By Anna Kaminski | reporter
Good morning, and happy Friday!
We’ll get to Thursday evening’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in a moment. First, on the local front, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate announced her running mate, and experts unpacked the effects of swinging temperatures on the Kansas wheat crop.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, and her potential lieutenant governor, Rep. KC Ohaebosim, are both legislative veterans, Tim Carpenter reports, and they are fighting an uphill battle for the Democratic nomination without the current governor’s endorsement.
Next, the largest educational security breach on record hit more than 8,800 educational institutions worldwide this week, and columnist Eric Thomas saw it firsthand. He teaches three classes at the University of Kansas in Lawrence this semester and watched as a hack seized coursework, grades and exams during finals week.
“Danger is calling when we have risk that is both concentrated and widespread,” he wrote.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided to allow mail access to abortion pills — for now. The order is only the first step as high-stakes litigation continues between Louisiana and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Stateline’s reproductive rights reporters have the breakdown.
Sherman Smith/ Kansas Reflector
Democratic ticket in Kansas governor’s race pairs legislators from Johnson, Sedgwick counties
TOPEKA — Kansas gubernatorial candidate Cindy Holscher said Thursday that Wichita Rep. KC Ohaebosim would be her running mate, forming a Democratic ticket of like-minded Statehouse veterans committed to public education, healthcare access and economic affordability.
Holscher said Ohaebosim understood what it meant to be a leader in the fight for Kansans’ interests.
Illustration by Eric Thomas for Kansas Reflector
OPINION
With Canvas software outage, Kansas schools discover how much they leaned on it
By Eric Thomas
Maybe you heard the yelps echoing from the hallways of Kansas schools last week as a software outage essentially paused academic work. No quizzes. No assignments. No grading. No video tutorials.
And no sense of when it would end.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
US Supreme Court rules telehealth abortion can resume while lawsuit continues
The U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday to preserve telehealth access to the abortion drug mifepristone until after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on the merits of the high-stakes federal lawsuit Louisiana v. Food and Drug Administration.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued dissenting opinions.
Extreme temperature swings, disease lead to troublesome Kansas wheat outlook
TOPEKA — Favorable fall conditions for wheat planting gave way to a warmer-than-usual winter and spring cold snaps, placing Kansas wheat crop in a precarious situation.
Kansas State University experts also warned in a recent memo of disease emerging in wheat fields in nine Kansas counties.
Trump elections order would create chaotic ‘nightmare,’ Democrats and allies tell court
WASHINGTON — Democrats and advocacy groups urged a quick rejection of President Donald Trump’s latest executive order on compiling citizenship lists and creating traceable mail-in ballots in a federal court hearing Thursday.
US House members scrutinize ‘big, beautiful’ law’s loan limits for nursing degrees
WASHINGTON — U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon took heat Thursday over forthcoming changes to the federal student loan system that will impose new borrowing limits for professional and graduate students.
Lawmakers took specific aim at stricter loan caps set to be established for students pursuing advanced programs that do not fall under the department’s “professional” classification, such as nursing, teaching and social work.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
6:30 p.m. June 12, Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone will join a panel discussion: "From the Desk of William Allen White: What Can Journalism Today Learn from the Sage of Emporia?"
5:30 p.m. June 16, Bradbury Alumni Center at Washburn University in Topeka. 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.
6 p.m. June 24, Groover Labs in Wichita. 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.
6 p.m. June 25, Clint Bowyer Community Building in Emporia. 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.
7 p.m. June 27, Park City Senior Center. Host: Park City Community Pride.
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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