Latest news with #TheCapital-Journal
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Tuttle Creek music, camping festival to be smaller than Country Stampede
Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan were among performers in 2008 and 2012, respectively, at the Kicker Country Stampede music and camping festival held from 1996 to 2018 at Manhattan's Tuttle Creek State Park. That event tended to draw 100,000 music fans a year. It moved in 2019 to Topeka, then in 2024 to Bonner Springs. The new Rock the Plains country music and camping festival — taking place Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 at Tuttle Creek State Park — will start smaller, with attendance being capped at 10,000 for this year's first version, said founder Brandyn Steen. Steen said April 30 that he hopes the festival gives Manhattan an economic boost like it got from Country Stampede. He hopes to make Rock the Plains an annual event. "Rock the Plains is more than just a music festival — it's a celebration of the heartland's spirit, set in the vibrant town of Manhattan, Kansas," said the event's website. Rock the Plains is not aimed at replacing Country Stampede, said Stein, who is based in Nashville. He said he twice attended the latter event while taking graduate courses about 15 years ago at Kansas State University. "We just want to provide the community with another environment similar to that to go out and listen to some live music by the lake and make some awesome memories like we all had the chance to do," he told The Capital-Journal. This year's festival will feature performers from the genres of Texas country, red dirt country and Americana music, Steen said. The Randy Rogers Band will be the headliner Aug. 8, with that day's other performers being Aaron Watson, Braxton Keith, Kaitlin Butts, Curtis Grimes, Jenna Paulette, Clay Aery and DJ DU. Casey Donahew will headline the Aug. 9 performance. That day's other acts will be the Josh Abbott Band, Pat Green, Logan Mize, Adam Hood, Kat Hasty, Clay Aery and DJ DU. Tickets can be purchased on the event website at They cost $129 for a two-day pass and $465 for a package containing four two-day passes. A VIP upgrade for each two-day ticket will be available for $250. A two-day parking pass is available for $20. Campsites range in cost from $200 to $500 and will be available from noon Aug. 7 to noon Aug. 10. The event will be cashless, its website said. Organizers currently are selling only two-day passes but could begin selling one-day passes a few weeks before the festival, if necessary, Steen said. He suggested this year's 10,000-person attendance cap would help organizers gauge what the community wants while enabling them to still make concert goers happy. Allowing more than 10,000 people could result in crowd control becoming a problem and "not everyone having a good time," he said. Steen, 38, is involved with artist management, artist development, booking, event production, consulting and label services. His co-executives for the event are Coleman Younger and Richard Jones, both fellow K-State alumni, he said. Steen recalled having attended the Country Stampede twice while he was in graduate school. "It was awesome," he said. "I remember the heat. I remember the rain. I remember good energy and good fun. That's kind of what we want to recreate with Rock the Plains." Rock the Plains will be more "community-oriented" than Country Stampede, Steen said. While Country Stampede has typically been held in June or July, Steen said Rock the Plains is taking place in August, which means it will face less competition from other Kansas summer festivals. August also tends to see less rain than June and July, he said. Steen added that while Kansas State University students have generally been out of town when Country Stampede has been held, he hopes many return to Manhattan before school starts each August so they can attend Rock the Plains. Fall semester classes this year begin Aug. 25 at K-State. Steen added that he likes holding Rock the Plains in early- to mid-August because that means it won't have to compete for attention with college football games. Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@ or 785-213-5934. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Tuttle Creek State Park hosts Rock the Plains music, camping festival
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Yahoo
'The Mushroom King' shares morel magic for fungi foragers in Kansas
Search in places people don't usually go. That's among Tom Weipert's tips for finding mushrooms in the wild. "Where the beer cans stop, the mushrooms pop," he said. A tattoo showing mushrooms adorns the right arm of Weipert, a professional forager for fungi. He has been registered since 2011 with the state of Missouri as 'The Mushroom King,' and maintains a Facebook page by that name. Weipert has been picking mushrooms since he was a small boy. 