Kansas Lawmakers Botched the Drafting of a New Anti-Trans Law, Agency Attorney Says
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators botched the drafting of a new law aimed at preventing transgender people from changing how their sex is listed on their driver's licenses, a state agency's lawyer argued in a court filing made public Tuesday.
The attorney in Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's administration made that argument in asking a state court judge to lift an order barring such changes because of a lawsuit filed by Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach. Five transgender Kansas residents also want the order revoked, arguing in their own court filings that their constitutional rights are being violated.
Kelly announced last month that the state would continue changing transgender people's driver's licenses to reflect their gender identities, despite an new anti-transgender rights law that took effect July 1. If Kobach's lawsuit is successful, Kansas would become one of the few states that don’t allow such changes.
“It is a poorly written law,” said Adam Kellogg, a 20-year-old University of Kansas student, one of the five transgender people, who are seeking to intervene in Kobach's lawsuit. “It was meant to be hateful.”
Kansas Department of Revenue attorney Ted Smith argued that the new law conflicts with another governing what appears on driver's licenses. The department's motor vehicles division issues driver's licenses, and Smith said the division still must follow the older law because it applies specifically to driver's licenses. The new law does not mention them.
Kobach filed a lawsuit in state court on Friday against the department's head and the motor vehicles division's director.
District Judge Teresa Watson issued an order Monday directing the state to stop allowing such changes, acting at Kobach's request and without a hearing. The order expires July 24, though the judge could extend it. Smith's filing, dated Monday, asked Watson to rescind her order, and she set a Zoom hearing for Wednesday.
“There is a remedy available to the Legislature," Smith wrote in his filing, saying lawmakers can consider changing the driver's license law next year. They have adjourned for this year.
The Department of Revenue says more than 500 people have changed the sex listing on their driver's licenses since July 2019, including 172 last month alone.
The new Kansas law defines male and female based on the sex assigned a person at birth for “any” other law or state regulation — preventing legal recognition for transgender people’s gender identities. It was part of a wave of anti-transgender legislation in Republican-led statehouses across the U.S., and the GOP-controlled Legislature enacted it over Kelly's veto.
The Kansas driver’s license law says each application for a license must include a person’s “gender,” even though the listing on the license is “sex.” Smith says that language has been in place since 2007 and was clarified by a 2011 policy that Smith himself outlined in a memo to driver’s license examiners.
Two states that don’t allow changes for transgender people, Montana and Tennessee, have specific provisions regarding driver’s licenses.
But Kellogg and the other four transgender people argue that prohibiting driver's license changes violates their right to bodily autonomy. The Kansas Supreme Court declared in a 2019 decision protecting abortion access that the state's Bill of Rights grants such a right.
“Kansans expect the State of Kansas, and the Attorney General, to protect them, not persecute them,” ACLU attorneys wrote at the start of a court filing Tuesday.
Kobach said last month that the new law not only prevents changes in the sex listings for driver's licenses but also requires the state to undo previous changes in its records. He said in a memo filed with Watson on Friday in Shawnee County, home to the state capital of Topeka, that a license must list “a person's sex at birth, not some other self-chosen identifier.”
He said the motor vehicles division is refusing to comply with the new law and, "The Division is open about its refusal.”
The new Kansas law borrows language from a proposal from several national anti-transgender organizations. Smith said the language was not “tailored to the specifics of Kansas law" and didn't address the “historical use of ‘gender’ as an identity marker for driver's licenses.”
Kobach said the new law also applies to birth certificates, but the settlement of a 2018 federal lawsuit over a previous no-changes policy requires the state to allow changes in those documents. A federal judge's order enforcing it remains in effect. More than 900 people have changed their birth certificates since July 2019, the state says.
-(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."
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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Exonerated Kansas Man Files Another Suit for Compensation
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – A northeast Kansas man who spent 15 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit is requesting $24 million to $48 million dollars in compensatory damages from the four remaining defendants in a lawsuit he is pursuing. KSNT TV reports that Floyd Bledsoe is also requesting that the three defendants, which include an attorney and two former Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, be required to pay punitive damages of $100,000 each for allegedly showing malice and/or reckless indifference to his constitutional rights. In April, Jefferson County commissioners approved a $7.5 million settlement with Bledsoe, who was convicted of the 1999 killing and rape of 14-year-old Camille Arfmann, of Oskaloosa. He was released from prison in late 2015 after DNA evidence linked his father and brother to the crime and showed he could not have been the killer.
