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In 2012, voters in California approved a measure to raise taxes on millionaires, bringing their top state income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation. Conservative economists predicted calamity, or at least a big slowdown in growth. Also that year, the governor of Kansas signed a series of changes to the state's tax code, including reducing income and sales tax rates. Conservative economists predicted a boom. Neither of those predictions came true. Not right away -- California grew just fine in the year the tax hikes took effect -- and especially not in the medium term, as...

In the end, I believe the goals of the Brownback administration are going exactly to plan – starve the state of resources to the point where it just makes sense to turn over critical government functions to for-profit entities. I can’t, in good conscience, continue to give our tax money to a government that actively works against the needs of its citizens; a state that is systematically targeting the citizens in most need, denying them critical care and reducing their cost of life as if they’re simply a tax burden that should be ignored. It’s because of these moves that...

A group of military chaplains is calling for an about-face after a base in Kansas disinvited retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin from a prayer breakfast due to his religious beliefs. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty sent a letter to Maj. Gen. Wayne Grisby, commander of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, calling on him to reinstate Gen. Boykin’s invitation. The chaplain advocacy group said the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which demanded the general be disinvited due to his religious beliefs, has no right to dictate whom the base hosts. “Maj. Gen. Grisby should reinstate the invitation to...

A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay. Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin’s invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears. “I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this,” he said. Weeping? Oh, please. “I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with...

The Kansas Senate is considering a resolution condemning a recent Obama administration decree that public schools allow transgender students to use the restrooms that match their gender identity, not their sex at birth. The nonbinding resolution comes less than a week after the state Supreme Court ruled that legislators failed to equitably fund the school’s 286 public school districts. […] Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican, said President Barack Obama “overstepped his bounds” by issuing a decree on what should be a state-level decision. …

The following is a list of prominent Republicans who say they’re not planning to attend the Republican National Convention -- based on responses from their offices and previously published reports: Former President George W. Bush Former President George H.W. Bush 2008 Republican presidential nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney 2016 presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Kansas Sen....

Andrea Quenette, the University of Kansas communications professor subjected to protests and a formal investigation after offending her liberal students, was cleared of wrongdoing. But she is still ultimately out of a job. "Andrea has been denied continuation of her tenure," her husband, Scott Quenette, told Reason. "Despite having a recommendation from the tenure committee and her department. The new dean unilaterally denied it." This decision was contrary to the recommendation of her department. Quenette will be able to continue at her job for another year, and then her employment at KU will be at an end.

Missouri plans to seek death penalty for illegal alien accused of gunning down five people in two day spree. [ Full title ]. Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, is charged with killing five men. ... Immigration authorities missed two chances to deport Serrano-Vitorino . ... Missouri prosecutors on Friday filed their formal plan to pursue the death penalty against a Mexican national in the shooting death of a man a day after he allegedly killed four people in Kansas. Prosecutors in Montgomery County submitted court papers saying they will seek capital punishment for Pablo Serrano-Vitorino if he's convicted of first-degree murder...

Requiring would-be voters to prove their citizenship when they try to register at motor vehicle bureaus is a burden on their right to vote, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, striking down Kansas’s law. Judge Julie A. Robinson said only a few noncitizens have broken the rules to vote in Kansas in recent years, and that doesn’t outweigh the hurdles placed in the way of thousands of legal voters who are struggling to prove their citizenship. States instead should rely on would-be voters’ word that they are citizens, Judge Robinson said. “The record in this case suggests that there is a...

Montana and five other states say resident Barack Obama overstepped his power by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, whose developers are now suing four presidential cabinet members. The states along the pipeline’s route filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week arguing that Congress, not the executive, has the right to regulate interstate and international commerce. The pipeline, which would have crossed the Canadian border, was being developed by TransCanada, which is now suing the government. Because of the resident’s representations to the rest of the world that America would lead in reducing its carbon footprint, that that was the sole reason...

Management of the New York City area’s three major airports is fed up with long lines at security check points, and they have given the Transportation Security Administration an ultimatum: Either shorten the lines or we’ll find someone else to do it. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, tasked with running John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, is threatening to privatize the process of screening passengers before boarding their flight, according to a document sent from the Port Authority to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. “We can no longer tolerate the continuing inadequacy of the TSA passenger...

