TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly initiated a COVID-19 inoculation program Thursday delivering first-round shots to an estimated 12,000 workers in meatpacking plants operating in Kansas to help close during the next week a vaccine distribution gap to Latino and Hispanic community members.

LAWRENCE — Haskell Indian Nations University is facing a First Amendment lawsuit from its student newspaper after the school allegedly cut the paper’s funding and sought to prevent the newspaper’s editor from conducting newsgathering after critical coverage of the university.

TOPEKA — Operators of the regional power grid again ordered utilities to implement rolling blackouts Tuesday morning to conserve natural gas and electricity as bitterly cold temperatures plunged to double-digit negatives.

TOPEKA — The December holiday season offered a gift to Kansas workers in the form of a sharp drop in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to 3.8% that was driven by growth in private-sector jobs, officials said.

Lee Norman, the state’s top health officer, said Thursday the actual number of Kansans who have received the COVID-19 vaccine is probably twice the figure reflected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online tracker.

A Capitol Police officer died late Thursday from injuries he sustained while a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were set to vote to certify the presidential election results.

TOPEKA — Pittsburg State University president Steve Scott is convinced Kansas higher education justifiably pushed limits of in-person instruction this fall semester in the face of COVID-19 gyrations threatening to throw colleges and universities off balance.

A student journalist’s questions in Lawrence have put him at odds with his university and given him a taste of media attention.

WASHINGTON — Democrat Joe Biden’s native state of Pennsylvania on Saturday secured his victory to become the next president of the United States when The Associated Press reported he had gained enough votes there to win the electoral college.

TOPEKA — Republican Roger Marshall leveraged the conservative instincts of Kansas voters and an affinity for President Donald Trump to claim victory Tuesday night in the U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Barbara Bollier to determine a replacement for retiring Sen. Pat Roberts.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Secretary of State’s office on Monday dismissed growing concerns ahead of Election Day that voter intimidation or suppression tactics will impact results.

TOPEKA — Police say they are sorting through new information from witnesses about what happened Saturday night when two men apparently fired a handgun and rifle at a group of five teenagers, possibly in a confrontation over Donald Trump yard signs.

TOPEKA — A statewide poll of Kansans revealed a majority support re-election of President Donald Trump, nearly half believe the Black Lives Matter movement deepened the nation’s racial divide and two-thirds endorse legalization of recreational marijuana.

TOPEKA — Researchers at the University of Kansas report counties with mask mandates thwarted significant escalation in transmission of COVID-19 and counties operating without a requirement people wear a face covering suffered steady infection rate increases.

In a decade of work in multilingual education, Jacqueline Rodriguez has seen students learning English as a second language treated as if knowing their first language is a disadvantage.

TOPEKA — Emergency rooms across Kansas are seeing an increase in people with behavioral and mental health issues seeking care amid the pandemic, and the medical facilities lack necessary resources or staff dedicated to serving these patients.

Kathy Winters had responsibility for care of two of her grandchildren for 16 months, but eventually learned from caseworkers, child advocates and her attorney that adoption of the boys would be impossible unless she offered court testimony denouncing her daughter.

Republican and Democratic politicians from Kansas paid tribute to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Amid a pandemic that has drastically impacted the way rural hospitals provide services, telehealth has provided patients and staff at Smith County Memorial Hospital desperately needed services and support.

Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday expressed alarm at rapidly worsening COVID-19 numbers in Kansas and blamed Republican legislative leaders for standing in the way of a statewide mask mandate.

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would announce a replacement for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by either Friday or Saturday.

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every corner of society but perhaps affected none more profoundly than education. Schools were forced to close their doors, parents became teachers, and students transitioned to all-online instruction.

Gov. Laura Kelly said Monday escalation of COVID-19 clusters and the rising number of fatalities linked to the virus necessitate renewal of a state disaster declaration when the existing executive order expires Sept. 15.

Cancelling commercial aspects of the Kansas State Fair compelled the organization to halt building renovations, impose staffing cuts and set in motion a plan to raid its charitable foundation to cover an estimated $2.3 million revenue shortfall.

Members of a legislative panel said a refreshed approach to the intersection of criminal justice reform and race is needed after decades of inaction.

Kansans receiving unemployment benefits due to job loss caused by COVID-19 should soon receive much-needed support in the form of up to $400 in additional payments from a federal unemployment program.

Lack of Kansas-specific knowledge about growing hemp and modest opportunity to market the plant’s fiber for manufacturing and grain for flour are limiting financial return for Kansas farmers working with the alternative crop, state auditors said Wednesday.

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday it would temporarily halt residential evictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections.

Kansas State University College of Engineering produced 3D printed nasopharyngeal swabs to fill supply chain gaps in the region (Kansas State University)

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say an assistant director of human resources conducted the university’s internal review.

The U.S. House convened a rare weekend session in an attempt to stop the U.S. Postal Service from allegedly disrupting mail service to sabotage the November elections.

The University of Kansas issued cease-and-desist orders to two fraternities and imposed 14-day public health bans for members of both student organizations for weekend behavior that disregarded policy and regulations aimed at moderating spread of COVID-19.

The Kansas director of emergency management said Tuesday state purchases of $64 million in personal protective equipment during the pandemic included substandard N95 respirator masks and bogus surgical gowns that were little more than plastic bags with openings for a person’s arms.

Federal authorities on Thursday announced the indictment of Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage and two others for siphoning payments from a crowdsourced fund to privately build a border wall with Mexico.

A leader of Gov. Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice on Thursday called for refreshed police training programs focused more squarely on historical context and the role of police in perpetuating inequalities.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran joined the U.S. Bureau of Prisons director and the Leavenworth penitentiary warden Thursday to extol allocation of $356 million for construction of a new prison and satellite prison camp that would keep one of the area’s largest employers intact.

A protester is arrested during a July 24 march in Overland Park organized by The Miller Dream LLC. (Submitted to Kansas Reflector)

Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told a task force Wednesday the state needs to expand COVID-19 testing by contracting with private laboratories and transitioning to a saliva test that isn't as difficult to administer as the nasal swab test for corona…

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Tuesday he will halt a series of sweeping policy changes to the U.S. Postal Service until after the general elections this fall.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s frustration with inability of Congress to advance a new coronavirus relief package culminated Monday in signing of an executive order prohibiting mortgage foreclosures as well as residential or commercial evictions in Kansas due to financial hardship created by the pandemic.

Controversial new regulations for how universities respond to sexual assault reverse a decade of survivor advocacy work, said Sara Rust-Martin, legal and policy director for the Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence.

The Emporia State University Foundation says the personal information of 67,000 alumni was exposed in a data security breach involving Blackbaud Inc., a fundraising service provider for the higher education sector.

TOPEKA — Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Lee Norman says he is used to “looking over my shoulder,” behavior the lieutenant colonel in the Kansas Army National Guard learned while serving as senior medical commander in a combat zone.

BELLE PLAINE (AP) — The Kansas State Finance Council has allocated more than $254 million of federal coronavirus relief funds mostly toward efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and boost the state's economy.