-(Breaking News)-
Judge Orders Kansas to Stop Changing Driver’s Licenses for Transgender Residents
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A state court judge has ordered Kansas to stop allowing transgender people to change the listing for their sex on their driver's licenses, ahead of the first hearing in a lawsuit filed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach. Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson issued the order Monday morning, three days after Kobach sued two officials in Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's administration over her announcement that the state's motor vehicles division would continue changing driver's licenses for transgender people so that the sex listing matches their gender identities. Kobach contends that a new Kansas law, which took effect on July 1, prevents such changes and requires the state to reverse any previous changes in its records. The order will stay in effect for up two weeks, although Watson can extend it. The judge's move is significant because transgender people have been able to change their driver's licenses for four years, and almost 400 people have done so. The new Kansas law defines a person’s sex as male or female, based on the “biological reproductive system” identified at birth, applying that definition to any state law or regulation. Kelly's office has said attorneys for the Kansas Department of Revenue concluded that the practice of allowing changes by transgender people did not violate the law. Watson said allowing the motor vehicles division to keep making changes for transgender people would case “immediate and irreparable injury." In her order, Watson wrote, "Compliance with state legal requirements for identifying license holders is a public safety concern."
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-(Previous reporting)-
Kansas Attorney General Sues to Prevent Transgender People from Changing Driver's Licenses
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Republican attorney general of Kansas sued Friday to force the state to be among a few that prohibit transgender people from changing their sex on their driver's licenses and to repudiate the Democratic governor, who continues to allow such changes despite a new anti-trans law.
Attorney General Kris Kobach filed his lawsuit in state court, seeking an order to stop Governor Laura Kelly, and agencies under her control, from letting transgender people change their licenses. Kobach contends a law that took effect Saturday prevents such changes and requires the state to reverse any previous changes in its records.
Kobach has argued that the law applies in the same way to birth certificates, but the lawsuit filed Friday doesn't address those documents. The settlement of a 2018 federal lawsuit requires Kansas to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates.
“The Governor cannot pick and choose which laws she will enforce and which laws she will ignore,” reads the lawsuit, filed in state district court in Shawnee County, home to the state capital, Topeka. It seeks to force the governor to enforce the law as he sees it and names as defendants two officials who oversee driver’s licenses.
While Kelly isn’t named as a defendant, the lawsuit holds her responsible for the policy on driver’s licenses.
“Governor Kelly is faithfully executing the laws of the state and has directed her administration to as well,” spokesperson Brianna Johnson said in a statement.
Even with a raft of measures targeting transgender people in statehouses across the U.S. this year, Kansas would be atypical for not allowing them to change sex or gender markers on birth certificates, driver's licenses or either. Montana and Tennessee also have policies against changing either document, and Oklahoma has a policy against changing birth certificates.
“The state has been doing just fine,” said Adam Kellogg, a 20-year-old transgender University of Kansas student. “The fact that this is an issue now for some reason is confusing, to say the least, when there hasn’t really been a problem.”
The dispute between Kobach and Kelly highlights an odd feature of their generally conservative state's modern politics. In the past 50 years, Republicans have won every U.S. Senate race, but Democrats have won half of the governor's races with support from GOP moderates. The Legislature has anti-abortion Republican supermajorities, but a statewide vote in August 2022 decisively affirmed abortion rights.
Kelly won her first term as governor in 2018 by defeating Kobach, who was then the Kansas secretary of state. He staged a political comeback last year by winning the attorney general’s race as she captured a second term, both of them by slim margins.
More than 900 people in Kansas have changed the listing for sex on their birth certificates in the past four years. About 400 have changed their driver's licenses in that period, about four times as many a month this year as previously. The number of driver's licenses changes accelerated in May and June as LGBTQ+ rights advocates encouraged people to do it ahead of the new law.
That new law defines a person's sex as male or female, based on the “biological reproductive system” identified at birth, applying that definition to any state law or regulation. It also says that “important governmental objectives" of protecting people's privacy, health and safety justify single-sex spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
The governor's office said last week that the state health department, which handles birth certificates, and the motor vehicle division, which issues driver's licenses, would continue allowing transgender people to change the markers for sex on those documents. Her office said lawyers in her administration had concluded that doing so doesn't violate the new law. Kelly is a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and vetoed the measure, but the Legislature overrode her.
But the governor's statements about the new law are at odds with descriptions from LGBTQ+ rights advocates before the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted it over Kelly's veto. The advocates predicted that it would prevent transgender people from changing their driver's licenses and amounted to a legal “erasure” of their identities, something Kobach confirmed as the intent when he issued his legal opinion.
Kansas is also among at least 10 states with a law against transgender people using facilities in line with their gender identities, though it includes no enforcement mechanism.
