Committee ranking member U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Republicans stormed out of a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Nov. 30, 2023, where members were voting on subpoenas in connection with an inquiry into U.S. Supreme Court justices’ ethics. Graham is shown speaking during a Nov. 9 meeting of the committee. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Republican colleagues stormed out of a Democratic-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for two high-profile GOP operatives as part of an ethics probe into undisclo ..read more

T Ortiz, a trafficking survivor who is now an advocate and policy consultant, speaks at an event raising awareness of child sex trafficking victims. A federal audit last year found states often failed to follow a federal law that requires screening foster care children for sex trafficking when they return after going missing. (Submitted by T Ortiz) For help, call 1-888-373-7888 or text *233733 for the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline, a national, toll-free hotline. When she was a 10-year-old foster child, T Ortiz often rode a public bus around the San Francisco Bay area, alone ..read more

One of my favorite things to share with others is the similarity between food and poetry, writes Traci Brimhall. Food and poetry both immerse us in our senses. (Getty Images) In my first year as a poet laureate for the state of Kansas, I’ve visited numerous towns and communities to talk about poetry. Often, I am reading poems or discussing the importance of good questions, but one of my favorite things to share with others is the similarity between food and poetry. Food and poetry both immerse us in our senses. They are also both things that connect us to other people. I know a popular concep ..read more

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 29, 2023, the day he delivered a major speech condemning the rise of antisemitism in the United States. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish official, spoke from the chamber on Wednesday about the rise of antisemitism in the United States since the attack by Hamas militants on Israel and that nation’s airstrikes on Gaza. Schumer, speaking to a mostly empty chamber, an unlikely setting for what he described as a “major address,” sough ..read more

Pattie, left, and Patti Garbeff joined forces Wednesday at the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence to support a new coalition in Kansas dedicated to promoting enrollment by people with disabilities in the ABLE savings program that doesn't erode eligibility for Medicaid or supplemental Social Security benefits. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) LAWRENCE — Patti Garbeff recalled a meeting at her kitchen table about enrolling her daughter Pattie in the Kansas ABLE savings plan enabling people with disabilties to save for education, housing, transportation, employment training and other basic l ..read more

Will Lawrence, chief of staff for Gov. Laura Kelly, responded to a letter from Rep. Nick Hoheisel complaining about the new license plate design. Lawrence's message to Hoheisel: If you care about Kansans' concerns, throw your support behind Medicaid expansion. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly gave the people what they wanted. Now, she wants Republicans to follow her lead. The governor’s chief of staff, Will Lawrence, sent a letter Tuesday to Rep. Nick Hoheisel, a Wichita Republican who had sent Kelly a letter complaining about the new license plate design ..read more

With the arrival of winter, respiratory illnesses are spreading, writes opinion editor Clay Wirestone. You should take care of yourself to prevent or treat them. (FS Productions/Getty Images) I write to you this morning through an apathetic fog of mild illness. No, the illness doesn’t appear to be COVID-19, at least according to repeated tests construed via intrusive nasal swab. Given my receipt of a booster late last month, I’m well-protected against that virus for the time being. More likely I’m fending off the cold our son grappled with Thanksgiving week, that familiar conglomeration of so ..read more

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, leads a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Nov. 28, 2023. (States Newsroom screen capture from U.S. Senate webcast) WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday discussed how to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, in hopes of building upon last year’s federal gun safety legislation. “Across the country, gun violence is a public health epidemic,” Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. Senate Republicans pushed back against framing gun violence as a ..read more

Baldwin City Mayor Casey Simoneau, Pottawatomie County Commissioner Dee McKee and Atchison County Commmissioner Casey Quinn, left to right, lauded the Kansas Department of Transportation's cost-share program delivering state funding for infrastructure safety improvements. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Atchison County Commissioner Casey Quinn said several unsuccessful applications were submitted for a piece of cost-share funding from the Kansas Department of Transportation to make safety improvements to well-traveled Ottawa Road. On Tuesday, the county landed the big prize — a $1 m ..read more

Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert, delivering a speech to the Legislature in January, says information systems compromised in an October cyberattack would start to be restored in December. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert said Tuesday the information system used by more than 100 district courts in Kansas crippled in an early October cyberattack could be restored by the end of December. The judicial branch disclosed the disruption in 104 of 105 counties — Johnson County operates on an independent network — following the O ..read more