Top 5 Kansas news stories
November 13 2025
KU Opens Convention Center As First Phase Of $808M Gateway District
Kansas Seeks Share Of $50 Billion Federal Rural Health Program
Kelly Concludes Statewide Budget Tour In Wichita
Record-Breaking Warmth Expected Friday Across Kansas
Educating Future Workforce Kansas' Most Important Investment, Business Leader Says
KU Opens Convention Center As First Phase Of $808M Gateway District
Government and university leaders celebrated Wednesday's opening of the University of Kansas Conference Center in Lawrence, marking the first major step in the school's ambitious Gateway District development. More than 100 attendees, including Gov. Laura Kelly and Chancellor Douglas Girod, praised the state-of-the-art facility equipped to draw thousands of annual visitors and generate revenue for the project. The convention center represents the initial phase of KU's transformation of its football stadium and northern campus entrance, a project expected to cost up to $808 million. Funding comes from state and local incentives, appropriations from the Republican-led Kansas Legislature, and private donations, with the conference center expected to begin producing returns on those public and private investments.
Kansas Reflector
Kansas Seeks Share Of $50 Billion Federal Rural Health Program
Kansas submitted a 60-page application last week competing for federal funding from a $50 billion program designed to transform rural health care across America. The state's Rural Health Transformation Plan targets improvements for the nearly one-third of Kansans living in rural communities, addressing ongoing challenges faced by rural hospitals including low patient volumes, inadequate workforces, crumbling infrastructure, and outdated technology. The Kansas plan was developed in just two months after federal officials set a tight timeline for submissions to the Rural Health Transformation Program. Of the total $50 billion, half will be distributed evenly among selected states while the remaining $25 billion will be allocated based on the quality of submitted plans, according to Kate Sapra, deputy secretary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Rural Health Transformation. The federal program represents the single largest investment in rural health care since the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, created through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The $50 billion fund is intended to provide relief to struggling rural hospitals while establishing tools for long-term sustainability, with money distributed over five budget periods from federal fiscal year 2026 through 2030.
Kansas Reflector
Kelly Concludes Statewide Budget Tour In Wichita
Gov. Laura Kelly wrapped up her "People's Budget" tour in Wichita on Wednesday, hearing directly from residents about priorities for next year's state budget. Kelly told attendees she wants the budget to reflect Kansans' values and needs while remaining sustainable long-term, with residents raising concerns about housing, tax relief, healthcare access, and Medicaid expansion.
KAKE
Record-Breaking Warmth Expected Friday Across Kansas
Kansas temperatures are expected to approach record highs on Friday, with most locations reaching the mid to upper 70s after starting Thursday morning in the 40s with mostly cloudy skies giving way to afternoon sunshine and lows in the low 70s. Wichita's record high of 78 degrees set in 1897 is likely to fall Friday, with sunshine and warmth continuing into the weekend before a Saturday afternoon cold front brings cooler 60-degree temperatures Sunday and gusty winds Monday as a storm system passes to the north.
KWCH
Educating Future Workforce Kansas' Most Important Investment, Business Leader Says
Business leaders across Kansas report a widening gap between skills students are learning and workforce demands, threatening communities and the state's economic future, writes Torree Pederson in the Kansas Reflector. From Hutchinson to Wichita to Salina, employers cannot fill positions in manufacturing, healthcare, and other sectors due to shortages of trained workers, representing symptoms of a talent pipeline failing to keep pace with Kansas employers' needs. Pederson, founding president of Aligned, a nonpartisan coalition of business leaders committed to improving education in Kansas and Missouri, says her organization's year-long Cradle to Career Listening Tour revealed clear consensus from parents, teachers, students, and business leaders: Kansas must do more to educate its future workforce. The path from classroom to career begins with early childhood education providing learning foundations, continues through K-12 schools retaining great teachers, and extends through technical training and higher education preparing students for high-skilled jobs. When any part of that system falters, families and communities experience the impact, Pederson writes. Parents without affordable child care leave the workforce, schools losing experienced teachers struggle to maintain quality, and students who cannot see how education connects to real careers leave Kansas to find opportunities elsewhere. Before joining education advocacy, Pederson spent 10 years in corporate finance in Kansas City and now sees the future of Kansas through both her role as a mother with kids in Kansas schools and as CEO of an organization working with educators, employers, and policymakers across the region.
Kansas Reflector
Sources
Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below:
citizen journal offers three flagship products: a daily national news summary, a daily Kansas news summary, and local news and school board summaries from 15 cities across Kansas. Each issue contains 5 paragraph-length stories that are made to be read in 5 minutes. Use the links in the header to navigate to national, kansas, and local coverage. Subscribe to each, some, or all to get an email when new issues are published for FREE!
Brought to you by (click me!)
