Anti-abortion group seeks special session. Campaign finance. Human caring.

By Clay Wirestone | opinion editor

TOPEKA — The chairman of a Kansas anti-abortion organization proposed the Kansas Legislature convene in special session to consider placing on statewide ballots an amendment to the state Constitution that would declare life begins at conception.

Doug Johnson, chairman of the Kansas Equal Rights Amendment Committee, asked Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, to lead the effort to bring the Senate and House together before Dec. 31 to vote on an amendment that could then be placed before Kansas voters. Two-thirds of both chambers would need to endorse an amendment for it to be placed on statewide ballots in Kansas.

Johnson said there was urgency to his quest after Kansans rejected in early August by a margin of 61% to 39% a constitutional amendment that would have required Kansas Supreme Court justices to be elected rather than appointed. Supporters of that amendment were intent on adding conservative justices willing to reverse Supreme Court precedent declaring the state’s Bill of Rights granted women bodily autonomy and the right to end a pregnancy.

The judicial amendment met the same fate as the “Value Them Both” constitutional amendment in 2022. That amendment was derailed 59% to 41% and would have nullified the 2019 decision of the Supreme Court affirming women in Kansas had a fundamental right to abortion despite reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court of Roe v. Wade.

TOPEKA — A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance in late June was “the perfect moment” for major donors to pour money into races ahead of the midterm elections, said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a group advocating for campaign finance guardrails.

As candidates exit primary season, the most competitive races begin and spending takes off, Muller said.

When young children and teenagers get into trouble, the question often comes quickly: Where were their parents?

That question is again shaping public policy in communities across the country, as state and local lawmakers and prosecutors increasingly look for ways to respond to concerns about youth crime and public disorder.

For more than three decades, researchers have been tracking ticks, mice, oak trees and other wildlife in a New York forest to better understand what makes Lyme disease more likely to spread.

By Rebecca Phillips

To me, life is like falling in love. One sees someone whom they can relate to and live with and give their heart to. That person somehow understands them. They hear them and see them unlike any other. That’s what we need to have in life — someone who understands us. We need to learn to be ourselves.

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