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Wednesday, April 1, 2015Gov. Sam Brownback to sign bill allowing unlicensed conceal-carryBy Tim Carpenter Gov. Sam Brownback pledged to sign legislation Thursday allowing Kansas adults to carry concealed firearms without first obtaining a license or undergoing weapon training. [...]

Tax Policy: Liberals threw every punch they had at ,, Sam Brownback last fall, .. Guess who's still standing. From the New York Times to the Kansas City Star, Brownback's agenda was denounced as a failure and a warning to others .. when you try to ride the Laffer Curve and cut taxes. Here's what you won't read today: The tax cut is working. ...job growth in Kansas tied with Utah as the fastest in the nation in February. Brownback cut the highest income-tax rate from 6.4% to 4.8% with the goal of eventually eliminating the state income tax entirely....

Tax Policy: Liberals threw every punch they had at Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback last fall, hoping to unseat the Republican for the sin of cutting tax rates to stimulate job growth and economic revival. Guess who's still standing. From the New York Times to the Kansas City Star, Brownback's agenda was denounced as a failure and a warning to others of what happens when you try to ride the Laffer Curve and cut taxes. Here's what you won't read today: The tax cut is working. Labor Department data show job growth in Kansas tied with Utah as the fastest in...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting a giant full-body exhibit for kids to walk through to promote healthy eating habits.While encouraging schools to apply for nearly $6 million in grants to help them comply with the First Lady Michelle Obama-promoted Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act new lunch standards, the USDA highlighted efforts by the Kansas State Department of Education.“Body Venture, a traveling health education exhibit sponsored by Kansas State Department of Education travels to schools to teach students about nutrition and physical activity,” the USDA said in a blog post Friday.Body Venture is a 45-foot by 50-foot exhibit that starts...

Kansas House just passed Senate Bill 45 "authorizing the carrying of concealed handguns without a license under the personal and family protection act." Several Republicans voted against it. Here they are. John Barker Email:johnbarker2012@yahoo.com Barbara Bollier Email:barbarabollier@gmail.com Stephanie Clayton Email:stephaniesawyerclayton@gmail.com Diana Dierks Email:dierks@salinahomes.com Linda Gallagher Email:LJGallagher@kc.rr.com Don Hill Email:donhill70@hotmail.com Mike Kiegerl Email:jus4smk@aol.com Marvin Kleeb Email:marvin@marvinkleeb.com Peggy Mast - Speaker Pro Tem Email:pmast@me.com Tom Moxley Email:tmoxley@tctelco.net Tom Phillips Email:tphillips3@cox.net Melissa Rooker melissa@melissarooker.com Don Schroeder dnjschroeder@gmail.com Tom Sloan Email:glsloan_ks@yahoo.com Charles Smith Email:chuck.smith@house.ks.gov Susie Swanson svswan@twinvalley.net Let's hope Brownback signs it.

A federal whistleblower claims a division of the Department of Justice is using money from asset forfeitures to pay for custom wallpaper, artwork, crown moldings and chair rails in its offices. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked U.S. Marshals Service Director Stacia A. Hylton to answer claims about how the Asset Forfeiture Division spent forfeited money, including a report that more than $10,000 was used to purchase a single conference room table. "If so, what was the cost and why was a less expensive table not considered?"

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — More than two dozen cases of tuberculosis have been detected at an eastern Kansas high school after widespread screening, state and county health officials announced Wednesday. More than 300 Olathe Northwest High School students and staff members were tested after coming into contact with an infected student. In addition to that student, the testing revealed 27 new cases of TB that hadn’t progressed to the contagious stage, the Johnson County Health Department said in a news release. Officials began calling the people who tested positive on Monday, while those with no sign of infection will receive...

OLATHE, Kan. — 27 students at Olathe Northwest High School have tested positive for TB. Those who tested positive for TB are not contagious, do not feel sick and do not have TB symptoms, according to a press release from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. 315 students began being tested after a student at Olathe Northwest High School was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. According to the press release, health officials began calling those with a positive TB test on Monday. Letters were mailed home to those who tested negative. “The number of individuals with TB infection does not...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback suggested Wednesday that he might consider proposals to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, provided the Legislature can identify a way to pay for it. "I’ve been pushing that anything we do on Medicaid expansion has to be 100-percent paid for," Brownback said during impromptu remarks to the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, who met at the Statehouse on Wednesday. Under the federal health law, also known as Obamacare, states are allowed to expand their Medicaid programs to cover all individuals in households with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level. That's...

