Kansas
Jackie Robinson statue is rebuilt in bronze in Colorado after theft from Kansas park
As he coats a mold of Jackie Robinson with wax, metalsmith Alex Haines reflects on the extra importance of a project that will soon give the city of Wichita, Kansas, a replacement bronze statue of the baseball icon after thieves brazenly destroyed the original.
“Many sculptures come through here,” said Haines at the Art Castings studio in Loveland, Colorado, where the original statue was cast. “Some are a little bit more important than others. And this is definitely one of them.”
It all started in January, when thieves cut the original statue off at its ankles, leaving only Robinson’s cleats behind at McAdams Park in Wichita.
About 600 children play there in a youth baseball league called League 42.
It is named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major league’s color barrier in 1947.
The news spread wide, and a national outpouring of donations followed that enabled Wichita to quickly reorder a replacement.
“There’s been a lot of serendipity when it comes to League 42 throughout our entire existence,” said Bob Lutz, who is executive director of the Little League nonprofit that commissioned the statue.
“It’s almost like there’s somebody watching out for us. And certainly, in this regard, we feel like … there was a guardian angel making sure that we could do this statue again.”
As news spread of the theft, the nonprofit was flooded with an estimated $450,000 to $500,000 in donations.
That includes a $100,000 gift from Major League Baseball, which will cover the statue’s $45,000 replacement cost and other improvements, including landscaping and adding decorative bollards that will keep people from driving too close to the statue.
The rest of the money raised will go toward enhancing some of the nonprofit’s programming and facilities.
Last year, the group opened the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, which includes an indoor baseball facility and a learning lab.
There might even be enough money to add artificial turf and more lighting, Lutz said.
Another blessing for Lutz is that the replacement will look exactly like the original, which was created by his friend, the artist John Parsons, before his death in 2022 at the age of 67.
That is possible because the original mold was still viable.
“If that wasn’t the case, I don’t know that I would feel as good about all this as I do,” Lutz said.
It looked dire five days after the theft, when fire crews found burned remnants of his statue while responding to a trash can fire at another park about 7 miles away from the scene of the theft.
One man has pleaded guilty, and the investigation continues into a crime that police have said was motivated not by racial animus but by plans to sell the bronze for scrap.
It was a stupid plan, said Tony Workman, owner of Art Castings of Colorado. The town where the business is located, around 50 miles north of Denver, is well known for its abundance of sculptors and artists.
“The problem is you can’t get a fire in a dumpster hot enough to melt metal,” Workman said. “All you’re gonna do is burn the sculpture. So you’re still going to be able to tell what it was.”
Beyond rebuilding the statue, the severed bronze cleats from the original statue found a new home last month at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
It is a fitting location. Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, paving the way for generations of Black American ballplayers.
He is considered not only a sports legend but also a civil rights icon. Robinson died in 1972.
“The outpouring of support that folks have gotten as a result of this, it reminds us that light indeed does come out of darkness,” said Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
At the museum, the cleats are part of a display that also includes a gunfire-riddled plaque that had been erected outside Robinson’s birthplace near Cairo, Georgia.
“It renews our spirt and belief in people because sometimes people will do despicable things, and it makes you want to give up on people,” Kendrick said.
“But you know you can’t give up on people, even though sometimes you want to.”
On a recent morning, Emilio Estevez, a financial services worker from Miami, stopped to look at the cleats. He described Robinson as an inspiration — both because of this athleticism and his ability to put up with jeers while integrating the sport.
“We can all learn from that,” he said.
And the thieves couldn’t take that away, Estevez said.
“He’s still in all our minds. He’s still very present, like here in the museum, very prevalent,” he said.
After Kansas Basketball started March with two close losses against No. 9 Texas Tech and No. 2 Houston, it finished the regular season with a big win on Senior Day over Arizona.
As it turned out, in the metrics and rankings, that mattered.
Kansas finished the regular season with a 20-11 overall record and an 11-9 record in Big 12 play. Going from the No. 1 team in the country to one of the worst season in the Bill Self era was not anticipated, nor should it have been.
The experience that the Jayhawks bring to the table with their senior heavy roster is something that fans were banking on to take them far this season. Now it has to all kick in when it matters.
Although the Jayhawks have been out of the AP Top 25 for the last couple of weeks, KenPom has Kansas in a good spot ahead of the tournament season.
