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.

Kansas candidates for U.S. Senate and congressional seats during the primary ending Tuesday have produced a record number of TV commercials and flooded homes with direct-mail postcards that offer pointed commentary. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Avalanche of Kansas ads in GOP primary races ignore restraint
By: - July 30, 2020

The GOP U.S. Senate and congressional primaries in Kansas prompted a record number of campaign commercials spewing high doses of venom.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, opposed Gov. Laura Kelly's plan to add $100 weekly in state funding to $300 in weekly federal aid under a plan developed by President Donald Trump. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas officials endorse expenditure of $254 million in federal COVID-19 aid
By: - July 29, 2020

The State Finance Council agreed to invest $254 million in federal COVID-19 aid in education, public health and economic development initiatives.

Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill Friday that would have established a new three-person board to control distribution of about $500 million in federal COVID-19 aid to Kansas businesses claiming damages from temporary closures or other pandemic restrictions. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas executive order extends option to renew driver’s licenses online
By: - July 29, 2020

Gov. Laura Kelly renews executive order allowing people under 65 to apply for driver's license renewals online.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab says he welcomed the decision by a Shawnee County District Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Democrats in an attempt to speed implementation of a voting reform law allowing people to cast ballots from any polling station in the county. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Judge dismisses Democrats’ voting lawsuit against SOS Scott Schwab
By: - July 28, 2020

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab says Democrats and the ACLU should stop filing frivolous elections lawsuits that waste taxpayer dollars.

Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the spread of COVID-19 provided extra incentive for people to get an influenza vaccination. He expects Kansas hospital resources to be stretched this fall and winter from exposure to the flu and coronavirus. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

New Kansas privacy law crimps contact tracing for COVID-19
By: - July 28, 2020

TOPEKA — The Shawnee County Health Department took the extraordinary step of issuing a public health advisory July 7 warning travelers COVID-19 cases had been linked to the restrooms and food court at an Interstate 70 service area. Given the steady flow of humanity through the rest stop east of Topeka from July 2 to […]

Gov. Laura Kelly said Monday she supported allocation of $60 million in federal funding for expansion of broadband services in Kansas and would endorse additional spending to help with education, business and health care services tied to the internet. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Gov. Laura Kelly sounds COVID-19 alarm — again — as number of cases mounts
By: - July 27, 2020

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly warned Kansans on Monday indifference about wearing masks and social distancing may lead to new restrictions to battle COVID-19.

Gov. Laura Kelly says passage by Missouri voters of Medicaid expansion leaves Kansas in a five-state group with Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma still resisting a federal program extending health care to low- and moderate-income people. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Gov. Laura Kelly urges railroads in Kansas to maintain two-person crews
By: - July 27, 2020

The Kansas Department of Transportation, with Gov. Laura Kelly's blessing, calls for maintaining two-person crews in railroad locomotive engines.

Former Secretary of State Kris Kobach received endorsements from 10 county sheriffs in his quest for the GOP nomination for attorney general. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kris Kobach not banking on Trump endorsement in U.S. Senate race
By: - July 27, 2020

U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach says he can't count on a last-minute endorsement from President Trump to carry him to victory in the GOP primary.

The bronze statute of the University of Kansas' first law dean, James Woods Green, with a student, stands on Jayhawk Boulevard on the Lawrence campus. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas attorneys, students anxious about taking bar exam during pandemic
By: - July 24, 2020

Law school graduates and practicing attorneys raise questions about propriety of hosting a bar exam for more than 100 people at the University of Kansas.

House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, center, R-Wichita, challenged the legality of Gov. Laura Kelly's opinion that county commissions couldn't reject her executive order mandating that all students, employees and visitors to public and private schools wear a mask to reduce potential of spreading COVID-19. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Conflict persists about Gov. Laura Kelly’s power to impose school health orders
By: - July 24, 2020

House Minority Leader Dan Hawkins says Gov. Laura Kelly is wrong to believe county commissions can't block her order for all in K-12 schools wear a mask.

Health secretary Lee Norman outlines the growing number of COVID-19 infections in Kansas during a news conference last week in which Gov. Laura Kelly announced her order to keep schools closed until after Labor Day. On Wednesday, Norman told board members that schools can't be safe islands in unsafe communities. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Medical experts dispute claims by Kansas Board of Education member
By: and - July 23, 2020

TOPEKA — Kansas State Board of Education member Michelle Dombrosky confronted health secretary Lee Norman during Wednesday’s meeting to ask why his advice — to delay the start of school for three weeks — conflicts with the opinion of other medical experts in the state. The board member from Olathe identified Children’s Mercy Hospital, the […]

Officials at University of Kansas, which fell silent this spring due to COVID-19, reported losses of $35 million in the last fiscal year and Thursday projected a revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year of $120 million with an additional $30 million spent on health and safety programs. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

KU anticipates $120M revenue shortfall, $30M in direct COVID-19 expenses
By: - July 23, 2020

University of Kansas says COVID-19 will cause a $120 million revenue shortfall this fiscal year and trigger $30 million in health and safety expenditures.

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