North Wichita News

The Bethel and wider community will get journalists’ view behind the curtain of the Kansas State Capitol at a forum on campus Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium.

Journalists from the Kansas Reflector will speak and answer questions at “What’s happening in the statehouse?,” co-sponsored by Harvey County Now and Bethel’s Department of Communication Arts.

Adam Strunk, managing editor of Harvey County Now, a local weekly newspaper, will be the forum moderator.

“It is an opportunity to hear about what’s going on with state government and how it affects your life,” Reflector editor Sherman Smith said.

He added that attendees also will be able to learn what goes on behind the scenes for journalists trying to cover the Kansas Legislature.

The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit publication with Kansas’ largest statehouse bureau. It also provides newspapers across the state with its articles free of charge.

Smith spent 16 years at the Topeka Capitol Journal before taking over as editor of the Reflector, and is the two-time Kansas Press Association Journalist of the Year.

Reporter Tim Carpenter has covered Kansas for 35 years, working at the Reflector, the Topeka Capitol Journal, the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International. Carpenter has regularly been honored by the KPA for producing the best overall pieces of investigative journalism in the state.

“Local publications in Kansas often don’t have the resources to have a reporter full time at the state house,” Strunk said. “The Reflector has helped fill that gap, and aids local reporting by overseeing Kansas’ sometimes byzantine legislative process.

“In the past, there were times when the first we’d find out about a bill that would affect our area was when it became law.”

Harvey County Now Publisher Joey Young said he was happy to invite the journalists to Newton.

“I believe their reporters are the most informed people on what is happening at the statehouse and have a thumb on the pulse of what’s going on,” he said.

“Unlike our legislators, they aren’t tied to the same committee each week and are able to cover what makes sense and the legislature as a whole.”

Smith said this year’s session has a wide variety of hot-button issues to track, including school vouchers, a wide variety of tax proposals, social issues, abortion rights, and how the state should allocate money for services.

“Those are the things that impact people’s daily lives,” he said.

The event is free and open to the public.

Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges,” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel is the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu

Original source can be found here