Salon.com > Kansas http://www.salon.com Fri, 24 May 2013 21:55:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Entire Midwest on tornado warning http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 20:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13303804 According to warnings from the National Weather Service, the entire Midwest -- Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas -- can expect tornadoes on Monday afternoon. Following a tornado that killed two men in Oklahoma on Sunday, the entire Midwest is again on alert.

As USA Today reported Monday:

The weather service said it was tracking "a large and extremely dangerous tornado'' just west of Moore, Okla., which is south of Oklahoma City. The storm was moving to the northeast, and forecasters said they expected "large, destructive hail up to tennis ball size.''

... The five-state area is in the heart of a storm system hovering over the Plains and Midwest all the way to Minnesota ... More than 60 million Americans are at risk of severe storms Monday.

ABC News shows storm chasers spotting tornadoes forming in Oklahoma:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/feed/ 7 Kansas governor: It’s OK to ignore federal gun laws http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/kansas_governor_its_ok_to_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/kansas_governor_its_ok_to_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 15:57:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13290793 ProPublica As we detailed yesterday, dozens of states are considering bills that attempt to nullify federal gun laws. One such bill became a law last month in Kansas. It exempts “Made in Kansas” guns from federal regulation and makes it a crime for federal agents to enforce federal law.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently wrote to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, saying the law is “unconstitutional,” and that the U.S. is prepared to sue Kansas to prevent the state from “interfering with the activities of federal officials.”

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/kansas_governor_its_ok_to_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/feed/ 13 When gun control is a felony http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13289096 ProPublica

In mid-April, Kansas passed a law asserting that federal gun regulations do not apply to guns made and owned in Kansas. Under the law, Kansans could manufacture and sell semi-automatic weapons in-state without a federal license or any federal oversight.

Kansas’ “Second Amendment Protection Act” backs up its states’ rights claims with a penalty aimed at federal agents: When dealing with “Made in Kansas” guns, any attempt to enforce federal law is now a felony. Bills similar to Kansas’ law have been introduced in at least 37 other states. An even broader bill is on the desk of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. That bill would exempt any gun owned by an Alaskan from federal regulation. In Missouri, a bill declaring federal gun laws “null and void” passed by an overwhelming majority in the state house, and is headed for debate in the senate.

Mobilizing the pre-Civil-War doctrine of “nullification,” these bills assert that Congress has overstepped its ability to regulate guns — and that states, not the Supreme Court, have the ultimate authority to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.

The head of the Kansas’s State Rifle Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association, says she put the bill together and found it a sponsor. While the NRA regularly lauds passages of states’ gun-rights laws, it stayed silent on Kansas’ law, and, so far, has kept a low profile on nullification. (The group did not respond to our requests for comment.)

Many observers see nullification bills as pure political theater, “the ultimate triumph of symbolism over substance,” as UCLA law Professor Adam Winkler put it.  He said he doubts the laws will ever be enforced, and, if they are, expects them to be struck down by the courts.

Winkler and others say nullification laws violate the Constitution, which makes federal law “the supreme law of the land … anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” Indeed, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter last week to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, asserting that Kansas’ law is “unconstitutional.” (Brownback, who signed the bill into law, did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.)

But the growing number of such bills -- which have passed by large majorities in at least one chamber of seven state legislatures -- highlight the challenge gun control advocates face in their attempt to fight for gun regulation at the state level.

It also shows how nullification is fast becoming a mainstream option for state politicians. In Pennsylvania, 76 state legislators signed on to sponsor a measure that would invalidate any new federal ban of certain weapons or ammunition. The bill would impose a minimum penalty of one year in prison for federal agents who attempt to enforce any new law.

Supporters of nullification are not simply frustrated at what they see as congressional and presidential overreach. During a hearing about one of the nullification bills she had introduced, Tennessee State Sen. Mae Beavers called the Supreme Court a “dictatorship.”

“You think that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of any of these laws. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe it was ever granted the authority under the Constitution,” Beavers was quoted as saying in The Tennessean. (Reached by phone, she asked to comment later, then did not respond to further requests.)

The Supreme Court rejected nullification in 1958, after Southern states tried to use the concept to avoid desegregating public schools. “No state legislator or executive or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his solemn oath to support it,” the Court ruled.

Winkler, the UCLA law professor, said that even though the nullification trend was likely to be ineffectual, “It represents a strong, powerful opposition to our government.”

