WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

National free speech group asks KU to rescind all discipline against professor who talked of political violence

One of the nation’s leading free speech groups says the University of Kansas doesn’t have a legal right to discipline an instructor who made classroom statements about shooting men who would never vote for a woman president. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — FIRE — sent a letter late Friday to KU Chancellor Douglas Girod asking the university to rescind any discipline of Phillip ...

VOTER GUIDE: In race to represent Lawrence's largest Senate district, the longtime Democratic incumbent faces a 1990s GOP leader

Neither candidate in the race for Kansas Senate District No. 2 will need directions to the Statehouse. Both have served there, although on different sides of the aisle and in different decades. Democrat Marci Francisco and Republican David Miller are vying for the seat in Senate District 2, which covers nearly all of Lawrence, except for portions of far west Lawrence and portions of northwest Lawrence. ...

VOTER GUIDE: Two Topeka residents vying for new Senate seat that includes northwest Lawrence, Lecompton, east Topeka

A new Kansas Senate district that pairs northwest Lawrence with east Topeka is set to produce a winner who will be new to elected office. Democrat Patrick Schmidt and Republican Tyler Wible are vying to represent Senate District 19, which basically was created from scratch as part of the state’s once-per-decade redistricting process. In Lawrence, the district covers the area north of Sixth Street, between ...

VOTER GUIDE: A look at legislative races in Baldwin City, Eudora, rural Douglas County

There are several contested legislative races in districts just outside the Lawrence city limits. Here’s a brief look at those races: Senate District No. 9 Republican incumbent Beverly Gossage is being challenged by Democrat Norman Mallicoat in the district that includes all of the Baldwin City, Eudora and Tonganoxie city limits, and also includes De Soto and a heavily populated portion of Johnson County ...

VOTER GUIDE: West Lawrence Senate district pits minister, real estate entrepreneur against former newspaper publisher, soldier

Large parts of far west Lawrence are in a new, wide-ranging Kansas Senate district, and voters are being asked to choose between two Shawnee County residents with wide-ranging backgrounds. Republican Rick Kloos is facing Democrat Dena Sattler in the race for Kansas Senate District No. 3. Kloos has been in the Kansas Senate since 2020, and represents part of the district currently. However, due to the ...

Owners of former Riverfront Mall property making last-minute effort to convince city to keep City Hall downtown

They’re neighbors, but relations aren’t too neighborly at the moment. The reasons for that are varied but include the fact that one of them may leave the neighborhood. I’m talking about Lawrence City Hall and the former Riverfront Mall property, which is just to the east of City Hall and currently houses a Marriott hotel, the city’s municipal court and the city’s planning and development services ...