Kansas Promised State Employees a Pay Raise, but the Cost Could Shut Down State Agencies
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — A plan to give a raise to all state employees in Kansas will cost more than expected. So, lawmakers will need to quickly address the issue early next year. If they don't, some state agencies may be forced to shut down or suspend services. The plan was to give most state employees a 5% raise. Turn out that will cost about $11 million more than the Kansas Legislature approved. That may seem small compared to the multi-billion-dollar state budget, but it might create cash flow problems for some government agencies. The extra cost means state agencies will have to pay for the raises themselves. That could make things difficult in the latter half of the 2024 fiscal year — next spring — if lawmakers wait too long to reimburse those costs. The raises to state employees are based on a workforce study that showed most Kansas government workers were paid below average market rates. (Read more.)
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Kansas Gets Good Rating for Public Health Emergency Preparedness
UNDATED (KNS) — Kansas is relatively well-prepared to respond to public health emergencies, but still needs to improve hospital safety and flu vaccination rates. Those are some of the findings from a recent report by the nonprofit group Trust for America’s Health. Michael McNulty, emergency management director for the Kansas health department, says the state continues to work on outreach to the public on ways to fight disease outbreaks. “A lot of it is in education. We really want to try to educate folks on the availability of vaccines, so that they can make informed decisions about vaccinating themselves and/or their family members," he said. The report studied how well states are prepared for diseases and natural disasters. This year’s report placed 19 states and the District of Columbia in the high-performance tier. Kansas was among those in the high-performance tier.
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Kansas Doctors Warn of Cancer Drug Shortage
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) — A national shortage of cancer drugs is forcing some Kansas doctors to ration medication. The Kansas News Service reports that supply chain issues have squeezed supplies of more than a dozen chemotherapy drugs. The shortage is hurting treatment for breast, bladder and gynecological cancers. Kyla Bidne, an oncology pharmacist at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission Cancer Center, says its drug shipments are sporadic, and doctors are cutting patients’ chemo doses by up to 10% to stretch supplies. “I lose sleep over this," she said. "These drugs are part of so many different cancer treatments, so it’s a very dire shortage.” She says doctors could need to delay some treatments if the problem continues.
Bidne says the shortage is the worst she’s seen in her 20 years as an oncology pharmacist. “One of the biggest issues is we really don’t know from day to day when we’re going to receive a drug or if we’re going to receive drug, so we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best," she said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering temporarily importing drugs from unauthorized overseas manufacturers to help mitigate the shortage. (Read more.)
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KU Med Hopes New Center Will Improve Health Outcomes for Black Community
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KNS) — The University of Kansas Medical Center is launching a new center to help improve health outcomes in Black and African American communities. The Center for African American Health will focus on community engagement, research, policy advocacy and developing a diverse health care workforce. The Kansas News Service reports that KU will open two locations where the center will conduct its work, one in Sedgwick County and another in Wyandotte County. Michelle Redmond is with the KU Medical Center in Wichita. She says one goal is reducing health inequities for marginalized communities. “They have significant disparities in infant mortality, low birth weight, they also have lower life expectancy when we look at Black and African American residents," Redmon said. The center will research structural and environmental barriers to healthcare in Black communities and will study racism as a public health issue. “We want to enhance and improve the health and wellness of Black and African Americans who live in Kansas and beyond," Redmond said. The center is expected to launch July 1st.
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Parts of Midwest Threatened by "Flash Droughts"
UNDATED (HPM) — Preliminary research from a team of meteorologists has found that something known as a “flash drought” is beginning to spread across the Midwest. Harvest Public Media reports this type of abrupt dryness could get more common with climate change. The new study predicts that by the end of the century, North America could have a 49% annual risk of experiencing a flash drought. That’s up from 32% a few years ago. Jeffrey Basara, with the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology, was on the research team. He says that’s cause for concern, since flash droughts can be even more damaging than a long dry spell. “Instead of something that takes place over six months, or 12 months, these are events that happen over three to six weeks," he said. "And really, because they have rapid developments, they can catch people by surprise.” In the past, flash droughts have destroyed billions of dollars of crops, zapped water sources and led to deadly heat waves.
