Kansas

Disabled Kansas man who mows lawns gets new garage built by neighbors

Published

11 months ago

April 8, 2025

Disabled Kansas man who mows lawns gets new garage built by neighbors

BUCYRUS, Kan. — If you drive through rural Bucyrus, Kansas on almost any day, there’s a chance you will pass Kenny Kenley on his lawn mower.

“I love working. I never stop,” Kenley said. “It relaxes me.”

Kenley moved 30 years ago from Michigan to Bucyrus.

Jack McCormick/KSHB

Kenny Kenley

He loves living in rural Kansas.

In 2009, Kenley’s health declined, taking away mobility in his legs.

He was diagnosed with cancer, spending two years on life support, and also lived through seven heart attacks.

“It’s a little bit rough,” he said.

Nearly all of Kenley’s life is spent in a motorized wheelchair.

Kenny Kenley — A disabled Bucyrus, Kansas landscaper received a well deserved equipment shop from his neighbors at Guetterman Famile Farms.

Since his health declined, he’s been committed to defying the odds.

“They didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said. “They kept telling my wife I was going to die. My wife told them, ‘You leave that man alone, because he’s going to make it,”‘ Kenley said. “When I got out of the hospital, I told my wife, ‘I gotta start mowing. I gotta do something.”‘

With limited use of his hands and legs, Kenley spent the next year teaching himself how to get from his wheelchair into his riding lawnmower.

“Nothing ever gets me down,” he said.

That attitude drew the attention of the farmers across the road at Guetterman Family Farms.

“Kenny is the unofficial mayor of Bucyrus,” Mike Guetterman told KSHB 41. “He kind of looks out for everybody here in town. Coincidentally, we kind of look out for him as well. He’s been a blessing to us.”

The Guetterman Family offered Kenny a job mowing grass around their property.

Most days, Kenny’s up at 5:30 a.m., priming his lawnmower for sometimes 10 acres of grass to cut.

“He goes the extra mile,” Guetterman said. “You think it would just be enough to come and ride his mower. But as soon as he’s done mowing, he gets his weed eater and he’s riding his weed eater, in his chair, and weed eating all the property. How many people are there world like that?”

As a gift of appreciation, Guetterman Family Farms poured a slab of concrete and framed a shop behind Kenley’s home to store his equipment.

“You couldn’t ask for better people,” Kenley said with an ear-to-ear smile. “I love them like family.”

It’s his perseverance through all the bad times that Guetterman says he admires.

“He’ll call us and say, ‘I’m in the hospital. I had a heart attack.’” “You think Kenny is about done, but three days later he’s mowing again,” Guetterman said. “You think you have problems in your life, as far as aches and pains here and there… Kenny don’t have to do nothing. But he wants to.”

Guetterman says their family’s act of kindness is more about community and the positive attitude Kenley embodies.

“I told myself there is nothing I can do about it, so I might as well go ahead and get it done,” Kenley said. “This grass ain’t getting brown, it’s getting green! As long as it’s green, I’m mowing.”

That’s the Kenny Kenley inspiration.

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Kansas

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

Published

7 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

In early 2026, the Kansas state legislature passed SB 244, a law which prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms on government property that align with their gender identity and establishes a private right of action that allows anyone who suspects someone is transgender and in violation of the law to sue that person for “damages” totaling $1,000.

The law also invalidates state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers that reflect the carrier’s gender identity. In February 2026, transgender people across the state received letters from the state Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles informing them that their driver’s licenses “will no longer be valid,” effective immediately. SB 244 also prohibits transgender Kansans – or those born in Kansas – from updating the gender marker on state-issued birth certificates and driver’s licenses in the future.

The same day SB 244 went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP filed a lawsuit challenging SB 244 in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of two transgender men who had their driver’s licenses invalidated under the law. The lawsuit charges that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

“The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

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Kansas

Kansas City man sentenced for cocaine trafficking, possession of illegal firearm

Published

19 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Kansas City man sentenced for cocaine trafficking, possession of illegal firearm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy and possession of an illegal firearm.

According to the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, 22-year-old Antoine R. Gillum was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

His sentencing stems from a June 2024 incident in a metro gas station. KCPD investigators contacted Gillum inside and found that he had discarded a 9 mm pistol in an aisle between the merchandise. He also discarded a pill bottle containing multiple illegal substances: cocaine base, oxycodone/acetaminophen and oxycodone.

Officers searched the vehicle Gillum had arrived in and found approximately 32 grams of cocaine base.

On May 6, 2025, Gillum pleaded guilty to one count each of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Jennings. It’s a part of ‘Operation Take Back America,’ a nationwide Department of Justice initiative to eliminate cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

No further information has been released.

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