Though Congress is divided on his job performance, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been named Time’s person of the year. The magazine explained: “His creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression, and he still wields unrivaled power over our money, our jobs, our savings and our national future. The decisions he has made, and those he has yet to make, will shape the path of our prosperity, the direction of our politics and our relationship to the world.” The runners-up were Gen. Stanley McChrystal, “the Chinese Worker,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
Kansas isn’t the only state facing large budget shortfalls. Thirty-five states and Puerto Rico project a cumulative budget gap of $55.5 billion next fiscal year, according to a new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures. And the shortfalls are expected to continue the year after that. “The longest economic downturn in decades appears to be well-entrenched and is manifesting itself in multiyear budget shortfalls,” NCSL reported, adding that it is hard to see when the shortfalls will end.
Columnist Kathleen Parker hailed President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech as “a triumphant expression of American values and character.” Columnist David Brooks agreed. “He talked about the need to balance the moral obligation to champion freedom while not getting swept up in self-destructive fervor,” Brooks wrote, calling Obama’s speech “the most profound of his presidency, and maybe his life.”
It was good to see the 2009 Redistricting Advisory Group get started last week in Topeka on the hard work involved in drawing new maps for congressional and legislative districts in response to the 2010 census. And there was encouraging news that Kansas looks likely to retain all four of its U.S. House districts in this count. But real redistricting reform looks like a long shot. That’s too bad. The last thing Kansas needs is a sequel to 2002, when a fight over the congressional map ended up in federal court and nearly postponed the August primary. Any chance someone might dust off the proposal by Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, to let an independent bipartisan commission do the mapping with public input and an up-or-down legislative vote?