The concept of nullification has had a resurgence since the beginning of President Obama’s administration. More than a dozen states have introduced bills to nullify Obamacare.

The Tenth Amendment Center, a group that advocates nullification as the solution to a range of policy issues, from marijuana legalization to Obamacare, publishes model gun nullification language. The center has little direct contact with state legislators, Michael Boldin, the center’s founder, said.

The roots of guns law nullification trace back nearly a decade.

In 2004, Montana gun rights activist Gary Marbut drafted a bill stating that any guns manufactured and retained in Montana are not part of interstate commerce, and thus are exempt from federal regulation. The bill failed twice, but it became law in 2009 after Republicans took control of the statehouse. By Marbut’s count, at least eight states soon enacted “clones” of the Montana law. (Those laws don’t go quite as far as the more recent nullification legislation. For instance, most of them don’t make it a crime to enforce federal law.)

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms responded to the earlier laws with letters to local firearms dealers explaining that federal laws and regulations “continue to apply.”

The day the Montana law went into effect, Marbut filed a lawsuit in federal court asserting the right to manufacture weapons in the state without a federal license. The suit, now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, has been backed by a large group of supporters, including Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Goldwater Institute, and a group of nine attorneys general, some of them from states that had passed their own versions of the Montana law.

Representatives of Goldwater and the Cato Institute said they see the case as not primarily about guns. Instead, they say, it’s meant to persuade the Supreme Court to rollback the Congress’ power to regulate commerce within a state.

“The likelihood of victory is low,” said Trevor Burrus, a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies.

The latest set of bills — including Kansas’ new law — represent a far broader and more aggressive challenge to federal law. Even conservative organizations have been skeptical of the trend.

“A state law that criminalizes federal activity — I would oppose that as both imprudent and wrong,” Burrus said. The Cato Institute’s chairman wrote an op-ed this spring arguing this kind of nullification is invalid.

Goldwater Institute’s Nick Dranias, a constitutional expert, said the term “nullification” is sometimes applied to legitimate attempts to exert state sovereignty, “and sometimes it is essentially lawless civil disobedience.”

States should only pass laws challenging federal power "when there is a reasonable legal argument for sustaining them," he said. And the penalty for enforcing federal law in "hard cases" should be "a misdemeanor at most."

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, released a “fact sheet” last year titled “Nullification: Unlawful and Unconstitutional.” (The fact sheet does not address guns in particular.)

The Montana activist whose helped inspired the nullification movement Kansas is also a bit skeptical. While he simply chose to challenge the federal government’s commerce power, Kansas is “bucking federal power more generally,” he said.

“I think, maybe tactically, they may have gone a little further than they needed to,” Marbut said.

Though he supports the principles behind the Kansas law, “I don’t know how much of that they can uphold when it gets to the courts.”

But Marbut hopes that the rapid spread of gun law nullification bills across the country will encourage the Supreme Court to hear his case.

“I see the tide moving our way,” Marbut said. “I think the Supreme Court has figured out that the people of America are gathering their torches and pitchforks and it’s time to settle things down by reeling in the federal giant.”

A spokeswoman for Alaska Gov. Parnell, who has not either approved or vetoed the state’s nullification bill, said last month that “he is supportive of it.” But, she added, “The bill (as with all bills that pass) is currently undergoing a thorough review by the Department of Law.”

In Kansas, Patricia Stoneking, the president of Kansas State Rifle Association, said she was recommending that Kansans not start manufacturing guns under the new law until its legal status has been clarified.

Even if Kansas’ law ends up being struck down in court, “We actually are not going to roll over and play dead and say, ‘Oh, no, shame on us,’” Stoneking said. “The fight will not be over.”

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/feed/ 30 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signs sweeping anti-choice bill into law http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/kansas_gov_sam_brownback_signs_sweeping_anti_choice_bill_into_law/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/kansas_gov_sam_brownback_signs_sweeping_anti_choice_bill_into_law/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13278551 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a sweeping antiabortion omnibus bill into law, reaffirming the state's current ban on abortion at 20 weeks (without exceptions for rape or serious fetal anomalies), blocking tax breaks for abortion providers, expanding "conscience protections" for anti-choice groups and writing into state law that life begins "at fertilization."

It is, in effect, an antiabortion greatest-hits law.

At the bill's signing ceremony, the arch-conservative governor applauded the Legislature for passing the measure with sweeping margins and announced:  "All human life is sacred. It's beautiful. With this, we continue to build this culture of life in our state."

