The Kansas City Star taps Kansas native Katie Bernard to cover Legislature in Topeka
The Kansas City Star has named Kansas native Katie Bernard as its Topeka correspondent, covering the Kansas Legislature.
Bernard, currently a member of The Star’s breaking news team, will follow Jonathan Shorman, who covered the Kansas statehouse before being named lead political reporter at The Star in October.
“I’m excited and grateful to join The Star’s political team as the Kansas Statehouse reporter,” Bernard said. “I hope to continue the team’s tradition of impactful, empathetic and accountability driven reporting in my home state.”
Bernard, 23, is a native of Overland Park who studied journalism and political science at the University of Kansas. She began working on The Star’s breaking news team last year. Previously, she interned for The Star and at CNN Politics, where she covered breaking news for the website.
In her short time at The Star, Bernard has covered a wide variety of topics, including reporting on how Lawrence police and prosecutors investigated alleged rape cases.
In one instance, Lawrence detectives decided that a university student was lying about an alleged rape. Without telling her, they began investigating her rather than the alleged rapist. Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson charged her with a felony.
The Star published several stories about the case, examining the police investigation and Branson’s position that the woman’s rape kit did not need to be tested. The charges against her, as well as two other false report cases against women who reported sexual assault or domestic violence, were dropped by the district attorney’s office after reporting in The Star.
In August, Branson lost his primary reelection to University of Kansas law professor Suzanne Valdez, who heavily criticized his handling of sexual assault cases.
“Katie is the real deal,” said politics editor Bill Turque. “She’s dogged, meticulous and fair, with an instinct for the kind of accountability journalism we value.”
Contact Bernard at cbernard@kcstar.com or follow her on Twitter @KatieJ_Bernard.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 1:58 PM.
