By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief
Good morning! The Secretary of State’s Office provides this FAQ for questions you might have ahead of Election Day. You can check out a sample ballot at kansasvoterinfo.gov.
Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector
OPINION
A decade after Obama’s historic Hiroshima trip, the world edges toward oblivion. Can we step away?
By Max McCoy
Thursday is the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and as a society we’re still struggling with how to respond to the ability to annihilate ourselves.
Ten years ago, Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, and his message was one of reflection. He spoke of the 100,000 Japanese men, women, and children who died in the Aug. 6, 1945, blast, along with thousands of Koreans and the dozen American prisoners of war.
“Their souls speak to us,” Obama said alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. “They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become.”
When Obama delivered those remarks on May 2016, he had less than a year remaining in his last term in office. Already the world was beginning to change.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Democrats in Kansas governor’s race debate Gov. Laura Kelly’s role in primary campaign
TOPEKA — Democratic gubernatorial candidates Cindy Holscher and Ethan Corson tangled during a Friday debate about rival interpretations of conversations with the office of Gov. Laura Kelly about who should run to replace the popular two-term governor.
Kelly met privately with a cluster of prospective Democratic candidates in 2025, a list that included Johnson County state Sens. Holscher and Corson. Kansas Reflector reported in August 2025 that Holscher had expressed concern through texts sent to the governor’s office that Kelly might wade into the primary in a way designed to damage Holscher’s prospects.
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String of outbreaks tests US public health system amid funding cuts, vaccine resistance
WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged during his confirmation hearing to do everything in his “power to put the health of America back on track.”
Kennedy testified that when he worked as a lawyer he “learned that human health and environmental health are intertwined and inseparable.” He referred to the Make America Healthy Again agenda as “one of the most powerful and transcendent movements I’ve ever seen.”
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.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
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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