Sorted by date Results 1 - 21 of 21
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is moving to phase out the nation's second-highest state sales tax on groceries, but Republican lawmakers aren't planning to lower consumers' bills until after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly faces reelection in November. Eliminating the 6.5% tax is Kelly's most visible legislative initiative this year, and she and fellow Democrats have been waging a public campaign for weeks to get the GOP-controlled Legislature to eliminate the whole tax on July 1. The Republican plan would phase out the tax over three years, dropping i...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators were close Wednesday to approving a measure authorizing sports betting that would dedicate most of the state's revenues from it to efforts to lure the Kansas City Chiefs from Missouri to the Kansas side of the metropolitan area. Lawmakers expected to give final approval this week to a bill allowing people in the state to use cellphone or computer apps to bet on sporting events and to place bets at state-owned casinos or up to 50 other locations chosen by each casino. A version cleared the House earlier thi...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new Kansas fiscal forecast issued Wednesday predicted that inflation will boost state tax collections more than previously expected, intensifying the dispute between Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and the Republican-controlled Legislature over how to cut taxes. Legislators also are likely to face increased pressure to add new spending to what already is set to be a relatively generous, $22 billion-plus state budget for the 12 months beginning July 1. Even before the new forecast, public school officials are pushing for a...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans pushed their congressional redistricting plan through the GOP-dominated Kansas Legislature without much trouble Wednesday with an expected court battle looming over whether it would go too far in hurting the state's only Democrat in Congress. The House's 79-37 vote sends Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly a bill that would split the Kansas City area into two congressional districts and move the liberal northeast Kansas city of Lawrence into a district with far more conservative central and western Kansas c...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican lawmakers are eager to cut taxes because Kansas is flush with cash, but the annual legislative session that opened Monday is shadowed by redistricting, election year-politics and COVID-19. With GOP supermajorities in both chambers, lawmakers expect to debate what public schools should — and should not — teach students about race and the role of racism in U.S. history. They also are likely to consider tightening election laws during their 90 scheduled days in session. And legis...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators moved Monday to make it easy for workers in Kansas to claim religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but their leaders were divided over whether they also needed to promise unemployment benefits for people refusing the shots. Republican leaders also faced a push by some conservatives to prohibit private employers from imposing their own vaccine mandates, whether or not President Joe Biden's mandates survive the lawsuits challenging them. That proposal emerged from a debate in the state S...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly grew more forceful Friday in opposing President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying it's "too late" in the coronavirus pandemic to impose them after Kansas and other states tailored responses to their needs. Kelly's latest statement came a day after she argued that federal mandates "tend not to work," though they've boosted vaccination rates elsewhere. She faces a difficult race for reelection next year in her Republican-leaning state, and GOP officials have been attacking the D...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas labor leader on Friday compared President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Holocaust that killed millions of Jews, and a top Republican lawmaker seemed to agree with the comparison. The comments from Kansas House health committee Chair Brenda Landwehr, of Wichita, and Cornell Beard, the president of the Wichita district of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers came as a legislative committee launched an effort to find ways for the state to fight Biden's policies. Biden's m...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday created an independent office to review complaints against Kansas' foster care system and recommend changes in child welfare policies, a longtime goal of advocates for abused and neglected children. The Democratic governor's move to create the office by executive order bypasses the Republican-controlled Legislature. It deadlocked on the issue earlier this year after some lawmakers pushed to put the new office under the GOP official expected to challenge Kelly's reelection next year. Kelly issued a...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Ten years of population shifts will boost the clout of the Kansas City and Wichita areas in Kansas politics and fuel a fight over redrawing the district of the only Democrat representing the state in Congress. The Republican-controlled Legislature must use U.S. Census data released this week to redraw congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts next year to ensure they are as equal in population as possible. Lawmakers on Friday wrapped up 14 statewide town hall meetings on redistricting held over f...