Liberty Update: 30 March 2009
TILLER ON TRIAL: Kansas Liberty's daily reports from the Sedgwick County courtroom last week | Planned Parenthood hearing delayed | SPENDING: Huelskamp tries to bar taxpayer support of Planned Parenthood, but Senate balks | House says welfare recipients must be drug-screened | FAMILY HEALTH: Governor signs 'Woman Right to Know' act | Pregnancy Management Initiative advances | BUDGET: No matter how much Kansas spends, the Supreme Court's goal can't be met | Will the Supreme Court intervene again? | House, Senate pass differing budget bills | KANSAS COURTS: No lifetime jobs for Supreme Court judges | CRIME: Kelsy's Law clears the Senate | AMENDMENT 2: Right-to-bear-arms passes with huge majority | ENERGY: Lawmakers try to keep a lid on energy prices | POLITICS: Coburn endorses Moran | COMMENT: George Tiller can't figure out why there aren't more docs just like him | The government could learn a lot from a shoebox plan | SNIDE COMMENT: The Week on the Web
The Week in Review
A trial without tribulation
TILLER: Disney: Did you pay to use Tiller's facilities? Neuhaus: 'No, and I didn’t pay for the toilet paper or coffee, either.'
Neuhaus, a reluctant witness, testifies to her relationship with Tiller
The trial of Wichita abortionist Dr. George Tiller got underway Monday with arguments, opening statements and the apparently reluctant testimony of the state’s star witness. [ Read more...]
Claims Kline 'intimidated' her despite giving her immunity.
Neuhaus testimony wraps up second day of Tiller trial
The state rested its case against Wichita abortionist Dr. George Tiller today, shortly after the end of testimony by its only witness. [ Read more...]
Wichita abortionist claims former Healing Arts executive director told him to 'use Kris Neuhaus'
Tiller blames Buening, lawyers for bad advice
George Tiller took the stand Wednesday in his own defense against 19 misdemeanor charges of performing late-term abortions with the second opinion of an improperly affiliated doctor. [ Read more...]
Owens: No legal relationship, but a financial affiliation, maybe. The jury decides Friday.
Defense rests in Tiller Trial
The defense rested Thursday in the trial of Wichita abortionist Dr. George Tiller, who faces 19 misdemeanor charges of performing late-term abortions after obtaining the second opinion of a doctor with whom he had an improper legal or financial affiliation. [ Read more...]
Kansans for Life executive director: 'This case established that Kansas is indeed the late-term abortion capital of America, if not the world'
Tiller declared 'not guilty' on all counts
A Sedgwick County jury took only 45 minutes Friday to find Wichita abortionist George Tiller not guilty of 19 misdemeanor charges of performing illegal late-term abortions. [ Read more...]
Reactions vary, but no new opinions - except maybe at the Board of Healing Arts, where Tiller may be disciplined
Tiller verdict not likely to change many minds
As news of the acquittal of George Tiller, the Wichita-based abortionist charged with 19 misdemeanor counts of violating Kansas abortion laws, spread throughout the area, reactions ranged from resignation to skepticism. [ Read more...]
Johnson County prosecutors are awaiting a Supreme Court decision on motions filed by Planned Parenthood attorneys
Status hearing on criminal case against Planned Parenthood re-scheduled
A criminal case filed in Johnson County against Planned Parenthood remains in limbo pending a Kansas Supreme Court ruling on motions filed by attorneys for the abortion provider. [ Read more...]
YOUR TAX DOLLARS: ‘Proviso’ still has hurdles to clear before taxpayers could stop supporting abortion provider
Huelskamp amendment seeks to end funding for Planned Parenthood
An amendment to the mega-budget bill approved Tuesday by the Kansas Senate would ban state funding for Planned Parenthood for one year. [ Read more...]
Huelskamp amendment had 'substantial support' in Senate. It'll be revised and re-introduced during veto session
Ban on taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood removed by conference committee
An amendment that would have blocked the channeling of almost $300,000 of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that do not offer comprehensive health services was removed by House and Senate negotiators during a conference committee meeting Thursday night. [ Read more...]
If enacted, 14,000 Kansans will have to demonstrate they're drug-free to get financial help.
House passes drug screening bill for recipients of aid
The House passed legislation today that will require recipients of certain types of financial assistance to submit to random drug testing. [ Read more...]