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Partnership Announced for Kansas Medicaid Contract Renewals
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — Kansas health advocacy groups have announced a partnership with insurance company CareSource to compete for one of the three Kansas Medicaid contracts that are up for renewal. Group members say the alliance will transform the Medicaid system by including advocates in decisions and operations. Matt Fletcher works for InterHab, a group working with people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. He says the alliance will not hurt the organization's relationship with other KanCare contractors. “We want this to be additive, and something that is positive in our state," he said. The state will request bids later this year for managing Medicaid starting in 2025.
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Leavenworth DA Seeks Death Penalty for Man Accused of Killing His Two Sons
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (KCTV) — The Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office will seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing his two sons in 2020. KCTV reports that 43-year-old Donald Jackson Jr. is charged with capital murder for allegedly killing 14-year-old Logan Jackson and 12-year-old Austin Jackson. Sheriff's deputies found the two boys dead at a home in Leavenworth. Deputies then realized that Donald Jackson Jr. and his two daughters were missing. An Amber Alert was issued and Jackson was later arrested in Erick, Oklahoma. In court Wednesday, his attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Jackson’s next hearing is scheduled for October 30.
(– Additional Reporting –)
Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty Against Kansas Man Accused of Killing Two Sons
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Leavenworth man accused of killing his two sons before fleeing to Oklahoma with his two young daughters could face the death penalty if he is convicted. Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said Wednesday he will seek the death penalty against Donald Ray Jackson Jr., 43, who was charged with capital murder in his sons' death. Jackson stood silent for his arraignment on Wednesday and a not guilty plea was entered for him, Thompson said in a statement. At the hearing, Jackson’s defense team announced it is unlikely to be ready to face a jury until 2025. Jackson has been jailed in Leavenworth County since November 2020. Prosecutors allege he shot his sons — 12-year-old Austin and 14-year-old Logan — at their home in rural Leavenworth on Oct. 24, 2020. The boys' bodies were found after Jackson and his sons didn't show up for a soccer game. An Amber Alert was issued for Jackson and his two daughters, ages 3 and 7. Jackson was stopped hours later in Beckham County, Oklahoma, with the two girls inside his car.
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Former Kansas Choir Director Sentenced for Secret Video Recording
OLATHE, Kan. (KSHB) — The former choir director at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for secretly recording students while they were changing clothes. Forty-seven-year-old Joseph Heidesh was convicted earlier of 25 counts of breach of privacy and sexual exploitation of a child. KSHB TV reports that Heidesh was sentenced Wednesday in Johnson County District Court to five years and eight months in jail. The surreptitious video recordings were allegedly made between 2019 and 2021. At least one of the recordings was of a person under age 14. Several of Heidesh’s victims spoke at his sentencing hearing before the judge imposed the maximum sentence. Heidesch blamed a mental-health disorder and pornography addiction for his actions.
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KU Health System Urges Parents to Vaccinate Kids
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KNS) — University of Kansas Health System experts are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated as a new analysis finds COVID-19 caused kids to miss millions of school days across the country. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that kids missed more than five million days of school that could have been prevented by COVID vaccine boosters. KU Health System infectious disease specialist Dr. Dana Hawkinson says he hopes the study proves the importance to parents of COVID-19 and other childhood vaccines. “We need to increase that uptake. It’s not just the COVID vaccines we need to be promoting, it’s those other childhood vaccines as well.” Kansas and Missouri both have low rates of children taking some of the recommended inoculations, including those for the HPV vaccine.
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Missouri Governor Signs Ban on Transgender Health Care, School Sports
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP/KPR) — Transgender minors and some adults in Missouri will soon be limited from accessing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries — as well as some school sports teams — under bills signed Wednesday by the state's Republican governor. Beginning August 28, Missouri health care providers won't be able to prescribe those gender-affirming treatments for teens and children. Most adults will still have access to transgender health care under the law, but Medicaid won't cover it. Prisoners in the state must pay for gender-affirming surgeries out-of-pocket under the law, the governor's spokesperson Kelli Jones said. Governor Mike Parson called hormones, puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries "harmful, irreversible treatments and procedures" for minors. "We support everyone's right to his or her own pursuit of happiness," Parson said in a statement Wednesday. "However, we must protect children from making life-altering decisions that they could come to regret in adulthood once they have physically and emotionally matured."
