When I sat down late last week with Kansas Reflector editor Sherman Smith and senior reporter Tim Carpenter, we intended to revisit the biggest stories of 2023.
We did our best, but the process reminded me just how much news happened in the past year. Sure, we endured a legislative session — the bread and butter of an outlet like ours — but the rest of the year found us covering a fusillade of news. As we recorded the latest installment of the Reflector podcast, as Smith and Carpenter talked about their work, more stories suggested themselves. Leaving the office, I told Smith I had been reminded of even more coverage that we didn’t have time to talk about.
And this wasn’t even an election year.
Here’s a guide to the top stories of 2023 we highlighted during the podcast. If you think we missed something, we almost assuredly did. It was that kind of year.
Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones (Aug. 11)
No story defined the year like the police raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper. It also motivated our second most-read opinion piece for 2023. It also continues to unspool, with Marion officials having left their jobs and investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation now apparently involved. We will almost certainly learn more in the months ahead.
Kansas Senate falls short in attempt to override governor’s veto of flat tax proposal (April 26)
Senate President Ty Masterson really wanted a flat tax bill passed in 2023, damn the financial consequences for Kansas. State Sen. Rob Olson, R-Olathe, blocked the override of Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto and faced consequences of his own — Masterson booted him from a committee chairmanship.
Transgender student athlete ban on the books in Kansas, following three years of GOP campaigning (April 5)
Transgender girls are now blocked from playing women’s sports from kindergarten through college, following the Legislature’s successful override of Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a transgender student athlete ban.
State lawmakers painted a target on the back of transgender children and adults this year. The sports discrimination law and a “Women’s Bill of Rights” that had nothing to do with women’s rights stained Kansas’ reputation and sent an unmistakable message to trans Kansans: The Republican majority doesn’t want you here. Thankfully, a medically unwarranted ban on gender-affirming care didn’t make it through.
Kansas Legislature approves K-12 education budget with private school benefits (April 28)
GOP lawmakers tried throughout the session to pass a school voucher program, which would have funneled state dollars to private (and often religious) schools. The efforts have been infesting statehouses nationwide, but Kansas legislators fell short in the 2023 session.
Church and state: Republicans revel in divine plan to turn Kansas into ‘conservative sanctuary’ (May 15)
Adam Peters laced his sermon for Reno County Republicans with conspiracy theories about a liberal plot to turn their children against them, LGBTQ-friendly church pastors who signed a contract with Satan, the ubiquitous travesty of critical race theory, and make-believe enemies working to “foment violent conflict.”
Smith and reporter Rachel Mipro collaborated on a stunning series that proved, in installment after installment, how a brand of ideologically extreme Christianity has parasitized the Kansas Republican Party. However bad you think it might be, the series proved it — via direct quotes and named sources — far worse.
“I’ve been going every day for more than 15 years,” Carpenter said of the session, “and if you go back to the early aughts, there might be a couple of legislators during the legislative session that might refer to scripture in their arguments for or against legislation. It’s much more common now. It’s frequent. I think people instead of just wearing religion in their heart and trying to blend that, it’s overt and out in public.”
Kansas’ unrivaled rural hospital crisis: 58% at risk of closing, 82% lost money on patient care (Dec. 12)
Financial weaknesses at four of every five rural Kansas hospitals provide leverage to Medicaid expansion advocates who are eager for the infusion of $680 million annually in new government investment into the state’s health care system.
For most of a week last month, Reflector staff covered the ongoing harms done to Kansas by officials’ stubborn refusal to expand the Medicaid program. Carpenter contributed this story to the series, while also covering Kelly’s barnstorming throughout the state to promote expansion. We know that some 150,000 Kansans could benefit and that at least 1,500 have died from government inaction. Will that be enough to push expansion over the finish line this year? We shall see.
Kansas Board of Education seeks 4-year, $346 million state funding hike for special education (July 13)
She killed her rapist after months of abuse. Advocates say Kansas governor should set her free. (Jan. 30)
Carpenter and Smith, respectively, mentioned these stories as important ones that might not have made the top of a most-read story list for the year. In each case, we’re waiting to see what officials decide.
Will legislators step up and follow the state’s own law, funding 92% of special education costs? Will Kelly grant clemency to a woman who killed the man who brutally abused her?
Check with us next year about this time, and we can tell you more.
A wider look
For those who might be curious, here are the top 25 most-read stories from Kansas Reflector in 2023. The data was pulled Dec. 26. From all of us at Kansas Reflector, please have a wonderful new year. Get ready — the 2024 session begins next week.
1. Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones (Aug. 11)
2. ‘Huge scam’ in rural Kansas town fells fourth U.S. bank in 2023 (Aug. 11)
3. Five new Kansas license plate designs offered after first try met with widespread disgust (Dec. 11)
4. Police defend raid on Kansas newspaper amid backlash over ‘brazen violation of press freedom’ (Aug. 12)
5. Southeast Kansas town is almost out of water, and signs of crisis are everywhere (Oct. 30)
6. Marion County Record publishes in defiance of police raid — and gets seized property back (Aug. 16)
8. Church and state: Republicans revel in divine plan to turn Kansas into ‘conservative sanctuary’ (May 15)
9. ‘Jesus, how I love thee’: Kansas public school district warned about Bible lessons, worship songs (Dec. 5)
10. Kansas governor slams brakes on new license plate: ‘I’ve heard you loud and clear’ (Nov. 28)
12. Sheriff’s office agrees to destroy evidence obtained from raid on Kansas newspaper (Aug. 24)
13. Kobach: KBI looking into possible data breach in Kansas newspaper case (Aug. 17)
14. Emporia State University, Kansas Board of Regents members ‘unfit to lead,’ investigation finds (May 1)
15. Kansas Legislature passes human smuggling law, junk science ‘abortion reversal’ bill (April 27)
16. ‘The KHP waged war’: Federal judge orders end of Kansas trooper ‘two-step’ maneuver (July 21)
17. Politicians mark start of $532 million project to replace Leavenworth’s 126-year-old penitentiary (Oct. 30)
18. Marion newspaper’s lawyer chastises police for treating newspaper as ‘drug cartel,’ ‘street gang’ (Aug. 14)
19. Evel Knievel display triggers lawsuit against Iowa museum (April 19)
20. Transgender student athlete ban on the books in Kansas, following three years of GOP campaigning (April 5)
21. After Kansas newspaper raid, lawmaker proposes taking warrant power away from magistrates (Aug. 22)
22. Kansas Republicans admonish Black lawmaker. His response: ‘not my job to protect your feelings’ (May 31)
23. Kansas mayor who tried to rid city library of LGBTQ books loses school board race (Nov. 10)
24. ‘Classic Ponzi scheme’: Angry creditors lambaste CEO of Kansas asset-swap business in court records (March 1)
25. Topeka city manager was ‘in a pretty bad place’ in final days on the job (July 19)
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Excerpts or more from this article, originally published on Kansas Reflector appear in this post. Republished, with permission, under a Creative Commons License.