KenPom, one of the best analytical sites in college basketball has been updated prior to conference tournament week, and here is where the Jayhawks landed:
Overall Rank: 21
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency (ORtg): 116.1 (52nd Nationally)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency (DRtg): 92.2 (8th Nationally)
Adjusted Tempo (AdjT): 68.5 (117th Nationally)
Luck Rating: -0.027 (263rd Nationally)
Strength of Schedule Net Rating (NetRtg): +15.24 (10th Nationally)
Although this hasn’t been the season that Kansas fans were hoping for after starting the season as the No. 1 team in the country, they have a chance to save the season with runs in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.
Kansas will either play Utah or UCF in the second round of the Big 12 tournament and will likely enter the NCAA tournament as a seven seed.
What is the Kansas Supermajority? How leaders react to 2024 election
The 2025 Legislative Session begins Jan. 12 with Republicans controlling the House and Senate under Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Kansas Republican lawmakers are getting close to repealing the three-day grace period for mail ballots, a law that was broadly popular when it was enacted eight years ago.
The Republican-led Legislature has passed Senate Bill 4, sending it to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk. While the bill faces a likely veto, the GOP supermajorities appear to have the votes for an override.
Under Kansas election law, voters are allowed to advance vote by mail. As long as they are postmarked by Election Day, the ballots can be counted if they are delivered within three days.
That three-day grace period would be repealed by SB 4, meaning all mail ballots would have to arrive by 7 p.m. Election Day in order to be counted. The proposed change would take effect in 2026.
What lawmakers say about repealing grace period
That law was enacted in 2017 with bipartisan support in a near-unanimous Legislature. It had the backing of then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who said the motivation behind the law was concern about mail delays.
“Our opposition to this bill is simple: it’s wrong for the government to throw out votes for no good reason,” said Davis Hammett, president of Loud Light Civic Action, in a statement. “That is the only thing this bill would do if passed into law — throw out Kansans’ valid ballots because of slow mail. Mail delays are a government failure — a failure that this same legislature, with near unanimous support, voted to help fix in 2017 when they added additional mail processing days for ballots cast on election day to arrive.”
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said during floor debate last month that mail processing problems “have honestly only gotten worse” since 2017.
But Republicans have largely flipped their view after mail voting was politicized following President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
Sen. Bill Clifford, R-Garden City, said that he believes Kansas has secure elections. But after previously supporting the three-day grace period, he said he changed his mind out of concerned that the perception of fraud will dampen voter turnout.
“Being a party chair in western Kansas of the Republican Party, I certainly have to deal with individuals who still think there’s fraud in Kansas elections,” Clifford said. “Although I would disagree with that, that perception is the reality for many voters.”
Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, is the chair of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. He cited a federal appeals court ruling from a different circuit than Kansas where the judges found that grace periods for mail ballots are unconstitutional. The ruling doesn’t apply to Kansas.
“That gives us additional justification for eliminating this three-day grace period,” Thompson said.
Sen. Brenda Dietrich, R-Topeka, was the only Senate Republican to vote against the bill.
“I voted no on that,” Dietrich said while speaking to Greater Topeka Partnership officials last month. “I have 22 nursing homes, and that’s too important to them.”
Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth, is the chair of the House Elections Committee.
“Voter confidence that the results of our elections reflect their will, that every vote is counted, lies at the very heart of our form of government and our way of life,” Proctor said in a statement. “According to the Secretary of State, the three-day grace period disenfranchised as many as a thousand voters last year. Joining the 32 states that have decided that Election Day should be Election Day is a positive step toward restoring voter confidence and ensuring every vote is counted in Kansas.”
Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, is a member of the House Elections Committee.
“Election misinformation is the true cause of any issue with voter confidence,” Simmons said in a statement. “This bill was passed through a campaign of election misinformation, in part because of the chairman’s continued peddling of fake data. The Secretary of State’s Office has shared the data they collected about the issues Rep. Proctor raised during this debate and there is no evidence to back up his claims.
“In fact, the data shows the opposite of what Rep. Proctor is saying. Very clearly, the 3-day mail processing period protects Kansans who rely on mail voting from being disenfranchised due to slow mail. I am particularly concerned about this due to the recent news that Elon Musk’s absurd DOGE efforts will soon be focused on slicing and dicing the USPS.”
