Might Wichitans still get a chance to play at Wild West World? It’s encouraging that a California theme park company this week expressed interest in purchasing the amusement park for $12 million; one company official called the park a “tremendous opportunity.” If the deal goes through, the park could be open for the 2008 season. That would be a win not just for Park City but for the entire county.
Wichita still needs a major amusement park. Let’s hope a deal goes through that gives this attraction a chance to succeed.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
President Bush and the White House made a lot of promises to help stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan but often didn’t deliver on them as their focus shifted to Iraq. There were also strategic mistakes in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported, such as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld failing “to anticipate the need for more forces after the old government was gone,” just as he did in Iraq. The result now: “Like Osama bin Laden and his deputies, the Taliban had found refuge in Pakistan and regrouped as the American focus wavered,” the Times reported. “Taliban fighters seeped back over the border, driving up the suicide attacks and roadside bombings by as much as 25 percent this spring, and forcing NATO and American troops into battles to retake previously liberated villages in southern Afghanistan.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In today’s Reader Views, Mary Caruso of Goddard (a WE Blog regular) draws an important connection between Wichita’s homeless problem and the closing of most of the state’s hospitals for severely mentally ill patients. “The theory that all people with severe mental illness can make it with community support services has been proved ineffective,” she wrote. “The answer is not building a 24-hour homeless shelter, but actually giving the mentally ill a place to live and the help they need.”
Turning back the clock in Topeka on community mental health care would be politically difficult, and surely an overreaction. But legislators should be looking at the intersection of these issues — and not viewing homelessness as a local problem.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As Congress considers a 61-cent hike in the federal tobacco tax, a USA Today analysis has found strong and direct correlation between higher cigarette taxes and people quitting smoking.
In New Jersey, for instance, smoking dropped by 35 percent after the state raised its tobacco tax by 80 cents to $2.40.
In Connecticut, cigarette consumption fell 37 percent after the tax was raised by $1 a pack.
Raising the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents to $1 a pack could deliver the biggest one-time drop in national smoking rates ever, according to health experts.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius earlier this year said she might reintroduce a state tobacco tax hike in the next legislative session.The public health benefits are hard to ignore.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Interesting how the no-shows at the weekend’s GOP straw poll in hawk-eyed Iowa happened to be the guys who’d been divorced: Rudy Giuliani (twice), John McCain and Fred Thompson. “The rest have been fighting over who opposes abortion the most,” noted New York Times columnist Gail Collins on Saturday, before Mitt Romney’s 32 percent triumph in the popularity contest.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
After years of confusion about who’s in charge of the operations — and the bills — at Old Cowtown Museum, it’s good that the city of Wichita this week formally assumed lead control of the attraction.
Among other things, that means the city acknowledges its fiscal responsibility to maintain the living history museum’s buildings and grounds, which it owns. The city will spend up to $3 million for needed repairs and code upgrades at the site. As Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey said, “This relieves the board of so much pressure and lets them get back to doing the programming, education and taking care of artifacts.”
City officials also deserve credit for helping negotiate exciting new draws for the attraction, most notably the Prairie Wranglers. These changes point Cowtown in a positive direction.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Wichita City Council did the responsible thing Tuesday in approving video cameras for some police cars.
Anyone who has watched one of those “most-shocking” police video shows knows how effective video can be in establishing facts in traffic incidents and in resolving “he said, she said” controversies.
Police Chief Norman Williams has not made cameras a priority. But as The Eagle editorial board has argued, they can be an effective, high-profile way for police to address charges of racial profiling and boost accountability and public trust — and cameras protect officers from frivolous complaints and charges.
This is a modest start — only eight traffic cruisers are involved — but it’s a good first step for Wichita in adopting this law enforcement best practice.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
