Well, some of my most enjoyable lessons.

Six straight days of bow and duck hunting showed the following -

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MidAmerica Nazarene 40, McPherson 34

Hastings (Neb.). 17, Ottawa 6 (halftime)

UPDATES AS I GET THEM

Creating jobs for Americans is President Obama’s top priority. Yet he left China with little to show in further opening the world’s fastest-growing economy to greater U.S. imports. Perhaps Obama’s three-day visit at least created enough good will with Beijing’s tight-lipped leaders to later achieve his goal of reducing China’s blatant discrimination against foreign firms. The president promised last September that the United States “cannot go back to an era where the Chinese . . . just are selling everything to us.” More than three-quarters of the $400 billion in trade between the countries is one-way from China. But as old China hands like to say, “You don’t change China; China changes you.” And Obama seems to have fallen for many of the Communist Party’s old excuses for selective protectionism. Even boosting U.S. exports by 1 percent to a country with 1.3 billion people would create close to 200,000 American jobs. — Christian Science Monitor editorial

In the end, that was enough for Ole Miss to defeat K-State 86-74 on Friday and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-off.

With the loss, K-State dropped to 3-1 and will next play Dayton on Sunday instead of Villanova in the tournament’s championship game.
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What a night of football this was. Heights has advanced to the Class 6A championship game. Find me a person who expected that after the Falcons’ season-opener. Or after Week 6, for that matter.

Hutchinson has moved on to the Class 5A title game, beating Bishop Carroll. There’s not many who didn’t predict that happening before the season.

Buhler fell at Topeka Hayden, and Smith Center continues to win.

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(Watch Part 1 after the jump)

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COURTNEY MCCUNE

Just got done writing my Friends volleyball story advancing tomorrow’s (Saturday) NAIA national playoff game at No. 14 Bellevue (Neb.) — kind of a cool side note to the whole goings-on is that the mothers of current Falcons Courtney McCune and Jessica Mullen played on the last Friends team to play at nationals … in 1984! Also came away impressed with how Friends coach Martin Ayin has built his team — mainly with local talent. Here’s the key when you recruit locally — you still need to get good local players to fill your roster. Ayin did that.

For Cowley — the Tigers are playing for the national title Saturday at Wisconsin Dells, Wisc., where they’ll take on Illinois Central in the championship match. It’s a 1 vs. 2 final — Cowley is 2 — and Ill. Central beat Cowley earlier this season in five games, although the Tigers are on a 19-match winning streak and beat Parkland 20-25, 25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 15-13 in the semifinals.

TA

Ps. You’re a Killers fan? Wow, me too! LOL — enjoy

I’m at Hutch right now, getting ready to watch Bishop Carroll and Hutch in a Class 5A semifinal game. Check in at varsitykansas.com for updates on all three games we’re at tonight.

You can listen to it on KGSO, 1410-AM or watch it on Kansas 22 or keep up with me on Twitter, @joannachadwick.

Derby’s at Heights — you can follow @jlong_preps or listen to it on KWME, 93.5-FM. Buhler’s at Topeka Hayden — you can follow @jdlutz7.

Collegiate is at Norton on Saturday, and KGSO is going to be calling that game, as well.

I’ll be updating primarily on Twitter, but I’ll try to get over here, as well. Feel free to put your thoughts here through the night or after the game.

Keyes (AP)

Anderson

Those who want to see former ambassador and presidential candidate Alan Keyes — in Kansas to campaign for congressional candidate Jim Anderson — will have plenty of opportunity.

The campaign is bringing in Keyes to try to drum up support for Anderson, a small-business owner who is running in a five-candidate Republican primary for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard.

The other candidates are businessmen Mike Pompeo and Wink Hartman; and state Sens. Jean Schodorf and Dick Kelsey.

Keyes, a Reagan Administration diplomat known for his conservatism and repeated candidacies for the Senate and the presidency, is scheduled to make the following appearances on behalf of Anderson’s campaign:

Saturday

Noon — Kansans for Liberty luncheon, Mike’s Steakhouse, 2131 S. Broadway, Wichita.

6-6:45 p.m. — Pre-speech VIP reception at the Beech Activity Center
9710 E. Central Ave., Wichita.

7:15 p.m.- Evening program with speech by Keyes begins, Beech Activity Center.

Sunday

1:30-3:30 p.m. — Meet and greet in Coffeyville; Sleep Inn & Suites, 202 W. 11th.

5-6 p.m. — Independence Christmas Parade.

Monday

11 a.m. — Meet and greet in Kingman, Livingston Family Center, 1830 N. Main St.