Former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole endorsed Donald Trump for president on Friday, calling for the GOP to unite around Trump in order to defeat Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. Dole's support gives the GOP presumptive nominee the support of another party elder on a day when other top Republicans announced their opposition. Trump inconspicuously announced the endorsement earlier on Friday at a rally in Omaha, Nebraska, as he ticked off the names of several prominent Republicans who have come around to his candidacy since he became the party's presumptive nominee earlier this week.

Kansas defunded Planned Parenthood this week, and in doing so expanded access to healthcare for poor women. Kansas Senate Bill 436 reallocates money from the abortion provider to full-service healthcare clinics that serve women in need, but the abortion giant is crying foul. Gov. Sam Brownback, who vowed to defund the abortion giant during a State of the State speech in January, made the following statement: “The time has come to finish the job. We must keep working to protect our most innocent Kansans, the unborn. Every year since I became governor we have enacted pro-life legislation. We have come...

Led by Governor Sam Brownback (shown), the state of Kansas informed the Obama administration this week that it is defying its dictates for Kansas to cooperate in the resettlement of refugees from Syria. In a letter to Robert Carey, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Brownback wrote, “The State of Kansas hereby withdraws its Refugee Resettlement Program State Plan and terminates its participation in all federal refugee resettlement grants and programs, effective at the earliest possible date.” Brownback added that he was taking his action to “protect the safety and security interests of the State of Kansas.” Beginning in...

State and local officials opposed to President Obama’s plan to transfer terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the mainland U.S. will get a platform to air their concerns Thursday during a House hearing. Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina is among the witnesses who will testify in opposition to the administration’s plan, at the session held by the Homeland Security’s oversight subcommittee. South Carolina is one of the states where the administration is considering transferring detainees, a plan that would need to be approved by a deeply skeptical Congress. Mr. Obama, whose campaign pledge to close the prison is...

What started as a would-be arrest at a Kansas motel ended with four federal agents shot and the motel engulfed in flames. Officers from the U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Forces were looking for a suspect Saturday night at the Country Club Motel, Topeka police Lt. Colleen Stuart said. But when they reached the motel, someone opened fire and struck two U.S. marshals, an FBI agent and a fourth federal agent, Stuart said. It was not immediately clear which agency the fourth agent belonged to. Their injuries are not considered life-threatening, Stuart said.

My unscientific poll of Maryland voters in next week’s Democratic presidential primary gives Bernie Sanders a 100 percent lead in early returns. “I just voted for Bernie Sanders today,” said Thomas Frank, author of several books, including 2004’s best-seller What’s the Matter with Kansas?, and this year’s Listen, Liberal: or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? “I advance voted in Maryland. I have my little ‘I Voted’ sticker on my shirt,” Frank told me in an interview this week. Frank spoke with Sanders back in 2014, when he was deciding whether to run for president and whether to...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s effort to close out the Democratic race may be going awry, as a new poll shows she’s in danger of losing California to Sen. Bernie Sanders. According to a new Fox News poll conducted April 18-21, Clinton has the support of 48 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, while Sanders is right behind with 46 percent. That’s the closest margin yet between the two in the state, which awards more delegates to the Democratic National Convention than any other. Clinton holds a substantial delegate lead over Sanders and remains heavily favored to win the...

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback offered options on Wednesday for dealing with sinking revenue for the state's current and next budgets, including the sale of tobacco bonds. With the fiscal 2016 revenue estimated to drop by nearly $94 million and fiscal 2017 revenue expected to be $134.7 million less than previously projected, the Republican governor said Kansas could raise about $158 million through its first sale of bonds backed by its share of a 1998 multi-state settlement with U.S. tobacco companies.

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A statewide, month long initiative to put the clamps on a Senate bill is underway. Senate Bill 463 is aimed at redirecting highway money to the state general fund. This weekend, the Kansas Contractors Association is running ads targeting lawmakers to get them to just say no. It’s called Detour Greenlight and it’s pointed to 24 legislators they believe detour, or normally vote against protecting road and bridge funding. It also names some who they say are for strong spending on roads. “To redirect the little bit of sales tax that goes into the pot to...