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Anti-Shariah law – Gov. Sam Brownback disappointed many Kansans when he signed a law that would prohibit Kansas courts or agencies from citing Shariah law. The bill was dressed up to prohibit citations of any foreign law, but everyone in the Capitol knew it was aimed at Islamic Shariah law. Some Republicans voted for the bill fearing a “no” vote would be used against them at re-election time. This fearmongering law, offensive to Muslims and many others, deserved to die in the Legislature, and if not there, on the governor’s desk. If Brownback had, indeed, acted as his much-advertised, tolerant self, the bill would not have been allowed to become law.
Winfield Daily Courier
Admissions – There’s a certain amount of irony in new requirements approved by the Kansas Legislature in an effort to improve student retention and graduation rates at state universities. The bill lowers from 10 to 5 percent the portion of students who can be admitted to the state’s three largest universities through the “exception window” for students who don’t meet normal admissions requirements. The bill also requires universities to put together individual plans for those students to help ensure they will succeed academically. The irony comes in with the bill’s provision that prohibits state funds from being used to provide any remedial courses for those students or any other students at the state’s six universities. Legislators want universities to give students the help they need, but they don’t want the state to pay for it.
Lawrence Journal-World
Gaming – Ask Dodge City how a casino has worked out. Ask the other sites in the state. A simple walk through the parking lot of any casino in the northeast corner of Oklahoma or any casino in southwest Missouri will show more Kansas license plates than one might expect. Rather than send those dollars across state borders, why not keep them in Kansas? Further, a casino or racetrack brings with it jobs and money. If Camptown in Frontenac were to open, suddenly not only would there be the scores of jobs created by the facility itself, but there would also be a greater need for dog breeders and trainers and more.
Pittsburg Morning Sun
Public prayer – Reno County commissioners were right to approve a new policy restricting prayer at their meetings to nonsectarian ones. The challenge of the county’s practice of mostly Christian prayers before meetings angered some people. But let’s face it – plenty of governmental meetings are opened without prayer, and no one notices. Arguably, invocations at government meetings are superficial anyway. Prayer is far more meaningful when done thoughtfully in private and religious settings.
Hutchinson News
Bison – If in its intermittent wisdom, Congress decides a national mammal is appropriate, the American bison – better known as the buffalo – is the easy call. We think so not just because the bison is the official mammal of Kansas, and has been since 1955. The bison also graces our state seal and our state flag and is featured on our commemorative quarter. It’s also on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s seal. As U.S. Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, said in introducing the National Bison Legacy Act into the Senate recently, “The North American bison is an enduring symbol of America, its people and its way of life.”
Manhattan Mercury
