News

Music therapy is having a positive effect on some residents at Wichita's Larksfield Place. The older adults are showing signs of increased motivation and improved communication.

Meg Beck has spent nearly 30 years as a music therapist engaging adults and children with the use of music in hospitals, schools and senior facilities.

Inside the health care center at Larksfield Place, about 10 wheelchair-bound residents between the ages of 70 and 100 sit in a semi- circle. Some suffer from dementia and impaired vision.

See the full list of Mary Jane Teall Award winners.

It’s been said that politics and religion don’t mix but both are present on area stages in the coming weeks.

Hey, the referees are back! Which is a mighty big deal in some circles.  Personally, I’m more of a baseball fan. Football – not so much.

I don’t even understand how they can call that weird oblong object with shoelaces on it a “ball.” Aren’t balls round? Shouldn’t footballs be called blimps? Why didn’t they call the game “footblimp” instead of pretending they actually play it with a ball?

The clinic formerly operated by the late Dr. George Tiller in Wichita has been purchased by a group that intends to reopen it as a medical facility for women.

Trust Women Foundation Inc. Executive Director Julie Burkhart says her Wichita-based nonprofit bought the clinic in late August. An attorney for Dr. Tiller’s widow also confirmed the sale.

Burkhart is a former Tiller employee. She has said in the past that she was involved in efforts to open a new clinic in Wichita.

In 2011, Kansas made headlines by eliminating all public funding for the arts. That meant the state no longer qualified for federal matching grants of more than $1 million. But some recent changes mean the state will reapply for the lost federal dollars.

During the last legislative session, lawmakers restored state funding for the arts. And now, the state’s arts agency, the Creative Arts Industries Commission, will reapply for federal grants.

Wichita City Council members heard a presentation on redistricting Tuesday during their scheduled workshop. The plan will revise the council district boundaries in the city.

Since August, the Commission of Electors made up of representatives from all six districts in Wichita and an appointee by Mayor Carl Brewer have worked on redistricting with information from the 2010 census.

The revised map includes a population of 60,000 to 67,000 people per district. Commission member Misty Bruckner told the council that the group looked at various growth patterns.

The Kansas Insurance Department says a Blue Cross plan should set the standard for essential health benefits for all individual and small group health plans sold on the coming exchange in Kansas.

Each week, Fletcher Powell finds the independent and non-commercial films showing in Wichita and the surrounding areas and brings them to you in this handy guide.

This time, we get ready for the Tallgrass Film Festival and look at another upcoming festival, a few documentaries, and a silent classic.

Andrew Bales continues with part two of his four-part discussion of iconic stock sound effects.

Set in France beginning in 1918, Léon and Louise is the love story of two teenagers who meet as World War I is drawing to a close. Separated during a German artillery attack, each is severely wounded and believes the other to be dead.

10 years later, both are living and working in Paris. They catch a glimpse of each other on passing metro trains. Léon is married now with small children, but his wife encourages a search for Louise, knowing that their marriage can’t move forward while Léon’s heart remains in the past.