Water is the lifeblood of the Kansas economy — and it’s by no means secure. This summer, Kansas streams had “less volume of water than at any time since records have been kept,” including the Dust Bowl years, said Steve Adams, natural resource coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
Yes, the recent rains have helped, but the long-term picture is the same: Kansas continues to face drought conditions and must plan for its water resources with both conservation and farsighted development of resources, as our two-part editorial, Sunday and Monday, argued.
“Water is the big issue coming down the pike,” says Rex Buchanan, associate director of the Kansas Geological Survey. And it has “huge implications for this state that we’re not facing right now.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
On what NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert aptly called “the story that will not go away,” conservative pundit Robert Novak made a bit of news Sunday. He wouldn’t take Russert’s bait — a Newsweek story suggesting that Novak’s primary source on the Valerie Plame leak was then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage — telling Russert, “I do not identify my sources on any subject if they’re on a confidential basis until they identify themselves.” But Novak made a new plea: “I believe that the time has way passed for my source to identify himself.” It would be great to get this mystery solved.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Who among us has not run up a $700 hotel bill in the mistaken assumption that we were browsing, not buying, the entire selection of tawdry movies on the in-room porn channel?
You haven’t? Neither have I, of course. And a coalition of conservative groups wants to make sure we’re spared that misfortune in the future. The group took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month, urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws.
What do you think? Menace to America, or First Amendment battleground? We might not be having this discussion, except the hotel chains say it’s a pretty good revenue stream.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Hazleton, Pa., has become the unlikely ground zero for the illegal immigration issue with the passage of an ordinance last month making landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants subject to a $1,000-per-day fine and revoking for five years the business license of an employer who hires illegals. As Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta, puts it, “I will get rid of the illegal people. It’s this simple: They must leave.” In the process, though, he has drawn litigation from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. The tough approach will appeal to many Americans, but illegal immigration is a federal problem that calls for a federal response.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
During last week’s press conference, President Bush said, “I may be the only person, the only presidential candidate who never carried the state in which he was born” — Connecticut, which Bush lost twice, meaning he’s not well-positioned to campaign there for Joe Lieberman. But Bush is part of a fraternity of candidates who also failed to carry the states of their birth, said the New York Times, most notably Bush’s father (Massachusetts, also twice). The list includes John Kerry (born in Colorado), George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Alfred E. Smith and presidents James Polk (in photo) and Abraham Lincoln.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sounding a presidential note, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., recently wrote a commentary for CNN effectively calling Iran’s leaders a pack of liars for claiming they want to enrich uranium only to pursue nuclear energy when they really “believe that with nuclear weapons the international community will not dare object to any threat they might make against their neighbors, let alone the regime’s repression of its own people.” Brownback underscored the importance of supporting democracy efforts within Iran and warned Iran’s leaders to “treat your people justly and behave responsibly in your relations with your neighbors and the rest of the world.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
