Politics + Government

OPINION
Rosalynn Carter and her husband, Former President Jimmy Carter, talk prior to the start of a 2010 baseball game

Remembering Rosalynn Carter and the challenges she overcame as first lady

BY: - November 24, 2023

As I write this, the airwaves, online news sites and print media are filled with tributes to Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady who passed away Sunday at the age of 96. It is likely that many are learning of her groundbreaking years as first lady and her post-presidential work – beyond building houses for […]

OPINION
Warm and inviting Thanksgiving meal

A Thanksgiving wish for free speech in Kansas and this nation, no matter our differences

BY: - November 23, 2023

As we gather to celebrate family, friends and the overwhelming tiredness that follows turkey feasts, let’s give thanks for free expression. That’s right, let’s thank our lucky stars for the protections of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, here in Kansas and everywhere else in our 50 gorgeous states. Without the right to free […]

Trucks carrying aid await an opportunity to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing on November 22, 2023 in Arish, Egypt.

Israel and Hamas agree to temporary ceasefire, hostage release deal

BY: - November 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for a short-term humanitarian ceasefire that will allow the release of some hostages and increase humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, U.S. officials said late Tuesday. President Joe Biden praised the agreement to release 50 of the approximately 240 hostages taken by Hamas during the […]

A flock of green-winged teal settle on the marsh at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.

State funding set aside for Kansas River trash removal, high-risk dam repairs

BY: - November 22, 2023

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Agriculture gives a dam.  The department has been allocated $10 million in funding for several state water projects, including dam rehabilitation and repair and irrigation technology improvements. About $7 million of the funding will go toward projects in eastern Stafford County, where the Rattlesnake Creek and Quivira National Wildlife […]

Gov. Laura Kelly touted a new design for Kansas license plates saturated in wheat-colored yellow and announced the plan for eradicating older. peeling embossed tags during 2024. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Kansas Department of Revenue image)

Kansas adopting new vehicle license plate design, jettisoning eroded embossed tags

BY: - November 22, 2023

Gov. Laura Kelly touted a new design for Kansas license plates saturated in wheat-colored yellow, and shared plan for eradicating older embossed tags.

Rev. Bobby Love Sr., left, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church of Olathe, and Monsignor Stuart Swetland, president of the private Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, and pastor of Our Lady and Saint Rose Catholic Church, urged the Kansas Legislature to deliver health care services to about 150,000 working poor in Kansas by expanding eligiblity for Medicaid. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas clergy place faith in state legislators embracing ‘moral truth’ of Medicaid expansion

BY: - November 22, 2023

Gov. Laura Kelly draws together clergy to consider religious, moral arguments for broadening access in Kansas to health care through Medicaid expansion.

OPINION

Your opinion editor dishes up piping hot takes for a chilly holiday week in Kansas

BY: - November 22, 2023

Here we go again, folks. I take a week and a few days off from conjuring columns, and Kansas news speeds along like an overcaffeinated teenager. How rude. The last time this happened, in early August, I had to write a catch-up piece following up on seven different stories. I’ll restrain myself and tackle only […]

Central Kansas electric bills will increase following approval of Evergy rate hike

BY: - November 21, 2023

TOPEKA — State regulators approved a utility rate change that will decrease electric rates for Kansas City customers and push up prices for other customers in the state after a long tug of war between proposed corporation price hikes and commission staff estimates over fair prices. During a Tuesday meeting, the three-member Kansas Corporation Commission […]

KBI revises Kansas crime report for 2022, adding more than 4K new offenses

BY: - November 21, 2023

TOPEKA — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation released amended crime statistics after discovering its original report wasn’t accurate. The agency said a system error caused thousands of offenses to go uncounted. “When we recognized how many offenses weren’t represented in the annual crime report, we knew we had a responsibility to let the public, the […]

The White House on June 24, 2023

Three presidential debates, one VP debate scheduled ahead of 2024 election

BY: - November 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Democratic and Republican nominees for president would debate three times next year if both candidates agree to a schedule released Monday by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. “The United States’ general election debates, watched live worldwide, are a model for many other countries: the opportunity to hear and see leading candidates […]

Vijay Ramasamy appears for a Nov. 7, 2023, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcas

Governor’s new adviser on Kansas water crisis working to influence policy talks

BY: - November 20, 2023

Hiring a dedicated staff member to advise Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on water is a move meant to bring the often-siloed issue front and center, said Vijay Ramasamy, who started the job this fall. “My job is to make water central to a lot of our conversations,” Ramasamy said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. Ramasamy, […]

In some real estate deeds, U.S. homeowners are finding language forbidding the sale of their home and land to non-whites

States grapple with racist language in real estate deeds

BY: - November 19, 2023

Lisa Boccetti is horrified by the restrictive covenant that is in the deed to her 1950s ranch house in Raleigh, North Carolina: It states that the land cannot be sold or occupied by Black people. The property “shall not be sold to negroes or to any person or persons of negro blood, and said premises shall […]