Local newspaper points out developer’s campaign contribution

From

Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

The Wichita Eagle came out with an article that shows just how much money the local developers put into local campaigns. It is no secret that land developers have had the city council in their back pocket and this is how they do it.
Of the Developers Dave Burk has backed Mayor Carl Brewer, because of his use of local funding for downtown redevelopment. Brewer also got support from David Wells, co-founder of Key Construction.
Burk and his wife gave three contributions of $500 each to Pete Meitzner, District 2; Joshua Blick, District 4; and Jeff Longwell, District 5.
Wells and his wife gave $1,000 to Blick and Longwell and $1,500 to Meitzner.

Steve Clark, real estate developer, gave $500 each to Stevens and O'Donnell.
Other business people have contributed to campaigns and some with equal or greater value. But the real estate and developers seem to get the most out of local Government and the common people get the least. We get fewer parks, less money for libraries and road work for developers gets a higher priority than the rest of the city’s citizens. When it comes to problems of homelessness, It’s hard to tell this city even has a government.
Big money messes up all our elections so it is no surprise that people need land developers income to get elected here in Wichita.

Wichita didn’t want the casino—Mulvane does—let them have it

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

 

It’s amazing how Kansas Legislators can dance around a bill and not really talk about it. House Resolution 6015 is such a bill. It threatens to shut down a planned casino project in Mulvane. Hundreds of construction jobs will be lost and hundreds of permanent jobs will be lost as well. Chances are that those stopping it are doing so for religious purposes, even though few if any legislators will admit that.
According toKansasReporter.org;
Democrat Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, of Kansas City, said as far as she can tell the law was followed by the developer and the Racing and Gaming Commission.
“We set out certain standards and it appears to me from what I read that all those standards were followed every step of the way—now we’re crying foul and it doesn’t seem fair to those involved,” Wolfe Moore said. “I would like to know is this really about the contract or is this really anti-gaming?”

 

One of the opponents of this bill is Steve Brunk who has made it clear he doesn’t want such operations in Kansas. Again the KansasReporter.org;
“The intent behind this thing was to keep legislators from doing something nefarious to try to attempt to use their influence over the Gaming Commission to try to get them to decide one way or another … to use their influence to subvert the process,” Brunk said.  “But the way it was written says we can’t speak out about it. (The law) was poorly written.”
But the people of Mulvane voted to have this Casino and efforts to stop it are by a bunch of religious sore losers who just don’t want gaming. In these bad economic times, this kind of development could turn unemployment problems around. We need to get rid of House Resolution 6015. It’s just bad economics.

Kansas Republicans target abortion rights

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner:

It is not surprising that a house, senate and governor, completely in the hands of the Kansas Republican Party, would try and pass as many obstacles against abortion as is possible under the rules of the U.S. Supreme Court.

So they have passed a law HB 2218, a ban on later term abortion with no exception for fetal anomaly or clear definition of physical conditions that would constitute a threat great enough to the mother to allow the procedure.

Several women’s groups, such as National Organization for Women (NOW) and Trust Women have tried to fight the bill the best they could.

A site for Trust Womensaid;

This bill removes the ability of pregnant women and families to make critical decisions about pregnancy in consultation with their physicians. It puts lawmakers in the position of health care administrator and decision-maker and bans safe, legal procedures. HB 2218 is nothing more than political interference in a pregnant woman’s most personal, private medical decisions.

What is really ridiculous about this bill and others across the country is that they will simply be overturned if the Republican Party looses its grip on power as it did during the Barack Obama election.

The Kansas Legislators know they can’t just ban abortion so they come up with as many restrictions as possible. So far South Dakota has the most restrictive abortionrules on the books. Republicans will continue to chip away from abortion rights even though there are powerful women’s groups to oppose that.

Peck should resign

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

 

Even after he apologized onCNN, Kansas Democrats continued their call Friday for Rep. Virgil Peck, Republican to resign, according to The Wichita Eagle.
Peck’s Comments have made it to the national news and he is getting plenty of attention. Most of it is not good.
Jessica Hord of Newsy.com warned someone may be inspired to do such a thing. She said this is just fuel to the fire for some unstable mind who believes it must be OK if Peck thinks it is.
She said a nine year old girl was killed by a vigilante border guard in Arizona.
Various laws are being considered that are similar to the state of Arizona, where a person who simply “looks Latino” could be stopped for suspicion of being an illegal alien.
According to CNN;
"We must call upon Rep. Peck to resign his seat in the House of Representatives and allow someone who will respect the proper role of a state representative to take his place," House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Davis said Friday.
KansasHouse Speaker Mike O'Neal refused to comment on the call for Peck's resignation. O'Neal told reporters he "considers it a private matter" and would not comment further.
Also, according to The Wichita Eagle, calls for Peck to resign have also been from the National Council of La Raza, Somos Republicans, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Latino Information Network of Kansas.
Apparently, Peck and many of his Republican friends don’t realize how serious his “joke” was. Killing innocent people is never funny. Peck should resign as he is being asked to by so many Latino groups.

