Story updated at 6:11 p.m. Wednesday TOPEKA — Kansas' governor plans to merge a state agency that has been under fire in recent years over abused children's deaths with another social services department in the hopes that the state will focus more on preventing problems within potentially ...
TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court plans to swear in a new justice Jan. 24. Evelyn Wilson is set to take her seat on the seven-member high court a little more than a month after Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wilson's appointment. The court is planning to convene a special session at 2 p.m. in ...
TOPEKA — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s declaration Tuesday that he won’t run for Senate in Kansas returned some Republicans to worrying that they can’t block a polarizing conservative from winning the GOP nomination and putting the seat in play. Pompeo’s decision to remain as the ...
TOPEKA — The rise of protests at the Statehouse has exposed a complex landscape where rules diverge from one floor to the next and sanctions are inconsistently applied by law enforcement. Republican leaders in the Legislature, the Democratic governor’s administration and Capitol Police ...
TOPEKA — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly proposed Monday that Kansas give itself more breathing room in its budget by slashing annual payments to its pension system for teachers and government workers, offering a new version of a plan that the Republican-controlled Legislature spiked last ...
Story updated at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that he'll remain in his post as the country's top diplomat, forgoing a run for Senate from Kansas that many Republicans have seen as the party's best hope of retaining what should be a guaranteed ...
TOPEKA — The longest serving judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals announced on Monday that he will retire on April 3. Judge G. Joseph Pierron Jr., 72, has written 392 published opinions and heard thousands of appeals since he joined the state's second highest court in December 1990, the ...
City leaders will consider adding five issues to their list of legislative priorities, including support for a measure that would effectively freeze property tax rates for low-income seniors and a measure that would provide rebates for sales tax charged on groceries to low-income residents. ...
The State Library of Kansas is reminding residents that information about the 2020 Kansas Legislature is only a phone call or a chat away. Since the 1970s, the library has offered a legislative hotline that Kansas residents can call to ask about the status of bills and the legislative ...
TOPEKA — The Democratic mayor of Topeka has kicked off a campaign to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Steve Watkins. Michelle De La Isla told The Topeka Capital-Journal that she would concentrate on access to health care, job creation and infrastructure in advance of her formal ...
Kansas educators want lawmakers to act on health care, vaping and college credits when the Legislature convenes later this month. For more than a decade, the school funding battle has dominated any conversation about education in Topeka. But with a school funding plan in place, educators are ...
Rep. Mike Amyx has been appointed to the Kansas Legislature's higher education budget committee, according to a press release this week from Speaker of the House Ron Ryckman Jr. Amyx, D-Lawrence, said he was looking forward to serving on the committee but that it would be “a lot of learning, ...
TOPEKA — Kansas' top law enforcement official says boosting spending on services for the mentally ill and treating substance abuse is crucial to reforming the state's criminal justice system. Attorney General Derek Schmidt contends extra funding for such services, particularly in rural ...
Seventeen organizations in Douglas County failed state health code inspections in December. Each month, I take a look at inspection results and list every place either listed out of compliance or with 10 or more code violations. Full reports are available online at agriculture.ks.gov. There, ...
TOPEKA — Republicans in two Midwestern states where GOP-controlled legislatures have gun-rights majorities are proposing measures aimed at preventing the U.S. government or other states from taking guns away from residents whom the courts deem a danger to themselves. Neither Oklahoma nor ...
Nine years ago, Sen. Tom Holland purchased a 100th anniversary 2003 Softail Standard Harley-Davidson. It wasn’t a mid-life crisis purchase, the 58-year-old Democrat said. “It was a post-campaign crisis.” “I bought it right after Sam Brownback kicked my butt when I ran against him for ...
State Rep. Dennis “Boog” Highberger is not currently willing to sponsor three bills drafted by a student group from the University of Kansas regarding greater transparency in higher education, but said he will introduce them to the Legislature on behalf of the students. “This is ...
TOPEKA — Kansas is allowing some residents seeking to get or renew a driver's license to schedule appointments so that they can avoid a tedious wait in line. The Division of Vehicles in the Kansas Department of Revenue recently expanded the program to an additional nine offices in populous ...
TOPEKA — The Kansas officials whose offices register charities and enforce anti-fraud laws separately want the Legislature to give both duties to one agency. Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Secretary of State Scott Schwab are jointly proposing to have the Consumer Protection Division in ...
Topeka’s mayor might run for Kansas’ 2nd District seat in Congress, according to Lawrence-area legislators and news organizations in Topeka. The mayor, Michelle De La Isla, would be the only Democrat running for the spot in the 2020 race. Previously, Abbie Hodgson, of Lawrence, filed to ...