This is your chance, Kansas, to make a difference in this historic presidential election. Get involved in the Democratic and Republican party caucuses on Tuesday and Saturday, respectively.
On the Democratic side, each Kansas Senate district will have a caucus meeting site — six in Sedgwick County. A list of Democratic caucus locations can be found on the Kansas Democratic Party Web site.
Here’s how the Democratic caucus works: The doors open at the sites at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and you must be in line by 7 p.m. to be counted. You don’t have to be preregistered as a Democrat; you can register at the caucus site. Once in, the caucus leader will tell voters where to go to support a particular candidate. It should be over by 8:30 or 9 p.m.
The Republican caucuses will get under way at 10 a.m. Saturday. In Sedgwick County, everyone will caucus at Century II Exhibition Hall (check-in begins at 9 a.m.). In order to participate, you must have registered as a Republican by Jan. 25 and have a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID. Unlike the Democratic caucus, the GOP voting will be secret.
This is one of the most exciting, wide-open presidential elections in decades. Don’t miss this rare chance to help chart this nation’s future.
The Kansas Senate, unlike the House, has not had a tradition of beginning each day with the Pledge of Allegiance along with a prayer. But the pledge was added to the Senate’s morning routine as of Tuesday. “Such a simple act of patriotism is required of our Kansas youth,†said state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler. “We should expect the same of our elected officials.â€
In turn, Kansans ought to expect their lawmakers to epitomize the principles delineated in the pledge.
Speaking of how the Kansas Senate started its Tuesday, chaplain Fred Hollomon’s Kansas Day prayer bears repeating:
“One hundred and forty-seven years ago today, Kansas moved from territory to statehood. From the very beginning Kansas wore a label: If anything could be done, Kansas folks were able. We have been described as being both hit and miss, ‘from the heights of ecstasy, to the black abyss.’ We’ve been called ‘anomaly,’ hard to understand. ‘Peculiar, but interesting,’ a ‘problematic’ land. We once were ‘Bleeding Kansas,’ fighting to be free. Finally winning the battle, and statehood came to be. Yes, you saw it all, O God, but you play a greater role: Through your many ministers you can save Kansas’ soul!â€
Wichitans hear mostly the Boeing side of the battle over the Air Force tanker contract — that Boeing is the obvious choice over the Northrop Grumman and EADS (Airbus) consortium because it would mean more U.S. jobs. But in advance of the Air Force’s expected Feb. 13 decision, the British magazine the Economist offers some pro-EADS reasoning. It quotes a Northrop executive as calling Boeing’s KC-767 the “Frankentanker†because of its blended design, and notes that three air commanders in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo operations favor Northrop’s larger KC-30 tankers because of their flexibility and fuel capacity. “Amid the fog of claim and counter-claim, there is little doubt that the KC-30 is the more capable aircraft,†the Economist said.
We disagree — and trust the Air Force will, too.
Janet Valente Pape, executive director of Catholic Charities, told The Eagle editorial board Wednesday that she thinks the plan released by the city-county Taskforce to End Chronic Homelessness is a “big step forward.â€
But she pointed to what she considers two missing pieces:
A community housing trust fund is needed, she said, to ensure sustainable operating dollars for the “housing first†part of the plan, which places the chronically homeless in their own apartment units.
And the one-stop center “really needs to be 24 hours,†she said, and it needs some beds. Otherwise, she believes, some homeless will continue to fall through the cracks.
The plan “just doesn’t go far enough,†she said, echoing the view of some other homeless providers.
This is your chance, Kansas, to make a difference in this historic presidential election. Get involved in the Democratic and Republican party caucuses on Tuesday and Saturday, respectively.
