brownback touts new career-readiness program · web viewthat means the city’s mill levy has...
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The Topeka Capital-Journal
Libertarian Party considers fighting tax increasesTax increase this year substantially higher than past 10Posted: August 26, 2013 - 5:02pm
By Aly Van Dyke
The typical Topeka home saw its property tax bill climb by about $200 in the past decade — nearly half of which will hit just next year.This time, Topeka homeowners are fighting back, said Earl McIntosh, spokesman for the Libertarian Party of Topeka. The party, he said Monday, is considering filing a series of petitions to fight the increases.“It’s easy for them to raise property taxes,” McIntosh said. “But we’ve got a shrinking base of property owners, and they are paying more than their fair share. It’s unfair and it’s unsustainable.”A $100,000 home in Topeka will add $100 to its property taxes next year after the city of Topeka, Shawnee County and the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority voted this month to raise their mill levies by a collective 8.7 mills. The other main four taxing entities in Topeka didn’t raise their taxes.That is the single highest mill levy increase for the city’s main seven taxing entities in the past 10 years, according to past county tax levy sheets. Mill levies won’t be official until assessed valuations are finalized in November.In response to this year’s tax increase, members of the city’s Libertarian party are gathering information to potentially petition the city’s and county’s budget, along with a few other items aimed at limiting the taxing authorities’ abilities to impose taxes. The goal, McIntosh said, is to give the public more of a voice in the budgeting process.“It may not happen, but there’s a serious effort to look into it,” he said.Some elected officials seemed to support the effort.“I am a fiscal conservative, and believe the more scrutiny of budgets and tax increases by the public the better,” Commissioner Bob Archer said.McIntosh’s Topeka councilwoman, Elaine Schwartz, said she is awaiting a clarification from the Attorney General’s Office regarding petitions against budgets. She commended McIntosh for his efforts.“I am and always have been supportive of citizen’s input into the legislative/governing process,” Schwartz said. “I’d also comment that while being the only council member to consistently vote against spending and tax increases, I will sign the petition if and when it comes into being.”
Councilman Chad Manspeaker said he is “a proponent of direct democracy” and wished the group the best.“The thing to keep in mind in such an endeavor, though, is that if successful, the level of service and quality of life in our city would no longer be in the hands of those the citizens have elected to represent them,” he said.Shawnee County elections commissioner Andrew Howell indicated at least three statutes could come into play with the efforts, though which ones will depend on if and how the group follows through. Until a petition if filed, he said, he wouldn’t feel comfortable guessing how many signatures the party would need or what the process would look like.Topeka’s Libertarian Party also is looking into what it would take to file three Topeka ordinances by petition, McIntosh said.One would prevent the city council from raising property taxes, sales taxes and franchise fees without a public vote.The second would require a public vote on any mill levy increases from the MTAA, the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and, potentially, Washburn University.Currently, the boards to these bodies are appointed by elected officials and have authority to approve their own budgets and to set their own mill levies. The transit service relies on the city of Topeka to set its mill levy cap.“That’s taxation without representation,” McIntosh said, adding that the party completely supports those services. “We believe it’s unconstitutional, and we’re ready to challenge it.”Archer also welcomed a review into the practice.“I have always been a critic of unelected boards setting mill levies and raising property taxes,” he said.The third petition ordinance would make members of the city council independent contractors rather than employees of the city, he said.“There’s a major conflict of interest there,” McIntosh explained. “This way, they would more represent the homeowners and the people of the city better.”Topeka’s mill levy since 2003 increased by 19.6 percent. That means the city’s mill levy has outpaced its assessed valuations by almost 4 percent, according to tax levy data.Shawnee County, meanwhile, has increased 11.95 percent — roughly 6.44 percent lower than changes to the county’s assessed valuation.Shawnee County and Topeka have increased their mill levies an average of roughly 0.6 mills since 2002 — meaning next year’s increase of nearly 4 mills each is several times their average.Together, the next year’s increases are twice as high as any tax hike in the past 12 years. This year was the second highest increase since 2002, at a collective 3.941 mill jump.
Now is not the time to be raising taxes, McIntosh said. What elected officials don’t consider, he continued, are the other factors pulling for homeowners dollars, making these tax hikes more painful than ever before.“Every day I talk with people who are homeowners and I can tell you people are hurting and hurting bad,” McIntosh wrote in a presentation before the city council. “Most people on fixed incomes can’t ever begin to keep up with all the tax increases and price increases on essentials like food, water, heat and gas. I’m telling you, homeowners can’t afford a penny more in taxes or expenses. Please get the money somewhere else.”
Final Topeka budget includes tax levy hike of 3.9 millsHarmon proves to be swing vote on key issues Tuesday eveningPosted: August 20, 2013 - 9:24pm
By Tim Hrenchir
Topekans will see their property tax mill levy increase next year by about 3.9 mills, which would amount to an additional $44.85 in annual property tax for the owner of a $100,000 home.City governing body members voted 6-4 Tuesday night to approve a 2014 budget that includes that increase.Mayor Larry Wolgast and council members Karen Hiller, Denise Everhart, Michelle De La Isla, Nathan Schmidt and Richard Harmon voted in favor of the budget. John Campos II, Sylvia Ortiz, Chad Manspeaker and Elaine Schwartz dissented.The vote came after a series of ballots in which council members defeated various budget proposals, with Harmon being the swing vote who changed his ballot from “no” to “yes” on a final proposal that included the 3.9-mill increase.Harmon told reporters afterward he made that change reluctantly.“We were deadlocked,” he said. “I couldn’t see any way to break the deadlock, so I switched my vote.”Harmon said he’d suggested $3.5 million in cuts during this budget cycle that the governing body chose not to make, so he found it “very, very difficult” to vote in favor of a budget that includes an increase in the tax levy.“I’m not happy right now,” he said.The city’s governing body, which consists of the mayor and council members, voted 7-3 early in Tuesday’s meeting to approve a report the council crafted in various unofficial votes while meeting as its budget committee of the whole between July 22 and Aug. 12. The budget in that form would have brought about a 4-mill increase in the property tax levy.Adoption of the report gave the body a starting point for Tuesday’s discussion.
Governing body members that evening several times voted 7-3, 6-4 or 5-5 to reject proposed budgets.The governing body rejected a proposal to outsource Topeka Municipal Court security, a move anticipated to save $114,412 as the city would lay off four employees and hire an outside company to provide security. Manspeaker suggested the move could bring more legal costs than would be worth it for the city, which is under contract through 2015 with the collective bargaining unit representing those workers.Council members had voted twice during budget committee meetings to support the outsourcing plan, then voted 5-5 Tuesday to reject a motion to do away with that plan.But Harmon subsequently changed his mind, voting in the majority to reject the outsourcing with Wolgast, Everhart, De La Isla, Manspeaker and Schmidt.Hiller, Campos, Ortiz and Schwartz dissented.Governing body members -- after approving a committee report that included directing city manager Jim Colson to find and make $500,000 worth of cuts -- voted to reduce the amount of those custs to $346,000. That step was taken after council members noted that they’d already made $154,000 worth of personnel cuts Colson suggested.The approved budget includes increasing from 5 percent to 6 percent of gross receipts the amount the city charges Westar Energy and Kansas Gas Service to use its right of way, thus increasing revenues by an estimated $1.18 million. Those companies typically pass along those fees to their customers within Topeka city limits.Governing body members were told putting in place the franchise fee hike for Westar shouldn’t be a problem, but arranging one for Kansas Gas Service could be a challenge.The governing body also voted to:-- Reduce the fire department budget by $100,000.-- Cut a currently filled office manager’s position in the city attorney’s office. City attorney Chad Sublet said the employee supervises one person, but formerly supervised more.-- Eliminate a plan reviewer’s position in the public works department, an engineering technician’s position for a survey crew member in public works and a position in purchasing-finance.-- Move ahead with plans to budget the use of $2.5 million in transient guest tax revenue while putting off until November a decision on how that money would specifically be used.-- Restore funding for a group of 11 youth and social service agencies. The move means the city will keep funding for those 11 agencies at its 2013 level next year.Colson initially proposed the city keep 2014 funding for all nonprofit agencies at its 2013 level. But the council at a budget committee meeting voted to remove 15 percent — or $30,664 — from the $204,428 in total funding earmarked for a group of 11 youth and social service agencies listed in a document Hiller provided the council separating city grant funding recipients into different categories.Agencies in the grouping for which overall funding was recommended to be reduced by 15 percent are Big Brothers Big Sisters, two Boys and Girls Club programs, CASA, the
Kansas Children’s Service League, the Marian Clinic, Positive Connections, Project HealthAccess, Successful Connections, Topeka Day Care learning center, two Topeka Youth Project programs and the YWCA’s health youth program.Tuesday’s vote rejected that recommendation and put 2014 city funding for nonprofit agencies back at its 2013 level with one exception -- the city will no longer provide $75,000 for a program administered by the nonprofit group Downtown Topeka Inc. The program finances improvements to downtown buildings. Committee members made that decision last week at a budget committee meeting after being told the board of directors of Go Topeka had voted to provide $100,000 to the improvement program in 2014, apparently using revenue from a countywide, half-cent sales tax.
