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Update on 2009 Kansas legislature
Read more: Update on 2009 Kansas legislatureHere’s a summary of the 2009 Kansas legislative session prepared for Sedgwick County Commissioners by the county’s lobbyist.
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Sedgwick County keeps lease agreement secret
Read more: Sedgwick County keeps lease agreement secretA few months ago in March, SMG, the company that is managing the Intrust Bank Arena (formerly known as the downtown Wichita arena) signed a lease with the Wichita Thunder Hockey team. Details of that lease weren’t made available to the public. Not to Sedgwick County Commissioners, either. So the public and even elected government…
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Politics impossible to ignore in Tiller murder
Read more: Politics impossible to ignore in Tiller murderAbout 500 people gathered in Wichita’s Old Town Square last night in a vigil to remember the life of murdered Wichita doctor George Tiller. Tiller was notable as one of the few doctors in the United States who performed late-term abortions. One speaker at the vigil said that Tiller was the victim of a hate…
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Kansas open records, not quite
Read more: Kansas open records, not quiteThe Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has produced another important investigative report, this time looking at the difficulty citizens and journalists can encounter when requesting records covered under the Kansas Open Records Act. “What started out as research into property valuations in Kansas has turned into a frustrating protracted battle over differing perspectives on…
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Watkins addresses Kansas budget, Republicans, schools
Read more: Watkins addresses Kansas budget, Republicans, schoolsSpeaking at at the regular weekly meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on May 22, 2009, Kansas House of Representatives member Jason Watkins addressed the Kansas budget, Kansas Republicans, and school spending. Regarding the budget during the past legislative session, which ended in May: Watkins felt there was an opportunity for reform that the legislature…
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Clinton Concedes Spain’s Green Jobs Program “Has Cost Many Jobs”
Read more: Clinton Concedes Spain’s Green Jobs Program “Has Cost Many Jobs”Spain’s decade-long program to subsidize the creation and continued existence of so-called green jobs through a massive infusion of taxpayer resources “has cost many jobs,” former President Bill Clinton admitted to a Spanish audience at the European University of Madrid this week, according to the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo.
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Chemical Facility Security Authorization Act threatens American economy
Read more: Chemical Facility Security Authorization Act threatens American economyEarlier this week I reported on legislation being considered by Congress that would, under the lofty goal of national security, impose a huge burden on the American chemical industry. (Chemical security law goes beyond protection) Our agricultural industries need to be concerned, too. The article Homeland Security To Regulate Farm and Ranch Inputs? details some…
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Study of public and private school teachers reveals sharp differences
Read more: Study of public and private school teachers reveals sharp differencesLast week the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice published research that examines how teachers feel about their jobs. In particular, the study compared how public school teachers and private school teachers viewed their jobs and working conditions.
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Special: Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission in need of reform
Read more: Special: Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission in need of reformJames Meier of Lawrence tells of the trouble (that’s an understatement) he had trying to file an ethics complaint, and of a catch-22 that needs fixing. This story has been told on a Kansas conservative mailing list. Meier prepared this version as a special for Voice For Liberty in Wichita readers.
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Schools need to be more productive
Read more: Schools need to be more productiveIf your blood test comes back with bad results, do you address the problems it reveals — or do you blame the doctor who interprets the test? The U.S. Department of Education just released the latest long-term results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP, an important diagnostic tool for measuring the…
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Kris Kobach campaign in Wichita
Read more: Kris Kobach campaign in WichitaRepublican Kris Kobach stopped by Wichita yesterday afternoon in his trip across Kansas supporting his candidacy for the Kansas Secretary of State. Kobach’s main reason for running, he says, is ACORN and the voter fraud it spreads. “It is a political organization, but it is also a criminal enterprise. It’s a criminal enterprise that is…
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Kansas school funding lawsuit proposed
Read more: Kansas school funding lawsuit proposedDr. John Morton, the Newton school superintendent, said “I am fearful that we have fallen well below adequacy.” He also complained that “we did not get anywhere in proposing a one-cent sales tax increase.” The lesson to learn from Newton’s Morton is that there is probably no level of taxation and spending that would satisfy…