WE Blog

It’s to be expected when former leaders criticize current leaders. Still, it is striking that former House speakers Newt Gingrich and Thomas Foley are so united about how terrible Congress is doing. Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event, the Republican and Democrat complained, according to The Washington Post, about “a collapse of committee deliberations, the demise of oversight of the executive branch, the loss of the ‘regular order’ of rules for debate and legislation, a runaway spending process, and a shrinking legislative calendar.” Their partial solutions, the Post reported, included: “restore committee power to write laws, ban fundraising in Washington, abolish lawmakers’ political action committees, end spending ‘earmarks’ and enforce the rules that guide the legislative process.” But Gingrich said the real solution is to clean house. “The correct answer,” he said, “is for the American people to just start firing people.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Should Kansas close another state hospital for the developmentally disabled? Jane Rhys, executive director at the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, thinks so. “For every person in the hospitals now, there is someone who is just as fragile or whose behaviors are just as difficult, living in a community setting,” she told the Lawrence Journal-World. “They don’t have to be in an institution. They should be and they deserve to be living in the community.” The state closed the hospital in Winfield in 1998, and Rhys noted that the state’s two remaining hospitals in Parsons and Topeka cost on average more than $130,000 per resident annually. In comparison, the average cost for a person in a community setting is $25,000, Rhys said, though current hospital residents would likely cost more.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

MAYANS ENDS EFFORT TO REVIVE WSU FOOTBALL; But Stuns Council by Announcing Campaign to Reopen Roller Coaster at Joyland
CITY UNVEILS ROBOCOP FOR OLD TOWN; Last-ditch Effort to Clean Up Nightclub Area
SPRINGDALE, ARK., RESIDENTS VOTE TO MOVE TO WICHITA; Cite Better Quality of Life, More Entertainment Options
JOHN D’ANGELO ASKED TO TAKE OVER CITY COUNCIL; Will Create Stabilization Plan for Dysfunctional City Body
Posted by Randy Scholfield