WRITER: Josie Heimsoth

Perry-Lecompton school district unveils $17.8 million plan for new athletic and fine arts facilities, enhanced day care options

Several facility construction projects will begin in the Perry-Lecompton school district to support athletics and fine arts students along with parents looking for better day care options nearby. Last fall, the Perry-Lecompton school district passed a $17.8 million bond issue for new and updated facilities. The funding will be distributed between two construction phases, with the first one costing roughly $14 ...

Kaw Valley Farm Tour preview: At Compass Prairie Art Farm, Kansas' native ecosystem offers 'a different palette of color'

Crickets and grasshoppers sing among the native grasses and flowers on a 10-acre remnant prairie southwest of Eudora. The prairie – located on the Compass Prairie Art Farm – offers numerous seasonal blooms of native flowers, and its highly diverse landscape is hard to find. “There’s like a different palette of color that seems to sprinkle itself through the prairie,” said Matt Dehaemers, owner of ...

Kaw Valley Farm Tour preview: Wild Ivy Herb Farm celebrates generations of herbal healing and natural remedies

More than 70 kitchen and medicinal herbs grow at Wild Ivy Herb Farm, which is carrying on a family tradition of growing natural medicines and creating herbal remedies. “Herbs are so special,” said Lori Trojan, owner of Wild Ivy Herb Farm. “They are extraordinary plants with vastly powerful medicinal properties, and they deserve something really unique and special.” Trojan said she was introduced to ...

Kaw Valley Farm Tour preview: For Davenport Orchards and Winery, fall means thousands of pounds of local grapes and 'a lot of hard work'

Fall is the busiest season for Davenport Orchards and Winery, where over 8,000 pounds of grapes grown on the property must be harvested within 60 days before they can be transformed into wine. “(We’re) trying to get the harvest out before we have bad weather, and it’s a lot of hard work,” said Greg Shipe, owner of Davenport Orchards and Winery. Shipe said that estimating the annual bottle production ...

20th annual Kaw Valley Farm Tour will kick off next weekend; organizers look back on the last two decades

This year marks the 20th annual Kaw Valley Farm Tour, offering visitors a chance to explore local farms, wineries and vineyards in Douglas County. Karen Pendleton, who helped kick off the Kaw Valley Farm Tour, said the original vision was to promote agritourism throughout the region and help get people involved in local agriculture. “We haven’t really changed all that much, other than having more farms ...

At DCCCA's 50th anniversary celebration, comedian recalls her struggle with addiction, says there are no lost causes

Today, comedian Tiffany Jenkins has more than 9 million followers and over a billion video views on social media. But in a keynote speech on Thursday in Lawrence, she had some different numbers she wanted to talk about. The 20 felony charges she faced while in the depths of opiate addiction. The 120 days she spent in a Florida jail. The nearly 12 years of her life that she's been clean. And, way back in her ...