
Officials survey Greensburg devastation
Here are today’s headlines from the Kansas congressional delegation:Greensburg(National Review commentary) Blown Away? By the next day, U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and the state’s two Republican congressmen, Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, were on the ground. The media were, too; the Wichita Eagle’s reporters started a blog to keep up with events. By lunchtime Saturday, the story was everywhere. I saw my first video coverage on French television. By Sunday morning President Bush was releasing federal emergency aid to the region. The state’s governor, Kathleen Sebelius, arrived Sunday evening to take a look around and offer consolation to the town’s residents, many of whom were housed ten miles from where Greensburg had been, in the gym of the high school in little town called Haviland. The refugees nearly doubled the town’s population, which is normally around 600. By the time you read this Monday morning, Sen. Sam Brownback will be in the area, no doubt echoing what Bush had told reporters in Washington for whom the tornado in Greensburg was as remote as one of those planet-sized storms on the surface of Jupiter: “There’s a certain spirit in the midwest of our country, a pioneer spirit that still exists, and I’m confident this community will be rebuilt.”(AFP) Bush vows to help rebuild tornado-hit Kansas town: “It is no understatement or overstatement to say that this town has been wiped off the face of the earth,” Senator Pat Roberts, who toured the area on ground and from the air with other Kansas lawmakers, told CNN. “This is just as bad as it gets.”(Topeka Capital-Journal) Moran says FEMA ready to help town: Dramatic, breathtaking and widespread. That is how Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., described the destruction of Greensburg on Saturday after a tornado decimated the southwest Kansas town Friday night. Moran represents Kansas’ 1st Congressional District, which includes Kiowa County, where Greensburg is the county seat. He was joined on the ground by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and fellow Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., whose district includes Wichita. Moran arrived in Greensburg on Saturday morning and walked the streets to find an uninhabitable, eerie scene. “Except for law enforcement and emergency personnel, the town is deserted,” he said. “It’s a very disturbing picture.” Rep. Nancy Boyda (D) !(Topeka Capital-Journal) Cardinal moves Adams equipment to Mexico: About 25 people protested Friday as Cardinal Brands moved equipment and jobs from its Adams Business Forms plant in Topeka to Mexico. The protesters weren’t visible to most downtown motorists because they were located on the north side of Adams Business Forms on S.W. 2nd Street between S.W. Jackson and S. Kansas Avenue. Protesters watched as the company moved equipment out of a north wall. … Second District Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., said she couldn’t blame Cardinal Brands for sending jobs to Mexico. She said the United States and Mexico need common labor safety standards to create a level playing field.Rep. Jerry Moran (R) !(49abcnews.com) Moran fighting ID issuance plan: Driving hours away from home just to get a driver’s license. That’s what Congressman Jerry Moran says could be in the future, and he wants to keep that from happening. The Department of Homeland Security was considering plans to change the rules regarding who can and cannot issue driver’s licenses and state IDs. Moran stood next to several boxes of petitions signed by more than 81,000 Kansans opposing the measure. He plans to take those signatures with him back to Washington DC.Etc.(KC Star) Science lessons squeezed by NCLB focus on reading, math: In their quest to meet the math and reading targets of No Child Left Behind, some elementary teachers say they’re finding that they have to leave science behind. And that worries experts who say science was getting short shrift in grade school – the very time when children are most likely to get excited about the subject – even before the federal law intensified the focus on math and reading. “If kids don’t have good experiences with a subject early on, when it becomes elective they won’t choose it,” said Iris Weiss, president of Horizon Research, a Chapel Hill, N.C.-based firm that consults on science and math education. The concerns come as No Child Left Behind is due to be reauthorized. U.S. Reps. Dennis Moore, a Democrat representing Kansas’ 3rd District, and Jerry Moran, a Republican from the state’s 1st District, will have a news conference today to report what they have heard from constituents about the federal law.