President Obama’s proposed budget is taking shots from liberals for some of its spending cuts and from conservatives for not cutting enough. A Wall Street Journal editorial complained: “This $3.73 trillion budget does a Cee Lo Green (‘Forget You,’ as cleaned up for the Grammys) to the voter mandate in November to control spending. It leaves every hard decision to the new House Republican majority. And it ignores almost entirely the recommendations of Mr. Obama’s own deficit commission.”
The Legislature removed language last year from the state’s concealed-carry law that gave the state’s attorney general the right to deny applicants a license if they “suffer from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a weapon.” That prompted the Lawrence Journal-World to ask: Could a blind person get a gun permit? It’s unclear. “We are currently working to determine the intent of the Legislature,” Jeff Wagaman, deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Derek Schmidt, said in a statement.
Evidence suggests there is little correlation between a state’s tax rate and its overall economic health, Associated Press reported. Low-tax, low-regulation states such as Texas have gotten clobbered by the recession, just like nearly every other state. And though tax rates are one factor in business relocation decisions, businesses also are concerned about labor costs, K-12 education and infrastructure. “Concerns about taxes are overstated,” said Matt Murray, a professor of economics at the University of Tennessee who studies state finance. But Kail Padgitt, an economist with the Tax Foundation, contends that though a state’s tax burden might not have affected its performance during the recession, it will affect the pace of its recovery. “Where businesses are going to expand operations, where new investments are going to be made — a lot of these companies want to know what their taxes are going to be,” he said.
Wichita police want to ban it. Wichita firefighters already have stopped doing it. Now, after considering the issue for a few more weeks, the Wichita City Council should go ahead today and ban in-street charitable fundraising in the name of public safety and common sense. An alternate ordinance before the council would continue the practice but impose more rules and costs on nonprofit groups. But it wouldn’t fix the fundamental safety problem, which is that allowing people to solicit donations along the median strips at high-traffic intersections is asking for accidents.
President Obama’s proposed budget is taking shots from liberals for some of its spending cuts and from conservatives for not cutting enough. A Wall Street Journal editorial complained: “This $3.73 trillion budget does a Cee Lo Green (‘Forget You,’ as cleaned up for the Grammys) to the voter mandate in November to control spending. It leaves every hard decision to the new House Republican majority. And it ignores almost entirely the recommendations of Mr. Obama’s own deficit commission.”
