By Anna Kaminski | reporter
Good morning!
Last week, while I waited in line at a gas station in the western Kansas town of Kinsley, I immediately noticed the local paper, sitting in a wire rack for a dollar, featuring a front page photo of a blazing wildfire.
I was there for a different reason, but I wanted to know more about this fire. Later, a group of locals loaded me and a photographer in a pick-up truck and showed us the 1,500-acre fire’s path through the dry bed of the Arkansas River and onto surrounding property. I learned a controlled burn occurred nearby the day before. It was supposedly extinguished 24 hours before the larger wildfire sparked. I wanted to know more, so the story I wrote includes more details, such as information about weather conditions leading up to the fires and investigators’ conclusions.
Senior reporter Tim Carpenter has been documenting for years the saga of Kansas native Brad Heppner, a banking executive who convinced the Kansas Legislature to give his company, Beneficient, a banking charter. Carpenter reports on the newest development in Heppner’s story: A federal conviction.
Plus, we have news about the Silver Haired Legislature, disjointed government responses to heat waves, and more.
P.S. If you haven’t checked out States Newsroom’s new morning newsletter Daybreak, a free daily round-up of top stories from across the country, sign up here. Have a good weekend.
Baya Burgess for Kansas Reflector
A Kansas wildfire scorched 1,500 acres after city’s burn. The official cause is undetermined.
KINSLEY — Charred fence posts, oxidized barbed wire and blackened trees lined the Arkansas River in west-central Kansas in the wake of a 1,500 acre fire that scorched the dry riverbed and surrounding property.
Below average rainfall in the region and a bone-dry riverbed filled with dead brush fueled the fire. The Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office deemed the cause “undetermined,” even though the fire sparked one day after a controlled burn was performed on an adjacent ranch owned by the city of Hays.
The fire marshal’s office did not draw a connection between the two fires.
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Former Beneficient executive with Kansas political ties guilty of fraud in $150M scheme
TOPEKA — The former top executive of a company granted a banking charter by the Kansas Legislature was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury of orchestrating a scheme to funnel more than $150 million to himself through securities fraud, false claims and fabricated records.
Brad Heppner, who founded Beneficient and convinced Kansas lawmakers five years ago to award the Dallas company a bank charter, had entered a plea of not guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements, as well as conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud. He was arrested in November and went on trial three weeks ago in New York City. The jury found him guilty on all four counts.
Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
Kansas Silver Haired Legislature advocates for senior voting accessibility, medical cannabis
TOPEKA — When Chuck Schmidt’s 93-year-old mother-in-law wanted to vote early, she and her family had to jump through hoops to make it possible.
As a lifelong Kansan who now lives in a nursing home, she had to reregister for an advance ballot but ultimately go in person — in a wheelchair — instead of voting with a mail-in ballot.
Schmidt and Leroy Burton are speakers for the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature and represent Kansans over 60. The group’s priorities for 2026 include legalizing medical cannabis, property tax relief, Medicaid and food assistance, voting accessibility and senior transportation.
Kansas researchers issue warning about lack of cohesive government response to heat waves
TOPEKA — The absence of clear lines of authority among local, state and federal government agencies when responding to deadly heat waves raises questions about the nation’s ability to deal with a warming global climate, University of Kansas researchers say.
Kansas kids are 'sliding into silence.' Let’s talk about why they are chatting less.
OPINION
By Eric Thomas
In the flotsam of things I read each week — academic research, online news, sports stories and fiction — one tidbit can get naggily lodged in my thoughts.
‘Killing our vote’: GOP states rush to break up Black districts after US Supreme Court case
Republicans, triumphant over their victory at the court, are rushing fresh gerrymanders through Southern statehouses in time for the November midterm elections in an effort to strengthen their party’s control over the region’s U.S. House delegations. They’re acting at lightning speed, over loud protests, and have nullified votes by suspending ongoing elections.
Housing advocates expect homelessness numbers to fall slightly
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s annual one-night count of those experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness is projected to show a decline after a record-high surge in 2024, according to a new report.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
7 p.m. May 11, Books & Brews, Riverbank Brewing in Council Grove. Hosts: Flint Hills Books and Riverbank Brewing.
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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