Chance Swaim

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Chance Swaim

A three-judge panel from the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals appeared unconvinced Friday that five Sedgwick County juvenile detention officers should be immune from an excessive force lawsuit in the 2021 death of 17-year-old Cedric “CJ” Lofton. The county officers were appealing an Oct.

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Chance Swaim

Chance SwaimFri, April 11, 2025 at 3:25 AM UTC4 min readWichita City Council member Brandon Johnson violated the city’s ethics ordinance for his part in an altercation with Kansas Rep. Ford Carr at a Topeka bar earlier this year, the Wichita Ethics Board ruled Thursday night. Johnson will not be fined for the violation because of “the extenuating circumstances of the repeated provocations and physical aggression of Carr,” the ethics board’s official report says.

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Chance Swaim |Kylie Cameron

Should Wichita’s mayor have more power? Or should an unelected city manager continue to be the city’s most powerful official? As it stands, the mayor is the only official elected citywide. But she has no executive powers and can’t enact her agenda without the support of three other council members, who represent smaller districts. The city manager, who is appointed by the council, prepares the budget, chooses department heads and manages the daily operations of the city government.

1 month ago | communityvoiceks.com | Chance Swaim |Wichita Eagle

If you learned that something you own is actually worth substantially more than you paid for it, you would usually celebrate that as good news, Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Ryan Baty said. But that’s not how homeowners are responding to the latest property valuations from the Sedgwick County Appraiser’s Office, which uses complex modeling to mass appraise properties across the county for taxing purposes. “The fact of the matter is people like it when their assets appreciate,” Baty said.

1 month ago | kansas.com | Chance Swaim

In our Reality Check stories, Wichita Eagle journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Story idea? [email protected]. Wichitans will wait longer than expected to start drinking water from a new $574 million water treatment plant. Wichita Water Works, the new plant near Sedgwick County Zoo, is already six months behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over its original budget. The latest deadline for “final completion” is April 1.