By Paul Soutar | KansasWatchdog TOPEKA — The 2000 Kansas Legislature approved the restoration of the Kansas State Capitol with a price tag of $90 million to $120 million and an eight-year timetable. It’s still several years from completion, and the price tag has risen to $320 million. Want answers? Well, good luck. Most of those lie shrouded within the [...]Read More>>

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Candidates for the 165 seats up for grabs in the Kansas Legislature are eager to see what the political boundaries for state lawmakers and U.S. Congress will look like. But they aren’t alone in their curiosity. An unknown number of people aspiring to serve on precinct committees want [...]Read More>>

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter Ever dream of hitting it big at the craps table, or while playing roulette? Kansas legislators have. In the final days of the session, lawmakers pushed through a plan that would use almost half of the revenue from three state-owned casinos to fund the Kansas Employees Retirement System, which is facing a $8 billion [...]Read More>>

TOPEKA — The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission on Wednesday fined Lisa Wisdom $500 for failing to provide documentation for over $3700 in expenditures by the 2010 campaign of State Rep Phil Hermanson (R-Wichita). Read More>>

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter TOPEKA — Kansas is in the midst of a constitutional crisis, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the state’s chief election officer, said Wednesday. Candidates must decide by June 11 whether to run, or not to run. But they don’t yet know who their opponents might be, or which doors to knock on. Read More>>

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter FAIRWAY — Kansas’ machinery for redrawing its electoral boundaries broke this year. Few political observers, or politicians themselves, would disagree. But even fewer would guess about how fast Kansas can fix the process or what changes, if any, state leaders will make to avoid problems later. “Kansas’ constitution specifically requires the state Legislature [...]Read More>>

This is the first of an occasional (probably twice weekly) aggregation of news from around Kansas. Let me know if you’re interested in more of this or have news of interest to Kansans. Kansas redistricting trial nears completion. Opening day questions concerned keeping communities of interest together, ideal population and those trying to influence the process. MCT: [...]Read More>>

By Gene Meyer| Kansas Reporter TOPEKA — The nine extra days the Kansas Legislature met beyond the prescribed limits cost taxpayers more than $315,000, according to Capitol number crunchers. The money went for pay and subsistence, as 165 lawmakers needed the extra time to pass major legislation. The session is supposed to end in 90 days, according to the [...]Read More>>

With failure by the legislature to define new election districts in Kansas based on 2010 U.S. Census data, the Kansas redistricting battle is headed to federal court. Read More>>

TOPEKA — State Senator Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee) said Wednesday the senate redistricting battle was over “big government versus limited government” ideologies. Read More>>