Opinion
Oddities
Michigan city spends $5.21 to mail 51-cent tax bill BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan doctor is getting a laugh out of a 51-cent property tax bill. It isn’t just that Phil Kazanji’s bill is so low. It’s that it cost the city of Brighton $5.21 to send it to him by certified mail. Kazanji says he first thought the amount was a mistake. Now he calls the whole thing “the most ridiculous thing a government agency would do.” City finance direc...
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Getting Bubba
Kathleen Parker Tribune Media Services WASHINGTON — “A full-blooded American.” That’s how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren’t racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with “someone who is a full-blooded American as president.” Whether Fry was referring to McCain’s military service or Obama’s Kenyan father isn’t clear, but he may have hit up...
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Analysis: Desire for coal plants drove legislation
John Hanna Associated Press TOPEKA (AP) — Pigs became a favorite metaphor as legislators debated proposals clearing the way for two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas and restricting the power of the regulator who’s blocked them. For critics, the coal plants were the pigs. Extra provisions attached to each of three bills, “green” or otherwise, were described alternatively as lipstick, dresses and, finally, a tiara. Supporters ca...
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Other Editors
The Topeka Capital-Journal, on the benefits of railroad repair: The sight of a Union Pacific Railroad “tie gang” crew working between Topeka and Kansas City, Mo., is an encouraging one, on more than one front. Among the crew’s duties is improving more than 100 railroad crossings along that stretch of track. That alone is welcome news to any motorist who has had to slow to a crawl to minimize the discomfort to joints human and mechanical. ...
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Heloise
FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008 Texas Caviar Dear Heloise: I remember seeing an appetizerAPPETIZERin your column that had black-eyed peas and hominy, as well as other ingredients. I have searched through my recipes and can’t find it. I’m having the girls over for a get-together and would love to make this. Can you please share the recipe again? -- Casandra Ridge, Schertz, Texas Casandra, this Heloise favorite appetizer or dip is e...
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Three AGs complicate abortion discussion
TOPEKA (AP) — Any discussion of the legal disputes involving abortion providers in Kansas is complicated by the fact that Kansas has had three attorneys general in less than three years. Phill Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, was elected in 2002 and ran for re-election four years later. In 2006, his challenger was Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney and an abortion rights Democrat. Morrison had won the county office as a...
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The Durango (Colo.) Herald, on interest rates and inflation: As expected, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again April 30, by another quarter of a percentage point
The Durango (Colo.) Herald, on interest rates and inflation: As expected, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again April 30, by another quarter of a percentage point. It is the seventh such cut since August. As The Wall Street Journal had predicted, Fed officials appear to want some “insurance against a deeper recession.” With that, however, the Fed also suggested that this might be the last such cut for the time being and that it wil...
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Other Editors
The Wichita Eagle, on Voter ID laws: A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling gives a green light to states, including Kansas, bent on passing voter ID laws. But neither the court majority nor the backers of the Kansas legislation have shown much evidence that voter identification fraud is a problem in need of a solution. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, could produce only scant and anecdotal evidence of in-person voter fraud...
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What works: Freedom projects instills lofty dreams in black students
Leonard Pitts Tribune Media Services SUNFLOWER, Miss. — Joaquin Burse wants to go to Harvard and be a laser tech. You might think that’s a lofty goal. Truth is, you have no idea how lofty it is. Because Joaquin, 13, is black and lives here, in the heart of Mississippi’s Delta, where median family income is $25,000, the teen pregnancy rate is said to be about 25 percent, and half of all young people grow up in poverty. To get here from Me...
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Tragedy to triumph
John Schlageck Kansas Farm Bureau Like so many of their family, friends and neighbors, the Gambles still have plenty to do before their farmstead looks and functions like they want. They believe it’ll take a couple more years. Ki and Kim’s 100-year old farm is located approximately one-half mile north of Greensburg. On May 4, 2007 an EF-5 tornado ripped through the Kiowa County farming community stripping it bare of homes, businesses, hug...
