The Star:

TOPEKA | The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of Kimberly Danielle Sharp, one four people convicted in the death of a lobbyist for the homeless three years ago. (more…)

Source:

When Kris Kobach made a recent campaign stop in Salina — the former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party is running for Kansas Secretary of State — he was all about what he says is rampant voter fraud and his determination to clamp down on it. (more…)

NRO:

The grotesqueries of Chinese statism mount.

GUANGZHOU, China - Mrs. Chen can’t imagine abandoning one of her two best friends: her scruffy terrier mutt and a white fluffy Pekingese mix with buggy eyes.

But that’s what the government in this southern Chinese city wants the middle-aged housewife to do when a one-dog policy takes effect in Guangzhou.

Beginning July 1, each household can raise only one pooch. The regulation won’t be grandfathered in, so families with two or more dogs will apparently have to decide which one gets to stay.

Prime Buzz:

First it was Vice President Joe Biden.

Now it’s EPA chief Lisa Jackson who’s getting the strong arm, and some local tour advice, from Kansas Sen.Pat Roberts about her upcoming trip to Kansas City. (more…)

WSJ:

Such is the existence of David Duval, perhaps the most beguiling player in the U.S. Open field. Duval was up to his old tricks Friday, climbing the leaderboard with a first-round 67, or three-under-par, seven strokes better than his onetime rival Tiger Woods. Then he went out for his second round and reverted to his form for much of the past 10 years. (more…)

Politico:

President Obama’s campaign for health care reform by this fall, once considered highly likely to succeed, suddenly appears in real jeopardy. (more…)

LJ World:

In case there was any doubt, Kansas Republican Party leaders are backing U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback for governor. (more…)

The Star:

Sometimes you just have to sit back and behold what’s smack-dab in front of you.

What was in front of me last week was Sen. Sam Brownback’s powerful surge in Kansas. (more…)

The Post:

Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.

KSN:

WICHITA, Kansas - More environmental problems are coming to Exxon - this time in Kansas. The oil giant is facing criminal charges for unlawfully killing migratory birds in three Kansas counties. (more…)

WSJ:

China’s official media have been the recent target of a 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) push to expand their influence at home and abroad. This effort has seen the launch of an English edition of the Global Times, a major boost for the domestic and international operations of the official People’s Daily newspaper, and an ambitious plan for state broadcaster CCTV to become a global contender along the lines of CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.

The  Star:

Two Lawrence eateries are among the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s winners of its 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine Contest. (more…)

WSJ:

The approach suggests an unusual reversal among the Americans and Europeans from recent history, with Washington emerging as a relatively passive voice and the European Union assuming the role of Tehran’s chief scold. (more…)

The Star:

How are business in normally-prosperous Johnson County doing in the recession? According to sales tax records, the answer is lousy. (more…)

Source:

The night before he headlines at the De Soto Chamber of Commerce Country Concert, Tracy Byrd will play at the Mecca of country music, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. (more…)

The Star:

Johnson County park officials said they don’t know exactly how much it will cost to kill more than 500 deer in Shawnee Mission Park this fall. (more…)

The Star:

The First National Bank of Anthony, known in this market as the First National Bank of Johnson County, became the nation’s 40th bank to fail this year. (more…)

Club for Growth:

From the Washington Post:

The activist legislator in [Iowa Senator Chuck] Grassley would like to affix his name to what he calls “the biggest bill of my career,” and most voters in his increasingly Democratic state would presumably applaud him for it. For months, he has sought bipartisan consensus on health-care reform with his old friend and longtime collaborator, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Grassley emerged yesterday as a charter member of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of four Republicans and three Democrats seeking common ground in the Senate.

Every indication shows that a government-run plan is a bridge too far for Grassley, but a “bipartisan consensus” should always concern fiscal conservatives.

NRO:

Can a president speak out forcefully in favor of an opposition cheated in an election without inflaming a nationalist reaction? Well, President Clinton did it. Four days after Milosevic stole an election in September 2000 - in a country we had just bombed - Clinton issued this statement: (more…)

The Star:

I went looking for trouble Thursday morning and found none - not that I’m complaining. (more…)

WSJ:

The Minnesota Twins catcher has never hit above .347 in a full season. And no catcher has topped .362, the mark set by Mike Piazza in 1997. But after going 1-for-4 on Thursday against Pittsburgh, Mauer is hitting .425, and has the best shot at becoming Major League Baseball’s first .400 hitter in 68 years since … well, maybe only since Chipper Jones last year.

