More Snow Expected in Kansas Across Much of Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - Much of Kansas is getting ready for another round of snow. Several Winter Weather Advisories take effect Thursday afternoon for parts of northeast, east-central and southeast Kansas. About 1 to 3 inches of snow is expected to fall along and south of a line from Wichita to Topeka to Leavenworth and Kansas City. The Winter Weather Advisories will remain in effect through Friday morning.
Get the latest weather information from the National Weather Service in Topeka.
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Secretary of State Scott Schwab Running for Kansas Governor
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Republican Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is the first person to publicly announce his candidacy for governor in 2026. The Kansas News Service reports that the Great Bend native has served since 2018 as the state’s top election official. Before that, he served in the Kansas House of Representatives. In 2016, Schwab’s son, Caleb, died after being injured at a Kansas City water park. The park later settled in a wrongful death suit. In a video announcing his campaign, Schwab describes himself as a Christian conservative who supports traditional values. “I believe that to do something great, you have to throw off the chains that hold you back. For Kansas, those chains come from big government,” Schwab said. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly is in her second term and can’t run again. Republican Senate President Ty Masterson is widely expected to run, but he says he’s focused on the upcoming legislative session.
Schwab launched his campaign with a video posted to his website.
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GOP Wants a Constitutional Amendment to Address Rising Property Taxes
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Top Kansas Republicans say they want to amend the state constitution in an attempt to rein in rising taxes for homeowners. The Kansas News Service reports that Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson says the amendment would put a cap on appraised values used to determine property taxes. Any amendment would ultimately have to be approved by voters. “People see these rapid appraisal increases, which turn into rapid tax increases. That’s really what the state could do,” Masterson says. He also says that Kansas should eliminate a small portion of property taxes that funds state building construction and maintenance. The rest goes to local governments. Meanwhile, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly says she wants to wait at least a year before passing more tax cuts. Some lawmakers in her party are more open to the idea, though. Top Kansas Democrats say they’re open to passing tax cuts in the upcoming legislative session if they’re sustainable and benefit lower-income people in the state. Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes says the Legislature should also pass relief for people who don’t own homes.
Republican lawmakers say property tax cuts are a top priority for 2025. They will return to Topeka next week with an even stronger majority, giving them a better chance of overriding potential vetoes by the governor.
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Kansas State Senator Proposes Bill to Scrap Daylight Saving Time
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (KNS) – A Kansas lawmaker wants to ditch clock changes twice a year. The Kansas News Service reports that a bill in the Legislature would eliminate Daylight Saving Time and keep standard time year-round. The bill would place Kansas in the Central time zone in the winter and Mountain time zone in the summer. That means the sun would rise and set earlier in the summer than it does now. Republican Senator Kenny Titus, who proposed the measure, says Kansans are sick of the time changes. He says an earlier sunrise and sunset also provides health benefits. “It helps our sleep rhythm and then all the fatigue and the mental health things that sort of branch out from that,” he explained. Titus says the bill also gives Kansans a voice on a matter being discussed at the federal level. A U.S. Senate bill is proposing to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
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Open Kansas School Enrollment Begins for Next School Year
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas school districts have started accepting applications for next school year for students who live outside their boundaries. The Kansas News Service reports that the state’s new open enrollment law lets students attend schools outside the districts where they live, as long as there is space available. The application period was extended last year and is now significantly longer, says Dale Brungardt, with the Kansas Department of Education. “Those windows are open as of just last week, I guess we’d want to say, and they could go ahead and apply for those at this point,” he explained. Families have until June 15 to apply, but there’s no guarantee they will get a spot. This school year, only about 1,500 students changed districts under the open enrollment law. That’s lower than the average number who transferred before the new law was in place.
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ACLU Presenting Final Arguments in Death Penalty Hearing
UNDATED (KNS) – The American Civil Liberties Union and other law firms presented final arguments Wednesday in a legal case aimed at ending the death penalty in Kansas. The Kansas News Service reports that hearings began in October in Wyandotte County District Court. The ACLU says capital punishment is racist and unconstitutional. Staff attorney Alex Valdez says the ACLU is targeting death qualification, which is a rule that says anyone serving in a capital trial jury must believe in the death penalty as a valid punishment. “Death qualification has the potential to disproportionately exclude Black prospective jurors, or jury eligible citizens, at a rate far higher than it does at white jurors,” Valdez explained. The state argued the challenge is premature because the person the case is based on has not yet been sentenced to death.
