News
Kansas world language programs rife with linguistic discrimination
TOPEKA — In a decade of work in multilingual education, Jacqueline Rodriguez has seen students learning English as a second language treated as if knowing their first language is a disadvantage. Rodriguez was appointed this summer as director of ESOL and migrant programs for Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools. Her district serves 44% English learner […]
Republican Carolyn McGinn to seek Senate majority leader post
TOPEKA — Republican Kansas Sen. Carolyn McGinn plans to be a candidate for Senate majority leader following the November election. She said in a letter to GOP Senate candidates that she would compete for the slot created by retirement of Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning of Johnson County. Republicans elected to the Senate will meet […]
Kansas ERs burdened by worsening mental health crisis, overflow from state hospitals
TOPEKA — Emergency rooms across Kansas are seeing an increase in people with behavioral and mental health issues seeking care amid the pandemic, and the medical facilities lack necessary resources or staff dedicated to serving these patients. Many of them are awaiting an open bed at Osawatomie State Hospital or Larned State Hospital, both inpatient […]
U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings to plow ahead amid COVID-19 infections
Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett will face the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee beginning Monday for what’s expected to be an unusual and contentious four days of hearings on her nomination for the Supreme Court. Democrats sought unsuccessfully to block those hearings, raising concerns about the short time frame before Election Day, the urgent need to […]
Senate President Susan Wagle embraces gerrymandering to benefit GOP in Kansas
TOPEKA — Democrats blasted Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle on Friday for recent comments she made about the desire to redraw legislative and congressional district boundaries in Kansas to favor Republicans. Wagle, a Republican from Wichita who is retiring from the Legislature after withdrawing from the U.S. Senate race, told a gathering of Republicans last […]
Trump’s rhetoric on election integrity unfolds in courtrooms, tweets
See you in court! It is a threat President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign have lobbed — sometimes verbatim — at states across the country this year. Last week, the campaign threatened litigation in Pennsylvania if it wasn’t allowed to observe activity inside satellite election offices — access election lawyers say would be unprecedented, […]
Gov. Laura Kelly signals new wave of broadband development in Kansas
Gov. Laura Kelly is expanding role of the Kansas Department of Commerce in expanding delivery of broadband services in the state.
Kansas health organizations seek reversal of decline in child vaccination
A trio of Kansas health organizations are concerned with reduction in child immunizations and wellness visits to clinics amid COVID-19.
U.S. House incumbents in Kansas spent $1.1M in tax dollars in 18 months to spread gospel
The four U.S. House members from Kansas have relied on $1.1 million in taxpayer financed communications to promote political ideas.
How the practice of maintaining voter lists became so polarized
In the last decade, millions of registered voters across the country have been removed from voter rolls. In 2019, Ohio removed more than 460,000 voter registration files from its list. Georgia removed 313,000 people from its rolls in October 2019 alone, and in Michigan, from 2011 to 2018, 1.2 million voters were removed from voter […]
Kansas expands monitoring of wastewater for early warning of COVID-19 outbreaks
TOPEKA — Scientists in April discovered wastewater from Hiawatha indicated an extensive presence in the community of COVID-19. At the time, there were no positive cases of the virus in Brown County, which encompasses a sparsely populated rural area along the Nebraska border in northeast Kansas. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which had […]
Federal judge affirms constitutionality of Kansas’ 250-foot buffer zone at voting sites
The Kansas law forbidding electioneering within a 250-foot radius of voting sites is deemed constitutional by a federal judge.