The Republican National Committee approved a resolution Wednesday calling on Democrats to “stop pushing our country toward socialism.”
The approved resolution was a watered-down version of a previous measure that referred to Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”
“I am pleased that the committee adopted a resolution that focuses on the Democrats’ policies and their destructive effects on America’s economic engine, rather than attempting to rename our opponents,” RNC chairman Michael Steele, who fought against the “Socialist Party” measure, said in a statement.
The Senate has passed a bill today that allows students, professors, staff and visitors to carry guns on Texas college campuses, including inside of classrooms and dorms.
After the death of dozens of innocent and unarmed students during the Virginia Tech massacre, a bill was proposed by lawmakers to make carrying guns on campus legal.
Armed with new poll numbers, MoDOT Director Pete Rahn came out today and asked the governor to veto a bill that would weaken Missouri’s mandatory helmet law.
In asking Gov. Jay Nixon to veto the bill, Rahn touted new poll numbers showing that 84 percent of Missourians support the mandatory helmet law that’s been in place since 1967.
The poll was conducted by Abacus Associates of Hatfield, Mass. The poll surveyed 2,050 adults from all 10 MoDOT districts across the state. It had a margin of error of about 3 percent.
No word today on how much the MoDOT-commissioned poll cost.
The General Assembly has sent the governor a bill that scales back most of the current helmet law. It’s not an outright repeal, however. Helmets would still be required for riders under 21 or anyone traveling on the interstate.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress has voted to allow people to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.
The House approved the measure, 279-147 today, one day after the Senate acted.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sponsored the measure, which would restore a Bush administration policy allowing loaded guns in national parks. A federal judge blocked the policy in March, and the Obama administration did not file an appeal.
The measures, Propositions 1A through 1E, were each rejected by more than 60 percent of voters. A sixth measure, to freeze salaries for lawmakers and other top state officials in deficit years, was overwhelmingly approved.
The rejected propositions sought to increase borrowing and extend new taxes to close about $6-billion out of the state’s estimated $21-billion budget gap. One measure, Proposition 1B, would also have promised about $1-billion to the state’s community-college system, starting in 2011.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, proposed this month that the University of California and California State University systems each see a 10-percent reduction in state support if the deficit-closing measures failed.
The deal was apparently made to supplement the buyout provision in the coach’s original contract. Last August the coach was given a new contract with a $1.1-million salary, up from $750,000. The contract included a $1.2-million buyout clause, The Wichita Eagle reported. Mr. Prince was fired in November after a 5-7 season.
Mr. Krause, a former longtime vice president for university advancement, was reassigned to a fund-raising position earlier this year. After the secret deal was discovered, he was asked to resign.
The spending controversy is only the latest for the Wildcats program. Last fall the Web site Rivals.com discovered that Dalonte Hill, an assistant basketball coach at Kansas State, was being handsomely rewarded for his part in recruiting Michael Beasley, the Kansas State star who went on to become the NBA’s No. 2 draft pick last year after one season in college.
Google’s co-founder, Larry Page, admitted today that the company has been losing out to Twitter in the race to meet web user’s demand for real-time information.
Instead, the search engine’s chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt, hinted that it could become a partner of the micro-blogging site. Twitter has come from nowhere to become the third most visited social networking site in the US in just three years by allowing its users to broadcast their thoughts, actions and news instantly.
Google’s search engine, in contrast, can take hours or even days to update. While this is usually not a problem as accuracy of results is more important than speed of updating, as the internet community comes to demand ever faster information Twitter has left Google in its wake.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of confirmed cases of the new Influenza A (H1N1) flu has risen to 10,243 and the death toll has edged up to 80, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
Most of the new cases are in the United States, which has seen 5,469 outbreaks of the virus so far, the WHO said as it focuses on the H1N1 virus that has brought the world to the brink of a pandemic.
The national security debate - egged on by frequent charges from Cheney that Obama is leaving the country more vulnerable to attack - is the only subject on which many Republicans believe they have been able to gain traction against a popular president and the Democratic majority that now dominate Washington.
But, as described by administration sources, Obama’s speech is also intended to quiet the ire aimed at him from the political left. Some activists are furious over his recent decisions on continuing military commissions rather than civilian trials for suspected terrorists, and his about-face in deciding to fight a court order releasing photos of detainees undergoing abuse.