FAMILY HEALTH: Women have a right to hear child's heartbeat
Sebelius signs 'Woman's Right to Know' bill
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed into law the 'Woman's Right to Know' bill, requiring abortion clinics to notify women they have a right to view an ultrasound image of their child and hear the child's heartbeat before the abortion takes place. [ Read more...]
Crisis pregnancy program funded at the same level as the House version
Pregnancy Management Initiative gains Senate support
The Kansas Senate voted Tuesday to fund the Stan Clark Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative. [Read more...]
BUDGET: 2005 Montoy decision may commit Kansas to increased spending for years. Merrick: 'What have we done? We just can't fund this much.'
Not even stimulus money may be enough to pay for the Supreme Court's education funding
Despite the substantial amount of stimulus funds for K-12 education coming from Washington, and despite years of an escalating expenditure on the state's schools by Kansas taxpayers, the state might still come up short in meeting the funding requirements set in motion by the state Supreme Court. [ Read more...]
Probably not without a new lawsuit, which could take years to resolve
Will the Supreme Court intervene if cuts in education spending survive?
If spending cuts recommended by the Kansas House somehow survive the legislative session, would the Kansas Supreme Court, which ordered massive increases in school funding in 2005, somehow intervene? [ Read more...]
Senate backs down on education funding reductions. It's now up to negotiators to hammer out a compromise
House, Senate pass differing versions of fiscal year 2010 budget
Passage Tuesday of differing versions of fiscal year 2010 budgets in the Kansas House and Senate sets up what could be a contentious debate later this week among members of a yet-to-be-appointed conference committee who will be charged with reconciling the House and Senate bills. [ Read more...]
KANSAS COURTS: Supreme Court justices, along with other state benchwarmers, will face mandatory retirement after all
Senate rejects 'job-for-life' deal for state judges
Legislation that would have abolished imposing a mandatory retirement age for Kansas judges and Supreme Court justices failed to pass the Senate Wednesday. [ Read more...]
CRIME & PUNISHMENT: But adding extra funding for 911 programs makes it less useful for other states
Kelsey's Law clears Senate
The Kansas Senate voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of the Senate Substitute for House Bill 2126, the Kelsey Smith Act. [ Read more...]
GUN RIGHTS: Huelskamp: 'Our citizens will have the final say.' House also raises minimum wage.
Huge majority in Legislature backs right-to-bear-arms amendment
The House passed a concurrent resolution Wednesday that would allow Kansans to vote in November 2010 on whether or not to amend the state Constitution to allow gun ownership for "any lawful purpose." [ Read more...]
ENERGY: ‘Cap and trade’ would cost the average Kansas household more than $3,000 a year
Kansas lawmakers wage energy battle on two fronts
Even as state legislators continue their two-year battle to allow a coal-plant expansion in Holcomb, their counterparts at the federal level are waging their own battle against an anticipated scheme by the Obama administration to enact a carbon emissions cap-and-trade system. [ Read more...]
POLITICS: Coburn: 'A great ally in the fight against wasteful spending and earmarks
Moran gets Coburn endorsement in Senate primary contest
Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma announced Thursday he was endorsing Kansas Congressman Jerry Moran’s bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010. [ Read more...]
COMMENT: George Tiller can't figure out why more doctors won't come and help him abort healthy children and traumatize women. Kathy Ostrowski has a simple answ
The 'not-enough-dummies' defense
George Tiller is expected to play the “poor me" card as a defense in his trial in Wichita today. His lawyers will likely portray him as a valiant medical specialist, for whom the legal burden of finding doctors to render medical opinions was made impossible by what they call “anti-abortion vigilantes.” [Read more...]
COMMENT: Attention, U.S. government: Want to learn a lesson about respect? Try a little shoebox ship-building. Main Street Money's Bill Wyckoff explains the connection between government schemes and toy dreams.
How imagination and honesty can float a boat
I’ve had a stressful week and needed a little recharge to get things back into perspective. [Read more...]
SNIDE COMMENTS: Eagle skips just one little fact | Why Larry Johnson drinks in Missouri | Tea Party parties on
The Week on the Web
Just one other thing. The Eagle's coverage of Sebelius' signing of the Woman's Right to Know act might seem like just another Eagle story about the governor of Kansas and her even-handed, moderate way. She signed the bill, the Eagle reports, because, you know, there was nothing unconstitutional about it, the way there is with bills requiring abortion clinics to observe professional standards of hygiene. [Read more...]
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