The Kansas Portal

Kansas (/ˈkænzəs/ KAN-zəss) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, in turn named after the Kansa people. Its capital is Topeka, and its most populous city is Wichita, however the largest urban area is the bi-state Kansas City, MO–KS metropolitan area.

For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Indigenous tribes. The first settlement of non-indigenous people in Kansas occurred in 1827 at Fort Leavenworth. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery debate. When it was officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854 with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, conflict between abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri broke out over the question of whether Kansas would become a free state or a slave state, in a period known as Bleeding Kansas. On January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state, hence the unofficial nickname "The Free State". Passage of the Homestead Acts in 1862 brought a further influx of settlers, and the booming cattle trade of the 1870s attracted some of the Wild West's most iconic figures to western Kansas.

As of 2015, Kansas was among the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. In addition to its traditional strength in agriculture, Kansas possesses an extensive aerospace industry. Kansas, which has an area of 82,278 square miles (213,100 square kilometers) is the 15th-largest state by area, the 36th most-populous of the 50 states, with a population of 2,940,865 according to the 2020 census, and the 10th least densely populated. Residents of Kansas are called Kansans. Mount Sunflower is Kansas's highest point at 4,039 feet (1,231 meters). (Full article...)

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Mary Isenhour is an American political strategist, campaign manager, and government official. She was the Chief of Staff for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. Prior to the Wolf administration, Isenhour served executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, was state director of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and assisted with the successful campaigns of U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr. and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. She now serves with the firm Rooney Novak Isenhour, LLC and is a member of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

Isenhour also previously worked as executive director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee, and started a political consulting firm with former state party chairman T.J. Rooney. In 2010, PoliticsPA called her "one of the top consultants in the state", and said, "few can move between the strategy of campaigning and its mechanics with the ease that she does". (Full article...)

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Credit: Michael Overton
Big Brutus Note people standing near the bottom "treads" to gain perspective of this 160 feet (49 m) machine.

Important dates in Kansas' history

July–August 1541
Coronado explores Kansas
April 30, 1803
Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed
May 30, 1854
Kansas Territory organized
July 29, 1859
Constitution adopted by convention
January 29, 1861
Kansas becomes 34th state
August 21, 1863
Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence
Spring 1879
Exodusters
February 19, 1881
First state to Constitutionally prohibit alcohol
1890s
Populist Revolt
July 1951
Great Flood of 1951
May 17, 1954
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

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The American Bison, Kansas' state mammal.

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Same-sex marriage became legal in Kansas following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, which found the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional. By June 30, all 31 judicial districts and all 105 Kansas counties were issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples or had agreed to do so. Kansas state agencies initially delayed recognition of same-sex marriages for purposes including but not limited to changing names, ascribing health benefits and filing joint tax returns, but began doing so on July 6.

Kansas had previously defined marriage in its constitution as the "union of one man and one woman" and had by statute denied recognition to same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Before the Supreme Court resolved the issue, a series of lawsuits had challenged the state's policies with mixed success. In Marie v. Moser, U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree issued a preliminary injunction barring the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Douglas County and Sedgwick County from enforcing Kansas' same-sex marriage ban on November 4, 2014. He temporarily stayed the injunction until November 11 to give state authorities time to appeal. On November 7, 2014, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied state officials' request for a stay pending appeal. On November 12, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the state officials' request for a stay pending the appeal of Marie. As the injunction in Marie was set to take effect, the Kansas Attorney General, Derek Schmidt, contended that Crabtree's preliminary injunction only applied to the two counties involved in the lawsuit, not statewide. The American Civil Liberties Union maintained that the injunction applied to all 105 of the state's counties. Some of the state district judges, who issue marriage licenses in Kansas, refused to authorize the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on their own interpretation of the legal situation. (Full article...)
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