Kansas state government

Kansas lawmakers inserted language in the state budget that would restrict what food benefit recipients can buy. Critics say that defining what counts as unhealthy food and drinks is tricky, and the current ban has glaring loopholes.

As Missouri lawmakers prepare to debate a counter offer to keep the Royals and Chiefs in Kansas City, economists say Kansas’ proposal to use STAR bonds may not be financially feasible. “You are not going to generate enough net revenue to cover one of the facilities, let alone two,” one expert says.

Kansas legislators passed a law this year that bans gender-affirming treatments for young transgender people. Plaintiffs say it violates fundamental rights in the state constitution.

This month, Kansas received a letter from the federal government that demanded "unfettered access to comprehensive data from all State programs that receive federal funding," including Social Security numbers and personal addresses of SNAP recipients.

Legal complaints against adult sites are mounting in Kansas as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether age verification laws are constitutional.

With elder abuse cases in Kansas on the rise, investigators are taking on three times the number of cases they can adequately manage. The state says it can't release data on caseloads but advocates say metrics for evaluating elder abuse are lacking.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit in 2023 along with attorneys general from Kansas and Idaho aimed at overturning guidelines for greater access to the medication abortion pill. The Trump administration will defend an earlier decision that affirms those guidelines.

Kansas schools now have $10 million in state funding to use AI to detect guns. But ZeroEyes, one of the few companies offering this service, has sent police false alerts before — and it won't say how often.

Advocates for people who are homeless say eliminating the credit will mean it's harder to find affordable places to live. Lawmakers say when they passed the tax credits in 2022, they didn’t realize how much they would cost.

A Wyandotte County judge agreed with criticisms of the death penalty, but he said the case was invalid because both defendants no longer face capital punishment.