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Monthly Archives: June 2007
Bad day at high court for bong-using Christians
June 26, 20071:04 a.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court made it clear to the nation’s public schoolchildren Monday that their limited First Amendment protections don’t apply to self-expression that appears to be pro-drug. The justices ruled 5-4 against the Alaska kid suspended from high school in 2002 for unfurling a 14-foot-long banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” at a school-sanctioned event. We shouldn’t read too much into the decision, just as the principal probably shouldn’t have read so much into a sign the kid claimed he meant as a joke. (Then again, that kid, now 23, pleaded guilty to a drug charge in Texas in 2003.) But it’s hard not to wonder if this outcome would have been different if the justices’ average age was younger than 67.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Hard question for Greensburg
June 26, 20071:02 a.m.
“It is morning in Greensburg, population uncertain.” That’s how a sobering article in Sunday’s New York Times began, updating national readers on the town’s progress since the May 4 tornado. The article pondered how much of the storm’s damage will turn out to be permanent because Greensburg, like so many rural towns in Kansas, had experienced many years of decline before the tornado struck. Fifty-eight-year-old Jon Clark acknowledged that many residents won’t come back and said: “It’s a real thorny issue. Was this storm a mercy killing?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Too many tiny districts
June 26, 20071:01 a.m.
Kansas has 34 school districts with enrollments of fewer than 200 students — 34 reasons state lawmakers and policymakers should not shy away from the issue of school consolidation. But even voluntary mergers can be difficult. After hearing the pros and cons of a proposed merger by the Eastern Heights and West Smith County school districts in north-central Kansas earlier this month, the State Board of Education tabled the districts’ request that local voters go to the polls on a consolidation, effectively canceling an election planned for today.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
City Council should guard against future deadlocks
June 26, 20071:00 a.m.
When Lavonta Williams takes her oath this morning and joins the Wichita City Council, representing District 1, the council membership will be complete for the first time since former District 5 council member Bob Martz died in January. It will be good to see the community fully represented again. But council members should not forget the pain involved in picking a successor for Mayor Carl Brewer as District 1 member, with its maddening 20 tie votes one week and magical unanimity the next. Council members should adopt a strategy for the future to deal with tie votes. And, as council member Jim Skelton has stressed, there remains a need to review and update council policies more broadly, before the next procedural crisis strikes.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Is conservative majority a myth?
June 25, 200712:31 p.m.
Hopefully, Leonard Pitts won’t receive any death threats for his column in today’s Eagle (see blog item below). It raises an issue similar to that of the blog itemRandy did last week on how liberals are calling themselves "progressives" because it has less baggage. Pitts cites a report released this month, aptly called "The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America Is a Myth," that argues that opinion polls show that most Americans lean liberal. For example, 62 percent oppose overturning Roe, 61 percent support stem cell research and 60 percent want more gun control. "By what trick, con job or bamboozlement," Pitts wondered, "does a nation that supports gun control, abortion rights and stem cell research believe itself to be conservative?"
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
How have rains affected water supplies?
June 25, 200712:27 p.m.
An Eagle article on the recent rains points to the bonanza for municipalities such as Wichita that depend for a share of their water on the Equus Beds, where water levels have risen 5 feet since January. That translates to 21 billion gallons of water, or about a year’s supply, according to Wichita water director David Warren.
But WE Blogger Jerry Winkelman thinks that the article "gives the false impression that all aquifers in Kansas are being recharged. Rains, even those we have had this summer, do not recharge or raise the level of the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies most of western Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Cartoon caption writers have fun on the farm
June 25, 20078:39 a.m.
