Subscribe

Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan is an award-winning reporter, editor and opinion writer at newspapers in Kansas, Missouri, Georgia and Texas. He was executive editor of Heartlander News from 2022 to 2026.

Culture
Kratom danger believed to have killed two Ole Miss students is present in Kansas, Missouri 

Kratom, the drug believed to be at the center of two Ole Miss students’ deaths, was recently widely available in Kansas and is still legal in… Read More

October 2, 2026
Government
Freshly minted lawmaker ignites long-sought audit of powerful Kansas City-area government

Frustrated residents of the combined Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, government have sought accountability for its use of tax money for many of the years since the two entities merged… Read More

September 15, 2026
Opinion
America’s greatest danger has been post-9/11: We’re now doing to ourselves what the terrorists could not 

The only thing more cataclysmic to America than the 9/11 attacks has been the stunning erosion of patriotism and kinship we’ve seen in the quarter-century since the mournful cleanup. Read More

September 9, 2026
Courts
Murder charge dismissed against Kansas deputy in jail death investigators long ago determined was no crime 

A judge dismissed a murder-or-manslaughter charge against a Wyandotte County, Kansas, deputy Thursday in the 2025 death of a combative and medically compromised jail inmate.  Heartlander News … Read More

August 31, 2026
Courts
‘They want to silence me’: Kansas residents sued by town over petition drive to ban data centers

A small town in Kansas is suing several petition organizers who say the city’s lawsuit is largely an attempt to muzzle them and intimidate future citizen activists. Edgerton,… Read More

August 19, 2026