Johnson County Kansas

After early success as a stagecoach shop, Olathe is now classic suburbia dotted with shopping plazas and well-kept parks. Dive into the restaurant scene, history and natural splendor of this Johnson County suburb.

The Kansas-Missouri border splits Kansas City, and divides the metro region more evenly, and sometimes problematically, than any American metro region cut in two by a state line.

As sleet and snow began falling, volunteers at Project 1020, Johnson County’s only emergency cold-weather shelter, made sure unhoused residents weren’t caught in the life-threatening cold. Unlike other county organizations, the shelter operated around the clock for several days straight.

Entitled “Fire Keepers Circle," the installation represents the route that the Potawatomi people were forced to take from Indiana to Kansas nearly two centuries ago. Dozens of people died, mostly children and the elderly.

After Lenexa shot down Johnson County's plan to build a low-barrier homeless resources center, commissioners voted to use those federal funds instead on several other housing initiatives — including a Habitat for Humanity project and support for a cold weather shelter.

Kansas Republicans have a veto-proof supermajority in both the House and Senate, meaning they can steamroll Democrats on any issue — and override the governor's veto — if they stand united. But Democrats could change that by flipping seats in Johnson County.

Some GOP lawmakers from Johnson County are no longer talking about their votes championing anti-abortion bills in the Kansas Legislature, and saying they respect the 2022 vote defeating an anti-abortion constitutional amendment.

Nearly 100 players from the region, spanning grades 6-12, are participating in the new Ad Astra Chamber Orchestra of Kansas City. “I try to get away from stuffy concerts,” says the group co-founder Russ Pieken.

With the election for Johnson County Sheriff now between Democrat Byron Roberson and Republican Doug Bedford, polarizing issues that Calvin Hayden had campaigned on — election skepticism and immigration for example — have dropped in prominence.

The number of unhoused people in Johnson County has grown significantly over the last decade. Johnson County Commission chair Mike Kelly says that a proposed Homeless Service Center — built in a former La Quinta Inn — could be a key, if other cities sign off on funding.

During the first year of open enrollment in Kansas, where schools could allow students from outside their district, Olathe, Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission only accepted a few dozen applicants each.

Kansas Republicans and Democrats are targeting the suburbs of Kansas City as it becomes increasingly purple in the Republican-dominated state.