Kobach, Arizona counterpart sue federal commissionSec of State says federal voter registration form should include proof of citizenshipPosted: August 21, 2013 - 1:01pm
By Andy Marso
Facing the possibility of legal action over 15,000-plus suspended voter registrations, Secretary of State Kris Kobach struck back by announcing Wednesday his own suit against a federal election commission.Kobach said at a news conference that he and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, both Republicans, have filed a complaint against the U.S. Election Assistance Commission asking that federal voter registration forms issued to residents of their states include state-specific proof of citizenship requirements like the ones on state forms largely responsible for putting thousands of Kansas registrations on hold.Kobach said the court case is "the first of its kind."Kansas voters will be best served when the EAC amends the Kansas-specific instructions on the Federal Form to include submitting concrete evidence of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote," Kobach said.Kobach said the lawsuit would partially preempt a suit being prepared but he American Civil Liberties Union over the suspended registrations.“It does block many of the arguments the ACLU might wish to raise,” Kobach said.Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, said the lawsuit was "no surprise.""We knew that he was going to do this, or at least anticipated he would," Bonney said Wednesday.Bonney said he had not seen the complaint filed by Kobach and Bennett and could not comment on its effect until he had studied it.Kobach and the ACLU have disagreed on much when it comes to voting laws, but both he and Bonney said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in
Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., invited a lawsuit."This lawsuit is pursuant to Scalia's invitation," Kobach said.The opinion stipulated that states had to allow voter to register with Congressionally-established federal forms that require residents to swear to their U.S. citizenship but not provide written proof. But it also stipulated that states were free to petition the EAC to add the proof of citizenship requirement and, if the EAC does not act or rejects the request, take it to court."Scalia's opinion gave him his roadmap for this," Bonney said.Kobach said EAC action on the matter "has been unlawfully withheld and unreasonably delayed" due to the fact that the agency's four commissioner positions are all currently vacant. Two appointees are awaiting Senate confirmation, but a bill was introduced in the U.S. House in 2011 that would abolish the commission formed in 2002 by the Help America Vote Act.Kobach said that until the case is resolved, Kansans will be able to register using the federal forms but only vote in federal races, not those for state seats like his, or the governor's.Kobach expressed little concern about the thousands of registrations in suspension pending proof of citizenship documents, calling that a "natural consequence of the way we wrote the law.""We could have written the law saying if you don't have a birth certificate with you right when you go to register, we're turning you away," Kobach said.Kobach added that most of the suspensions come from potential voters asked if they want to register when they renew their Kansas driver's license at the Division of Vehicles.Kobach said Georgia and Alabama, the other states that have passed proof of citizenship registration laws, did not join the lawsuit against the EAC because they are states that require pre-clearance from the federal government to enact voting legislation and their laws are still under review.Kobach thanked his Arizona counterpart and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt for assisting with the suit."The lawsuit is brought with the consent of the attorney general's office," Kobach said, saying the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka.Kobach said the case would be of “minimal expense to the state because the attorneys litigating the lawsuits are full-time employees of the secretary of state's office," though he joked that his employees might wish for extra pay because they will be working some late nights.Kansas' proof of citizenship requirements went into effect Jan. 12, 2013. Kobach lobbied successfully for the change, along with voter identification requirements, which he said are necessary to combat voter fraud."Every time an alien votes it effectively cancels out the vote of a U.S. citizen," Kobach said Wednesday, saying his office had identified 15 possible instances of such fraud.
Brownback touts new career-readiness programHighland Park High and 24 other schools participatingPosted: August 26, 2013 - 1:56pm
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
Gov. Sam Brownback met Highland Park High’s first batch of students Monday in a program designed to raise graduation rates and help high-schoolers prepare for college and careers.Kansas joins 30 other states this year that have already introduced the program — called Jobs for America’s Graduates.Brownback said the program fit with his 2010 campaign promise that he would increase the number of Kansas students who leave high school ready to attend college or pursue professions.“This is an excellent program,” he said of Jobs for America’s Graduates, congratulating the group of Highland Park students on joining it. “It’s going to make a lot brighter future for you.”Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker said the Kansas State Department of Education had been hoping for several years to introduce the program, but hadn’t had the money to do so.“Over 3,000 students drop out of school each year in Kansas,” DeBacker said.Figures from Jobs for America’s Graduates indicate 90 percent of students in the program finish high school. The program targets students who might be at risk of dropping out of school, offering them extra mentoring and support.The Kansas Department for Children and Families was able to secure federal funding this year to launch the program. Twenty-five schools around the state are participating, chosen to fit the demographic criteria of the $3.6 million grant, which comes from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Department for Children and Families, said her agency had looked for ways to fund Jobs for America’s Graduates after Brownback said he wanted to bring it to Kansas starting this school year.“The money that’s going into this cannot be better placed,” Gilmore said.Though the initial funding is only for two years, Brownback and Gilmore both said they were hopeful the program wouldn’t stop there.“Assuming that the federal government is still doing TANF, there will still be funding available, I think,” Gilmore said.“If the program is successful, I think it will develop a support base to continue it,” Brownback said. “It really targets the right group of people to succeed.”
The program will be administered in Kansas by Communities in Schools, a nonprofit that offers case management and other services in schools, with the goal of supporting students at risk of dropping out. Along with the decision to ask Communities in Schools to handle the new Jobs program, the Legislature budgeted $250,000 for Communities in School’s other programs.
State legislation leads to boom in technical educationHigh schools no longer pay tuition for Washburn TechPosted: August 22, 2013 - 6:33pm
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
Seaman High School senior Tori Munsell’s school day starts much like any other student’s. The 17-year-old has three classes in the morning — chemistry, government and British literature.But in the afternoon, Munsell heads to the Washburn Institute of Technology, where she spends five afternoons a week learning graphic design.“I feel like this is going to start my career faster,” Munsell said. “I can build a portfolio.”Munsell is one of 400 high school students enrolled at the technical college so far this semester. They study alongside high school graduates, accruing college credit before even finishing school.And under legislation passed in 2012, these students and their schools don’t pay tuition. Instead, the state picks up the tab in hopes that more teens will learn trades their junior and senior years.The idea may be Gov. Sam Brownback’s most popular education initiative. That high-schoolers should have better access to career and technical education is a rare area where many politicians, educators and businesses agree.Students are clearly interested, too. Last school year — the first year of the initiative — the number of high-schoolers taking career and technical classes at the state’s 26 community and technical colleges jumped 50 percent, from 3,870 students to 5,800. This year’s numbers are poised to grow again: Washburn Tech alone is up 110 students so far.All of that tuition adds up. Last year, the cost of the program was $12 million.But school administrators and officials at the Kansas Board of Regents and Kansas State Department of Education say it is money well spent.“It’s a great initiative to help students,” said Blake Flanders, vice president for work force development at the Kansas Board of Regents, “but it also helps Kansas employers.”Flanders said students could leave school ready for skilled jobs, such as welding or assistant nursing. If they would like to attend college, those jobs could help pay their way.
At the same time, he said, the program aims to resolve work force shortages in many of the same fields.Working with the Kansas Department of Labor, the Board of Regents and the education department have honed in on areas with shortages, producing a list of high-demand industries they hope students will consider. The jobs on the list — electricians, diesel engine experts, carpenters and heating mechanics, for example — are all jobs that high-schoolers can earn industry certificates for before leaving school. Many of them pay average wages of more than $30,000 or $40,000 a year.And though high-schoolers can take any career and technical courses tuition-free, there is an incentive for schools to steer them toward these high-demand options: Doing so boosts the schools’ own funding. High schools earn an extra $1,000 in state funds for each student who earns a certificate. Statewide, 711 students did so last year. Most trained for the health industry. Some chose construction, manufacturing or automotive.Clark Coco, dean of Washburn Tech, thinks the initiative is a step in the right direction. His school is increasing its programs in a number of high-demand areas.“We’ve doubled the size of our diesel program,” Coco said, “and more than doubled the size of our health care program.”For students who opt for classes at community and technical colleges, it does mean giving up time at their own schools. But some say it is worth it.“It’s a fair trade-off,” said Engsean Lee, a junior at Washburn Rural High. “It’s good to be able to afford college.”Lee is studying graphic design, too, and eyeing a career in advertising. This year he will learn to use software like Photoshop and InDesign. If he continues his senior year, he will work directly with clients, designing promotional materials and other products.Munsell, meanwhile, plans to attend Washburn University. She hopes to accrue 48 credit hours at Washburn Tech by graduation in May. Those will transfer, and with that under her belt, an associate’s degree at Washburn will take just one year.
Political RunoffTim Carpenter reflects on government
BY TIM CARPENTER
Thu, 08/22/2013 - 3:24pm
Irony swirls around Brownback's cloak of judicial secrecyGov. Sam Brownback's nomination of the administration's general counsel to a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals serves as deja vu role reversal circa 2005.Eight years ago, Brownback was a member of the U.S. Senate's judiciary committee and leader of the GOP revolt against President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was the president's White House counsel.
