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Top 5 Kansas news stories

November 24 2025

Greg Loving

24 Nov 2025 • 5 min read

Trevor Starks stands in the Neosho River holding a rare mussel. He's smiling because this find is his first evidence that the mussel, a Neosho mucket, is surviving here eight months after he and other wildlife biologists released more than 600 of them at this spot. Celia Llopis-Jepsen/Kansas News Service

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Endangered Mussels Return to Neosho River After Decades

Justice Larkin Walsh Formally Sworn to Kansas Supreme Court

Kansas Republican Lawmaker Opposes Death Penalty on Pro-Life Grounds

Trump Administration Eases Foreign Worker Access for Farms, Avoids ICE Raids

Farm Bureau Health Plans Spread to More States, Including Kansas

Endangered Mussels Return to Neosho River After Decades

Kansas wildlife biologists are working to restore native Neosho mucket mussels to the Neosho River, where the endangered species hasn't been recorded since the mid-1990s. Last spring, Trevor Starks of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks found one of more than 600 young mussels released eight months earlier about 60 miles south of Topeka in Coffey County, marking progress in efforts to rebuild the population. The Neosho mucket is among 21 imperiled aquatic species that Kansas aims to help recover from impacts of overhunting, pollution and dam construction. Scientists see hope for recovery now that commercial mussel harvesting has been banned for over 20 years and water quality has improved since the 1972 Clean Water Act, though challenges remain. Kansas wants to restore healthy populations and eventually remove the mussels from the federal Endangered Species List.

CJOnline

Justice Larkin Walsh Formally Sworn to Kansas Supreme Court

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Larkin Walsh was formally sworn in Friday before roughly 200 people at the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka, pledging to be "the justice all Kansans deserve." Walsh, the youngest member of the court, began her duties two months ago after an informal ceremony, succeeding former Justice Evelyn Wilson who retired in July following a Lou Gehrig's disease diagnosis. Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Walsh in August from a slate of three nominees. Walsh characterized the judicial selection process as rigorous and transparent, a subtle reference to recent challenges to the state's merit-based appointment system. Voters will decide in August 2026 whether to switch to a popular-vote approach through a constitutional amendment. Walsh spent the past 12 years in private practice focusing on civil rights, workers' rights, consumer protection and complex class actions. The Leawood resident most recently served as senior counsel at Stueve Siegel Hanson before joining the state's highest court.

Kansas Reflector

Kansas Republican Lawmaker Opposes Death Penalty on Pro-Life Grounds

Rep. Bill Sutton, a Gardner Republican, says his opposition to capital punishment stems from Catholic faith and conservative skepticism of government power, making him one of few Kansas Republicans to support repealing the death penalty. During a Saturday forum organized by the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Sutton argued that retention of capital punishment contradicts "pro-life" ideals and creates unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. Sutton, who represents southern Johnson and Douglas counties, has endorsed all five bills introduced since 2017 to end capital punishment in Kansas. He also cited the high cost to taxpayers of trials and appeals in capital murder cases as justification for eliminating the practice.

Kansas Reflector

Trump Administration Eases Foreign Worker Access for Farms, Avoids ICE Raids

The Trump administration is making it easier for farmers to employ guest workers from other countries while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appears to be refraining from agricultural workplace raids. The shifts come as concerns about rising food costs create political problems for the administration, which also announced last week it would lift tariffs on some foreign food products including bananas, beef, coffee and tomatoes. Under new rules implemented last month, the Department of Homeland Security will approve H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers more quickly. The H-2A program allows employers to hire foreign workers when insufficient U.S.-born workers are available, tacitly acknowledging that American food production requires foreign labor.

Kansas Reflector

Farm Bureau Health Plans Spread to More States, Including Kansas

A growing number of states including Kansas now allow farm bureaus to sell health insurance policies underwritten by large insurers like UnitedHealthcare, modeled after a decades-old Tennessee statute. The policies offer inexpensive coverage for checkups and most medical procedures but aren't required to cover preexisting conditions or maintain coverage for seriously ill patients, leading critics to label them "junk plans." Almost a dozen states—Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas—have enacted similar measures, with Ohio joining last summer. Farm bureaus in these states collectively insure hundreds of thousands of people, with Tennessee's program alone covering about 200,000 individuals. For farmers like Indiana's Corina Brant, who couldn't qualify for Affordable Care Act subsidies, the plans provide affordable relief that allows them to work full-time on their farms rather than taking second jobs for health coverage. Proponents argue these plans expand affordable options to an underserved group, while critics compare them to short-term plans the Trump administration has promoted as private-market alternatives to the ACA.

Washington Post

Sources

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