Author

Tim Carpenter

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.

Davids, Alford lead bipartisan effort for bill aimed at helping veterans launch small businesses

By: - November 30, 2023

U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids of eastern Kansas and Mark Alford of western Missouri secured approval of legislation designed to make it easier for veterans to use federal resources to start a business after completing military service. The number of veterans who own businesses in the United States has declined from 50% in the post-World War […]

‘You’re an ***hole, police chief’: Kansas newspaper owner defiant in video of home invasion

By: - August 21, 2023

TOPEKA — Marion County Record co-owner Joan Meyer leaned into her walker and stood up to at least six law enforcement personnel executing a search warrant in her living room during a bizarre series of legally questionable raids of her residence, the newspaper’s office and a city council member’s home. Meyer, 98, died of cardiac […]

National journalism group offers $20,000 to defend Kansas newspaper raided by police

By: - August 14, 2023

TOPEKA, Kansas — The Society of Professional Journalists’ board unanimously offered $20,000 to the family-owned Marion County Record for legal costs in wake of the seizure of newspaper and personal property by local law enforcement investigating allegations of identity theft and illegal use of a computer. The raid undermining operation of the weekly newspaper alarmed […]

Celebration marks completion of $1.2 billion NBAF lab for studying animal-to-human pathogens

By: - 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: - 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: - 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: and - 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: - 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: - 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: - 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: - 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: - 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 […]