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Mayor Mark Funkhouser and his wife, Gloria Squitiro
In the old days, diaries came with locks and keys to keep their contents safe from prying eyes.
General Motors emerged from bankruptcy so quickly it surprised even President Obama, who had expected the process to take up to three months. Instead it took about 40 days. Now a reborn GM, shorn of much of its debt load, has a good chance to break into the clear and succeed.
Texas is famously known as a state not to be messed with. But the Lone Star State is carrying bravado too far with its legal challenge to Kansas’ designation as the future site of a coveted National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. After a meticulous, three-year selection process, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in December selected Manhattan, Kan., as the future location of the $523 million facility. The lab will work on protecting the nation’s agricultural industry from a potential terrorist attack on livestock.
To work for Americans, our nation’s health care delivery must become more fair, efficient and transparent. Across the political spectrum, there is wide agreement about these goals.
Healthy and insured, George Baggett didn’t figure on becoming a walking exhibit in the case against the U.S. health care system. But at age 60, tests revealed a blocked coronary artery. Baggett checked into St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City and had a stent installed.
The faults of the U.S. health care system are well documented. We spend more of our collective income on medical bills than any country on earth, but we are less healthy than citizens of many other nations. Less talked about is the positive impact of comprehensive health care reform.
Canceling the Tour of Missouri bike race is a bad idea. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon should release the funds. The suggestion was perhaps understandable: The Department of Economic Development needed budget cuts, and $1.5 million for a bike race might look like a luxury in tough times.
Long-festering environmental problems at the proposed Citadel Plaza development in southeast Kansas City provide a shameful portrait of the developer and city officials. The Community Development Corp. of Kansas City so far has failed to carry out a 2007 asbestos cleanup settlement with the state attorney general’s office. City Manager Wayne Cauthen’s staff and City Council members haven’t pressed hard enough for the environmental work to be completed at Citadel Plaza. The city also botched the job of cutting weeds and picking up trash in the area near 63rd Street and Prospect Ave.
Raytown is the largest area city that has refused to approve a smoke-free ordinance for public places. Fortunately, Raytown has the potential to shed the image that comes with such a backward approach to a key health issue. A citizens committee is holding hearings on potential smoke-free measures and is on pace to send a proposal to the Board of Aldermen by summer’s end.
In Ghana tonight, the streets are lined with flashy new billboards of their new president and of ours. It’s part of the hoopla and glory that has the West African nation standing tall as the first sub-Saharan nation to host President Barack Obama. In Kenya, meanwhile, home to Obama’s late father, politicians are carefully snuffing out talk that it’s a calculated snub. But the snub is deserved.
Looks like Harry S. Truman is heading back to Congress. While it may only be in statue, it’s about time the Man from Missouri represented the state again.
As the strength of pervious concrete improves, it should become a bigger part of this nation’s reliance on green solutions to clean up environmental problems.
For weeks, officials from the city and Jackson County have been asking the Police Department to commit to being part of the regional jail project under construction downtown. A decision is urgently needed.
Airlines initiated baggage fees last year as a reaction to spiraling energy costs. At the time, the fees mostly made sense to a public which had seen gasoline prices soar from $2.50 a gallon to $4. But those costs didn’t fall again with gas prices. Instead they’ve become a major new revenue stream for airlines. Baggage charges raised about $1 billion in 2008 and are expected to generate close to $2 billion this year.
U.S.-Russian relations are going through a rough patch, but fortunately that hasn’t prevented President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev from signing a preliminary agreement calling for substantial cuts in both countries’ nuclear stockpiles. The pact will serve as a roadmap for more detailed talks on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Here’s a dose of sad reality on the heels of another Independence Day: America, the world’s shining beacon of democracy, does about as bad a job registering voters as any democracy on Earth.
A well-organized plan to tap into the rich history of the Civil War in this region is making progress, and deservedly so.
If dreaming up future ideas for The Kansas City Star's editorial page sounds good, consider this offer.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 A DECLARATION
It’s easy to make July 4 more about fireworks than freedom. But in many places around the world, the liberties we enjoy do not exist. It’s worth remembering the plight of citizens elsewhere who dream of freedoms now denied. Consider just four nations:
The spectacle of a public safety agency not fully disclosing its actions to its own city leaders provides yet more evidence that the Missouri General Assembly in 2010 should eliminate state control of the Police Department.
The police got caught making a questionable purchase in tough economic times, then didn’t want the public to see the evidence. Thanks to the Aviation Department, that plan failed.
There’s jubilation in the streets of Iraq this week as U.S. forces turn over control of the cities to Iraqi forces. Iraqis see the move as a step toward full independence. American efforts that made this milestone possible should not be underestimated.
Downtown’s makeover into a more dynamic place to live, work and play was a long time coming. Civic leaders spent years pulling together plans and funding for the new entertainment district and the Sprint Center.
Much of Bernard Madoff’s 150-year sentence was appropriately symbolic. Since he is already 71, even a sentence of 15 or 20 years would have meant he’d likely die in prison. But U.S. District Judge Denny Chin rightly sought to send a message to any who might be inclined to follow in Madoff’s footsteps. Madoff not only stole the savings of his clients, he subverted the trust that’s essential to the proper functioning of the financial markets.
The battle over how to use more than $1 million of public funds created by a midtown Kansas City tax increment financing project appeared to reach a reasonable conclusion earlier this month. But the victory apparently is not yet complete.
Executions in Missouri are on hold — again. Any delay is to be applauded. The death penalty is expensive and impossible to mete out fairly. It is simply a flawed public policy.
Following a (barely) failed recall, Mayor Mark Funkhouser now must meet the challenge of providing more focused, more effective leadership for Kansas City. But there are more troubles at City Hall than just a bumbling mayor.
The Missouri Housing Development Commission should move quickly to toughen conflict-of-interest standards and other policies governing how the agency handles its affairs and spends money. The commission — which provides low-interest loans to developers, helps find housing for the homeless and aids first-time home buyers — was severely criticized in a recent report by state Auditor Susan Montee.
The Missouri National Guard is showing the way forward in Afghanistan. The Guard’s 61-member Agri-Business Development Team is over there helping farmers better fertilize, irrigate and store crops, despite fighting raging in its vicinity.
Garden Valley Nursing & Rehab
Superior Door Service, Inc.
