By Cleon Rickel

A group of public water systems in Missouri and Kansas are part of a federal lawsuit filed this week by 16 water systems against the leading maker of a popular farm herbicide.

The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million from Syngenta Crop Protection, Greensboro, N.C., and its parent, Syngenta, AG, Basel, Switzerland, in damages and to pay for the costs to treat water laced with atrazine. Cameron, Mo., northeast of Kansas City; and Concordia, Mo., east of Kansas City; Miami County Rural Water District No. 2, Spring Hill, Kan., just southwest of Kansas City; and the city of Carbondale, Kan., about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, are among the group of cities and water districts in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illiniois, Indiana and Ohio involved.

The group’s attorney is seeking to make the lawsuit a class-action suit on behalf of other cities and water systems.

By Debbie Coleman-Topi

Since being laid off from his job more than a year ago, David Remick has had nothing but time. The 38-year-old used those spare months to ponder his future.

Remick, who had worked for a Kansas City blueprint company as a printer, knew that field no longer offered him a future. Printing companies nationwide are being bought out by large corporations who have a knack for finding ways to improve efficiency and cut the work force. They also are adept at outsourcing work to other countries, Remick said.

He considered earning a business degree, which could be his ticket to a white-collar job in corporate finance. But, the south Kansas City man's conscience intervened.

By Beth Brubaker

Twenty-six years ago Richard Tripp reached into the trunk of his Yellow Cab and lifted a suitcase out for his passenger, something he had done hundreds of times before. This time though, he must have twisted slightly the wrong way, or the suitcase was unusually heavy, because something happened. Two weeks later, Tripp was walking along and his legs suddenly gave out and he fell to the ground. More unfortunately, this happened in front of some co-workers who let his supervisor know what they had seen.

“They said, ‘You can’t work, you can’t drive anymore, we heard stories,'" remembers Tripp. Cab drivers are usually independent contractors, with little or no benefits. It wasn’t long before Tripp lost his apartment and was on the street.

“I think about the scariest thing that ever happened was the day I knew I was kicked out of my apartment and I didn’t have anywhere to go. I had family but I am one of those type of people that don’t believe in letting everybody know my business. I don’t want to be beholden to anybody. So I moved out to I-435 and Truman Road and lived in them caves out there for a couple weeks,” Tripp said.

By William Worley

More than a hundred years ago, this small-town Kansas publisher let loose his pen to blast what he then saw as ruinous Populists attacking the solid reputation of his home state. In turn, it made his reputation within the Republican Party nationally and firmly established his Emporia Gazette as a small town force to be reckoned with.

In later years, White concluded that he had written in anger what he might have tempered with a bit of reflection. This is because he actually came to espouse many of the Populist ideas as part of his conversion to Bull Moose Progressive politics along with Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Even though he later reconciled with the Kansas Republican Party, he always thereafter maintained his independent streak.

By Karen Land

When was the last time you made a snowman?

Last week as I drove through Georgetown, Texas in a blinding snowstorm, I wasn’t thinking about stopping to play in the snow. Actually, I was shocked, disoriented, and a little bit grumpy.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to my friend sitting in the passenger seat. “SERIOUS SNOW IN AUSTIN?”

Goosebumps covered my bare skin. I flipped the heat onto high; suddenly, my tee-shirt and cotton khakis seemed all wrong.

Snow has been tagging right on my rear wheels sInce mid-January. No matter where I drive across this country, clouds follow, the sun disappears, temperatures drop, and the white stuff starts to fall.