There weren’t many big surprises in Tuesday’s primaries, but a few of the results were interesting. In the 2nd Congressional District, GOP moderate and state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins appears to have narrowly prevailed against social conservative and former Rep. Jim Ryun, though a vote-counting goof could change the outcome. And in the Johnson County district attorney race, Phill Kline got clobbered by Steve Howe, a former assistant district attorney Kline had dismissed after Kline was appointed to the job. Ouch. Locally, Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, soundly defeated incumbent Tom Winters in the Sedgwick County Commission race.
Paris Hilton may be famous for having no talent or brains, but she had a good time responding via video to the John McCain campaign ad that likened Barack Obama’s celebrity to hers. After a voiceover calling McCain “the oldest celebrity in the world, like super-old, old enough to remember when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket,” Hilton thanks “that wrinkly, white-haired guy” for the endorsement, unveils her surprisingly solid energy policy and says she wants “America to know that I’m, like, totally ready to lead.”
The McCain campaign is mocking Barack Obama’s suggestion that Americans save gas by making sure their auto tires are properly inflated and engines tuned up. The campaign has even started to hand out tire gauges labeled “Obama’s energy plan.”
The gibe reveals less about Obama than it does about John McCain and Republicans’ apparent contempt for conservation measures. Experts recommend conservation as a significant and easy way to save gasoline and money. The Energy Department has been advising Americans to properly inflate car tires for years. Never mind?
It’s odd: Why would a party that touts personal responsibility and thrift ridicule a policy that incorporates those values?
President Bush can’t point to a lot of signature successes on the domestic front, but fighting homelessness might be one of them.
A new survey of the chronically homeless indicated that between 2005 and 2007, the numbers of those living in shelters and on the streets dropped about 30 percent, from 176,000 to 124,000, according to Bush administration housing officials.
If so, that’s a remarkable accomplishment, and it’s largely because of the administration’s embrace of the “housing first” model that’s been used successfully in many American cities (and is at the heart of Wichita’s new homelessness strategy).
In the past four years, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has backed the development of more than 40,000 new units of housing with support services for the homeless — the idea being to get the homeless off the street and get them the help they need (such as mental health and alcohol treatment) to become self-sufficient again.
It appears to be working.
It was surprising that the Wichita City Council voted Tuesday to terminate the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame’s lease from its city-owned building. Thirty days’ notice doesn’t give the museum much time to make other plans. Still, there are only so many museums and attractions that the city can help keep afloat, and the museum hasn’t done a good job making the case that the state needs to fund this state agency.
So what might this mean for the museum? Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson recommended that the sports museum fold into the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. “Granted, it wouldn’t get as much space there without some major renovation or reorganization,” he wrote. “But at a time when the state is cutting spending to deal with a lousy economy and dwindling tax revenue, can we afford to keep propping up a free-standing sports hall that hasn’t shown much potential for drawing enough visitors to pay for itself?”
There weren’t many big surprises in Tuesday’s primaries, but a few of the results were interesting. In the 2nd Congressional District, GOP moderate and state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins appears to have narrowly prevailed against social conservative and former Rep. Jim Ryun, though a vote-counting goof could change the outcome. And in the Johnson County district attorney race, Phill Kline got clobbered by Steve Howe, a former assistant district attorney Kline had dismissed after Kline was appointed to the job. Ouch. Locally, Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, soundly defeated incumbent Tom Winters in the Sedgwick County Commission race.