The senator was vexed about Bush's refusal to release documents related to Miers' work in the White House. Of primary concern, in terms of Brownback, was validity of Miers' pro-life record.Brownback has proven during his years in the U.S. Senate and as Kansas governor that he believes the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973 shouldn't be considered "settled law" in the United States. He seeks an end to abortion in America.In 2005, he was fearful Miers would portray herself as appropriately conservative, gain Senate confirmation and eventually disappoint anti-abortion activists by providing the swing vote to retain Roe vs. Wade. Miers withdrew from consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court, a decision praised by Brownback."She had no (judicial) record and the record that was available was in the White House, and that was not gonna be provided to us," Brownback said in a 2005 interview with NPR. "So, it was the sort of thing that she's caught between where she serves and where the president had nominated her to serve. And the Senate was just not willing to give its advice and consent blindly on a position of such importance to the future of the country."Brownback posed a simple question to NPR listeners: "Why do you need stealth?"As governor, Brownback nominated his general counsel, Caleb Stegall, to a vacancy on the state Court of Appeals. Stegall has not served as a judge, where he would have produced written decisions to be dissected for revealing nuggets. Same can be said for Miers. Other parallels: She was loyal to Bush, as Stegall is to Brownback. Both were championed by legal associates as honest, hard-working Republicans dedicated to constitutional principle.Stegall, who will be easily confirmed by the Kansas Senate in September, declined to take questions at Tuesday's news conference and rebuffed a subsequent request for an interview. Brownback invoked something referred to as the "Ginsburg Rule" to deflect inquiries about Stegall's work in the executive branch.The Ginsburg Rule has been viewed as an anti-transparency scheme to prevent federal court nominees from having to discuss uncomfortable subjects -- such as abortion. The rule is named for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who declined to answer about 30 inquiries in her 1993 confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court. Her argument was that it was necessary to maintain judicial independence by avoiding comments that might undermine her role of neutral arbiter.As it relates to Brownback, in the case of Miers, the executive branch was to open the document faucet about the nominee in an attempt to satisfy the senator's thirst for information.In the case of Stegall, the governor is setting precedent in Kansas by placing a lid on unwelcomed requests for executive branch information capable of helping the public clarify a nominee's record. This follows Brownback's decision to break tradition and withhold all names of applicants and the three finalists he interviewed.This new mantra of stealth, in Kansas judicial circles, could be called the Stegall Rule.
Group seeks Brownback calendars to learn court candidates
League of Women Voters files open records request to find interview details.Posted: August 22, 2013 - 12:17pm
By Andy Marso
The Kansas League of Women Voters has filed an open records request seeking information on the candidates Gov. Sam Brownback interviewed for a Court of Appeals spot before nominating his chief counsel, Caleb Stegall, this week.Using the Kansas Open Records Act, the league announced Thursday it formally requested the schedules of Brownback, Stegall, and appointments director Kim Borchers from July 15 to Aug. 16.Brownback has said 18 people applied for the appellate court position and 13 were interviewed. But he has declined to provide any of their names, citing privacy concerns. “Gov. Brownback claims that Mr. Stegall is the most qualified choice for the Court of Appeals among 13 applicants who were interviewed,” said Dolores Furtado, the league's president. “As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘Trust, but verify.’ Taxpayers have a right to know what public officials and their agents are doing on their behalf. If these meetings actually happened, there should be no problem releasing the calendars as required under the law.”Public officials' calendars are generally open record, but the KORA has a subsection that exempts "individually identifiable records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment" from mandatory disclosure. It is one of nearly 50 exemptions to the state's open record laws.Furtado said the league prefers the previous method of selection for Court of Appeals judges, which is still in effect for the Kansas Supreme Court.Under that method, a nonpartisan nominating committee that includes members of the Kansas Bar Association vets candidates and then sends three choices to the governor. The committee publicized the names and biographies of the candidates and in recent years interviewed them publicly, but the committee members deliberated and voted in secret.The new selection method, approved by the Legislature in the 2013 session, mirrors the federal judicial selection model. The governor chooses an appointee, who then faces a Senate confirmation hearing and vote. Brownback has said the method will be more transparent and accessible to the public because of the public Senate hearing.An attempt to extend the federal selection model to Supreme Court justices, which would require a constitutional amendment, stalled last session. Rep. Ramon Gonzalez, R-Perry, who attended Stegall's nomination announcement this week, said there will be another attempt in 2014."I'm sure it will come up," Gonzalez said.
Panel pushes retroactive 'Hard 50' despite warningsAttorneys disagree as committee meets to lay groundwork for special sessionPosted: August 26, 2013 - 1:28pm
By Andy Marso
Legislators will look at a bill next week that fixes the state's "Hard 50" prison sentence on a retroactive basis, despite defense attorneys' warning it is ripe for a court challenge.Lawyers clashed Monday at the opening hearing of a committee that approved the bill in preparation for next week's special session, with prosecutors pushing successfully for the retroactive clause."I think you could definitely expect — and I think they expect — there will be legal challenges over that," said Randall Hodgkinson, a defense attorney and visiting assistant professor at Washburn Law School who testified against making the bill retroactive.Gov. Sam Brownback called the special session at the request of Attorney General Derek Schmidt because a June U.S. Supreme Court decision called into question the constitutionality of the Hard 50 sentence, which entails life in prison with no possibility of parole in the first 50 years, rather than the standard 25.The court determined that only juries could apply such augmented sentences, while Kansas has allowed judges to hand down the Hard 50.A committee of 14 House and Senate members — most of them attorneys — met Monday to examine legislation proposed by Schmidt that makes the bill apply to Hard 50 cases already litigated or in progress, as well as future cases.The Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers proposed their own bill striking the retroactive clause, calling it unconstitutional."This proposed law will be challenged if it is made retroactive," Jessica Glendening, a Lawrence lawyer, said in her testimony on behalf of the association.Schmidt said challenges to past Hard 50 sentences are coming, but they will come regardless of the Legislature's action due to the Supreme Court decision. He said the retroactive clause would strengthen the state's position in those challenges."I have every confidence we will be litigating these cases for many years to come," Schmidt said, adding: "That is unavoidable. We can't change that."A fiscal note on the proposed bill states the Kansas Sentencing Commission estimates 106 offenders are serving Hard 50 or Hard 40 sentences. Schmidt's office estimates there are another 35 people charged with first-degree murder whose cases are pending and could receive such a sentence.
The cost for the state to call juries to reconsider sentences under a revamped Hard 50 law is estimated at $874,408 — split roughly in half between the judicial branch and the state agency that provides public defenders. There is also a possibility of additional costs to counties.A parade of prosecutors asked that the retroactive clause remain.District attorneys Marc Bennett (Sedgwick County), Stephen Howe (Johnson County), Jerome Gorman (Wyandotte County) and Barry Wilkerson (Riley County) outlined a series of grisly murders that drew Hard 50 sentences.Wilkerson told the committee about the 2007 murder of Manhattan man Adam Hooks, whose former roommate, Kevin Hernandez, beat him with a hammer, stabbed him through the heart and then dismembered his body.Wilkerson noted that Hernandez, who was 20 when he was found guilty of first-degree murder, could be eligible for parole at age 45 if the Hard 50 is allowed to lapse for past cases."Is there any community in the state that would feel comfortable having someone like Kevin Hernandez on their streets at age 45?" Wilkerson asked.Glendening argued that the prisoner review board that determines which offenders receive parole would be unlikely to grant it after 25 years to offenders who had committed the heinous acts described.But Howe said even having a parole hearing is wrenching for victims' families."It is the most unpleasant thing I have ever had to do as district attorney," Howe said of forcing family members to dredge up memories of their loved ones’ murders for the review board."Give us a chance to fight for the retroactive application of this law," Howe urged the committee.The committee plans to introduce the bill Sept. 3, the first day of a special session that is slated to last no more than three days.Schmidt said the goals are threefold: To fix the statute and preserve the Hard 50 for new crimes, or "stop the bleeding;" then look at cases in process to see how the new law can be applied; then maximize the state's position in past cases by making it retroactive.The special session will also include a confirmation hearing for Brownback's Court of Appeals nominee, Caleb Stegall. Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, said the 1 p.m. hearing Sept. 3 will be open to the public, and members of the public may testify.
Topeka business owners push to reduce regulationsComments come at Jenkins' roundtable discussion WednesdayPosted: August 21, 2013 - 11:08am
By Megan Hart
Topeka business owners at a roundtable discussion Wednesday offered up a common refrain: They want less government regulation of their companies.Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., toured Jackson’s Greenhouse and Garden Center, 1933 N.W. Lower Silver Lake Road, and then sat down with a small group of Topeka business owners as part of the National Federation of Independent Business’ “Small Business Challenge,” which invited 10 lawmakers from around the country to become more familiar with the issues facing small businesses.Dan Murray, director of the Kansas branch of the National Federation of Independent Business, said regulations have been a problem under the Obama administration. The Bush administration increased regulations by about 4 percent, and the Obama administration has increased them by 7 percent, he said.Patti Bossert, who owns Key Staffing, said she has 159 employees for whom she is required to provide insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, because her business model involves hiring people as employees instead of contractors. The problem is that insurers aren’t interested in covering her workers, she said.“Blue Cross looks at me like, ‘We’re not going to cover those people,’ ” she said.Jenkins said she and Republican House members are pushing to repeal “Obamacare” and replace it with their own bill, which she said would lower the cost of health care by reforming malpractice insurance, which provides an incentive for doctors to provide extra care to avoid lawsuits. It also would address the problem of insurance for people with pre-existing conditions and create insurance “pools” at the state level but would make less drastic changes than the current law, she said.“We thought we had a pretty good health care system to begin with,” she said.Another issue that came up was a directive from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to federal contractors advising them to avoid asking about job seekers’ prior arrests on job applications. Business owners said they believe they would be forced to hire people who had committed violent offenses, though the directive only advises federal contractors to inquire about criminal history later in the hiring process and weigh whether it is relevant to the job.Shane New, a sod farmer, said regulations, specifically those related to the environment and transportation safety, have created problems for his business. He gave an example that stiffer safety rules apply when he sends a truck to pick up a piece of equipment than when his trucks carry his sod, and said his trucks had been pulled over for alleged safety violations.“It’s petty stuff,” he said.Jenkins pointed to her support of the Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, which would require congressional approval of any regulation expected to cost more than $100 million. It passed the House shortly before the August recess. If the bill passes the Senate, it would reduce the time and expense of compliance with regulations, she said.“You can hire an employee instead of hiring someone to mess around with the paperwork,” she said.