Sadly, states like Arkansas and North Dakota have moved the bar for judging antiabortion legislation so far to the right that Kansas' 20-week ban seems "modest" when compared to North Dakota's six-weeks and Arkansas' 12 weeks. But make no mistake: The Kansas law is equally dangerous for women, and still violates the accepted definition of fetal viability as defined by Roe v. Wade.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/kansas_gov_sam_brownback_signs_sweeping_anti_choice_bill_into_law/feed/ 46 Wichita throws down gauntlet to anti-abortionists http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/whats_the_matter_with_wichita_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/whats_the_matter_with_wichita_partner/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:49:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13268518 In mid-February, on the first day of lent, Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, held a small, quiet service, with a female and male pastoral team preaching about a gentle God who is slow to anger and quick to forgive.Religion Dispatches

The church, a multicolored brick building with stained glass windows that look like rolling waves, is flanked on one side by a domed Greek Orthodox church, and on the other by a field stretching out to a subdivision. Just inside its doors in 2009, 67-year-old Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the United States and an usher at his longtime church, was shot and killed by a man named Scott Roeder.

To abortion rights advocates, the murder was the tragic culmination of a decades-long campaign by abortion opponents who had stalked Dr. Tiller; barraged him with nuisance lawsuits; blockaded and bombed his clinic; shot him in both arms in a previous, failed assassination attempt; and helped inspire Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly to begin a nightly television harangue against the doctor he condemned as “Tiller the Killer.”

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/whats_the_matter_with_wichita_partner/feed/ 2 Must-see morning clip: Sodomy, zygotes and welfare http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/must_see_morning_clip_sodomy_zygotes_and_welfare/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/must_see_morning_clip_sodomy_zygotes_and_welfare/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13266770 In Tennessee, one state senator proposes cutting welfare for families that have students with poor grades. Kansas declares that life begins at fertilization.

Jon Stewart has a field day:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/must_see_morning_clip_sodomy_zygotes_and_welfare/feed/ 1 Creationism, Ayn Rand and gun control: Actual laws proposed this month http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/creationism_ayn_rand_and_gun_control_six_terrible_state_laws_proposed_this_month/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/creationism_ayn_rand_and_gun_control_six_terrible_state_laws_proposed_this_month/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13210367 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants Republicans to stop being the stupid party -- but apparently the memo hasn't gotten out to state legislatures around the country.

February has been a banner month for truly silly and anti-intellectual bills in state capitals across the country. Well, mostly across the South and Midwest. Some of these bills are based on the idea that birth control is poison, and that students should not fail for arguing in biology class that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Others would stop gun control efforts by making it a felony to try to enact gun control.

This is not the Onion: Here are some of the actual proposals.

1. Let corporations vote!

In Montana, state Rep. Steve Lavin introduced a bill that would allow corporations to vote in local elections, taking the idea that "corporations are people" to new heights.

Think Progress reports that the bill was tabled earlier this month. But under the proposal, "if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/creationism_ayn_rand_and_gun_control_six_terrible_state_laws_proposed_this_month/feed/ 167 Truman Capote’s greatest lie http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/truman_capotes_greatest_lie/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/truman_capotes_greatest_lie/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13199935 Questions about the accuracy of "In Cold Blood," the seminal 1966 "nonfiction novel" by Truman Capote, are nothing new; they bubbled up as soon as the book was published. Capote himself — who always maintained that "In Cold Blood" was "immaculately factual" — made thousands of changes (some grammatical, some factual) to the true-crime classic between its initial four-part-serial publication in the New Yorker and its appearance in book form the next year. His sources and critics have challenged aspects of the text ranging from the price of a horse to whether or not a graveside conversation that appears in the book's concluding pages ever occurred.

Two recent developments, however, shed a particularly troubling light on Capote's account of the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kan. They pertain to the search for the crime's perpetrators, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, and to an additional four murders they are suspected of committing. In the first development, the Wall Street Journal recently reported on a dispute over records of the investigation. These documents, currently in the possession of Ron Nye, were taken home years ago by his late father, Harold Nye, one of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation detectives assigned to the case.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/truman_capotes_greatest_lie/feed/ 14 Sam Brownback’s Kansas is a resort for “makers” http://www.salon.com/2013/01/27/sam_brownbacks_kansas_is_a_resort_for_makers_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/27/sam_brownbacks_kansas_is_a_resort_for_makers_partner/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13182024 Much like Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Governor Sam Brownback is busy turning Kansas into a right-wing paradise, with low wages, few public services, and reactionary social policy. Since 2010, when conservative Republicans—including Brownback—took full control of the state, Kansas has passed strict new anti-abortion laws as well as large cuts to education and mental healthcare services. And last year, Brownback signed a bill that cuts state income taxes by roughly $3.7 billion over five years, and collapses the state’s current three-bracket tax system into two brackets: 4.9 percent and 3 percent.

