Sedgwick County is seeing the end of an era with the retirement of District Attorney Nola Foulston, a Democrat first elected in 1988 and the first woman to hold the job. Foulston has written a commentary, available at Kansas.com/opinion, reflecting on her 24 years in office and expressing gratitude for the agencies and community organizations that have been partners in crime fighting with her office. Foulston notes that her office has handled tragic cases, grieved with victims and also made law at the U.S. Supreme Court, concluding: “I will always be grateful for the support and encouragement from our community, without which my job would have been immensely more difficult. I have always believed and endeavored each day to promote the principle that the duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.” Foulston will be succeeded by Republican Marc Bennett, deputy district attorney in Foulston’s office.
At the end of a Legislative Educational Planning Committee meeting this week, Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood, started to make a motion to increase school base aid to $4,492 per pupil, as promised in the 2006 plan upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. But the committee chairman, Rep. Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center, cut Vratil off, adjourned the meeting and walked out, along with two other committee members. Vratil and the remaining members, including Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, voted anyway, approving the motion 7-0. Of those seven members, five (including Vratil and Schodorf) won’t be in the Legislature next session, so the motion is sure to go nowhere.
UPDATE: Huebert said he adjourned the meeting because all the agenda items had been covered. He also said there were snow warnings and some lawmakers from western Kansas needed to drive home.
Officials with the Kansas National Education Association are upset that a draft report from Gov. Sam Brownback’s school-efficiency task force recommends revising or narrowing state laws that govern collective-bargaining rights of teachers, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. “Collective bargaining around this state works,” said KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti. “Our teachers don’t go out there and demand exorbitant salaries, and they don’t have a right to strike. They go out there, and they work with their school districts.” Teachers already were unhappy that Brownback didn’t appoint any teachers to the task force, and that the task force declined to hear any testimony from teachers. Desetti also noted that none of the presenters to the task force indicated that negotiations with teachers were a problem. “This never came up in their meetings,” he said. “It appears there is an agenda here.”
Congratulations to Andover superintendent Mark Evans on being chosen to lead the Omaha school district. Though Omaha’s district is about 10 times larger than Andover’s, it is similar in size and demographics to Wichita’s district, where Evans previously worked for 20 years, including serving as a principal, interim superintendent and deputy superintendent. Some of Evans’ highlights in Andover include a successful bond issue and increases in student achievement. He also was active in the community, serving on several boards. He will be missed.
The chief of the U.S. State Department’s security service, one of his deputies and an official from the agency’s Middle East bureau have resigned, Associated Press reported. The resignations follow the release Tuesday of a report by the Accountability Review Board that found “systematic failures” at the State Department contributed to security lapses in the Sept. 11 attacks in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens (in photo) and three other Americans.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is part of negotiations aimed at including the new farm bill in the fiscal-cliff budget deal, the Hill reported. But to do that, the Senate and House must reconcile their separate farm bills, which they have thus far been unable to do – even though most farm-support programs expired on Oct. 1 and livestock programs lapsed a year earlier. Both bills do away with “direct payments” to farmers. One key difference is that the House bill cuts food stamps by $16 billion while the Senate bill trims the program by $4 billion.
It was no surprise that U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, was less than enthusiastic Tuesday about a fiscal-cliff solution backed by House Speaker John Boehner that includes raising tax rates on income of more than $1 million, in addition to $1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. “Republicans have taken a pledge not to raise taxes, and a trillion tax increase is a violation of that pledge,” Huelskamp told Roll Call. In prepared remarks about the proposal, Boehner said, “Most importantly, we’d lock in a process for tax reform and entitlement reform in 2013 – the two big goals we’ve talked about for years.” The White House also balked at the proposal, saying it didn’t ask enough of the wealthy and shifted the burden to the middle class and seniors.
Despite the impression given by the media, mass shootings are not more common now than they have been in past decades, John Fund wrote in National Review Online. “Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century,” Fund noted. “The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are about what they are for being struck by lightning.” Of course, the rarity of the killings is of no comfort to families in Newtown, Conn.
The National Rifle Association has argued that banning assault weapons is ineffective in curbing crime. However, Australia’s ban has significantly reduced murders and mass killings. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote: “In Australia in 1996, a mass killing of 35 people galvanized the nation’s conservative prime minister to ban certain rapid-fire long guns. The ‘national firearms agreement,’ as it was known, led to the buyback of 650,000 guns and to tighter rules for licensing and safe storage of those remaining in public hands.… In the 18 years before the law, Australia suffered 13 mass shootings – but not one in the 14 years after the law took full effect. The murder rate with firearms has dropped by more than 40 percent, according to data compiled by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the suicide rate with firearms has dropped by more than half.”
