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.

Bob Beatty, political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka, says emergence of major candidates in the 2022 contest for Kansas governor got the contest off to an early start. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas analysts: Barbara Bollier needs to find path that eluded Kris Kobach
By: - August 17, 2020

Election analysts on the Kansas Reflector podcast warn U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Bollier needs to clearly define herself or risk Kris Kobach's fate.

White House COVID-19 czar calls for deeper Kansas commitment to prevention
By: - August 15, 2020

White House's COVID-19 coordinator urges Kansas officials to urge wearing of masks, social distancing and to limit gatherings to thwart spread of virus.

Kansas Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran released a statement to constituents saying President Donald Trump has the right to wage a legal fight for a fair counting of votes in the presidential election, but should offer presumed Democrat Joe Biden the national security briefings and other support common to transition to a new president. (Submitted)

Kansas GOP, Democratic lawmakers differ on value of Trump’s latest COVID-19 orders
By: - August 14, 2020

TOPEKA — Three Kansas Republicans view President Donald Trump’s latest COVID-19 executive orders on unemployment benefits, payroll taxes, an eviction moratorium and suspension of student loan payments as a pressure tactic to convince Democrats to resume negotiations on the next emergency relief package. The first three federal relief packages adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic received […]

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat in the 3rd District, said the 25th Amendment should be deployed to remove President Donald Trump from office.(Submitted/Kansas Reflector)

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids calls for ouster of postmaster general
By: - August 13, 2020

The lone Democrat in the Kansas congressional delegation says the U.S. postmaster general should be sacked for trying to undermine November mail-in voting.

State Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican and member of a COVID-19 economic recovery committee, says the one-page handout from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment improperly implies that businesses and people must cooperate with contact tracing by state or county health agencies. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

GOP senators rip state health agency on COVID-19 contact tracing, question death toll
By: - August 13, 2020

State Sens. Caryn Tyson and Gene Suellentrop take issue with KDHE's approach to contact tracing and death totals in COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Laura Kelly nominated Sedgwick County prosecutor Lesley Isherwood, of Wichita, to a vacancy on the Kansas Court of Appeals. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the Kansas Senate. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Former Pizza Hut guru delivers sizzling rebuke, demands $63 million from Kansas
By: - August 13, 2020

Former Pizza Hut magnate Gene Bicknell is frustrated state of Kansas refuses to make court-ordered payment to him that stands at $63 million.

Alex Orel, a lobbyist with the Kansas Bankers Association, told a joint House and Senate economic recovery committee that COVID-19 added stress to Main Street businesses and the agriculture sector. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Coronavirus draws Kansas farm bankruptcy, business stagnation into focus
By: - August 12, 2020

Bipartisan Kansas legislative committee is sorting through COVID-19 economic problems to help speed business recovery.

M.T. Liggett, an extraordinary folk artist who created masterpieces out of a farm shop in Mullinville, works on a metal sculpture. The late artist's roadside expressions made of old machinery parts is the basis of a visitor center being developed to display and preserve his work. (Submitted/Kansas Reflector)

Unfinished business: Recasting arts commission as engine of economic growth falling short
By: - August 12, 2020

TOPEKA — Complexities of building a visitor center to celebrate scrap metal sculptures, whirligigs and signs fabricated by Mullinville’s most curious resident help illustrate the pressure placed on the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission to create a statewide arts organization that equally values artistic and economic achievement. Provocateur M.T. Liggett’s acerbic outdoor art displayed on […]

Attorneys for former Newton social worker Arlan Kaufman are appealing a U.S. District Court judge's refusal to release him 15 years early from prison due to poor health and risk of COVID-19. Kaufman and his wife were found guilty of forced labor, involuntary servitude and other crimes for abusing mentally ill adults under their care. (Illustration/Kansas Reflector)

Inmate Arlan Kaufman, abuser of mentally ill Kansans, appeals denial of early release
By: - August 11, 2020

Mennonite church leaders and family members support compassionate release from prison of Arlan Kaufman, convicted of abusing mentally ill adults in Newton.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, left, filed a lawsuit Monday designed to keep the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma from building a casino on land in Park City. The U.S. Department of Interior decided in May the project could proceed. The plaintiffs are two tribes, the city of Mulvane and Sumner County, which hosts the Kansas Star Casino. (Kansas Reflector)

Kansas attorney general files federal lawsuit to thwart proposed tribal casino
By: - August 10, 2020

TOPEKA — Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma Chief Bill Friend expressed skepticism Monday a federal lawsuit filed by the Kansas attorney general on behalf of four plaintiffs would succeed in blocking construction of a trial casino on land near Wichita. The petition submitted by Attorney General Derek Schmidt in U.S. District Court seeks an order setting […]

House Speaker Ron Ryckman, left, and House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins will retain their leadership positions in the House for the 2021 session, while Senate Republicans elected Sen. Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, to be Senate president. (Nick Krug/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas dials up plan to spend $60 million in COVID-19 aid on broadband expansion
By: - August 10, 2020

Gov. Laura Kelly joins legislators to direct $60 million in COVID-19 aid to expand broadband to address telemedicine, education and business needs.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Lee Norman says during a recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast that he would prefer mask mandates to curtail the spread of COVID-19. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

KDHE secretary warns of ‘lethal brew,’ yearns for mask mandate, says schools not yet safe
By: - August 10, 2020

KDHE Secretary Lee Norman tells Kansas Reflector bars are red-hot vectors of COVID-19, Kansas needs mask mandate, too soon to open schools and universities.

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