Many medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, have opposed bans on gender-affirming care for minors when administered appropriately. Lawsuits have been filed in several states where bans have been enacted this year. Parson also signed legislation Wednesday to ban transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams from kindergarten through college. Both public and private schools face losing all state funding for violating the law. "Today, Governor Parson showed just how little Missouri's state government values LGBTQ+ lives and, in particular, transgender and gender-expansive youth," said Shira Berkowitz, of the state's LGBTQ+ advocacy group PROMO.
The laws are set to expire in 2027 as part of a Republican compromise with Senate Democrats. Parson called on the Republican-led Legislature to pass the bills in the final weeks of its session and threatened to keep them working past their May 12 end date if they did not. Republican leaders of the House and Senate pledged at the beginning of session to pass the bills, but the chambers disagreed on how restrictive the bans should be. The House ultimately took up the Senate's toned-down version of the health care bill, which includes an exception that allows transgender minors to continue receiving gender-affirming health care if they have already started treatment. "The governor could have said 'no' to bigotry and hate," Missouri House Democratic Minority Leader Crystal Quade said in a statement. "Instead he embraced it."
Missouri's bans come amid a push by several states to put restrictions on transgender and nonbinary people, which alongside abortion has become a major theme of state legislative sessions this year. At least 20 states, including Missouri, have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
A legal challenge to Missouri's laws is possible. When the Legislature first passed the bills, the ACLU of Missouri said it "will continue to explore all options to fight these bans and to expand the rights of trans Missourians." Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and Oklahoma has agreed to not enforce its ban while opponents seek a temporary court order blocking it.
Missouri's Planned Parenthood clinics had been ramping up available appointments and holding pop-up clinics to start patients on treatments ahead of the law taking effect. In April, Missouri's Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey took the novel step of imposing restrictions on adults as well as children under Missouri's consumer-protection law. He pulled the rule in May after the GOP-led Legislature sent the bills to Parson.
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Lawrence Police Identify Weekend Homicide Victim
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) — Lawrence police have identified the victim of a weekend homicide. Police say 20-year-old Cameron Renner, of Topeka, was killed Saturday. Investigators say they still need the public's help in making an arrest. Several calls were placed to police early Saturday morning to report the sound of gunshots in the area of 24th and Cedarwood. Officers arrived on scene and began speaking to witnesses but found no victim. Officers determined that the victim had been dropped off at the hospital and later died. With the identity of the victim now known and the family notified, investigators hope those with more information will come forward. Anonymous tips may be made by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at (785) 843-TIPS.
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KC Police Investigate Deadly Shooting on Interstate
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — Kansas City police are investigating a deadly shooting that took place early Wednesday morning on I-670. Around 5:40 am, police were called to an injury crash in the westbound lanes of I-670 near Broadway Boulevard. When officers arrived, they discovered a woman with gunshot wounds inside the vehicle. WDAF TV reports that emergency crews took the woman to an area hospital where she died. The shooting caused emergency crews to shut down several portions of I-670 for roughly three hours, leading to several sections of traffic backup along the interstate.
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Lawrence Police Chief: Every Home Should Have Narcan
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW/KPR) — Lawrence police responded to three suspected fentanyl overdoses Monday night, one of them fatal, prompting the department to hold a news conference to raise awareness about the deadliness of the drug. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the first overdose call Monday night involved a 39-year-old man who was pronounced dead at the scene. Another call involved a 19-year-old who was hospitalized. The third call involved a 39-year-old woman who received seven doses of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, before officers arrived. She was also taken to the hospital. In each case, police found evidence to believe fentanyl was the cause of the overdose.
