David Condos
Reporter, Kansas News ServiceAs the Kansas News Service reporter in western Kansas, my job is to get to know this expansive region and share with readers and listeners the under-covered trials and triumphs people experience on the Great Plains. I want our audiences to better understand the wide range of issues shaping these rural communities, and I strive to elevate diverse local voices who can share the realities of western Kansas life with the rest of the state. You can reach me at dcondos@hppr.org.
I'm based in Hays, and the stories I’ve reported from western Kansas have aired nationally on NPR’s All Things Considered and Here & Now and have been published in newspapers nationwide.
Prior to joining KNS, I spent four years as a freelance producer, reporter and host in Nashville, Tennessee, where I worked with WPLN and a variety of local and national podcasts.
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With aggressive growing patterns and sinister tactics, Old World bluestem is crowding out native grass species and remaking Kansas prairies. -
The state's Farm to School initiative pairs Kansas family farms with school districts that want to buy food for student meals. But pandemic-related uncertainty about the coming school year makes it harder to form those connections.
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The federal government has begun sending billions of dollars in advance child tax credits to families across America. But among refugees in southwest Kansas, a lack of communication about the monthly payments in their native languages is already hindering the rollout.
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Warmer weather and plentiful roadkill have created a welcoming home for turkey vultures in parts of Kansas. And once they find a place to roost, there's not much towns can do to make them leave.
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As the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus fuels new outbreaks in southwest Missouri, public health officials in southeast Kansas redouble their COVID vaccination push.
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The federal government plans to send payments to Black farmers this summer to compensate for loans and aid they lost out on during generations of discrimination. In Nicodemus, Kansas, farmers say the help has come too late.
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Even as demand for rural housing grows, a shortage of lumber, labor and lending means developers are often priced out of building new affordable homes in small towns.
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More people appear willing to get inoculated against the virus, but those who are reluctant are becoming even less willing to consider the shots.
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COVID-19 hit Kansas meatpacking plants particularly hard during the pandemic. Now some workers are proving hesitant about getting vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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Irrigation practices are changing, partly because of economics and partly because of a cultural shift among farmers on the High Plains.