New said he also wanted to see a limit on recipients of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.“You get six months of assistance, sink or swim,” he said.Jenkins said she supports a proposal to require food stamp recipients of working age who don’t have disabilities or small children to work, go back to school or volunteer. She said she wasn’t sure how many people fall into that category, but that saving money isn’t the primary goal for that proposal.“We’re just focused on what is the right thing to do to get people back in the work force and help them live fulfilled lives,” she said.Though she often referenced a lack of leadership and willingness to compromise from the White House, Jenkins stressed that Washington is less “broken” than many people believe. The possibility of a government shutdown is looming if the House of Representatives, Senate and President Barack Obama can’t reach a budget deal, but Jenkins said she sees little appetite to let that happen.The budget deadline and hitting the debt ceiling near the end of the year will provide two “pressure points” to obtain concessions from Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate, Jenkins said.“We have to get along and play in the same sandbox,” she said. “We have a menu of options that they can choose from, and we’re going to prioritize.”The Wichita Eagle
Kansas and Wichita officials participate in six-state talks to expand passenger rail service
By Bill Wilson The Wichita Eagle Published Monday, August 26, 2013, at 5:33 p.m.
More states want a seat at the table if passenger rail service expands again across the Plains and South.
Transportation officials from Arkansas and Louisiana joined officials from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas last Wednesday at the first meeting of a six-state passenger rail consortium in Arlington, Texas. Wichita Vice Mayor Pete Meitzner, city governmental affairs director Dale Goter and KDOT officials represented Kansas. More meetings are planned between the six states, but none are scheduled.
The city of Wichita is part of a three-city effort including Kansas City and Oklahoma City to extend the Heartland Flyer up the I-35 corridor. In a grant application filed June 3, the city and state are asking for $12.7 million in TIGER grant funding to essentially complete the planning – but not the construction – for the possible extension of Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer line to Wichita and Newton, connecting it with the Southwest Chief line and closing a 185-mile service gap from Oklahoma City to Wichita. City officials say the grants should be awarded “any day.”
“It was really healthy to see what all the states were doing,” Meitzner said. “To me, it reiterates that we need to be pretty active.”
With numerous large cities – Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans – jousting for improved passenger rail travel, it’s daunting, Meitzner said, to “be the littlest circle on the map, so to speak.”
But the vice mayor said that Wichita’s geographic position in the middle of the key I-35 economic corridor should trump any concerns about its relatively small size as a population center.
“The I-35 corridor became more apparent as a key economic corridor for cargo movement of rail, along with its traffic counts,” Meitzner said. “I mean, we’re talking right now about San Antonio to Kansas City, and Texas is looking at connecting all the way into Monterrey, Mexico.”
Lindsey Douglas, KDOT’s director of governmental regulations, said the state delegation found the meeting useful.
“I think it’s very encouraging that Texas provided a forum for everyone to get together and face-to-face talk about all the routes being studied,” she said. “It’s always a good idea to collaborate, to hear what we all have going on so we’re not stepping on each other.”
One focus of the meeting, Meitzner said, is making passenger rail service compatible with the cargo traffic already on the route.
“You get a sense that we need to be very respectful of the massive amount of freight that moves along these tracks,” he said. “We’re talking one or two passenger trains a day moving a few hundred people, a fraction of the tons of cargo that moves all the time along the route at a much higher economic impact.”
But track improvements for passenger rail would enhance the freight business along the route, the vice mayor said.
Wichita’s interest is part of a broader collection of studies along the length of the line, from the Texas state line north through Oklahoma City. Texas and Oklahoma have launched their own study, primarily to alleviate highway overcrowding.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, the proposed Flyer route has two possible destinations: north through Wichita or northeast through Tulsa. A private study group in Tulsa is examining the possibility of private passenger trains on the northeast route through their city, operating in concert with a northbound Heartland Flyer line through Wichita.
Kansas will continue to be an active player in the consortium, Douglas said.
“As there are future meetings, we want to be at the table. It was a good thing to go and be engaged,” Douglas said. “We don’t want to be sitting on our hands.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/26/2965710/kansas-and-wichita-officials-participate.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas unemployment rate rises again
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Kansas was 5.9 percent in July.
That’s the third straight month that the unemployment rate has increased. The Kansas Department of
Labor attributed the increase to more people entering the job market and noted that the number of
private-sector jobs continued to grow. Others question the impact of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts.
“Though advocates of substantial tax cuts promised a shot of adrenaline to the Kansas economy, so far
it’s more like a shot of Valium,” said Annie McKay of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth and Amy
Blouin of the Missouri Budget Project, writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/kansas-unemployment-rate-rises-again/#storylink=cpy
Insurance commissioner to speak at Wichita State Published Wednesday, August 21, 2013, at 10:45 a.m.
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger will speak at Wichita State University Sept. 19, the university said in a written statement.
Her talk, at 7 p.m. in the CAC Theater, is open to the public; she will talk on the changing health care system in Kansas and the country, based on the new federal policies, the university statement said.
Praeger was elected in 2002 as the state’s insurance commissioner and was re-elected in 2006 and 2010. She is responsible for regulating all insurance sold in Kansas and oversees nearly 1,700 insurance companies and more than 100,000 state-licensed agents.
Attendees should plan to park south of the CAC Theater near the 17th Street entrance, or west near the Performing Arts Center, the university said.
For more information, contact: Carolyn Shaw, professor and chair, WSU political science, at 316-978-7130 or [email protected], or go to www.wichita.edu/luzzati.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/21/2955140/insurance-commissioner-to-speak.html#storylink=cpy
Few know about Common Core
The new Common Core education standards that Kansas and 44 other states are
adopting received a lot of attention this past legislative session, as some lawmakers wrongly claimed that
the standards were part of a federal takeover of education. But nearly two-thirds of Americans have never
heard of the Common Core, according to a survey by Gallup and PDK International. And among the third
who have heard of Common Core, only four in 10 said the standards will help make education in the
United States more competitive globally.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/few-know-about-common-core/#storylink=cpy
Bernie Koch: Higher education grows economy By Bernie Koch Published Friday, August 23, 2013, at 12 a.m.
Kansans should be seriously concerned about the Legislature’s budget cuts and the resulting tuition hikes at Kansas public universities. They will most certainly have an impact on our economic recovery and future growth or decline.
The link between higher education and the economy is often cited, but rarely demonstrated with specifics. Nevertheless, there’s a surprising amount of serious economic research that reveals substantial evidence of this connection.
Harvard University professor Robert J. Barro has done groundbreaking work on education and economic growth. Barro studied roughly 100 countries around the world at different levels of economic progress during the time frame of 1960 to 1995. His findings show a strong connection between economic growth and higher education:
• Secondary and higher education levels for males 25 and older have “a positive and significant effect on the subsequent rate of economic growth.”
• An additional year of higher education “raises the growth rate on impact by 0.44 percent per year.”
• Data on students’ scores on internationally comparable examinations in science, mathematics and reading are used to measure the quality of schooling, and “scores on science tests have a particularly strong positive relation with economic growth.”
Barro’s research and conclusions are central to many of the economic and public policy debates of the past three decades. A mass of other economic research backs up these findings. I should add that Barro is no liberal. He’s written for the Wall Street Journal and is recognized as an outspoken critic of Obama administration economic policies.
What does this mean for Kansas?
Whether you agree that there’s waste at the Kansas Board of Regents institutions or not, constant tuition increases make it more difficult for students to obtain a higher education. That affects the quality and quantity of the labor force in a negative way. If we increase the higher education level, we should see an increase in economic growth. If we allow the average education level to decline, we will see a decrease.
Especially troubling for the south-central Kansas economy is the revelation that typical Wichita State University tuition has increased about 36 percent over the past five years. At the same time, WSU president John Bardo has said that filling vacant positions and retaining good instructors has become difficult, including many at WSU’s College of Engineering.
That can’t possibly be good for the aerospace industry, an anchor of our state economy.
Kansas must make a serious attempt to remove the growing obstacles to obtaining a higher education for those who want to pursue one, including prohibitive tuition rates and shortages of quality faculty.
Otherwise, no amount of tax cuts will offset the damage.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/23/2958023/bernie-koch-higher-education-grows.html#storylink=cpy
Eagle editorial: End the ill will, cuts Published Thursday, August 22, 2013, at 12 a.m.
Here’s hoping that state lawmakers’ planned six-day autumn tour of state universities leads to better communication and funding, and to an end of the ill will and punitive cuts. The relationship is in poor shape – rather like the budgets of families trying to pay fall tuition bills.
Instead of heeding Gov. Sam Brownback’s call for flat funding, the 2013 Legislature cut state universities’ funding 3 percent over two years and largely ignored the University of Kansas’ request for help to fund a new $75 million medical education building at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. Not only that, but Brownback and the Legislature approved the creation of and $1.1 million startup money for an adult stem cell research and treatment center at KU that the university didn’t ask for. Lawmakers also passed a bill, opposed by the Kansas Board of Regents, meant to phase in concealed-carry of guns on campuses.
And the claims leveled by some leading legislators have been stunning for their sharp tone and lack of substance, including that universities sit on unencumbered cash balances, raise tuition and salaries unnecessarily, and construct unneeded buildings because donors want to put their names on them.
Predictably, the funding cuts prompted another round of tuition hikes – though lawmakers won’t take responsibility for that cause and effect. Nor will they acknowledge that criticizing private donation is no way to encourage more to offset the decline of state support – from 75 percent of universities’ budgets in the 1970s to 20 percent now.
