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The Kansas Legislature is taking four more days off than usual for this standard break in the session, according to Legislative Administrative Services.
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This Oct. 14, 2016 file booking photo provided by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office in Wichita, Kan., shows Patrick Stein, the alleged leader of a militia group accused of plotting to bomb a apartment complex in western Kansas where Somali refugees lived. At a detention hearing Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, Klein's attorney said his client believed then President Barack Obama would declare martial law and not recognize the validity of the election if Donald Trump won - forcing militias to step in.
In a flurry of statehouse drama rarely seen, Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the monumental tax bill Wednesday morning. Within a few hours, the House overrode the veto, and that afternoon, the Senate narrowly sustained the governor.
State Sen. Ty Masterson, R- Andover denounces a tax bill the Senate passed Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, in Topeka, Kan. State Sen. Ty Masterson, R- Andover denounces a tax bill the Senate passed Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, in Topeka, Kan.
Remember the days when if Republicans had majorities in the Kansas House and the Kansas Senate and the guy sitting in the governor's office was a Republican, well, things generally took care of themselves, for better or worse.
J.G. Scott, left, the chief fiscal analyst for the Kansas Legislative Research Department, confers with Bobbi Mariani, another fiscal analyst, during a meeting of the Kansas House Appropriations Committee, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The committee has endorsed budget-balancing proposals that would allow the state to avoid cuts in education funding.
In the weeks leading up to the confirmation vote on President Donald Trump's pick for education secretary - Betsy DeVos - people from throughout the country called their senators to express their opinions.
Several Kansas lawmakers are seeking to weaken a law that will allow concealed guns on state college campuses starting this summer. A bill introduced Tuesday would permanently exempt several types of health care facilities and colleges from the law that allows guns in public buildings.
Representative Ron Ryckman is sworn in as Speaker of the House Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, by Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss. Rickman's wife Kim is holding the bible.
Budget hole - The immediate priority for lawmakers in the 2017 session is dealing with a $350 million hole in the state budget. Next up will be fixing a $500 million revenue shortfall projected for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Rather than being worried about the lack of state senators who are attorneys, perhaps the greater concern is that the Senate doesn't have a practicing accountant among its members.
The question as Kansas kicks off its annual legislative session this week isn't whether lawmakers will raise taxes but rather which taxes - or more precisely, whose? The state faces a projected budget shortfall of more than $900 million for the next 18 months. There's broad consensus among lawmakers that tax increases will play some role in the solution.
Seven-year-old Mackenzie Blankenship loves playing the Nintendo Wii U she got on Christmas Eve from her family, but it's not what she found inside the case on Christmas Day from Santa. Krista Greider, Mackenzie's mother says, "She opened the top and her face just kind of went and she looked and she goes, what is this? and I looked over her shoulder and I grabbed it, saw the picture on it and she was just 'why? what is that? why are they naked?" Greider says instead of the colorful, creative video game -- Mackenzie found Sensual Seductions 2 -- a pornographic film released in 2008.
The day has barely started, but Mary Stewart is already worried about one homeless student and others who arrive at her Kansas City, Kansas, high school in below-freezing temperatures with no winter coats. The principal never knows what's happened at home for these students - when they last ate, when they last slept, when they last were warm.
Blame game - As the state's fiscal crisis continues to deteriorate and the Legislature moves toward the center, the Brownback administration has shifted into full blame-deflection mode. A recent newsletter from the Governor's Office attacked Democrats and "the media" but didn't mention all the Republicans who are demanding change.
Kansas has joined more than 20 states in asking President-elect Donald Trump to rescind the Waters of the United States Rule immediately upon taking office.
Thousands of Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are languishing on a seven-year waiting list to get services that would allow them to live independently, according to NPR. Kansas officials must address the waiting list with all possible speed, fulfilling our obligation to offer a safety net to our most vulnerable citizens.