Global warming, Big 12 coverage, KCI

Humanity was wrong in doubting the theories of Copernicus and Galileo. So, are people also wrong about global warming?

The first thing that needs to be addressed in the immigration debate is the “anchor baby” rule. Read up on it.

The immigration issue has been hurting the Canadian government’s budget.

I am sympathetic to people living in poor countries and wanting a better life. But it is to the point that we need to take care of our own and get our budget in check.

I was so excited along with others to get The Star on Sunday morning in anticipation of seeing the Iowa State Cyclones splashed on the front page of the Sports Daily. However, I was extremely disappointed to see your main story dealt with KU basketball and had a large picture of Bill Self.

At first glance, I didn’t even see the small picture with the small side column that continued on B10 regarding the Big 12 championship game.

The Big 12 Tournament was an enormous event for Kansas City that people looked forward to for months. Not to mention the millions of dollars fans pumped into the local economy.

And you chose to run that article as your lead?

In my opinion, you put the spotlight on the wrong local sports story. The light should shine on the champions, regardless of who won the tournament.

Undoubtedly, the Iowa State Cyclones deserved that special spot.

SOS signals should go to parents and other advocates of education. Our children’s future is getting dimmer.

Our Kansas Legislature is hollowing out the teachers’ retirement program. The domino effect means that crucial kids will fall.

Ask yourself: Would you be interested in becoming a teacher? They are historically underpaid and now are being undermined by our state lawmakers.

We prefer teachers who love kids, are inspired and feel valued. Attracting quality teachers is vital.

Investing in Kansas kids pays big dividends. They are our seed corn, and poorly tended seeds fail to reach their potential.

What is the matter with the people we’ve elected to work in our best interests? Whose interests are they serving? Not the kids’.

Please bolster our good schools and good teachers. Both are essential in our seed corn attaining success.

We Kansans want first-rate opportunities for our kids. We also want our folks in Topeka to rethink the direction they are heading.

I cringed when I read about the Kansas City chief executives who think we need a new Kansas City International Airport to boost their business. I am not going to get any benefit from a new airport, only a larger price to fly and a huge hassle getting in or out of Kansas City by air.

The airlines clearly stated that they did not think a new airport was necessary. I am so fed up with politicians trying to shove stuff down our throats.

I am also fed up with my tax dollars being spent on all the committees, commissions and meetings on this issue that the voting public clearly does not want.

I will not vote in favor of spending money on a new airport. However, I would support fixing the infrastructure on our current one.

I have no doubt that Lee Judge will catch hell for his March 14 cartoon about the Bible and evolution. But, in my opinion, it’s just about his best one ever.

After watching several of the Conservative Political Action Conference speakers recently, I thought that if these people did not have the president of the United States to demean, hate and make fun of they would have had nothing to contribute to this country.

I didn’t hear plans or cures for any of the things facing this country or its people. Their goals are to just tear down the president, break unions, beat on teachers and privatize the U.S. Postal Service and everything else they can get their hands on.

No health care, no minimum wage, no unemployment insurance extension, and I could go on and on about what they are against. They have no answers, just complaints.

If they don’t get a spine and stand up to the tea party supporters, they will do away with the Republican Party. The real tea party stood for something called taxation without representation from the British.

We now are taxed and are supposed to be represented by those we elect. Most of those we have elected now only seem to listen to the lobbyists who have been hired to represent the ones with the most money and power.

These speakers are against everything to help the country and are for themselves only.

I want Kansans to put an end to zippers. These things are dangerous.

Zippers are not accepted by some cultures for reasons of “worldly appearances” as they try to maintain a simple lifestyle.

If legislators were to outlaw zippers, I think we’d all sleep a little better at night.

I want to thank the personnel at the Kansas City area rental car company for renting my previously estranged brother a new Dodge van recently. He suffers from dementia, walks wobbly with a cane and basically looks and smells like a homeless man.

While driving this vehicle, he got lost in the Joplin area. He also was trying to find my house in Prairie Village on another day, became lost and locked his keys in the vehicle.

He then apparently knocked on a door asking for help. Eventually the Prairie Village Police Department was called, and he was taken to jail.

Before this, he had been picked up wandering at an Independence Wal-Mart, with the Independence Police Department being called, and he was taken to a hospital.

For humanitarian reasons, I have asked the rental car company for a refund of charges to his debit card. May someone be as kind to the families or loved ones of people at the rental car company should something so horrid befall them.

I can’t understand why the weather people on television make long-range forecasts. They are wrong the majority of the time.

I do get a laugh that they make excuses as to why they were wrong and then have the audacity to say they are the most accurate forecasters on TV.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m going to stick to my sister’s arthritic left knee.

It gives a far more accurate forecast.

SB 392 is a revision of a law passed 27 years ago called the Kansas Pet Animal Act. Twenty-seven years ago, this law was inadequate in protecting companion animals who often suffer lives in wire cages at the hands of breeders.

The law has not been touched since the 1980s. Kansas ranks third in the country, behind Missouri and Ohio, for the number of breeders with egregious, repeated violations of animal welfare laws.

As a veterinarian medicine student and former animal shelter employee, I have seen firsthand the heartbreak that families experience after buying sick dogs from puppy mills. I have also seen the cost these dogs have to shelters and taxpayers.

Sen. Larry Powell’s amendments would require no licensing or inspection of U.S. Department of Agriculture kennels and change the definition of hobby breeder to anything under 20 breeding females and their litters.

Those kennels would no longer be licensed or inspected.

It’s a ludicrous proposal that would push us back to the time when the breeders were getting national attention for their poor and cruel treatment of animals in Kansas.

This story was originally published March 18, 2014 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Global warming, Big 12 coverage, KCI."