The American Prospect That tax cut took effect this month, and as the New York Times reports, it’s the largest reduction in Kansas history. It’s also only the beginning; this week, Kansas Republicans introduced a bill that would pare taxes further, and eventually eliminate the state’s individual income tax.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/27/sam_brownbacks_kansas_is_a_resort_for_makers_partner/feed/ 52 Kansas militia prepares for zombies http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/kansas_militia_prepares_for_zombies/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/kansas_militia_prepares_for_zombies/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:11:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13162149 "We are not crazy. We are not paranoid. We believe in preparedness in any situation,” reads the website of the Kansas Anti Zombie Militia -- a group that is deadly (wink, wink) serious about the possibility of having to fend off humans-turned-zombies.

As the Kansas City Star reported, the group has 1,500 Facebook "likes" but a core cadre of true believers. They are zombie fighters of a very modern brand, not fearing the corpses-come-alive zombies of old but preparing for the possibility, a la "28 Days Later," of humans displaying zombie-like behavior because of an epidemic of sorts. As the Star noted:

Last month, the Discovery Channel featured the Kansas militia in a documentary that concluded that such a Zombie Apocalypse — or Zompoc — was possible. The program featured scientists who speculated some evolving virus is bound to jump to humans on our overcrowded planet.

Of course, scientists have been warning about pandemics such as bird flu that don’t produce zombies, but zombies are the hot monsters right now.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/kansas_militia_prepares_for_zombies/feed/ 9 Kansas secretary of state faces recall effort http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/kansas_secretary_of_state_faces_recall_effort/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/kansas_secretary_of_state_faces_recall_effort/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031471 Kris Kobach, recently seen mulling a birther challenge to Obama's ballot eligibility, is now facing a recall effort.

Activists Sonny Scroggins and Frank Smith are behind the effort, citing Kobach's role in drafting the controversial immigration laws adopted in Arizona and Alabama as well as his push for voter ID in the state.

But Scroggins and Smith face a few obstacles to even getting a ballot measure. From John Celock of HuffPo:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/kansas_secretary_of_state_faces_recall_effort/feed/ 27 Study: Antiabortion laws inspire abuse http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/anti_abortion_laws_linked_to_provider_harassment/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/anti_abortion_laws_linked_to_provider_harassment/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13025948 "They will know your habits and routines. They know where you shop, who your friends are, what you drive, where you live," said the letter to the abortion provider. "You will be checking under your car everyday — because maybe today is the day someone places an explosive under it."

Mila Means hadn't even begun to actually provide abortions in Wichita, Kan., when Angel Dillard sent her that letter last year, claiming in court that its writing was both "divinely inspired" and protected by the First Amendment. But according to a new study in Contraception co-authored by an abortion provider in California, Kansas' draconian state laws around reproductive rights may have encouraged Dillard.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/anti_abortion_laws_linked_to_provider_harassment/feed/ 4 Kansas abortion clinic is back http://www.salon.com/2012/09/28/kansas_abortion_clinic_is_back/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/28/kansas_abortion_clinic_is_back/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13024567 In the three years since abortion provider George Tiller was murdered, his clinic has sat empty, and his murderer's gleeful declaration, "I stopped abortion in Wichita," has remained technically true. But Julie Burkhart, who used to run Tiller's political action committee and has purchased the building to open up what will be Wichita's lone clinic, doesn't want to dwell on that too much.

"We'll get into playing their game," said Burkhart from Wichita, which has been ground zero for the abortion battle since the 1991 Summer of Mercy, when the antiabortion group Operation Rescue set up camp there. "Women cannot be intimidated or bullied to the point where we're going to go off and be these good little girls and sit in the corner and wait until our name is called. Women have a right to this healthcare, and so I think that we do have to stand up to people who are small-minded and want to oppress us."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/28/kansas_abortion_clinic_is_back/feed/ 2 White supremacist arrested in Oregon http://www.salon.com/2012/09/25/white_supremacist_arrested_in_oregon/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/25/white_supremacist_arrested_in_oregon/#comments Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13021369 The Southern Poverty Law Center A white supremacist with a 10-state criminal record dating back to the 1980s was arrested in Oregon over the weekend and charged with the brutal knife killing of a recently retired man he had apparently never met.

