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Judicial Reform in Kansas on Hold
Read more: Judicial Reform in Kansas on HoldThank you to Alan Cobb of Americans For Prosperity, Kansas for this report on this needed measure for judicial reform in Kansas. The current system of Kansas Supreme Court selection, the mis-named “merit system,” is a secretive, closed system dominated by lawyers. Kansas lawyers elect themselves to the Kansas Supreme Court selection board. There are…
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Report From the Kansas Statehouse, March 9, 2006
Read more: Report From the Kansas Statehouse, March 9, 2006Thank you to Karl Peterjohn, Kansas Taxpayers Network, for this report on happenings in Topeka. The Kansas senate surrendered their ability to rein the activist Sebelius and leftist dominated Kansas Supreme Court Thursday afternoon. A constitutional amendment to require senate confirmation of judges barely received a majority vote Thursday afternoon as a coalition of most…
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Eminent domain testimony
Read more: Eminent domain testimonyYou should not allow cities, counties and state agencies the power through eminent domain to force someone to involuntarily sell their home, their business, or their farm so they can give it to other private owners for their own private use. Under redevelopment law, city councils can essentially become the agent for the powerful, politically…
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School choice helps those best who have least
Read more: School choice helps those best who have leastAn article in the March 2, 2006 Wall Street Journal by Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells of the large numbers of African-American families in Minneapolis who send their children to charter schools or to schools in other districts, thanks to Minnesota law that allows district-crossing.
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The descent of the good column
Read more: The descent of the good columnLast week I explained how a column in The Wichita Eagle (see How a Good Column on the Bad Lottery Fell Apart) started out well but took a sharp turn downwards.
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The wonderful and frightening uncertainty of competition
Read more: The wonderful and frightening uncertainty of competitionTake education. Bureaucrats like to say, you will go to this school, because we said so, and you will be taught according to this program, because we said so and we know best. Those of us with confidence in markets think you could do better deciding for yourself. Neither the bureaucrats nor the freedom lovers…
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Schoolchildren Will Be Basically Proficient
Read more: Schoolchildren Will Be Basically ProficientA few months ago I wrote how most states, when testing their schoolchildren, post results such as “80% of our state’s students are proficient in reading or math,” but when tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the number judged proficient falls to 30% or so. (See Every State Left Behind.) It was…
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How a good column on the bad lottery fell apart
Read more: How a good column on the bad lottery fell apartMr. Scholfield tells us how the lottery is not a very good bet. He references a survey that tells us how about half of us believe we have a better chance of obtaining a retirement nest egg through winning the lottery rather than by saving and investing. He then tells us that the large majority…
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The Undercover Economist
Read more: The Undercover EconomistThis is an enjoyable book that explains the basics of how economics works, which is to say, how the world works. Mr. Harford doesn’t go into any technical detail at all, so there are no charts and graphs to decipher (although a very few are used for illustration), and there are no mathematical formulas.
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AirTran subsidy is harmful
Read more: AirTran subsidy is harmfulFrom the beginning, we in the Wichita area have been told each year that the AirTran subsidy was intended as a temporary measure, that soon AirTran would be able to stand on its own, and there will be no need to continue the subsidy. Mayor Mayans said as much last year, and so did City…
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The “Free” Kansas Lottery Proceeds
Read more: The “Free” Kansas Lottery ProceedsWhat’s ironic is that gamblers are worse off playing against the State of Kansas than the mob-run numbers rackets. As a letter-writer in the New York Times wrote: “They [organized crime] paid out about 85 percent of the amounts that were bet, retaining 15 percent or less for profits and expenses like payoffs.”
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air subsidies
Read more: air subsidiesYup…subsidies for AirTran pick a winner, and the losers. But consider the alternative. 400 dollar flights to anywhere. Do any free marketeers really prefer driving to Tulsa to fly to Austin? Wichita would shrivel up and blow away without economic development incentives. This one is not perfect. And, Delta has a gripe. But check prices…