TOPEKA — The state that made saloon smasher Carrie Nation famous is moving to allow people to get beer and cocktails to go after the coronavirus pandemic. Kansas lawmakers approved a bill last week to allow to-go beer and alcoholic drinks from clubs, bars and restaurants until 11 p.m., as ...
Topeka — A measure approved by Kansas lawmakers ties the renewal of a tax that’s crucial to funding public schools to a proposed tax break for businesses that are forced to shut down during future emergencies or pandemics. The bill approved early Saturday is a response from the ...
Topeka — The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature backed off its effort to remove Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly from final decisions on how federal coronavirus relief funds are spent. Budget legislation approved Friday includes a provision that gives top lawmakers more say but still ...
Topeka — Republicans pushed a plan through the Kansas Legislature early Saturday that could provide roughly $500 million to small businesses to offset losses tied to state and local restrictions meant to check COVID-19’s spread last year. The measure would require the state, cities and ...
TOPEKA — Republican lawmakers in Kansas were split Friday over proposals to ban COVID-19 vaccine passports, limit efforts to track down close contacts of people with the coronavirus and compensate businesses that closed or faced restrictions early in the pandemic. House and Senate ...
TOPEKA — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday directed that flags be lowered to half-staff across the state to recognize that more than 5,000 Kansans have now lost their lives to COVID-19. The order extends until sundown on Sunday. As of midday Friday, the coronavirus had been blamed on 5,016 ...
Story updated at 9:01 p.m. Friday: TOPEKA — Kansas legislators on Friday easily approved a bipartisan measure boosting education spending to what was touted as full funding for public schools while also making more students eligible for private school scholarships. The Republican-controlled ...
Topeka — Kansas has requested less than 9% of its federal allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses for this week as Republican state lawmakers try to revive proposals to ban government vaccine passports and restore limits on tracing the close contacts of people exposed to the virus. Democratic ...
TOPEKA, Kansas — Kansas took its first major step toward legalizing medical marijuana Thursday when the conservative Republicans who dominate the state House passed a bill that tracks a national trend and bucks federal law. Kansas-style legalization would regulate everything from patient ...
Story updated at 10:13 p.m. Thursday: TOPEKA — Conservative Republicans set aside their most ambitious proposal for helping Kansas parents move their children into private schools so that lawmakers could forge a bipartisan compromise Thursday night on education funding and policy. Three ...
Story updated at 7:40 p.m. Wednesday: TOPEKA — Conservative Republicans who see the federal government as out of control split Wednesday and halted the push in Kansas for a convention of states to propose changes to the U.S. Constitution. The state Senate spent nearly three hours during the ...
TOPEKA — Two Republican legislators are considering running for Kansas attorney general in 2022. House Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, of Ottawa, said Tuesday that he is looking at the race and will make a decision after lawmakers finish this month with their business for the year. Senate ...
Story updated at 7:42 p.m. Tuesday: TOPEKA — Republican lawmakers advanced a plan Tuesday to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to Kansas businesses hurt by coronavirus pandemic restrictions, and they're poised to give GOP leaders the final say over how the federal COVID-19 relief funds ...
TOPEKA — Republicans in the Legislature delivered a knockout punch Monday in the first round of their promised “veto override-a-rama” by securing enough votes to reinstate a tax reform bundle that includes breaks for multinational corporations. Senate Bill 50 also raises the standard ...
Updated at 5:16 p.m. Monday TOPEKA — Senate and House Republicans flexed political muscle Monday to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of two election bills touted by advocates as essential to fair and transparent elections and by critics as a voter-suppression tactic. After securing ...
Updated at 5:18 p.m. Monday TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature moved Monday to override the governor’s veto on a hotly-debated bill to lower the concealed carry minimum age to 18. House Bill 2058 creates two license classes — a standard license for those over 21 years of age and a ...
Updated at 5:15 p.m. Monday TOPEKA — Conservative Republicans in Kansas failed Monday to overturn the Democratic governor's veto of a proposed ban on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports, unable to convert successes in other states or Caitlyn Jenner's support into enough ...
TOPEKA — A Kansas House member was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery in what authorities said Friday was an incident involving a student while he was substitute teaching at a public school in his hometown. Republican Rep. Mark Samsel was booked Thursday into the local county jail ...
Topeka — Kansas lawmakers return to the Statehouse next week for a showdown with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly over issues at the heart of both culture wars and taxes. While legislators took a break, Kelly vetoed a range of high-profile bills. Now the conservative Republicans who control the ...
Topeka — A big political battle is brewing over whether top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature will have the final say over how the state spends more than $4.8 billion it expects to receive from the latest federal COVID-19 relief package. The move comes as elected officials voted ...