'It's like Easter egg hunting for grown-ups,' he said. Weipert said he earned the moniker "The Mushroom King" as a teenager growing up in northwest Missouri. These days, Weipert drives about 50,000 miles a year in search of mushrooms, which he and his wife, Colette, sell online. Marketing mushrooms is a "multi-million dollar business," he said. Tom Weipert said he has found mushrooms in about 35 states, with some of his favorite places to hunt being Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. Colette Weipert said: "He can pinpoint a map and drive 1,000 miles and pull up on the side of the road in the forest and say, 'They're right there.' And they're there!" Tom Weipert said he once picked a "Hen of the Woods" mushroom in Missouri that weighed 28 pounds. He shared mushrooming tips with The Capital-Journal during an April 17 hunt in a mostly wooded part of Perry Wildlife Area in Jefferson County in northeast Kansas. Hunting season for the popular morel mushroom in Kansas usually runs from mid-March through May, says the website maintained by the Kansas Department of Commerce. "This finicky fungus is without a doubt the darling of Kansas mushrooms," the site says. "For some, the appeal is the mystery of the hunt. For others, it's bragging rights. Regardless of the reason, every year, the circle of morel membership grows. Their unique appearance makes them easy to identify." Early in the season, morels have more of a gray hue and are no more than a couple inches in height, said "This is when they are the hardest to spot," it said. "Later in the season, they will turn more yellow and grow anywhere from a few inches to just over a foot high!" Finding fungi is largely about "having the right conditions" in place, and this year's morel season started slowly due to an absence of the moist, mild conditions mushrooms need to thrive, Weipert told The Capital-Journal. "The only thing really going on in Kansas right now — which is always going on — is the Kansas River, and that's a magical thing," he said. The area of the Kansas River is a good place to hunt morels, Weipert said. He voiced optimism that conditions for finding mushrooms would soon improve in other parts of northeast Kansas. "It's still early," Weipert said. "We've had decent rains; you can tell there's moisture in the ground. It just hasn't been consistently warm enough. We need a string of 40-degree nights and 70-degree days for five or six days in a row." Weipert said that appeared about to happen, as late April was forecast to bring wet, mild weather to northeast Kansas. The Weiperts wore long pants, long-sleeved shirts, hiking boots and plenty of insect repellant as they took The Capital-Journal on an hourlong hunt for mushrooms. Tom Weipert wore a headband. Colette Weipert wore a hat. Tom Weipert said when he's foraging for fungi, he generally carries a basket, a mesh bag or a 5-gallon bucket with holes drilled in it to provide ventilation to ensure any mushrooms he picks will be able to breathe. "Trees matter" when it comes to finding mushrooms, Weipert said. He said he asks himself where he would choose to live if he were a mushroom. "Any mushroom has a food source," he said. "That's how you find a mushroom, is to identify its food source." Morels tend to attach themselves to certain types of trees, and maintain symbiotic relationships with those trees in which both benefit, he said. The morel helps the tree absorb nutrients while the tree provides the morel sugars produced through photosynthesis, Weipert said. A morel's relationship with a tree or other vegetation may also be saprotrophic, which involves the morel's obtaining nutrients from dead and decaying plant matter, or parasitic, which involves the morel's acting in a manner that harms or even kills the tree or plant. Some trees to which morels commonly attach themselves include maples, elms, cedars, sycamores, cottonwoods and apple trees, Weipert said. Morels like to attach themselves to willow trees during drought situations, he said. Morels formerly attached themselves often to ash trees, but the emergence of an invasive insect called the "emerald ash borer" greatly reduced the number of surviving trees of that type, Weipert said. Morels can be unpredictable, he added. "All I've ever learned about morels is that they do what they want to do," Weipert said. Weipert said he often "pinches off" the mushrooms he picks but sometimes uses a knife to cut them off at the bottom. "The reason I don't pull them up out of the dirt and throw them in my bag is because then you get a bag full of dirt," he said. Morels are "nutritious and delicious," Weipert said. He said morels he'd picked were served the previous evening at the restaurant where he works as a chef in St. Joseph, Missouri. Those morels were cooked in butter atop baked chicken and sirloin steaks, Weipert said. The Weiperts didn't find any mushrooms during the April 17 hunt, with conditions not yet conducive for finding mushrooms in the Perry area, Tom Weipert said. recommends that before mushroom hunters bite into any fungi, they consult "A Guide to Kansas Mushrooms," published in 1993. The website described that book as being "the gold standard of Kansas fungi." Tom Weipert said the most dangerous mushrooms tend to have a "nasty" smell. But even edible morels must always be cooked before being eaten, he said. "You can't eat morels raw," he said. Eating raw or undercooked morels can lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and potentially even death. Before cooking, Weipert recommends splitting a morel in half to make sure it has no dirt or bugs. No permit is needed to pick mushrooms in Kansas. Morels can fetch anywhere from $10 to $40 per pound on the market, depending on the season, said But most hunters opt not to sell them and "choose to divide their spoils amongst friends and family," it said. Kansas state parks and wildlife areas tend to be great places to hunt mushrooms, according to "Just keep in mind that any morels that you harvest on public land cannot be sold," it said. "They can only be enjoyed for personal consumption." That site adds, "If you find morels on your own property or have been granted permission to hunt on someone else's land, by all means, sell away!" Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@ or 785-213-5934. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Fungi forager Tom Weipert shares tips for locating morels in Kansas
