KDHE: Measles Outbreak Over, Keeping an Eye on West Nile Virus
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR/KDHE) — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Thursday that the measles outbreak affecting southwest Kansas has officially ended. Two full incubation periods, for a total of 42 days, have passed since the last confirmed case was reported. As of Thursday, 87 cases of measles were confirmed in the outbreak, which began in January. More than 80 percent of the cases were in children, and over 90 percent of the patients were not vaccinated against measles. Eight people were hospitalized over the course of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, state health officials continue to monitor six reported cases of West Nile virus this year. Five of the cases have been considered serious. West Nile is transmitted by mosquitoes. The mosquito season peaks in late summer, so health officials recommend using repellents when outdoors. WDAF reports Kansas recorded 64 West Nile cases last year, with the virus killing four people.
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Person Struck, Killed by Train in Lawrence
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LT) — Police are investigating after a person was struck and killed by a train in Lawrence on Thursday evening. The Lawrence Times reports it happened around 7 pm on the tracks just east of 11th Street and Haskell Avenue. More details were expected to be released later Friday.
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Billboards Targeting Campus Antisemitism Go Up in Lawrence
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KMBC) — Two new billboards calling attention to antisemitism have gone up in Lawrence. The billboards are meant to draw attention to antisemitism on college campuses. KMBC reports they were put up by a New York-based nonprofit group called JewBelong. The signs were installed along I-70 this week ahead of KU’s football season opener tomorrow night. One sign reads: “You don’t need to be a Jew to protect Jews.” The other says: “Jewish students don’t need your pity. Just your spine.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, Kansas saw a 122% increase in antisemitic incidents from 2022 to 2024.
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Kansas City-Area Teacher Admits to Producing Sexually-Explicit Videos of Children
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSHB) — A Kansas City-area elementary school teacher has admitted to producing sexually-explicit videos of minors - as recently as last month - at an area elementary school. Federal prosecutors say 28-year-old Dennis Hernandez has been charged with creating and possessing child pornography.
KSHB TV reports that Hernandez was a first-grade teacher at Fairmount Elementary School in Independence, Missouri. He was also a substitute teacher in the North Kansas City School District. According to a LinkedIn profile for Hernandez, he had been working as an educator since at least 2021 at Guadalupe Center Schools and North Kansas City in 2024.
Federal investigators conducted a search warrant Wednesday morning, after which Hernandez was arrested. During an interview with detectives, Hernandez admitted to recording minor victims who were "in his care at multiple local elementary schools and locker rooms for the past few years."
Hernandez also admitted to working as a counselor (at Camp Takajo) a summer camp for boys in Maine. He told detectives that's where his "sexual attraction" to minors began.
The North Kansas City School District distributed a letter to families Thursday, in which it said Hernandez worked at several elementary schools in the district, including Crestview, Fox Hill, Nashua and the EEC. He also worked in the summer school-age child care programs at Chapel Hill, Meadowbrook and Oakwood Manor. Meadowbrook and Chapel Hill are both in Gladstone.
The FBI is seeking to identify any potential victims of Hernandez. Anyone who has information or could be a victim is asked to call 1800-CALL-FBI.
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Report: Lawrence High School Tried to Censor Student Paper
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — The student newspaper at Lawrence High School says school officials ordered it to not report on a lawsuit filed against the school district. The lawsuit claims the district’s use of surveillance software on district computers violates students’ right to privacy. The Lawrence Journal World reports the principal at Lawrence High allegedly issued a directive to the school’s newspaper, the Budget, and its student reporters to not report on the lawsuit. The principal later lifted the ban and said the paper was free to report on the lawsuit. Kansas is one of 18 states that specifically prohibit the censorship of student journalists.
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Implementation Methods for Legislatively-Mandated Fetal Development Video in Schools Still Unclear
UNDATED (KNS) — A new law requires Kansas schools to show a three-minute video on fetal development in certain classes. But it’s unclear how schools will do it. The Kansas News Service reports that the law drew support from groups that oppose abortion and criticism from reproductive rights advocates. The law leaves it up to local school districts to decide what materials students will see and at what ages.
Randy Watson, the Kansas education commissioner, said at a Kansas State Board of Education meeting in June that local school districts might struggle with the lack of specifics in the law. “You have now truly left 286 school districts to have to come up with 286 policies, procedures, curriculum, video…” he explained. In many cases, parents will be able to opt their children in or out of watching the video.
