Civil Rights
Conservative groups target state, local voter registration rolls with multiple lawsuits
North Carolina’s voter rolls are like a refrigerator that needs to be cleared periodically of rotting milk and other items past their expiration date, according to Jason Snead, director of the pro-Trump Honest Elections Project. Snead is an elections advocate supporting Republican plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to force the state to more regularly maintain […]
Kansas legislative session promises more debate on COVID-19, critical race theory
TOPEKA — As Kansas lawmakers converge Monday in Topeka to work out issues with the ever-present COVID-19 illness, election law and the state’s economic wellbeing, some advocates are hopeful humanity, not political gamesmanship, can shine through in 2022. An election year, mixed with public outcry over the handling of the pandemic, sets up a noteworthy […]
Kansas Supreme Court reverses judge’s decision throwing out COVID-19 statute
Kansas Supreme Court lets stand law allowing challenges of COVID-19 policy, arguing a district court shouldn't have ruled on constitutionality issues.
Kansas officials, advocates grapple over election integrity and voting access
TOPEKA — After a 2021 legislative session packed with election proposals, Kansas officials and advocacy groups again are looking at both election integrity and accessibility issues. Election laws passed last year by the Republican-led Legislature, including one that threatens felony prosecution for any activities that could be mistaken as the work of an election official, […]
Biden in Jan. 6 speech decries ‘web of lies’ created by Trump about 2020 election
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday warned of the dangers of a collapse of American democracy, standing in a historic chamber in the U.S. Capitol that was besieged by an angry mob of pro-Trump supporters who attempted to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. “We are in the battle for the soul […]
Voting rights tops U.S. Senate agenda as Jan. 6 anniversary nears
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday stressed that Democrats are prepared to change Senate rules to pass voting rights legislation — and linked the move to the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. “The election subversion efforts we’re seeing all across the country today are […]
Schumer says U.S. Senate to consider changing the filibuster if voting rights stalls
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned on Monday that the Senate is prepared to debate changes in the filibuster if Republicans continue to block the advancement of voting rights legislation. In a sternly worded letter to other senators, the New York Democrat set a deadline of Jan. 17 for the chamber to consider […]
Kansas organization seeks statewide removal of racist language from property documents
Kansas chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations asks Gov. Laura Kelly to issue order allowing cities to cut racist language from property documents.
Kansas Reflector’s 2021 year in review: Insurrection, deep freeze, vaccines, arrests, Bob Dole
TOPEKA — The year began with the ominous declaration that four members of the Kansas congressional delegation would support President Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud by refusing to acknowledge the fair and accurate results of the election. Then, on Jan. 6, the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in shocking violent rage, delaying the […]
Kansas City residents will soon have the right to an attorney in eviction proceedings
A stack of boxes sitting in attorney Gina Chiala’s garage reminds her of how devastating evictions can be on families. A woman had called her in 2014, a couple years before Chiala co-founded the Heartland Center For Jobs and Freedom nonprofit law group to provide legal support to the movement of fast-food workers fighting for […]
Partisan education debates limit opportunities for next generation of Kansans
The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Steve Lopes was a union organizer for Kansas-NEA for 30 years. As a former teacher, I strongly oppose the use of CRT in public school classrooms […]
It’s the year that was. We need a Rockwell scale to make sense of it.
As the year skitters to an end, there will come a torrent of top 10 news roundups. Caffeine-fueled news junkies in newsrooms everywhere will count the stories down like the seconds before the New Year’s Eve ball drops at Times Square. But making sense of it all will take more than a list that can […]