Kansas
A new mural in the Kansas Statehouse commemorates 13 Kansas suffragettes.
The Kansas Statehouse’s latest mural commemorating Kansas suffragettes was unveiled on Kansas Day.
The 18-feet-by-8-feet oil painting’s original design had been approved in fall 2023 by the Capitol Preservation Committee. It was chosen over 24 other applicants.
Artist Phyllis Garibay-Coon titled the painting “Rebel Women” in appreciation of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a writer and activist for women’s suffrage, abolition and Native American Rights.
“She was too much of a rebel for Susan B. Anthony. Why? Because she wanted equality for all people,” Garibay-Coon said.
Garibay-Coon studied the subjects and included small details from her research in the mural, like the hoop earrings worn by Lutie Lytle, the first Black woman admitted to the Kansas Bar Association, or the pin worn by lecturer, newspaper editor and Underground Railroad conductor Clarina Nichols.
In total there are 13 Kansas suffragettes depicted in the painting.
“I just looked at what they did, and looked at the clothing they were wearing in the pictures,” Garibay-Coon said. “I would take those little things and try to get as clear an image as I could.”
Gov. Laura Kelly praised the painting, saying it’s fit to stand with the other pieces around the Statehouse done by Kansas’s most celebrated artists, such as John Steuart Curry.
“You really are among the best of the best,” Kelly told Garibay-Coon at the dedication ceremony.
The dedication was conducted in front of a packed house in the first-floor rotunda of the Kansas Statehouse and was even attended by some descendants of the suffragettes depicted.
Statehouse tour guide Haley Kelley said women have been waiting for something like this.
“The wonderful women in my family have been here for generations, we have been here since the start of Kansas and these women fought for our rights,” Kelley said. “So to be here today is extraordinary.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Bates County Circuit Court judge Friday sentenced a Linn County, Kansas, man in connection with the December 2025 death of Airen Andula, 13.
Damon Leonard, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison for abandonment of a corpse, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to the charge of abandoning a corpse on May 22.
Andula disappeared from his Pleasanton, Kansas, home on Dec. 21, 2025. A day later, law enforcement found the boy’s body in a ravine in Bates County, Missouri. He had died from multiple dog bite injuries.
Police were led to the boy’s body after a phone call from Leonard.
Court documents said Leonard “admitted that he transported the deceased child from Kansas to Missouri and left the body in the bottom of the creek” before he returned home.
KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva spoke with Andula’s family earlier this week — after the guilty plea and ahead of Friday’s sentencing.
His family shared that the guilty plea brought a small sense of justice, but it didn’t do much to ease the pain of their loss.
READ MORE | Family of Airen Andula speaks out ahead of sentencing
“We’re missing our kid every day of our lives,” the boy’s father Charles Andula told Silva.
Leonard received credit for time served of 158 days in his sentence, per court records.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – It may not seem like a lot of relief, but gas and diesel prices have declined over the past week.
Friday morning’s national average for a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.39, according to the Automobile Association of America.
That’s down three cents from $4.42 on Thursday; down 16 cents from a week ago; but was up 17 cents from $4.22 a month ago and up $.23 from $3.16 a year ago.
In Kansas, AAA says, unleaded gas on Friday was averaging $3.96 a gallon — down four cents from $4.00 on Thursday; down 13 cents from $3.96 a week ago; but up 26 cents from $3.70 a month ago; and up $1.07 over $2.89 a year ago.
Diesel fuel also was dropping in price. AAA says Friday’s national average for a gallon of diesel was $5.52 a gallon — down three cents from $5.55 on Thursday; down 12 cents from $5.64 a week a go; but up six cents from $5.46 a month ago and up $1.98 from $3.54 a year ago.
Kansas diesel fuel prices, according to AAA, checked in at an average of $4.98 on Friday. That’s five cents below $5.03 on Thursday; down 16 cents from $5.14 a week ago; but up 24 cents over $4.74 a month ago; and up $1.72 from $3.26 a year ago.
In Topeka, GasBuddy.com on Friday morning showed unleaded gas prices ranging between $3.77 and $4.09 in Topeka, with diesel fuel going for between $4.94 and $5.29 a gallon.
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Kansas
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