Setting aside serious concerns about the misapplication of the death penalty, a number of recent studies have concluded that executions save lives — though these conclusions are being hotly debated. The New York Times reports that the “studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise.†The studies estimate that executing one inmate can prevent three to 18 murders.
But critics contend the studies’ methodology is flawed and that there aren’t enough executions and other data to create a correlation with crime trends. They contend that crime could also decrease if we took the amount of money spent on capital cases and executions and put it into crime prevention.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Feeding the less fortunate is important, necessary work. But we also should focus on the root problems. “I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead,†wrote Mark Winne, former director of Connecticut’s Hartford Food System, in a Washington Post 
Opponents of Roe v. Wade usually argue that the Constitution’s privacy rights don’t include abortion, and that regulating abortion is a state responsibility. But Mike Huckabee doesn’t want abortion returned to the states. “If morality is the point here, and if it’s right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can’t have 50 different versions of what’s right and what’s wrong,†he 
Former Bush administration “architect†Karl Rove, debuting as a Newsweek columnist, conjures up a way for the GOP to 
When it comes to the issue of the wine joke gone bad, the office of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius understands that less is more. Still, spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran was right to bring a good piece of information to our attention regarding Tuesday’s pro-wine 
Many Wichitans smartly put up their outdoor Christmas lights and decorations while the weather was warm. But would they mind waiting until after we celebrate Thanksgiving before turning the lights on? Especially when Thanksgiving is so early this year. It’s bad enough that some retailers put out Christmas items before Halloween, and that a Wichita radio station has already started playing Christmas carols.Follow us
