Commentary

Wed
16
Mar

Legislature versus Court

by Jerry Marsh 

Last Thursday, the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB439 to facilitate impeachment of Kansas Supreme Court Justices. The court apparently labors under the conviction that their job is to interpret the Kansas Constitution; whereas, a number of legislators believe that the court should subordinate itself to their wishes.

 

Wed
16
Mar

February shortfall budget wake-up call

by Rep. Steven Johnson 

The past week in the legislature was moving at full speed in most of my committees. We did make some useful progress. In the pension committee, we finalized and passed a bill that relates to rules for working after retirement. The bill last year may create some challenges for employers. We also had a chance to define some of the costs to the system better. The bill proposed this year is based largely on the work the school superintendents did before session. There was bi-partisan support for the measure in committee and I would expect most of the bill to make it into law in some form.

 

Wed
09
Mar

Hope is all around us

by Lee Hamilton 

These are very unhappy times in Washington. Relations between the executive and legislative branches are not just sour, but corrosive. The Republican-led Senate has declared it will simply ignore a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court.

 

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Wed
09
Mar

Making best of what we have is common sense approach

by Linda Mowery-Denning 

Editor/Publisher 

Members of the Ellsworth City Council dedicated a lunch hour this past week to a tour of the city’s water wells and treatment plant. This week’s agenda called for a tour of the city wastewater lagoons. We can’t think of a better use of the council’s time. For months — even years in some cases — officials have discussed Ellsworth’s water situation. Most months, the supply and its distribution system have been enough to sustain the city’s 1,100 meters. Other times, such as in 2012 when drought affected city and country residents alike, Ellsworth was forced to ban outdoor water. Even now, the city remains on voluntary conservation, with outdoor watering allowed certain days, based on a resident’s house number.

 

Wed
02
Mar

Be alert — and careful — as you drive through downtown

by Linda Mowery-Denning

Editor/Publisher 

Afriend stopped us the other day to voice her concerns about traffic in downtown Ellsworth, in particular on the streets near Ellsworth Elementary School. One day, she said, traffic continued for 10 minutes while a child waited to cross the street. No one bothered to stop and allow the child safe passage. After the friend left, several of us started telling stories about tractor-trailer trucks roaring through town and other situations that make our downtown less safe.

 

Wed
02
Mar

Guns prevail in Kansas

by Jerry Marsh 

What are the ingredients for a mass shooting? There are many; here are three: first, a stressed individual, the reasons for the stress can vary greatly; second, easy access to fire arms, particularly high capacity automatic and semi-automatic weapons; third, extended news coverage, especially television coverage, of the event.

 

Tue
01
Mar

Weekly Senate Report from Richard Wilborn

Sen. Richard Wilborn

Senate Highlights 

The Kansas Senate debated 31 bills over the course of Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week marked “Turnaround” which is the official halfway point for the 2016 Legislative Session.  By “Turnaround”, legislation, with a few exceptions, must have passed its chamber of origin or be removed for consideration for the remainder of the session. The Senate will have a few days off to allow staff to process the legislation that was passed and will resume work on Wednesday, March 2nd. 

 

Notable Legislation:

Law Enforcement Funding

Wed
24
Feb

Anything that sells cattletown history is worth marketing

by Linda Mowery-Denning

Editor/Publisher 

About 75 guests sat through a presentation Sunday afternoon on paranormal activity at Fort Harker, which is operated and mostly owned by the Ellsworth County Historical Society. Speakers at the society’s annual meeting in Ellsworth were members of a research team from Old School  Paranormal at Hays. The group was in Kanopolis in January with their cameras and video equipment to investigate the Fort Harker Guardhouse and the Junior and Commanding Officers’ Quarters and the depot on the guardhouse grounds.

 

Wed
24
Feb

Lawmakers: Do your job

by Jerry Marsh 
 
In public meetings at Wilson and Ellsworth on Feb. 13, I understood Rep. Steven Johnson to say that in order to get movement in the legislature to reverse the income tax exemptions on businesses income, business interests need to come forward and testify that the policy is not working; otherwise, the exemptions will likely remain in place. The more I thought about that the more it bothered me.

 

Wed
17
Feb

Walmart building continues to generate speculation

by Linda Mowery-Denning 

Checking out rumors. That’s one of the things we do here at the I-R. If they pan out, we print them with the information our staff has gathered. If they don’t pan out, we don’t print them. We don’t even post them on our Facebook page. For the past year or so, our staff has spent countless hours checking out rumors related to the former rest stop area on the northeast corner of the intersection of Kansas Highways 140 and 156. Because of that work, we were able to confirm that Walmart planned to build a Neighborhood Market there. Then, eight months later came the story of the store’s closing. The building now stands empty, but the rumors continue — including one that has Dillions/Kroger moving in and opening a grocery store.

 

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