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76-Year-Old Woman Sues Kansas Hospital, Saying Man Sexually Assaulted Her There
UNDATED (AP) – A man has been charged with rape and other crimes in a series of sexual assaults on patients in a Kansas hospital, and a 76-year-old woman who says she was among his victims has blamed negligence and carelessness by the facility.
The woman filed a lawsuit Monday against Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Wichita seeking in excess of $75,000.
Miguel Rodela, 28, was charged last month with multiple counts of rape, attempted rape and battery, and is jailed on $250,000 bond. Rodela, who was neither a patient nor a hospital employee, was apprehended in the pre-dawn hours of June 15 after fighting with security guards. His attorney in the public defender's office declined to comment.
The 76-year-old woman said she awoke around 1 a.m. that day to a man manipulating her catheter. She told police she assumed he was fixing it but noticing he was wearing no gloves or medical attire, she told him to find someone else to fix the catheter, according to the probable cause affidavit.
A nurse walked into the room, but when the man said he was a nursing student, the nurse left without questioning him. Soon after, the patient hit a call button to get the nurse to return and the man left. Security was summoned and the woman reported: “He violated me.”
The lawsuit notes that Rodela was in the patient's room for more than 20 minutes.
“No patient should ever have to face such a violation of their dignity and safety, let alone in a hospital setting," her attorney, Matt Dwyer, at Hutton & Hutton Law Firm, said in a written statement.
But that wasn't the end, court records show. The security officer had just started checking surveillance video when he was alerted to another assault on the seventh floor. A nurse technician there found Rodela embracing an 82-year-old woman, his hands under the blankets. The patient said the man had kissed her on the mouth, according to the affidavit.
Soon after that, a security officer on the sixth floor spotted Rodela on top of a 47-year-old patient, lifting up her shirt. The patient had a traumatic brain injury that rendered her unable to speak and Rodela told a nurse he was her relative, although she was skeptical, according to the affidavit.
Under questioning, Rodela told police he had been drinking and having sexual fantasies about hospitalized patients. He said he entered the hospital through a door behind an employee, and that he came into contact with at least three patient. He said he rubbed and kissed them until they woke up, the affidavit said.
The hospital said in a written statement that it is reviewing its security procedures but declined to comment on the litigation.
The lawsuit notes that unionized nurses from the hospital held a one-day strike less than two weeks after the sexual assaults, identifying safety as one of their main concerns.
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Fossilized Skeletons of Aerial and Aquatic Predators to Be Auctioned by Sotheby's
NEW YORK (AP) — The fossilized skeletons of an aerial predator with a 20-foot wingspan and an aquatic reptile with a snake-like neck will be auctioned in New York this month, Sotheby's announced Tuesday. The two creatures, both tens of millions of years old, will be sold July 26 in the latest sale of prehistoric fossils from the auction house that launched a new era of fossil auctions by selling a Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue in 1997.
“More than 25 years since the groundbreaking sale of Sue the T. rex at Sotheby’s, we are very excited to now turn our attention to its predatory peers of the sky and the sea," Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby's head of science and popular culture, said.
The mounted skeletons that will be auctioned this month are a pteranodon, a huge bird-like animal that lived about 85 million years ago, and a plesiosaur, an 11-foot marine reptile of the type that is thought to have inspired the legend of the Loch Ness monster. The pteranodon specimen, nicknamed Horus after the falcon-headed Egyptian god, was discovered in 2002 in Kansas in what was once an inland sea that divided the continent of North America during the Cretaceous Period, Sotheby's said. One of the largest winged creatures that ever lived, the pteranodon flew over water and used its long beak to fish for prey. Almost all of the specimen's original fossil bones have been preserved, Sotheby's said.
