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The wreckage of a plane crash burns in a field in Butler, Mo, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (Mid America News Review via AP Photo ) KANSAS CITY — Eleven skydivers and the pilot were killed Sunday morning in a plane crash at Butler Memorial Airport in Butler, Missouri. The Bates County Coroner’s Office released the victims’ names Tuesday, two days after the accident, noting some were experienced skydivers. Individuals: Kurt John Roy: 69 years old, Windber, PA Michael R. Shanahan: 54 years old, Kansas City, MO David Hershberger: 54 years old, Liberty, MO Sai Karthik Varma Datla: 24 years old,...

The FBI arrested three men on Friday on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, and Bereen Dzayee, 25, were taken into custody following a complaint filed in the District of Kansas. They were accused of 'conspiring to provide material support to terrorism' after collectively giving over $2,000 in cryptocurrency to an individual believed to be a member of ISIS. The allegations in the complaint were found to be substantiated, and the funds were proven to have...

Six Republicans joined with Democrats on Thursday to support a measure that would block the construction of President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom. The measure needed 60 votes to pass and came as part of a string of amendment votes ahead of the main vote on a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. The final vote was 52-47 in favor, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Husted of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voting to block construction,...

The Senate on Thursday voted on a proposal to block the construction of President Trump’s 90,000 square foot ballroom.The proposal, which needed 60 votes, failed 52-47.However, SIX Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to block the construction of the ballroom: Collins, Husted, Moran, Murkowski, Sullivan and Tillis.The proposal was introduced by Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley during Thursday’s vote-a-rama.

A Kansas boy found something historic during an educational field trip. Corbin Bullard, 12, is already a geology fan, especially dinosaurs. He is also a part of the 4-H Geology Club in Sedgwick County. “4-H is definitely meant to help kids find what they’re interested in and do amazing things,” Stephanie Hays, the Sedgwick County 4-H agent, said. And it was on one of the 4-H trips in Jewell County where Corbin stumbled across something unexpected. “He said, ‘Whoa.’ So, we looked down and found what I think was seven or eight large vertebrae,” Wendy Bullard, Corbin’s mother, recalled. The...

As good, pro-business, pro-prosperity conservatives, we should love a success story like Buc-ee's, and I'm pretty darn sure most of you readers do. I'm a recent convert to Buc-ee's myself, having first experienced this wonderful mega-convenience store/souvenir store/truck stop/fast food joint for myself just last February, on a feral hog hunting jaunt to Texas. It's a great place, a great business model, and they have great barbecue brisket sandwiches. Now, in the next year or two, they will be expanding into at least six new states. At least six states are slated to open their first Buc-ee's locations by the...

The Agriculture Department is embarking on a multi-part plan to relocate employees across its component agencies outside of the Washington, D.C. area. USDA is moving many more jobs across the country than it did under the first Trump administration, but expects fewer employees will turn down relocation offers this time around. However, two unions representing impacted USDA employees say the relocations will cause more disruption than department leaders anticipate. For the second time in seven years, USDA is looking to move D.C.-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City.

Liberal columnist rushed to blame free speech law, Trump A guy holding a provocative sign with the n-word on Kansas State University’s campus is actually black, not a white guy blackface, according to the student newspaper. Last week someone showed up at the public university campus holding a sign that read “Say [n-word] win candy.” The incident understandably upset a liberal columnist, but he also rushed to blame a recently passed free speech law as well as Donald Trump supporters. He later had to amend the article after it came to light the sign holder was not a white person...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Peculiar family is suing Nebraska Furniture Mart after a third-party carpet installer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child. The Accurso Law Firm announced Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit in Cass County on behalf Jane Doe, 8, and members of her family. The lawsuit alleges Nebraska Furniture Mart engaged in negligent and deceptive business practices, which resulted in Jane Doe being sexually assaulted in her home. Enrique L. Martinez, 63, of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty on January 6th, 2026 to two counts of statuary sodomy involving a child under the age of...

Messages sent to an A-I chatbot were at the center of a preliminary hearing for a former NFL player charged with first-degree murder. Investigators say dozens of messages between Darron Lee and ChatGPT were presented in court as prosecutors outlined their case surrounding the death of Lee’s girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetuo, who was found dead inside their Ooltewah home. Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Brian Lockhart testified that Lee contacted the chatbot just a day before Perpetuo’s death, describing a disturbing situation.

