Sharice Davids on farm bill, UFO files, population decline: your week in news | Opinion

Let them out

Finally! The truth can be revealed about alien visitors to our planet. The Pentagon announced the release of hundreds of files on UFO sightings to provide “maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.” (May 9, Edition, “Pentagon releases UFO files for Americans to decide what’s real”)

Here’s an idea to help make the policies of the Trump administration consistent and to fulfill one of the president’s biggest campaign promises: The Justice Department should release the complete and unredacted Epstein files for the same reason. Let the public decide how this information should be considered.

- Larry Hamman, Lee’s Summit

No blight

I live in Emporia, Kansas, in the family home I inherited after many life-changing events. Over the last 40 years, Emporia’s population shrank from 26,000 to 24,000. Although the decline has been very slow, the city has become the unofficial unemployment capital of Kansas.

In contrast, I was afraid my old neighborhood in Liberty would be gentrified from population growth, but during a recent visit my former house and its neighborhood seemed just as humble — and a bit better kept.

It seems the upper classes moved into Liberty and built bigger houses around the older neighborhoods. So the town perhaps got gentrified indirectly, but the original neighborhoods are still around and probably benefited overall from the economic growth.

I doubt the neighborhoods around Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums will have that same experience unless something bigger than the Chiefs and Royals moves into those spaces. There is a risk they might go into a slow decline like Emporia if the stadiums stay vacant.

We didn’t go often, but I did see a few Royals and Chiefs games when we lived in Liberty. I would hate to see those stadiums become an epicenter of blight.

- Mark Valentine, Emporia, Kansas

Right vote

A May 10 letter to the editor from D.C. lobbyist Sara Amundson (18A) wrongly criticized Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids’ vote for the farm bill. Davids’ vote helps fix the impact of California Proposition 12, a law that imposes costly mandates on pork farmers in Kansas and Missouri.

Davids’ vote puts her in line with the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, which oppose Prop 12 on animal welfare grounds.

Davids’ vote also stands up for a greater principle: California shouldn’t be allowed to impose regulations on the rest of the country.

- Will Coggin, Research director, Center for the Environment and Welfare, Arlington, Virginia

Crypto plan

Most Kansans probably haven’t heard of the Clarity Act in Congress, but they should. The bipartisan Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is moving through the Senate, with the White House targeting July 4 for House passage. After more than a decade of regulatory confusion, the United States is about to write its first real rulebook for cryptocurrency.

What few Kansans realize is how much our senators have shaped it. Sen. Roger Marshall pulled back a contested amendment in January that could have stalled the bill. Sen. Jerry Moran separately co-sponsored the bipartisan SAFE Crypto Act to fight crypto fraud, citing the financial security of Kansans.

The bill puts digital commodities under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the wheat and cattle futures markets Kansas farmers know well. That means familiar oversight for Kansas agriculture technology firms, community banks and rural financial tech startups.

This law will shape how Kansas businesses and consumers engage with digital finance for years. Whether or not you own cryptocurrency, it deserves Kansans’ attention now, not after it passes.

- Talha Siddiqi, President, Kansas chapter, Stand With Crypto Alliance, Wichita

Lights out

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County has removed four-way traffic lights at the busy intersection of 10th Street and Grandview Boulevard to install a roundabout. As there are far too many drivers who often disregard stop signs, red lights and one-way and speed limit signs, a roundabout is certain to have a negative impacts (pun intended) on the safety of drivers at that location.

- Steve Maurin, Kansas City, Kansas