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House Energy and Commerce Committee have taken a novel precaution to head off Republican efforts to slow action this week on a sweeping climate bill. They are hiring a speed reader.
Republicans on the committee have said they may force the reading of the entire 946-page bill — as well as major amendments that measure several hundred pages — all aloud. This is a procedure lawmakers have a right to invoke. Republicans are largely against the bill, which aims to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases by more than 80% over the next half-century but would be costly.
Republicans haven’t tried the tactic, but Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) is prepared.
ALBANY - State lawmakers are trying to give the fat tax new life.
Senate Democrats want to impose a penny excise tax on non-diet sodas to help fund a plan to provide property tax relief to homeowners.
“It’s a small amount of money, as far as increasing the price of soda, and it would allow the governor and the state to have a new slogan for soda: ‘Have a coke, a rebate check and a smile,’” said state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) who unveiled the plan yesterday.
Klein said the soda tax would generate $100 million annually, with 80% of the money dedicated toward reviving the state’s $1.5 billion STAR Property Tax Rebate program.
The remaining 20% would fund youth recreation programs aimed at cutting obesity rates.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A vast majority of US senators on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to mind the “risks” to Israel in any Middle East peace accord as he presses for a two-state solution to the six-decade conflict.
“As we work closely with our democratic ally, Israel, we must take into account the risks it will face in any peace agreement,” 76 of the 100 senators wrote Obama in a letter released to reporters.
“Without a doubt, our two governments will agree on some issues and disagree on others, but the United States friendship with Israel requires that we work closely together as we recommit ourselves to our historic role of a trusted friend and active mediator,” they wrote.
Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd and Arlen Specter as well as Republican Senators Johnny Isakson and John Thune were the lead authors of the letter, which came one day after Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
TEHRAN,Iran (AP) - Iran test-fired a missile capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and Europe on Wednesday-a show of strength touted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he battles for re-election next month against more moderate opponents.
The U.S. responded by saying Iran must choose between destabilizing the Middle East or accepting the dialogue offered by President Barack Obama. The U.S. leader threatened earlier this week that Iran could face further international sanctions if it does not respond positively by year-end to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.
Acknowledging that he had recently traveled to
Israel to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and warn him against a strike on
Iran, the CIA chief told Global Viewpoint that he “felt assured”
Israel would not break ranks with Washington’s strategy.
“Yes,” he said, “the Israelis are obviously concerned about
Iran and focused on it. But [Netanyahu] understands that if Israel goes it alone, it will mean big trouble. He knows that for the sake of Israeli security, they have to work together with others.”
Recently, I successfully added an amendment to the Kansas budget which would prohibit taxpayer payments to Planned Parenthood. If the governor allows this proviso to become law, the taxpayers of Kansas will no longer subsidize the nation’s largest abortion provider. Instead, nearly $300,000 of your hard-earned tax dollars would be directed to county health departments and safety net clinics that provide truly comprehensive health care services to needy Kansans. (more…)
Kansas golf coach Kit Grove topped Wichita’s Steve Newman and Charlie Stevens in a playoff to capture the Kansas Golf Association’s Mid-Amateur title Tuesday at Falcon Lakes Golf Course in Basehor.
Grove shot a 3-under 69 to pull into a tie with Newman and Stevens at 141 before winning in a playoff.
Topekan Mark Elliott shot an even-par 72 Tuesday - one of only three players to shot par or better - and finished tied for 10th at 148.
The plight of ACORN’s full-time staff is hardly better. Most complain of the group’s “crony” management system. And many say they’ve been coerced into lying to ACORN’s low- and moderate-income membership about how their “dues” will be spent. (more…)
Who says we’re not trendsetters out here in flyover country?
The nation’s capital is in a tizzy this week over U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s unceremonious dumping of the Republican Party.
“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right,” said the senator from Pennsylvania. “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”
Nothing we haven’t heard around these parts.
Paul Morrison articulated a variation of that theme when he became a Democrat and easily got himself elected Kansas attorney general in 2006. (Things didn’t work out so well after that, but not because of the party switch.)
That same year, former Kansas Republican Chairman Mark Parkinson turned Democratic to run as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ running mate. His memorable quote, spoken as Kansas was embroiled in one of its periodic uproars about the theory of evolution: “I decided I’d rather spend time building great universities than wondering if Charles Darwin was right.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Sen. Pat Roberts has more than a repaired knee after arthroscopic surgery last month.
