In Kansas News
The State of Kansas will pay out a $275,000 dollar settlement after a prisoner was allegedly killed by his cellmate.
Gary Raburn died in 2023 at Lansing Correctional Facility after his cellmate allegedly attacked him.
In a lawsuit, Raburn’s family says the state knew the cellmate had an extensive history of violence and failed to protect Raburn.
The suit also says Raburn was nearly 40 years older than his cellmate.
State lawmakers settled the case outside of court at the request of the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.
Democratic U.S. Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas worries cuts to Medicaid funding will force rural hospitals to close.
The Trump administration’s recently approved tax and spending bill cuts billions of dollars from the federal health insurance program over the next 10 years.
Republican U.S. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas touted a provision in the law that created a $50 billion fund to prevent hospital closures.
But Davids told KCUR that the emergency funding will not make much of a difference.
“If a rural hospital closes, even if the funds came in the next day, the doors don't just open right back up.”
Davids says the new law also cuts funding that could lead to thousands of Kansans losing access to food assistance.
And in Missouri News
In the Midwest, forms of artificial intelligence are now being used in industries including education, health care and policing.While state and federal officials debate how to – and who should – regulate A-I and its infrastructure, local leaders are stepping in.
Nestor Maslej is research manager at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. He also tracks A-I governance and applications.
“While I think a lot of policymakers agree that there should be some regulation regarding AI, you know, I think the devil tends to be in the details, and there's a lot of kind of argumentative back and forth about what the right regulation is.”
Some Midwestern cities aren’t waiting for a consensus and have started adding their own oversight on A-I, including utility agreements and transparency disclosures.
Southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri will get a break from the recent heat wave starting tomorrow, with highs in the mid 80s. KRPS’s Raegan Neufeld has more.
"A chance of thunderstorms will help bring the temperatures down, but there will also be a shift in the atmosphere that allows cooler air to move into the area.
According to Jordan Didio, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Springfield, temps could be between 5 and 15 degrees below the average. However, the high will be back around 90 starting next Monday, and Didio says there are chances for above normal temperatures.
“It's gonna be something that we're gonna have to keep monitoring and see if we're gonna get those excessive heat index values again as we head into next week.”
Heat index values of 105 to 109 would lead to a heat advisory.
For KRPS, I’m Raegan Neufeld.