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.

A U.S. Geological Survey map displays the cluster of earthquakes to strike near Salina that raised questions about whether energy company fracking activities or the injection of wastewater into wells in that region contributed to the tremblors. (USGS/Kansas Reflector)

Flurry of earthquakes in Salina region raise new questions about wastewater injection
By: - December 30, 2021

Flurry of December earthquakes near Salina raise new questions about consequences of wastewater injection and fracking activity in Kansas.

Gov. Laura Kelly and Department of Agriculture secretary Mike Beam surveyed central Kansas property damaged in December wildfires and met with farmers and ranchers working to recover from the disaster. (Submitted)

Kelly surveys portion of property in Kansas torched by December wildfires
By: - December 30, 2021

Gov. Laura Kelly surveys central Kansas property torched in mid-December wildfires consuming estimated 165,000 acres.

Gov. Laura Kelly ordered flags flown at half-staff through sundown Friday in honor of the 7,000 Kansans who contracted COVID-19 and died since the pandemic began in March 2020. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Gov. Kelly orders flags at half-staff to honor 7,000 Kansas lives lost to COVID-19
By: - December 29, 2021

Gov. Laura Kelly marked the 7,000th fatality connected to the COVID-19 pandemic by ordering flags at half-staff until sundown Friday.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., joined with U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to demand reversal of a national liver transplant policy requiring residents of the Midwest and South to wait longer for transplants. (Screen capture/Kansas Reflector)

Moran, Blunt denounce ‘disgusting’ collusion, bias in national liver transplant policy
By: - December 28, 2021

U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roy Blunt say newly released emails prove bias of a policy requiring Midwest residents to wait longer for liver transplants.

Physicians, nurses and other health professionals at University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 patients as the Delta variant takes firm root and the Omicron variant starts to make its presence felt among Kansans. (Screen capture/Kansas Reflector)

KDHE reporting 10,000 Delta cases, two dozen Omicron cases of COVID-19 in Kansas
By: - December 27, 2021

Testing reveals 10,000 cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Kansas, while state officials say 25 cases of the Omicron variety have been found.

Gov. Laura Kelly enters the re-election year of 2022 with confidence she met campaign promises to stabilize the budget, invest in education and highways. Unfinished business, she said, includes Medicaid expansion and tax reform. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas governor striving to fulfill campaign pledges amidst stubborn COVID-19 pandemic
By: - December 27, 2021

Gov. Laura Kelly says Kansas made progress since 2019 on funding of education and transportation and generated job growth despite COVID-19 pandemic.

Kansas State University researchers are studying use of equipment to crush in the field the seeds of herbicide-resistant weeds that lower yields of wheat, soybeans and milo in the Midwest. (Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

K-State studying use of equipment to crush seeds of herbicide-resistant weeds in grain fields
By: - December 26, 2021

Kansas State University researchers are examining use of special roller cages pulled by combines during harvest that crush seeds of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Kansas rivers provide recreation

KU, UMKC graduate appointed EPA regional administrator for Kansas, Missouri
By: - December 26, 2021

Biden administration selects Kansas native and Missouri law school graduate to lead EPA region 7, which includes both states along with Iowa and Nebraska.

Tiffany Anderson, superintendent of Topeka public schools and co-chair of Gov. Laura Kelly's task force on racial equity, said the group's final report offered 124 recommendations for reform. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Governor’s task force outlines more than 120 ideas for improving equity, justice
By: - December 25, 2021

Gov. Laura Kelly's task force on racial equity and justice outlines more than 100 ideas for addressing education, health care and economic issues.

Intensive care unit nurse Caitlin Beatty, who works in a COVID-19 unit at University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, says suffering of extremely ill coronavirus patients was heartbreaking for families and devastating to health professionals working to save lives. She fears too many people ignore advice of public health officials in terms of diminishing spread of the virus. (Screen capture/Kansas Reflector)

Delta, omicron variants of COVID-19 slicing a wide swath into lives of Kansans
By: - December 24, 2021

Delta variant of COVID-19 escalated hospitalizations in Kansas, while swiftly spreading Omicron has yet to leave its fingerprints on medical facilities.

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat seeking re-election, and Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a GOP candidate for governor, endorse a downward revision of the state's 6.5% sales tax on groceries. The rate was signed into law in 2015 by then-Gov. Sam Brownback. (Clay Wirestone photo illustration / Kansas Reflector, original images Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Governor candidates Kelly, Schmidt mark holidays by offering tax gifts to potential voters
By: - December 23, 2021

Gov. Kelly champions sales tax exemption on food purchases, while Attorney General Schmidt seeks sales tax break for farmers rebuilding from wildfires.

Gov. Laura Kelly recommended the 2022 Legislature authorize a one-time $445 million tax rebate that would provide 1.2 million resident Kansas taxpayers a $250 rebate drawn from the state treasury. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kelly recommending one-time $445 million tax rebate to 1.2 million Kansas taxpayers
By: - December 22, 2021

Gov. Laura Kelly proposed a $445 million one-time tax rebate to 1.2 million Kansans, a follow up to her plan to repeal 6.5% sales tax on food.

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