Opinion Line (Jan. 31)

Iowans are feeling the love on these cold winter nights from all the presidential candidates as the caucuses draw near. On Tuesday Iowa will revert to flyover country.

Can we build a wall between Donald Trump and the rest of us, and make him pay for it?

I’m definitely voting for Bernie Sanders. After working my whole life and paying taxes, I want all the free stuff he’s promising. It’s time I got back what I have put in for all the corporate, lazy and just plain stupid takers in the U.S.

I grieve for the United States. People have lost touch with what it means to be a free people. They clamor for government to fix everything, when all it does is make things worse while appropriating more power and control over the citizenry. Wake up, people.

With Rep. Mike Pompeo’s recent push to significantly expand the NSA’s data collection practices, it is now more apparent than ever that he disrespects an individual’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

The FBI just arrested Samy Mohammed Hamzeh for allegedly plotting to bomb a Masonic temple in Milwaukee. It looks like Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn was correct and his antagonists wrong.

Wichita had 25 armed robberies in the first three weeks of the year, and they say the jobs lost since the recession won’t return here for five more years. Don’t tell me there isn’t some correlation.

I hope our City Council stays on top of the promise that the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market closing at 13th and Oliver will not cost city taxpayers. Right. More likely another TIF district where the taxpayers get screwed when the business pulls out.

The 13th and Oliver development is another example of a government getting involved in private business dealings about which it is clueless. The project will cost the city nothing only if the developers remain solvent and honor their commitments.

It is sad that some low-income people in Wichita will have to travel farther to buy groceries, then pay a 7.5 percent tax on food. Do we have the city and state leadership to solve these problems, or are they leaving it to food pantries and charitable dining halls?

The instances of illegal voting in Kansas listed by Kris Kobach show that he might as well be wandering around in the dark searching for Bigfoot. Kansas is a red state anyway. With all his spare time, Kobach could be making a difference as a volunteer.

Either WSU president John Bardo is a genius for building the new Innovation Campus, or we are losing a large amount of treasured green space for naught. Time will tell, but I’m sure missing the beautiful golf course corner.

I think we should have better diversity when it comes to the Oscars, just like I think we need more diversity in the NFL and NBA.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Opinion Line (Jan. 31)."