COVID-19

New Year's Eve brought a different kind of celebration at the Kansas Christian Home in Newton: Staff and residents received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"We were ecstatic, absolutely thrilled that we were finally getting a step toward protecting our residents, family, friends, ourselves," said Donna Hett, assistant director of nursing at the retirement community, where 110 residents and staff were vaccinated by a visiting team from Walgreens. "I mean we were almost dancing, we were so happy."

A skin biopsy at Lawrence Memorial Hospital goes for anywhere from $95 to $600. It all depends on who receives the bill. Removing a skin lesion, anywhere from about $120 to $920.

Now, because hospitals had to release millions of previously secret prices on Jan. 1, the public can see just how common price differences like these are.

After learning remotely since December, Wichita elementary students could be back in the classroom as early as next Wednesday.

TOPEKA — Kansas expects to finish giving COVID-19 vaccines to long-term care residents and health care workers by the end of this month and has moved people aged 65 and older into the next group to receive the shots.

Now that a COVID-19 vaccine has reached Kansas, residents and employees of long-term care homes are expected to be among the first groups of people offered the vaccine.

The question is how many of them will choose to take it. Public health officials and the homes’ operators strongly endorse the vaccine, but polls have shown that many Americans remain skeptical or opposed.

Norton’s Brewing Company in Old Town has a solution for outdoor dining this winter: igloos.

Forget images of packed snow: These igloos are made from PVC pipe and transparent vinyl. The sun heats up the air so quickly inside that umbrellas cover the honeycomb dome to slow down the greenhouse effect.

"We have it shaded right now because during the daytime it gets really hot in here with the sun," said Becky Norton, owner of Norton's Brewing Company.