a well-deserved honor for a fantastic intern who will no doubt make a great city manager one day,” Atchison City Manager Amy Finch said. Ortiz has taken on such tasks as running the city’s [...]

Tourism on the Rise in Fort Scott

info2022-05-10T07:04:00-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Tourism is the act of spending time away from home in pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure, while using commercial services, according to Britannica Dictionary. Local tourism is looking healthy as evidenced by the transient guest tax from 2015 through 2022, which just completed its first quarter, Jackson Tough, Fort Scott’s Public Relations and Tourism Director said. “Transient guest tax is probably the most common form of raising funds to promote tourism in a given community,” Tough said. “It’s simply a tax on hotel/motel rooms that visitors pay when they stay in Fort Scott.” Source: Fort Scott Biz

Residents push back on Shawnee’s controversial ‘co-living’ restrictions

info2022-05-10T07:04:49-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Shawnee resident Val French said she first learned about the city’s controversial co-living restrictions by scrolling through Twitter. She said she was upset. She didn’t get a direct notice from the city or her councilmember and was concerned her housing would soon be in jeopardy. French currently lives with her blended family of five, including herself, her husband, her son, her stepson and her son’s girlfriend, who are all over 18. The recently passed ordinance states that “co-living” is defined as four or more “unrelated” people living together. It also states that if one person in a group is unrelated to [...]

Concerns expressed for firefighters in Sedgwick County budget hearing

info2022-05-10T01:09:29-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Employee retention and competitive wages were some of the common themes at Monday's Sedgwick County budget hearings. Commissioners will determine next year's budget for all county departments. Emergency Communications, EMS, Fire District 1, Regional Forensic Science Center, Emergency Management, Corrections and MABCD gave budget presentations Monday afternoon. The head of RFSC testified that it's struggling to meet accreditation requirements and said 50% of its staff leave every two years. RFSC also reported that deaths in Sedgwick County are increasing, pointing to a rise in drug overdoses, specifically Fentanyl overdoses. Source: KSN-TV

Inman passes $5M sports complex bond

info2022-05-10T07:06:48-05:00May 10th, 2022|

On Monday, Inman Schools revealed that the $5 million bond that would help the town of Inman improve its sports complex passed by a vote of 387 to 381. On May 3, voters in Inman were presented with the following question: "Shall Unified School District No. 448, McPherson County, Kansas (Inman), issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000 ..." That night, the bond initially failed by two votes, but 16 votes were still being “investigated.” Source: KSN-TV

Study: Remote learning a ‘primary driver’ of widening achievement gaps

info2022-05-10T01:04:15-05:00May 10th, 2022|

A new working paper analyzed testing data from 2.1 million students in 49 states plus D.C. and found that “remote instruction was a primary driver of widening achievement gaps.” The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research, and NWEA, a nonprofit research and educational services provider, collaborated to write “The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic.” The paper follows mounting research that pivoting to remote learning harmed students’ mental health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while annual learning [...]

Sedgwick County Had Siren Silent Spots

info2022-05-10T01:03:02-05:00May 10th, 2022|

Sedgwick County officials acknowledge that some residents living in rural areas likely did not hear sirens going off before an EF-3 tornado roared through parts of the Kansas county April 29th. While much of the attention after the storm focused on heavily populated Andover, rural areas close to the city and in Butler County also sustained significant damage from a tornado that was on the ground for nearly 13 miles. Some residents there say they did not hear sirens before the tornado hit. Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Julie Stimson stressed that the sirens were never intended to warn people inside [...]

Johnson County Planning Commission to take up solar farm regulations for a 10th time

info2022-05-10T07:08:07-05:00May 10th, 2022|

The Johnson County Planning Commission has spent more than a year working on regulations for commercial solar facilities. On Tuesday, it will take up the contentious issue again — this time with firm marching orders from county commissioners to make proposed regulations less onerous. The debate on regulations for large and utility-scale solar facilities started in September 2020, when NextEra Energy Resources LLC put forward plans for a $450 million, 320-megawatt solar farm on 1,600-2,500 acres west of Gardner. In addition to solar panels, the NextEra project would include battery storage. County staff worked with Virginia-based Berkeley Group to look at best [...]

10-year Treasury yield rises to its highest level since November 2018

info2022-05-09T07:32:39-05:00May 9th, 2022|

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit 3.17% on Monday morning, as investor focus remained on inflation and economic slowdown concerns. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed 4 basis points to 3.1726% at 4 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond moved 4 basis points higher to 3.2659%. The 10-year rate reached the 3% mark at the beginning of last week, for the first time since 2018, and had hit 3.14% by Friday. The Federal Reserve announced a 50-basis-point interest rate hike on Wednesday but the central bank's efforts to combat rising inflation with more aggressive rate [...]