Bigger budgets supported by expanded fundraising aren’t a bad thing. “We’re trying to raise funds to enhance the quality of what we do,” KU chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little told The Eagle editorial board last week. She also said KU officials are trying to find ways to control costs across their operations.
The subject of better relations with the Legislature came up at a regents retreat last week, with board chairman Fred Logan of Leawood saying “there needs to be a full-throated defense about what we are doing.”
One idea floated at the retreat only made things worse, though. When regents offered to keep tuition rates flat next year if the Legislature restores $36 million in funding, Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, suggested they were “positioning Kansas students and families as bargaining chips in a budget debate.”
For his part, according to the Lawrence Journal-World, Brownback advised the higher education officials to be as transparent as possible with lawmakers and open to their concerns.
“We need to talk more,” Brownback told the regents.
Good advice.
As it is, the Legislature’s inexplicable new hostility toward higher education is doing nothing for the state’s economy or future workforce, and doing a number on the students and parents expected to pay the resulting tuition hikes and eventually pay off mounting student loan debt.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/22/2955900/eagle-editorial-end-the-ill-will.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Eagle editorial: Stand up to Kobach Published Friday, August 23, 2013, at 12 a.m.
When the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement to register to vote, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach assured Kansans that their state’s requirement was OK. Nothing to see here, folks.
But later Kobach said that he was considering a bizarre scheme to divide registered voters into two groups – those who could vote for all races and issues, and those who could vote only in federal races. That appeared to recognize that Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship law as implemented could not survive legal challenge.
Now Kobach is suing the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to try to force it to modify the federal voter registration form to allow for requiring proof of citizenship – more recognition that Kansas’ law won’t hold up.
Rather than let Kobach continue this charade, other state leaders need to stand up. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Gov. Sam Brownback need to speak out and defend the 15,000 Kansans so far who have had their voting rights “suspended.” And Kansas legislators need to realize that they were misled by phony fears of voter fraud and rescind the proof-of-citizenship requirement.
If they won’t step up and take charge, it will be up to the courts to rein in Kobach – again.
Voters also should send Kobach a message next election – assuming he lets them vote.
For the editorial board, Phillip Brownlee
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/23/2958026/eagle-editorial-stand-up-to-kobach.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas and Arizona unite in lawsuit over voter registration laws
By BRAD COOPER The Kansas City Star Published Wednesday, August 21, 2013, at 12:57 p.m. Updated Wednesday, August 21, 2013, at 11:55 p.m.
Kansas is teaming with Arizona on a lawsuit to save controversial laws requiring people to prove they’re citizens when they register to vote.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett filed a lawsuit Wednesday that could bring the state laws into compliance with a ruling the U.S. Supreme Court handed down in June.
The lawsuit came a week after the American Civil Liberties Union signaled plans to challenge the Kansas citizenship requirement, which has already blocked the registration of more than 15,000 would-be voters.
If successful, Kobach could potentially cut off the ACLU litigation over the law that forces prospective voters to prove their citizenship with documents such as a birth certificate or passport before they could vote.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Kansas, demands the U.S. Election Assistance Commission modify the federal voter registration form for Kansas and Arizona so it would allow for requiring proof of citizenship.
The form was the basis for the Supreme Court ruling that Arizona could not require proof of citizenship for federal elections.
The high court said states have to defer to a 1993 federal law, which allows people to vote using a federal form that only requires prospective voters to declare under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.
The court said federal law barred states from demanding more information from potential voters than is required by the federal form.
However, the court provided a map for making the proof-of-citizenship requirement legal, the very path Kansas and Arizona want to follow.
The court said states can ask the Election Assistance Commission to include information on their version of the federal form that the states deem necessary.
In 2005, the commission deadlocked at 2-2 on Arizona’s request to include the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal form, and no action was taken on the state’s request.
The Supreme Court ruled that if the commission refused to act, Arizona could take the matter up in court. It even suggested that Arizona could argue that the commission was acting arbitrarily since it recently agreed to accept a similar request from Louisiana.
Kansas has unsuccessfully tried twice to get the commission to accept its proof-of-citizenship requirements. But the state has run into problems because all four seats on the commission are vacant.
The agency’s staff can make decisions about modifying the federal form, but staffers believed that the Kansas request was so broad that it would require action by the commission, which is stymied because it has no members.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday contends that the agency’s refusal to act on the states’ request violates their 10th Amendment rights under the Constitution.
They also contend that the agency is assuming authority it hasn’t been given by Congress.
“It’s pretty clear that Congress did not envision this agency as having the power to effectively stop a state from controlling its own qualifications for an election,” Kobach said. “This is yet another example of the federal government interfering in state affairs.”
As of Wednesday, there were 15,109 suspended registrations in Kansas, up from 11,101 reported in June, according to the secretary of state’s office.
About 3,100 of those were people who tried to register to vote in Johnson County and another 950 who tried to register in Wyandotte County.
Doug Bonney, the ACLU’s legal director in Kansas City, said Kobach’s latest court battle will do nothing to help the people whose registrations were suspended. He said laws like the one in Kansas and two other states only keep people out of the voting booth.
“The problem was the law was a solution in search of a problem,” Bonney said. “There is no evidence of a single case in Kansas, or elsewhere quite frankly, of citizenship fraud in order to register to vote.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/21/2955342/kansas-and-arizona-sue-federal.html#storylink=cpy
Gov. Brownback visits students in West High workplace prep program
By Suzanne Perez Tobias The Wichita Eagle Published Monday, August 26, 2013, at 3:51 p.m. Updated Monday, August 26, 2013, at 4:01 p.m.
Jacqui Ayala recently learned about elevator speeches – a 30-second spiel you might give to someone you just met, perhaps on an elevator, to introduce yourself.
She learned about the importance of eye contact, of active listening and of presenting herself in a confident, memorable way.
On Monday, the West High School senior got to practice hers on the governor.
Gov. Sam Brownback visited West High to meet Jacqui and about two dozen other students enrolled in Jobs for America’s Graduates, a program designed to better prepare at-risk high school students to graduate and succeed in the workplace.
“This is a complex society,” Brownback said. “If you get out and you can’t do anything, you don’t have any particular expertise or you don’t have higher education, life can be pretty tough.”
The 45-minute stop was one of four visits the governor and Kansas Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker made Monday to talk with students about the new program. It launched this fall at 25 schools across the state, including five in Wichita.
Brownback, wearing a shirt and tie, dress pants and black cowboy boots, sat in a chair Jacqui had reserved for him by hastily scrawling “Governor Brownback!” on a piece of notebook paper. He smiled and shook her hand.
Seconds later, Brownback and the students, seated in two facing rows, practiced their elevator speeches as J.J. Selmon, the program director, kept time.
“The activity is similar to speed dating – a similar concept,” Selmon said. “The impression you make in that first 30 seconds is how they’re going to remember you for a lifetime.”
Brownback played along, learning about each student as the participants rotated clockwise around the chairs. Jacqui told him she wanted to be a pastry chef. Trenton Lambky said he wants to go into welding.
When the whistle blew and it was the governor’s turn to talk, he said: “I’m Sam Brownback. I’m governor of the state of Kansas. I want to help Kansas to be a better place – grow the economy, have a better education system …”
Selmon said the exercise illustrated some of the job skills students will learn in the new program, which is being administered by Communities in Schools, in partnership with the Kansas Department for Children and Families and the State Department of Education. The class is an elective for juniors and seniors, who were selected based on their interest and teacher recommendations.
Jacqui, who has a 1-year-old son and hopes to attend culinary school after graduating, said she likes the program so far.
“I really do think it’s going to help,” she said Monday. “We just started, but I’ve already learned a lot.”
Brownback said he’s glad Kansas is launching the program, which he said would give students the specific skills they need to graduate and go on to college, technical schools or careers.
“Nobody is alone in this world. We all kind of depend on each other,” he said, adding that successful societies are like stone walls.
“The better and stronger you are, the better and stronger wall we build, the better our society,” he said. “That depends on you, and that depends on us to provide you the opportunities.
“And that’s what we’re trying to do with this (program), provide you with an opportunity.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/26/2965480/gov-brownback-visits-students.html#storylink=cpy
Writings, interviews add information about Stegall
Gov. Sam Brownback has released little information about Caleb Stegall, his nominee for
the Kansas Court of Appeals. But the Topeka Capital-Journal examined some of the writings and
interviews Stegall has done over the years. For example, in a 2005 interview with the website God Spy,
Stegall described his work as editor of the New Pantagruel, an online magazine with a “radically new
vision for humanity and the world.” He urged people to “read the classics and the church fathers instead
of junk fiction and self-help crap. And, then, go about the hard work of learning the discipline of place. Get
married. Have kids, lots of them. Don’t turn them over to others to raise.” Stegall also has criticized the
controlling tendencies of liberals and conservatives. In a column he wrote for the Kansas Liberty website,
Stegall said the political left was caught up in dreams of “an egalitarian utopia and of running everything
by federal fiat,” while the political right was dreaming of “a Christian nation with social control and
corporate giveaways.”