I honestly hadn’t thought of the "when pigs fly" angle when I drew this caption contest toon, but several of you out there did. I like it when we’re surprised like that by readers’ creativity. The winning entry came from Jim Holler of Bentley. Jim’s won several times and might be our champion multiple winner by now. Here are a couple of the variations on the winged pig theme: From Donald Ramsey of Colwich came the caption, "We’ll fly to D. C. for the inauguration, Senator." Karen Wallace of Wichita sent "His chances? I’ll let you know when I feel wings sprouting." Going in a different direction was Tom McElroy, who submitted "I think they should put up a wall and secure the border." Carmen Churchman of Wichita sent in "He is so far behind, he thinks he’s leading the pack!" Then there was George Hanson’s caption: "You know, we lie in this stuff a while and we get brown backs too." From Casey Jones came "Even though he used to be a conscientious Senator from Kansas who morphed into a presidential candidate that ignores his Senatorial duties, I heard he still doesn’t believe in evolution." Belle Plaine’s Richard Julius was sort of on the same wavelength: ‘Sam already has a job he ignores!" Lastly, good old Bruce Cole took off another way entirely with "This guy needs less coffee. He’s waving at farm animals!"
Posted by Richard Crowson
If Sebelius challenged Roberts
June 25, 20071:04 a.m.
There is still no good explanation of why Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., had President Bush help him raise $650,000 this month for Roberts’ unopposed 2008 re-election bid. While we wait to see whether some Kansas Democrat is willing and able to credibly challenge Roberts, consider this: In this month’s SurveyUSA poll of 600 Kansans, Roberts’ approval rate was 51 percent, compared with 65 percent for Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. (Sen. Sam Brownback’s approval rate was 50 percent.)
Posted by Rhonda Holman
All of New York vs. Tiahrt?
June 25, 20071:00 a.m.
In an editorial headlined “Why Protect Shady Gun Dealers?” the New York Times recently weighed in on the side of Mayor Michael Bloomberg against the “Tiahrt amendment,” the 2003 provision supported by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, that has restricted release of gun-trace data: “The Tiahrt amendment hinders the ability of the police and localities to see how guns move through their communities, and to act against the relatively small handful of gun dealers responsible for selling a majority of the guns used in crime.”
The editorial concluded: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will oppose the Tiahrt amendment. Lawmakers in favor of preserving the absurd restrictions have a duty to explain why they are more interested in protecting rogue gun dealers than in protecting the public.”
And in a June 16 New York Times commentary, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, “Congress can help save lives by killing this awful law.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Death threats over a column?
June 25, 20071:00 a.m.
Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts takes a lot of flak from Eagle readers who find his work too focused on race. To be sure, his columns invite debate. But nothing justifies the death threats he’s reportedly received on a national level since a column, published in The Eagle June 4, challenged white supremacists’ assertions that two white murders in Knoxville, Tenn., reflect a surge in black-on-white violence. When the editor of the white supremacist Web site that posted Pitts’ personal information was contacted by the Miami Herald, he said, “We have no intention of removing Mr. Pitts’ personal information. Frankly, if some loony took the info and killed him, I wouldn’t shed a tear. That also goes for your whole newsroom.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
At least Roberts did his homework on NIE
June 24, 20071:04 a.m.
People may not like how Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., handled the issue of Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction during his time on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but at least Roberts was among the few senators who read the full 92-page National Intelligence Estimate before voting to go to war. “I thought he had WMD based on the NIE report of 2002,” Roberts recently told the Hill newspaper. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said during a recent presidential debate that he didn’t recall reading the full NIE report, but believed he understood the threat from hearings, briefings and the like.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Ground broken at arena site, but no groundbreaking yet
June 24, 20071:03 a.m.
Though dirt now is being moved at the downtown arena site, a “groundbreaking” will come later. Moving day is Monday for Episcopal Social Services, which has purchased the former Breakthrough Club at 1005 E. Second St. And “we will be starting demolition on properties in mid-July,” Sedgwick County spokeswoman Kristi Zukovich told The Eagle editorial board Thursday. The project is on schedule, she said. Next, the arena citizen design review team and arena steering team will meet Tuesday, and the citizens involved will be recognized at Wednesday’s Sedgwick County Commission meeting.
True, the arena project is not moving fast enough for some — and too fast for those still fighting to kill it — but what matters is that it’s now making visible progress.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Williams wants ATF gun data, too
June 24, 20071:01 a.m.
Add Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams to the list of national law enforcement officials who say they’d like greater access to crime gun data in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ gun trace database — information the ATF is restricting under its interpretation of the Tiahrt amendment.
