The longtime incumbent Douglas County district attorney said he believes his experience and leadership are needed to “work within the system” to create change. Charles Branson, 50, has not faced a challenger since he was first elected in 2004, even in a primary. In the upcoming Aug. 4 ...
Story updated at 4:41 p.m. Friday Douglas County health officials have ordered restaurants to continue with carryout-only services and local libraries to remain closed through May 17 to continue preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. But most retailers that previously have been ...
The Douglas County district attorney will seek to retain his seat in the 2020 election. Charles Branson, who has served as district attorney since January 2005, announced in a Tuesday news release that he filed to run for reelection. He is running as a Democrat, according to the Kansas ...
The Douglas County Commission will not meet this week. The county canceled its meeting scheduled for Wednesday because it would have been the fifth meeting of April, said Karrey Britt, a spokeswoman for the county. The commission meets regularly on Wednesdays, but it sometimes cancels ...
The coronavirus pandemic has delayed much, but it appears it won’t delay the property tax collector. Home and business owners ought to be prepared to meet the quickly approaching May 10 deadline for property tax payments, as state and local officials told the Journal-World they were not ...
Douglas County will see an increase in costs for its employee health care plan, but the county administrator says it's a better situation than what the county has experienced in the recent past. The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday approved a health care plan with a 6.9% increase in ...
An attorney for a local activist group is arguing that Douglas County’s use of a 1994 sales tax referendum to expand the county jail without a public vote would give the county the ability to debt-finance projects whenever it wants. William Skepnek, an attorney for Justice Matters, said in a ...
A 33-year veteran of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is the fourth employee of the office to join the race to become its next leader. Doug Woods, the office’s operations division administrative captain, announced his candidacy for the sheriff position in a news release on Tuesday. He ...
Douglas County and its employees may soon see a cost increase in the county health care plan. The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday will consider approving a one-year renewal of its employee health care plan with Trustmark that would begin on June 1 and last until May 31, 2021. Of three ...
Suzanne Valdez thinks leadership and clarity are missing from the Douglas County district attorney’s office, and that has inspired her to run. Valdez, 51, also said she thought some functional problems contribute to unfairness, or at least to a perception of unfairness. Valdez filed last ...
Mass incarceration, lack of transparency and unfair treatment of minorities and the poor have inspired Lawrence defense attorney Cooper Overstreet to run for Douglas County district attorney, he said. Overstreet, 32, filed last week to run as a Democrat in the Aug. 4 primary election. He’s ...
Rural Douglas County residents living within a proposed consolidated fire district could see a slight decrease or no change to their taxes for fire protection if the consolidation is completed later this year. However, that may rely on the leaders of the involved townships keeping their side ...
Two Lawrence attorneys are officially in the running to become the top prosecutor in Douglas County. Cooper Overstreet, a defense attorney for the Swain Law Office, and Suzanne Valdez, a law professor at the University of Kansas, both filed to run for the Douglas County district attorney ...
The Douglas County Commission has approved $43,500 in funding for a new meal service for Lawrence students that was launched earlier this week. On Tuesday, the Lawrence school district announced that several restaurants had stepped up to launch the new meal program, which replaced a former ...
The Douglas County District Court on Wednesday set a deadline for a local activist group to respond to the county government’s motion to dismiss the group's lawsuit that aims to halt the county’s plans to expand its jail. Attorneys for Douglas County and Justice Matters, which has long ...
The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday could begin the second part of a two-phase plan to consolidate several rural fire departments. The commissioners will consider giving initial approval to a resolution outlining the merger of the recently created Fire District No. 6 with the county’s ...
The Douglas County District Court is bringing in an outside judge to preside over a lawsuit that aims to stop the expansion of the county jail. Chief Judge James McCabria said Thursday in an email to the Journal-World that the outside judge, James Fleetwood, was needed because the Douglas ...
The Douglas County Commission has approved the first part of a plan to combine several rural fire departments into one large fire district. However, the taxing implications of the entire two-step plan won’t become clear until the commissioners finalize the entire plan in the coming months. ...
Douglas County has formally asked the Douglas County District Court to throw out a lawsuit filed by a local activist group that would halt the planned expansion of the county’s jail. It also requested the court to expedite scheduling of the hearing on the matter to avoid delay on the ...
The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday will consider giving final approval to the first part of its plan to consolidate several rural fire stations into one new fire district. In early March, the commissioners gave initial approval of the proposal by authorizing a resolution outlining the ...