Author

Tim Carpenter
Tim Carpenter is Senior Reporter for Kansas Reflector. He's reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International. He has been recognized for investigative reporting on Kansas government and politics. He won the Kansas Press Association's Victor Murdock Award six times. The William Allen White Foundation honored him four times with its Burton Marvin News Enterprise Award. The Kansas City Press Club twice presented him its Journalist of the Year Award and more recently its Lifetime Achievement Award. He earned an agriculture degree at Kansas State University and grew up on a small dairy and beef cattle farm in Missouri. He is an amateur woodworker and drives Studebaker cars.
Celebration marks completion of $1.2 billion NBAF lab for studying animal-to-human pathogens
By: Tim Carpenter - May 24, 2023
MANHATTAN, Kansas — National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility researcher Lisa Hensley’s career took her from laboratory to laboratory and country to country to study the alphabet soup of ghastly pathogens such as SARs, monkeypox, MERs and Marburg. But she said an Ebola outbreak in the West Africa country of Liberia brought home what it meant […]
Corporate executives offer rosier business forecasts if politically aligned with a U.S. president
By: Tim Carpenter - November 30, 2022
Corporate executives with political beliefs aligned with the person serving as president of the United States tend to express that partisan affinity with more optimistic business forecasts and disclosures, university researchers say. Research published by faculty at the University of Kansas and San Diego State University indicated business officers, whether identified as supporters of Republican […]
Opening of Kansas sports betting reveals appeal of online apps — even among Missourians
By: Tim Carpenter - September 15, 2022
TOPEKA, Kansas — Mobile platforms for legal sports gambling in Kansas proved so enticing that more than 16,000 people in Missouri tried to place wagers in the first weekend of live betting. As those cross-border residents discovered, many of whom were located in Kansas City, Missouri, the gambling law established by Kansas required a person […]
Demise of Roe v. Wade adds gravity to Kansas’ vote on abortion constitutional amendment
By: Tim Carpenter and Sherman Smith - June 24, 2022
TOPEKA, Kansas — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday striking down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide resonates deeply in Kansas where a proposed constitutional amendment on the August ballot could set the stage for a wave of new abortion restrictions in the state. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat campaigning for […]
FBI director aims at broadening cybersecurity abilities of local, state, federal agencies
By: Tim Carpenter - March 7, 2022
TOPEKA, Kansas — FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a cybersecurity recruiting visit to Kansas on Friday the computer investigative capacity of local, state and federal law enforcement officers must be expanded to tackle rise in internet crime across the country. The federal agency’s director was in Lawrence with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas […]
Buttigieg points to Pittsburgh bridge collapse as blunt reminder of infrastructure spending needs
By: Tim Carpenter - January 28, 2022
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday the collapse of a bridge in Pittsburgh illustrated the necessity of federal investment in the nation’s infrastructure, including more than 1,000 bridges in poor condition in Kansas and twice that total in Missouri. Buttigieg braved winter chill to stand at the rusting Rock Island […]
Moran, Blunt denounce ‘disgusting’ collusion, bias in national liver transplant policy
By: Tim Carpenter - December 28, 2021
TOPEKA — U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roy Blunt of Missouri expressed outrage at evidence of bias in the United Network for Organ Sharing’s policy of distributing livers from states with high donor rates to areas of the country underperforming in donation of lifesaving organs. The Republicans said UNOS’ policy resulted in patients […]
Anguish of Hyatt Regency Hotel collapse reverberates 40 years after catastrophe
By: Tim Carpenter - November 22, 2021
TOPEKA, Kansas — Trauma still grips survivors and first-responders exposed to the nightmare collapse of concrete, steel and glass skywalks in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel during a popular Friday evening big-band dance contest in Kansas City. As many as 2,000 people were in the one-year-old hotel lobby for the weekly Tea Dance […]
First Lady Biden convenes charla in Kansas City to explore challenges of Latino trailblazers
By: Tim Carpenter - October 13, 2021
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — First Lady Jill Biden toured a nonprofit serving Latino communities throughout Wyandotte and Johnson counties Monday for insight into challenges of trailblazing entrepreneurs, a university student and a poet. At the offices of the nonprofit El Centro, Biden marked Hispanic Heritage Month with Isbella Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business […]
Prescription for faulty communication in operating rooms: Be explicit, not polite
By: Tim Carpenter - August 5, 2021
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Research by a University of Kansas linguist and University of Missouri-Kansas City physicians pointed to the potential medical harm of ambiguous communication in operating rooms that also complicated the training of surgeons. The analysis was based on observation of surgical residents at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in which 3,912 instances, or […]
C-SPAN survey of presidential leadership adds sparkle to Eisenhower, Truman
By: Tim Carpenter - July 6, 2021
TOPEKA — Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman played pivotal roles in World War II and remain affixed to one another near the top of C-SPAN’s ranking of U.S. presidents based on leadership. Eisenhower finished fifth behind No. 1 Abraham Lincoln, No. 2 George Washington, No. 3 Franklin Roosevelt and No. 4 Teddy Roosevelt. Eisenhower’s position […]
KC Freedom Project’s Latahra Smith answers call for justice from wrongfully convicted
By: Tim Carpenter - October 27, 2020
TOPEKA — KC Freedom Project founder Latahra Smith savors the rare court victory overturning a conviction and freeing someone falsely thrown in prison. There is an inevitable celebration of newfound liberty with hugs from family and smiles for cameras, Smith said. Everything seems good, Smith said, but she also appreciates that years of unwarranted incarceration […]