Articles written by Heather Hollingsworth
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Pandemic, culture wars revive 'school choice' policy push
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Nichole Mason first became concerned when she learned administrators at her children's public school were allowing transgender students to use girls' bathrooms. Her frustrations mounted when she felt her children's next...
Youth program founder hurt in shooting 'has biggest heart'
Will Keeps was a 15-year-old member of a Chicago gang when he witnessed rival members kill his friend. He escaped the streets and moved to Iowa to help other young people from troubled backgrounds. Now, Keeps is hospitalized and in serious condition...
Holiday travel upended as forecasters warn of 'bomb cyclone'
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Thousands of flights were canceled and homeless shelters were overflowing Thursday amid one of the most treacherous holiday travel seasons the U.S. has seen in decades, with temperatures plummeting 50 degrees Fahrenheit in...
Oil spill in rural Kansas creek shuts down Keystone pipeline
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise on Thursday. Canada-based TC Energy said it shut down its...
Armed guards a fixture outside pot farm before 4 were slain
Armed guards were a fixture outside the marijuana growing operation in rural Oklahoma where four people were slain execution-style. The mail carrier "was met with guns pretty much all the time," Jack Quirk, the owner of the local paper, All About...
Lawmaker: Kansas should cut ties with foster care contractor
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — The head of a Kansas legislative panel wants to end the state's contract with its largest foster care contractor, after two former executives were accused of scheming to defraud the organization out of at least $4.7 million....
Former Kansas detective, 3 others accused of sex trafficking
Federal prosecutors say a Kansas police detective and three other men ran a violent sex trafficking operation that targeted troubled teenage girls at an apartment complex in Kansas City, Kansas, in the 1990s. Former detective Roger Golubski, who has...
Abortion clinic that opened days after Roe fell is inundated
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — When Planned Parenthood decided four years ago to open a new clinic in a medically underserved working-class neighborhood here, it envisioned a place that would save women living nearby from having to take hourslong bus...
Kansas recount confirms results in favor of abortion rights
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A decisive statewide vote in favor of abortion rights in traditionally conservative Kansas was confirmed with a partial hand recount, with fewer than 100 votes changing after the last county reported results Sunday. Nine of the...
Back to school, with panic buttons: The post-Uvalde scramble
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Melissa Lee comforted her son and daughter after a student opened fire in their suburban Kansas City high school, wounding an administrator and a police officer stationed there. Then weeks later, she wept for the parents in...
Kansas abortion vote: Why recount with such a large margin?
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas on Tuesday began a partial hand recount of this month's decisive statewide vote in favor of abortion rights, a move forced by two Republican activists even though the margin was so large that the recount won't change the...
Parents hunting for baby formula as shortage spans US
WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents across the U.S. are scrambling to find baby formula because supply disruptions and a massive safety recall have swept many leading brands off store shelves. Months of spot shortages at pharmacies and supermarkets have...
Attorneys for voters saw redistricting law is gerrymandering
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A newly redrawn Kansas congressional map is partisan gerrymandering designed to cost the state's only Democrat in Congress some of her territory and drown out the voices of minority voters, attorneys representing voters in...
Kansas researcher convicted of illegal secret China work
A researcher was convicted on Thursday of illegally concealing work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas. But U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson continues to weigh a defense motion to dismiss the case against Feng...
Prosecutors won't retry Kansas City man for 2003 killing
Prosecutors announced Friday that they won't seek to retry a Kansas City man after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction because the case is "tainted from all directions." The Jackson County prosecutor's office said in a statement...
Kansas researcher to mount defense over China ties at trial
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The FBI agent who oversaw the investigation of a researcher accused of illegally keeping secret work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas testified Monday that he didn't learn until after the...
Student charged in Kansas school shooting that wounded 2
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — An 18-year-old football player was charged Saturday in a shooting that wounded an administrator and a school resource officer at a suburban Kansas City high school. The Johnson County prosecutor's office announced Saturday that...
Former Kansas attorney general to represent teen in shooting
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A judge named a former Kansas attorney general Monday to represent an 18-year-old high school football player who is charged in a shooting that wounded an administrator and school resource officer at a suburban Kansas City...
Police: Student shoots, wounds 2 at Kansas high school
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A student shot and wounded an administrator and a school resource officer Friday at a suburban Kansas City high school, and the student also was wounded when the officer returned fire, authorities said. The male student at...
Unvaccinated medical workers turn to religious exemptions
When nurse Julia Buffo was told by her Montana hospital that she had to be vaccinated against COVID-19, she responded by filling out paperwork declaring that the shots run afoul of her religious beliefs. She cited various Old and New Testament...
Kansas governor calls for investigation into teen's death
Gov. Laura Kelly has ordered the Kansas agency that oversees foster care to investigate the death of a 17-year-old who was restrained face down for more than 30 minutes last fall at a Wichita juvenile intake center after his foster father called...
Staff absences plague schools, health care amid COVID surge
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Employee absences fueled by a surge in COVID-19 cases are straining Kansas hospitals, schools and emergency services and raising questions about whether some court trials might need to be delayed. When students returned from...
Kansas court ruling keeps law allowing COVID lawsuits alive
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' highest court on Friday kept intact a law that allows people to sue counties over mask mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions and obtain quick trial-court decisions. The Kansas Supreme Court declined to consider...
Authorities: Beware of vapes, gummies in some Kansas stores
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Confusion is clouding the legality of vapes, gummies, teas and other products that include a chemical cousin of marijuana's main intoxicating ingredient. A recent Kansas attorney general opinion, court decision and law change...
Officials warns of 'dangerous' moment; schools weigh masks
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials warned of a "dangerous moment" as one school district reimposed masks and another eased up on them during a meeting so contentious that the audience was removed. In the Manhattan-Ogden district, the...