The Post:

What’s happening on the streets of Tehran is a lesson in what makes history: It isn’t guns or secret police, in the end, but the willingness of hundreds of thousands of people to risk their lives to protest injustice. That is what overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979, and it is now shaking the mullahs.

WSJ:

Network-security firm Arbor Networks says it has a rough sketch of how the government’s firewall works and that it appears to be selectively blocking Internet applications, particularly online video and email. (more…)

The Examiner:

What’s next in the budding scandal over President Obama’s abrupt firing of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of AmeriCorps?
(more…)

NY Post:

THE next time he sees President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg should lay out how the White House’s auto-industry bailouts have hit hard at US financial markets — and so hurt New York’s future. (more…)

The Post:

President Obama’s first response to the protests in Iran was silence, followed by a cautious, almost neutral stance designed to avoid “meddling” in Iranian affairs. I am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s initially neutral response to the crisis following the Philippine election of 1986, and of George H.W. Bush’s initially neutral response to the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. (more…)

The Star:

Thursday brought the Kansas State mending, er, Catbacker, tour to Kansas City and Overland Park. And though new athletic director John Currie would have made it to Great Bend, Hutchinson, Wichita and Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque during his first week on the job anyway, this palm-pressing exercise is especially well-timed. (more…)

AP:

VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — General Motors Corp. is halting production in Venezuela for three months starting Friday. Ford Motor Co.’s subsidiary announced 10 percent cutbacks last week. Other automakers also are shrinking their business — but not because Venezuelans don’t want to buy cars.

They’re closing down because the government won’t give them enough dollars to import parts.

It’s a crisis entirely brought on by the currency controls imposed by President Hugo Chavez, Gabriel Lopez, president of Ford Motors for Venezuela and the Andean region, told The Associated Press. “Year after year we’re shrinking by about 10 percent compared to the year before,” he complained. (more…)

The Times:

Free health care is a very expensive proposition. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, are sponsoring a massive health care bill to extend coverage to 50 million Americans who supposedly do not have it. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill would run to at least $1.6 trillion over 10 years and that it would cover just one-third of the so-called “uninsured.” (more…)

The Fix:

The message here is clear. Although people remain deeply pessimistic about the state of the economy — 12 percent are either very or somewhat satisfied while a whopping 89 percent are somewhat or very dissatisfied — they don’t blame Obama for it. (more…)

Source:

The Risk and Profit Conference will be held Aug. 20-21, 2009, at the K-State Alumni Center in Manhattan, Kan., and is designed to give agricultural producers and affiliated businesses a competitive edge in their operations. Presentations on farm management, technology, marketing and policy issues in agriculture are scheduled by the Department of Agricultural Economics faculty and specialists.

WSJ:

The division came to the recommendation after rival computer maker Dell challenged Apple’s MacBook marketing, which refers, among other things, to the devices’ energy usage, packaging and recyclable components. (more…)

Townhall:

The more we learn about the White House’s summary firing of AmeriCorps’ inspector general, Gerald Walpin, the more it smells of lawlessness, cronyism and a flagrant disregard for transparency and government accountability.

Remember President Barack Obama’s commitment to oversee the expenditure of taxpayer funds to avoid waste and inefficiency — to the point that he deputized Vice President “Mean” Joe Biden as the executive enforcer?

Meadowlark:

In testimony today in the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Marty Durbin of the American Chemistry Councilexplained that “More than 96 percent of all manufactured goods are directly touched by the business of chemistry.” (more…)

Bloomberg:

Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.

Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?

The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.

KMBC:

LEAWOOD, Kan. — Kansas City Royals players donated their time on Monday to Gloves For Kids, which helps supply baseball equipment for underprivileged children in Kansas City.

AP:

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea’s quest for nuclear weapons could spawn a destabilizing arms race in Asia that would threaten world security, South Korea’s president warned Friday. (more…)

WSJ:

In fairness, the iPhone 3G S isn’t really a revolutionary jump from previous incarnations of the popular smart phone. Buyers can opt for an older 3G model, whose price Apple halved to $99, and many current iPhone customers have simply upgraded to the new OS 3.0. (more…)

WSJ:

Each day President Obama’s blasé business-as-usual attitude toward Iran seems more out of touch with reality. Today’s New York Times reports that the president “is coming under increased pressure from Republicans and other conservatives who say he should take a more visible stance in support of the protesters.” But if you read on, it turns out “Republicans and other conservatives” are far from the only ones bothered by Obama’s what-me-worry policy: (more…)