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.

Gov. Laura Kelly said construction of Inevergy’s new Grain Belt Express transmission line to carry wind-driven electricity to Missouri, Illinois and Indiana can create about 1,000 permanent jobs in Kansas. This image is of Evergy's Flat Ridge Wind Farm near Medicine Lodge. (Submitted/Kansas Reflector)

Gov. Laura Kelly, Invenergy outline economic jolt of electric transmission project
By: - September 30, 2020

Gov. Laura Kelly, Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers tout potential of Invenergy's plan for transmission line to carry Kansas wind power to the east.

Melissa Rooker, executive director of the Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund, said more than $630,000 in federal COVID-19 funding will be used to improve internet service to families with young children in more than 80 counties. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas allocates $636,000 to boost internet services to young children
By: - September 30, 2020

Kansas officials move more than $600,000 in CARES Act funding to help families with young children resolve internet access problems.

KU, Haskell and K-State to collaborate on $6 million intermittent stream research project
By: - September 30, 2020

KSU, Haskell and KU in Kansas will collaborate on $6 million, four-year NSF research project on water-quality issues of intermittent streams.

Clockwise from top left, Sean Gatewood, Tim Carpenter, Barbara Hickert and Rocky Nichols during a recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast on public reporting on COVID-19 clusters by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas long-term care advocates view public COVID-19 report as ‘life-or-death’ guide
By: - September 28, 2020

Kansas advocates for the elderly and disabled in long-term care facilities praise KDHE reporting on clusters, but would welcome more data.

GOP 2nd District Republican Jake LaTurner again fails to substantiate claim Democratic candidate Michelle De La Isla "defunded" Topeka Police Department while serving on the city council and as mayor. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas’ federal candidates loathe potential unruly transfer of U.S. presidential power
By: - September 26, 2020

A bipartisan group of Kansas candidates for federal office want no part of the constitutional crisis if President Trump refuses to concede to Joe Biden.

Bill Feuerborn, chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents, said Wichita State University president Jay Golden resigned Friday after leading the university for less than one year. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Wichita State president resigns after enduring turmoil for blocking Ivanka Trump’s speech
By: - September 25, 2020

The president of Wichita State University submits his resignation after enduring donor blowback after calling off a graduation speech by Ivanka Trump.

Gov. Laura Kelly announced distribution of $1.8 million in federal grants to nearly two dozen Kansas agencies working to improve public safety and reduce crime. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Twenty-three Kansas agencies share $1.8 million in public safety grants
By: - September 25, 2020

Kansas council selects 23 state and local recipients of $1.8 million in federal grants to improve public safety and reduce crime.

Kansas public defender not convinced of need for blanket suspension of speedy-trial law
By: - September 25, 2020

A Kansas defense lawyer is frustrated by suspension of speedy-trial law, while the state's attorney general expects a flood of lawsuits on that point.

Rep. Brad Ralph, a Republican from Dodge City, said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the concentration of State Finance Council power in hands of urban legislators and the lack of voice by rural lawmakers. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

GOP legislators irritated by dominance of urban lawmakers on State Finance Council
By: - September 24, 2020

Rural Kansas legislators are objecting to dominance of a House, Senate leadership council by lawmakers from urban counties.

Rep. Troy Waymaster, left, a Republican from Bunker Hill, says the COVID-19 pandemic will erode casino and lottery revenue relied on by the state government to invest in economic development programs. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)

Pandemic puts nearly $100 million squeeze on Kansas casino, lottery revenue
By: - September 23, 2020

COVID-19 forced closure of Kansas' four casinos and weakened lottery ticket sales, lowering revenue by early $100 million in fiscal year ending June 30.

Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said wearing masks, improving testing capacity and isolating people infected with COVID-19 was the best approach during the pandemic as long as there is no approved vaccine. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

KDHE shifting gears on public report of site-specific COVID-19 clusters in Kansas
By: - September 23, 2020

KDHE is altering metrics used to place COVID-19 outbreaks on a weekly list of site-specific clusters in Kansas.

Vicki Schmidt, the Kansas commissioner of insurance, attended a legislative committee meeting Monday for endorsement of the $535,000 sale of the vacant Woman's Club of Topeka building on the National Register of Historic Places. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Legislative committee endorses sale of historic Topeka building for $535,000
By: - September 22, 2020

Sale of the Woman's Club of Topeka building for $535,000 to a group planning to renovate the historic structure is another step closer to reality.

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