Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has seen enough. In a terse, four-sentence news release Wednesday, the governor demanded that lawmakers end the 2013 session. “The Kansas Legislature has accomplished a great deal of work during the 2013 session,” he said.
The Obama administration confirmed for the first time on Wednesday that four Americans have died in U.S. drone strikes since 2009, but it sought to justify the killing of only one – a senior leader of al Qaida’s Yemen-based affiliate – and said nothing about the other three except to acknowledge indirectly that they’d been killed by accident.
Bridges in Kansas: D-plus. Dams in Missouri: D-minus. Overall infrastructure across both states: Does C-minus earn anyone a star? Civil engineers are tough graders. A few gathered in Kansas City on Wednesday to deliver a report card that pretty much stank.
A Senate committee issued a report showing that poor compounding practices have persisted even since last fall, when a meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroid injections killed 55 people and sickened about 700.
The City Council’s Public Safety Committee endorsed a renewal of the contract with American Traffic Solutions, the red-light camera vendor. The full council votes on the contract Thursday.
A full house crowded into the Plaza Library to debate education reform with Michelle Rhee, author of the new book “Radical.”
A proposal to relax some downtown design standards to accommodate a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market had sharply divided the city. The Board of Aldermen approved the zoning change 6-4 after a long meeting.
House Republicans turned down a plan from Republican senators that would have set the sales tax on groceries at 5.7 percent while taxing other items at 6.25 percent. The current 6.3 percent tax is scheduled by law to fall to 5.7 percent in July.
The suit by the former U.S. attorney for western Missouri was filed Monday in the district that’s home to the IRS office embroiled in a national controversy for its targeting of conservative political groups for extra scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status. He said it was the first suit to be filed in connection with the much-criticized handling of applications for 501 (c)(4) status.
Internal Revenue Service officials are not fully cooperating with efforts to learn who is responsible for targeting conservative groups, lawmakers learned Wednesday during the third and most tense, dramatic hearing on the scandal.
Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts on Wednesday cheered the Air Force’s decision to pick McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita as the home for new refueling tankers. The Air Force will make an official announcement later Wednesday morning after it informs the congressional delegations from the states involved of the decisions.
Gordon Parks Elementary School can remain open at least through June. A circuit court judge on Tuesday granted a temporary stay sought by the school after state education officials voted last week to pull the school’s charter.
House and Senate negotiators restarted tax talks on Tuesday. They plan to meet again Wednesday with hopes of reaching a compromise that could bring the legislative session to an end.
Aldermen pave the way for the store in a 3 a.m. vote after a long meeting that drew a standing-room-only crowd. The key issue was whether the city should relax design requirements in its downtown area.
U.S. Supreme Court struck down automatic life without parole for young murderers, but Missouri lawmakers failed to find an alternative.
The Republican-dominated House approved the bill on an 83-28 vote. The GOP-controlled Senate approved it last week. The measure now goes to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
The Obama administration’s timeline for who knew what and when about the Internal Revenue Service scandal changed again Tuesday with revelations that the Treasury Department and White House officials had discussed how to stage-manage the release of the explosive information. The latest revelation came as acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller told Congress that he’s responsible for the secretly planted question answered by subordinate Lois Lerner that triggered the scandal that’s now gripping the nation’s capital.
A plan by Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas to cut the food stamp program by more than $30 billion over 10 years failed Tuesday in a U.S. Senate vote. Proposed as an amendment to the Senate farm bill, Roberts’ plan was defeated 58-40.
The 2013 session of the Kansas Legislature nears an end with the chief justice of the state Supreme Court accusing a leading senator with political coercion. Meantime, efforts are picking up steam to force appellate judges into retirement and to build separate civil and criminal appeals courts.
When the Missouri Legislature adjourned its annual session this past week, the Republican majority claimed it was a successful effort – even “historic” and “monumental” – based on the measures they considered and approved. Yet if results are what matter, their success may ultimately depend upon the decisions of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
A prominent conservative Kansas legislator has launched what could become the most aggressive campaign to date to rein in the state Supreme Court after a proposal failed that would have changed how its justices are selected.
Jefferson City nightlife, Kansas envy and organized labor found success, but things were tough for Gov. Jay Nixon and House Speaker Tim Jones.
The provision says no money could be spent to implement the new standards for math and reading, which have been adopted by more than 40 states.
The $13.4 million system for revenue collection goes live June 10. It will replace a system that was close to collapse. The new system should be better for taxpayers and tax enforcement.
The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for giving extra scrutiny to conservative organizations that asked for tax-exempt status. But the scandal begs a broader question: Why are political organizations getting this government subsidy anyway?
Fred Logan will be chairman and Kenny Wilk will be vice chairman.
The bill is one Senate roll call away from the November 2014 ballot. But with only two days left before the end of the legislative session, a filibuster has put its chances in doubt. If supporters of the bill — primarily construction companies and organized labor — truly want to raise the sales tax, Republican Sen. John Lamping said, they can put the question on the ballot themselves.
A simmering standoff between the Kansas House and Senate over taxes cooled Wednesday amid a compromise extending part of a controversial addition to the state’s sales tax. House negotiators offered to extend three-tenths of a penny sales tax that was approved in 2010 to help the state limp through a recession-driven dip in revenues.
Republicans contend that new driver’s license procedures, initiated after a fraud case in St. Joseph, invade the privacy of Missourians. They send Gov. Jay Nixon a measure to stop the scanning of birth certificates and other documents.
The Missouri Senate voted 32-1 in support of a bill allowing the State Board of Education to immediately intervene in an unaccredited school district. Current law mandates that the state wait two years before taking action. Kansas City Public Schools has been unaccredited since Jan. 1, 2012.
The City Council’s Finance and Ethics Committee supports new rules that require more frequent disclosure of gifts and that call for an ethics compliance officer. The full council votes May 23 on the new ethics code.
Moving to quell a growing scandal, President Barack Obama on Wednesday fired the acting chief of the Internal Revenue Service and vowed to work closely with Congress in determining who ordered lower-level employees to target tea party groups and other conservative organizations.
Chief justice says lawmaker tied court budget to judges’ endorsement of new plan to fill vacancies on the bench, which the lawmaker denies. But selection plan is unlikely to pass because Kansas Bar Association opposes it.
Critics pounced immediately. “Why don’t they just outlaw drinking?” one bar owner said. But the National Transportation Safety Board says it would save lives. It’s just a recommendation, and the decision to adopt the new threshold would be up to individual states. There is precedent for political muscle, though.
Missouri House members have passed the bill and the Senate seems receptive to the changes they made. But only three days remain in the 2013 legislative session, so time is running short. And the long wait to get it across the finish line has left some wondering whether passage will have any real impact in the Kansas City district.
Steve Roberts of Overland Park said he used the “N-word” “clinically” during a discussion of state history standards. Several black leaders in Topeka say it was unnecessary and inappropriate.
A penny sales tax that would be dedicated to state and local transportation projects cleared the Missouri House on Tuesday, but it immediately ran into resistance in the Senate.
The University of Kansas has struggled throughout the legislative session to win support for $10 million recommended by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback for a new building to train doctors at its medical school in Kansas City, Kan. At the same time, however, lawmakers eagerly embraced the governor’s proposal to fund a new adult stem cell research center for the university.
The Internal Revenue Service asked “unnecessary, burdensome questions” of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, questions that unfairly delayed the applications, according to an investigative report obtained by McClatchy.
Taxpayers spend $1.5 billion a year to subsidize passenger train travel, and the federal government wants to move more of Amtrak’s costs onto states and riders. That means Missouri faces important decisions in the near future.