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday announced that she's imposing a mask mandate for Kansas state government workers and visitors to state buildings in the wake of a "self-inflicted" surge in new COVID-19 cases fueled by the faster-spreading delta variant. Kelly's announcement came after a central Kansas school district mandated masks in its building and public health officials in two of the state's most populous counties recommended that even vaccinated residents wear masks in at least some indoor public spaces. And all of the d...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A COVID-19 surge in Kansas fueled by the faster-spreading delta variant is filling up hospital beds in some areas. Four times as many patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized this week as were hospitalized in early June, according to a survey from the Kansas Hospital Association. Hospitals said they're dealing with a regular load of non-COVID patients as delta variant cases surge — unlike last fall and winter, when new COVID-19 case numbers hit record highs. "We're seeing more cases of a variety of oth...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Charley Crabtree was looking to help voters in nursing homes get absentee ballots delivered on time last year, so he picked up about 75 from at least 10 locations in his hometown of Lawrence. Republicans who control the Kansas Legislature want to make what he did a crime punishable by up to six months in jail. Republican lawmakers said they're protecting the integrity of the state's elections by making it less likely that ballots will go missing or get altered. Democrats describe the measure that cleared the G...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Republican proposal to require all Kansas public schools to offer every student full in-person classes by March 26 failed Tuesday in the state House after some lawmakers complained that it would take too much power away from local school boards. The GOP-controlled House's 69-55 vote against the measure showed that some Republicans had misgivings about the proposal, which would have overridden a few local school districts' decisions to wait longer because of the coronavirus pandemic. Senate President Ty Masterson, an A...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers moved Tuesday to extend protections for businesses from lawsuits over COVID-19, while a prominent critic of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said the state's vaccine distribution has improved in recent weeks. The Republican-controlled Legislature is considering several measures arising out of the pandemic or Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's response to it. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would give businesses an extra year of protection, until March 31, 2022, from lawsuits from customers or e...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators opened their annual session Monday with new leaders in the Senate, new lawmakers in a quarter of the seats and a top Republican acknowledging that he's asked for extra security. The 90-day session began amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in one confirmed or probable case for one in every 12 of the state's 2.9 million residents and killed 3,255 over the past 10 months. But the GOP-controlled Legislature also started its work for the year under the shadow of last week's mob violence in W...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday received the first of two COVID-19 vaccine shots while some top Republican officials passed, for now, because not all health care workers and nursing home residents have received theirs. Kelly designated herself and 10 other state officials as eligible to start vaccinations this week in an effort to protect state government's "continuity of operations" during the coronavirus pandemic. The others are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, i...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is preparing to launch a media campaign aimed at getting more of its residents to wear masks so that the coronavirus doesn't keep spreading rapidly, though some officials are skeptical that it will move the needle much. The campaign comes months after the state's Republican-controlled Legislature forced Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to accept that local officials would set pandemic restrictions. Kelly issued two mandates for people to wear masks in public, including one set to take effect Wednesday, but a law enacted in...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas set new state pandemic records Wednesday for reported coronavirus cases and COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said she hasn't dropped the idea of calling the Republican-controlled Legislature into special session to impose a statewide mask mandate. The state Department of Health and Environment added nearly 3,400 cases since Monday to its running tally for the pandemic, giving the state a rolling average of 1,084 new cases a day for the seven days ending Wednesday. The department said...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A local public health official plans to close bars and restrict restaurant hours in the state's largest city and the surrounding area until after Labor Day because of a surge in reported coronavirus cases over the past six weeks that's been far worse than the state's spike. Dr. Garold Minns, Sedgwick County's health officer, told county commissioners Tuesday that he will issue an order to close bars and nightclubs until Sept. 9 and direct restaurants to close at 10 p.m. He said he also plans to drop the limit on public g...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature on Wednesday worked to sell a compromise with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for giving lawmakers some oversight of the state's coronavirus response. Some Democrats wanted new protections for workers infected on the job, and advocates of expanding the state's Medicaid program hadn't given up on passing it. The Legislature convened for a special session called by Kelly after she vetoed a sweeping coronavirus bill GOP lawmakers approved in May moments before adjourning t...