It was extensive media coverage and the use of electronic billboards displaying the image of Erik John Meiser that apparently led Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputies and federal marshals to arrest the suspect at gunpoint Saturday outside a motel in Corvallis, Ore.

Oregonian newspaper reported in weekend editions. A conviction could result in the death penalty.

Meiser, a 37-year-old drifter who has the word “NAZI” tattooed on the fingers of his left hand and “HATE” on his right calf, was arrested 66 miles away from the upscale Portland suburb where he’s accused of committing the murder.

Friends gathered Sunday for a memorial service for Hayes, a recently retired information-technology professional who was attacked, authorities said, after he and his wife returned to their home in Lake Oswego at 6 a.m. and apparently startled a burglar.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/25/white_supremacist_arrested_in_oregon/feed/ 7 Kansas gets birther-curious http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/kansas_gets_birther_curious/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/kansas_gets_birther_curious/#comments Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13011514 The Kansas secretary of state and other Republican state officials are considering whether to take the president off of the November ballot because, they say, he might not be eligible to run.

Kris Kobach, a Tea Party Republican who is also an informal adviser to Mitt Romney, is a member of the State Objections Board. He and Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer are reviewing a complaint from Joe Montgomery, a concerned citizen, who says that the president has not adequately proven that he's a natural-born American citizen. They have put off making a final decision until Monday, and have asked Hawaii, Arizona and Mississippi for more documentation.

"I don't think it's a frivolous objection," Kobach said, as reported in the Topeka Capital-Journal. "I do think the factual record could be supplemented."

Montgomery, who filed the complaint, is not buying the long-form birth certificate President Obama released last year, saying in his complaint that Obama holds both British and Kenyan citizenship. "There is substantial evidence showing that much of Mr. Obama's alleged birth certificates have been forged or doctored, and have not been confirmed as legally valid, true and accurate."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/kansas_gets_birther_curious/feed/ 67 GOP congressman: My skinnydipping was wrong http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/rep_kevin_yoder_apologizes_for_skinnydipping_in_the_sea_of_galilee/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/rep_kevin_yoder_apologizes_for_skinnydipping_in_the_sea_of_galilee/#comments Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12987502 A Republican congressman representing Kansas has apologized for embarrassing his supporters by swimming naked at the holy site of the Sea of Galilee while on a fact-finding mission to Israel.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, 36, has not been charged in the Aug. 18, 2011, incident when he and about 20 other lawmakers and staff members jumped into the water. Politico reported Sunday that he was the only one among them who wore no clothes.

"I feel incredibly remorseful that I have caused embarrassment to my constituents and I have caused folks who believe in me to be disappointed," Yoder told The Kansas City Star Sunday night (http://bit.ly/Se9dm7 ).

Some Christians consider the Sea of Galilee a holy site because they believe Jesus walked on water there. Swimming in the lake is permitted but public nudity is not allowed, according to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

"If someone walks around the beach naked, that's an offense," Rosenfeld said, adding that no official complaint had been made against Yoder. He would not rule out charges, saying it was possible even a year after the offense was committed.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/rep_kevin_yoder_apologizes_for_skinnydipping_in_the_sea_of_galilee/feed/ 34 Kansas gets even crazier http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/kansas_gets_even_crazier/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/kansas_gets_even_crazier/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12983016 Aug. 7 was a very good night for people who want to drive safe abortion out of Kansas. Republican primary voters ousted relative moderates from the state Senate, laying the groundwork for Gov. Sam Brownback to push through his right-wing agenda, both economic and social.

The former got more attention. The election was evidence of "America's grass-roots voter rebellion," in the words of the Wall Street Journal opinion page, or it was, in the words of one ousted state senator, an example of Kansas-based Koch Industries, which threw a lot of money at the race, being "just a terrible, terrible citizen as far as I'm concerned."

But it was also about abortion, in a state that is arguably more obsessed with it than any other. And abortion foes want proper credit.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/kansas_gets_even_crazier/feed/ 55