KANSAS REFLECTOR: "Read and Reflect" Morning eNewsletter, Feb. 20, 2021

 

Morning newsletter of the Kansas Reflector

Sherman Smith | Editor in chief Good morning. "If that's the way the taxpayers want us to keep spending our money, then they need to keep voting for the people who made these terrible mistakes. If they want to spend their money on something much more productive, or even tax cuts, then they need to ask themselves, 'Why do we keep sending people like Derek Schmidt back to the attorney general's office to joust at windmills at taxpayer expense?' " — Rep. John Carmichael, a Democrat from Wichita, on decisions to pass unconstitutional legislation and defend laws after they have failed in district court

Kansas officials rack up $4M bill in defense of baseless voter fraud claim TOPEKA — The American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys want to be repaid more than $4 million for their five-year legal battle with Kansas officials who fought to restrict voter registrations under the false pretense of widespread voter fraud. The proposed price tag adds a punctuation mark to the prolonged fight over former Secretary of State Kris Kobach's signature law, which required new voters to prove their citizenship before registering to vote. Kobach suffered defeat during an embarrassing 2018 trial in federal court, and stiffed taxpayers with the bills when he was twice held in contempt and ordered to go back to law school. Nadine Johnson, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said Kobach and others who were determined to defend an unconstitutional law were to blame for the cost of the lawsuit. "That's a choice they made," Johnson said. "They can't then come back and say that it's our fault. They made that choice. You can't throw up all these roadblocks, and then complain that we're pushing through the roadblocks." The lesson for Kansas voters, she said, is "elections do matter, and the people who are in these positions wield an enormous amount of power that can have a considerable effect on taxpayer spending." Read more.

Why it's not painful for me to keep talking to Kansans about my daughter’s murder Opinion from LaTonya Boyd, a Topeka-based volunteer with the Kansas chapter of Moms Demand Action and a member of the Everytown Survivor Network: I think about my daughter's murder every day. To heal and create change, Kansans must remember those taken by gun violence. Read more.

Small town Kansas takes on big problem of deafening railroad engine horns Robin Macy and Mike Mackay have worked for years to organize and finance a "quiet zone" for rail traffic at Belle Plaine in south-central Kansas. New safety infrastructure will allow BNSF Railways to stop blowing of horns at traffic crossings in the town. Read more. Amid ‘wild west’ of college recruiting, bill could allow college athlete pay for name, image and likeness Representatives of several Kansas universities support a bill allowing collegiate student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness as soon as 2022. Read more.

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