“To get something of this size with the level of preservation is incredibly rare,” Hatton said. “Generally, if you go to a museum and you find a specimen that’s super well preserved, it’s going to be something on the smaller side.”
Sotheby's is estimating that the pteranodon will sell for $4 million to $6 million. The 11-foot-long plesiosaur was discovered in the 1990s in Gloucestershire, England and is believed to have lived about 190 million years ago. According to Sotheby's, many have drawn comparisons between plesiosaurs and the Loch Ness monster of Scottish folklore, as the plesiosaur's long neck, small head and flippers mirror recorded descriptions of the fabled monster. Sotheby's is calling its specimen Nessie. The estimated auction price is $600,000 to $800,000.
Sotheby's has not identified the seller of either fossil.
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Overland Park Tops New List of Best Cities for Renters
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) – If you are renting a house or an apartment in Overland Park, a new study shows that you’re probably getting a pretty good deal. The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report Tuesday on this year’s Best & Worst Places to Rent in America and Overland Park is in the number one spot. The study compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators including rental affordability, vacancy rates, cost of living, and quality of life. Scottsdale, Arizona, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Bismarck, North Dakota are among the cities joining Overland Park in the top five. Many of the cities at the bottom of the list for renters, are in the nation’s rust belt, including Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. Several southern cities such as Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi also ranked in the bottom five. Rental prices in the U.S. saw a 6.2% year-over-year increase last year, the second highest in several decades.
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Kansas Law Enforcement Cracking Down on Fentanyl Distribution
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Last month the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Attorney General’s office announced a new task force aimed at cracking down on fentanyl distribution in the state. But drug policy experts say enforcement efforts don’t address the root issue of the rising number of overdose deaths. Instead they say efforts to combat fentanyl should be focused on treatment and prevention. Matt Sutton is with the Drug Policy Alliance. “As long as we continue with that approach of supply-side interdiction and increased enforcement, we will continue to see a more dangerous drug supply,” Sutton said. “We will continue to see more overdoses.” The attorney general’s office says new enforcement efforts will be more difficult for drug dealers and smugglers to evade. Attorney General Kris Kobach would not elaborate on what those new enforcement measures would look like. He says he plans to make an announcement later this month.
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Kansas Wildlife Commissioners Consider Restricting Game Baiting
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas wildlife commissioners are exploring whether to restrict hunters from setting out bait to lure deer and other game. Most Midwestern states ban or limit baiting. Among 13 Midwestern states, only Kansas allows unregulated baiting of animals such as deer for hunting, photography and viewing on private land. Other states either ban baiting or limit its use. Some states took action because an illness similar to Mad Cow Disease is spreading among deer. Bait causes animals to gather in large groups, where disease spreads more easily than it otherwise would. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks will hold town-hall meetings to gather feedback on possible regulations. The proposal is expected to draw opposition from landowners who cater to tourists visiting the state to hunt or photograph wildlife.
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New Crime Statistics Show Violent and Property Crimes Declining
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says Kansans reported fewer violent crimes and property crimes in 2022. Reports of violent crime also fell by 4% in the state last year. Kansans also reported 10% fewer property crimes in 2022. That means property crime reports are at their lowest in 50 years. The KBI says the number of violent crime reports had been steadily rising from 2014 through 2020. But it has now decreased two years in a row. The new report also shows that more than 160 murders were recorded in Kansas last year. Domestic violence was blamed for 1 in 5 of those murders.
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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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KU Athletics Announces Date for “Late Night in the Phog”
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KSNT) – University of Kansas Athletics has announced the date for its pre-season tradition, the annual Late Night in the Phog. Basketball fans will return to Allen Fieldhouse on October 6 for the 39th annual event. KSNT TV reports that this year’s party will feature entertainment by the KU pep band as well as routines from KU’s spirit squad and dance teams. Fans will also be invited to participate in several activities with both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. A musical performance by an, as yet, unnamed entertainer will cap the evening. Past performances at the Late Night event have included Run-DMC and Snoop Dogg. Officials at Kansas Athletics say they will release more details later. Late Night in the Phog began in 1985 under former head basketball coach Larry Brown.
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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.