Author

Tim Carpenter

Tim Carpenter

Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International. He has been recognized for investigative reporting on Kansas government and politics. He won the Kansas Press Association's Victor Murdock Award six times. The William Allen White Foundation honored him four times with its Burton Marvin News Enterprise Award. The Kansas City Press Club twice presented him its Journalist of the Year Award and more recently its Lifetime Achievement Award. He earned an agriculture degree at Kansas State University and grew up on a small dairy and beef cattle farm in Missouri. He is an amateur woodworker and drives Studebaker cars.

The FBI, private sector cybersecurity executives and University of Kansas researchers convened to search for ways to deepen collaboration to meet growing challenges of hackers, intellectual property thieves and rogue governments damaging IT infrastructure in the United States. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

FBI special agent’s take on national cybersecurity threats: ‘I have a hard time going to sleep’
By: - January 27, 2023

University of Kansas, FBI point to need for greater cybersecurity investments to thwart criminals and governments seeking to undermine U.S. economy.

Rachel Imthurn, left, and Barb Conant support the Kansas Judicial Council's recommendation for a state law requiring 30-day notice and appeals process for involuntary discharge from an assisted living facility in Kansas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Judicial Council wants 30-day notice of involuntary discharge from Kansas elder care facilities
By: - January 27, 2023

Kansas Judicial Council proposes state law granting 30-day notice and appeal process for involuntary discharges from assisted living facilities.

Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, introduced a bill requiring ordained ministers and clergy to be included as mandatory reporters of suspected abuse or neglect of children. It's the fourth time Holland has sought to add church officials to other occupations, including teachers and firefighters, to the list of required reporters. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas Democrat introduces Senate bill making clergy mandatory reporters of suspected abuse
By: - January 26, 2023

Baldwin City Sen. Tom Holland introduced a bill requiring Kansas ministers and clergy to be mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, ushered through a new set of House rules that protected bill bundling and after-midnight floor debates while blocking partisan control of committee assignments and an attempt to make it easier to force recorded roll-call votes on bills. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas House tangles on procedural rules before preserving late-night debates, bill bundling
By: - January 26, 2023

Kansas House sets rules for 2023 and 2024 sessions, including preservation of bill bundling and after-midnight debate, and raising a barrier to spending.

Two representatives of the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault and two from the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence asked the House Judiciary Committee to consider extending initial protection from orders for stalking, sexual assault or human trafficking from one year to a period of not less than two years and not more than five years. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas advocacy groups ask for doubling length of initial protection from abuse orders
By: - January 25, 2023

The Kansas House is asked to grant judges authority to issue two- to five-year protection from abuse orders rather than operate an annual renewal process.

Gov. Laura Kelly delivered the State of the State speech Tuesday to a joint session of the Kansas Legislature and recommended a measured approach to tax reform and insisted on Medicaid expansion, legalization of medical marijuana and full funding of K-12 schools. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Gov. Laura Kelly argues Kansans deserve bipartisan progress on tax, health care, K-12 policy
By: - January 24, 2023

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly seeks bipartisan support for a second-term agenda anchored in education, health care, tax and economic development policy.

Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, urged the Senate Transportation Committee to support a bill amending state law to grant restricted driver's licenses to people who had their license suspended due to nonpayment of traffic fines. The legislation was endorsed by a broad political coalition. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Broad coalition urges Kansas lawmakers to amend law on driving license revocations
By: - January 24, 2023

TOPEKA — Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau says state law revoked driving privileges for failure to pay a traffic citation should be amended to give motorists the opportunity to apply for a restricted license so they could get to work and earn money to pay off the any penalties. Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat who led efforts in […]

Byron Lewis, an elementary school teacher in the Turner district, said the state should create a program to compensate student teachers as one step toward alleviating the shortage of classroom educators across Kansas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas educators share personal insights in quest to reverse statewide teacher shortage
By: - January 23, 2023

Kansas educators tackle K-12 teacher shortage by touting life-changing occupation, but size of the shortfall will require cash infusion for salary hikes.

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, and Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, are the state's longest-serving current members of the Senate and House. They discussed their political careers during a Kansas Reflector podcast. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Longest-serving members of Kansas Legislature talk about career, race and partisan politics
By: - January 23, 2023

Kansas Legislature's longest serving current senator and representative — David Haley and Barbara Ballard — talk about career, race and partisan politics.

David Clohessy, representing Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged Attorney General Kris Kobach to release the full KBI report of a four-year investigation of Catholic clergy abuse. He joined others in Olathe to also urge elimination of the statute of limitations on civil and criminal action tied to alleged abusers. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflectdor)

Catholic clergy abuse victims ask Kansas attorney general to release full report of 4-year inquiry
By: - January 20, 2023

Victims of sexual abuse ask Attorney General Kris Kobach to release the full report of the KBI's four-year inquiry of alleged misconduct by Catholic clergy.

Jeff Zmuda, secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections, said the shortage of uniformed officers in the prison system was fueling employee burnout and required ongoing support from the Legislature and Gov. Laura Kelly for salary increases to recruit to fill 380 vacancies statewide. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Kansas Legislature YouTube channel)

Kansas corrections secretary anxious burnout exacerbating uniformed-officer shortage
By: - January 20, 2023

Kansas Department of Corrections fearful requiring 12-hour shifts to deal with shortage of 370 uniformed officers may push employees to breaking point.

Josh Luthi, a state auditor, appears before a legislative committee

Audit of Kansas economic development programs offers mixed assessment of incentives
By: - January 19, 2023

Members of the Kansas Legislature say a new audit of state economic development incentives was flawed because it didn't allow comparisons to a 2014 review.

RETURN TO HOME