By Morgan Chilson TOPEKA — Kansas weather lived up to its tempestuous reputation Wednesday as the dregs of Hurricane Polo launched more than a dozen tornadoes throughout the state. “Kansas dished out tornadoes like Santa handing out candy canes,” wrote one storm chaser who posts online as Kansas Twisters. “No idea how many there were, but I was blessed to see 10-15 today.” Accuweather reported that about 12 tornadoes touched down, but the severe weather created dozens of additional funnels. On Thursday, heavy rains resulted in flood watches. Recent weather has been unusual, with an “incredible run” of above normal…
Author: Kansas Reflector
By Ana Kaminski TOPEKA — Lawyers for a Kansas Republican U.S. senator running for reelection sent his opponent a cease-and-desist letter demanding the Democrat stop airing an ad featuring one of the senator’s former patients. The lawyers for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said in a Monday letter that the Rev. Adam Hamilton’s campaign had published and distributed ads about Marshall’s medical debt collection practices that were “defamatory.” The ad begins with Meischa Zimmerman, who said she was arrested while eight months pregnant for missing a $50 payment to Marshall. She was paying roughly $50 a month to account for…
By Anna Kaminski TOPEKA — Kansas politicians urged federal immigration enforcement officials to coordinate with local law enforcement following reports of indiscriminate stops on southwest Kansas streets, causing business delays and warnings from schools. Republican U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall said Wednesday they both were in contact with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after southwest Kansas law enforcement agencies said they didn’t know about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and residents reported people being stopped at random. “When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall said in a post…
TOPEKA — Former Ness County school superintendent Jeff Jones has been charged with 19 felonies and misdemeanors, including multiple financial crimes and two felonies involving a minor. Jones, superintendent of USD 106 in south-central Kansas, was arrested in August. Official charges filed Friday range from theft valued between $25,000 and $100,000 to misuse of public funds and making or participating in prohibited contracts. The two charges involving a minor are aggravated intimidation of a witness or victim and contributing to a child’s misconduct or deprivation. The second charge means to “unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly” encourage a child to commit an…
By Morgan Chilson TOPEKA — The company building a nuclear reactor one mile underground in Parsons made its federally approved safety report available to the public Monday. The U.S. Department of Energy approved Deep Fission Inc.’s safety design for its Gravity nuclear reactor in July. The company publicly shared the report, with only a few small redactions that relate to security, a news release said. “We’re publishing our full (Nuclear Safety Design Agreement) because we think the public deserves to see the actual safety case behind this reactor, not just our word that DOE reviewed one,” said Liz Muller, CEO…
By Morgan Chilson TOPEKA — State health authorities warned Kansans to be aware of an increase in encounters with animals that carry rabies, primarily bats. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued an advisory Tuesday urging health care providers to be aware of the importance of administering a rabies risk assessment because of increases in rabid animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a similar advisory last week because many areas nationwide are reporting increased exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals. “Several high-profile rabies outbreaks and mass rabies exposure events have highlighted the importance of performing careful rabies…
By Morgan Chilson HUTCHINSON — Rep. Brooklynne Mosley stepped into the Prairie Pavilion arena at the Kansas State Fair Saturday, leading a heifer around the ring while smiling broadly Mosley, a Lawrence Democrat, had never spent time with cattle until she began working with two 4-H participants, Genayla Warnken of Manhattan and Makenzie Fishburn of Lawrence to learn about how to show a halter-broken heifer. Mosley and four other Kansas legislators were participants in the annual Legislative Showmanship competition. “This is the closest I’ve ever been to cattle in my whole life,” Mosley said. “I was really looking forward to…
By Anna Kaminksi OLATHE — Vice President JD Vance on Monday vouched for Kansas Republicans running for the U.S. Senate and the governor’s office, bucking Democrats who want to regain control of Congress in November. Federal and state Republicans signaled they need more Kansans on their side, encouraging the hundreds of attendees of a rally at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe “to find 10 friends” and convince them to vote Republican, or as Kansas’ GOP Party chair Danedri Herbert said it: “We need every single one of you.” Top Kansas GOP leaders joined the vice president to campaign for U.S. Sen.…
by Sherman Smith HUTCHINSON — Candidates for governor engaged in a veritable bare-knuckle brawl when they took the stage Saturday at the Kansas State Fair for a debate punctuated by the chants and jeers of an enthusiastic crowd of dueling supporters. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee, and state Sen. Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee, largely sidestepped pointed questions from a news media panel as they argued over who was more extreme and how to make life affordable for state residents. The crowd that filled the Heartland Credit Union Pavilion at times drowned out the candidates. Holscher supporters…
Majority of board rejects recommendation for revocation of state license By Tim Carpenter TOPEKA — The Kansas State Board of Education rejected conclusions of child abuse investigators, a professional practice commission and attorneys with the Department of Education to protect the teaching license of a mother accused of physically abusing her son. The incident prompting regulatory intervention occurred in December 2022 at the Child Development Center on McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita. The center’s staff called the mother, who held a Kansas teaching license since 2020, to the school because her preschool-age son was throwing objects at a teacher.…