“For me to go into a bathroom and not have a marker that represents who I am, I was terrified. I was afraid I was going to get accosted or harassed,” said Ty Goeke, a 37-year-old transgender Topeka resident who changed both his birth certificate and driver’s license last month. “Now that I have the correct marker, I feel much better, feel more confident."
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Governor Kelly Responds to AG Kobach’s Anti-Transgender Lawsuit
TOPEKA (KSNT) –Governor Laura Kelly is responding to Attorney General Kris Kobach’s efforts to block transgender Kansans from changing their sex on driver’s licenses or on other official documents. Republican Kansas Attorney General Kobach filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court on Friday after the Democratic Governor Kelly said she would defy his interpretation of a new law. KSNT TV reports that the Governor’s Office released a statement saying: “While the Attorney General has a well-documented record of wasteful and political lawsuits, Governor Kelly is faithfully executing the laws of the state and has directed her administration to as well. We look forward to the Kansas Department of Revenue being able to present its case in court.” The new law, SB 180, defines biological sex in areas like restrooms, locker rooms, prisons, and domestic violence centers. Kobach issued a legal opinion last week, stating that the new law would also prevent state agencies from changing gender markers on birth certificates and driver’s licenses. The new law went into effect on July 1st.
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KCC Holds Public Hearings on Evergy’s Rate Hike Request
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSAL) — The Kansas Corporation Commission will begin holding public meetings this week to discuss a proposed rate increase by the state’s largest power provider. The state’s utility regulators say the hearings will give Evergy customers an opportunity to learn more about the company’s rate increase request and to make comments before the commission. KSAL reports that Evergy is seeking an average monthly rate increase of $14.24 dollars for customers in the Evergy Central service area and $3.47 for Evergy Metro customers. The company needs approval from the Commission before it can change its rates. The first of three public hearings will be held Tuesday, July 11 at the Washburn Institute of Technology’s Conference Center in Topeka at 6 p.m. The next hearing is set for Thursday at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park. A third public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 27 at Wichita State University’s Lowe Auditorium. The Evergy Central service area includes Topeka, Lawrence, Olathe, Leavenworth, Atchison, Manhattan, Salina, Hutchinson, Emporia, Parsons, Wichita, Arkansas City, El Dorado, Newton, Fort Scott, Pittsburg and Independence, and other towns and rural areas. The Every Metro service area includes Lenexa, Overland Park and other communities near the Kansas City metro area. Find more information at the KCC website.
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Another Man Arrested in Connection with Shooting at Kansas Nightclub
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A second suspect is now in custody in connection with a mass shooting that injured nearly a dozen people earlier this month in Kansas, Wichita police announced Monday.
A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of aggravated battery and possession of a firearm by a felon. On Friday, a 19-year-old man was arrested. It wasn't immediately clear if either man has been charged. Their names have not been released. A message left with Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett wasn't immediately returned.
The shooting happened in the early hours of July 2 at City Nightz in downtown Wichita. Nine people were shot and two others were trampled in the chaos that followed. No one died.
In addition to the arrests, police are searching for a 23-year-old man believed to have been involved in the shooting. A St. Louis-area man was arrested July 3, but prosecutors later determined he fired his gun to defend himself after shots were fired by two other men at the club.
The gunshot victims — seven men and two women — ranged in age from 22 to 34, police said. The two people trampled were a 30-year-old woman and a 31-year-old male.
Wichita is a city of nearly 400,000 people, located about 200 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri.
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Audit Calls for More Training, Guidance for County Election Workers
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – A new Kansas audit calls for more training and guidance for county election workers. The audit reviewed the election policies and practices of 15 counties. These included the purchase of certified election equipment, and securing ballots when they are transferred from polling places to county offices. The audit found that elections run differently from one county to the next, and some lack strong security practices. It also found none of the counties have adequate written policies. Audit supervisor Andy Brienzo says larger counties have stronger security, and smaller counties may have less security because of inefficient guidance and a lack of resources. The audit notes that the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections in Kansas, agreed with its recommendations and some efforts to make improvements are underway.
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Kansas City Chiefs Superfan Accused in Bank Robbery and Suspected in Many More Across Central U.S.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A rabid Kansas City Chiefs fan known on Twitter as “ChiefsAholic” is accused of robbing a bank in Iowa, and federal authorities suspect he's responsible for bank and credit union robberies throughout the central U.S.
Federal prosecutors on Monday announced that 28-year-old Xaviar Michael Babudar of Overland Park, Kansas, was charged with one count of bank theft and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines. It wasn't immediately clear if Babudar had an attorney.
Babudar had a strong following on social media and often wore a full-body wolf costume to games. His Twitter handle has been taken down.