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Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Loses Running Mate
UNDATED (KNS) — The Kansas Secretary of State’s office is dealing with something it has never seen before: a Republican candidate for governor has lost his running mate. The Kansas News Service reports that conservative podcaster Doug Billings no longer has a lieutenant governor candidate with him. April McCoy quit the campaign and accused him of pocketing a campaign donation for personal use. The Kansas Secretary of State is consulting with the state attorney general’s office to decide whether Billings needs to re-file for election. On his podcast this month, Billings denied the allegation and said running with McCoy was a mistake. “We have got someone out there with whom I could never have won...and so I think what happened is that person got angry and they began to slander and defame. That's my hunch,” he added.
McCoy has posted videos on Facebook urging people not to vote for Billings in 2026.
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KBI Ends Investigation into Athlete's Heat-Related Injury
UNDATED (KMUW) — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says it has ended its investigation into an athlete who was found unconscious after practice. KMUW reports that the athlete was a freshman cross country runner at Dodge City Community College. She was found unconscious after practice earlier this month. The KBI says she remains in serious condition at a Wichita hospital. The Ford County sheriff asked the KBI to investigate the incident. But the KBI says no criminal act occurred. The college says the practice was monitored according to the heat policy of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.
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Heat-Related Symptoms Hit Wamego High School Football Players
WAMEGO, Kan. (WIBW) — An ambulance was called last week when three Wamego High School football players showed symptoms of heat-related illnesses. School superintendent Josh Meyer told WIBW TV all three students are “fine” now. Meyer says the practice complied with state regulations allowing voluntary practices before the season. Still, he says, the practice should have been cancelled due to the heat.
The incident follows one earlier this month in which a Dodge City Community College cross-country runner collapsed during a practice, apparently from heat stroke. At last report, that student was still hospitalized.
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KU, K-State Football Fans Gear Up for Big Weekend
UNDATED (KPR/KSNT) — The University of Kansas has announced that its first football game of the season is a sellout in the rebranded David Booth Memorial Stadium. It will be KU’s first home game in Lawrence since the demolition of the west and northside seating areas in 2023. A new scoreboard has also been built on the south end zone. Besides the new amenities, KU athletics director Travis Goff says the players will have a better entrance to the field before kickoff. “We had to deal with pedestrian traffic flow and then we had a fake tunnel for the guys to walk out of” before the renovation, said Goff. “I think, unfortunately, that was a depiction of where we were for all too long.” Kickoff is set for 5:30 PM Saturday for the season opener against Fresno State.
Meanwhile, Kansas State fans are gearing up for their team’s opening game on Saturday as well. K-State will open the season against Iowa State in Dublin, Ireland. The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will be played at Aviva Stadium, which usually hosts Ireland's national rugby and soccer teams. KSNT reports some K-State fans are already in Ireland for the game. Kickoff will be at 11 AM Central Time
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Kansas Governor Urges Other Governors Not to Send State National Guard Troops to DC
UNDATED (KMUW) — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is asking other governors not to send members of their National Guard to Washington, D.C. Republican governors from several states have sent Guard members to the nation's capital in response to President Donald Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement there. KMUW reports that Kelly issued a statement in her role as chair of the Democratic Governors Association. The group represents the country's 23 Democratic governors. Kelly says the Guard deployment in Washington is politically motivated. She says the move wastes resources that could be needed for real emergencies in the future.
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Three of Four Kansas Catholic Bishops: Treat Migrants Humanely
UNDATED (Catholic Standard) — Amid ongoing immigration raids across the country, three of the four Catholic bishops in Kansas are urging public officials to “treat undocumented migrants humanely.” In a joint pastoral letter on immigration, the bishops say, “Unnecessary raids, mass detentions, and family separations betray the values of our nation and the Gospel.” The letter was reported in the Catholic Standard newspaper. Addressed to “the people of God in Kansas and to all people of good will,” the pastoral was signed by Archbishop Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, as well as the bishops of Wichita and Salina. The state’s fourth Catholic bishop, John Brungardt of Dodge City, did not sign the letter.
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Kansas Psychiatric Hospitals Work to Cope with Nursing Shortage
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) — Psychiatric hospitals in Kansas are dealing with a critical shortage of nurses, despite the state raising salaries and offering bonuses to attract staff. The Kansas News Service reports that Kansas is spending more than $60 million a year to hire contract nurses to fill vacancies at state hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie. Republican Rep. Will Carpenter chairs the Legislature’s interim health committee. He suggested moving some patients into private health care facilities to cut costs. “We’re not going to build this staff to take care of the number of people that are out there right now. We have got to shrink that population down to what we can handle,” he said. Officials say state hospitals are some of the only facilities designed to serve patients with serious mental illness, including sexually violent offenders. The state will open a new 104-bed psychiatric hospital in Wichita in 2027.
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers. Our headlines are generally published by 10 am weekdays and are updated through 7 pm. This ad-free news summary is made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on X (formerly Twitter).