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Graduation Day
Kathleen Sebelius Governor It is graduation season; across the country young men and women put on robes and mortar boards to take the next step toward their destiny. Perhaps no ceremony will receive more attention than the one attended by the President of the United States. This past weekend, 18 seniors from Greensburg High School walked across a make-shift stage to receive their diplomas, shook the hand of the President and became grad...
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Other Editors
The Hays Daily News, on growing taxpayer-funded bureaucracies: While the continual uptick of the national unemployment rate is a sign of concern, the problem is greater than the numbers show. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the public sector — the taxpayer-funded wing of the economy — is the portion of the economy in growth mode. While private businesses, the backbone of American economic health, shed 286,000 workers in the firs...
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Send money in lieu of flowers to veterans’ moms
Kathleen Parker Tribune Media Services WASHINGTON -- This year American consumers are expected to spend an average of $138.63 each on flowers, cards and gifts for Mother’s Day, for a grand total of $15.8 billion. That’s a whole lotta hydrangeas. Anna Jarvis never had such excess in mind when in 1914, her idea to honor mothers resulted in Congress passing a joint resolution establishing Mother’s Day. In fact, she despised the commercial...
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In memory of Indian Treaty
From the microfilm files of the Chanute Tribune as prepared by the Chanute Historical Society. “We dedicate this monument in the name of the Osage Indians, who never displayed hostility towards the government and who always acknowledged its sovereignty; we dedicate it to the name of these pioneers, true Aryans, who steadily push forward for unoccupied lands; we dedicate it in the name of the children of these pioneers, the present generatio...
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Other Editors
The Salina Journal, on abundant job opportunities: Don’t let anyone tell you there are no jobs in Salina. There are hundreds at a variety of wage and skill levels, from full time, to part time, to seasonal work at local retailers. Those facts were clearly spelled out in recent story about the KansasWorks Spring Job Festival. ... There was information on hand from 120 employers. This abundance of opportunity is good for those seeking new ...
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Freedom is just another empty word
Leonard Pitts Tribune Media Services I’d like to think it was the sangria talking. But the plain truth is, when Anna said she doesn’t find this country to be especially free, it was Anna talking. Granted, her complaint is hardly new. People often grouse about the lack of freedom in the land of the free. But you see, Anna is from Estonia, a former republic of the old Soviet Union. As in the Evil Empire, world’s leading exporter of communi...
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Christianity out of step with Jesus’ teachings
Leonard Pitts Tribune Media Services James Lawson is out of step with modern Christianity. Take gay marriage. Speaking in support of a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex unions, one Rev. Hayes Wicker of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., was recently quoted by the Naples Daily News as saying, “This is a tremendous social crisis, greater even than the issue of slavery.” As asinine as that remark is, it is perfectly in step w...
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Letter to the Editor
Invitation issued to join TOPS chapter As the newly elected president of TOPS Chapter #912, Chanute, I would like to extend an invitation to attend our meetings designed for anyone with weight control issues. Our chapter meets each Thursday morning at 8 a.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Chanute. TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) is a low key, highly motivated way to meet with other people sharing the same problems you might be experiencing ...
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Letter to the Editor
Flood victims now victims of thieves Our home, two-story white farmhouse past Johnsons' Store, was the first home flooded back in June. Danny has been going to the farm after work, cleaning up the place and salvaging what he can. What is sad, we have had somebody steal from us. This man would give you the shirt off his back. He would of probably given you what you stole, had you asked. This makes us furious. We had a riding lawn mower, p...
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Abortion foes see more clues in cases unsealed after nearly a year
John Hanna Associated Press TOPEKA (AP) - Since Phill Kline lost the job, fellow abortion opponents have been trying to persuade Kansans that the attorney general's office has been protecting abortion providers. They've pulled information from various sources, including campaign finance records, court documents and people's public statements, to fill in the mosaic of what they view as problems within state government. And they anticipate...
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