Free Republic

WBC intends to protest Wed., 8/17/2011 @ 9:30 a.m. - Memorial Service to begin at 10:00 a.m. (Church of the Resurrection, 13720 Roe Avenue, Leawood, KS) for Navy SEAL Matthew D. Mason. Buriel will be private at Arlington National Cemetery following services in Missouri and Kansas. Mason, 37, was one of 30 Americans killed Aug. 6 when a helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents. The chief petty officer had seven tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was severely wounded in 2004 in Fallujah, which was the largest battle of the Iraq War. Mason, whose wife,...

Kansas City Mayor Sly James vowed Sunday that he’d take steps to end large, nighttime gatherings of unsupervised teenagers and preteens on the Country Club Plaza by holding parents to account. How, he didn’t know. But whatever plan is developed, it will be a joint effort of the mayor and the City Council, James said after consultation with school officials, police and the juvenile court, among others. And James promised that the plan will be in place before next weekend. It may or may not include an early curfew, as some are calling for. “We can’t expect that imposing a...

The convicted ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib was released Saturday from a military prison, an Army spokeswoman said. Charles Graner Jr., 42, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., around 10 a.m. Saturday after serving more than 6 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence, spokeswoman Rebecca Steed said. Graner will be under the supervision of a probation officer until Dec. 25, 2014, she said. Steed said she could not release any information about Graner's whereabouts or his destination after release. Neither Graner nor his wife — who was a fellow Abu Ghraib defendant —...

‘Liberal’ conservatives take straw poll, choose Perry By EARL WATT Leader & Times The small Southwest Kansas town may be named ‘Liberal,’ but when it comes to politics, it is anything but. The town got its name from its founder, Mr. S.S. Rogers, who gave away water to pioneers in the 1880s when it was a rare commodity on the High Plains. He became known as “that liberal fella,” and the name stuck. But when ballots were cast in presidential elections, or almost any election for that matter, the people of Liberal might be some of the most conservative. Liberal...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Kansas law that would have stripped Planned Parenthood locations in the state of federal funding. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ordered the state to immediately resume funding for Planned Parenthood Monday, agreeing that without the injunction the abortion provider would suffer while the case works its way through court. Kansas Planned Parenthood leaders claimed the law would force them to close clinics. They also said nearly 6,000 patients would face higher costs, have less access to services, and longer waits or travel times for appointments. The state argued that public health...

Call it a stimulus hangover. In 2010, Lawrence’s real estate market started to show signs of life as tax credits for first-time homebuyers — part of the federal stimulus package — did boost sales. But now as numbers for the first half of 2011 are released, it is clear that Lawrence’s real estate market is no longer stimulated. “The stimulus created an artificial boost for awhile,” said Gary Nuzum, senior vice president of McGrew Real Estate. “We knew it would help us last year, but we also knew it was stealing buyers from us in future years. And it has....

Speaker John Boehner pushed his debt-ceiling bill through the House Friday night with the support of 218 Republicans. Here are the 22 no votes: Justin Amash (Mich.) Michele Bachmann (Minn.) Chip Cravaack (Minn.) Jason Chaffetz (Utah) Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.) Tom Graves (Ga.) Tim Huelskamp (Kans.) Steve King (Iowa) Tim Johnson (Ill.) Tom McClintock (Calif.) Mick Mulvaney (S.C.) Ron Paul (Texas) Connie Mack (Fla.) Jim Jordan (Ohio) Tim Scott (S.C.) Paul Broun (Ga.) Tom Latham (Iowa) Jeff Duncan (S.C.) Trey Gowdy (S.C.) Steve Southerland (Fla.) Joe Walsh (Ill.) Joe Wilson (S.C.) CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner...

Ranchers in parts of Kansas are hauling their spring cattle to auction barns because a drought and the brutal heat have made it difficult to provide the water and hay needed to keep the animals healthy, according to a state agency. Some auction markets are seeing more than triple the number of cattle at weekly sales than they typically have at this time of year, the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service said. For example, 14,500 head of cattle were taken to sale rings at Pratt, Salina and Dodge City last week. Last year, those auction markets sold just 4,300 head. The...

WICHITA, Kan. Wichita police say a woman is recovering after being injured in a strange shooting. Police say the 19-year-old was shot in the chest Monday when her boyfriend began taking off his shorts as they walked along a city street. Lt. Randy Reynolds say a gun the 18-year-old boyfriend was carrying in waistband fell to the ground and fired, hitting the woman. Reynolds says the Wichita man first told police a car had driven by and fired shots at the couple, but later changed his story. The man was arrested. Police did not say why he was taking off...