While there are countless critics who contend President Obama has not done enough for Black people, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach took a different, preposterous approach. The staunch anti-immigration advocate agreed with a caller on his radio show that said Obama would forgive African-Americans “accused of a crime, charged with a crime, is not going to be prosecuted, regardless of the crime,” based on his recent immigration action. Kobach, unfortunately, did not dispute the caller, named “Stu.” In fact, he added to the outlandish notion. “Well, it’s already happened more or less in the case of civil rights laws,”...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas State University is renaming its computer network system to avoid associating with a terrorist group. Chief Information Officer Ken Stafford said in a news release Thursday that the university will no longer use the abbreviation iSIS for its network handling enrollment, registration and financial aid. Stafford says many people have expressed concern over the network’s name because the acronym is also used by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The network will now be called KSIS.

Kansas appears on the verge of becoming among the most welcoming states to people who want to pack heat. A bill promising Kansans the ability to carry concealed firearms — without taking safety training or weathering the background checks required in most of the country — won initial approval in the state Senate on Wednesday. The change, expected to pass Thursday to a likely receptive House, would make Kansas a “constitutional carry” state. That would mean citizens would not need a permit to carry a hidden gun. The bill would maintain the current permit process for people who want to...

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily and linked to energy drilling are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes, federal research indicates. This once stable region is now just as likely to see serious damaging and potentially harmful earthquakes as the highest risk places east of the Rockies such as New Madrid, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina, which had major quakes in the past two centuries. Still it's a low risk, about a 1 in 2,500 years' chance of happening, according to geophysicist William Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday, Secretaries of State Kris Kobach from Kansas and Jon Husted of Ohio warned that a loophole in President Obama's executive action on illegal immigration could lead to millions of non-citizens obtaining the ability to vote in U.S. elections. "I want to bring to your attention my concern that the President’s recent Immigration Accountability Executive Actions will make it more difficult for elections officials to determine if all voters meet the primary standard for voting – U.S. citizenship. I am not here to debate immigration policy or the President’s executive actions. However, I am...

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed an executive order Tuesday rescinding a protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender state workers put into place eight years ago by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius’ executive order in 2007 said state workers could not be discriminated against, fired or harassed because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Brownback, a Republican, issued an additional executive order affirming that state employees could not be discriminated against because of their race, religion, gender, age or country of national origin. “This Executive Order ensures that state employees enjoy the same civil rights as all Kansans without creating...

HOUSTON — The political operation of potential 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz continued to beef up Monday as a top aide to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich signed onto the senator’s team. Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s longtime spokesman who served as a top strategist to a super PAC that supported Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, will join Cruz’s campaign-in-waiting to serve as a senior communications adviser. “I am honored to come on board with Sen. Cruz and join the effort to make D.C. listen to the American people,” Tyler said in a statement. “I believe he will emerge as the...

<p>Lawmakers are considering bill that would make it easier to charge and prosecute teachers with distributing harmful material to minors.</p> <p>Proponents say that would give needed protection to students. Opponents say it could criminalize the teaching of biology or controversial works of literature and that communication is a better option.</p>

WICHITA, Kan. – The leader of a Kansas commune that prosecutors say lived off of insurance payouts following the deaths of group members is set to stand trial for murder in the 2003 drowning of one of them — a young mother whose death he allegedly foretold weeks before it happened. Daniel U. Perez, a 55-year-old self-proclaimed seer, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the death of 26-year-old Patricia Hughes at the group's compound in the Wichita suburb of Valley Center. Jury selection begins Monday in Sedgwick County District Court. Authorities have investigated several deaths linked to the group,...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that both Nevada and Tennessee have joined the Lone Star state's challenge of President Obama's executive amnesty, bringing the total number of states fighting Obama's unilateral immigration policies to 26. “Texas is proud to lead a coalition that now includes a majority of the United States standing up against the President’s rogue actions,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The momentum against the President's lawlessness continues to build with Tennessee and Nevada joining the effort to protect our states from the economic and public safety implications of illegal amnesty. As President...