KANSAS JUDGES: Critic says contributions show that the current system for electing judges is all about politics

JoCo judges give $32,000 to help defeat voter-choice initiative

Johnson County judges, who would have had to stand for election if a judicial selection reform proposal last fall had succeeded with county voters, were among the largest financial backers of the effort that defeated the reform campaign.

Together, the judges, as well as other Johnson County courthouse personnel who could have been affected by the change, contributed about $32,000 to Judges Not for Sale, an organization that was created to defeat a reform initiative that would have allowed citizens a role in choosing new judges.

The donations were discovered by investigative reporter Earl F. Glynn and published on his website, Kansas Meadowlark, this week. [ Read more...]

SEX ED: KU study: Teens who took abstinence education showed statistical improvements in 22 of 27 survey items

Say 'no' program under attack nationally works in Kansas

With President Barack Obama's taking office Tuesday, many are considering the consequences his agenda may have on a variety of conservative efforts, including abstinence-only sex education that has been embraced by some Kansas parents and teens.

This concern has been fueled not just by Obama's previous comments, but also by widely circulated media reports of a Johns Hopkins University study that appears to show there is virtually no difference between teens who pledge abstinence and those who don't. Virtually every news outlet in the country has trumpeted the failure of "virginity pledgers" and, by implication, abstinence-only sex ed.

The problem, according to a University of Kansas evaluation report, is that the abstinence education programs in Kansas seem to be working well. This leaves open the question of whether teens would be helped by having the programs discontinued. [ Read more...]

STEM CELLS: Adult stem cells have already proved effective. K-State researcher: 'I don’t see this having so much of a strong impact.'

Embryonic stem cells to be tested on humans

Patients with severe spinal-cord injuries will be the first humans to be included in an embryonic-stem cell experiment. The Food and Drug Administration approved the clinical trial this week, marking the first time embryonic stem cells will be used in human testing.

Adult stem cells have already been used in cancer, bone marrow and spinal-cord injury treatments for humans, but so far only animals have been used in embryonic stem cell research.

The tests will be to measure primarily the safety of the procedure. The performance of the therapy - whether it actually works - is a secondary concern of Geron Corp., the medical group responsible for administering the trial. Scientists will track the patients to see whether their conditions improve. [ Read more...]

ABORTION: Local events mark the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. For some, the decision is the mother of all judicial activism.

March for Life will remind Obama of America's divisions

Thirty-six years after the historic and still controversial Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion and opened the door to what has become nearly unrestricted access to abortions in Kansas, several events will be taking place throughout the United States on Thursday, including the annual March for Life that takes place every Jan. 22 in Washington, D.C.

Year after year, more than 100,000 people of all ages, including many leaders from various American faith traditions, march silently past the Supreme Court demonstrating the on-going disapproval of a decision that has raised more issues than it settled and has divided the nation more than any event since the Civil War. [ Read more...]

Local pro-life events mark protest on anniversary of Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion

Record crowd attends Roe vs. Wade rally in Topeka

The pro-life group Kansans for Life said Thursday that 1500 people attended its annual Rally for Life and Lobby Day at the Capitol in Topeka.

The group said the attendance was triple the normal turnout of about 500. In a statement issued after the event, organizers claimed "the heightened focus on the abortion issue in Kansas this year related to two court cases against Kansas abortion providers that remain active" explained the numbers.

Amy Meyer, of Dodge City, addressed the rally. Meyer is the Kansas director of the Silent No More campaign, a nationwide organization of women who have had abortions but who are now pro-life. The national Silent No More co-founder, Georgette Fourney, was in Washington, D.C., addressing the rally preceding the national March for Life. [ Read more...]

OBAMAMANIA: Senate vet says an embrace of concepts espoused by MLK helped lift Obama to White House

Sen. Haley: 'I’m sure Dr. King would have been delighted'

It’s fitting, said Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City Democrat, that America will have its first black president immediately following a celebration of Martin Luther King Day.

Haley talked to Kansas Liberty on the eve of the inauguration Tuesday of a man he's known now for several years. He said it was Obama’s embrace of concepts espoused by Rev. King that contributed to his miraculous rise from political near-obscurity to the U.S. Senate and ultimately to the White House.

Obama's success, he said, had much less to do with race and political partisanship than with listening to the lessons taught by Rev. King. [ Read more...]

Far from DC, the first day of the new administration triggers mixed responses

Kansans greet Obama with both optimism and skepticism

It's only been 24 hours or so since Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. Most of us don't know how he plans to govern, whether his policies will unite us or divide us, and how his decisions will affect our lives.

But that hasn't stopped Kansans from expressing their views of the inauguration and of the new president himself. Kansas Liberty caught up with a handful of people from around the state and asked how they were feeling about the new administration.

Victoria Jean Benson, daughter of Maude Lawton - one of the parent plaintiffs in the historical Brown vs. Board of Topeka case - said she felt the Obama administration would bring hope to the United States. [ Read more...]

