TOPEKA — Rep. Barbara Wasinger peppered state university administrators with assertions that campuses across Kansas were a morass of academic program duplication, dwindling student enrollment and unreasonable consumption of tax dollars. Her perspective — not universally shared by her ...
TOPEKA — Kansas is likely to have pockets of a new, more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom, and public health officials believe it could become the state's dominant strain, the head of the state health department said Tuesday. Dr. Lee Norman also said that ...
TOPEKA (AP) — A second case of a more-contagious coronavirus variant has been confirmed in Kansas, state health officials said Monday. The variant virus first detected in the United Kingdom was found in the Wichita area, the state Department of Health and Environment said in a news ...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is working to fix its troubled system for sending vaccine data to the federal government, saying glitches caused about 100,000 doses that were given to not be registered as being administered. The state's vaccination rate has consistently ranked as among the ...
TOPEKA — State Rep. Shannon Francis is an early-to-bed, early-to-rise guy frustrated with the necessity to flip his clock back and forth for daylight saving time and feels Congress should do something to synchronize schedules across the country. Francis is working to build support in the ...
TOPEKA (AP) — Some Kansas Republican legislators are backing a bill that would make it a felony for anyone other than a family member or caregiver to return another person’s absentee ballot. The bill is facing pushback from Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates who say the ...
Public education leaders say two bills that state legislators are considering could harm the state's school funding at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is already punching holes in school districts' budgets. One of the bills is a tax reform plan that could lower the state's revenue by more ...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas schools would be required to offer full, in-person instruction starting March 26 under a bill that was introduced Friday. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson said in news release announcing the bill that students must not continue to "languish in virtual ...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposal aimed at keeping transgender students out of girls' and women's sports is attracting enough interest in the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature to worry LGBTQ advocates. A conservative Republican lawmaker introduced the measure this week in the state ...
Topeka — The Kansas Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would greatly expand a tax credit program for private school scholarships, with Republican legislators batting away several intraparty dissenters and suggested amendments in a lengthy debate. The program that the bill would affect ...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in Kansas are making their tentative first steps toward easing visitor restrictions that were put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus, as health officials finish the first round of vaccinations. Dr. Lee ...
TOPEKA – Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday appointed Jacy J. Hurst, of Lawrence, to fill the vacancy on the Kansas Court of Appeals that was created by the elevation of former Court of Appeals Judge Melissa Standridge to the Kansas Supreme Court. Hurst is currently a partner with the law ...
TOPEKA — Kansas Rep. Mark Samsel cautioned his colleagues Thursday in a speech on the House floor about the dangers of criminalizing “a routine act” between a husband and wife. Current Kansas law shields spouses from prosecution for sexual battery. House Bill 2120 would make it a crime ...
A vote will be required for the Kansas Board of Regents to allow the University of Kansas an extension for submitting a framework to use a controversial new policy, according to the board's spokesperson. Last week, KU’s provost Barbara Bichelmeyer announced that KU would be asking the ...
Two bills pending in the Kansas Legislature would slim down penalties for minor drug crimes. Supporters of the lighter sentences contend the changes would give Kansas more reasonable drug laws and carve away at the state’s prison population. Opponents told a Kansas House committee this week ...
TOPEKA — Sen. Renee Erickson is advocating passage of a bill by the Kansas Legislature to forbid individuals declared male at birth who later transitioned to female from participating in women’s sports programs at the elementary, high school and college levels. Erickson, a Wichita ...
TOPEKA — Wichita restaurant owner John Arnold says it is difficult to avoid feeling vilified by government restrictions placed on businesses in the interest of public health. The pandemic treated his industry differently, Arnold explained to lawmakers during a hearing Tuesday in the House. ...
MISSION — Kansas school districts are rushing to vaccinate their teachers in preparation for an eventual return to a full reopening of classrooms and before a more contagious strain of the coronavirus can spread throughout the state. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly told leaders of the ...
TOPEKA (AP) — A House committee has advanced a bill to expand Kansas' recognition of other states' concealed carry permits. The bill is backed by Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who said in a hearing last month that the bill would help the state maintain reciprocity agreements ...
TOPEKA (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kansas are struggling to contain their impulses to slash state income taxes, conjuring memories of a past, nationally notorious GOP tax-cutting experiment as they try to enact some reductions over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's objections. Some ...