In the general election in Kansas, 838 voters failed to bring photo IDs to the polls and, because of that, filled out provisional ballots, with only 306 following up after the election to ensure their votes counted. Responding to an editorial in the Hays Daily News, Secretary of State Kris Kobach rejected the argument that the 532 remaining voters were “disenfranchised.” Those voters “could have presented their photo IDs to the county clerk or election office to make their ballots count, but they chose not to,” he wrote, noting that it’s common for thousands of provisional ballots not to be counted because the would-be voters weren’t registered or failed to sign their advance-ballot envelopes. “But of course, you don’t hear liberal editorial writers complaining that voter registration requirements or signature requirements disenfranchise people,” Kobach wrote. He concluded that the Secure and Fair Elections Act “gives confidence to voters and candidates alike that the system is fair. And that confidence strengthens our republic.”
Liberal activist Tom Hayden wrote up his recent visit to Wichita for the Huffington Post, observing that “in Kansas most people do not seem to accept the November election of Barack Obama” and that “as ‘bleeding Kansas’ was pivotal in launching the American Civil War over slavery, this Kansas will be central to the plans of the Christian right and tea party to stop the emerging new majority of people of color and women, which threatens their supremacist dreams.” Hayden concluded: “The activists of Wichita may not be isolated dissidents in a state mired forever in the past, but among the ‘first responders’ against the coming wave of right-wing extremism, in dire need of attention and support from national progressives.” Hayden spoke at the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas’ 20th-anniversary meeting.
Kansans got a picture last week of what the new Kansas Senate will look like, as hard-line conservatives were assigned to chair key committees. In the past, the Senate has served as a buffer to the extremes of the Kansas House. Will that no longer be the case? Will it be smooth sailing in the Legislature for nearly any far-right idea? Agenda 21, here we come?
David Dennis of Wichita, the outgoing chairman of the Kansas State Board of Education, expressed understandable frustration last week that the state must give assessment tests over standards that it no longer uses. “We’re giving, as I recall, a couple hundred thousand assessments in reading and a couple hundred thousand assessments in math each year, and that’s some big dollars when we’re going to use it for nothing,” Dennis complained, noting that the tests cost between $10 and $15 per test per student. The state has received a waiver for the No Child Left Behind law and already adopted new Common Core state standards in reading and math. But because the new assessments won’t be implemented until the 2014-15 school year, the federal government still requires the state to give the old tests. In addition to wasting money, this puts school districts in a bind: Do they focus on the new standards (as they are supposed to)? Or do they continue to emphasize the old standards (because they may be criticized if their assessment scores drop)?
“My name is Michael O’Donnell.… You may know me better as the villain I play in The Wichita Eagle.” – the Wichita City Council member and state senator-elect (in photo), opening his controversial remarks to the Sedgwick County Commission about the proposed Bowllagio tax-increment financing district
“In our state, Republicans vote together 98 percent of the time. If you are not with them a 100 percent of the time, you’re gone.” – outgoing Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, in the Huffington Post
“Tim Huelskamp for Speaker!” – headline on a post by conservative Arizona blogger David Hall
“That’s why we get the big bucks. Let’s do our job.” – Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, telling Politico he’s ready to work through Christmas because of the fiscal cliff
Politico noted that U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, and two other conservative freshmen “are gaining martyr status among conservative activists after they were ‘purged’ from House committees for what they say is a matter of sticking to their principles on tough votes. But some of their colleagues say the trio got yanked by the leadership-driven Republican Steering Committee because they’re jerks – or worse.” In a closed-door Wednesday meeting in which Huelskamp and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., argued they had been unfairly targeted for their voting records, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., told them “it had to do with their inability to work with other members,” according to a spokeswoman for Westmoreland. Huelskamp told Politico it was a “typical backroom deal.” He lost his seats on the House agriculture and budget committees in the purge.
Heather Hurlburt, the executive director of the National Security Network think tank, drew a line between the end of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s (in photo) prospects of becoming secretary of state Thursday and the failure of the U.S. Senate to pass the U.N. treaty on the rights of the disabled last week. “When you see there is enough of the Republican Party that is willing to stick a knife in Bob Dole in order to stick a knife in the United Nations, you had to take a really cold look at Ambassador Rice’s chances. I think that’s what Obama did,” Hurlburt told the Daily Beast. Disabled veteran and former Kansas Sen. Dole had gone to the Senate floor in a wheelchair to advocate for the treaty’s approval.