The guest list for Rick Perry's August 6 day of prayer won't include many U.S. governors. Only two governors, both Republican, plan to join Perry at the event at Houston's Reliant Stadium, which Perry has labeled as a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting. Perry invited all of his fellow U.S. governors to the event. Just two - Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - have accepted the invitation. Mark P. Jones, a government professor at Rice University, said he is not surprised by the lukewarm response. "For a Democrat there is nothing to be gained by attending,...

But Kansas' two Republican U.S. senators have refused to back Six after the Democrat's nomination elicited a hostile response from abortion opponents, who accuse him of failing to adequately pursue the investigations of abortion clinics started by his predecessors. The Senate committee is expected to take up his nomination Thursday, almost four months after President Barack Obama nominated Six to the bench. At the time, Obama said Six had distinguished himself as a "first-rate jurist with unflagging integrity and evenhandedness." The 10th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. During earlier confirmation...

Not long ago, Dr. Mila Means, the physician trying to open an abortion clinic in this city, received a letter advising her to check under her car each morning — “because maybe today is the day someone places an explosive under it,” the note said. snip But Dr. Means is certainly not the ideological warrior many expected to fill his void. She said her decision to start performing abortions was as much about making money for her struggling practice as about restoring access to a constitutional right. snip She looked at the finances of her solo family practice and figured...

It's official. Every abortion provider in the state of Kansas has been denied a license to continue operating as of July 1. As we reported last week, strict new state laws put in place this month threatened to close the remaining three abortion clinics in Kansas. The staff of one of these facilities, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, initially thought their operation could survive the strict new standards. But on Thursday afternoon, Planned Parenthood announced that the Overland Park clinic have thus far been denied a license to continue operating—effectively cutting off access to legal abortion in the...

Kansas still has one abortion provider, but two others that don't have state licenses were hoping to persuade a federal judge to block a new licensing law and health department regulations they consider burdensome. The state attorney general's office argued ahead of a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., that a license granted to a Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri clinic disproves critics' contention that the new Kansas rules are designed to cut off access to abortion. The licensing law was part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation enacted across the nation this year, but...

New York Times columnist David Carr responds to Bill Maher implying Alabama and Kansas are not the "smart states."

A Kansas City area clinic has been denied a state license to continue its work, and will probably close next Friday. TOPEKA -- A Kansas City area clinic has been denied a state license that would allow it to continue performing abortions and will probably close, the clinic's attorney said Friday. Kansas enacted a law earlier this year establishing a special licensing process for abortion providers, and the state's three abortion clinics must either get licenses or stop offering the procedure on July 1st. An attorney for the Aid for Women clinic said it received a notice that its application...

TOPEKA, Kansas, June 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) began inspecting the three remaining abortion clinics in the state this week, and said it will decide by July 1 whether they will be able to attain a license to practice under a new law. Members of Operation Rescue, a pro-life whistleblower group, say they believe there’s a good chance the abortion clinics’ operating standards will be found unacceptable under the new requirements. “We have doubts that any of the abortion clinics can meet the safety requirements of the new law,” said Operation Rescue President...

Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration on Friday laid off 85 state employees at the Kansas Department of Labor. A statement released by KDOL states: “Fiscal necessity requires that KDOL make the very difficult decision to reduce its workforce. Decisions by the prior administration to utilize one-time funds for ongoing personnel and administrative costs and reduced funding from the federal government have contributed to the need for this decision.” With the layoffs, the agency, which among other jobs administers unemployment compensation, would have about 430 employees, said KDOL spokesman Matt Manda. Sherriene Jones-Sontag, a spokeswoman for Brownback, said state employee layoffs also...

This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It updates, expands, and improves upon our inaugural 2009 Freedom in the 50 States study. For this new edition, we have added more policy variables (such as bans on trans fats and the audio recording of police, Massachusetts’s individual health-insurance mandate, and mandated family leave), improved existing measures (such as those for fiscal policies, workers’ compensation regulations, and asset-forfeiture rules), and developed specific policy prescriptions for each of the 50 states based on our data and a survey...

RUSSELL, Kan. | The long lines of well-wishers were here again. So were the Dole for President T-shirts and the striking red, white and blue “America’s Choice” campaign buttons. This time, though, Bob Dole was back not to launch another presidential campaign but to hang out for a few days in his old hometown. “It’s still home,” he said. “There’s only one home, and that’s wherever you grew up.” Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/11/2943571/ailing-bob-dole-returns-to-russell.html#ixzz1P4Vd7iBE