By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief
Good morning! Summer intern Baya Burgess has an in-depth story on a new state law that makes it a crime for the public, including ICE watchers and journalists, to get near a law enforcement officer. A First Amendment attorney says the law is unconstitutional, and ICE officers are wielding the law to deter people from taking video of their (sometimes unlawful) activities.
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New Kansas law limits efforts to document ICE activity. Video shows how officers utilize the law.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surrounded a Lenexa woman recording video from her car as an officer shouted “25 feet, 25 feet” and ordered her to move back July 11 in Olathe.
She couldn’t move because they had trapped her.
The officer’s command referenced a Kansas law called the Halo Act. Effective July 1, it criminalized “unlawfully approaching” law enforcement officers or first responders within 25 feet under certain circumstances. The law changed how people like Shana Leacox document ICE activity.
Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector
Kansas Board of Regents defines CRT and DEI in terms skeptics view as vague, imprecise
TOPEKA — Amy Reid loathes the Kansas Legislature’s campaign to restrain public university instruction of critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Reid, program director for the Freedom to Learn program at PEN America, denounced as an affront to academic freedom the Legislature’s decision to attach CRT and DEI strings to $12 million appropriated to six universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system.
To claim $2 million each in the current fiscal year, the 2026 Legislature required in a budget bill that the Board of Regents formally adopt definitions of DEI and CRT.
Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer
Immigrants, DHS agents and traffic stops: Violent outcomes repeat across the US
WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on July 13 killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national with legal work authorization, in Maine, making him the 22nd person shot at by federal immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Taco Bell removing lettuce nationwide linked to cyclosporiasis in 5 states
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that public health officials have linked the ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis in five states to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell restaurants.
A lack of pies for a pack of lies — what spoonerisms reveal about how the brain produces speech
OPINION
By Karen Stollznow
These accidental mix-ups of sounds, known as spoonerisms, are among the most well-known speech errors. They can be delightfully funny, but for linguists and psychologists they’re much more than a source of amusement. They offer a rare glimpse into one of the most astonishing things our brains do every day: turn thoughts into fluent speech in a fraction of a second.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
5:30 p.m. July 23, Emporia Arts Center. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will lead a discussion on the proposed constitutional amendment to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices. Host: Kansas Appleseed. Register here.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
If you're interested in having us talk in your town, email Sherman Smith at [email protected].
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