Kansas Reflector Podcast

Now is the summer of our discontent. The end of Roe vs. Wade has shaken the nation. Kansas has been gripped by an amendment vote on just that subject scheduled for next month. Political candidates circle one another like irritable peacocks, knowing that weeks or months of conflict await. Nationally, inflation has stressed households and scared investors. While the White House searches for fixes. G...

The 2022 election cycle for the Kansas House is unique in the sense that 55 of the 125 seats are already decided. That is because only one candidate filed to run for election to the state Legislature in those districts. Three young Kansas House Democrats — Christina Haswood, Brandon Woodard and Rui Xu — who are running unopposed in the 2022 election join Kansas Reflector intern Lily O'Shea Becker...

You may have noticed two new names making regular appearances on Kansas Reflector story bylines recently — Margaret Mellott and Lily O'Shea Becker. They joined Kansas Reflector this summer as interns and are tackling topics ranging from gun laws to teachers leaving the field to youth civic engagement. Mellott, a recent graduate of Emporia State University with degrees in communication and journali...

Health care is often a difficult system to navigate, with concerns of costs, access or finding the right fit to address your intimate needs. The challenges are amplified for uninsured patients or those who don't speak English as a primary language, but a new Kansas certification will establish the widespread practice of community health workers, which advocates say will help patients navigate thes...

The U.S. Senate Republican and Democratic primaries are less than two months away and the eight candidates in the running must bear down to lock away votes in those competitive primaries. The incumbent, Kansas Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, is a known commodity, but the six Democrats in the contest are still introducing themselves to the electorate. Among those individuals is Paul Buskirk, a Un...

Kansas voters head to the polls Aug. 2 to nominate Republicans and Democrats for all sorts of political offices in preparation for the November general election. The campaign ads have already started flowing and one issue on the August ballot is a proposed amendment to the Kansas constitution. The amendment embraced by a conservative state legislators and lobbyists would essentially reject a 2019...

Kids can make the most hardened person smile. In the Statehouse in Topeka, there is a lot of debate about policy and funding aimed at Kansas children. Influencers in this process include Kansas Action for Children, a nonprofit that works to improve the health, education and welfare of the state's vulnerable youths. Jessica Herrera Russell and Adrienne Olejnik of Kansas Action for Children discuss...

Scott Schwab has served as the Kansas Secretary of State since 2019. Before election to be the state's top elections official, the Republican served in the Kansas house for 15 years, representing part of Johnson County. Schwab joins reporter Tim Carpenter for the Kansas Reflector podcast to break down recent election law, the safety of Kansas elections, upcoming amendments and more.

Parts of western Kansas have just a decade or two of water left. One city's drinking water was contaminated with uranium. For years the state hasn't been paying its bills to the federal government to store drinking water in dams in eastern Kansas but last year a state House committee started studying the water situation. They proposed a huge reform package to restructure and streamline agencies, c...

As a politically active college student in Wichita, Mark Parkinson audaciously ran for a seat in the Kansas House at age 20. He didn't win, but he learned the value of sweating through a door-to-door campaign. He went on to serve in the Kansas House and Senate, lead the Kansas Republican Party and made friends across the political landscape as a moderate Republican. It was a shock to some that he...

The birth of a child is a blend of anxiety and joy, but it can also give rise to a feeling of malaise in mothers that often dissipates in a couple of weeks. A longer-lasting form of this condition is referred to as postpartum depression. Prompt treatment can help moms manage symptoms and bond with a baby, but what if you’re a low-income mother in Kansas without access to counseling and health care...

Few in the Kansas Legislative or investment world understood what a TEFFI was when lawmakers approved a bill last year allowing the launch of a so-called technology-enabled fiduciary financial institution. Founder Brad Heppner's vision includes investments in rural Kansas and attracted support from local and state officials. But a three-month Kansas Reflector investigation spearheaded by editor Sh...

The legislative process in Kansas is an interesting numbers game that often boils own to a the numbers 63, 21 and one. These figures represent the narrowest margin a bill can clear the House and Senate respectively, and the one reflects the governor's power to veto a bill. Legislators have recourse when the governor rejects a measure. Through a two-thirds majority in both chambers, the veto can be...

The Kansas Legislature is in the middle of a three week break with senators and representatives having wrapped up a whirlwind regular session on Friday, April 1. What bills made it through? What bills did not? To break it all down on the Reflector Podcast is editor-in-chief Sherman Smith, senior reporter Tim Carpenter and reporter Noah Taborda. The conversation is moderated by opinion editor Clay...

In the closing hours of the Kansas legislative session, a familiar proposal resurfaced that would ban transgender athletes from participating in school sports. After two years of debate, battle lines are clearly drawn on the issue. Republicans who support the bill say it will protect girls and women from having to compete with boys and men who are faster and stronger. But four members of the LGBTQ...

There is never never a shortage of issues to talk about in Washington D.C. U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas, joins Tim Carpenter on the Reflector Podcast to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, national and state infrastructure, redistricting and more.

Rep. Steven Johnson, an Assaria Republican, talks about his campaign for the Republican nomination for state treasurer and his pitch to the state GOP convention.

On Thursday, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 501, a measure that would restrict access to an array of public assistance programs, such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The bill’s main advocate wasn’t a Kansas legislator: It was the Florida-based Opportunity Solutions Project, the lobbying branch of Koch-linked Foundation fo...

There's a push in the Kansas Legislature to require state courts and law enforcement agencies to temporarily take custody of firearms from people convicted of domestic battery. A bill in the Senate would close a loophole in a 2018 law banning convicted domestic abusers from buying firearms in Kansas, which mirrors federal standards, but that law didn't contain provisions for relinquishment of guns...

The daily duties of a first responder leaves many scars, physical and even more so mental. The trauma from these sights and experiences last a lifetime and require years of healing. An effort is ongoing in Kansas to help destigmatize first responder wellness and guarantee workers compensation for those with diagnosed post traumatic stress disorder. To discuss this are Ed Klumpp, with the Kansas Pe...

There is a newfound emphasis by legislators on education policy. There is a sense looking at the list of education bills that some state lawmakers feel they need to micromanage classrooms, from preschool through high school. To help with insights into this legislative evolution are Lauren Tice Miller, a Shawnee Heights School Board member and a lobbyist with the Kansas National Education Associati...

The Kansas legal system is in a bind financially and ethically. While 85% of adult criminal cases in Kansas require appointed counsel, there's a real lack of state funding, there's a massive caseload and there's high defense attorney turnover. It all calls into question whether the state is meeting its constitutional requirement to provide for the defense of the poor. Heather Cessna, executive dir...

One year ago, the day after Valentine's Day, Travis Zirkle lost his husband Jeff Wallace to COVID-19. Travis believes he brought the virus home from school where he's a special education teacher.  In the year since, Zirkle, a Barnard resident, has grappled with grief, while also becoming an outspoken advocate for vaccination. In this Kansas Reflector podcast, opinion editor Clay Wirestone sat down...

Plastic bags used to haul away purchases from groceries and other retail stores have a 15 second lifespan in terms of how typical customers make use of them. Multiply that usage by 1 million bags a minute worldwide and the plastic starts to pile up. Consider these easy come easy go bags take 10 or 20 years to decompose in a landfill and many of course get jettisoned into the environment where they...

The DC-based Millennial Action Project is working to engage young policymakers across the country — including members of the bipartisan Future Caucus in the Kansas Legislature. The organization recently gathered Kansas lawmakers, along with young entrepreneurs in the state, for a discussion at Iron Rail Brewery in Topeka. The voices in this week's Reflector Podcast include Rep. Tory Arnberger-Blew...