Daily Archives: April 6, 2009

Iowa to be gay marriage mecca?

April 6, 200912:23 p.m.

Iowa Gay Marriage RallyKansans who warned that gay marriage could be coming to the state via the courts can now point to nearby Iowa as proof of the possibility. Iowa lacks a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which Kansas passed in 2005. And in a unanimous decision upholding a lower-court ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court made it legal Friday for same-sex couples to wed, putting Iowa in the company of Massachusetts and Connecticut. As social conservatives plan countermeasures, gay couples are planning weddings to begin as soon as April 24. If the decision holds, Iowa could become a magnet for marrying couples and see $160 million in economic benefit over the next three years, according to a study by the University of California at Los Angeles. The future of this contentious issue seems reliant on demographics, though, given that legalizing gay marriage is supported by 41 percent of Americans under 45 and only 18 percent of Americans over 65.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Gay marriage | Comments (341)

Former Columbia/HCA executive may be hurting own cause

April 6, 20096:02 a.m.

scottrRichard L. Scott — former CEO of Columbia/HCA, the owner of Wesley Medical Center in Wichita — has emerged as the most visible opponent to reforming health care. Scott is funding a group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights and appearing in commercials warning against socialize medicine. But supporters of health care reform are pleased that Scott is a spokesman, given that he was ousted from Columbia/HCA amid the nation’s biggest health care fraud scandal. The company had to pay $1.7 billion to settle charges that included overbilling state and federal health programs. “He’s a great symbol from our point of view,” Richard J. Kirsch of Health Care for America Now told the New York Times. “We cannot have a better first person to attack health care reform than someone who ran a company that ripped off the government of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Health and safety | Comments (59)

Open thread 4/6

April 6, 20096:01 a.m.

screamthe16

By The Editors | Filed under Open thread | Comments (392)

Tiahrt pleased with accounting change

April 6, 20096:00 a.m.

Bank stocks jumped last week after the Financial Accounting Standards Board eased its “mark-to-market” requirement that securities be valued at fair-market value. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, was one of many lawmakers lobbying for the accounting change. “The current rules have exacerbated the banking and financial crisis and should have been corrected a long time ago,” Tiahrt said. “Billions of dollars have been artificially written down by banks using these standards, and that has caused lending to dry up and capital investments to slow down all across the country.” But some critics complain that the change could make it easier for banks to hide their financial problems.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Economy, Kansas delegation | Comments (9)