Kansas remains one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, leaving 40,000-plus people in the state without government health insurance — or subsidies for private coverage. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly still wants the Legislature to expand that coverage — and so do more than two-thirds of Kansans. But Republican leaders in Topeka appear unlikely to […]
Sedgwick County
Posted inHousing, Local Government
Wichita counted 42 homeless deaths last year, but the count is suspect
At least 42 homeless people died in Wichita in 2023. But the actual number could be bigger. Neither Sedgwick County nor Wichita keeps records of people who die without stable housing. “We simply don’t have metrics,” said Shelly Steadman, the director of the regional forensic center in Sedgwick County. Without reliable data, it is harder […]
Posted inEconomics, Health
Years of nurse short-staffing culminate in second strike in six months at two Ascension hospitals
After a monthslong struggle against cost-cutting measures, nurses at two Ascension Via Christi hospitals in Wichita went on strike for the second time in six months on Dec. 6 as negotiations dragged between the union and the state’s largest health care provider. Ascension Via Christi’s St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals are dealing with ongoing […]
Posted inHousing
A Wichita young professional dreams of living downtown, but it’s tough to overcome high rents
Kyle Ritterbush is one of the young, entrepreneurial professionals Wichita politicians talk so much about wanting to keep. At just 20 years old, he started his video production business last year after graduating high school. He wants to grow it – hiring someone part-time, taking on bigger projects – all while here in Wichita. On the side, […]
Posted inData, Health
Syphilis rates climbed by over 2,000% in Sedgwick County in the last decade
For the first dozen-plus years of this century, syphilis was a rarity in Sedgwick County. Fewer than one of every 100,000 residents had the sexually transmitted disease. But in the last decade — mirroring a national trend made worse by the isolation and shifting behaviors spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic — the rate has skyrocketed […]
Posted inAccountability, Local Government
Two killings, two very different cash bonds — and a debate about fairness in Wichita
Sedgwick County prosecutors charged 19-year-old Daryon Boone with first-degree murder in the September shooting death of a 69-year-old woman in Wichita. They charged 16-year-old Makyh Townes with second-degree murder in what his family contends was the accidental shooting of a friend several months earlier. Boone, who’s white, was released after posting a $500,000 bond. Townes, […]
Posted inHealth, Kansas State Government
Kansas judge blocks 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions
A Kansas judge has temporarily blocked several of the state’s longstanding abortion restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period that providers say has resulted in hundreds of women being denied abortions. In an order released Monday, Johnson County District Judge K. Christopher Jayaram wrote that the restrictions “(appear) to be a thinly-veiled effort to stigmatize the […]
Posted inData, Health, Kansas State Government
Red tape and income limits have booted 82,000 Kansans off Medicaid since May. How can they get back on?
Robyn Adams struggled to support her husband and teenage daughter on $16,000 a year during the pandemic. Then the pandemic ended and her family lost its Medicaid coverage. “We went into panic,” she said. The family relied on a temporary expansion of coverage authorized by the federal government during the pandemic to weather the bills […]
Posted inLea en Español, Local Government
¿Qué sucede cuando el 911 no habla su idioma?
Traducido por Rommy Vargas-Bezzubikoff – Spanish Ad Hoc Translations LLC Cuando usted marca el 911, cada segundo cuenta. Esté preparado para dar su dirección, la naturaleza de su emergencia y su idioma. Si no habla inglés, prepárese para esperar. El sistema de respuesta de emergencia del Condado de Sedgwick depende de servicios de interpretación de […]
Posted inHealth, Kansas State Government
500 dead and counting from fentanyl as Wichita struggles to curb overdoses
Under Wichita’s towering landmark, the Keeper of the Plains, a group of grieving Wichitans gathered at dusk, lighting candles for loved ones lost to fentanyl. Among the dozens of mourners at the recent memorial were Mark and Val Sandoval, who lost their son just weeks before his high school graduation after he took a single […]