Backers of 'yes' campaign condemn the lawyers' 'good ol' boys' club. 'No' supporters see a conservative plot behind allowing citizens to vote.

Johnson County debates judicial selection

The long-simmering Johnson County debate over whether or not voters should be allowed to select judges came into focus in two separate venues Thursday.

At a contentious lunch-hour debate at the Sheraton Hotel in Overland Park, attorney Greg Musil, of Johnson Countians for Justice, Doug Johnson, of Kansas Judicial Review, and University of Kansas Law Professor Stephen J. Ware exchanged views as a Kansas City Star columnist attempted to moderate the debate.

Musil's group is defending the status-quo, in which a committee dominated by lawyers decides who should be nominated to the bench without any public vetting process. Johnson and Kansas Judicial Review favor a reform that would allow voters to decide who becomes a judge. Ware is a member of the Federalist Society, the sponsor of the event.

A few hours later, the battle was rejoined at the Johnson County Library at a heated debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of Johnson County. [Read more...]

Moore campaign denies impropriety, says charges are 'ridiculous'

Jordan offers evidence that Moore traded bailout vote for cash

Nick Jordan, Republican challenger to Third District Congressman Dennis Moore, claimed Thursday that Moore’s vote in favor of a bailout of the financial services industry was influenced by contributions from businesses that would directly benefit from the bill.

At a press conference, Jordan said a staff review of FEC campaign spending reports filed by Moore on Oct. 15 showed he had received at least $34,000 from entities affiliated with the financial services industry on the very day he voted for the bailout package.

Dustin Olson, Jordan's campaign manager, said a vote on an earlier measure affecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the "smoking gun" that proved the campaign's claims. [ Read more...]

Jenkins, Boyda and Bordonaro take up Kansas Liberty's challenge to go on-the-record with their views

Moran, Moore, Betts, Tiahrt remain mum on illegal immigration

Last week, Kansas Liberty began asking the candidates running in Kansas' four congressional district races for their views on the problems America faces with illegal immigration.

Despite repeated requests, only Lynne Jenkins and Nancy Boyda, the two candidates in the Second Congressional District race, responded to our questions. Nick Jordan, the GOP candidate in the Third Congressional District sent general statement instead of answering the questions sent.

Otherwise, the silence was deafening. We decided to try once more and ask for simple responses to simple questions concerning immigration. The responses fit a pattern by some candidates of avoiding difficult but important questions apparently because they'd prefer not to reply on record. [Read more...]

Roberts' lead over Slattery still in double-digits; independents now swing toward the Democrats; Sebelius' approval numbers slide

Poll shows little change in Senate race, but Obama is rising

Republicans may be having problems elsewhere in the country, but in Kansas, next month's election is starting to have a predictable outcome.

According to the most recent Rasmussen poll, GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, an incumbent, leads the Democratic challenger, former Rep. Jim Slattery, by nearly the same 20-point margin he enjoyed last month. [ Read more...]

Even before the market drop, barely half of state and local government plans met funding guidelines.

Market woes affect state pension funds

The recent financial turmoil in New York and abroad is having an effect here in Kansas.

Kim Basso, communications officer for the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, said KPERS was experiencing some losses. “We are definitely feeling the market downturn," Basso told Kansas Liberty. "Our portfolio has been impacted quite a bit as it is exposed to publicly traded equities."

Basso quickly added that there was almost no chance KPERS would default. The fund has $11.8 billion in its portfolio, she said, enough to meet obligations to its Kansas members for many years. [ Read more...]

Induced pluripotent stem cells may make research using human embryos a thing of the past. Stowers, others not giving up, though.

New approach to stem-cell research may end ethics battle

After years of playing a controversial role in the national spotlight, stem-cell researchers may have found a way to side-step the issue of embryonic stem-cells entirely.

A new form of non-controversial stem-cell research that has the potential to replace embryonic stem cell research is gaining popularity in the U.S. and abroad. More than 800 labs in dozens of countries have requested the materials needed to create the iPS cells, a technology that uses human skin cells that are genetically engineered to act like embryonic stem cells.

The new genetically altered adult skin cells are referred to as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. [ Read more...]

New England Journal: 'There is good reason to be cautious about introducing large-scale vaccination programs.'

Kansas counties press ahead with HPV vaccine despite warnings

County health departments in some of Kansas’ largest counties continue to distribute an HPV vaccine whose effectiveness has been repeatedly questioned.

The latest warning that the vaccine is ineffective and not cost-effective came in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine warning about the long-term effectiveness of the vaccine.

The editorial, "Human Papillomavirus - Reason for Caution,” was written by Charlotte J. Haug, M.D., Ph.D., editor of The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. A long-term study of the effect of HPV vaccinations is currently underway in Norway. [ Read more...]

Comment: Main Street Money columnist Bill Wyckoff has a suggestion for fixing the banking crisis. It's called 'hard work.'

An Economic Lesson Learned in a Small Kansas Town

Have you caught your breath yet? Are you worried that the fox just stole your nest egg? Probably you should be, since after recent events in Washington, he is now in your hen house.

Wow, what a crazy time we are living in. As bad as we think it is in the good old USA, can you believe all that is now happening in Europe? After all, they have the all-mighty, all-powerful, and all-knowing European Union.

Some in our own leadership have suggested that we follow this grand plan and convert our economy to be like theirs. Well, I guess socialistic central planning and control gets in the way of actually doing something about a problem. [ Read more...]

'In Kansas, nearly six out of 10 eighth-grade students have substandard math skills, nearly half are not good readers, and four students out of 10 fail to graduate from high school.' Is that failure? Sarah McIntosh does the math.

A Different Kind of Hero, A Different Kind of Weapon

Every action film has a hero who saves the day. In the movie "Flunked," the heroes are teachers and principals who are fighting the bad guys of declining test scores, failing grades and inferior schools. Their weapons? Creativity and determination. The happy ending? Improved test scores, passing grades and schools so desirable parents are waiting in line to get their kids enrolled.

The stars of the show are education professionals from Harlem to Los Angeles who have successfully confronted the problem of a faltering education system. You won’t see violence or suspense in "Flunked," but it is a scary show, as it foretells serious trouble ahead for American students. [Read more...]

The Week on the Web

More judicial jokes, please. Remember Ward Loyd? He's the former "moderate Republican" state rep from Garden City who rolled Doug Mays and the House conservatives to help Senate President Steve Morris and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius engineer the education funding fiasco imposed by the state Supreme Court. The Star's Prime Buzz says he wants to be the new Kay MacFarland. Sebelius owes him bigtime, so he'll probably get what Kansas deserves for the way it chooses judges.

Guns, God and Bitter Rubes. Thomas Frank's mythical Kansas, where bitter conservatives have stolen the heart of  America, is the source for much liberal wisdom about the Midwest, including Barack Obama's. Tom MacGuire at Just One Minute revisits at Obama's "guns and God" crack about small-town residents and finds that "even with six months to reflect Obama hasn't figured out why his remarks were problematic."

What do Kathleen Sebelius and Steve Morris have in common? Well, okay, everything but a chromosome and Holcomb. But let us get to the point, which is that both the governor and the "moderate" Republican president of the state senate despise conservative Kansans, especially the uppity kind who run for public office. During the primaries, Morris used his senate leadership PAC to target conservatives. Turns out he was doing advance work for Sebelius, who's using her Bluestem fund to do what Morris did, but with even more money. The Kansas Meadlowark has the story, of course.

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