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Kansas House studies bill granting unprecedented administrative autonomy to KU, K-State, and WSU
The Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously Wednesday to oppose a bill granting the state’s three largest public universities — KU, KSU and WSU — unprecedented autonomy in purchasing, construction, licensing, bidding and ownership of property.
Kansas House studies bill granting unprecedented administrative autonomy to KU, K-State, and WSU
The Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously Wednesday to oppose a bill granting the state’s three largest public universities — KU, KSU and WSU — unprecedented autonomy in purchasing, construction, licensing, bidding and ownership of property.
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Civil rights • Voter rights • Anti-trans legislation • Abortion • Immigration • Municipalities’ local control • Kansas State Board of Education
MORe STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS
Kansas legislative leaders create special committee to rebuff federal COVID-19 mandates
Top House and Senate lawmakers agreed Monday to establish a special committee to examine options for thwarting federal policy layered with COVID-19 government mandates tied to the pandemic that so far killed more than 6,000 residents of Kansas.
Blaise Mesa / Kansas News Service
LGBTQ foster kids in Kansas have no guarantee they’ll land in homes that accept their identity
The Kansas Department for Children and Families says it works to make sure gay, lesbian and transgender foster children end up in welcoming homes, but nothing in state law requires special consideration.
Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector
Kansas House member takes plea deal in Wellsville school case
State Rep. Mark Samsel negotiated a deal with Franklin County prosecutors resulting in probation for guilty pleas to three counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct emerging from strange physical and verbal encounters with students at Wellsville High School.
Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service
Groups worry Kansas criminalized voter drives, but Republicans say they’ll prove otherwise
Voter registration drives in Kansas have slowed to a trickle while a new election law is challenged in court, but Republicans are undeterred.
Kansas legislator navigates personal journey from hesitancy to acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine
Salina Rep. Steven Howe was among Republican conservatives in the Kansas House skeptical about COVID-19 vaccines, but encouragement of trusted friends and family convinced him to accept Pfizer’s vaccine in August.
Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash
Lawrence school district declines to give details on students, staff in quarantines
As COVID-19 case counts rise just a week into the school year, students in Lawrence schools have been directed to isolate after potential exposure to the virus. That’s problematic for learning — and for students who need meals.
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Lawrence redistricting town hall participants object to racial, prison gerrymandering
People testifying to 20 legislators Friday at the University of Kansas’ business school requested congressional maps not be recast by the Republican-led Legislature for the purpose of unseating U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, and they asked for lawmakers to turn aside map proposals that harmed representation in communities of color.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas lawmakers to hold redistricting public hearing on KU campus Friday; here’s what to know
A group of Kansas lawmakers will be in Lawrence on Friday to hold a public hearing and gather community input ahead of efforts to redraw legislative districts before the 2022 election.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
State senate president says Kansans want freedom, not ‘Faucism’ on COVID-19 masking front
Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson warned state and federal guidance aimed at countering spread of a more hostile variant of COVID-19 could damage the state’s economic recovery and unnecessarily confuse Kansans who managed to reclaim normalcy in their lives.
Despite Douglas County DA refusing to prosecute, nonprofits still wary to resume voter registration
Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said Tuesday that she won’t prosecute anyone under a new state law that caused nonprofits to halt voter registration efforts at the start of July, but the groups won’t immediately resume engaging with voters.
Mackenzie Clark / The Lawrence Times
Douglas County DA will not prosecute violations of new law that criminalizes looking like an election worker
Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez announced Tuesday that she would not prosecute violations of a newly effective law in the state of Kansas that makes it a felony for individuals to engage in conduct that would make a person think they are an elections worker.
Noah Tabora/Kansas Reflector
New Kansas law cracks down on sexual extortion, spousal abuse, fleeing police
Kansas lawmakers are praising a new law that creates the crime of sexual extortion and removes a spousal exemption to sexual battery. It also prohibits a court from ordering a victim of a crime to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector
Jessica Huseman: Here’s how Kansas Republicans could actually make elections more secure (Column)
“The state has long prided itself on its status as the home to the voter roll police, but it has among the worst list maintenance procedures in the country given its failure to use any technology that allows it to check its rolls against the rolls of other states — a far cry from the state’s public image,” Jessica Huseman writes.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
No need for term limits: Legislature’s turnover rate tops 80% in past decade
Only 27 of 165 Kansas legislators holding office in 2010 — a mere 16% — have been able to harness the desire, persuasiveness, money or luck to still hold seats in the House or Senate.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector (file)
Kansas COVID-19 emergency will expire after GOP leaders refuse to meet
TOPEKA — Senate President Ty Masterson announced Tuesday that GOP legislative leaders would force an […]
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