In the News
A bill introduced by House Democrats this week seeks to bolster mental health support for young LGBTQ people across the nation.
When Elsie Chen tried to renew her U.S. passport this spring, she thought seven weeks would be enough time for her application to make its way through the State Department bureaucracy before a much-anticipated trip to Taiwan in June to meet her boyfriend’s family.
She guessed wrong. As Chen’s flight approached with no word on her passport, the 25-year-old Kansas City nurse began spending days dialing an overloaded official hotline before learning that she had to dial right when the line opened at 8 a.m. to have any chance of speaking with someone.
Thirteen Johnson County students recently earned appointments to United States service academies.
It’s a prestigious honor that comes after a grueling application process that includes the requirement that students be nominated by a member of Congress.
This year’s class of appointees from Johnson County, most of them recently graduated high school seniors, received a certificate for their appointments at a sendoff ceremony hosted by U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids on Friday.
OLATHE — Gov. Laura Kelly and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids said Friday that 120,000 Kansans allowed to remain in Medicaid due to a three-year suspension of eligibility reviews during the pandemic were in jeopardy of automatically losing coverage by not applying for renewal.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded the Olathe city government a $17,987,495 grant to turn the railroad crossing on Woodland Road into a 119th street overpass.
The grant is part of a federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress that spends $108 billion on public transportation improvements. This specific use of the funds is meant to decrease accidents and improve travel times on 119th Street.
As part of President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law, the Federal Railroad Administration is awarding Olathe nearly $18 million in federal funding to build an overpass over the crossing at Woodland Street and Northgate Road.
The project is part of a broader effort to eliminate dangerous railroad crossings and, in Johnson County, expand 119th Street between Kansas 7 Highway and Interstate 35.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Representatives Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05) pushed for answers Thursday from the U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rita Bitter. In prior months, both offices have received an increase in messages from constituents experiencing dramatic delays in requesting passports.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Summertime travel is starting to heat up, but many are still waiting for their U.S. Passport to arrive in the mail.
For some, it’s been more than a four-month wait.
On Thursday, two local congressmen sent a letter to the Department of State to try and help get those passports completed faster.
In 2022, more than 22 million passports were processed by the state department. In 2023, it’s expected that demand for travel IDs will be up 30 to 40 percent.
MERRIAM, Kan. — If you have an international trip planned later this year, but haven’t applied for a passport, you could be out of luck.
Some people say they are waiting months for their passports to arrive.
TOPEKA — Three of four Kansas members of the U.S. House voted to approve the debt ceiling bill despite protesting provisions of the deal worked out by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
A bipartisan majority in the House passed the legislation Wednesday on a vote 314-117 with support from Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids of the 3rd District and Republican Reps. Jake LaTurner of the 2nd District and Ron Estes of the 4th District.