Latest Kansas state government News

Kansas will no longer change trans people's birth certificates to reflect their gender identities

Sep. 15, 2023 20:45 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will no longer change transgender people's birth certificates to reflect their gender identities, the state health department said Friday, citing a new law that prevents the state from legally recognizing those identities. The decision from the state...

'Get out of my house!' Video shows 98-year-old mother of Kansas newspaper publisher upset amid raid

Aug. 22, 2023 17:55 PM EDT

MARION, Kan. (AP) — Newly released video shows the 98-year-old mother of a Kansas newspaper publisher confronting police officers as they searched her home in a raid that has drawn national scrutiny, at one point demanding: “Get out of my house!” Video released by the newspaper...

The initial online search that spurred a raid on a Kansas paper was legal, a state agency says

Aug. 21, 2023 23:07 PM EDT

MARION, Kan. (AP) — The initial online search of a state website that led a central Kansas police chief to raid a local weekly newspaper was legal, a spokesperson for the agency that maintains the site said Monday, as newly released video showed the publisher's 98-year-old mother protesting a...

Kansas police and a small newspaper are at the center of a 1st Amendment fight after a newsroom raid

Aug. 14, 2023 22:48 PM EDT

MARION, Kan. (AP) — A small newspaper and a police department in Kansas are at the center of a dispute over freedom of speech as the newspaper struggled Monday to publish its next edition, days after police raided its office and the home of its owner and publisher. Officials with...

EXPLAINER: Why is a police raid on a newspaper in Kansas so unusual?

Aug. 14, 2023 17:37 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Tensions between public officials and the press are hardly unusual. To a large extent, it's baked into their respective roles. What's rare in a democratic society is a police raid on a news organization's office or the home of its owner. So when that happened late...

In Utah and Kansas, state courts flex power over new laws regulating abortion post-Roe

Aug. 08, 2023 21:39 PM EDT

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — State courts have become hot spots in the national abortion debate, with Utah's top court and a Kansas judge considering Tuesday whether their state constitutions require them to block or invalidate laws regulating the procedure more than a year after Roe v. Wade was...

Kansas' governor gets to defend birth certificate changes in court, a judge rules

Jul. 18, 2023 16:21 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge is considering Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's arguments that a new Kansas law rolling back transgender rights doesn't bar the state from changing the sex listing on transgender people's birth certificates. U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled...

Kansas lawmakers botched the drafting of a new anti-trans law, agency attorney says

Jul. 11, 2023 19:06 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators botched the drafting of a new law aimed at preventing transgender people from changing how their sex is listed on their driver's licenses, a state agency's lawyer argued in a court filing made public Tuesday. The attorney in Democratic Gov....

Transgender Kansas residents can keep updating their documents despite a new law, governor says

Jun. 29, 2023 17:05 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democratic governor in Kansas declared Thursday that the state will keep allowing transgender residents to alter their driver's licenses and birth certificates, despite a new law aimed at preventing it. Gov. Laura Kelly issued a directive that allows...

In some states with laws on transgender bathrooms, officials may not know how they will be enforced

Jun. 26, 2023 15:54 PM EDT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — When North Dakota restricted which bathrooms transgender students can use in public schools and universities this year, the school district in the state's largest city promised to ignore the new rules. A Republican legislator then called for confiscating its state funding,...