Approximately 1,700 Kansans who claim to be another sex than they actually are have had their driver’s licenses revoked after a state law banning ID changes based on “gender identity” went into effect last month. “Kansas is one of five states to prohibit trans people from changing the gender marker on their licenses, but it is the first to pass a law that retroactively cancels licenses that were already changed,” NBC News reported. “The law also invalidated birth certificates for those who updated their gender markers.” Hundreds of people who claim to be transgender have already received letters from the...

Two transgender men are suing Kansas over a new law that invalidated their driver’s licenses and those of about 1,700 others for reflecting people’s gender identities and not their sex assigned at birth, arguing that the measure is “dehumanizing”.

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A Kansas law now in effect requires residents to use bathrooms corresponding with their sex assigned at birth and invalidates driver’s licenses and birth certificates that were altered to reflect a gender identity different from that assigned at birth. There is no grace period in the bill. Trans residents are required to obtain new driver’s licenses immediately. Amended birth certificates must be requested through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Kansas is the first state to include driver’s licenses and birth certificates under this type of law. Other states, including Texas, have passed similar bathroom...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed restrictions in other states on listing gender identities in government documents. The bill prohibits documents from listing any sex other than the one assigned birth and invalidates any that reflect a conflicting gender identity. Florida, Tennessee and Texas also don’t allow driver’s licenses to reflect a trans person’s gender identity, and at least eight states besides Kansas have policies that bar trans residents from changing their birth certificates. But...

Last week, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill that would limit the use of public bathrooms by birth sex rather than by gender identity. Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate adopted the measure late last month after employing a series of legislative maneuvers to expedite its passage without providing an opportunity for public feedback on key provisions, including the requirement that people use public restrooms and other private spaces in accordance with their sex assigned at birth.It’s the latest in a series of bills the Kansas Legislature has passed in recent years limiting the rights of transgender residents....

Kansas Republicans voted to override Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill that requires transgender people to use restrooms and changing facilities based on biological sex rather than gender identity. The Kansas Senate voted to override the veto Tuesday, 31-9, and the Kansas House followed Wednesday with an 87-37 vote, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. The override means Senate Bill 244 is the second new law of the 2026 legislative session and the first to take effect, according to the report. Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, praised the outcome, saying the override "restored sanity." He said Kelly's veto "would...

A 43-year-old Kansas man allegedly spent his Christmas Eve on a mission to kill someone and armed himself with a hammer before knocking on a door of a home with several cars in the driveway. When a woman holding her 1-month-old baby answered, the suspect — later identified as Jason Eastburn — pounced, cops say. He repeatedly hit her in the head with the hammer, requiring doctors to patch up the wound on her head with four staples, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit released on Monday.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) - An unvetted DoorDash driver with a suspended license killed University of Kansas student Elsa McGrain, her parents’ lawsuit claims. ... The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says Elsa McGrain, 20, was jogging in Lawrence around 6 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2025, when Klingler struck her with his vehicle. Deputies found McGrain’s body around 3:35 a.m. the next day near the 1700 block of E. 1500 Rd. in North Lawrence. She was a pre-med student set to graduate in 2026. Investigators indicate that they found Klingler and the suspect vehicle on Nov. 10, less than a mile from...

Susan Collins (ME) Lisa Murkowski (AK) Rand Paul (KY) Mitch McConnell (KY) Thom Tillis (NC) Todd Young (IN) Chuck Grassley (IA) Jerry Moran (KS)

A missing Kansas elementary school teacher was discovered dead in the snow just 300 yards from where surveillance footage last captured her Friday as a massive winter storm swept the country. The body of 28-year-old Rebecca Rauber was found covered in snow in a wooded area of Emporia on Sunday, near where she was last seen leaving a bar days earlier, police told KWCH. Police said Rauber was located by K-9 Daisy of K-9 Search and Rescue Kansas. Rauber, a second-grade teacher at Riverside Elementary School, is believed to have died from hypothermia just hours after she disappeared. Police said...