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KC Police: Northland Father Kills Children in Murder/Suicide
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KS Star) - Police in Kansas City's Northland are investigating a murder-suicide involving a father and his two young children. The Kansas City star reports that 38-year-old Zachary Hatcher killed his children - 8-year-old Jeffrey and 6-year-old Charlotte Hatcher - last week, before taking his own life. All three were found with gunshot wounds inside a home in North Kansas City (in the 1000 block of Northwest 91st Terrace) on January 2nd.
Police, who responded to the home on a welfare check, smelled smoke and called firefighters who put out a blaze at the residence. A GoFundMe account established for the mother of the two children had raised more than $25,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
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Proposed Bill Could Allow Young Offenders to Get a New Prison Sentence After Serving 10 Years
UNDATED (KC Beacon) – Kansas inmates who broke the law when they were younger than 25 years old could be re-sentenced after serving 10 years in prison - if a proposed bill passes. Re-sentencing doesn’t guarantee someone is let out of prison. But The Beacon reports that the goal of the bill is to let young inmates prove they have matured and earned a second chance. Younger people are more impulsive and are less likely to break the law as they age, FBI data says. Kevin Steinmetz is a criminology professor at Kansas State University. He says the brain isn’t fully developed until around 25, which means youth don’t always make the best choices. “Kids are thrill-seeking and unfortunately a lot of crime is fun, and we are not thinking about the consequences of that as we do it,” he explained. The 2025 Legislative session starts next week.
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Monarch Butterflies Could Receive Federal Endangered Species Protection
UNDATED (HPM) – The monarch butterfly could soon get federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. Harvest Public Media reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments on its proposal until March. Monarchs, like many other pollinators, have seen a drastic drop in numbers because of climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use. The proposal would add protected habitat in California for the butterfly’s western population. Will Meeks, Midwest regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the comments the agency receives will help to shape the proposal. “Specifically, when it comes to some of the best management practices with pesticide and herbicide use to conserve the species. We know we have to have voluntary, incentive based conservation practices that involve private landowners,” he added. The proposal is the result of a 2014 petition to list the species as threatened. (Read more.)
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Milken National Educator Prize Awarded to Southeast Kansas Teacher
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – A teacher in southeast Kansas has received one of the nation’s top prizes for educators. Meredith Reid is a vocal music teacher at Girard Middle and High School near Pittsburg. She was named a Milken National Educator in a surprise ceremony at the school Wednesday. When Reid was a student in Girard, there was no choral music program at the school. She returned to her alma mater as a teacher and restarted the program, which now produces an award-winning choir. She says music education should be available in every district, adding that she feels strongly that students in a rural area should miss out on opportunities to be in a high-caliber musical ensemble just because they're not a big city.
The award is an initiative of the Milken Family Foundation and comes with a $25,000 prize.
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A Place for Dogs to Sniff: Rental Options Becoming Available Across Kansas
NEWTOWN, Kan. (KNS) - More than 40% of Kansas households have a dog, but not everyone has a place where their pets can run free, explore and burn off energy. A website called Sniffspot.com lets people rent their backyards or other spaces by the hour as puppy playgrounds. The Kansas News Service reports that Sniffspot is matching landowners with dog owners to create a network of private dog parks. (Read more.)
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Snow Drift Traps Kansas Woman Inside Her Home
ROBINSON, Kan. (FOX Weather) - Many Kansas communities received a foot or more of snow during the weekend blizzard. But the snow storm that moved through northeast Kansas Sunday literally trapped one woman inside her home, blocking her doors shut. The FOX Weather Channel reports that snow drifts - several feet high - piled up against the door of a woman in Robinson, a small town in Brown County. The snow drifts were so deep that homeowner Judy Bearce couldn't get out until she was eventually rescued by family members. Bearch says she was fine and had stocked up on plenty of provisions.
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