USA Today
12-03-2025
- Health
- USA Today
AG Kris Kobach wants Section 504 lawsuit amended amid disability rights concerns
AG Kris Kobach wants Section 504 lawsuit amended amid disability rights concerns Show Caption Hide Caption Disability rights in Kansas may change through Section 504 lawsuit Get an inside look at the lawsuit Kansas AG Kris Kobach filed against Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. AG Kris Kobach joined a lawsuit challenging a Biden administration rule change that included gender dysphoria under the definition of disability in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Disability rights advocates criticized the lawsuit for also seeking to declare the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional, putting federal funding for disability services at risk. Kobach maintains he only intended to challenge the inclusion of gender dysphoria under Section 504 and has asked for the lawsuit to be amended. Kansas Democrats remain critical of the lawsuit and are calling for Kobach to withdraw the state from the litigation entirely. Disability rights advocates are calling on Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to stop his involvement in a multistate lawsuit challenging a federal law on disability rights. As disability rights advocates spoke in a Statehouse news conference on Monday, Kobach told The Capital-Journal that he has asked for the lawsuit to be amended to remove the claim at issue. What are Kris Kobach and other AGs suing over? Kobach, a Republican, led Kansas to join as one of 17 states in a lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 is a federal law applying to programs that receive federal funding which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. The lawsuit, filed in September, challenged a May rule change by President Joe Biden's administration to include gender dysphoria under the definition of disability. The lawsuit notes that the Americans with Disabilities Act explicitly excludes "transvestism," "transsexualism" and "gender identity disorders" from the definition of disability. "The Biden Administration is once again abusing executive action to sidestep federal law and force unscientific, unfounded gender ideology onto the public," Paxton said in a news release at the time. "Texas is suing because HHS has no authority to unilaterally rewrite statutory definitions and classify 'gender dysphoria' as a disability." While the lawsuit challenges that rule change by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it also asks the court to strike down the entirety of Section 504 as unconstitutional and issue a permanent injunction against enforcing it. In a statement to The Capital-Journal, Kobach said it was his intention to only challenge the addition of gender dysphoria and not the entirety of Section 504. "We have already asked the coalition to remove the constitutional claim from the complaint," Kobach said. "It was entirely unnecessary. This case is a statutory claim, not a constitutional one. "It is routine in complex civil cases for complaints to be amended several times as litigants add and remove complaints." What is the status of the Section 504 lawsuit? Federal court records show the case — which was filed in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, Texas — has been stayed ahead of a Feb. 25 deadline for a status report. The U.S. Department of Justice attorneys on the case noted that President Donald Trump issued an executive order opposing "gender ideology" on inauguration day that requires "time to evaluate" the federal government's position on the case. They asked for time to meet with the state attorneys general to "address how to the parties wish to proceed in light of the recent executive order." "We anticipate the Biden rule will be reversed," said Kobach, who also serves as chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Democrats raise disability rights concerns Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, and Rep. Mari-Lynn Poskin, D-Leawood, were flanked by fellow House Democrats as they held a news conference Monday. They noted that Kansas has a history of supporting disability rights, most famously by U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. "It's served us well since 1973," said Mike Burgess, of the Disability Rights Center, of Section 504. "It's a cornerstone disability rights legislation. ... It exists to make entities, requires them to be accessible to people with disabilities." Simmons said a letter would be sent to Kobach, and Poskin said she would introduce a resolution in the House calling on Kobach to withdraw Kansas from the Texas-led lawsuit. Pointing to lawsuit's requested relief, Poskin rejected the idea that the lawsuit isn't trying to declare Section 504 unconstitutional, as has been suggested by attorneys general in other states. "I don't know how much more clear it can be about what the intent and what the demand is — and it is to make 504 unconstitutional and unenforceable in the state of Kansas," Poskin said. Patrick Chapman, an adult with disabilities, spoke at the news conference along with his parents. "Please just drop this lawsuit for me and for my other friends too like me," Chapman said. Topeka boxer says fight against Section 504 is wrong Tayler and John Cantrell, a local boxer known as "the Iron Man," spoke at the news conference. "Like any good fighter, I know when a battle is worth fighting," John Cantrell said, "and this lawsuit against Section 504 is one that should have never been started." He said their