Is it just me or is there more than a passing resemblance between actor Fred Thompson and a certain cheeriness-challenged dwarf? Come clean, Mr. Thompson. Did you or did you not, early in your career, once take an acting role you are less than proud of today?
Posted by Richard Crowson
Include the National Urban League in the groups opposing the immigration reform bill. The Urban League’s primary objection is the temporary worker provision, which it argues needs to be more narrowly tailored and include a requirement that American workers be given first right to jobs. National Urban League president and CEO Marc H. Morial said in a statement: “There is a dire need for the nation to invest heavily in efforts to recruit, train, prepare and place American workers for available jobs prior to allowing businesses to seek temporary worker visas for the same jobs.”
Meanwhile, the White House issued a report Tuesday from its Council of Economic Advisers saying that “immigration has a positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers.” It argued that immigrants enhance the productivity of native-born workers and increase their earnings an estimated $37 billion a year, the New York Times reported. However, other studies have concluded that immigrants reduce earnings of native-born workers, particularly low-skilled workers.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Gangs are again becoming a significant problem in Wichita, our editorial today reported. Of 22 homicides in Wichita this year as of Wednesday, 15 were gang-related. Wichita police today are launching a campaign to educate the city’s bar owners about how to spot and prevent gang activity.
The gang scene is changing, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams (in photo) told The Eagle editorial board. It’s less dominated by drugs than in the 1990s. And those committing violent crimes are younger — 16, 17, 18 years of age. “We have to make a difference in the elementary schools,” Williams said. Parents have to be aware and involved, because gangs are recruiting kids at an earlier age.
It’s a community challenge.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
We’re starting to run a little low on letters to the editor as we head toward the weekend. If you have a idea for a letter — or if you want to adapt something that you’ve posted here — I encourage you to submit it. Lengths are about 200 words, and we’ll need your real name and home address and phone number (verification purposes only). You can e-mail it to letters@wichitaeagle.com.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Did you catch the interesting PBS "Frontline" program this week on the war strategy in Iraq? It had interviews with many of the key U.S. military strategists and generals, who shared their struggles and frustrations in trying to adapt to the changing realities in Iraq.
One irony that was pointed out was that Democrats cheered when former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got the boot, but that his view of what should happen in Iraq — that we needed to turn over responsibility to Iraqis as quickly as possible so we could leave — was the closest to what many Democrats think. But the program made clear that Rumsfeld’s “light footprint” strategy led to the problems that the current “clear, hold and build” strategy of the surge is trying to overcome.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in a letter responding to the June 20 Eagle editorial on the Tiahrt amendment, continues to peddle the fiction that critics of his measure are all part of a vast left-wing East Coast and media conspiracy. It’s an easy way to avoid real argument and evidence.
Tiahrt also claims to be “erring on the side of officer safety.” But it’s a false choice. Many law enforcement officials contend that the laws in place prior to his amendment already protected cops while meeting the demonstrated need of local police for aggregate gun trace data. That’s the evidence that critics have asked Tiahrt to produce: How were old restrictions inadequate?
Tiahrt argues that local jurisdictions already have the ability to share information. True. But what they have to share is limited, of course, because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Tiahrt restrictions, is denying them some of the most valuable pieces of gun crime information.
The ATF’s own 2002 annual report on gun trace data (which has been discontinued since the Tiahrt amendment passed) extolled the benefits of releasing the information to local law enforcement, saying that “with information about patterns and trends, more violent criminals can be arrested more efficiently, more focused regulatory enforcement can be undertaken, and more gun crime and violence can be prevented.”
That’s precisely the argument of more than 220 cities and 30 national and state police organizations that have asked that the restrictions be changed or removed.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
After Wichita lost the 2011 United States Bowling Congress tournament last month, city officials said they hoped to have a conference call with bowling officials some time after June 5. Well, it’s now June 21, and there still hasn’t been a call.
City spokesman Van Williams said that the city and Bowling Congress have been e-mailing to try to arrange a time for the call, but it has been delayed because of scheduling conflicts with the bowlers. He expects the call to occur in the next week or two. “It doesn’t seem like they are blowing us off,” Williams said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
