Justices say they're only trying to 'carry out the intentions of the citizens' 

State Supreme Court rules in favor of 'state-owned' casinos

On Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously that casinos and slot-machine parlors at racetracks built and run by gaming businesses under the 2007 Kansas Expanded Lottery Act are "state-owned." The decision makes available more than $80 million in projected gambling revenues.

In affirming a lower court ruling that stretched the state law as amended, the Supreme Court decision said it was interpreting "a constitutional provision so as to carry out the intention of the citizens when they ... amended the constitution in order to provide a mechanism for raising revenues for the state and for promoting economic growth."

The amendment created the state lottery but made no mention of casinos or slot-machine parlors.

Although gambling backers claim the casinos will be not only state-owned but state-supervised, some legislators believe the current gaming law prohibits legislative oversight of the state gaming commission, ostensibly the agent for state ownership. [Read more...]

Kansas Liberty analysis: State Supreme Court's response to the budget crisis is 'Shuffle up and deal!' Will it work? Our Phil LaCerte calls their bluff.

Kansas can only win by making losers out of Kansans

A state that once vigorously pursued and prosecuted bingo parlors will now, thanks to a decision by the Kansas Supreme Court Friday, “own and operate” casinos whose sole purpose is to fleece unsuspecting patrons so the state will have more money to spend.

Kansas will earn an estimated $80 million in the first full year of casino operations. How, you ask, can Kansas know this before even a single dice is rolled?

It’s because casinos are rigged enterprises, where a patron must overcome overwhelming odds to walk away a winner.

Sure, some people get lucky, buck the odds and win from time to time, but the fact is, in every game that will be offered at Kansas casinos, the state will have the mathematical drop on the player. That's the state's strategy for paying its bills. [Read more...]

Road to ruin for a state already going broke?

KDOT says $58 billion needed over 20 years for highway improvements

Will Kansans have to pay even more for gasoline to fund highway projects?

An increase in the fuel tax is one funding option identified by the Kansas Department of Transportation in a preliminary report released this week outlining the state's future highway infrastructure needs.

KDOT says $58 billion will be needed over the next 20 years to fund highway construction and improvement programs. If the expenditures in the report are all approved, the money will have to come from somewhere.[Read more...]

Across-the-board cuts of 1 or 2 percent

Sebelius asks state agencies to reduce their budgets

With the state facing a budget shortfall, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Friday she is asking all cabinet agencies in Kansas to find ways to reduce their fiscal year 2009 budgets by 1 to 2 percent.

Sebelius told the State Finance Committee that the action was in response to lower-than-expected revenue forecasts and a slowing economy. In addition, she said state revenues took an $87 million hit when the Kansas Legislature chose not to decouple from federal tax legislation.

“As a result we must now make adjustments,” Sebelius said. [Read more...]

'...the lawsuit was without merit and frivolous,' says a spokesman.

Fired Johnson County DA staffers drop suit against Kline

Eight former employees of the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office who were fired when Phill Kline assumed the office in January 2007 have dropped a lawsuit they filed against Kline claiming they were unfairly let go.

In exchange, Kline agreed to release a statement defending the ex-employees' professional ethics. He also agreed not to counter-sue them for filing a lawsuit that Kline’s office continues to describe as frivolous.

No money changed hands as part of the settlement, though the plaintiffs did seek monetary compensation for the firings. [Read more...]

Struggling newspaper publisher's bonds 'are deemed deepest in junk territory'

Kansas City Star publisher's stock hits all-time low

Stock in the McClatchy Company, publisher of the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle,  plummeted last week along with the rest of the stock market. By the time Wall Street closed on Friday, McClatchy shares were just over $7, having already broken an all-time low.

The company has seen its value shrink rapidly due to a decline in readers and ad revenues. Last week, the two papers lost more than 130 workers after McClatchy announced a round of lay-offs.

McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said last week that he didn't know how far the publisher's fortunes might fall. "I can't tell you where the bottom is," he told Reuters. [Read more...]

Nation's high court affirms that gun ownership is an individual right

Kansas GOP cheers US Supreme Court second amendment ruling

The Kansas Republican Party Thursday cheered a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that affirms, for the first time in the nation’s history, the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.

Gun control advocates have long maintained that the Second Amendment applies only to organized militias, and not to individuals. The 5-4 ruling emanated from a case in which a citizen of Washington, D.C. challenged the District’s handgun ban.

"This decision confirms what I have long believed, in my years of research as a professor of Constitutional law: that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms held by all law-abiding adult citizens, that the D.C. ban on handguns is unconstitutional, and that requiring people to keep their guns in the home disabled is also unconstitutional," said Kansas GOP Chair Kris Kobach. [Read more...]

The Week on the Web

Talk about expensive fertilizer! Bob Weeks, at Wichita Liberty, has the word on Kathleen Sebelius' performance at "an event hosted by Earthjustice (motto: 'Because the earth needs a good lawyer')." Writes Weeks, "By the next day, Earthjustice already had a self-congratulatory professionally-produced video available at Earthjustice & Kansas Governor Talk Clean Energy." "Earthjustice," it turns out, is the Sierra Club, Sebelius' ally in stopping the construction of the expanded Holcomb power plant. Lawyers, it turns out, contain way too much nitrogen for agricultural use.

Pop quiz. Here's a multiple-choice question, presumably asked rhetorically, by the Kansas Meadowlark: "Did the $13,000 contributed to Gov. Sebelius by Katherine DeBruce, her husband Paul DeBruce, and his DeBruce Grain company, have any influence on Sebelius’s appointment [of Katherine DeBruce] to the Supreme Court Nominating Commission? And what about the $5000+ DeBruce Grain gave to the Kansas Democratic Party in 2006 for 'plane travel'?"

Answer (pick one): a) 3.1416; b) the interior minister of Guatamala, killed in a chopper crash; c) yes. Extra credit if you said corruption in the Kansas judiciary starts at the top.

Burning them just widens the carbon footprint. What do librarians do with books they don't want any more? You're thinking eBay, aren't you? Wrong. According to KLAblog! (shh!), the "unofficial blog of the Kansas Library Association," they become pieces of "altered art." Reports KLAblog!, "We’ve made purses out of books, mosaics out of tins and felt, and collage-decorated incense holders out of Pringles cans. It’s been a blast, and I’ve gotten rid of a lot of old encyclopedias and Readers Digests that way."

A handbag made from Earth in the Balance?No thanks. But a paperback copy of the state budget, now that would make a great purse.

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