The No Casinos in Sedgwick County group, led by attorney Mark Kahrs, waged a smart, well-organized, effective campaignthat was a model of community grassroots organizing. It’s also interesting to note that the gaming measures weren’t defeated by social conservatives alone. The broad "no" coalition included liberal churches, too, as well as secular business interests and average citizens.
Moreover, the prevailing wisdom was that a large turnout would help the "yes" vote, but it didn’t happen. That seems to indicate that a lot of Wichitans who initially leaned toward a "yes" vote (70 percent of voters, according to an April poll) were swayed to change their position by the "no" campaign.
The "yes" campaign, by contrast, seemed to be going through the motions. No one was out front, not even Phil Ruffin, who spent more than $800,000 on this lackluster campaign. You could say he didn’t get his money’s worth.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It’s interesting that for all the discussed economic impacts of the gaming vote, pro and con, not much was said about the possibility of Phil Ruffin closing Wichita Greyhound Park so quickly — within 90 days, he announced after the vote tally.
Shuttering the track will cost some 250 jobs, he said. And it will scuttle the possibility of more jobs with an expanded "racino."
Hypotheticals aside, this is one immediate and very real economic impact from the gaming "no" vote. Another is the loss of some $1 million a year that the greyhound park foundation contributes to local nonprofits and charities.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Monday’s truck bombing in Tal Afar, which killed at least 28 people, furthered the alarming trend in Iraq of suicide attacks. Newsweek reports that while there were fewer than 300 suicide bombings in the first three years of the war, the year that ended June 30 saw at least 540. More than 4,000 Iraqis have died along with suicide bombers since January, according to the U.S. military. It’s believed that more than half the bombers are Saudis, fueling concerns about the Bush plan to sell arms worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
Two bombings of Iraqis celebrating their national soccer team’s success struck one 19-year-old eyewitness as especially cruel and wasteful. "I could not believe that those who were dancing in the streets a few minutes before were now dead," Ahmad Nabeel told Newsweek. "This was jihad?"
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“The level of anger with the president has sidetracked Congress,” Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, told The Eagle editorial board recently. He said that the left has so pressed Democratic members of Congress that they’re having trouble making progress. “We’re not focused on getting good policy done,” he said.
Tiahrt disagreed that the GOP failed to oversee the Bush administration when it was in charge of Congress. “A lot of the things were done out of the public eye to try to avoid bad press, but there was oversight,” he said.
But Tiahrt agrees with some concerns by Democrats about the power and privileges claimed by the executive branch, such as President Bush’s use of signing statements to negate legislation. “There is some truth to that,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s admirable that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wants an ongoing multiyear funding plan for K-12 public education. “It would be a big improvement if we can move beyond the year-by-year approach of the past that left teachers, parents and administrators in the dark until the last minute,” she told the Lawrence Journal-World.
If school districts knew how much state funding they were likely to receive beyond the next school year, it would certainly help them plan better, as they have been able to do as part of three-yearl funding deal to end the school-finance lawsuit. But Sebelius and lawmakers also need to be careful about creating funding expectations that, due to an unexpected economic downturn, the state may not be able to meet — as former Gov. Bill Graves learned the hard way when he had to cut a promised two-year increase in education funding.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Good for the Wichita City Council and the owners of electronic billboards for working together and agreeing to dim the signs at night. The ordinance, which the Council unanimously approved Tuesday, is a good balance between the rights of businesses and those of motorists and neighbors concerned about distracting lights.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
