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I will admit, very readily, that when I heard about the “gluten free” diet a few years ago, I thought it was a trend or just another weird excuse for an eating disorder. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and their cousins. Gluten intolerance makes drinking regular beer or eating soy sauce impossible. For the gluten intolerant, eating regular bread or pizza or pasta is simply not in the plan. The horror.

The Kansas Board of Regents will vote Thursday on a budget request that includes about $45 million in additional funding for improvements and raises for employees.

The increases are targeted at a variety of areas. Nearly $3 million would go to improve the University of Kansas Medical Center and $5 million to strengthen the College of Architecture at Kansas State University.

The proposal also includes more than $7 million for employee pay raises. That would be a 1 percent raise for all employees of the state universities.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announced the formation of the Kansas Ecotourism Steering Committee Wednesday at Wichita’s Great Plains Nature Center.

Gov. Brownback says the 16-member steering committee will help guide ecotourism efforts as well as recommend objectives and marketing strategies to grow the industry in the state.

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Secretary Robin Jennison will spearhead the group.

The Ulrich Museum exuberantly reopened last weekend with a refreshed space that may appear the same, but is actually full of major upgrades that really make the space feel polished. But the delight of the Ulrich reopening begins well before entering the gallery space.

The Ulrich’s huge yarn bomb effort can been seen campus-wide and is a tremendous success. Even though I was skeptical about the concept of sanctioned graffiti, this project convinced me that yarn bombing, authorized or not, will always be delightful.

Wichita taxi drivers will soon begin training in customer service. 

The first Taxi Driver Customer Service Training classes will take place Wednesday at the Go Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Wichita's James Paul is a solo musician but he can claim deep support from some fellow performing artists--his family.

It's easy to hear some musical influences in Wichita singer-songwriter James Paul's music. Gospel and soul are clear touchstones. But there are also touches of folk and country music, elements, he says, that came from two of his biggest direct influences, his mother and father.

The company Siemens will lay off around 150 workers at their facility in Hutchinson.

The plant builds parts for wind turbines. The company blames a slowdown in wind turbine orders.

Siemens officials say uncertainty about a federal tax credit has slowed new wind power development, so they’re selling fewer wind turbines.

The credit helps pay for installing wind turbines, and it’s set to expire at the end of this year.

The company also says more natural gas power plants and the economy have slowed sales.

A new report for Kansas public schools shows that students slipped in their performance on standardized tests during the past school year.

Deputy Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander says officials are studying why the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in reading and math fell slightly in the 2011-2012 school year.

The figures from the Kansas Department of Education were presented yesterday to the State Board of Education.

Mark Foley explores the relationship between math, meter, and music.

Music is almost always arranged in a repeating pattern of beats; the pattern, or “meter,” usually corresponds with a rhythm that is easy to dance to, so the meter of a song is usually a simple group of 2, 3, or 4 beats. There is, however, a history of composers making things more complicated. “Money,” from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, has a strange, lop-sided groove because it is in an undanceable seven-beat meter.

Example 1: “Money”

More than $11 million in raises for thousands of Kansas state employees have cleared a final step.

The increases were given formal approval Monday by the State Finance Council, made up of Governor Sam Brownback and top legislative
leaders.

Kansas lawmakers approved $11.2 million for the raises in May as part of the state budget for the fiscal year that began in July.

Nearly 4,300 state employees will benefit, including some Highway Patrol troopers and corrections officers at state prisons and juvenile detention centers.