To the editor:Headlines and debates have abounded after news of the new Iran treaty.  Matters of control, inspection, research, monitoring and verification are pointed out as vulnerabilities and risks. (Can any treaty eliminate risks?) We with thousands of bombs hold an incomparable advantage ...

To the editor: I remember listening to a distinguished panel of historians discuss how the genius of our founding fathers was their understanding that power WOULD be abused. Transparency along with checks and balances were their attempts to address this human failing.Gov. Brownback, Secretary ...

To the editor:Kansas’ secretary of state has worked tirelessly to eliminate the ten or so cases of voter fraud that show up in Kansas elections, although disenfranchising thousands of Kansans as collateral damage. His zeal to protect the sanctity of the ballot led the legislature to ...

To the editor:There has been a lot of buzz around the”affordable housing” problem in Lawrence, but people are ignoring the other factor, which is income.Census data show Lawrence has an excess of available housing except for $400 or below which essentially means “free housing.” I ...

The U.S. egg industry is reeling from a colossal outbreak of avian flu, mostly among egg-laying chickens. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 48 million birds, accounting for 11 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hens, have been slaughtered for fear of infection during the past ...

To the Editor:Much is being made of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour (KC this week). Before leaping on this bandwagon, consider the “laws of Unintended Consequences.”Kansas tax burdens raise the employer cost to around $17/hr.Daycare facilities will have to raise prices, cut hours, ...

To the editor:I am glad to hear that the City Commission is considering other plans for the new police station. One proposal is to remodel the Riverfront mall. Although this would be a less expensive improvement over the original plan, the area is too congested and I question the single ...

To the Editor:Westar Energy has proposed increasing the fixed customer charge on our residential electric bills from $12 to $27 by 2020, as part of Westar’s current rate increase proposal to the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC). Westar has also proposed a complicated set of three ...

To the editor: As a long-time bicyclist, I think bicycle lanes are dangerous, because they encourage bicyclists to ride in the street. Every time I have been hit, or nearly hit, by cars while I was riding in the street, and the cars bothered to stop, the drivers all said the same thing: “I ...

To the editor:Celebrating the Fourth — or not!In Lawrence, Kansas, on the Fourth of July, 2015, by my most unscientific of calculations, an American flag flew, on average, one per city block. I’m 80 and tend to forget more often than I care to admit. I didn’t forget this one! What is ...

Jeb Bush said people need to work more hours and if we rid ourselves of Obamacare those who labor for minimum wage could work longer and harder! Also that the nation cannot continue to pay the entitlements that people are receiving now. I assume he must mean Medicare and Medicaid or veterans ...

I stated in my letter (July 11) that John Brinkley was governor of Kansas. It should have been almost governor. He was a write-in candidate, won the popular vote, but lost when election officials tossed out enough votes with misspellings, an undotted “i” in his name, and not writing the ...

To the editor: Richard Aronoff manages to pack an astonishing amount of self-serving enthnocentric confusion into a short letter (July 11).He thinks the Confederate flag is “coming down.” Mostly wrong. It is coming down over government property. It remains very much up and constitutionally ...

Regarding Doug Burger’s letter (July 3) about Kansas and moving to California, I hope he has truly investigated California before he spends money to move here. If he has truly looked into California then he knows we have the highest income tax rates in the U.S. and the highest gas tax with ...

In response to Tim Hamill’s letter (July 7), let me clarify the connection I see between the East Ninth Street project and displacement of local artists: It is gentrification. By emphasizing place, the project by its very nature will affect homes and businesses in the vicinity.If the project ...

To the editor:Kevin Groenhagen’s letter (7/7/15) implying that Kansas isn’t as bad as other states and that non-Kansans don’t say negative things about it flies in the face of facts. The impact of Governor Brownback’s inspired tax policies on our schools, as one example, was satirized ...

To the editor,More than a half century ago, a high school journalism teacher told me that newspapers thrive on two things, free press and paid advertising.Mr. Whitehead decries the recent Hobby Lobby ad as going against the separation of church and state that is “very much the position of the ...

To the editor: Now that the Confederate flag is coming down or being banned all over the country because a segment of the population considers it offensive, does that mean that the Gay Pride flag should come down because there are people who find that flag offensive?It’s a shame that the ...

To the editor:Jennifer Kimball Brown makes a good point in her letter to the editor (“Valued artists,” Public Forum, July 1). A jury with a bias for bicoastal versus midwestern art would be very unfair to the locals. Choosing a selection committee without some kind of bias would be very ...

To the editor:I was taken aback Sunday morning when I opened my Journal-World and found a blatantly religious advertisement from the owners of Hobby Lobby, the Green family of Oklahoma City.  The fact that this was an “advertisement” was presented in very small, barely readable text.These ...