U.S. Senate race. Alienating NATO. Rural fervor. No Labels. Cars are objects.

By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief

TOPEKA — As a teenager, Sandy Spidel Neumann said someday she would become a U.S. Senator.

When she saw Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall walk out on a town hall after he was confronted by angry constituents, Neumann said she was motivated to run after a 40-year career in the financial services industry. She is now among eight candidates seeking the Democratic party’s nomination to challenge Marshall.

Her career at Ameriprise Financial Services prepared her to apply business principles, such as digging into data and laying out strategies before making a move, to a political role, Spidel Neumann said on the Kansas Reflector podcast.

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas is pushing back against criticism of the NATO alliance as member nations in Europe take on responsibility for sustaining Ukraine’s fight against Russia and “quietly” assist the United States and Israel in the war against Iran.

Moran, a Republican who has represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate or U.S. House for nearly 30 years, said the conflict with Iran had significant impact on the United States and members of the 32-nation transatlantic military alliance. Since the United States launched military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, there have been consequences in terms of elevated gas prices, heightened security threats and disrupted trade through the Strait of Hormuz.

TOPEKA — A “civil justice crisis” in state courts and across the country requires systemic change, and Kansas’ multifaceted approach is making a difference, a Kansas Supreme Court justice said Monday.

The state is addressing attorney shortages in rural areas and adding self-help resources for Kansans representing themselves, among other projects designed to make the legal system more accessible, said Justice K.J. Wall. He spoke at the third annual Kansas Access to Justice Summit, held at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.

TOPEKA — Members of No Labels Kansas Party unanimously selected a former Kansas Republican Party official and Kansans for Life political action committee director to serve as chairman of the alternative political organization founded two years ago.

By Clay Wirestone

Cars are objects.

That means they exist in the same physical space as people and dogs and cats and duck-billed platypuses. That means they exist alongside other cars and trucks and mopeds and penny-farthing bicycles.

So why doesn’t anyone act like it?

Renters housed through the federal Emergency Housing Voucher program face a looming deadline to find alternative housing assistance, after the Trump administration announced that funding will run out earlier than expected.

WASHINGTON — The California man said by federal prosecutors to have opened fire just outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where President Donald Trump was in attendance alongside Cabinet members and lawmakers, was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate the president, administration officials said.

The U.S. Supreme Court could be ready to overturn a Missouri state court verdict that favored a man who sued the manufacturer of the popular herbicide Roundup for lacking any warning that the product carried a risk of cancer after oral arguments in the case Monday.

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