Barbara Shelly
May 2

Low-wage, risky work soils fashion sold here

You’ll find the same apparel at any number of stores in any number of cities worldwide — cheap clothes made by workers who labor for low pay and often in deadly conditions to enable recreational shopping in wealthier nations.

Editorial
May 2

Missouri and Kansas lawmakers are hard at work for the gun lobby

Both legislatures have been blatantly disrespectful of the federal government, of law enforcement officers and of the union itself. They have shown callous disregard for the many families who have lost loved ones to gun violence and who want to see reasonable safety measures enacted.

Editorial
May 1

Yes, TIF promises actually can come true

Sometimes taxpayer-subsidized projects work out just as advertised. Putting SummitWoods Crossing in Lee’s Summit on the full tax rolls will provide an extra $4.8 million a year in sales tax and property tax revenues for taxing jurisdictions.

Editorial
May 1

Close Guantanamo now, end indefinite detentions

The Constitution Project determined that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” Given that dishonor, continuing to operate the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, only deepens the damage already inflicted on the nation’s laws and values.

As I See It
April 30

Restricting immigration will not help Kansas

“Associating illegal immigration with the Boston bombing and one terrorist incident shows that Kobach was trying to capitalize on people’s fear,” Jessie Bullock writes of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s recent testimony to a U.S. Senate committee. “… How much longer does Kobach intend to drive Kansas down the wrong path?”

ROBERT REICH
April 30

We should pay no mind to the new xenophobes

Immigration reform shouldn’t be confused with national security in any event. The main purpose of reforming our outmoded immigration laws is to do what’s right and give the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America a path to citizenship.

Editorial
April 30

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in fiscal netherworld

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback appears increasingly detached from the fiscal realities he has imposed on his state. Thanks to the disastrous moves to severely roll back income tax rates, the state remains strapped with painful fiscal choices.

Editorial
April 30

The high costs of cheap clothing

Poorly paid Third-World workers are dying — literally — to produce low-cost clothing that’s sold at leading retailers around the United States and the world. The latest tragedy to strike the low-wage garment industry in Bangladesh was also one of the most horrific in years.

Commentary
April 30

Celebrity should come with humility

If you ever find yourself asking, “Do you know who I am?” it’s a pretty good indicator that you are not, in fact, as famous as your hired sycophants and (and your ego) have led you to believe. If it is necessary to call attention to your fame, you may not be all that famous to begin with. Reese Witherspoon is the latest celebrity to learn this.

Editorial
April 28

Release child abuse records in Missouri

Attempts by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration to avoid releasing records involving child abuse incidents are amateurish and deceptive, and must stop. When a child is harmed, the public deserves to know whether the harm could have been prevented.

Editorial
April 28

It’s about time we took issue with this word

But soon the little word was squirting all over the place and the original irony was lost and what you have now is a weak, flaccid, cringing indirectness. The linguistic real estate once held by once-proud problems has been almost fully engorged by a wimpy upstart.

Lewis W. Diuguid
April 28

Children need a vision of a brighter future

“If you don’t have a vision that drives you, compels you, almost anything that gets in front of you can derail you,” Leo Morton, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s first black chancellor, says of the challenges African-Americans still face. “That’s what missing in the life of kids today.”