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For small-town economic success, broadband is the new railroad

Apr 17, 2019
Emporia, Kansas, wants to get into tech.
Emporia, Kansas, population 24,700, has always been home to manufacturing. City leaders now hope to bring more technology jobs to the area.
Peggy Lowe/KCUR 89.3

Popular with voters, more conservative states push for Medicaid expansion

Dec 10, 2018
One of the big winners in November’s midterm election was public health insurance coverage – specifically expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
A man casts his midterm ballot on Nov. 6, 2018 at Briles Schoolhouse in Peoria Township, Kansas.
Whitney Curtis / Getty Images

Rising crude prices are kick-starting the Kansas oil industry back to life

Oct 8, 2018
Low oil prices hit the state's mostly small producers hard. As a barrel of oil goes up, the industry is hopeful profits will start flowing again.
Tom Casey, a supervisor at Express Oil Service, checks in with his workers.
Brian Grimmett/Kansas News Service

Are businesses paying the price for Trump's negotiating strategy?

Jun 21, 2018
That’s what Kansas Senator Pat Roberts said to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross at Wednesday’s Finance Committee hearing. He also asked if Ross would personally call one of his constituents, Mike Bergmeier, who works at a company that makes agricultural equipment in Hutchinson, Kansas. Ross promised to call Bergmeier and he kept that promise. We […]

Some Republicans point to North Carolina's 2013 tax cuts as a model, but the state faces budget shortfalls

Dec 21, 2017
North Carolina drastically cut corporate and income taxes in 2013, similar to today’s GOP tax plan in Congress. Corporate and income tax cuts created more jobs in North Carolina. But revenue shortfalls loom.
A general view of Charlotte, North Carolina's skyline. 
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

What Congress could learn from Kansas

Nov 30, 2017
Making the rounds on Capitol Hill yesterday was Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. He was talking up his tax cuts in Kansas from 2012 as a model for the GOP to follow in its national tax plan. Thing is, the five years since those Kansas tax cuts were put in place have not been kind to […]

Farmers struggle with low commodity prices

Jul 25, 2017
Farmers, in particular those producing grain, are struggling, thanks mostly to low commodity prices amid a global grain glut.
Tom Giessel is a Kansas wheat farmer who harvested 1,800 acres of wheat in late June. He stands here in his field near Larned, Kansas. 
Peggy Lowe for Marketplace

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Kansas legislature rejects 2012 tax cuts, once seen as a conservative model

Jun 8, 2017
Lawmakers override the governor to get taxes back on the books.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback pushed the tax cuts in 2012 and has defended them since. Lawmakers voted to override his veto and roll back many of those tax cuts this week.
Stephen Koranda

Red state Kansas considers expanding Medicaid. Will others follow?

Mar 29, 2017
We’re still sifting through the fallout of Republicans’ failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last week. One consequence: It’s reignited the debate in some states about whether to expand Medicaid. First out of the gate, the Kansas Legislature. Yesterday, state lawmakers sent the governor a bill to do just that. Nineteen states […]

Schools go to court for more funding

Jan 6, 2015
Kansas is one of more than a dozen states facing school finance litigation.