Marshall Demands Hamilton Pull Medical Debt Ad

State Cuts Prompt Sternberg Museum Closure

Overland Park Approves Black & Veatch’s $1 Billion-Plus Headquarters and Development

Lawmakers Seek Local Support for KBI Headquarters

Pacific Hurricane Polo’s Remnants Threaten Kansas Wheat Planting

Marshall Demands Hamilton Pull Medical Debt Ad

TOPEKA, Kan. — Lawyers for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican seeking a second term, sent Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton a cease-and-desist letter Sept. 28 over an ad about medical debt. The formal demand, which can precede a lawsuit, called the ad defamatory and harmful to Marshall's professional integrity and fitness for office, giving Hamilton 24 hours to remove it, retract and apologize, and stop repeating the claims. Former patient Meischa Zimmerman says in the ad that she was arrested while eight months pregnant after missing a $50 monthly payment to Marshall, then a Great Bend obstetrician, on roughly $3,600 in debt carrying 18% interest. Marshall's lawyers say she was arrested for failing to appear in court, while earlier reporting cited by Kansas Reflector described more than 700 patient lawsuits involving his former practice and 81 cases resulting in arrests. As of Monday afternoon, Hamilton's campaign had neither apologized nor removed the ad from social media, Kansas Reflector reported. The advertising dispute comes five weeks before the Nov. 3 election, with public polls suggesting an unusually close race in a state that last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1932.

Kansas Reflector · KAKE · Hays Post · Salina Post · Washington Examiner

State Cuts Prompt Sternberg Museum Closure

HAYS, Kan. — Fort Hays State University will close the Sternberg Museum of Natural History to the public Dec. 18, President Tisa Mason announced Sept. 28, resolving questions that surfaced the previous week. Mason said the closure is part of a budget realignment and will save about $850,000 annually toward a $2.4 million recurring state funding cut that took effect this year, ending public access to the western Kansas institution. The museum spends about $1.3 million annually, generates about $470,000 from admissions, memberships, grants and sales, and faces more than $20 million in deferred building maintenance, she said. The decision follows a petition signed by more than 2,000 people and an appeal from the American Institute of Biological Sciences to FHSU and the Kansas Board of Regents; museum faculty and staff will remain employed this year while staffing needs are reassessed. Mason said no individual, foundation or government body had offered to operate or finance the museum, although the university remains open to and is pursuing such an arrangement.

KSN · KWCH · Hays Post · KSAL · Ad Astra Radio

Overland Park Approves Black & Veatch’s $1 Billion-Plus Headquarters and Development

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The City Council unanimously approved engineering firm Black & Veatch's new world headquarters and surrounding redevelopment Sept. 28, keeping 2,200 headquarters employees in Johnson County while pledging future tax revenue to the project. The Overland Park Plaza II Redevelopment Project would add a 612,000-square-foot headquarters to the company's existing Lamar Avenue campus, KSHB reported. Plans include about 700 apartments, 88 townhomes, a day care, a hotel and a community park, with phased construction extending to 2038. KCTV5 valued the development at $1.1 billion, while KSHB reported $1.3 billion; the total public incentive commitment was unclear in available reports. The incentives would use future sales-tax and property-tax revenue generated by the development to help finance construction, according to KSHB. Black & Veatch, one of the Kansas City area's largest employers, said it will break ground this fall and move in during 2029; the company has been based in Overland Park for more than 50 years and describes itself as the sixth-largest employee-owned company in the United States.

KCTV5 · KSHB · Black & Veatch

Lawmakers Seek Local Support for KBI Headquarters

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Legislature's Joint Committee on State Building Construction asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to seek financial or in-kind support, such as land, services or infrastructure, from Topeka and Shawnee County for its planned $80 million headquarters and report whether it made those requests. Interim KBI Director Robert Jacobs told the committee Sept. 21 that the agency had not asked Topeka for financial assistance. The agency selected the southeast corner of 10th and Quincy streets downtown, near the Statehouse and Kansas Judicial Center, for a three- to four-story building. Lawmakers authorized up to $80 million in bonds through Senate Bill 125 in 2025 for the move from an area KSNT described as high-crime. Sen. Rick Billinger, a northwest Kansas Republican, suggested inviting Lawrence, Salina or Wichita to compete for the facility, while Rep. John Alcala, a Topeka Democrat representing the proposed site, said the city lacked money to contribute without raising taxes. The disagreement, reported Sept. 28 by the Kansas News Service, puts the long-term location of the state's chief criminal investigative agency and expectations for local subsidies of state offices under debate.

Kansas News Service · KSNT

Pacific Hurricane Polo’s Remnants Threaten Kansas Wheat Planting

WICHITA, Kan. — Flood watches issued by National Weather Service offices Sept. 28 covered much of Kansas, from southwestern and west-central counties to Manhattan, Concordia, Marysville and Hiawatha, with timing varying by area from Tuesday into Thursday evening. Tropical moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Polo, an eastern Pacific storm that NASA said rapidly reached Category 5 strength, is expected to merge with a slow-moving storm system from the Southwest and bring waves of rain Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. KSN forecast 2 to 4 inches in some areas, with isolated totals of 6 inches or more, while KWCH forecast widespread amounts of 1 to 3 inches and the heaviest rain in northern Kansas. Those forecasts may change as the storm develops, and a watch means flooding is possible, while a warning means flooding is occurring or imminent. The heaviest rain could also bring fall fieldwork to a standstill, market analysts said, arriving as USDA's Sept. 28 report showed Kansas winter wheat planting at 18% as of Sept. 27 with sorghum harvest 12% complete. The storm could also ease drought: The Sept. 22 drought map showed 50.9% of Kansas in moderate drought or worse, the fourth consecutive week with more than half the state affected.

KSN · KWCH · KMAN · KVOE · RFD-TV · Ag Bull · Hutch Post · NASA

Sources

1. Kansas Reflector / KAKE / Hays Post / Salina Post / Washington Examiner
2. KSN / KWCH / Hays Post / KSAL / Ad Astra Radio
3. KCTV5 / KSHB / Black & Veatch via Business Wire / Business Wire
4. Kansas News Service (KCUR) / Kansas News Service (KMUW) / Kansas Public Radio / KSNT (Site) / KSNT (Move)
5. KSN / KWCH / KMAN / KVOE / RFD-TV / Ag Bull / Hutch Post / NASA

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