Salon.com > Kansas

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signs sweeping anti-choice bill into law

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000

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.

Wichita throws down gauntlet to anti-abortionists

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:49:00 +0000

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.

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.”

Must-see morning clip: Sodomy, zygotes and welfare

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:15:00 +0000

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:

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Creationism, Ayn Rand and gun control: Actual laws proposed this month

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:26:00 +0000

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."

Truman Capote’s greatest lie

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:45:00 +0000

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.

Sam Brownback’s Kansas is a resort for “makers”

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

Kansas militia prepares for zombies

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:11:00 +0000

"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.

Kansas secretary of state faces recall effort

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:48:00 +0000

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:

Study: Antiabortion laws inspire abuse

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:50:00 +0000

"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.

Kansas abortion clinic is back

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:43:00 +0000

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."

White supremacist arrested in Oregon

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:22:00 +0000

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.

Kansas gets birther-curious

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:00:00 +0000

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."

GOP congressman: My skinnydipping was wrong

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:43:00 +0000

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.

Kansas gets even crazier

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000

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.