Joshua Bailey never got to see the end of Sunday’s Super Bowl. The party he was hosting ended in calamity, with a friend dead and the criminal justice system confirming what Bailey had predicted when he phoned 911. “I’m going to jail,” he told the dispatcher.
Kansans may have qualms about Gov. Sam Brownback's tax policy, which favors tax cuts for people with higher incomes while strangling state services and asking lower-income citizens to pay more for food and essentials. But at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, Kansas looks like the promised land.
The unwritten rule that presidential offspring are off limits in political conversation serves to obscure an important aspect of the nation’s leaders. That is, their parenting. For all the attention paid to Barack Obama’s childhood, less is made of his family life as an adult. And that’s too bad.
The legislature’s refusal to cap campaign contributions has encouraged the payday loan industry to give generously to helpful lawmakers. Another ethical failing enables legislators to move directly from lawmaking to lobbying. That’s exactly what Republican House Speaker Steve Tilley did last year. In fact, he resigned his legislative post a few months early so he could get to the lobbying trough more quickly.
