South-central Kansans are a tough crowd for a Democratic president, even one whose mother was born here and whose administration oversaw the killing of Public Enemy No. 1. In a SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, and conducted last Monday, 56 percent of those surveyed in the Wichita and Hutchinson area said they disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president. That was only a 5-percentage point improvement since mid-April. In other questions, 62 percent said it was appropriate to celebrate Osama bin Laden’s death, 52 percent said it was right to bury him at sea, and 44 percent said bin Laden’s death would make the world safer long term.
Nationally, Obama received a significant bump in his ratings following the killing of bin Laden, with 57 percent approving of his job performance in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. That’s up from 46 percent last month.
State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, used a procedural move last week to try to force a Senate vote on the House-passed bill to ban smoking at state-owned casinos — a welcome stand against hypocrisy. Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, is resisting. “It’s a poison pill for the casinos,” Morris has said. “It would be very difficult for us to compete.” Landwehr was right to call Morris on his double standard. “What does he think he did to small businesses out there?” Some smoking opponents worry that Landwehr’s latest effort will lead to action weakening or repealing the 2010 statewide smoking ban. But such an attempt already failed earlier this session in the House. Pass a clean bill that removes the casino exemption.
Here is how the Affordable Airfares program at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport has paid off and why the Legislature needs to keep supporting it: The airport has had the country’s 11th-largest decrease in airfares since 2000. In the fourth quarter of last year, the average airfare out of Wichita was $345, which was less than the average fare of $367 in Oklahoma City and $360 in Tulsa. Though Kansas City’s average fare was lower, Wichita is closing the gap. In 2000, the average fare difference between Wichita and Kansas City was $138; now it’s $41.
“I always heard a ‘Ph.D.’ was a pretty hot Democrat.” — Sen. Pat Roberts (in photo), R-Kan., in a joke during a Senate Finance Committee hearing that confused the Ph.D. candidate he was questioning (a spokeswoman later said Roberts meant “hot” as in “partisan” or “fired up”)
“They asked me to speak for 10 minutes and I spoke for 30. I’m a U.S. senator.” — Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan, speaking in McLouth
“Don’t know that I can buy gas at 1992 prices but we can fund schools at 1992 levels? One of the results of proposed cuts to education.” — Rep. Judith Loganbill, D-Wichita, on Twitter
South-central Kansans are a tough crowd for a Democratic president, even one whose mother was born here and whose administration oversaw the killing of Public Enemy No. 1. In a SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, and conducted last Monday, 56 percent of those surveyed in the Wichita and Hutchinson area said they disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president. That was only a 5-percentage point improvement since mid-April. In other questions, 62 percent said it was appropriate to celebrate Osama bin Laden’s death, 52 percent said it was right to bury him at sea, and 44 percent said bin Laden’s death would make the world safer long term.
