Employee Fatally Shoots Intruder Who Entered Lawrence City Hall

Wichita Catholic School Purchases 15-Acre Farm Property for Hands-On Education

Kansas Lawmakers Form Bipartisan Caucus to Address Local Impact of State Legislation

Two Lawrence Democrats Challenge GOP Rep. Mann in 1st District Race

Autopsy Reveals Multiple Dog Bites Killed Kansas Teen Found in Missouri Creek

Employee Fatally Shoots Intruder Who Entered Lawrence City Hall

An authorized and trained employee fatally shot a 28-year-old male intruder inside Lawrence City Hall on the morning of Jan. 5, Lawrence Police Department communications manager Laura McCabe said. The deceased suspect was not known to police or from the Lawrence area, and no city employees were seriously injured in the incident. Police have not released the names of the intruder or the employee who shot him.

CJ Online

Wichita Catholic School Purchases 15-Acre Farm Property for Hands-On Education

St. John Paul II Independent Catholic School in Wichita purchased 15 acres where Eberly Farm's west-side event venue operated for decades to expand its hands-on, classical education model that emphasizes working with nature and traditional skills. Principal William Durant said the school, which has grown from 41 students four years ago to 82 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, plans a $4.5 million campaign to build seven classrooms at the property at 13111 W. 21st St., with future phases adding more classrooms and a prayer space. The school will relocate its three beehives, five chickens, and plans to add livestock, a greenhouse, and utilize existing trees and a creek to teach students gardening, handicrafts and other traditional pursuits alongside its liberal arts curriculum.

Wichita Eagle

Kansas Lawmakers Form Bipartisan Caucus to Address Local Impact of State Legislation

Freshman Republican legislators Rep. Allen Reavis of Atchison and Rep. Lon Pishny of Garden City formed the bipartisan Local Government Caucus to educate state lawmakers about how bills debated in Topeka affect city and county governments across Kansas' 105 counties. Pishny expressed concern that the Legislature creates one-size-fits-all mandates without accounting for variation in local government operations, while Reavis noted that legislators from large cities may not understand how the same legislation impacts small towns.

Kansas Reflector

Two Lawrence Democrats Challenge GOP Rep. Mann in 1st District Race

Lauren Reinhold, a federal Social Security Administration employee affected by Elon Musk's DOGE purge, and Colin McRoberts, a University of Kansas business school professor, launched Democratic campaigns against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann in Kansas' 1st District. Both candidates believe they can overcome long odds in the vast western Kansas district — which has elected only one Democrat since 1874 and where Mann won his last three terms with about 70% of the vote — by criticizing Mann's support for unpopular Republican policies. The 2022 GOP redistricting placed liberal Lawrence into the overwhelmingly conservative, mostly rural 1st District that stretches to the Colorado border, diluting Democratic votes across the western two-thirds of the state.

Kansas Reflector

Autopsy Reveals Multiple Dog Bites Killed Kansas Teen Found in Missouri Creek

A 13-year-old Pleasanton, Kansas boy found dead in a Bates County, Missouri creek bed on Dec. 22 died from multiple dog bite injuries, an autopsy by the Wyandotte County Kansas Coroner's Office determined. Damon Leonard, 47, of Pleasanton faces abandonment of a corpse charges in Bates County and charges of interfering with law enforcement, criminal desecration and having a vicious dog at large in Linn County after Kansas City, Kansas police seized multiple dogs from his property. Leonard, held on $100,000 cash-only bond, pleaded not guilty after his arraignment and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 15.

Kansas City Star

Sources

1. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/crime/2026/01/05/employee-28-fatally-shoots-male-intruder-at-city-hall-in-lawrence/88036299007/
2. https://www.kansas.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/carrie-rengers/article314187495.html
3. https://kansasreflector.com/2026/01/05/kansas-lawmakers-form-bipartisan-local-government-caucus-to-educate-peers-on-local-impact-of-bills/
4. https://kansasreflector.com/2026/01/05/lawrence-democrats-take-aim-at-kansas-republicans-congressional-seat/
5. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article314195543.html

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 20 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!)