By Morgan Chilson | senior reporter
Good morning! As a teenager, my friends immediately changed the station when they climbed in my car. I played country music, and they were all rock ’n’ roll. But I could belt out Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” and many others. Her death on Tuesday was a loss — to music and to the world, which she made better with her kindness and generosity. Rest in peace, Dolly.
We’re reporting on transgender Kansans awaiting a court decision about driver’s licenses, an Iowa gubernatorial candidate using personal loans to sustain a Kansas school and an active court order about mail-in voting fought by the Trump administration.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
One Kansan gets her driver’s license back as cases challenging anti-trans law head to trial
One transgender Kansan had her driving privileges reinstated after challenging a state law that regulates gender markers on driver’s licenses.
But only Jamie Miller’s license was returned while hundreds of other trans Kansans await a final decision in her case, which could determine the standing of the state law.
Douglas County District Judge James McCabria issued on Aug. 17 a nine-page decision that set aside the Kansas Department of Revenue’s invalidation of Miller’s license earlier this year.
Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch
Iowa gubernatorial candidate’s personal loans sustain Kansas school he touts as better model
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn eagerly champions the unconventional, hands-on private school he helped launch in Kansas as the best model for reinventing schools.
But Lahn’s campaign narrative about delivering cutting-edge academic leadership at the school called Wonder doesn’t mention its precarious finances. The Kansas school’s expenses exceeded revenue in five of six years. In the six-year period, Wonder owed more than it owned.
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
OPINION
No, Americans haven’t embraced socialism. Suffering people have given up on politics as usual.
By Mark McCormick
A clergyman who had spent years in foreign missionary efforts once explained how the work — building housing, digging wells, feeding and clothing people — morphed into a Christian message.
Missionaries didn’t show up talking about Jesus and the Bible, he said. They busy themselves trying to meet the immediate needs of the people there. Otherwise, residents couldn’t hear their Christian witness.
Much of news national media seems to be missing this formula amid talk of an ideological split on the left and an insurgent push by Democratic socialists. Suffering people don’t care about ideology. They care who heard their desperate cries for help.
Tennessee’s Dolly Parton dies at 80 after a life of music and giving
Dolly Parton, the personification of Tennessee music, died Tuesday at age 80 after decades of entertaining the world.
The news of her death sparked mourning from her birthplace of Locust Ridge in the mountains of East Tennessee across the state to Nashville, where she found fame, and around the world, where her name brought people happiness in her deeds and passion for life.
Cheaper health insurance changed their lives. Then it went away.
Derrick Clark, 51, has no health insurance.
Clark has always struggled with his weight and he readily describes himself as obese. About two decades ago, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He has no health insurance.
Active court order still blocking Trump effort to restrict vote-by-mail
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a procedural victory to President Donald Trump on an executive order to curb mail-in voting, but the administration is still fighting a separate ruling that limits a portion of the order and remains in effect.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
3 p.m. Sept. 26, Washburn Library in Topeka. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone will participate in the panel “Why UPK: University Press of Kansas Celebrates 80 Years.” Host: Kansas Book Festival.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
7 p.m. Sept. 29, Raven Book Store in Lawrence. Book release event for opinion editor Clay Wirestone’s “Opinionated.” Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will moderate.
6 p.m. Oct. 12, Riverbank Brewing in Council Grove. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone talks about his book and the latest news. Host: Flint Hills Books.
6 p.m. Dec. 3, Prairie Star Restaurant in Manhattan. Host: League of Women Voters of Manhattan and Riley County.
If you're interested in having us talk in your town, email Sherman Smith at [email protected].
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