Selecting justices. Education board. Parasite happens. Teacher vacancies.

By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief

By Amii Castle

Can we agree it’s important to have qualified justices sitting on the Kansas Supreme Court?

By “qualified,” I mean justices who have experience practicing law, justices who cannot be financially compromised, justices who have earned the highest respect from their attorney and judge peers in the legal community, and justices who have not engaged in criminal activity.

If Kansas changes the way we select state Supreme Court justices — from a nonpartisan, merit-based selection process to a popular election — there would be no way to ensure that justices are qualified. Instead, we would select justices based on a candidate’s political savvy and how well they connect with voters. But being a successful politician does not necessarily translate to being a qualified justice on our state’s highest court.

TOPEKA — The three candidates running for the State Board of Education to represent the district covering most of western Kansas disagree on funding strategies and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Republicans Jean Clifford and Kelly Ancar and Democrat Lorie Wood hope to represent the 5th District on the state board, which oversees K-12 public schools.

TOPEKA — Kansas cases of a foodborne illness that causes explosive diarrhea doubled this week to 55, and a national health agency said cases exceeded 7,000 nationwide.

Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control for the University of Kansas Health System, said Monday that Kansas cases of illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis are currently within the range the state experiences annually.

TOPEKA — The vacancy rate among Kansas teachers employed by accredited K-12 schools declined 9.1% this spring as more special education, science, math, elementary and other hard-to-fill classroom instructional slots were filled, state officials said.

Organizations serving American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of violence say reductions in federal funding have led to over 1,000 unmet requests for help, according to a new report.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to resume traffic stops Wednesday, reversing a one-day pause on the policy after officers killed two immigrants who were in their vehicles in Texas and Maine.

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed Wednesday to lawmakers on Capitol Hill that if he is confirmed for the top post, the Justice Department would not oppose an effort in Congress to permanently ban a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund.

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