The Flint Hills Union

The Flint Hills Union The Official page of The Junction City Union, the Newspaper of record for Geary County, USD 475 Junction City, Grandview Plaza and Milford.

As the official page of the Junction City Union newspaper, our mission is to cover Junction City, Geary County, Fort Riley and the Flint Hills region and to bring light to our readers through viewpoints from across the political spectrum.

06/04/2026
What people say in public and what they do in private can differ. Let’s help others all the time.by Rebecca Phillips Kan...
06/04/2026

What people say in public and what they do in private can differ. Let’s help others all the time.
by Rebecca Phillips Kansas Reflector

Growing up, I had a middle school and high school teacher who used to always talk about what really mattered was what we did when no one was looking. He said we could talk the talk, but he asked if we could walk the walk.

That hit home for me. In a world where words and actions aren’t measuring up, I think we need to hit the refresh button on doing the right thing when we think no one is noticing.

I often do gift card drives for a local nonprofit. Their administrative offices are way out in North Topeka, and it’s not easy getting there. Their office is windowless, and it’s not on anyone’s great list of priorities to go there. That is, it’s not on the priority list unless you have to go.

However, about twice a year I make the trek over the Kansas River to the office to deliver gift cards. There aren’t fairies lining the Topeka Boulevard Bridge to cheer me on as I drive my little Toyota Corolla to my destination.

When I pull up into the parking lot, I often think to myself, No one knows how much I do for this organization. I open the door to the offices and go to the front desk. I hand over gift cards for the vulnerable, poverty-stricken clients. Chipotle gift cards, Subway gift cards and McDonald’s gift cards were the latest donations from my good friends Margie and Larry, who care so much for this nonprofit because of what I have shared.

The ladies at the front desk exclaim how happy they are with my donation. It truly makes me happy too.

When we do things to help others, we may not receive a standing ovation. It may not go onto a resume or a bio. Some politicians want to broadcast their every good deed, but then on the other hand they do not-so-good things. That is where my faith comes in and tells me what my grandpa, a minister, used to tell me: “Stay on the road.”

Are we who we say we are? Are our actions and words aligning with the admonition: “Stay on the road”? Who are we living for? Are we trying to get the praise of the people, or are we doing kind things for people in secret when no one is looking?

I would love to see more people with a humble spirit.

There are some leaders, including some pastors in America, who seem to want to have a huge cheering section along with a huge house and fancy cars to make themselves feel good. I am reminded of the Christian singer-songwriter Rich Mullins, who gave away his money and lived with very little in order to serve the poor. Most Christian singer-songwriters don’t do that, and they live lavish lifestyles. Rich was different. I truly admire that.

I’m going to keep on doing good things for people in need. I may receive praise or I may not. I’m going to keep on praying for this nation that I love so dearly. I will pray in secret and I will join others in public. I’m not about to give up yet. I want the things I do and say in private to match what I say in public.

I hope we all learn to do that a little more each day.

Rebecca Lyn Phillips is a published author, speaker and mental health advocate. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

Candidate Filing Deadline ClosesTOPEKA – Today at noon, Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced the closure of the can...
06/04/2026

Candidate Filing Deadline Closes

TOPEKA – Today at noon, Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced the closure of the candidate filing process as a partisan candidate for the 2026 election cycle. Independent candidates and judicial retention candidates have until Monday, August 3, at noon to file to be placed on the General Election ballot.

Candidate filings submitted to the Secretary of State after the deadline will not be accepted. An unofficial list is now available on votekansas.gov under the candidates icon. This list will remain unofficial until Monday, June 15. The review of qualifications and objections to the qualifications of candidates may still be filed.

“An informed electorate is essential to strong elections,” Schwab said. “I encourage voters to review the candidates running in their districts, prepare their voting plans early, and take an active role in shaping the future of our state.”

The primary election will be held on August 4. Races and the ballot question this election cycle include:

Constitutional Amendment (SCR 1611)
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of Representatives
Governor and Lieutenant Governor
Attorney General
Secretary of State
State Treasurer
Commissioner of Insurance
Kansas Senate – Districts 24 and 25
All seats in the Kansas House of Representatives
State Board of Education – Seats 1,3,5,7, and 9

My Reality TV Show: What WON’T They Say?by Ann Coulter Other than Trump’s finally ending his Iran War with a beautiful d...
06/04/2026

My Reality TV Show: What WON’T They Say?
by Ann Coulter

Other than Trump’s finally ending his Iran War with a beautiful deal — a tremendous deal, an incredible deal, and could everyone please tell him that? — the president’s only other helpful move this quarter was to endorse Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in his runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

As Cornyn’s $92 million in attack ads painstakingly reminded voters, Paxton has been accused of: bribery, abuse of public trust and misappropriation, misusing state resources, obstruction of justice, making false statements, retaliating against whistleblowers, securities fraud and adultery. And many of the accusations came from his fellow Republicans.

