By Morgan Chilson | senior reporter
Good morning! A top broadcasting company announced hundreds of layoffs last week, many journalists, even as a Kansas Reflector story reminds us about the importance of journalism and protecting freedom of the press. The Marion County Record newspaper raid made national and international news — for a good reason.
As Thomas Jefferson so aptly said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." We, of course, would expand that to cover Kansas Reflector and many other organizations’ online presences that today cover the news you need to know. We appreciate your readership and support!
Join us tonight at Celtic Fox in Topeka, where editor-in-chief Sherman Smith and summer intern Baya Burgess will answer audience questions. Details are in the calendar below.
Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector
Three years after police raid on Kansas newspaper, reporter settles lawsuit for $850K
Phyllis Zorn, the reporter whose acts of journalism served as an excuse for the August 2023 police raid of the Marion County Record, will get $850,000 from the city of Marion to settle her federal lawsuit over the raid.
Attorneys for Zorn and the city filed a motion Tuesday, exactly three years after the raid, to dismiss the case. Kansas Reflector reviewed a copy of the settlement agreement, which has not been entered into the court record.
Zorn said her long national nightmare is over.
“I’ve always been a fairly private person,” Zorn said. “It’s been an uncomfortable situation for me to be in, where pieces of my life are out there. That took some serious getting used to.”
Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
Midwest Innocence Project files claim of wrongful conviction in KCK barbershop homicide case
Appellate attorneys representing Donnell Dobbs say their client had no role in the Kansas City, Kansas, barbershop death of Muryel Josenberger despite a jury conviction for first-degree murder based on testimony from a survivor of the violent melee.
Questions about Dobbs’ guilt lingered after police and prosecutors closed the case. Five years ago, the Community Integrity Unit created by the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office concluded that Dobbs was innocent of murder, said Evan Glasner, part of the Midwest Innocence Project’s legal team.
John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
OPINION
What does mismanagement of the Iran war teach us about Trump-Rollins farm policy? Everything.
By Greg Frazier
“They want to make a deal,” President Donald Trump announced. “There's a good chance that something could happen."
He has made more than 50 such uncorroborated declarations of Iran’s intent to negotiate ending his war, and countless discordant statements of his goals.
When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asked Congress for $11 billion for another farm rescue, she followed the boss’s lead — into the fantastical. She said it is just a patch, needed until “the burgeoning market access” she claims the administration has negotiated yields increased overseas sales.
Trump taken via catering truck to secret flight amid Iran threats, report says
President Donald Trump covertly traveled across Europe in a military plane in July after Iran threatened his life, according to a bombshell report Monday night by The Washington Post that revealed press and White House officials remained on a decoy Air Force One.
States, cities try to keep ICE out of schools
On June 11, ICE agents trailed a car into the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. For the family riding in that car, an everyday school drop off quickly devolved into chaos.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
6 p.m. Aug. 12, Celtic Fox in Topeka. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will answer audience questions about Kansas Reflector reporting on the primary and general elections. Host: Capital Area Democratic Women's Club.
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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