The Kansas Republican now has a grey, goatee-style beard that he sprouted while recovering from April 14 surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee. He did not shave while recuperating from the operation at his home in Alexandria, Va.
Roberts spokeswoman Sarah Little says her boss simply decided to keep the beard once he was back on his feet. She says Roberts and his staff are satisfied with how it looks.
Little says Roberts hasn’t decided how long he’ll keep the beard. But he’s scheduled to address the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce May 26 — with or without it.
The city of Mission may want to grab some of the buffalo grass Jackson County is uprooting from the downtown courthouse lawn.
That’s because it’s going to be at least a year before anything happens on the 26½-acre site of the former Mission Center, according to developer Tom Valenti of the Cameron Group. Last fall, the developer was hoping to break ground this spring.
“We’re still in the leasing process,” Valenti said last week. “Tenants are being incredibly cautious in making deals. Many are on hold. Lenders are stringent and conservative.”
The earliest Valenti sees any construction occurring on the high-profile site at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Roe Avenue is spring 2010.
Kansas State’s new athletic director leaned forward against the lectern, his eyes darting around the Legends Room at Bramlage Coliseum. He seemed nervous, and while he spotted familiar faces Monday morning at his introductory news conference - his wife, Mary Lawrence, to his left, and his new boss, incoming K-State president Kirk Schulz, on the right - they weren’t running to his defense.
K-STATE STUDENT FINISHES FIRST AND K-STATE TEAM TIES FOR FIRST IN THE 2009 KANSAS COLLEGIATE MATHEMATICS COMPETITION
MANHATTAN — A team from Kansas State University placed first in a three-way tie with a team from Emporia State University and a team from the University of Kansas at the recent 2009 Kansas Collegiate Mathematics Competition.
Also at the competition, a K-State student finished first individually, while another K-State student finished in a four-way tie for second with two students from Emporia State and one from KU.
This was the fifth year in a row that a K-State student finished first in the competition, and the fourth time in the last five years that a K-State team finished first in the competition, according to Virginia Naibo, assistant professor of mathematics at K-State and K-State team coach.
A second K-State team finished fifth in the competition.
The competition was part of the Kansas section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, which was at Pittsburg State University.
Along with K-State, teams taking part in the competition included Baker University, Fort Hays State University, Emporia State and KU.
Members of the K-State teams and their competition honors included:
Shane Scott, freshman in mathematics and physics, Dodge City, was a member of the first-place team.
From Manhattan: Hui Cao, senior in mathematics, finished first individually and was a member of the first-place team; and Mike Reppert, senior in biochemistry, chemistry and mathematics, tied for second place individually and was a member of the fifth-place team.
From Overland Park: Will Carlson, senior in mathematics, was a member of the fifth-place team; and Daniel Czerniewski, senior in computer science and mathematics, was a member of the first-place team.
Sam Henke, senior in computer science and mathematics, Salina, was a member of the fifth-place team.
After receiving $2.4 million in outside funding, a new research collaboration between Kansas University and Archer Daniels Midland Co. will focus on new ways to approach biofuel refining.
The funding comes in the form of a $1.2 million grant from the Kansas Bioscience Authority, which was matched by another $1.2 million from ADM.
A massive march across Kansas was nearly 74 percent complete as of Monday.
Field staff for the U.S. Census Bureau is walking door-to-door in Kansas, verifying addresses in advance of the population census in 2010.
A second team is also on the march.
“We have a team that does quality assurance behind them,” said Nancee Torkelson, the local Census office manager in Topeka.
“Where we are ahead is in the Kansas City, Kansas, area,” she said.
Heavy rainfall hindered progress in the Rice County area and in southeast Kansas, she observed, but what really slowed the walkers was the impact of development over the last 10 years.
There was a lot, Torkelson said, requiring canvassers to add addresses.
JETMORE, Kan. | Artifacts dating back 1,000 years were uncovered in western Kansas during an archaeological dig that was required before work on a dam could begin.
The director of the Center for Archaeological Research at Missouri State University discussed the results of the April 2008 dig over the weekend in Jetmore, which is near the dig site.