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/writings-interviews-add-information-about-stegall/#storylink=cpy
Six’s endorsement of Stegall stands out
Of all the weighty names mentioned as having endorsedCaleb Stegall, Gov. Sam
Brownback’s chief counsel, for the new 14th seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals, that of former Kansas
Attorney General Steve Six (in photo) stood out. Six is a Democrat who was on the other side of Stegall
on abortion-related cases involving former Attorney General Phill Kline. But his endorsement, and the
governor’s decision to highlight it, is even more remarkable because of how conservative Republicans in
Kansas conspired to trash Six’s name related to abortion and, with the shameless help of Sens. Pat
Roberts and Jerry Moran, block President Obama’s nomination of Six to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals two years ago. Given that context, Six’s letter describing Stegall as a “deep thinker, a scholar of
the law,” “highly principled, ethical,” “always prepared and diligent” and someone who “would make a
terrific addition” to the court carries particular meaning.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/sixs-endorsement-of-stegall-stands-out/#storylink=cpy
Brownback didn’t look far to find Court of Appeals pick
Credit Gov. Sam Brownback with nerve in wielding his new power to nominate judges to
the Kansas Court of Appeals. His first pick was his chief counsel, Caleb Stegall (in photo) – whose
nomination was dismissed by the governor’s spokeswoman in July as “premature speculation.” Stegall,
who was passed over for the court last year under the nonpartisan nominating commission system
recently scrapped by the Legislature, comes with strong references, strongly conservative credentials and
good experience, including as Jefferson County’s elected prosecutor. But he also is closely associated
with former Attorney General Phill Kline, having represented him during his legal woes related to
prosecutions of abortion providers. Stegall’s nomination will go to the Kansas Senate for a hearing and
confirmation vote during the Sept. 3 special session, but it’s hard to imagine he will encounter much
opposition in a chamber that was reshaped last year by the victories of conservative Brownback-backed
candidates. The governor’s office won’t release the names of other applicants. Welcome to the new world
of appellate judicial selection in Kansas.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/brownback-didnt-look-far-to-find-court-of-appeals-pick/#storylink=cpy
Pompeo won’t be like Huelskamp; will help constituents
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, isn’t following the lead of Rep. Tim Huelskamp,
R-Fowler, who has saidthat he won’t help constituents with the Affordable Care Act. Though Pompeo
opposes the health care law and wants to repeal it, he told The Eagle editorial board that his office will do
its best to help constituents with whatever questions they have. Earlier this summer Huelskamp said that
his office would tell constituents to “call your former governor,” referring to Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. At a town hall meeting this week in Hutchinson, Huelskamp said his office
wouldn’t be encouraging constituents to sign up for Obamacare.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/pompeo-wont-be-like-huelskamp-will-help-constituents/#storylink=cpy
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Huelskamp, GOP won’t block Obamacare
By Carl P. Leubsdorf Dallas Morning News Published Thursday, August 22, 2013, at 12 a.m.
Imagine how great the national outcry would have been if, when the House extended the military draft in August 1941, members on the losing side told their constituents they would not help them get information on how to register.
That’s akin to what some House Republicans are doing in their latest efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, even while some Senate GOP colleagues talk of trying to shut down the federal government to stop its implementation.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, said he’d tell constituents seeking health insurance information to call the Department of Health and Human Services. “Given that we come from Kansas, it’s much easier to say, ‘Call your former governor,’” Huelskamp told the Hill in June, referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “You say, ‘She’s the one. She’s responsible. She was your governor, elected twice, and now you re-elected the president, but he picked her.’”
“We know how to forward a phone call,” added Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
These tactics and repeated House votes to “prevent” implementation of the program look more foolish than serious. But GOP House members are not the only ones using various legal, though questionable, tactics in an effort to get President Obama’s landmark health law to fail.
Some Senate Republicans talk of refusing to fund the federal government unless Obama deletes all funds for Obamacare.
And many Republican governors have rejected cooperating with the federal government to expand Medicaid and set up the health-insurance exchanges. Ironically, their refusal would raise ACA’s costs and increase the role of a federal government whose power they constantly decry.
To be sure, the program will almost certainly face the kinds of glitches that Obama has conceded often mark the onset of complex federal programs. Unfortunately, the GOP’s attitude means the administration won’t be able to pass any legislation to fix any procedural glitches.
And it’s also true that the way the administration has sought to delay some parts of the law from meeting the Oct. 1 deadline is a tacit acknowledgment that it won’t be as ready to function as smoothly from the outset as officials would like us to believe.
Nevertheless, the time is long past for the GOP to recognize reality: When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ACA’s legality, Mitt Romney was defeated and Democrats retained the Senate, Republicans lost their last serious chance to prevent Obama’s health care law from taking effect.
As time goes on, the political focus is likely to change from whether the GOP can block it from taking effect to whether it can take away its most popular benefits.
Over the longer term, what longtime Congress watcher Norm Ornstein called the GOP’s “monomaniacal focus on sabotaging” Obamacare may well backfire from other factors, notably the growing evidence it may benefit people more in states that cooperate with the administration than in those that oppose it.
None of this prevented the recent move by the Senate’s two top Republicans to pressure the National Football League not to publicize the program, which would help attract younger Americans whose participation is essential to help finance it.
Such foolishness is unlikely to have any more long-term effect than those repeated House votes or the refusal of some House Republicans to tell constituents how to sign up. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/22/2955898/carl-p-leubsdorf-huelskamp-gop.html#storylink=cpy
National Guard plant in Salina to close, cut jobs By JOHN MILBURN Associated Press Published Friday, August 23, 2013, at 6:22 a.m. Updated Friday, August 23, 2013, at 2:49 p.m.
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas National Guard leaders briefed employees Friday about upcoming cuts in military spending that will result in layoffs and the closing of a maintenance site in Salina.
The Department of Defense cuts will affect the National Guard's Readiness Sustainment Maintenance sites in Kansas and in other states. In Kansas, the cuts will be letting go 45 workers in Salina and another 58 at Fort Riley.
"Our staff will be working closely with the individuals affected to ensure they have access to the help they need to seek out new employment or to seek out benefits to assist them," said Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, the state adjutant general. "This is an extremely difficult time for our staff and for the Salina and Fort Riley communities where the RSMS sites have resided for a number of years."
The reductions will begin in October with another round scheduled to take effect Jan. 14, 2014. Tafanelli said the Kansas National Guard is expected to see its budget cut from the current $22 million by an estimated $15 million to about $7 million in 2014.
The Salina site was opened in 2006 and is expected to close in January.
The Fort Riley site, where 137 people are employed, opened in 1993. All of the employees are unclassified, temporary, full-time state of Kansas positions with benefits which have been fully funded by Department of Defense. Positions include mechanics and welders. The Fort Riley site will remain open with between 70 and 85 employees, with some Salina employees given an opportunity to transfer, the Guard said.
The maintenance sites rebuild and refurbish military equipment for the military that is returned to use by units all across the country.
It is the second budget-related decision to affect the National Guard in 2013. The automatic federal budget cuts that took effect in March resulted in more than 48,000 National Guard technicians being furloughed through the end of September.
The spending reductions affected 54 percent of the full-time employees of the Kansas National Guard, including some 1,100 technician positions that were idled one day a week.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/23/2958914/national-guard-plant-in-salina.html#storylink=cpy
Roberts didn’t mean to endorse Yellen
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., inadvertently made national political news Monday in
Wichita when he was asked at the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association annual meeting about a
successor for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. “I wouldn’t want Larry Summers to mow my
yard,” Roberts said of the former Treasury secretary. “He’s terribly controversial and brusque and I don’t
think he works well with either side of the aisle, quite frankly.” Though he expressed reservations about
Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen as well, Roberts’ comments at the meeting about her
being “very solid in how she approaches fiscal matters, the economy and the Fed” came across as an
endorsement. He later told Politico that he was “not putting Yellen yard signs out in Kansas” and had
already planned to vote against her out of concern that she would continue “easy money” policies. “I
never intended to endorse her,” Roberts said. “I don’t like being the lone coyote on the Hill saying I’m for
her.”
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/08/roberts-didnt-mean-to-endorse-yellen/#storylink=cpy
Schodorf bows out, backs Carmichael for House seat, says she may challenge Kobach
By Dion Lefler The Wichita Eagle Published Monday, August 26, 2013, at 11 a.m. Updated Monday, August 26, 2013, at 7:57 p.m.
Former Republican state Sen. Jean Schodorf has dropped out of the race to finish retiring Democratic Rep. Nile Dillmore’s term – possibly to run against Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Her move clears the way for state Democratic Party Secretary John Carmichael to represent the northwest Wichita district for at least the next year.
Schodorf, an educator and political moderate who joined the Democratic Party in January, said she is withdrawing her name and endorsing Carmichael for the Dillmore vacancy while she explores other 2014 election options. She said party members at the DemoFest held in Wichita a week ago encouraged her to challenge Kobach.
“It is a possibility,” she said. “I’m studying it to see if it’s viable.”
Of Carmichael, she said, “John’s worked for me and he’s worked for Nile over many years – I think he’ll do a good job” if, as expected, Democratic precinct committee members choose him to finish the last year of Dillmore’s term.
As a state party officer, Carmichael said he couldn’t endorse any 2014 candidates until after next year’s primaries. However, he issued a statement praising Schodorf’s service as a senator and encouraging her to run against Kobach.
“It was a sad day for Kansas when she was pushed out of the Senate by Governor (Sam) Brownback’s allies,” he said. “I know Jean truly lives to serve the people of Kansas, and I encourage her to take on the next big challenge.
“It’s time to end Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s divisive, partisan warfare on Kansas voters, and I believe Jean Schodorf is the person to run against him next year,” Carmichael said.
Already running against Kobach is businessman Randy Rolston of Mission Hills, the co-founder of Victorian Trading Co., an Internet and mail-order catalog business based in Johnson County.
Schodorf originally voted in favor of a Kobach-sponsored voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill in 2011 but later that year voted against a follow-up implementation bill and said she deeply regretted her earlier vote.
Kobach responded that regardless of who the Democratic candidate is, it will be “someone who wants to dismantle our photo ID processes versus someone who wants to keep them in place.”
