The Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI), that was released on Thursday, climbed above the growth neutral threshold, 50.0, for a second consecutive month, according to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy. Economist Ernie Goss said that the ag sector has actually done fairly well lately. ... Farmers generally are doing pretty well cash wise, which is good news for them, but not necessarily for the bankers that the survey covers, but as conditions soften, Goss sees use of credit by farmers as more likely soon. "That's going to [...]

Though voters will have to wait nearly two more years to fill the two vacant seats on the newly expanded five-seat Douglas County Commission, at least one nearby county has completed the same process in recent years and could provide some clues about what’s to come here. Douglas County voters approved a ballot measure that expanded the commission from three seats to five in November, and since then county leaders have crafted a new map of commission districts and have decided when the two new commissioners should be elected. Based on the commission’s recommendation, Gov. Laura Kelly gave her approval last [...]

As Kansas schools struggle to hire teachers from a much more limited pool of candidates, one Kansas Board of Regents task force is working on ways to get more Kansas high school students into the state's teacher preparation programs. Earlier in the fall, the Kansas State Department of Education’s estimated more than 1,600 empty teaching positions around the state, a sharp uptick from the prior year. The state department has been working on several of its own initiatives to address teacher vacancies, particularly from a licensure standpoint. At the same time, the Kansas Board of Regents appointed an Educator Work Force [...]

Federal Reserve officials are preparing to slow interest-rate increases for the second straight meeting and debate how much higher to raise them after gaining more confidence inflation will ease further this year. They could begin deliberating at the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 gathering how much more softening in labor demand, spending and inflation they would need to see before pausing rate rises this spring. In recent public statements and interviews, Fed officials have said slowing the pace of rate increases to a more traditional quarter percentage point would give them more time to assess the impact of their increases so far as [...]

What could Ella Day, Brooklyn Rupp and Colter Beam tell the world about Silver Lake, Kansas? The Silver Lake Jr./Sr. High School juniors had been students in the district since kindergarten, and they understood the small, rural community well. So when elementary school librarian Carrie Podlena asked high school art teacher Michaela Conley for help with a project to tell the story of Silver Lake Grade School, the art teacher knew exactly who could help. Source: CJonline

For Rep. Jim Minnix, the state's increasingly acute water problem is not a theoretical matter of public policy. In addition to his duties in the Kansas Legislature, Minnix is a fourth-generation farmer and stockman. And while he and his colleagues in the Statehouse debate what policies to implement to encourage conservation in Kansas, the Scott City Republican said he has taken steps to decrease water use on his own property. While efforts to scale up conservation efforts could impact the pocketbooks of farmers like him and his 27-year-old son, Minnix said the long-term impact on the state of Kansas was paramount. [...]