David Condos
ReporterDavid Condos is High Plains Public Radio's western Kansas correspondent. Based in Hays, he reports on issues that shape rural communities across the Great Plains — from water and climate change to agriculture and immigration. His coverage of western Kansas has earned him several prestigious awards, including a National Edward R. Murrow award, two national Public Media Journalists Association awards and three regional Edward R. Murrow awards.
His work reaches audiences across Kansas through the Kansas News Service, a statewide collaboration of public radio stations. The stories he’s reported from western Kansas have also aired nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Here & Now and have been published in newspapers nationwide.
After growing up in Nebraska, Colorado and Illinois, Condos graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
You can email him at dcondos@hppr.org and follow him on Twitter @davidcondos.
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The weather event that killed thousands of cattle in southwest Kansas last month was a rare combination of extreme factors. But it highlights the ongoing risk that heat stress poses for cattle, especially as climate change pushes temperatures higher.
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For small towns with dwindling populations and shrinking tax bases, luring travelers to stop and spend a few dollars is a matter of survival. Some turn to quirky roadside tourist attractions.
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Russia's war in Ukraine has disrupted global food supplies, driving up demand and prices for wheat. But after months of drought, many western Kansas farmers won’t have a crop to sell.
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For small towns with dwindling populations and shrinking tax bases, luring travelers to stop and spend a few dollars is a matter of community survival. Some turn to quirky roadside tourist attractions. And the community pride these offbeat sites generate can be just as valuable as the money they bring in.
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For Kansans living in Liberal, Dodge City and Hays, there’s only one airline that flies to and from the local airport. So when that airline filed paperwork this spring to terminate services, it sent shockwaves through these remote towns.
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Installing high-speed fiber internet in rural places like western Kansas is very expensive, even with government subsidies. Some smaller, local broadband providers are finding ways to make it work.
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Installing fiber-optic internet in sparsely populated places like western Kansas is extremely expensive, even with government subsidies. But some smaller, local broadband providers are finding ways to make it work where the big national companies have not.
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The Kansas wildfire season is typically winding down around this time of year. But after months of drought, high winds and dry grass continue to fuel extreme wildfire conditions across the state.
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In rural farming regions, dangerous chemicals from fertilizer have made their way into water sources. For some towns, it takes millions of dollars just to get clean water for a few hundred residents.
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The water in the Ogallala aquifer is worth billions of dollars to western Kansas, but it’s rapidly disappearing. And it's been a challenge to find ways to slow the depletion.