At the news conference Tuesday, Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart emphasized that residents should be vigilant whether they are taking illegal drugs or not. “We’re warning people to be careful about using drugs. It (fentanyl) doesn’t care how old you are. It doesn’t care what your economic status is. It doesn’t care what race or gender you are. It only knows that it’s deadly, and a tiny amount of fentanyl is enough to kill,” Lockhart said. He attributed a dip in fentanyl deaths from 2021 to 2022 to the availability of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, to the public. “Every home should have Narcan, and it’s widely available here in Lawrence,” Lockhart said.
Lawrence police have been warning about the dangers of fentanyl for years now and have recently partnered with the Lawrence school district and other agencies to raise awareness about the synthetic opioid, which can be lethal in very small amounts. Fentanyl is often mixed in with or substituted for other drugs such as Xanax or OxyContin, and users may not even be aware that they are consuming it. According to statistics shared during a recent Lawrence forum, there were 94 suspected overdoses in Lawrence and 13 deaths in 2022.
Of the overdoses reported Monday night, police believe the 19-year-old woman, who is on life-support, was found with pills containing fentanyl, while the 39-year-old woman at the city support site is believed to have injected the drug. Lockhart said he did not have information about how the 39-year-old man who died ingested the drug.
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K-State Salina Campus Getting Millions to Address Pilot Shortage
SALINA, Kan. (KNS) — Kansas State University's Aerospace and Technology Campus in Salina is receiving almost $5 million in federal funding to help address the national shortage of pilots. The money from Congress will go toward building a flight simulation center at the K-State Aerospace and Technology Campus. The federal government estimates there will be about 18,000 openings for commercial pilots this decade. Only about half of those vacancies are being filled. The shortage has led to flight delays and cancellations. Last October, K-State received $10 million from California-based company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to expand its aerospace research campus.
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Missouri Jail Employee and Associates Indicted for Smuggling Contraband to Inmates
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Jackson County, Missouri, Detention Center employee and three associates have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a contraband smuggling conspiracy. The employee, 42-year-old Aaron D. Copes, of Grandview, Missouri, allegedly took bribe money and sexual favors in exchange for smuggling drugs to jail inmates. Along with Copes, KCTV reports that 32-year-old Deanna Clark and 31-year-old Stephanie McDaniel, both of Kansas City, and 37-year-old James A. Booker, Jr., of Raytown, were charged in the indictment.
Prosecutors say Copes was employed as a case manager at the facility. They also say Clark and Booker were close associates of an inmate and McDaniel was the girlfriend of an unidentified co-conspirator.
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Former Kansas City Fed Chief: Inflation ‘Sticky’ and Interest Rates Will Remain High
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MarketWatch) — The recently retired president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank says the U.S. is likely to “have higher inflation and higher interest rates for some time.” According to MarketWatch, Esther George says it won’t be easy to get inflation back down to the Fed’s 2% target. George retired in January and a permanent replacement for her has not yet been named. “If you look back over the last six months, inflation seems pretty sticky,” she said. The Fed is widely expected to pause or “skip” an interest-rate increase at its June 13-14 meeting for the first time after almost a year and a half of rate hikes.
The Fed has raised a key short-term rate to a 16-year high of more than 5% from near zero in early 2022. Senior officials worry they could tip the economy into recession if they continue to raise rates aggressively. George says she’s in favor of a pause to give the Fed time to assess its next step. She also said she’s not sure if the U.S. will fall into a recession but cautioned that the Fed could trigger one if it’s too aggressive.
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Lawrence Man in Prison for ID Theft Now Charged with Raping 7-Year-Old
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — A Lawrence man serving prison time for identity theft has now been charged in Douglas County District Court with raping a 7-year-old child. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 44-year-old George Joseph Burgess Jr. is facing one count of rape and three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The charges are all off-grid felonies and each could come with a life prison sentence if Burgess is convicted. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between October 2017 and October 2018. Burgess was convicted in Douglas County of two felonies in 2022 for identity theft and removing an electronic monitoring device. He's serving 22 months in prison.
