By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief
Good morning!
Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector
OPINION
Clap during a city meeting in Emporia and you too might be hustled off to jail. Just ask Lux.
By Max McCoy
Lux Claridge isn’t who you’d expect to be busted for disorderly conduct. The 37-year-old high school physics teacher is soft spoken and has quick green eyes beneath a mop of brown hair. Wearing a yellow tee promoting a bicycle festival in northwest Arkansas, a pair of pale blue shorts, and with one blue sock and one orange sock stuffed into the tops of new generation Chuck Taylors, they exude a kind of natural calm.
But Claridge is Public Enemy No. 1 to the Emporia City Commission.
Claridge has become the face of data center resistance for my town of Emporia, in east-central Kansas, and much of the nation, because video of their arrest after clapping at a July 22 city commission meeting went hyperscale. Yes, clapping. There were at least three television stations on hand and dozens of smartphones in hand to capture Claridge being hauled by police out of the commission room at city hall, up the steps outside and into the back seat of a police car
Kevin Hardy/Stateline
Governors and lawmakers say they’re getting serious about states’ rights
OKLAHOMA CITY — State leaders of both parties say the federal government — including the president — wields too much power, and they want to see more authority returned to the states.
Bipartisan groups of governors and state lawmakers held major gatherings in recent days where issues of state authority became a major focus. They agreed the federal government had grown too powerful and pushed for states to maintain control over elections, energy, education and other issues.
Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom
US Senate leaves town for recess after passing stopgap spending bill, blocking photo ID for voting
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate adjourned for its summer recess early Saturday after approving a stopgap spending bill but declining to advance legislation that would require photo ID for voting.
In a rare overnight session that began on Friday, senators trudged through a slew of measures, confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general and then departed the nation’s capital for the coveted August recess. The chamber is not expected to return to regular session until after Labor Day.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
6 p.m. Aug. 12, Celtic Fox in Topeka. Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will answer audience questions about Kansas Reflector reporting on the primary and general elections. Host: Capital Area Democratic Women's Club.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
6 p.m. Dec. 3, Prairie Star Restaurant in Manhattan. Host: League of Women Voters of Manhattan and Riley County.
If you're interested in having us talk in your town, email Sherman Smith at [email protected].
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