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Kansas governor doubtful GOP legislators can pull off congressional redistricting
Gov. Laura Kelly predicted Tuesday the 2026 Legislature wouldn’t muster enough political support to implement a new congressional district map splitting Johnson County and making it easier to defeat U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids in the midterm election.
Kansas governor doubtful GOP legislators can pull off congressional redistricting
Gov. Laura Kelly predicted Tuesday the 2026 Legislature wouldn’t muster enough political support to implement a new congressional district map splitting Johnson County and making it easier to defeat U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids in the midterm election.
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Civil rights • Voter rights • Anti-trans legislation • Abortion • Immigration • Municipalities’ local control • Kansas State Board of Education
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Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas House, Senate prayers point to ‘precarious times for truth, justice, equity’
A review of the 2021 Legislature’s collection of opening prayers revealed how the Rev. Cecil Washington urged the Senate and the Rev. Eunice Brubaker offered the House seasoned spiritual advice for politicians at risk of losing sight of God’s message as they battled ideological foes real or imagined.
Andrea LaRayne Etzel
Kansas governor recognizes ‘little lady in tennis shoes’ advocating for national Juneteenth holiday
Each year since 2016, when she was 89, Opal Lee has walked from her home in Fort Worth across the country, stopping everywhere from Washington, D.C. to North Carolina to Kansas, in an effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Kansas GOP focuses on governor’s race; also aspires to take out U.S. Rep. Davids
Attorney General Derek Schmidt prefaced a direct appeal for support in the GOP governor’s race Saturday by tallying the number of lawsuits his office filed against President Joe Biden and denouncing the stream of vetoes issued by Gov. Laura Kelly.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Kansas GOP lawmakers eager to rally partisan allies to challenge Kelly’s veto surge
A six-pack of Republican lawmakers amplified for faithful party members their resolve to challenge Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of bills on gun rights, tax reductions and fair elections along with a smattering of legislative diversions into transgender athletics and distinctive license plates.
New report estimates Medicaid expansion could save Kansas employers up to $80.6M
A new report indicates employers in some of Kansas’ most critical industries could save tens of millions of dollars a year if the state were to expand Medicaid.
Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector; file
Democratic Kansas governor vetoes GOP-inspired voting, firearm and license plate bills
Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed two bundles of election reform measures Friday that would have restricted advance voting, eliminated emergency powers to alter voting procedures, added a new crime for turning in others’ ballots, and strengthened penalties for existing election crimes.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Gov. Kelly signs legislation creating workforce development scholarship program
Gov. Laura Kelly signed bipartisan legislation Friday authorizing a scholarship program aimed primarily at encouraging Kansas community college and technical college students to develop skills in high-demand areas of the state’s economy.
Advocacy groups push for transparency in Evergy’s $8.9 billion ‘sustainability’ plan
Environmental and consumer groups are raising alarms about what they claim is limited transparency as Kansas regulators review Evergy’s plan to spend more than $8.9 billion on the utility provider’s infrastructure across the state.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas governor blocks attack on transgender athletes, civics test for high schoolers, NRA curriculum
Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a series of controversial bills that would have banned transgender athletes from school sports, required high schoolers to pass a civics test before graduation, and installed NRA-sponsored curriculum in public schools.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
After George Floyd’s murder, a racial equity panel proposed changes; the Kansas Legislature ignored them
The Commission on Racial Equity and Justice issued more than 30 suggestions in its December report for state legislators to consider, but none has received meaningful consideration.
David Condos/Kansas News Service
Half of Kansas counties turn down COVID vaccines even though they’re far from herd immunity
Sixty-two Kansas counties rejected their weekly allocations of COVID-19 vaccines from the state this week, even though only roughly 34% of Kansans have received at least one shot.
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Immigrant suffering from mental illness deported after 6-month breakdown in Kansas jail
TOPEKA — A mentally ill man who spent six months in a Kansas jail after […]
Kansas transitioning to 10-digit dialing ahead of new 988 suicide prevention number
Gov. Laura Kelly asked Kansans using the 785 and 620 telephone area codes to begin preparing for transition to a 10-digit dialing requirement for local calls to accommodate implementation of an abbreviated national suicide hotline number.
Climate change has turned the Kansas prairie into junk food that’s killing grasshoppers
The numbers show an alarming decline in the grasshopper population on the Kansas prairie — nearly 2% a year for about a quarter century.
Jill Hummels for Kansas Reflector
Kansas opts for bonding to help consumers with energy price shocks, transition from coal
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly signed bipartisan legislation stretching over time consumers’ payment of exorbitant […]
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