Douglas County is blessed in many ways, and one of them, currently, is that it is predisposed to growth. We should be thankful the things that keep Douglas County leaders awake at night are different than the nightmares in most Kansas counties. Here, we fret over downtown Lawrence not having ...
As evidenced by their support for mental health care and social services in general, Douglas County commissioners certainly are kindhearted. But they aren’t always business-minded. That was highlighted in their regrettable decision to seemingly forgo a search process to find the next county ...
More bad news at the Lawrence Community Shelter shouldn’t lead to yet another discussion about how much more money local governments should give to the shelter. It should lead to a more in-depth discussion about what local governments can do beyond money to help the shelter, which provides a ...
For heaven’s sake, think about the home-grown tomatoes. When Lawrence city commissioners met last Tuesday to consider a unique affordable housing project, they were met with a variant of that argument. Commissioners were being asked to approve a zoning category that would allow for homes to ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. Democrats in deep-red Kansas face lofty challenges at the polls but remain determined to make inroads. They were re-energized by the recent elections of Gov. Laura ...
You don’t have to hate guns to like the idea of background checks on people looking to purchase firearms. With the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, that is a sentiment worth remembering. National polls routinely find more than 90% of Americans support background ...
Congratulations to all involved in hosting another successful Douglas County Fair. The festivities at the fairgrounds near 19th and Harper streets concluded on Saturday. The more than weeklong event featured hundreds of 4-H members showing their summer projects, and probably included more ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. The Kansas Department for Children and Families’ recent suggested guidance about how child placement agencies handle LGBTQ youths in their care strikes us as good ...
In the world of ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, college success is largely about how wicked your crossover dribble is or how great your shooting stroke from behind the 3-point arc. For many of the rest of us who don’t sit on the sidelines for a living, our list of college success ...
To the uninformed, pragmatism does sound like a condition that requires a trip to the doctor and a strong prescription. Maybe that is why most modern politicians avoid it. Pragmatism, of course, isn’t a disease. It is a philosophy that embraces practical approaches to problems and affairs. ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. Oh, for the good old days, when crowds at Trump campaign events merely chanted calls for the imprisonment of a political adversary. “Send her back!” invokes the ...
Local elected leaders deserve some credit for how they have addressed property taxes this budget season. Lawrence city commissioners appear to be on track to hold the property tax rate steady in the upcoming 2020 budget. Douglas County commissioners have committed that they will limit a rate ...
At a joint meeting of Lawrence city commissioners and school board members last week, a debate broke out on whether there is value in local police officers serving as resource officers in the community’s public schools. At the same time that meeting was underway, construction crews were ...
It is still early, but you already can start to hear the Rock Chalk chant rise for the football season now that star running back Pooka Williams has been reinstated to the team. If you remember, Williams had been suspended for seven months while a criminal case alleging that he grabbed the ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. Kansans have plenty of cause to be proud of Bob Dole, the Republican stalwart who made his mark as an extraordinary public servant. The Russell native spent most of ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. If history is any guide, Kansas’ U.S. Senate seat held by the retiring Pat Roberts since 1997, and by Republicans for a century, should be the GOP’s to lose in ...
Understanding the true costs and benefits of a community regulation on plastic and paper bags is a lot like walking around with a sack on your head — there are lots of things that are difficult to see. City commissioners should keep that in mind as they consider a recommendation by the ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. Kansas has made smart infrastructure investments in disaster mitigation, saving the state well over a billion dollars, according to a study from The Pew Charitable ...
Editor’s Note: Views from Kansas is a regular feature that highlights editorials and other viewpoints from across the state. Kansas’ plan to add meningitis and hepatitis A to the list of required vaccinations for school-age children was met last week with passionate objection from a group ...
As Lawrence city commissioners consider increasing their pay from $9,000 a year to $38,000 a year, here’s a statistic they may want to consider: The median earnings for a Lawrence resident with a full-time job is $42,700. What are we trying to say if we begin paying city commissioners ...