Sam Brownback links (Kansas City Star) Brownback returns campaign gift: Sen. Sam Brownback returned a check from a top contributor to his budding presidential campaign after learning that the donor is under investigation for illegal insider trading. Emanuel Friedman, a Washington-based investment manager, contributed $5,000 in June to Restore America, the Kansas Republican’s political action committee.(Fort Worth Star-Telegram) Wright bill to be filed in Senate:A Nevada senator plans to file a bill to repeal the Wright Amendment in the U.S. Senate today, a move that will intensify the drive to lift restrictions at Dallas Love Field. John Ensign, a Republican and a member of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, said in April that he planned to challenge the amendment. In a news conference today, Ensign will be joined by two high-profile supporters: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-K (Houston Chronicle) Bush’s gala has intimate air: Stodgy Washington loves a little glamour, and President Bush on Monday stayed up past his bedtime to deliver, hosting a glitzy formal dinner at the White House for the visiting prime minister of India. … Among those on hand for the invitation-only event were House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, journalists Fred Barnes and David Brooks, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Mukesh Ambani, group chairman of Reliance Industries. (Human Events commentary) Reform Tax Code with Parents Tax Relief Act: Carlson believes the Parents Tax Relief Act (HR 3080, S 1305), recently introduced by Rep. Lee Terry (R.-Neb.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.), would rectify discrimination against families with children in the federal tax code. “The Parents Tax Relief Act would return us to a 1940s-style system,” says Carlson, who asserts PTRA is the most important pro-family bill to be introduced in decades.(Intellectual Conservative commentary) An Opportunity for Conservative Senators: There are, of course, some reasons Senate conservative activism might not be as viable today as in 1993-96. For one, right-wing firebrands would be revolting against their own president and party leadership instead of Bill Clinton. Second, Gramm was able to credibly threaten Dole’s conservative credentials because he was widely considered a top-tier candidate in a way that the senators best-positioned to follow in his footsteps — Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum — are not.Pat Roberts links (Time, via CNN) Life after the leak: Her adversaries say Plame and Wilson are exaggerating the damage. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said last week that Plame could hardly have been under deep cover if she was openly driving to work every day at CIA headquarters. “She was done,” says one senior Republican Senate aide, when asked if Plame’s career had been hurt. “She’d had her two kids, she’d come back to headquarters. And how do you maintain your cover when your husband is saying I was sent on a mission by the CIA?”Dennis Moore links (Kansas City Nursing News) Current nursing forecast calls for a ‘Perfect Storm’: Faculty shortages, tough working conditions and money were among the topics on the table at a public meeting on local and national nursing shortages led by U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore July 7 at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. The congressman led a panel of area nursing school administrators, a hospital representative and a member of a metropolitan health care council in front of a full house, largely made up of nurses. His wife, Stephene, a registered nurse, introduced the panel.How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation here.