Kansas Reflector Podcast

Jae Moyer, of Mainstream Coalition, and Melissa Stiehler, of Loud Light, discuss the state's political climate toward the LGBTQ community.

Mark Horst, owner of King Solar in Yoder, Michelle Milburn, of Stanion Wholesale Electric, and Jessica Lucas, lobbyist for the Clean Energy Business Council, say Kansas should end the utility monopoly on power purchase agreements with businesses, churches, schools and others who want electricity from solar systems on their property but lack investment capital to build. Opening the market, they say...

Marcus Baltzell, spokesman for the Kansas National Education Association, and Leah Fliter, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, talk about legislative attempts to undermine K-12 education.

Sedgwick County District Judge Phil Journey's ideas for cutting domestic violence in the state include informing victims about protection orders and temporary housing assistance, preparing officers to determine the most-likely aggressor in a case, and staggered sentencing.

The jury that convicted Sarah Gonzales-McLinn of first-degree murder in 2015 didn't know about the months of abuse that preceded her grisly crime. She received a Hard 50 sentence, but later accepted a plea deal to reduce her incarceration to a minimum of 25 years in exchange for giving up the right to appeal. Now, her advocates hope to get her out of prison by convincing the governor to grant her...

Sen. David Haley and Rep. Barbara Ballard — the Kansas Legislature's longest serving current senator and representative — talk about career, race and partisan politics.

Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, outlines key pieces of the organization's 2023 agenda as the session gets underway.

Kansas Chamber president Alan Cobb and lobbyist Eric Stafford outline key pieces of the business organization's 2023 agenda ahead of the new session.

The year 2022 was like few others in Kansas politics. Journalists at the Kansas Reflector began by covering a breakneck legislative session. Toward the end of the year, we followed a bitter midterm election contest. And in the middle of it all, August, we saw a landmark vote on abortion rights. Our staffers make sense of these stories and others that defined a remarkable year.

For generations, the aquifer that supplies western Kansas with water has been in decline, largely due to over pumping for crop irrigation. Parts of the state have just 10 or 20 years of water left. Rep. Lindsey Vaughn, who served as the ranking Democrat on the Kansas House Water Committee, joins the Kansas Reflector podcast to talk about it.

The iconic high rise Docking State Office Building, which now sits largely unoccupied, could soon be demolished. Work to take the building to the ground could begin as early as January 2023. On the other hand, a preservation group called Plains Modern has gone to court to halt full-scale demolition.

Libraries hold a conflicted place our collective imagination. To many of us, they're magical. We were first exposed to worlds of imagination and ideas on the shelves of our local libraries. To others, these buildings serve as indispensable community gathering spots, places to learn and meet and share. But to a small and vocal group, school and town libraries threaten social order. This week, Kansa...

Spencer Duncan, director of government affairs at the Kansas League of Municipalities, talks about the league's policy agenda for the upcoming legislative session.

Leah Fliter and Scott Rothschild of the Kansas Association of School Boards dive into K-12 education issues likely to be on the agenda during the 2023 legislative session.

A joint committee of the Kansas House and Senate convened for two days to explore concerns about the state’s foster care system. During 15 hours of testimony and questioning, a diverse collection of foster parents, academics, lawyers, contractors, state officials and others delved into their experiences with a system responsible for 7,000 children in need of care. The responsibility is immense, th...

Senior reporter Tim Carpenter leads a discussion with editor in chief Sherman Smith, opinion editor Clay Wirestone and reporter Rachel Mipro about campaigns for governor, Congress, attorney general, and the Statehouse, as well as votes on constitutional amendments and judicial retention.

In February 2021, it got really cold in Kansas. It was about 15 degrees below zero for more than a week. Natural gas prices shot up, in terms of BTUs, from $2.54 on Feb. 1 to $622 by Feb. 17. Then, as if the market had been manipulated again, it dropped back to $2.46 by the end of the month. The bills for all that are coming due. The Kansas Corporation Commission has decided the extraordinary cost...

The new Kansas Speaks survey of public opinion generated by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs is out. It checks the pulse of Kansans on dozens of issues — a list that ranges from views on public officials, the economy, abortion, election security, housing, marijuana to health care. Here to mine some of the numerical nuggets from the statewide survey are Brett Zollinger, director of the Docki...

Democrat Lynn Rogers says the Kansas State Treasurer's Office has the ability to help Kansans in their day-to-day lives by providing economic recovery loans, administering the college savings plans, and returning unclaimed property. He hopes to hang onto the job of treasurer by defeating Republican state Rep. Steven Johnson, a farmer from Assaria, in the November election.

Tiffany Muller returned to Kansas, where she made history in 2004 by becoming the first openly LGBTQ public official in Kansas, to campaign on behalf of Democrats. Muller — now president of End Citizens United, an organization that wants to get big money out of politics — says Republican candidates Kris Kobach and Derek Schmidt pose a fundamental threat to Democracy in the state.

Kansas is known for sunflowers, bison, farms and rural communities. But as our country and state grow ever more closely connected and urbanized, what does that mean for small towns and communities across the Sunflower State? Christy Davis, the Kansas director for USDA Rural Development, helps us answer that question.

Matt Lindsey, president of the Kansas Independent College Association, and Heather Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Community College Association, talk about a new transfer agreement among 39 colleges in those organizations. The agreement guarantees students earning a two-year degree at a community college the opportunity to enroll at one of the independent colleges as juniors, transfer 60...

Republican Derek Schmidt's gubernatorial campaign has embraced anti-transgender hate speech, and the Gardner Edgerton School District has entertained a discriminatory policy. D.C. Hiegert, an American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas legal fellow focusing on LGBTQ issues, and Brenan Riffel, a Kansas Reflector columnist and University of Kansas graduate student, talk with opinion editor Clay Wiresto...

Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran says he has grown more knowledgeable during his quarter-century of service in the nation's capital — while his disdain for the game of politics has deepened. He faces a challenge from Democrat Mark Holland in November. Moran talks about expanding health care benefits for military veterans suffering from toxic exposure, the 988 suicide and crisis prevention hotline,...

Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, discusses the introduction of legal sports gambling in Kansas. Online and in-person sports wagering is available at casinos in Mulvane and Kansas City, Kansas, while online bets through apps are being handled at Pittsburg and Dodge City casinos.