son, Cooper, lost half his brain at birth. Despite that, their son has defied expectations, which he attributed in-part to the assistance of Topeka's TARC Inc., the Capper Foundation and Farley Elementary School's special education program./ "These groups provide support, therapy and education the children with disabilities like Cooper need to succeed," Cantrell said. "They don't just help kids survive, they help them thrive. Section 504 is what makes this possible and ensures children with disabilities get the care and education that they need. It levels the playing field, giving every child, no matter their challenges, a fighting chance." Cantrell said the lawsuit is more than a legal attack on a law. "It's an attack on children with disabilities like my son, Cooper," he said. "It's an attack on families who already fight every single day to give their children a future." The Cantrells voiced concern that without Section 504, their son might not have the same accommodations made for him, or entities may lose federal funding, such as for special education services. That could mean their son being segregated instead of integrated in the classroom. "This lawsuit is wrong. It is a massive mistake and it must be dropped," Cantrell said. "Kansas should be fighting for its children, not against them. I urge our state leaders: do the right thing, drop this lawsuit, stand with families, stand with children with disabilities. This is one fight you do not want to be on the wrong side of." A broader impact of anti-transgender politics Simmons said the Cantrell family is being affected by "the immense hate that people feel towards the transgender community in this country." She said politicians "decided they wanted to continue punching down on the transgender population, and what that has done is throw entire other groups of people, vulnerable people, into the line of fire." "It's totally inappropriate. I think it's incredibly un-American. And among other things, it's a waste of money. I've got a problem with this whole gender dysphoria focus. It is so not what we are here to do." When told that Kobach said he has asked that the claim be removed, Simmons said that does not ease her concerns. "This is a completely frivolous lawsuit that exists solely to punch down on vulnerable Kansans, vulnerable Americans," she said. "And for what? So they have campaign talking points? So they can go home and say, oh look at me standing up against these trans kids? I think it's ridiculous." Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, D-Topeka, said this is an example of sweeping policy changes affecting people's lives in ways that were not anticipated. "We have all kinds of policies that are now being instituted through presidential fiat that are affecting all kinds of people beyond what allegedly was originally proposed," he said. Attorneys general react to backlash on challenge to Section 504 The lawsuit received little publicity until recently — about five months after it was filed — when disability rights activists nationwide raised concerns with the part of the lawsuit challenging the entirety of Section 504. When that happened, attorneys general in other states appeared unaware of that part of the lawsuit. The lawsuit argues that Congress "crossed the line" with Section 504 because it "applies with extreme breadth" to any program receiving federal funding. "Because Section 504 is coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability, and unfairly retroactive, the Rehabilitation Act is not constitutional under the spending clause," the lawsuit states. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in his a statement that "there was no intention to throw out Section 504 entirely." Wilson also said that he believes Trump's executive order "resolves his concerns, so our mission is complete." Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said the 17 states "are protecting Section 504 accommodations for students who need it." Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said misinformation had spread online, and that "our lawsuit does NOT seek to eliminate Section 504." In a later update, Griffin said "the states DO NOT argue that Section 504 is actually unconstitutional," despite count three of the lawsuit alleging "Section 504 is Unconstitutional." "This statute has been on the books for 52 years," Griffin said. "If we wanted to try and get rid of it like some people have claimed, we could have sued anytime. But we didn't do that. We sued only after the May 2024 rule with the gender mandate." Lawmakers credit public outcry for Kansas AG response After finding out that Kobach said he wants to drop that part of the lawsuit, Simmons told The Capital-Journal that she credits the public outcry in Topeka and nationwide. "I wholeheartedly believe that," Simmons said. "I would also say, if they didn't realize the implications of that, that is the definition of sloppy lawmaking and the definition of a waste of money." "It's interesting that Kris Kobach would say that he might try to take that part out," Poskin, the Leawood representative, told The Capital-Journal. "That begs the question, why was it ever in there? That probably speaks to why he didn't advertise it very much. So no, pulling it out, just that section, they need to drop the lawsuit. That's the only thing that's acceptable." Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@ Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here are the women who will lead the Republican and Democratic parties in Kansas