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Kansas Woman Removed from Flight at Louisiana Airport
JEFFERSON PARISH, La. (WGNO) — A Kansas woman was removed from a flight at an airport in Louisiana after she allegedly caused a disturbance. The sheriff's office in Jefferson Parish says 25-year-old Kamaryn Gibson, of Olathe, caused the disturbance at Louis Armstrong International Airport after the plane left the gate. The plane returned to the airport so she could be removed.
When officers tried to remove Gibson from the flight, she allegedly kicked two deputies and bit another in the leg. She was restrained in a wheelchair and later taken to the local jail. WGNO TV reports that the woman is charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. The incident happened on May 29.
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Tonganoxie Closing in on $52 Million Deal for Pet Food Ingredient Plant
TONGANOXIE, Kan. (LJW) — Eastern Kansas already has a lot of pet food plants but Tonganoxie is poised to become a bigger player in the industry. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the city northeast of Lawrence is being asked to approve a package of economic development incentives for a Dutch company that wants to build an ingredient plant for the pet food industry. Company officials say the $52 million project plans to employ 28 people with an average salary of $72,000 a year. If the package of incentives are approved, the company hopes to have its Tonganoxie plant operating by the second quarter of 2025.
The Dutch company, DSM, is one of the largest ingredient companies in the world and would likely supply a number of area pet food plants. Pet food plants owned by various companies are already located in Topeka, Emporia, Lawrence, Edgerton and soon in Tonganoxie. To get the deal done, DSM is seeking a package of financial incentives that includes about $5 million in property and sales tax breaks to build the plant. Tonganoxie City Council members are now considering the request.
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Black Bear Sighting Confirmed Near KC
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) -- A trail camera near Pleasant Hill, Missouri, snapped a photo of an unusual creature roaming Cass County. The Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed that a photo circulating on social media showing a black bear was legitimate. KCTV reports that the Kansas City area has only had a handful of bear sightings in the past few years, but wildlife officials say the state’s bear population is growing and spreading. Missouri is now home to around 900 bears despite the population nearly dying out a few decades ago. And experts say that in the next decade, the population could double.
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Expulsions, Walkouts, Filibusters: Lawmakers Grapple with Acrimonious Legislative Sessions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lawmakers this year have kicked rival colleagues out of office in Tennessee and off the chamber floor in Montana. They have staged walkouts in Oregon and filibusters in Nebraska, where interactions are so fraught that some lawmakers say they’re unsure they can work together anymore.
In a year of outsized acrimony at statehouses, it would be wrong to say tensions have never been worse. Legislatures have seen fistfights, unpopular members hounded from office, mass expulsions and even armed confrontations.
Experts say what’s different now is that politics can reward sparring and punish bipartisanship, making reelection tougher for those who seek compromise. Lawmakers “recognize that the general electorate would prefer that they compromise, but they think that the primary electorate wants them to oppose it,” said Laurel Harbridge-Yong, a Northwestern University political scientist. Civility can crumble when lawmakers draw gerrymandered districts or make voting rules that pick political winners and losers. It also erodes, Harbridge-Yong said, when lawmakers debate hard-to-compromise identity and morality issues, including abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. But lawmakers in districts dominated by one party need to stave off internal challengers rather than satisfy the broader voting public, she said.
In Tennessee, Republicans flexed their supermajority numbers to expel Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two young Black lawmakers, for protesting for gun control on the House floor with a bullhorn after a deadly school shooting in Nashville. They were booted for violating decorum. Though protesters didn't enter the House floor, some Republicans, including the House speaker, labeled it an "insurrection," akin to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach.
The ouster of the since-reinstated Democrats gave their party more exposure in the state than it’s had in years. Jones and Pearson, along with Rep. Gloria Johnson, who escaped expulsion by one vote, traveled a national TV circuit, visited the White House, and hauled in donations. But to political observers the conflict showed further erosion of Tennessee's former reputation for conservative compromisers such as former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker — a key figure in holding President Richard Nixon accountable over Watergate. Republican Gov. Bill Lee, meanwhile, is seeking to keep guns away from people who could harm themselves or others. GOP lawmakers have shown little appetite to consider the plan despite bipartisan appeal in polling.