The new movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the killing of Osama bin Laden (in photo), could set President Obama up for some criticism, Politico reported. The movie includes a news clip of Obama expressing his opposition to torture, while it portrays how waterboarding played a role in tracking down bin Laden. The movie also highlights how the Obama administration and defense officials took nine months to become convinced that bin Laden was at the compound in Pakistan, much to the frustration of the main CIA analyst in the film.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the most unpopular senator in the country, according to a new survey by Public Policy Polling. Only 37 percent of Kentucky voters approve of McConnell, while 55 percent disapprove. The most unpopular senator previously was Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Democrats in Kentucky want actress Ashley Judd to run against McConnell in 2014.
The Kansas Democratic Party is soliciting contributions for a “Kris Kobach Defense Fund,” e-mailing potential donors that “by creating a legal defense fund we can continue fighting Kris Kobach’s dangerous anti-voter agenda.” Party spokesman Dakota Loomis told Huffington Post: “Given Kobach’s repeated behavior, we expect to go to court in 2013 and 2014.” Kobach, Kansas secretary of state since 2011, pushed for the law requiring photo ID to vote that went into effect this year, and the requirement, as of January, that Kansans show proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Teachers aren’t happy that they weren’t allowed to testify before Gov. Sam Brownback’s task force on school efficiency. The task force is wrapping up its work, and chairman Ken Willard said it didn’t have time to hear from teachers (though he encouraged them to submit written testimony). “It is disappointing when our input is not sought and it isn’t even welcomed in some circumstances,” Karen Godfrey, president of the Kansas-National Education Association, told the Lawrence Journal-World. Union spokesman Mark Desetti complained that no amount of efficiencies “can make up for what has already been cut out of school budgets, and no amount of efficiencies can make up for what is potentially going to be cut as the governor’s tax bill takes effect.”
Legislative researchers have revised their projection for the budget shortfall facing the state next year, dropping it from $328 million to $295 million. That’s still a huge deficit, particularly when it assumes the state will spend down its cash reserves, but at least the hole isn’t quite as deep. The main reason for the change, Associated Press reported, is that the researchers had improperly included some one-time spending from the current year in their projections.
Many GOP lawmakers are petrified about defying Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and his no-tax pledge, yet most Americans have no idea who he is. A new Politico/George Washington University poll found that 61 percent of Americans had never heard of Norquist. Another 15 percent had no opinion of him, while only 8 percent of those surveyed had a positive view of Norquist.
Mike O’Neal’s decision to remain as speaker of the Kansas House until mid-January, even though he already has begun working as chief executive officer and president of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, has raised ethics complaints. “This is unprecedented in terms of conflict of interest,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. But O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said he is not violating any ethics laws because he won’t become an official lobbyist for the chamber until after he resigns from the House. This isn’t the first ethics concern about O’Neal, the Capital-Journal noted. A House committee criticized O’Neal for being lead attorney in a 2010 lawsuit against the state over a budget dispute, and the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission investigated the hiring of O’Neal’s wife for an administrative job in the House leadership office but decided there was insufficient evidence that O’Neal broke nepotism laws.
GOP power brokers led by Gov. Sam Brownback are operating by “intimidation and threats” and “without a moral compass,” outgoing state Sen. Dick Kelsey (in photo), R-Goddard, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. Kelsey, who was targeted for defeat by Brownback and by the state and Wichita chambers of commerce, said that the administration and its backers “will say and do anything to achieve their goals” – including falsely claiming in campaign mailers that Kelsey supported Obamacare. “That was absolutely asinine,” Kelsey said. What is particularly frustrating is that these are some of the same people “who wave the Christian flag more than anybody has ever done in state government,” Kelsey said. “Yet they did not operate with any kind of truthfulness or honesty.”
Gov. Sam Brownback spoke for about 10 minutes at the ReignDown USA prayer and worship event held Saturday in Topeka. In addition to talking about the phrase “In God We Trust” as it pertains to the country, Brownback shared how being diagnosed with cancer in 1995 led him to a stronger commitment to his faith, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. “I finally reached up and said, ‘God, this life’s yours.’ It started a great adventure,” he said. Brownback prayed “for forgiveness of his sins, while also asking forgiveness of man’s sins, like broken treaties with Native Americans and slavery, or generalizations, such as greed and lust,” the Capital-Journal reported.
Sedgwick County is seeing the end of an era with the retirement of District Attorney Nola Foulston, a Democrat first elected in 1988 and the first woman to hold the job. Foulston has written a commentary, available at Kansas.com/opinion, reflecting on her 24 years in office and expressing gratitude for the agencies and community organizations that have been partners in crime fighting with her office. Foulston notes that her office has handled tragic cases, grieved with victims and also made law at the U.S. Supreme Court, concluding: “I will always be grateful for the support and encouragement from our community, without which my job would have been immensely more difficult. I have always believed and endeavored each day to promote the principle that the duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.” Foulston will be succeeded by Republican Marc Bennett, deputy district attorney in Foulston’s office.