Kansas Republicans have elected a new party chair to lead the GOP into the 2026 election cycle, while Democrats reelected their party chair. Republicans met over the weekend in Goodland for their annual convention. Meanwhile, Democrats met in Topeka for their annual convention, known as Washington Days. Part of the state conventions was electing party leadership, who will lead their parties in the next election cycle, which features an open gubernatorial race in 2026 and congressional midterms. Republicans elected Danedri Herbert as chair. "It is an honor to lead the Republican Party of the greatest state in the nation," Herbert said in a statement to The Capital-Journal. "Kansas has long been the heart of the conservative movement, and our party is committed to continuing the fight for limited government and individual liberty. Over the next two years, I look forward to working with Kansas Republicans to grow our party, to stand firm for conservative values, and most importantly, to elect a Republican Governor in 2026." Herbert, who is a spokesperson for Attorney General Kris Kobach, replaces outgoing chair Mike Brown. Republicans also elected conservative talk radio host Andy Hooser as vice chair, Roger Lomshek as treasurer and Amanda Schlyer as secretary. Democrats reelected party chair Jeanna Repass. "Democrats are ready to fight for the shared values of Kansans during this time of uncertainty in our state and country," Repass said in a news release. "Unelected billionaires and their friends are cutting jobs and funding that has a direct impact on veterans, farmers, and other working families. These are not Kansas values and we will be unwavering as we stand up for every Kansan." Delegates also reelected vice chair Shaun Junkins and elected former Sen. Usha Reddi as treasurer and Nik Cabrini as secretary. Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@ Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Republicans and Democrats elect state party chairs
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Kansans urged to be prepared as state observes Severe Weather Awareness Week
Kansas had gone 12 years without a tornado fatality when an EF-3 twister that witnesses said looked "like an umbilical card" touched down last April in Westmoreland, killing a woman while destroying her home. That tragedy illustrates the dangers tornadoes pose, said Chad Omitt, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Topeka. "I think it's important for people to not get complacent and feel the risk tornadoes pose has gone down," he told The Capital-Journal. The weather service this week is encouraging residents to prepare for tornadoes and other severe storms as it observes the state's annual "Severe Weather Awareness Week." Kansans are encouraged to practice their plans for severe weather response when a statewide tornado drill is held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Omitt said. The weather service will then offer its Severe Storm Safety and Information Show, a storm spotter class, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Washburn Tech, 5724 S.W. Huntoon. "A National Weather Service meteorologist will teach thunderstorm development and structure, thunderstorm safety, and what, when, and how to report information," says the website of the weather service's Topeka office. The weather service's Topeka office plans to offer 21 such classes in March and April at various sites in the counties it serves in north-central, northeast and east-central Kansas. A virtual version of the class will be offered online from 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 17. To register, go to Forecasters suggest Kansans also prepare for the storm season by learning what cities and counties are in the area where they live, so they will realize severe weather is coming near when storm watches or warnings are issued for those cities and counties. A watch is issued when conditions are favorable for a weather hazard, such as a tornado or severe thunderstorm. The weather service encourages people in areas covered by a weather watch to listen for more information, and think about what to do if severe weather strikes. A warning is issued when a weather hazard such as a tornado or severe thunderstorm is imminent or has been reported. The weather service urges people in warned areas to take action to protect their lives and property. To those who might consider this a bit early in the year to talk about tornadoes, Omitt noted that a twister damaged five barns on March 13 of last year in Wabaunsee County. That same day, a tornado touched touched down near Rossville in northwest Shawnee County, damaging at least one structure. Kansas saw 76 tornadoes last year, which was 15 more than the average of 61 it records in a calendar year, the weather service said. Four of last year's tornadoes took place in Shawnee County. The state's strongest tornado last year measured EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale used to measure tornado intensity. It spent slightly more than two miles on the ground after touching down April 30 in the area of Westmoreland, which is located in Pottawatomie County about 55 miles northwest of Topeka. That tornado killed 58-year-old Anna Miller while destroying her home. It also injured four other people, destroyed 22 homes and left 13 other homes damaged but livable. Miller was the state's first tornado fatality since Richard D. Slade, 53, was killed Feb. 28, 2012, by a EF-2 tornado that struck his home at Harveyville in Wabaunsee County. Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@ or 785-213-5934. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas observes Severe Weather Awareness Week; people asked to prepare