The four-story hotel, expected to include 76 rooms, is being developed by Empire Hotels Inc., whose principals are Nish Patel of Lebanon, Mo., and Armit Patel, a New York City dentist.
P.B. Patel, a brother of Nish Patel and a consultant for the project, said construction on the hotel is expected to begin in the spring of 2010 and conclude in 2011. The construction cost is estimated at $5.6 million, he said.
State senator Gilbert Baker is “leaning towards” entering the race, according to a senior adviser, and is in the process of putting together a campaign infrastructure.
Baker, the former chairman of the Arkansas Republican party, is an unwavering opponent of tax hikes and won re-election to his state Senate seat despite facing serious Democratic opposition. He represents a legislative district that spans the northern suburbs of Little Rock.
Arkansas Republican operatives believe Baker could mount a credible campaign, and has been a strong fundraiser in the state legislature.
And Curtis Coleman, the CEO of a food safety services company, filed paperwork to form a Senate exploratory committee earlier in the week. Coleman is a close friend of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and could partially self-finance a Senate race.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The U.S. Census says field staffers are about three-quarters finished with a door-to-door trek verifying addresses for the 2010 population census.
Rain has slowed progress in parts of the state, but a Census official said Monday the impact of development has greatly hindered the work of around 1,100 temporary census workers. The group started April 20 and by Monday had completed 74% of the canvass.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects a lot of speech that most of us consider stupid, wrong or even disgusting. But it doesn’t protect child pornography or those who sell it. The rationale is obvious: protecting children from the harm inherent in becoming subjects of pornographic materials is important. There is no literary, scientific, or educational value in child pornography.
Federal law also prohibits the creation, sale, or possession of materials depicting animal cruelty. The catalyst for the passage of this law, Title 18, U.S. Code §48, was to address so-called “crush videos,” which involve the torture and killing of small animals to satisfy a particularly perverted sexual fetish. The statute includes all forms of animal cruelty. It defines animal cruelty as “conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed, if such conduct is illegal under Federal law or the law of the State.” 18 U.S.C. § 48 (c)(1). Note the caveat that the conduct must be illegal under state or federal law – this exempts hunting and other legal activities.
But the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned the conviction of a man prosecuted under that law for selling dog fighting videos. The case is United States v. Stevens, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in the next term, which begins in October.
The government has a strong interest in preventing cruelty to animals and in discouraging desensitization to animal cruelty. Apart from the physical suffering animals are capable of enduring, people who abuse animals frequently abuse children and adults, too. Animal cruelty is strongly linked with domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault. Prosecution of animal cruelty can be an important tool in responding to people who are or are at risk of becoming a threat to the safety of others. That’s why so many states make animal cruelty not just a misdemeanor, but a felony.
Dog fighting is a brutal, sadistic activity. Dogs used for fighting have their ears cropped and their tails docked, using crude, inhumane techniques. Injuries sustained in fighting can be severe, and they are often left untreated. Although pit bulls are most commonly used, other breeds are fought or used as bait dogs. Bait dogs are used in training to induce aggression; they have no value as a fighter, so their injuries are not treated. Bait dogs can be any breed; their teeth are commonly ground down so they do not injure the valuable fighting dog. Some routinely use stolen pets as bait dogs. As the general public learned from the Michael Vick case, the losing dog is usually left untreated or killed – and it is not uncommon for the loser to be hung, electrocuted, or killed in some other brutal way, as part of the event.
Dog fighting almost always goes hand in hand with other crimes, including illegal gambling, assault, and even homicide. Some dogs used for fighting, but not all, become a danger to humans. Dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states. Forty-five states, including Kansas and Missouri, have more general felony animal cruelty provisions.
The Third Circuit, following some line of reasoning that is not abundantly clear, concluded that it’s ok to punish the actual conduct of animal torture, but depictions of animal torture are protected by the First Amendment – so, violators of the laws against animal cruelty may profit from selling videos and photographs of their illegal activity.
The Third Circuit did compare depictions of animal cruelty with child pornography (and also, inexplicably, attempted to compare the facts in Stevens to a case dealing with the Free Exercise Clause, which is religion), but ultimately declined to rule based on a precedent set in the child pornography ruling, thus leaving the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court should follow its precedent in the child pornography cases and decide that videos or pictures of felonious acts of animal cruelty are not protected speech.
