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By Kim Hynes (WICHITA, Kan.) Cornejo and Sons has been sold to a national company called Summit Materials. Cornejo announced the merger Friday. Cornejo and Sons is a concrete and asphalt company that was founded in Wichita in 1952. President Marty Cornejo says the beauty of this sale is that nothing will change locally. He says they'll continue working in the same capacity and everyone will keep their jobs. Cornejo says Summit approached them about the sale and it just made sense.

It was hundreds of people strong and every one of them was fired up. "We're mad! Madder than hell!" said Benita Windsor, a Cessna union member. With a contract vote only a week away for workers at her company, and one on the way for machinists at Hawker Beechcraft, Friday's union rally was to get the attention of the companies and all of Wichita. The goal was to spred the message that jobs are worth fighting for. "We're not going to have anything left in this town.

The skill of welding joins two pieced of metal and now an advanced program at Salina Tech will join newly-skilled workers with jobs. "It is a lot of practice to make it perfect, hours and hours," student Daniel Muchow said. Muchow was 11 when he developed a passion for the trade. "If something broke out at the farm, dad hands it to me, I get in there and help him out," Muchow said. "One day I woke up and went 'wow, I could do this.'" More students could start a career in welding, now that Salina Tech has received a $200,000 grant.

It was never a breeze for Phil Wylie to make his beloved Malt-O-Meal. "I was tired of taking it out, stirring it and putting it back in, taking it back out, stirring it," Wylie says.  "And I still ended up with lumps, and I don't like lumps in my Malt-O-Meal!" Then, this Wellington man came up with a solution. "I've had a number of engineers look at it and shake their head and say, who would have ever thought it would have been that easy?" Wylie says.

Go to the bottom of this page to review our interactive blog with Kim Hynes. (STOCKTON, Kan.) Every community in Kansas is feeling the effects of the economy. Almost 60,000 jobs have been lost just this year. While a majority of those are related to the aircraft manufacturing, there are still thousands in western Kansas without work. The problem there, is there weren't many jobs to begin with. "Everyone you pass walking down the street says hi. " There are lots of reasons people live in small towns.

There's no easy answer, that's what a Wichita woman says as she learns her unemployment checks will stop this month.  She's one of two million Americans facing the cut off since Congress did not approve extending the benefits.  She received the news while learning more people are now out of work as well.  New numbers released Friday show 9.8% of Americans are unemployed. "I've been trying and trying and trying.  At this point I don't care what it is, as long as there's a pay check.

by Cliff Judy (WICHITA, Kan.) It may not make up for thousands of Wichita's aviation job losses, but it's a start.  Cessna announced Monday it was calling back 180 laid off workers. They'll be working on the assembly line for the Cessna Citation Sovereign, which is receiving several international orders.  Sixty workers started Monday with two more groups set to be called back this month. Martin Eddy says not working was never the hard part of being laid off.  It was wondering when work would start again.

Paula's Bar and Grill always brings in a good crowd of cessnans on Thursday afternoons, but the crowd this Thursday was a little different than usual. Most of the people just learned they'll soon be out of job. "We got a letter at the beginning of the day and they took us all in there about 9:00, our group, and told us. " explains Kathryn Smith.  That was only a few hours into their day. Eight hours later it's the talk of the table, news that's hard for even employees who made it through the cuts.

Eugene Martinez is one of more than 230 employees who won't have a job come May 25. "I was hoping to retire there.  Nine more years before I reached retirement age,” Martinez said. Beef Products Incorporated is closing three of its processing plants. One of them is in Finney County, just outside Garden City. "All we heard was misinformation and lies.  It brought down a great company,” Martinez said. In a statement, BPI blames "unfounded and misguided attacks" on its product called "lean, finely textured beef.

It has been part of Kansas for more than a century, but ALCO Stores will move its corporate headquarters out of Kansas this summer. Currently, the variety store chain is headquartered in Abilene, Kansas. Wednesday, its CEO said it will move its central office operations to a Dallas, Texas, suburb in June. The Abilene distribution center and ALCO store will remain open. In a press release, CEO Rich Wilson says a "challenging business climate and highly competitive retail landscape" require a move to a more metropolitan location.