Legislators bid farewell. Law Day for all. State employees' insurance.

By Clay Wirestone | opinion editor

TOPEKA — Dan Goddard’s boyhood dream wasn’t to become a politician serving constituents in Parsons, first as a senator and then as a representative in the Kansas Legislature.

His youthful quest was to be a U.S. Air Force pilot, which he achieved during a military career spanning 24 years. He devoted 20 years to breathing economic life into closed military bases. He then turned to politics and served a decade in elective offices, including four years in the Senate and four years in the House.

“I came to Kansas without a political thought in my mind,” Goddard said last month as his final session in the Legislature came to a close. “There are some great, great people in this chamber on both sides of the aisle. I’ve made friends that I will never, ever, ever forget.”

His advice to political brethren: “Slow down, take it easy and you’ll achieve a more harmonious outcome.”

Approximately one dozen members of the Kansas House are expected to not seek reelection this year, when all 125 House seats will be up for grabs in November. Some, like Goddard, chose retirement. Three representatives altered their career path to seek statewide office rather than reelection to the House.

TOPEKA — Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Rosen lavished praise Friday on President Dwight Eisenhower’s insistence on recognizing the rule of law in shielding individual liberties, championing justice and forbidding anyone from operating above the reach of legal authority.

It was Eisenhower — the farm boy from Abilene, the World War II military hero and the 34th president — who designated May 1, 1958, as Law Day. In 1961, Congress added an exclamation point to Eisenhower’s directive by formally establishing a national observance of appreciation for ideals of equality and justice under law and the rights and freedoms established under the Constitution.

TOPEKA — State decision-makers are mulling whether to drop Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas from the state employee health insurance plan, which would give employees just one option and potentially save the state nearly $240 million over three years.

Members of the Kansas State Employees Health Care Commission questioned representatives from Aetna and Blue Cross at an April 15 meeting, weighing proposals to administer the state’s health insurance plans for 43,400 eligible employees.

One of the main methods of obtaining abortion medication for those living in states with bans is now blocked nationwide, after a federal appeals court decision issued Friday afternoon.

By Robert Harris

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects nationwide retail gasoline prices to average near US$4.30 a gallon for April 2026 — the highest monthly average of the year. The political response has been familiar. Georgia has suspended its state gas tax, other states are weighing their own tax holidays, and the White House has issued a temporary waiver of a law known as the Jones Act in hopes of moving more domestic fuel to East Coast ports.

President Donald Trump on Thursday moved to capitalize on a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakening the federal Voting Rights Act as he urged one governor to gerrymander his state and praised another for suspending an approaching primary.

After the U.S. Supreme Court severely weakened the federal Voting Rights Act in an April 29 decision, a furious U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned what he called an “illegitimate” conservative majority on the court.

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