GOP elections chief in Kansas decries 'horrible environment'

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent Herman Jones, who has been sued for sexual harassment and retaliation, will retire in July, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday. The governor also said Adjutant General David Weishar, who leads the Kansas National Guard and is the state's emergency management director,...

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly outlined for Kansas Farm Bureau members Tuesday the administration’s rural policy agenda by emphasizing a commitment to securing a water supply to sustain agriculture production without imposition of government mandates. “If we want family farms to be passed on to the next generation,...

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Though the Insight Women’s Center sits at the epicenter of a reinvigorated battle in the nation’s culture wars, the only hint of its faith-based mission to dissuade people from getting abortions is the jazzy, piano rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” playing in a waiting room.

Last week, the Senate standing committees continued to hold hearings and bring forward legislation. Over 440 bills have been introduced in both Chambers. Senate Ways and Means Committee is starting to work the budget bill with subcommittee meetings to report to the full committee in a few weeks as well as standing committees preparing to send bills out to the Senate floor for debate and votes.

TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to Walgreens’ leadership urging the retail pharmacy to follow Kansas law on mail-order abortifacients. In the letter to Danielle Gray, Walgreens Executive Vice President, Kobach wrote that the company’s recently announced plan to provide abortion pills to Kansans via mail-order is illegal under federal and state law.

Attention Senior Citizens and Disabled Veterans: Property Tax Relief. During the 2022 session, there were several changes to tax law. One change is the first step in a property tax freeze for low-income seniors and disabled veterans via a rebate program administered by the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR). Applications...

TOPEKA — Buhler teacher Sam Neill worked late into the night Sunday, Jan. 29, networking with fellow teachers to sculpt a testimony that would adequately describe the issues educators are facing statewide. After making the two and half hour drive into Topeka to give lawmakers her opinion on educational...

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of killing his live-in girlfriend and her three young children was executed Tuesday despite his claims that he was in another state when the killings occurred. Raheem Taylor, 58, was the third Missouri inmate put to death since November at...

The 2022 Kansas Performance Tests with Corn and Grain Sorghum Hybrids and Soybean Varieties report is now online and in print form. In these crop specific reports, you will find a review of the 2022 corn, grain sorghum and soybean crop, with a detailed discussion summarizing the statewide growing conditions and impacts from diseases and insects for each crop respectively. More importantly, the results of the 2022 corn, grain sorghum hybrid and soybean varieties performance tests are also shown. Corn, sorghum and soybean performance tests are conducted each year by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. The results from these tests provide producers, extension agents, and industry professionals with unbiased agronomic information on many of the corn, sorghum hybrids and soybean varieties marketed in Kansas.

TOPEKA — Rep. Heather Meyer is familiar with the battle between lifesaving medication and crippling medical debt. Meyer, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 12, grew up with a single father who also had type 1 diabetes. With finances tight and health insurance unaffordable, the two had to ration bottles of insulin, reuse syringes and go without proper testing equipment, trying to gauge their blood sugar levels based on how they were feeling.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court must arbitrate conflict sparked by a cunning Kansas regulatory maneuver to expand concentrated swine feeding operations and the response of an environmental organization claiming state regulators embraced legal fiction to weaken surface water protections. The Sierra Club won a lawsuit four years ago...

TOPEKA — A new finance bill would buy back bonds used to inject much-needed cash into the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System two years ago, potentially saving the state millions of dollars in future interest payments. The House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee had a Monday hearing on House...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he will not grant clemency and halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who faces lethal injection for the deaths his girlfriend and her three children. Taylor, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening at the state...

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Health reported 1,963 new coronavirus cases in Kansas from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8, for a total of 928,185 cases. The state reported 2,163 cases the previous week. On Wednesday, the state reported 26 additional COVID-19 deaths since the report on Feb. 1,...

Crude prices have dropped nearly $9 in nine trading days. The near-month Nymex contract for light sweet crude settled Friday at $73.39 per barrel, down from nearly $82 on January 24th. Kansas prices have dropped nearly $6 in the last week. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the...

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas teen injured in an accident just before 6p.m. Feb. 2 in Sedgwick County has died. The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Chevy Silverado driven by 16-year-old Wyatt Owen Sobba of Mount Hope was northbound on 267th Street West at U.S. 54. The pickup and...

Several area wrestlers are represented again this week in the latest Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association rankings released late Tuesday. The Hays High boys have four ranked. Harley Zimmerman remains No. 1 at 132, freshman Grady Lind is ranked fifth at 106, junior Elijah McCullough is sixth at 113 and senior Cyrus Vajner is sixth at 126.