While over 80% of the land area across Kansas qualifies as rural, the population of our state, which is mostly concentrated in about 10 of the state’s 105 counties, is increasingly urban, something which geographers and political leaders and others have been aware of for decades. This ...

Wildly popular with consumers, recycling in the U.S. is in crisis right now, particularly for plastics. Many of the items we try to recycle end up in landfills. A recent KAKE news project tracked the recycling crisis, literally. KAKE staff attached GPS trackers to four different plastic ...

According to data published by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an affiliate of the Pew Research Center, Kansas ranks dead last in the country on the share of state revenue that comes from federal funds. Across the country, the percentage of state revenue from federal funds ranges from about a ...

In a few days, voters across Kansas will choose members of their city’s governing councils. In some cases they’ll also be voting for mayors; when they aren’t, it’s because their city elected a mayor during the previous odd-year cycle, or because the mayor is chosen from among those ...

The Kansas economy is doing well by many measures. So why do so many Kansans think otherwise? To paraphrase James Carville: It’s housing costs, stupid. Just released from the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University, the 2023 Kansas Speaks poll details the story. ...

Last month WalletHub released its list of “Best and Worst Cities for Women,” ranking 182 large cities across the country. Two Kansas cities — Wichita and Overland Park — made the rankings along with Kansas City, Missouri, though their positions couldn’t be more ...