Tim Carpenter
Reporter, Kansas ReflectorTim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International. He has been recognized for investigative reporting on Kansas government and politics. He won the Kansas Press Association's Victor Murdock Award six times. The William Allen White Foundation honored him four times with its Burton Marvin News Enterprise Award. The Kansas City Press Club twice presented him its Journalist of the Year Award and more recently its Lifetime Achievement Award. He earned an agriculture degree at Kansas State University and grew up on a small dairy and beef cattle farm in Missouri. He is an amateur woodworker and drives Studebaker cars.
-
The bill would require students in Kansas to be assigned to male and female sports teams based on biological evidence at birth, including a person’s genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive potential. Among 41,000 girls competing in Kansas high school athletic events, only three are known to be transgender. -
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.
-
Michael Rogers was hospitalized after being violently attacked by members of the Aryan Brotherhood in retaliation for cooperating with prosecutors. His lawsuit accused the Kansas Department of Corrections of placing him in the general population at El Dorado Correctional Facility despite known threats to his safety.
-
Following Derek Schmidt's narrow loss to Gov. Laura Kelly, the Kansas GOP will flex its organizational muscle by invoking provisions of the party’s “loyalty clause” to oust from party committees any Republican lawmakers who signed a candidate petition for independent Dennis Pyle.
-
Supermajorities in the House and Senate mean Republicans have greater opportunity to block or impose laws on taxation, abortion, education, budgets, guns, medical or recreational marijuana and health care, including Kelly’s quest to expand eligibility for Medicaid.
-
Kansans approved an amendment that allows county sheriffs to be elected and recalled, while an amendment to allow a legislative majority to revoke executive orders is narrowly failing with 99% of precincts reporting.
-
Republicans in the Kansas Legislature this year fell short of overriding Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a measure blocking transgender people from taking part in athletic teams designated for girls or women. Schmidt urged the Legislature to pass the same bill again.
-
Anti-abortion activists failed to raise the money necessary for a statewide recount of the Aug. 2 abortion amendment, which was overwhelmingly rejected by voters. But they did gather enough funds to conduct a ballot-by-ballot review in Johnson, Shawnee, Douglas and six other populous counties.
-
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is seeking a second term in a campaign requiring she display bipartisan appeal. Derek Schmidt, who spent the past dozen years as the state's attorney general, secured the GOP nomination.
-
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes transgender sports ban, parental bill of rights touted by RepublicansThe Democratic governor also vetoed bills that would raise the barrier to eligibility for food stamps and broaden COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for health providers.
