Kansas Reflector Podcast

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...

One of the loudest lobbying voices in the Capitol is the Kansas Chamber. The statewide business organization strives to influence public policy, and its political action committee works to influence outcome of elections. The state chamber of commerce annually issues a legislative agenda that touches on taxation, health care, workforce development, the legal system, government spending, and much mo...

The Kansas Legislature returns Monday to the statehouse for the start of a new session where lawmakers will entertain a variety of policy ideas and the weeks and months ahead. Kansas Interfaith action, a multifaith advocacy organization, is among the groups hoping to influence those debates. On the Kansas Reflector podcast, editor in chief Sherman Smith sits down with pastor Robert Johnson, the le...

Kansas Reflector editor in chief Sherman Smith, senior reporter Tim Carpenter and opinion editor Clay Wirestone talk about six topics — taxes, COVID-19, abortion, foster care, marijuana and critical race theory — that dominated the news in 2021 and implications for 2022.

Gov. Laura Kelly is entering the fourth year of her governorship of Kansas, and faces a reelection challenge in 2022. The Democrat vowed, when sworn into office after the 2018 election, to stabilize the state government's budget, bring coherence to K-12 public school funding, restore credibility to the state's transportation program after years of broken promises and to get a grip on the troubled...

For transgender Kansans, changing their names and identity documents to reflect their true selves can be an arduous and expensive process. A new program from Kansas Legal Services aims to change that for moderate and low income Kansans. Tori Gleason, a healthcare provider in Western Kansas and Ellen Bertels, founder of the Kansas Name Change Project at Kansas Legal Services detail the effort and i...

Lee Norman was prepared for the possibility that a new and deadly virus could induce a global pandemic long before many people were familiar with the threat that became known as COVID-19. But he was caught off-guard by the governor's decision to fire him as secretary of the Kansas Department for Health and Environment after managing the state's response to the pandemic for nearly two years. Editor...

There's a messy debate raging in Washington, D.C., around the Build Back Better bill, which is President Joe Biden's economic growth package. It's a profound investment in America's future, Democrats argue. Republicans, on the other hand, generally view it as a budgetary albatross. On this Kansas Reflector Podcast, David Jordan, president of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Suzanne Wikle...

The Kansas special legislative session last week only lasted one day but still elicited many strong responses and wild speeches. The new law provides moral, religious and medical exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine requirements and ensure unemployment compensation for anyone who is fired because of their vaccine status. Any business that refuses to accept an exemption faces up to $50,000 in fines. Cons...

People living in the Kansas City area in the summer of 1981 can recall the harrowing collapse of two overhead walkways inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Those platforms were full of partygoers attending an evening dance in the lobby below. The tragedy killed 114 people and injured more than 200. On the 40th anniversary of the collapse, Rick Serrano, who shares a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the d...

If you go to the grocery store in Kansas, you will see the total cost of your shopping being a little larger than in many other states. That’s because Kansas is one of seven states with a full tax on groceries and at a rate of 6.5%, has the second highest tax in the nation. But in recent days, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced a plan to introduce legislation in January to exempt food from the stat...

According to Kansas Appleseed, one in six residents of southeast Kansas is food insecure and a stunning one in four children in the region is food insecure. That's the topic of the advocacy groups new report, "Hunger in Southeast Kansas." Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone is joined by two members of the Kansas Appleseed team — Hailey Kottler, thriving campaign director, and Caleb Smit...

Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruz lives in the poorest zip code in the state of Kansas. Immense challenges of homelessness as well as mental illness and substance abuse are visible from her front porch. Cruse joins host Tim Carpenter to discuss how she believes Sedgwick County and the city of Wichita can do a better job marshaling resources to take on these complex problems, especially with...

Students at Seaman High School just north of Topeka ignited intense community conversation last year when their research revealed the school districts namesake had been an exalted cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan. Now, animosity over critical race theory has inflamed debate about whether to change the district's name. Joining host Sherman Smith on the Kansas Reflector podcasts to talk about the school...

Leading a public university during a devastating pandemic and demographic shifts slashing the number of college aged people is a mind boggling challenge. In addition to the evolving economy, emerging technology and politicization of government spending on higher education, the challenges are great. One of the six people entrusted to manage a state university in the Kansas Board of Regents is Tisa...

The difference between the haves and have nots in the world of broadband services — think of it as a digital divide and high speed internet — can be felt in business education, health care and at home. Without it of course you might have difficulty listening to this podcast. Joining senior reporter Tim Carpenter to connect Kansas reflector listeners to challenges and opportunities of spreading the...

When entrepreneurs wanted to convince politicians to be more pro-business, they formed a chamber of commerce to champion their ideas. Now, advocates of the nation's growing marijuana industry have done the same. Heather Steppe, is president of the new Kansas Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, talks with Kansas Reflector senior reporter Tim Carpenter about efforts to reform government policy on marijuan...

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Kansas Department of Labor has been overwhelmed by unemployment claims, both real and fraudulent. The beleaguered unemployment insurance computer system and the record volume of activity created drastic delays and invited criminal actors to submit false claims. A recent audit estimated the state paid out $700 million dollars in fraudulent benefits, about ha...

In February the Midwest was gripped by a deep freeze from winter storm Yuri, resulting in electrical outages for many. The cost of the storm are still being sorted out. On this episode of the Kansas Reflector podcast, Allison Kite looks into the economic fallout from this winter's deep freeze for Kansas residents who could be paying for just a few days of natural gas usage for years to come. Jim Z...