He was charged in December with robbing a credit union in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was released on bond in February but prosecutors said he removed an ankle monitor and fled until his arrest Friday near Sacramento, California.
An affidavit accuses Babudar of a robbery that netted nearly $70,000 from the Great Western Bank in Clive, Iowa, in March 2022. He's suspected in many other robberies and could face additional charges, prosecutors said.
The affidavit said Babudar traveled the Midwest and robbed banks and credit unions in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Tennessee, laundering the robbery proceeds through casinos and bank accounts. He's also suspected in two attempted credit union robberies in Minnesota.
An FBI investigation determined that Babudar purchased and redeemed more than $1 million in chips at casinos in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois between April 2022 and December 2022, the affidavit said.
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KDWP Reviews Endangered List
PRATT, Kan. (WIBW) - The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks is reviewing its list of Kansas animals that are endangered and threatened. The Department says the five-year review of wildlife is done by a seven member committee including representatives of state universities and state and federal agencies. WIBW TV reports that the state's endangered list currently includes the whooping crane, the gray bat, the cave salamander, and nineteen other species. The review is required every five years by the Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1975. At the last five-year review in 2019, the cylindrical papershell mussel was added to the endangered list and the Arkansas darter was removed from the threatened list. According to a recent survey conducted by Responsive Management, a research firm specializing in natural resources, 94% of Kansas residents agreed that the Department of Wildlife and Parks should continue to identify and protect habitats critical to threatened and endangered species.
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GHB Test Strips Now Legal for Purchase in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – It is now legal to buy test strips in Kansas that can test whether a drink has been spiked with a date rape drug. The Kansas News Service reports that GHB test strips became legal on July 1. The test strips used to be classified as drug paraphernalia. But Kansas lawmakers removed the criminal penalties earlier this year. Jessa Farmer of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence says the drugs are odorless and tasteless. But the test strips can detect the drugs. Farmer says legalizing the strips also raises the awareness of the proliferation of date rape drugs.
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Beloved Lawrence Broadcaster Hank Booth Dies at Age 77
LAWRENCE, Kan. (Lawrence Times) – Broadcaster Hank Booth has died at the age of 77. The Lawrence Times reports that Booth's death on Friday followed a sudden and unexpected illness. His voice was heard for decades in Lawrence radio broadcasts. He was inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1990, among many other industry honors and community recognitions. Booth was a board member for the Cottonwood Foundation, a founding board member of the Lawrence Schools Foundation, and supported many Lawrence-area nonprofit organizations. He broadcast Lawrence High School football games for more than 50 years, and hosted the show "According to the Record" on KLWN radio for approximately 60 years. Tributes to Booth's career and community involvement poured in across area social media accounts Friday evening.
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New Washburn Law School Building to Bear Bob Dole's Name
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR/WIBW) - Washburn University's new law school building will be named "Robert J. Dole Hall" in honor of the late Kansas senator. WIBW reports that Washburn's Board of Regents unanimously voted to name the new building after Dole, who graduated from Washburn in 1952. Construction on the building started in June 2021 and is expected to be completed at the end of July. The former law building was built after the 1966 tornado and housed Washburn's law school for more than 50 years. Mabee Library will moved into the old law school to make room for a clinical learning space for nursing students.
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City of Wichita Could Add Mold to City Housing Code Violations
WICHITA, Kan. (KMUW) – Some Wichita city council members want to add mold control to the city’s housing code this summer. The city’s building code lays out regulations for safe and healthy housing, such as adequate ventilation and plumbing. But City Council member Brandon Johnson says he frequently hears from tenants with severe mold in their apartments – and there’s nothing in the city code that addresses it. Health officials say mold can cause major respiratory issues, especially in vulnerable populations like youth and the elderly. This spring, an apartment complex in south Wichita garnered media attention after it became clear some units had severe mold. Several tenants complained of health problems.
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Royals Sign Star High School Catcher in Round of MLB Draft
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Corpus Christi Caller-Times) - The Kansas City Royals selected Blake Mitchell of Sinton High School in Sinton, Texas with the No. 8 selection in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft Sunday night. Mitchell is considered the Number 1 high school catcher in the country. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that Mitchell had committed to play for LSU but will skip college play for now and sign with the Royals immediately. He will report to the Royals’ training complex in Arizona next spring. At 6-foot-1 and 202 pounds, Mitchell posted a .451 batting average with six home runs, 42 RBIs and 61 walks this past season with Sinton. He's also a pitcher, recording 21 strikeouts in 10⅓ innings pitched. Mitchell played on the 18U U.S. National Team in 2022 and was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Texas in 2022 and 2023.
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. You can also follow KPR News on Twitter.