With so much going on in the world, it's easy to forget or overlook things going on at home. Commentator Rex Buchanan says many Kansans are still recovering from devastating wildfires last December. He's one of them.

Saturday is Kansas Day, when the state celebrates its 161st birthday. That has Commentator Rex Buchanan thinking about some of the state's interesting and noteworthy people, including an athlete from a small town in southeast Kansas.

The state water plan has been woefully underfunded, year after year. Will Kansas get serious about its water problem before it's too late?

Kansas has 105 counties. Over the past decade, 80 of them have lost population. Some of the state's largest counties, like Johnson and Sedgwick, have grown larger. Commentator Rex Buchanan has more on the latest census numbers and what the trends mean for Kansas.

As dozens of Kansas City area restaurants take part in Black Restaurant Week, Commentator Rex Buchanan puts down his fork just long enough to talk about Black-owned barbeque joints and a new book that tells their story.

Kansas environmentalist Wes Jackson, who ran The Land Institute, is out with a new book titled, Hogs Are Up. Commentator Rex Buchanan, one of Jackson's former students and a longtime friend, offers this review.

Efforts are underway in Kansas City to restore the house of legendary Negro League and Major League Baseball pitcher Satchel Paige. City officials hope to find a contractor to redevelop the home and have issued a request for proposals. Commentator Rex Buchanan recently paid a visit to final resting place of Satchel Paige and, to the resting place of another Kansas City icon, Charlie "Bird" Parker.

Early on during the pandemic, people were told to hunker down indoors and limit any unnecessary travel. But, as restrictions eased, people sought more opportunities to get outside, including Commentator Rex Buchanan. His way of curing "cabin fever" was taking a solo bike ride down a remote and beautiful trail in eastern Kansas. Travel along as we head down the Flint Hills Nature Trail.

On average, more than 2 million acres of rangeland are burned each year in the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma. But there's a lot more to the Flint Hills than just torching and scorching the earth. Commentator Rex Buchanan has this review of Jim Hoy's new book, My Flint Hills, published by University Press of Kansas.

By late February, many Kansans have grown tired of winter, the bitter cold and all that comes with it. Of course, not everyone agrees with that sentiment. KPR News Director J. Schafer is one of them.