6 p.m. — Private reception before fundraiser dinner, Larkspur restaurant 904 E. Douglas Ave.

7-9 p.m.– Dinner and program, Larkspur.

Ticket prices vary by event.
For more information, call 636-9300.

— Wink Hartman Sr. on how some people wanting Intrust Bank Arena tickets are calling his Park City arena

Tiahrt

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, has introduced a bill in Congress to halt further spending to bail out financial institutions and automakers.

Tiahrt’s bill is called the “Ensure TARP Expires Act of 2009,” and would block Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from spending any more money on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, more commonly known as TARP.

Begun under the Bush Administration and continued by President Obama, TARP has injected hundreds of billions of dollars in capital into failing investment, banking, insurance and automotive companies in an effort to stabilize the financial system.

Supporters credit the program with staving off a worldwide depression by rescuing banks and other institutions that are “too big to fail” without causing dire economic consequences.

But the program’s popularity has plummeted in recent months amid reports that some large companies that received bailout funds have returned to giving lavish executive bonuses and perks now that they have returned to profitability.

“We must put an end to Secretary Geithner’s authority to funnel billions of bailout dollars to irresponsible institutions,” Tiahrt said in a statement announcing his current bill.

According to his office, Tiahrt has four co-sponsors for the measure so far: Mark Souder, R-Ind., Bob Inglis, R-S.C., Sam Johnson, R-Texas and Charles Boustany, Jr., R-La.

Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, who is running against Tiahrt for the Senate seat being vacated by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, is also in support of putting an end to TARP, a spokeswoman for his office said.

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Now, she’s going to own her own company.

Today, Pugh purchased the small wares division — which includes things like table ware, flatware and glasses — of Discount Restaurant Equipment.

“I just handed him the check at lunch,” Pugh says.

Discount Restaurant Equipment had a showroom that closed this summer, but Pugh felt it was necessary to keep one.

Her Debi’s Kitchen2Table will be at 6108 W. Central between I-235 and the Big Ditch.

Pugh says her biggest customer is Spangles, and she plans to continue to build relationships with commercial customers around the state.

“I think western Kansas is underserved,” she says.

But she also wants to attract nonrestaurant customers.

“Restaurant supply stores are always open to the public, but nobody really knows that,” Pugh says.

She wants to sell to “the weekend chef, the barbecue guy, the man who makes the chili,” in between selling to restaurants.

“I can’t do one without the other.”

But he didn’t like the prices.

“We couldn’t really justify building a Taj Mahal for our corporate headquarters when we could have just as nice (of a) facility downtown,” Foster says.

So now he’s moving his contract engineering firm to the Garvey Center.

“They made us the best proposal.”

And he likes that he’s going to be part of downtown’s revitalization.

“Downtown has some . . . potential,” Foster says. “If it’s handled right by our city . . . fathers, the movers and shakers, I think it could be vibrant down here again.”

He’s moving into close to 3,000 square feet by the end of the year.

Adam Clements of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group handled the deal.

Foster says he thinks he’ll be part of a trend.

“We’ll see more people moving back downtown.”

Sunshine should then dominate the day, with high reaching the mid-50s in Wichita. Winds will be out of the north, but should stay light: single digits for the most part, but occasionally touching double digits.

Lows tonight should dip to the low 40s, forecasters say, with light winds shifting from the north to the south. The weekend looks like a pleasant one, with sunny skies and highs of about 60 on Saturday and the low 50s on Sunday.

Allegiant is offering fares from Wichita to the destination as low as $59.99 one way (not including taxes.)

Including the Wichita service, Allegiant now serves 20 cities from the Phoenix-Mesa airport. That’s given the Arizona airport quite a boon.

In 2007, the airport served just 37,000 passengers, said Milt Fort, director of marketing for the Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau. This year, that number will be in excess of 700,000.

“That’s a huge economic impact for us,” Fort said.

No kidding!

Fort is in Wichita for Allegiant’s inaugural flight today. On Thursday, he was meeting with Wichita airport and convention and visitor bureau officials to discuss how to promote the two cities.

The Mesa-Phoenix area is a popular place for “snowbirds” looking to get out of the winter cold, he said. People also come for the outdoor activities.

But residents in his area also want to visit the Midwest, he said. That’s according to a survey of airport passengers there.

Fort has been on the road a lot lately himself. In the past nine weeks, he’s traveled to 18 of the 20 cities Allegiant serves from his hometown. He plans to visit the last two cities the week after Thanksgiving.

Allegiant also operates nonstop flights from Wichita to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.