Schodorf and Carmichael both expressed interest in the 92nd District House seat following Dillmore’s surprise announcement in mid-August that he would retire after 13 years in office.
Dillmore’s immediate replacement, who will serve in the 2014 session, will be selected by the precinct committee members after Dillmore makes his retirement official. Carmichael, a Wichita lawyer, is a longtime Democratic activist who has served in several party positions and has held appointed state board positions under the last three Democratic governors.
Carmichael is a member of the precinct committee that will choose Dillmore’s replacement and appeared to have the inside track with the group.
There are only four voting members of the precinct committee in the 92nd District, according to Sedgwick County Democratic Party Chairwoman Terese Shumaker Johnson.
Precinct Committeewoman Jenna Engels said she never imagined when she ran for the ordinarily obscure position in 2012 that she’d be one of four people choosing a state representative.
But she said now she expects that Carmichael will be the only contender.
“I have not heard of any other hats in the ring,” she said. “I know he’ll be a good representative, and I wholeheartedly support him.”
Of Schodorf, she said, “I think she’s destined for bigger and better things.”
Schodorf was a Republican member of the Senate from January 2001 to January 2013 but switched parties after her Senate term expired, saying that the GOP had left its moderates behind.
She was ousted from office in a 2012 primary race against then-Wichita City Council member Michael O’Donnell, who was backed by conservative and business interests.
Dillmore said he plans to turn in the paperwork just after the upcoming special session that begins Sept. 3 in Topeka, with an effective resignation date of Sept. 30.
If the precinct officials install Carmichael as expected, he could face former Rep. Brenda Landwehr in the 2014 election.
Landwehr had laid the groundwork to challenge Schodorf in the 2012 Republican Senate primary, but a court-ordered redistricting plan put them in different districts.
Landwehr then sought to win re-election to the House but lost to Dillmore in the also redrawn 92nd District.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/26/2964918/sources-schodorf-will-not-try.html#storylink=cpy
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas employment riddle, continued August 22BY DAVE HELLINGWriting in the National Review, Kevin D. Williamson is the latest columnist to accept the claim from Gov. Sam Brownback and others that tax cuts have moved jobs into Kansas:
“Kansas City saw about 9,500 new jobs created between May 2012 and May 2013 — every one of them on the Kansas side of the border, where residents and businesses enjoy a significant tax advantage thanks in part to the leadership of Governor Sam Brownback and Kansas conservatives.”
As usual , the actual statistics are more complicated.
It’s true that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has record a 9,500-job jump in the Kansas City SMSA between May
2012 and May 2013. All of those increases came on the Kansas side.
But the Brownback tax cuts for businesses and on income didn’t take effect until January of this year. If those tax cuts really prompted businesses and jobs to move, we should see some evidence of that in 2013.
Indeed, the BLS figures show a growth of 10,900 jobs on the Kansas side from March 2013 to May 2013 (we couldn’t find figures for January or February.)
But the same figures show Missouri-side jobs grew by 10,000 over the same March-to-May time frame.
If the Kansas tax cuts were so injurious to Missouri employment, the figures should show job loss in that period. Or, at the very least, no growth.
Instead, Kansas and Missouri jobs grew by almost an identical number with the tax cuts enacted into law.
The actual job-creating impact of the Kansas tax cuts remains obscure. We may not fully understand their impact for some time, Williamson and Brownback not withstanding.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/22/4429546/the-kansas-employment-riddle-continued.html#storylink=cpy
Rick Perry battles Sam Brownback to steal jobs from KC and Missouri
August 22BY YAEL T. ABOUHALKAHThe Kansas City Star
Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to poach jobs from Missouri. That means he’s going to have to battle Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who’s already trying to steal jobs from Kansas City and the Show-Me State.
Perry is part of a TV ad campaign now airing in select areas of Missouri, extolling the “virtues” of operating a business in Texas.
(The downside: Yes, you have to work in Texas.)
The ad, and Perry’s expected trip to Missouri next week, have prompted Secretary of State Jason Kander to issue his own “stay out of Missouri” press release today. It makes the usual, and excellent, point that all of this shipping of jobs from one state to the other isn’t really creating a lot of net new jobs for states.
Perry and Brownback are both Republicans, and both are touting the “low” taxes of their respective states. Meanwhile, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon accurately points out that Missouri also has low taxes.
This race to the bottom on tax rates is not encouraging news for schools, road builders and anyone else who relies on good public services.
Yes, this is what economic development too often looks like these days: Politicians desperately trying to woo companies to their states with promises of tax breaks and other special favors
that ordinary businesses and regular taxpayers normally don’t get.
I spent Thursday morning in Johnson County, where the mayors of Overland Park, Lenexa and Mission essentially defended their use of economic incentives to get and keep jobs.
The Kansas City area is at the heart of much of the job-poaching debate because it’s right along the state line.
In some cases, Missouri has gone too far in doling out public subsidies to companies. The recent wooing of Freightquote’s headquarters to southeast Kansas City is near the top of the list.
In other examples, Kansas has pulled out all stops to hand out special tax breaks to select companies to help them come to that state.
Meanwhile, you now have some companies inside Johnson County pitting themselves against each other. The worst/best example is Wal-Mart’s decision to leave one taxpayer-supported development area in Roeland Park to move to another publicly subsidized area in Mission.
In response, Roeland Park officials say they will have to raise property and sales taxes to replace much of the tax money Wal-Mart once created.
Getting back to Perry, Brownback and Missouri, the whole attitude that it’s OK to “compete” by giving a few
companies better tax rates than others isn’t the best way to create net new jobs.
But that’s too often not the goal. Perry and others want the publicity that comes when they make it appear they are doing everything they can to whip up new jobs.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/22/4429037/rick-perry-battles-sam-brownback.html#storylink=cpy
Which state is the ugliest? One poll says it’s Kansas August 22BY LISA GUTIERREZ AND BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
Take heart, Kansas. At least your fellow Americans didn’t call you dumb.
Business Insider polled about 1,600 Americans about their views on other states. They couldn’t vote for their own.
Kansas ranked highest for the worst scenery, followed closely by New Jersey.
Colorado, the neighbor with mountains? The prettiest.
“The results were hilarious, informative and tell you everything you need to know about the dynamic between the states,” Business Insider said in releasing the poll results this week.
Funny or not, the insult didn’t go unchallenged by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.
He put up a photo album on Facebook, which was circulated on Twitter. The pictures included sunflowers, a Kansas State University football game with fireworks, the Sporting Kansas City soccer club and aerial views of several university campuses.
“Kansas has some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere,” Brownback said in a statement. “Our prairies and hills, our sunflowers and our history that is visible across this state is truly beautiful. I respectfully disagree with the poll.”
The governor’s entry prompted one commenter to ask why the photo gallery omitted the Flint Hills and the Arikaree Breaks, a rugged land formation — with canyons — in northwest Kansas.
The state director of the Kansas Republican Party, Clay Barker, posted this question: “How much does it cost to build an ocean with beaches and a mountain range?”
Scenery isn’t all there is to life, of course. Attitude counts, too.
In that arena, poor New York was voted both rudest and most arrogant of the states, as well as having both the best and worst sports fans. It also, supposedly, is where you get the best food.
Woo-hoo, Louisiana. You’re said to be the drunkest.
The nicest Americans, poll takers said, live in Georgia and Minnesota.
The weirdest accents are in Massachusetts, said people who don’t live there.
California was deemed both the craziest state and the state with the hottest residents.
Mississippi was voted the dumbest state. Massachusetts was crowned the smartest.
The poll asked: Which state would you like to see kicked out of the country? The answer: Texas. By a large margin.
So we know the poll’s fairly accurate, right? California, Florida and Mississippi came next.
It could be worse, Kansas. No one is talking about kicking you out of the union for your flatness. And, by the way, they also polled for the ugliest residents .
“America had trouble deciding,” said Business Insider. “We know it’s in the South somewhere.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/22/4429874/which-state-is-the-ugliest-one.html#storylink=cpy
Business Insider poll says Kansas is ugly: What do you think?
August 21BY LISA GUTIERREZThe Kansas City Star
Take heart, Kansas. At least your fellow Americans didn’t call you dumb.
Business Insider polled about 1,600 Americans about their views on the other states, revealing what they think are the dumbest, nicest, prettiest, rudest (and drunkest) states in the union.
Poor New York, voted both rudest and most arrogant of the states.
Woo hoo, Louisiana! You’re said to be the drunkest.
“The results were hilarious, informative and tell you everything you need to know about the dynamic between the states,” Business Insider said in releasing the poll results this week.
The nicest Americans, poll takers said, live in Georgia and Minnesota.
The weirdest accents are in Massachusetts, said people who don’t live there.
California was deemed both the craziest state and the state with the hottest residents.
“America had trouble deciding which state was the ugliest,” said Business Insider. “We know it's in the south somewhere, with Alabama in the lead.”
And speaking of the south, Mississippi was voted the dumbest state. Massachusetts crowned the smartest.
Which state would you like to see kicked out of the country, the poll asked?
Texas.
Go ahead and snicker, Kansans, because you got dinged by your fellow Americans, too.
They voted Kansas the state with the worst scenery, followed closely by New Jersey.
Colorado, that state next door with mountains, was decreed to be the prettiest.
Not surprisingly, that ranking as the ugliest of them all isn’t going down well in the Sunflower State.
“So apparently Business Insider took a poll on different states, and here's our claim to fame – worst scenery. Even worse than New Jersey,” note the folks atF*ck You, I’m From Kansas on their Facebook page.