When majorities grow decisively large, the minority party has no power and can only complain and shout, said John Geer, dean of Vanderbilt University’s arts and sciences school. Meanwhile, the majority doesn't need to bargain and is drawn to extreme policies as primary elections become the key to winning. In a supermajority, the majority and minority parties "are no longer politicians, they become activists," said Geer, also a political science professor. Lately, Tennessee legislative districts have rarely been competitive, even as more than one-quarter of House seats have changed hands since 2020. Only four races, of 116 House and Senate seats on the 2022 November ballot, were decided by 10 percentage points or fewer. Conversely, 61 House and Senate seats were uncontested. Geer said Tennessee is conservative, but the GOP drew districts to widen its partisan advantage further. Democratic lawmakers are almost only elected in major cities.
Division can disrupt an entire legislative session. In Oregon, a Republican Senate walkout began May 3 and could continue through the session's June 25 end. The boycott has prevented the Senate from reaching its required two-thirds quorum. That's preventing a floor vote on a bill to protect abortion rights and transgender health care that GOP senators say is extreme. It's also blocking more than 100 other bills, including a GOP-opposed gun-safety measure that would increase the purchasing age to 21 for semiautomatic rifles. GOP Minority Leader Sen. Tim Knopp says the boycott will end only on the session's last day to pass “bipartisan” legislation and budget bills. Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek has failed to break the impasse, and could have to call a special session if lawmakers don’t approve budgets covering the next two years. Senators walked out despite voters in 2022 deciding lawmakers could not be reelected with 10 or more unexcused absences. Republican senators are likely to sue over the measure if they're not allowed to register as candidates. Republicans also walked out in 2019, 2020 and 2021. On June 1, Democrats cited a state constitutional provision to fine senators $325 every time their absence denies a quorum.
“Senators who do not show up need to start returning the hard-earned tax dollars they do not earn,” said Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber.
In Nebraska, a handful of progressive lawmakers filibustered nearly every bill — even ones they supported — to protest legislation targeting transgender minors. The filibuster revealed lawmakers’ ideological divides, with yelling, name-calling, crying and refusals to even speak to other lawmakers. Nebraska's single-chamber Legislature is officially nonpartisan and had prided itself on avoiding dysfunction. Following Tennessee's expulsions, Montana Republicans voted to ban transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the House floor for the rest of the now-completed session. Zephyr was initially silenced after telling lawmakers looking to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands and exiled for participating in a protest for her right to debate in the House.
Discord in statehouses is hardly new.
A white supremacist militia in 1874 attempted to overthrow Louisiana’s Republican government in a New Orleans street battle, retreating only when federal troops arrived. Republicans ejected legislators they claimed weren’t lawfully elected and Democrats established a competing body. White supremacist Democrats took control when federal troops departed in 1877.
Not all rifts were racial. Kansas Republicans and Populists in 1893 seated rival Houses. After Populists locked themselves in the House chamber, Republicans sledgehammered open the door and chased out the Populists. Kansas' Populist governor called up the militia, but mostly Republican militiamen refused to obey. The Kansas Supreme Court eventually sided with the Republicans.
And not all breaches are ancient history. In 1960s Georgia, Civil Rights activist Julian Bond won election to the House three times, but lawmakers refused to seat him, citing Bond’s opposition to the Vietnam War. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling let Bond take office in 1967.
Even considering past upheaval, Harbridge-Yong said tensions today are “very high” and “concerning" for democracy.
"It’s both concerning for how our legislatures function, for people’s trust in the government and their view of policies as they’re determined by government as legitimate,” she said.
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KU Basketball Teams to Play in Mexico Next Year
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) — In the 2024-25 basketball season, the KU men’s and women’s teams will travel to Mexico to play against the Houston Cougars. Houston will soon join the Big 12 conference, but next year's game south of the border won’t count as a conference game. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark says the conference is expanding its brand into Mexico and it's important to include the Jayhawks in that effort. "You only have one chance to launch a brand in a place like Mexico City. Doing it with Kansas is incredible for us," he said. The KU games will be played in December of 2024 at the CDMX arena in Mexico City.
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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. And follow KPR News on Twitter.