Rachel Mipro

The artifacts were thought to be made between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. and come from the Nazca region in Peru. They come from a collection that the Miami County Historical Society and Museum received five years ago from a Kansas City couple's trust.

Board member Danny Zeck, a Republican from Leavenworth, alternately cursed, waved books he objected to, and raised concerns about the “Marxist lesbian” in charge of the American Library Association during a Kansas State Board of Education meeting this week, as other board members tried to redirect the conversation.

Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the local newspaper, died a day after law enforcement raided her home. Her son believes the stress of the raid on her home and the newsroom was a contributing factor in her death.

The publisher of the newspaper said police were motivated by a confidential source who leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper. The raid followed news stories about a restaurant owner who kicked reporters out of a meeting with a member of Congress, and revelations about the restaurant owner’s conviction for drunken driving.

Members of St. Marys five-person city commission, all of whom are members of an extreme Catholic religious sect, have threatened to pull the lease of the public library if they don't remove all LGBTQ+ and other "socially divisive" books from the shelves. Their efforts have drawn a warning from the ACLU of Kansas.

Under a recent anti-LGBTQ law passed by the Kansas Legislature, transgender residents will be prohibited from changing the sex on their driver’s licenses and other official documents. When the law takes effect July 1, lawyers and advocates say it could lead to harassment and discrimination.

Gov. Laura Kelly shot down a proviso in the state budget bill allocating $250,000 for the Quindaro Ruins Archaeological Park in Kansas City, historically an important stop on the Underground Railroad. One of the site’s top supporters, Kansas City Democrat Rep. Marvin Robinson, broke party lines to help Republicans override Kelly's veto of a transgender athlete ban.

The legislation bars individuals who are born without the ability to produce eggs for reproduction from using women’s restrooms, locker rooms and other gender-specific areas — and classifies intersex people as disabled. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill but the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature narrowly voted to override and put it into law.

The ban is one of several anti-LGBTQ bills passed by the Kansas Legislature. It would allow for civil suits against doctors who provided gender-affirming care — which is widely supported by U.S. medical associations — for those under age 18. It would also revoke the licenses of physicians who offered such care, starting in July 2023.

Superintendent Brent Yeager, who oversees the second-largest school district in Kansas, told state lawmakers that a major reason for resignations among teachers was the negative portrayals of educators as unprofessional and unworthy of respect.