How many mail ballots benefit from 3-day grace period?
Eliminating the three-day grace period could mean that thousands of votes are not counted in future elections.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office provided lawmakers with data from the 2024 general election in Kansas.
There were 163,405 mail ballots sent out, of which 147,359 were returned by the voter.
Of that, 2,110 ballots were received during the three-day grace period after Election Day. Those ballots were counted.
There were 603 ballots received after the grace period. Those ballots weren’t counted. Neither were 104 ballots received after Election Day that didn’t have a postmark.
The Secretary of State’s Office remained neutral on SB 4, but provided lawmakers with a summary of arguments for and against. It also lobbied to keep ballot drop boxes as an option for voters.
Ann Mah, a former Topeka lawmaker and former member of the Kansas State Board of Education, testified about statistics she got from the Shawnee County Election Office. In the 2020 election, there were 217 mail ballots received during the three-day grace period. In the 2022 election, there were 291 ballots.
“If passed, this bill would likely disenfranchise thousands of voters across the state of Kansas,” Mah said.
Republicans likely have veto-proof majorities for expected veto
While the governor is expected to veto the bill, Republicans likely have the votes for an override.
The Senate passed SB 4 on Thursday with a 30-10 vote, which is three above the supermajority needed for an override. One Republican sided with the Democrats.
A week before, the House passed the bill 80-39. While the House was four votes shy of a veto-proof supermajority, there were four Republicans absent that day — all four of whom previously voted to repeal the three-day grace period in 2023. There were four Republicans who sided with Democrats.
In 2023, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 209 to repeal the three-day grace period, but failed to override Kelly’s veto. The governor raised concerns for voters in the military.
In her veto message, Kelly said it would “likely result in too many rural Kansans not having their votes counted in important elections. That is unacceptable. We should be doing everything we can to make it easier — not harder — for Kansans to make their voices heard at the ballot box.”
The Senate mustered 25 votes for an override, two short of a supermajority. While the override attempt did not make it to the House for a vote, that chamber had 76 votes to pass the bill, which would have been eight short of the number needed to override a veto.
Republicans tried again in 2024, but the Senate GOP sank their own three-day grace period repeal bill by anchoring down the already controversial proposal with even more controversial proposals. The additions made it a sweeping bill to ban ballot drop boxes and ban electronic voting machines, among other provisions. The bill failed to pass because several Republicans sided with Democrats.
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Kansas City Community Gardens has been serving the metro since 1979, officially 501c3 in 1985. The nonprofit helps out thousands of families every year, but like so many other nonprofits across the country, their federal funding is on pause.
KCCG Executive Director Jennifer Meyer said the nonprofit already budgeted for $300,000 of federal grant money to be reimbursed throughout the year. After the most recent federal cuts, that money isn’t showing up.
“We’re having to be really conservative on how we approach the spring season,” Meyer said. “Those grants operate on a reimbursement basis, so we do the work, buy the seeds, buy the fruit trees, and then submit billing on those grants. We have not seen a reimbursement come through since December of last year, so right now, that’s all on hold and uncertain.”
Meyer said the garden won’t have to shut down, there are enough donors to keep the garden running during the spring season. However, KCCG is still feeling the impacts by having to trim seasonal staff. If federal grant money doesn’t show up at all, Meyer said the nonprofit will have to make some tough decisions.
“Last year, food insecurity rates quietly crept back up to pandemic levels, so our community needs food,” Meyer said. “We know that gardening is a great way to get healthy food into neighborhoods and families who are on a tight budget, so this funding lets us do that.”
Meyer expects the spring season to run as normal, just with fewer staff. KCCG offers an annual membership program with fees based on income and the number of people in a household. Membership ranges from $2 to $45.
According to the KCCG reader’s digest, enrollment includes:
- 10 free packs of seeds and the opportunity to buy more at a low-cost member price
- Free 10-pound bag of fertilizer
- Starter plants, including vegetables and herb transplants, fruit trees, berry bushes and more at a low-cost member price
- Low-cost garden supplies, such as straw, compost and pest control products
- Low-cost tilling services and access to KCCG rental plot gardens
You can learn more about Kansas City Community Gardens’ outreach and resources here.
Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.
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