It tells you something that even running as an incumbent against a candidate with as many bullet holes as his opponent, and outspending him by more than 2-to-1, Cornyn was absolutely crushed by Paxton this week.

The media will never tell you this, but vicious primaries against sitting Republican senators tend to have a common denominator. To wit: the Republican is a disaster on immigration. Cornyn was no exception. Which is why it’s surprising that we haven’t heard a peep out of Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

Just a week ago, Miller unleashed a barrage of abuse at Rep. Thomas Massie for voting against Trump’s Big Beautiful bill because, as Massie explained, it also fully funded the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, used by the Biden administration to spy on and censor Americans.

I, personally, would vote for an entire KGB to spy on Americans in exchange for a wall, but opposing the non-wall part of a bill that also funded the wall does not constitute siding with “foreign predators and criminal aliens,” as Miller claimed in one of his histrionic tweets.

Massie has voted repeatedly to fund a border wall — at least when he wasn’t also required to vote for a domestic spy agency. In 2023, he was one of only five co-sponsors of the “Close Biden’s Open Border Act,” which would have provided $15 billion exclusively for a wall.

This is in dramatic contrast to Sen. Cornyn, who has pushed for amnesty every year since at least 2013 — except those years when he was about to face a re-election. His idea of a border bill was the one he proposed Trump’s first year in office: In exchange for no employer sanctions and no worksite enforcement, his bill would have funded a whopping 10 miles of wall.

So what’s with Miller? He may be good on immigration, but he’s got the loyalty of a rattlesnake.

Recall that he abandoned his former boss and immigration ally, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the moment Trump decided to make Sessions the scapegoat for a problem of his own making. (Trump went on NBC News and toldLester Holt that it was his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey because of the Russia investigation, inevitably triggering a special counsel to revive the Russia investigation — which Trump then blamed on Sessions.)

For 20 years, Sessions had been the sole voice of sanity on immigration in the U.S. Senate. Like the Little Dutch Boy who put his finger in the d**e, saving his town from a catastrophic flood, Sessions spared our country from the third-world flood long enough for Trump to come along, run on the issue and win.

In any other Senate office, Miller would have been responding to constituent mail. In Sessions’ office, he was a major policy advisor, whose detailed memo exposing the cons, tricks, and loopholes in Sen. Marco Rubio’s amnesty bill did more than anything else to kill it.

But he stood by, saying nothing as Trump cruelly assailed Sessions — even joining in the attack. After Sessions’ subsequent primary loss in his attempt to return to the senate, Miller told reporters, while strolling down the White House driveway, that Sessions’ defeat was a “great victory for the country, a great victory for the President.”

Maybe it was all worth it, now that Miller has a crucial perch in Trump’s White House. That’s a question for the philosophers. But it was definitely worth it for my Stephen Miller-Nicole Wallace reality TV show! The idea is, contestants compete to see if there’s anything Miller and Wallace won’t say in order to keep their jobs.

Wallace, you will recall, was part of the brain trust that picked Sarah Palin, then a little-known Alaska governor, to be John McCain’s running mate. As Palin’s primary assistant, Wallace immediately began leaking nasty stories about her to the press, calling her a “diva” and carping about her shopping sprees. As soon as Wallace failed at the job of getting her clients elected, she rushed to The New York Times to announce that she hadn’t voted for them, anyway.

That reinvention set up Wallace perfectly for a host role on MSNBC, where, as a “former Republican,” she says things too crazy for a Democrat to voice. Like the girl who does the whole football team, she will do anything, say anything, to stay on TV — before being discarded. If David Duke bought MS-NOW and announced, “We’re going white nationalist,” she’d hand him her resume.

Now, we just need a show title. I’m thinking, “Stephen, you’ve got the job,” or “Relax Nicole. It’s getting embarrassing.” Or maybe in Miller’s case, “Yeah, okay, it was worth it.”

COPYRIGHT 2026 ANN COULTER

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Cartoon from 10 years ago.  It's funny and sad how accurate some of these cartoons are even 10 years later.
06/04/2026

Cartoon from 10 years ago. It's funny and sad how accurate some of these cartoons are even 10 years later.

Trump Revisits Idea to Annex Canada and Make It the 51st State, Days After Carney Calls for New Partnership With U.S.
06/04/2026

Trump Revisits Idea to Annex Canada and Make It the 51st State, Days After Carney Calls for New Partnership With U.S.

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