January 2022

Flurry of earthquakes in Salina region raise new questions about wastewater injection

TOPEKA — The 4.3 magnitude earthquake south of Salina in the first week of December was concerning enough hundreds of people contacted officials to report the home-rattling tremblor.It turned out to be a precursor to more than a dozen quakes in the region that included a 4.0 at Gypsum and 3.5 at Assaria on Dec. 15, the Christmas surprise 2.0 in Marion, the 3.9 near Lindsborg and 3.3 at Salina on Sunday, and a triple-header Monday morning ranging from 2.5 to 2.8 on the perimeter of Salina.

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HDN to begin publishing three days a week

It has been about three months since CherryRoad Media purchased the Hays Daily News and I became its publisher. In those three months many people have been working hard to reimagine this newspaper as the leading source of local news for Hays and Ellis County. There have been many tasks that needed to be completed to successfully break away from the previous ownership group. Finally, this week we have reached the point where the Hays Daily News is being prepared entirely by our own team. With this transition we will be implementing several changes.

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NEW SOLUTIONS FOR OLD CHALLENGES

Life's mysteries unfold in odd ways, don't they? The Wall Street Journal reports that churches by the thousands are signing up for a service to do to us what corporations and other private groups have done for years – select their targets based on specific, revelatory and actionable data that you might have thought was your own darned business. Feeling blue? Marriage going down the tubes? The big algorithm in the sky can pick up on that based on your search history, and it might send you an ad for a lovely cruise.

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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Here’s a fun fact I just read it in new book called The Blue Zones Challenge by Dan Buettner. Most New Year’s Resolutions last for 4-6 weeks. Then people go back to their old habits. So there are two ways to approach this problem. You can do what the experts who follow the people who live the longest suggest and make meaningful changes in sustainable ways, like changing your environment, support group, etc. so that your every move becomes measurably better.

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Top 10 list brimming with good news

Each year, I like to look back and create a “Top 10 list” in David Letterman style. The list, roughly in chronological order, is certainly not all-encompassing – there are great stories and good news every day at Fort Hays State University. However, it does provide a means of looking back and recounting some of the many blessings we enjoyed in 2021. So, in keeping with tradition, here is my top 10 list for 2021.

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