ENERGY: Investment in wind energy, ice-storm damage, use of natural gas given as reasons.

Westar set to hike rates in Kansas

Westar Energy customers will see an average 11 percent increase in energy bills starting in February, with the full increases implemented by March. Residential customers will pay an additional $6 to $9 a month.

Commercial and industrial customers will face rate increases ranging from 7 to 14 percent.

Why the increase during an economic downturn? [ Read more...]

FIRST AMENDMENT: Commission seeks to punish Van Meteren for discussing a complaint with the press

Ethics commission charges against whistleblower heard

A campaign consultant faced a Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission meeting Wednesday in Topeka on charges that he provided the press with details of a complaint he filed with the commission about a rival’s possible misuse of campaign finances.

An ethics commission investigator claimed Kris Van Meteren filed a complaint with the commission alleging Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, an influential Thayer Republican, had misused campaign funds - then discussed the complaint with the media, a violation of ethics commission rules that require confidentiality once a complaint has been lodged.

Van Meteren helped his mother, Iris Van Meter, in her unsuccessful primary fight last year against Umbarger. Van Meteren then reported Umbarger had used his campaign funds for a personal project - building a carport. Umbarger repaid the money after the complaint became public. [ Read more...]

NOSTALGIA: It's baaaack! Kansas Democrats go back in time to revive one of feminism's golden oldies.

Obama's election provides latest boost for 1972 ERA effort

Democratic lawmakers are attempting to pass an Equal Rights Amendment to the Kansas Constitution once again this year. Rep. Geraldine Flaharty is sponsoring a bill to introduce the ERA on the House side, and Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau is sponsoring the legislation in the Senate.

Flaharty, a Wichita Democrat, has sponsored Equal Rights Amendment legislation before, but this is the first year Faust-Goudeau, another Wichita Democrat, will be promoting the amendment.

“With our new president, and with the issues women have had for a long time of fighting for equal rights, I just thought that since I stand for equal rights and justice for all people, why not sponsor it,” Faust-Goudeau told Kansas Liberty. [ Read more...]

GUN CONTROL: Senate Bill 19 passes Senate 39-0, now heads to the House. Could bring a new meaning to 'I object!'

Bill to allow DAs to carry concealed handguns passes Senate

It's a threat as old as courts themselves. The accused is found guilty, then turns on the DA and says, "I'm gonna get you."

Vengeance-minded criminals, or their family members or friends who are contemplating pay-back against a prosecutor, might want to think twice if a law overwhelmingly approved by the Kansas Senate becomes law.

 The law, part of Senate Bill 19 that passed 39-0 Thursday, would allow prosecutors with concealed-carry permits to carry concealed weapons, even while entering and exiting courthouses, in which guns are typically banned. [ Read more...]

AG-BIZ: Wheat falling behind other crops in biotechnology advances, says Kansas Wheat policy specialist

Kansas farmers plant less winter wheat than ever - almost

Kansas farmers planted fewer winter wheat acres this year than any time in the last 50 years, with only nine million acres seeded, down from the 9.6 million acres planted a year ago and the 10.4 million acres planted in 2007.

This year’s numbers weren’t the lowest in history however; in 1957, only 7.1 million acres of wheat were planted.

The USDA Agricultural Statistics Service reports also show that on a national level, winter-wheat planting was down 9 percent in comparison to last year’s numbers. [ Read more...]

FINANCIAL CRISIS: Group's agenda also discourages tax increases or new taxes to address state's budget crisis

AFP will call for restructuring of state's property tax system

The Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, in its annual legislative agenda, will encourage lawmakers to consider a significant change in the state’s property tax system.

Derrick Sontag, the newly appointed state director of the for the group, told Kansas Liberty Tuesday that AFP also would discourage lawmakers from raising taxes, implementing new taxes or eliminating tax cuts that already are on the books as a means to close Kansas’ looming budget deficit.

He said lawmakers instead should focus on a more familiar target. [ Read more...]

COMMENT: Every now and then, the government does something that works. What happens next? They stop doing it! Main Street Money's Bill Wyckoff explains.

Unhappy campers

The legislature and congress are back in session.

Next will come a round of feel-good budget cut proposals which are almost always politically motivated and end up costing the taxpayers more money.

Of course, they must justify the cuts with smoke and mirrors. These “cuts” will affect successful, well-run operations everywhere, as well as anything involving the fewest number of voters, but cuts will never-ever reduce funding of the bureaucrat’s bloated empire. [ Read more...]

SNIDE COMMENTS: 'My governor campaigned for Obama for a year and all I got were these lousy Gitmo terrorists' | In Ellis County, dirty wind is a blight on the landscape | Blago offers Sebelius a place to sit
 

The Week on the Web

Now that Obama has solved the problem of the prison camp by signing a piece of paper, Sam Brownback, the Republican senator who wants Sebelius' job, is writing on CNN that what's good enough for Cuba ought to be good enough for Kansas. [Read more...]

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