As budget woes grow, state runs out of options

Things are looking up, for pessimists. The projected state debt? Up. Unemployment? Up. Inflation? Up. The cost of oil? Way up. 

Taxes? Not so fast.

With the economy sputtering and the state entering a tax revenue shortfall, the one thing Kansans said they don't want, according to a new poll, is more taxes. [Read more...]

Six asks Supreme Court to silence Anderson in Planned Parenthood case but finally complies with subpoena.

Special Report: Clean-up continues after Sebelius-Tiller party

Fallout from a governor's mansion reception held in April 2007 by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for late-term abortionist George Tiller and his staff when Tiller's abortion clinic was under investigation by the attorney general’s office continued last week.

On Monday, the governor’s office admitted that it had not been reimbursed for the event until May 23.

Kansas Liberty has compiled a special report of the week's events. [ Read more...]

Center for Media and Democracy says lobbying firm tried to block limits on broadcasting 'indecent' content

Watchdog group attacks Slattery lobbying disclosure

Jim Slattery, a candidate in the Kansas Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, responded to criticism by his primary opponent, Lee Jones, and Republican incumbent Pat Roberts, by releasing a partial list of his lobbying activities last week.

Campaign watchdog organizations were not impressed, however.

Steve Carpinelli, a spokesman for the Center for Public Integrity, a group normally critical of Republicans, said the information released by the Slattery campaign was vague and contained the same information available to the public through the U.S. Senate Office of Public Records. [Read more...]

Attorney general's 'wrong opinion' would eliminate legislative oversight

Siegfried may re-open debate on casinos

Rep. Arlen Siegfried, an Olathe Republican, said he will attempt to re-open debate during the next legislative session on the Expanded Lottery Act of 2007, the bill authorizing state-owned casinos.

Siegfried and another member of the Kansas House Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and Regulations, Republican Rep. John Faber of Brewster, both opposed the gaming bill. 

However, an attorney general’s opinion that apparently prohibits legislators from engaging in appropriate oversight activities has strengthened their resolve to change the law to allow the Legislature to monitor the performance of the gaming commission. [ Read more...]

Legislators: Sebelius environmental policies cost Kansas thousands of jobs and a $10 billion investment

South Dakotans give refinery a big welcome

An energy company that had expressed interest in building a $10 billion oil refinery in northeast Kansas received a warm reception from citizens in southeastern South Dakota.

On Tuesday, voters in Union County, proposed site of Hyperion Resources, Inc.'s new refinery, approved a rezoning request submitted by the company by a margin of 58 to 42 percent. The county borders Iowa and includes the western suburbs of Sioux City.

Some Kansas legislators have charged that Hyperion fled the state because of a climate of “regulatory uncertainty” created by the actions of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' administration after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment banned a $3.6 billion expansion of the Sunflower Electric coal-fired power plant in Holcomb because of fears of "global warming." [ Read more...]

Analysis and comment: New JoCo district judge led in giving money to Democrats, including Morrison, Moore and the governor.

Sebelius appoints political contributor judge

Governor Kathleen Sebelius last week named one of her most generous political contributors a new Johnson County District judge.

Sebelius appointed David Wesley Hauber, a Democrat from Shawnee, to be the replacement for Judge Janice D. Russell, who retired. Hauber was picked by Sebelius from a list of three Democrats nominated by the 10th District Judicial Nominating Committee. [ Read more...]

The Week on the Web

If you could only grow bananas in Kansas. Jack Cashill's video commentary on the state's tin-pot style of political corruption, "Kansas Rising: The grass-roots fight to right a state gone wrong," is now playing on youtube.com.

First you take a gun, then you point it at your foot... The Wichita Eagle can barely suppress a smile in this report of a pro-life group's petty squabbling over a name. They had to call security, even. Now "Operation Rescue" knows how the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" feels.

Don't tell Greenpeace. Tyson Hallam, a 14-year-old Ahab, broke a state record more than twice his age when he harpooned a largemouth leviathan weighing 11 pounds, 12.8 ounces. The Outdoor Pressroom reeled in this item deep in Cherokee County.

A Preview of the Coming Week

Our usual assortment of columns, comments and breaking news as it happens.