But then there is the U.S. public sector, where the mood seems very European these days. In New Jersey, which faces a $3.3 billion budget deficit, angry state workers have demonstrated in Trenton and taken Gov. Jon Corzine to court over his plan to require unpaid furloughs for public employees. In New York, public-sector unions have hit the airwaves with caustic ads denouncing Gov. David Paterson’s promise to lay off state workers if they continue refusing to forgo wage hikes as part of an effort to close a $17.7 billion deficit. In Los Angeles County, where the schools face a budget deficit of nearly $600 million, school employees have balked at a salary freeze and vowed to oppose any layoffs that the board of education says it will have to pursue if workers don’t agree to concessions.
Call it a tale of two economies. Private-sector workers — unionized and nonunion alike — can largely see that without compromises they may be forced to join unemployment lines. Not so in the public sector.
The Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City again delayed a decision on the questions of whether the city’s affirmative action policy was violated during construction of the H&R Block World Headquarters and, if so, what the remedies should be.
The TIF Commission was scheduled to address the questions during its meeting Wednesday, during which the Kansas City Human Relations Department presented results of a “best faith analysis” it conducted to determine whether Kansas City-based H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and its general contractor, Kansas City-based J.E. Dunn Construction, utilized minority firms on the project to the fullest extent possible.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Internet search engine Google said it would reshoot all Japanese pictures for its online photo map service, Street View, using lower camera angles after complaints about invasion of privacy.
Google’s Street View, which offers 360-degree views of streets around the world using photos taken by cruising Google vehicles, has already run into privacy complaints in other countries and activists have tried to halt the service in Japan.
Meg Whitman is the most interesting person in American politics and, potentially, a formidable Republican leader at the national level. At age 52 and a year after stepping down as CEO of eBay, she’s running for governor of California. Like Ronald Reagan, she’s a well-known star from another field–the corporate world in Whitman’s case–who has entered California politics at the top and now intends to leapfrog an entire generation of ambitious political strivers.
Similarity to Reagan isn’t what makes Whitman exceptional. Nor does the possibility she might copy a fellow billionaire, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and dip into her own fortune to win high office. Gobs of personal money in a campaign rarely elevates a candidate and never guarantees success. Her only prior role in politics was as an adviser to two losing presidential candidates in 2008, first Mitt Romney, then John McCain. Yet she’s not entirely a novice. “Business has always been my passion,” Whitman says. “But I’ve always followed politics closely.”
Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader has already inspired hope for new digital business models for book and newspaper publishers. Now the Kindle wants to do business with bloggers too.
On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled a beta program that pays bloggers for Kindle subscriptions to their posts.
The Kindle comes with an experimental Web browser that allows users to surf ordinary Web sites. But for the sake of convenience, Amazon also sells Kindle subscriptions to a select list of blogs that are automatically updated and made available on the device’s home screen. Those subscriptions can cost as much as $2 per month.
Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who has announced he is running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, holds small leads when matched against two potential GOP opponents, but both are well within the margin of error, according to a poll by Dartmouth University’s Nelson Rockfeller Center conducted April 27 - May 1.
Hodes leads former Sen. John Sununu, who lost his seat to Jeanne Shaheen last year, by 37.9 percent to 35.4 percent with 26.7 percent undecided. Hodes holds an even smaller lead over former Rep. Charlie Bass - 31.1. percent to 30.1 percent with 38.8 percent undecided. Hodes beat Bass for New Hampshire’s 2d district seat in 2006. The margin of error is 5 points.
The Republican could run again for governor in 2010, but has chosen to make a bid for the Senate, where 12 former governors now are serving.
The recent history of sitting governors who run for the Senate suggests that Crist could face a very competitive campaign for the seat of retiring one-term Republican Sen. Mel Martinez .
Until his Senate campaign in 1992, Republican Judd Gregg had dominated elections in New Hampshire.
A recession in the early 1990s hit New Hampshire particularly hard - and hampered Gregg’s Senate effort such that he won only narrowly.
Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia had the same problem in 1984, when he was only narrowly elected to the Senate in part because the state he had governed for eight years was plagued by a poor economy.
If Democrats are hoping that Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign resembles Gregg’s in 1992 or Rockefeller’s in 1984, Republicans hope that Crist’s effort resembles Sen. George V. Voinovich ’s easy election to the Senate in 1998 after two well-received terms as Ohio’s governor.