“I guess the nation harbors more love for the loud, entitled gold-bedecked spray tanned Oompa Loompas of the Jersey Shore than us. Does that sound bitter? F*ckin A right it does. You can stick your poll right between my Flint Hills, Business Insider.*
“*That came out weird.
“Anyway, Kansas Board of Wildlife, Parks, Tourism, Health, Environment, Education, Transportation, and all that other unimportant stuff we can't afford as a state anymore – you need to get on the ball on this one. Let’s build (an) ocean!”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/21/4427839/kansas-ugly-business-insider-poll.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas and Arizona unite in lawsuit over voter registration laws August 21BY BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
Kansas is teaming with Arizona on a lawsuit to save controversial laws requiring people to prove they’re citizens when they register to vote.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett filed a lawsuit Wednesday that could bring the state laws into compliance with a ruling the U.S. Supreme Court handed down in June.
The lawsuit came a week after the American Civil Liberties Union signaled plans to challenge the Kansas citizenship requirement, which has already blocked the registration of more than 15,000 would-be voters.
If successful, Kobach could potentially cut off the ACLU litigation over the law that forces prospective voters to prove their citizenship with documents such as a birth certificate or passport before they could vote.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Kansas, demands the U.S. Election Assistance Commission modify the federal voter registration form for Kansas and Arizona so it would allow for requiring proof of citizenship.
The form was the basis for the Supreme Court ruling that Arizona could not
require proof of citizenship for federal elections.
The high court said states have to defer to a 1993 federal law, which allows people to vote using a federal form that only requires prospective voters to declare under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.
The court said federal law barred states from demanding more information from potential voters than is required by the federal form.
However, the court provided a map for making the proof-of-citizenship requirement legal, the very path Kansas and Arizona want to follow.
The court said states can ask the Election Assistance Commission to include information on their version of the federal form that the states deem necessary.
In 2005, the commission deadlocked at 2-2 on Arizona’s request to include the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal form, and no action was taken on the state’s request.
The Supreme Court ruled that if the commission refused to act, Arizona could take the matter up in court. It even suggested that Arizona could argue that the commission was acting arbitrarily since it recently agreed to accept a similar request from Louisiana.
Kansas has unsuccessfully tried twice to get the commission to accept its proof-of-citizenship requirements. But the state has run into problems because all four seats on the commission are vacant.
The agency’s staff can make decisions about modifying the federal form, but staffers believed that the Kansas request was so broad that it would require action by the commission, which is stymied because it has no members.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday contends that the agency’s refusal to act on the states’ request violates their 10th Amendment rights under the Constitution.
They also contend that the agency is assuming authority it hasn’t been given by Congress.
“It’s pretty clear that Congress did not envision this agency as having the power to effectively stop a state from controlling its own qualifications for an election,” Kobach said. “This is yet another example of the federal government interfering in state affairs.”
As of Wednesday, there were 15,109 suspended registrations in Kansas, up from 11,101 reported in June, according to the secretary of state’s office.
About 3,100 of those were people who tried to register to vote in Johnson
County and another 950 who tried to register in Wyandotte County.
Doug Bonney, the ACLU’s legal director in Kansas City, said Kobach’s latest court battle will do nothing to help the people whose registrations were suspended. He said laws like the one in Kansas and two other states only keep people out of the voting booth.
“The problem was the law was a solution in search of a problem,” Bonney said. “There is no evidence of a single case in Kansas, or elsewhere quite frankly, of citizenship fraud in order to register to vote.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/21/4425413/kansas-and-arizona-sue-federal.html#storylink=cpy
Brownback’s judicial pick erodes confidence August 20
Caleb Stegall may well turn out to be a fine appellate judge for Kansas. He is a smart and energetic lawyer, and will go into his Senate confirmation hearing with solid recommendations from the state’s legal establishment.
But in nominating Stegall, his general counsel, to the state Court of Appeals, Gov. Sam Brownback advanced suspicions that judicial selection in Kansas has become based less on merit and more on political affiliations.
The conservative-dominated Legislature this year gave the governor a coveted prize — the ability to unilaterally select judges for the state appeals court, subject to a Senate confirmation vote. For decades, statewide judicial candidates have been
screened by a nonpartisan commission consisting of members selected by the Kansas Bar Association and by the governor. The commission selected three finalists and the governor made the final choice.
The separation of the courts from the more political branches of government instilled confidence in an independent judiciary. Brownback eroded that confidence Tuesday, insulting sitting judges in the process.
“If confirmed, Caleb will be one of the most, if not the most, qualified person to go on the Kansas Court of Appeals over the past decade,” he said, while announcing his nominee.
Stegall has solid experience as a clerk for a federal appeals judge, as a county prosecutor and as a lawyer for some high-profile clients. Those include former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and a team of missionaries which landed in trouble trying to transport Haitian children to the Dominican Republic after the 2010 earthquake.
But other members of the appellate bench bring a rich trove of legal scholarship and expertise and community service. And unlike Stegall, most of the sitting judges served as city or district judges before moving up.
Brownback disingenuously boasted, “From this day forward the people will have a greater role to play in (the judicial selection) process.” Not so.
Brownback’s process was notable for secrecy; he has refused to name the other applicants for the appeals court seat.
In a couple of weeks, the Kansas Senate will make a show of due diligence with a confirmation hearing for Stegall. It will be interesting, but not suspenseful. Short of a bombshell revelation, Kansas conservatives have their handpicked judge. Kansas is worse off for the process.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/20/4423823/brownbacks-judicial-pick-erodes.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas committee begins work on 'Hard 50' measure August 26BY JOHN MILBURNThe Associated Press
TOPEKA — The proposed legislation to fix Kansas' "Hard 50" prison sentence amounts to procedural change in the law, not a substantive altering, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Monday.
Schmidt, who drafted the proposed measure, spoke to members of a select legislative committee in Topeka. The Republican said the measure is necessary after a June 17 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Virginia case regarding how prison sentences are handed down in first-degree murder cases.
"This was not a situation where the state had reason to believe our law was procedurally defective but failed to act," Schmidt said, noting that the high court had previously held the Kansas law to be constitutional.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session of the Kansas Legislature to rewrite the law. The special session begins Sept. 3 and is expected to last three days.
The special session's goal is to fix the law so that convicted murders can be sentenced in the future to life in prison without the chance of parole for 50 years. The other is to make sure the sentence is available for pending cases.
Prosecutors and key legislators maintain that the courts will allow the state to apply changes in the law retroactively because the revisions will be procedural, not a shift in policy. The "Hard 50" has been in place since 1994, when Kansas reinstated capital punishment.
In Kansas, judges have determined whether aggravating factors in cases of premeditated, first-degree murder — such as whether a defendant tortured a victim or shot into a crowd — warrant the "Hard 50" instead of a sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility in 25 years.
But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Virginia case that juries, not judges, must consider whether the facts in a case should prompt mandatory minimum sentences.
The basic change going forward in Kansas would be having juries consider the evidence arguing for and against a "Hard 50" sentence, rather than judges.
The state already has such a process in place in death penalty cases.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/26/4437933/kansas-committee-begins-work-on.html#storylink=cpy
Democrats kindly recall Yoder skinny dip August 21
Remember Congressman Kevin Yoder’s skinny dip in the Sea of Galilee?
Remember that it took place during a fact-finding trip to the Middle East?
Sure, you do.
And Democrats on Wednesday went the extra mile to make doubly sure you do.
They issued a statement saying that they had delivered a pair of swim trunks to the congressman’s office “to remind him of the type of behavior he should be exhibiting as a Member of Congress.”
“Whether Congressman Yoder is skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee or obstructing solutions to fixing problems in Washington, he has shown he is continuing to exercise his infamously poor judgment which is out touch with the values of Kansas families,” said David Bergstein of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “When Kansas families get a full view at Congressman Yoder’s record and values, they don’t like what they see.”
OK. But is a Democrat going to stand up and challenge the congressman next
year? So far, none are on the horizon, Sea of Galilee or not.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/21/4425074/democrats-kindly-recall-yoder.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas City would be a good fit for the GOP convention in 2016 August 21
Kansas City deserves top contender status to host the 2016 Republican National Convention, offering a central location, superb attractions and history to buoy its bid.
Forty years is a long spell without a return GOP visit, and the city has plenty more to showcase now. The drama of four decades ago with the nominee unknown until the convention’s end should be an enticing story line for Republicans hoping to strongly launch their next candidate into the open race to replace President Barack Obama.
Kansas City’s venues worthy of the inevitable national and international spotlight that descends on host cities include Sprint Center, the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among many others.
Boosters of the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game promised Kansas City would benefit from that event and it did. The city spruced up and plenty of visitors liked what they saw. Just weeks ago the area benefited from more acclaim, this time gained by hosting the 2013 Major League Soccer All-Star Game.
As for the 2106 convention, much good work already has been done to get the
private sector to step up with tens of millions of dollars needed to help put on the event.
So how much money might the public have to invest?
Mayor Sly James says the lack of a new, 1,000-room downtown convention hotel “doesn’t help” the cause. But the mayor has made it clear that he wants to responsibly finance such a project and won’t embrace a high-risk bet.
Kansas City cannot afford new burdens to quickly construct a large hotel just to nab the GOP convention, without a lot of proof that it would be good for convention business in the long term.
James and others also are right to brush aside concerns that a Democratic-leaning city should not try to attract a Republican convention. Kansas City has a well-earned reputation to uphold for being an open, friendly, affordable and surprising place to visit. If chosen, Kansas City can deliver.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/21/4426238/kc-would-be-good-fit-for-gop-in.html#storylink=cpy