In an interview with The Eagle editorial board, the chief said he shared concerns that release of sensitive gun trace data, if handled improperly, could inadvertently reveal the identity of undercover cops.
But Williams also noted the importance of gun trace data in crime fighting — gangs, for instance, often use stolen guns — and said having the raw aggregate gun data now locked up “would be helpful” to police in analyzing regional patterns of gun trafficking.
As long as the safety of cops is ensured, Williams said, he would like access to this crime-fighting tool.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Candidates by day, comedy fodder by night
June 24, 20071:00 a.m.
“Republican presidential candidates Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo both promise that if they are elected president, they will pardon ‘Scooter’ Libby. . . . So sorry, Scooter, you are going to jail.” — Conan O’Brien
Posted by Rhonda Holman
No fan of Tiahrt needle ban
June 23, 20071:03 a.m.
Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman doesn’t think much of Rep. Todd Tiahrt’s thinking about needle exchanges, specifically the Goddard Republican’s legislation that has barred the District of Columbia from using its own money to fight AIDS by passing out syringes to drug addicts. “You can find studies that fail to vindicate needle distribution, just as you can find Sundays when the Detroit Lions win. But they are rare and unrepresentative,” Chapman wrote.
And “when I contacted Tiahrt’s office, an aide said he thinks that regardless of what the studies show, ‘It is a horrible message to send children that it must be OK to do drugs.’ But that’s like saying that when the government pays for lung cancer treatment, it encourages kids to smoke. The existing policy sends a worse message: If drug users can’t conquer their addiction, they deserve to die — and so do their innocent spouses and children.” The new Congress likely will repeal Tiahrt’s ban.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
More bad news for Scooter
June 23, 20071:01 a.m.
“Scooter” Libby and his backers may still think his sentence was unreasonable, but the vice president’s former chief of staff is unlikely to get any help from the high court, based on its ruling Thursday. The Supreme Court said that a sentence is considered reasonable if it falls within the federal sentencing guidelines — which Libby’s did. Interestingly, the case for the court was nearly identical to Libby’s. Victor Rita was sentenced to 33 months for perjury and making false statements; Libby got 30 months.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Losing hearts and minds in Afghanistan
June 22, 20071:13 p.m.
Some 25 Afghan civilians were killed Thursday in a NATO airstrike against Taliban forces, the latest in a string of civilian deaths that is seriously undermining Afghan support for the U.S.-led mission there.
As this commentary notes, such incidents are taking their toll. Since March, more than 135 Afghans have been killed and many others wounded or left homeless by Western combat operations, mainly under U.S. command.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the civilian deaths "difficult for us to accept or understand." Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey has advocated a goal of "zero innocent civilian casualties" in Afghanistan, even if that means letting some Taliban fighters escape when they hide among the civilian population.
At present, we’re handing the Taliban a propaganda and recruiting windfall.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Why no Blackbear at Keeper site?
June 22, 20071:09 p.m.
Give city planners credit for pulling together the magnificent new Keeper of the Plains exhibit. But a reader raised a good question in a recent letter to the editor: Why is there no sign or plaque recognizing the statue’s creator, artist Blackbear Bosin?
It turns out the original plaque with Bosin information at the base of the Keeper was obscured when the statue was raised onto its new rock perch.
As my column today reports, city officials already realized their mistake in not having a new plaque. "A new one is in the works," lead project architect Kurt Skinner told me. One that will tell Bosin’s story and the Keeper’s.
Honoring Bosin and his vision will make the new Keeper site complete.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
More rounds ahead in stem cell standoff
June 22, 20071:04 a.m.
Even before Congress changed hands, a gap existed between it and President Bush on federal funding for new embryonic stem-cell research. His second veto of a bill to bolster such research brought talk of an override attempt or yet another legislative do-over. Bush’s executive order urging on those who do “ethically responsible” research won’t satisfy the many who see embryonic stem cells as the pluripotent key to curing major illnesses. Both sides are just working the process as they can. But does the repeatedly stated will of the legislative branch mean nothing to Bush?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
