Colombian Ambassador Carlos Urrutia says there’s no doubt that his country’s trade deal with the U.S. has paid off. U.S. officials are equally excited, saying U.S. businesses have improved their sales to the South American country by 20 percent. But a year after the agreement took effect, the growth in trade is producing mounting anxiety in some quarters. » read more

More than a year after it took effect, a highly touted trade deal with South Korea has failed to produce as expected for the U.S.: Exports are down, imports are up and the trade deficit with the Asian economic powerhouse has ballooned. » read more

The Kansas Food Bank gave out record numbers of Friday food packages to schoolchildren in Wichita and throughout the state this year as part of its Food 4 Kids program. » read more

Don’t let the soaring stock market and applause from politicians over a slight dip in the unemployment rate fool you. A deeper dive into government data underscores just how bleak the picture still is in today’s labor market. » read more

A U.S. senator wants the Air Force to prove it saved money by closing bases due to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. "Base closure commissions are supposed to take the politicians out of the process. I think they've replaced politicians with other politicians," said Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois. » read more

Some 24,000 people, give or take, live in Sumner County, a farming county south of Wichita on the Oklahoma border. Voters here elect reliably anti-tax and anti-spending lawmakers to the Kansas Statehouse. So it's likely most Sumner voters nodded in agreement last year when Romney called 47 percent of Americans "takers" - so reliant on federal aid that they couldn't be persuaded that runaway federal debt threatens economic freedom. Yet, as Vince Wetta suggests, Sumner County is a taker. » read more