Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

MARION — Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody probably committed a felony crime when he told a witness to delete text messages they exchanged before, during and after he led raids on a newspaper office and the publisher’s home, a district judge ruled Wednesday.

But Cody won’t be tried for the raids, which Marion County Record editor-publisher Eric Meyer says is the real crime.

A two-hour preliminary hearing revealed new details about the texts that Cody exchanged with Kari Newell, whose drunk driving record and request for a liquor license at her restaurant ignited an international drama two years ago. Newell took the stand and testified that Cody told her during a phone call to delete text messages between the two of them so that people wouldn’t get the wrong idea about whether they were romantically involved....

This headline was edited by Raw Story.

LENEXA — A 74-year-old certified public accountant’s misunderstanding and subsequent call to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation sparked a police inquiry into a Lenexa City Council member’s citizenship, public records show, igniting public scrutiny and leading to records requests from local residents.

Melanie Arroyo, who became a U.S. citizen in 2018 and has served on the Lenexa City Council since 2021, disclosed the police investigation during an Aug. 5 council meeting. Her decision to go public that night caught colleagues and city staff by surprise, according to newly disclosed documents....

LENEXA — Melanie Arroyo lives in two worlds.

There’s the one where the Lenexa City Council member has to “assimilate and perform” like her white counterparts, she said. Then there’s the authentic world, where she is aware of how vulnerable she is in this country, “simply because I’m brown and because I have an accent.”

“It feels lonely,” she said....

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used the pretense of a national emergency to justify a secret, no-bid contract with CoreCivic that would pay the company $4.2 million per month to house detained immigrants at its vacant Leavenworth prison.

CoreCivic revealed in court filings the amount of money it stands to lose if the city of Leavenworth prevails in legal proceedings aimed at blocking the company from reopening its prison. But the details of the contract remain undisclosed.

ICE filed internal paperwork that outlines the agency’s “justification” for giving contracts to private companies without going through the normal bidding process or revealing the cost, citing President Donald Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency at the southern border.” The agency said the situation “poses significant public safety risks.”...

TOPEKA — As Kansas Rep. Pat Proctor launched his campaign to oversee state elections, he honed in on a signature phrase that would serve his interest of dismissing critics — and reporting by Kansas Reflector — while appealing to far-right voters.

His ambiguous “axis of ballot harvesting” serves as a catchall for anyone who challenges his false claims about the hazards of early voting, and signals a vast make-believe conspiracy by foreign nationals to undermine elections.

Proctor frequently repeats the phrase on the campaign trail, and used it in a fundraising message where he suggested a new law could be used to bring criminal or civil charges against Kansas Reflector....