Will bad driving stop Mark Gietzen -winning a seat on Wichita’s City Council?

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

 

Mark Gietzen is a candidate for the District 3 council seat for Wichita. He has also been arrested today on a bench warrant for outstanding driving offences, according to The Wichita Eagle. He was pulled over for “improper left turn.”
Gietzen has been a part of Operation Rescue and is well known for his anti-abortion activities. Operation Rescue also has a “truth truck” that drives around the town with pictures of aborted fetuses to try and offend as many people as possible. It is a large cargo truck with pictures covering the side. It says very little and relies on the emotional impact of the pictures. Some of us would like to know if Gietzen has been driving that truck, even though he had no proper driver’s license?
Gietzen's license was suspended on March 2 for failure to comply with a traffic citation. Among his many tickets are speeding: 45 mph in a 35 mph zone on July 11, 2010; 65 mph in a 50 mph zone on June 7, 2010; 40 mph in a 30 mph zone on July 24, 2009; and driving wrong way, wrong direction or in wrong lane May 1, 2010.
James Clendenin will challenge Gietzen in the general election. Between Gietzen’s bad driving record and his reputation for harassing abortion doctors and their patients, Clendenin should have no trouble beating his opponent.

Once again Wichita develops property in flood plains

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

Once again we see the negligence of the city planners and council members trying to clean up the damage. The Wichita Eagle reported that a city-imposed deadline for a plant to drain rainwater has passed without action. The subdivision was built in southeast Wichita.
The Maple Shade subdivision, just south of Harry on Webb Road. Originally city officials wanted a water diversion plan by Thanksgiving of 2010. That hasn’t happened yet. Developer Steve Miller and his engineers, Ruggles & Bohm have been given the task of diverting the water from this development. They are still working on a drainage plan.
Complaints have risen about cracked foundations caused by rainwater and the unsettling of the land. Once again, builders when in and built where ever they wanted and paid no attention to consequences, such as flooding. In Wichita this happens again and again. At least one person had to spend $80,000 to fix a flooding problem.
The city has not moved fast enough to fix a problem that is basically their fault. Wichita needs a better planning commission to prevent these problems in the future.
Wichita it notorious for letting developers build in flood plains and other places where houses will face natural problems over time. This is a disgrace.

Don’t make cold medicine illegal

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

 

In the never ending and always expanding war on drugs, we are now being asked to see a doctor and get a prescription for pseudoephedrine products which most of us have use for years without problems. It just so happens that some people use that stuff to make methamphetamine. And for that reason alone, some Kansas congress people want to make this stuff prescription only (Senate Bill 131). That means every time some one gets a slight cold, they will have to pay for a doctor visit to buy simple cold medicine they can now just walk in a drug store and buy.
Why should the majority of people in this state, who do not use, buy or sell meth, have to pay for a small minority who use this stuff? At what point can law abiding citizens stop paying for the mistakes of others?
And while this state is suing the Federal government to stop Obama-care, complaining that it is too expensive, they don’t care that this new restriction will be a heavy medical burden on people who simply have a cold. Do the insurance companies want to pay for over the counter cold medicines they don’t pay for now?
According to The Wichita Eagle, there is already and tracking system for theseproducts and limits on how much a person can buy. The state stops a buyer for more than 3.6 grams for a single purchase or more than 9 grams in 30 days. Claritin-D, Zyrtec-D and Advil Cold are some of the most common products that contain pseudoephedrine. Opponents of this new bill warn of government going into our medicine cabinets. The Republicans have complained for the last three years of government getting into our health care. Now is the time for them to put up or shut up.

Pompeo stands for greed

From

• Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is about to open an online database on March 11, that would make it easier for consumers to view safety violations of a product.
This all seems perfectly harmless and yet Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a newly elected US House Republican, is trying to block it. Why would someone block the consumer’s ability to check on the safety of a product?
That’s a tough question to answer because it seems like a no-brainer to let customers see what the truth about what they are buying. According to The Wichita Eagle, Pompeo pointed out the usual evils of “The Federal Government” running this site which he claimed would not be accurate.
It doesn’t take long to see that we have voted in another front man for big business whose allegiance is to those who financed his campaign and not the Kansas general consumers. Pompeo didn’t get elected to represent the people, he ran to represent business interests.
Pompeo blocked the site by pushing for an amendment to post pone the project. It gives the congress a chance to make changes that the business community will benefit from. He seems to have plenty of supporters in the congress with all those new pro-Tea Party—anti-worker/consumer Republican freshmen.
There is no logical reason people can’t get an honest look at the records regarding products they buy in the store. If congress was representing the common consumer, this would not be an issue. However, this country has elected lobbyist for business interests.