KSAL: Statewide Website Launched For Food Insecure Households. “According to the Kansas Food Bank, a new website… is designed to help people in need of food assistance find pantry locations in their areas. The website also features a link for help applying for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) or food stamps, along with a link for upcoming summer food sites for children.”
Kansas Reflector: Kansas senator under investigation after prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19, seeks legal cover. “Sen. Mark Steffen revealed Wednesday he is under investigation for prescribing ivermectin to COVID-19 patients, accused the chief medical director of the University of Kansas Health System of spreading propaganda, and challenged him to a public debate.”
Fox 4: KDHE discontinues COVID-19 contact tracing operations. “The Kansas Department of Health will no longer conduct contact outreach and monitoring starting in February 1, 2022…. KDHE said that contract tracing staff will be reassigned to contact investigations.”
KMBC: Kansas board passes measure to ease COVID-19-related substitute teacher shortages. “A Kansas state board is hoping that making it easier to obtain a substitute teaching license will help ease the severe shortage of substitute teachers across the state. The Kansas State Board of Education Wednesday passed a temporary emergency change to the requirements to obtain a Temporary Emergency Authorized License.”
Kansas News Service: Doctors plead for COVID precautions to alleviate hospital crisis. “Health care officials across Kansas and Missouri issued a dire warning Wednesday that COVID-19 has reached new and alarming crisis levels throughout the region. Hospitals struggling to care for sick coronavirus patients — the vast majority of them unvaccinated — find themselves short on staff after record numbers of health care workers are testing positive for the virus.”
CNET: Lost your job for not getting vaccinated? You still probably won’t qualify for unemployment. “Employees who don’t comply with their company’s vaccine requirements will generally be ineligible to collect unemployment benefits, but that’s changing in a few states: Iowa, Tennessee, Florida and Kansas.”
Wichita Eagle: Questions and scrambling follow news that KDHE will stop providing free COVID testing. “Across Wichita, nonprofits and businesses have been scrambling as word trickles out that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will cease funding free COVID tests as of Nov. 30. How will that affect organizations and individuals, and how much will they have to pay? It depends on a number of things.”
Associated Press: Kansas vaccine mandate foes rally; Holocaust comment decried. “Hundreds of people opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates rallied Saturday at the Kansas Statehouse and pushed state lawmakers to quickly counter them, while an international labor union disavowed a local leader’s comparison of the mandates to the Holocaust that killed millions of Jews.”
Associated Press: Judge: Kansas Election Database Function Not Public Record. “Kansas’ Republican secretary of state did not violate the state’s open records law by ordering the removal of an election database function that generates a statewide report showing which provisional ballots were not counted, a judge ruled.”
Business Facilities: New Program Aims To Strengthen Kansas’ Manufacturing Supply Chain. “An online manufacturer database and connectivity platform, CONNEX™ Kansas is provided as a free resource for Kansas manufacturers. The platform is designed to allow manufacturers in Kansas to connect with each other, find local and domestic suppliers, explore production capabilities and manage their supply chain.”
Lawrence Journal-World: With map once lost for decades and survey equipment, project hopes to locate hundreds of unmarked graves in potter’s field. “Pete Vinegar, Isaac King and George Robertson, all of whom were Black, were lynched by a mob at the Kansas River bridge near downtown Lawrence on June 10, 1882, and later buried in the potter’s field. The rediscovery of a map that had been lost for decades and modern surveying technology could soon help find the three men’s graves, as well as the unmarked graves of the roughly 400 other people also buried there.”
University of Kansas: Dole Institute Accepting Submissions For Newly Announced Kansas Veterans Virtual Memory Wall . “The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas is calling on veterans and their families to submit personal stories and photos of service men and women who have ties to Kansas. This comes as part of a larger announcement that the Dole Institute will permanently install a large digital interactive display at the institute, as well as maintain a searchable online database, that pays tribute to Kansas veterans from World War II to present day.”
KSNT: Kansas bill seeks to prevent social media sites from blocking political speech. “After the 2020 election and the controversies that followed, Hutchinson Senator Mark Steffen decided to sponsor a bill to address what social media allows. The new proposal specifically states that harassing and objectionable speech cannot include political information or expression.”
Kansas Office of the Governor: Governor Laura Kelly Announces Kansas Find My Vaccine Tool. “Governor Laura Kelly today announced the launch of the ‘Find My Vaccine’ mapping tool, designed to help Kansans locate sites that are administering vaccines in their communities. The tool is available now on https://kansasvaccine.gov, Kansas’s COVID-19 vaccine website. Kansans in vaccine phase 1 and 2 are recommended to use this tool as a resource for finding providers who are or will be offering the vaccine.”
NBC News: ‘I do not feel safe’: Kansas GOP mayor resigns after threats over backing mask mandate. “A Republican mayor in western Kansas announced in a letter to city officials and on social media Tuesday that she is resigning, effective immediately, because of threats she has received after she publicly supported a mask mandate. Mayor Joyce Warshaw of Dodge City said she was concerned about her safety after being met with aggression, including threats via phone and email, after she was quoted in a USA Today article on Friday supporting the mandate, The Dodge City Globe reported.”
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