Top 5 Kansas news stories
December 2 2025
Wichita Schools Seek Help for 1,400 Homeless Students This Christmas
Garden City Air Traffic Controller Killed Serving in Ukraine War
Kansas Hospitals Receive Mixed Safety Grades; Seven Earn Top Marks
Four Arrested After Theft of $2,500 in Gaming Equipment from Lawrence Best Buy
Oklahoma Communities Face Power Grid Concerns as Data Centers Seek Locations
1. Wichita Schools Seek Help for 1,400 Homeless Students This Christmas
Wichita Public Schools is asking the community to help provide Christmas gifts for more than 1,400 homeless students, marking an increase in homeless enrollment this year. The district's McKinney-Vento program, which supports homeless students and families, wants to ensure every child receives a gift for the holidays, according to program specialist Kowonia Bowen.
KWCH
2. Garden City Air Traffic Controller Killed Serving in Ukraine War
Zach Scheiman, an air traffic controller at Garden City Regional Airport, was killed in action while serving with Ukraine Special Forces in Stepnohirsk, Ukraine. Scheiman, who worked at the airport for 11 years after serving in the U.S. Air Force at multiple bases worldwide, volunteered to help defend Ukraine and was killed when his unit was ambushed by Russian forces, along with two other servicemembers. The airport remembered Scheiman as inspirational to young visitors and student pilots, noting he grew up around the facility where his father Mike also works as an air traffic controller. Beyond his aviation career, Scheiman volunteered on Garden City's local arts board, presented at career fairs, and produced recitals and shows for a local dance studio.
KWCH
3. Kansas Hospitals Receive Mixed Safety Grades; Seven Earn Top Marks
The Leapfrog Group's fall 2025 hospital safety report gave letter grades to 30 Kansas hospitals based on their performance in protecting patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, and infections. Seven Kansas hospitals earned an "A" grade, 10 received a "B," 10 got a "C," and three were given a "D," with no hospitals receiving an "F." The independent nonprofit watchdog organization has graded hospitals nationwide since 2013, though critics contend its methodology is flawed.
Kansas hospitals receiving an 'A':
- Ascension Via Christi Manhattan Hospital Inc., Manhattan
- Mercy Hospital Pittsburg, Pittsburg
- Providence Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas
- AdventHealth South Overland Park Hospital, Overland Park
- Ascension Via Christi Hospital Wichita St. Teresa Inc., Wichita
- Menorah Medical Center, Overland Park
- Pratt Regional Medical Center, Pratt
Kansas hospitals receiving a 'B':
- Stormont Vail Health, Topeka
- University of Kansas Health System St. Francis Campus, Topeka
- AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, Shawnee Mission
- Ascension Via Christi Hospitals Wichita-St. Francis, Wichita
- Olathe Medical Center, Olathe
- Saint Luke's South Hospital, Overland Park
- St. Catherine Hospital-Dodge City
- St. Catherine Hospital-Garden City
- Wesley Medical Center, Wichita
- Wesley Woodlawn Hospital & ER, Wichita
Kansas hospitals receiving a 'C':
- Salina Regional Health Center, Salina
- The University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, Kansas
- Ascension Via Christi Hospital Wichita St. Joseph, Inc., Wichita
- Hays Medical Center, Hays
- Labette Health, Parsons
- Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence
- McPherson Center for Health, McPherson
- NMC Health Medical Center, Newton
- Overland Park Regional Medical Center, Overland Park
- Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital, El Dorado
Kansas hospitals receiving a 'D':
- Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, Hutchinson
- Kansas Medical Center, Andover
- Southwest Medical Center, Liberal
Topeka Capital-Journal
4. Four Arrested After Theft of $2,500 in Gaming Equipment from Lawrence Best Buy
Four suspects were arrested Sunday night following what Lawrence police called a "brazen" theft at a Best Buy store on West 31st Street. The group bypassed an employee, went behind the counter, grabbed boxes of gaming equipment worth at least $2,500, and fled in about two minutes while leaving a vehicle running outside the store as it was closing. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper stopped the suspects' vehicle just north of Emporia, about 80 miles from Lawrence, after an investigating officer tracked the Sedgwick County-registered license plate and alerted surrounding agencies. The four suspects were transported back to Douglas County, with one taken to the Juvenile Detention Center and three to the Douglas County Correctional Facility, while seven gaming consoles were recovered from the vehicle.
KAKE
5. Oklahoma Communities Face Power Grid Concerns as Data Centers Seek Locations
Developers are targeting several Oklahoma communities for massive hyperscale data centers that could bring significant tax revenue to local schools and governments, but these facilities demand enormous amounts of electricity to power their computer servers and high-intensity cooling systems. Oklahoma City Planning Director Geoffrey Butler warned that even one large data center could consume so much power that it risks limiting electricity availability for other future economic development and employers. Electric utilities like OG&E are constitutionally required to serve all customers in Oklahoma, but officials say data center developers must pay for necessary infrastructure upgrades and identify their own generation resources. Jim Eldridge, an OG&E economic development manager, said the utility expects data centers to cover the costs of the power infrastructure they need without compromising grid reliability for existing customers. The utility may propose special rate tariffs for very large customers like data centers, pending approval from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, and is working on special contracts with data center developers who have approached them. The challenge is ensuring these energy-intensive facilities don't prevent other businesses from accessing sufficient power for their operations.
KOSU
December 2 1859: Abolitionist John Brown is hanged
Militant abolitionist John Brown is executed on charges of treason, murder and insurrection on December 2, 1859.
Brown, born in Connecticut in 1800, first became militant during the mid-1850s, when as a leader of the Free State forces in Kansas he fought pro-slavery settlers in the sharply divided U.S. territory. Achieving only moderate success in his fight against slavery on the Kansas frontier, and committing atrocities in the process, Brown settled on a more ambitious plan in 1859.
With a group of racially mixed followers, Brown set out to Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia, intending to seize the Federal arsenal of weapons and retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they would establish an abolitionist republic of liberated enslaved people and abolitionist whites. Their republic hoped to form a guerrilla army to fight slaveholders and ignite uprisings, and its population would grow exponentially with the influx of liberated and fugitive enslaved people.
At Harpers Ferry on October 16, Brown’s well-trained unit was initially successful, capturing key points in the town, but Brown’s plans began to deteriorate after his raiders stopped a Baltimore-bound train and then allowed it to pass through. News of the raid spread quickly, and militia companies from Maryland and Virginia arrived the next day, killing or capturing several raiders. On October 18, U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, both of whom were destined to become famous Civil War generals, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive. On November 2, Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.
On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
Sources
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