Blog

It’s Good to Be Big

Apr 8, 2024
Of the variety of rankings Ingram’s researchers and journalists produce each year, I believe The Ingram’s 100 may be the most interesting. For starters, private companies by nature are protective of their revenues. Trust is hard-earned in the data and… more

This Just In: Elections Have Consequences

Apr 8, 2024
On Feb. 26, the Circuit Court of Jackson County took just about everyone drawing a county paycheck to the village pond for a well-deserved, Puritan-style, public dunking. Applauding pond-side, sad to say, were the people who deserved a good dunk… more

What the Chiefs Can Teach Us About Success

Apr 8, 2024
It still feels odd to reference this year’s Super Bowl as “another” championship for the Kansas City Chiefs, given that the city went, oh, 50 years between title-game appearances heading into 2020. Anybody who became a Chiefs’ fan after the… more

Health Care Knows No Borders

Feb 21, 2024
My Dad spent his boyhood in the central Kansas railroad town of Herington, a thriving burg at the time, with a population of about 4,500 in the 1930 census. When the uncle who raised him died in 1971, the town’s… more

Finally, A College Where I’d Send My Grandkids

Feb 21, 2024
Higher education has not covered itself in glory in recent years. The headlines are replete with tales of rising costs, falling enrollments, and university presidents needing “context” to decide whether anti-Semitism is a bad thing. Although my wife and I… more

It’s Way Past Time to Wage War on Gun Violence

Feb 21, 2024
The Valentine’s Day mass shooting that tarnished a citywide celebration of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory prompted Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves to declare afterward: “I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration… more

Half a Century

Jan 23, 2024
Each January, we list and profile companies celebrating significant milestones, and through the years I would periodically say to myself, “We’ll be there someday.” We’re a bit behind those celebrating centennial or older anniversaries, but we’re glad to be among… more

The Battle for Prairie Village

Jan 23, 2024
Outsiders have a hard time taking seriously a town whose name seems to have tumbled out of a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel, but, lo and behold, in November, Prairie Village witnessed one of the most eye-popping elections in recent memory.… more

How Do We Get to ‘Smart’ From Here?

Jan 23, 2024
Remember the “Smart City?” That was the phrasing you might have heard a lot about back in 2016 when City Hall was touting its efforts to become—no kidding—the World’s First Smart City. To further that ambitious goal, the city created… more

A Day in the Life of a Tinkling Cymbal

Dec 18, 2023
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  So St. Paul tells us in the opening line of 1 Corinthians 13, likely the… more