Latest Kansas Headlines
All the headlines from our Kansas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Former Kansas Employee Settles Case for $125K
Sep 30 2020 // A former employee of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, has won a $125,000 settlement after her boss was convicted of grabbing her by the shirt and pushing her into a wall. The Kansas City Star...
Kansas Sees Another COVID-19 Spike, Counties Worry About Aid
Sep 30 2020 // Kansas reported another seven-day record for new coronavirus cases, with 16% of the tests for the virus during that period coming back positive on Monday. The continued spike in confirmed and probable cases comes as...
City in Kansas Settles With Black Driver Shot by Rookie Officer
Sep 29 2020 // The city of Lawrence, Kan., has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit filed by a Black man who was shot by a rookie police officer in 2018 during a traffic stop. Akira Lewis sued the city, two...
Kansas Supreme Court Weighs Guidelines for Compensating Injured Workers
Sep 21 2020 // The Kansas Supreme Court has waded into the fray over obscure medical guidelines that will determine how much money workers injured on the job can collect. Justices on Sept. 17 heard legal arguments on Zoom over which...
Constitutionality of ‘Wrongful Birth’ Law Gets Kansas Supreme Court Hearing
Sep 18 2020 // The Kansas Supreme Court seemed worried on Sept. 16 about the proper roles of the Legislature and courts as it wrestled with whether a state statute that prohibits lawsuits based on “wrongful birth” claims is...
Kansas City Tenants Awarded $52M in Suit Over ‘Horrendous’ Living Conditions
Sep 18 2020 // Tenants who sued over “horrendous” living conditions at a Kansas City low-income housing development have been awarded $52 million in damages. Jackson County Judge Joel Fehestock found in favor of the tenants,...
Kansas Health Dept.: Meatpacking Plants Have Highest Number of Active COVID Cases
Sep 11 2020 // Meatpacking plants and correctional facilities continue to be the main sites of active COVID-19 clusters in Kansas, with each reporting thousands of cases, according to data released on Sept. 9 by the state health...
World Insurance Associates Acquires Kansas’ Peoples Insurance Group
Aug 27 2020 // World Insurance Associates LLC (WIA) has acquired Peoples/Commercial Insurance Services LLC (d/b/a Peoples Insurance Group) in Topeka, Kansas. The transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, was effective Aug....
INSURICA Adds Kansas City’s Broker Source to Online Platform
Aug 12 2020 // INSURICA, a privately-owned insurance agency based in Oklahoma City., has entered into an equity partnership with Kansas City-based Broker Source, to introduce its EnrollSource platform to the agency’s small business...
Missouri School Worker Fired in Student Attendance Scandal Sues
Aug 7 2020 // A fired Kansas City Public Schools secretary who was among several employees accused of falsifying attendance data in a bid to help the district regain accreditation is suing. The Kansas City Star reports that LaQuyn...
2 New Sex Abuse Suits Filed Against Missouri Diocese
Aug 3 2020 // Two new lawsuits allege that the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri covered up abuse by two priests who were known to be sexual predators. The lawsuits, one filed on July 28 and the other on July 20, were...
Insurance Broker PCF Acquires Avidity Insurance in Kansas
Jul 31 2020 // PCF Insurance Services (PCF), headquartered in Woodland Hills, Calif., has acquired Avidity Insurance, an Overland Park, Kansas-based independent insurance agency founded in 2013 by Will Wilson. Avidity offers home, auto,...
UPS Freight to Pay $75K to Resolve Kansas Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Jul 31 2020 // UPS Freight will pay $75,000 to resolve a three-year old federal lawsuit over disability discrimination at its service center in Kansas City, Kansas, federal authorities said. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity...
Fireworks Causes Estimated $10.5K in Damage to Duplex in Kansas
Jul 7 2020 // Authorities are blaming fireworks for a blaze that caused an estimated $10,500 in damage to a Junction City, Kansas, duplex. WIBW-TV reports that the fire was reported around 4:20 a.m. Sunday on the northeast edge of the...
Lawsuit Claims Racial Discrimination at Frito-Lay Plant in Kansas
Jul 6 2020 // Black employees at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, were subjected to ongoing racial harassment and discrimination, including hearing racial slurs and being threatened with lynching by white employees, according to a...
The Next Wave of COVID: Agency E&O?
Jul 6 2020 // As many states keep watch for the “next wave” of COVID-19 infections, the insurance industry is keeping watch for the “next wave” of potential claims that could be directed at independent agents. In...
Textron Aviation Cited for 2019 Explosion at Kansas Site
Jul 1 2020 // Federal regulators have cited aircraft maker Textron Aviation for a December 2019 explosion that injured 15 workers at its Wichita, Kansas, manufacturing plant. U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and...
Absenteeism at Meatpacking Plants Tied to Workplace Safety Concerns
Jun 15 2020 // Smithfield Foods Inc. is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’...
Family of Man Killed in Kansas Police Beanbag Shooting to Get $3.5M
Jun 3 2020 // Kansas officials will pay $3.5 million to the family of a man who was killed in 2017 with a homemade beanbag round fired by a Barber County undersheriff at close range. An attorney for the family said in a written...
2 Companies Fined $1M Each Over Kansas Chemical Leak
May 29 2020 // Two companies that caused a chlorine gas leak over Atchison, Kansas, in 2106 have each been fined $1 million for violating federal clean air laws. Harcros Chemicals Inc., and MGP Ingredients Inc., had pleaded guilty to...
