Free Republic

The shooting in the Kansas City area on Sunday at Jewish facilities that killed three was a horrifying reminder of the dangers some hate groups pose. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder on Monday morning issued a statement on the matter. “I was horrified to learn of this weekend’s tragic shootings outside Kansas City. These senseless acts of violence are all the more heartbreaking as they were perpetrated on the eve of the solemn occasion of Passover. “Justice Department prosecutors will work with their state and local counterparts to provide all available support and to determine whether the federal hate crimes statute...

The 73-year-old man charged with murder in the shooting at a Jewish community center and retirement community in Overland Park, Kansas, that left three people dead is reportedly the former Grand Dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr., of Aurora, Mo., was taken into custody in the parking lot of an elementary school near the scene of the shootings, and was booked on a charge of first degree murder, according to the Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff's Office. Cross is an alias for Frasier Glenn Miller, the former KKK leader, according to the Southern...

WASHINGTON – The Westboro Baptist Church, an extremist organization known for its anti-gay activism, announced that it will picket the funerals of the three people killed in Sunday afternoon’s shooting attacks at two Kansas City Jewish sites. The church, which has famously picketed funerals of US military personnel and has protested against the American Jewish community, sent out a tweet shortly after the shooting saying, “Thank God for shootings at Overland Park KS jewish centers! Westboro to picket funerals. God did not passover.”

A smirking gunman who reportedly shouted Nazi slogans opened fire at a Jewish community center and an old-age home in a suburb of Kansas City, killing three people. The gunman, said to be an older man, singled out Jewish victims for death, Rabbi Herbert Mandl, a chaplain with the Overland Park Police Department, told CNN. “Asking someone if you are Jewish before shooting sounds very much like a hate crime,” Mandl said. Police said two people were killed at the JCC of Greater Kansas City, where children were auditioning for a musical. Despite Mandl’s assertion, the JCC victims were identified...

Local radio is reporting that there has been a shooting at the Overland Park, Kansas Jewish Community Center around 1:00 p.m. Central time. Man walking up to people asking if they are Jewish and boom. News conference at 5:00. Evidently CNN is reporting.

The Kansas legislature has passed the current gun law reform bill by overwhelming margins and sent it to Governor Brownback for signature or veto.    The bill, HB2578/SB447, strengthens state preemption language that limits the power of local governments to chill the exercise of second amendment rights. It requires adequate signage to prohibit the open carry of firearms by premises that choose to do so.   There is no penalty for open carrying in such premises unless the open carrier refuses to leave when asked to do so. Guns that are forfeited to law enforcement agencies are mostly prohibited from being...

Say what you will about Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), but they know a train wreck when they see it. They also know when to separate themselves from the cranks and the losers on the right. Although both supported the shutdown and were heartily supported by tea party groups in their own Senate races, neither one has endorsed Matt Bevin in Kentucky, Milton Wolf in Kansas or Chris McDaniel in Mississippi. In fact, Cruz’s office confirms he hasn’t endorsed anyone in the primaries. There are a few important lessons here. First, neither one of these guys wants...

South Wind Women’s Center, housed in the Wichita abortion clinic formerly operated by murdered late-term abortionist George Tiller, just marked its one-year anniversary by announcing how many babies it had killed since opening. An article strangely removed from the Wichita Eagle’s website (and from which all other news sources are quoting), but cached on the abortion mill’s website, shares the exciting news: South Wind Women’s Center says it provided about 1,200 abortions in its first year….. No clinic offered abortions in Wichita after Tiller died until South Wind opened. South Wind said it has seen a total of about 1,500...

Congratulations South Wind Women’s Center, you succeeded in killing more than three people every day for an entire year. Be proud. The clinic opened one year ago in the same building late-tem abortionist George Tiller operated prior to being murdered in 2009. It is the first and only operating abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas. South Wind said it has seen a total of about 1,500 patients for reproductive care, including abortions up to 14 weeks. Patients have come from across the state and from a few other states, such as Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Patient numbers are “right in line...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators gave final approval Saturday to a bill that would nullify city and county gun restrictions and ensure that it's legal across the state to openly carry firearms, a measure the National Rifle Association sees as a model for stripping local officials of their gun-regulating power. The House approved the legislation, 102-19, a day after the Senate passed it, 37-2. The measure goes next to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. He hasn't said whether he'll sign it, but he's a strong supporter of gun rights and has signed other measures backed by the NRA and the...

A decision pending with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could have huge ramifications for rural Kansans living in the western third of the state. In limbo is the question of whether the lesser prairie-chicken should be listed as a “threatened” species under provisions of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The species inhabits land spanning Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. ... Kansas, in cooperation with the four other states affected by the issue — a coalition known as the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies — has attempted to stave-off such a decision with the development of...

In a report that aired on Topeka, KS ABC affiliate KTKA on Tuesday, Newman Regional Hospital in Emporia, KS is scaling back some services as a means of countering the "negative financial impacts of the Affordable Care Act."

In 2011, Kansas passed the SAFE Act — Safe and Fair Elections — which requires voter ID, proof of citizenship and signature verification. In other words, it’s designed to make sure that all votes cast in Kansas are cast legally by the person identified as the voter. The law was to go into effect January 1, 2013. But the Obama administration stood in the way. At issue are the forms states use to register voters for federal elections. Kansas and Arizona require proof of citizenship, while the federal government’s form — incredibly — does not. The federal government attempted to...

The proposed move will take the Pentagon from the banks of the Potomac River to northwest Kansas. WASHINGTON (April 1, 2010) -- Top Army officials unveiled plans early today to relocate the massive Pentagon building to the western part of Kansas sometime this summer. "This move will be a huge undertaking, but we determined it was a necessary step as we realign our force structure," said one of the Army's top generals. "Once we started investigating the possibility of the move, we determined that it was not only critical to our efforts, but that it would be good for our...

Officials with the Olathe School District issued an apology Friday after only black students were invited on a school outing. On Wednesday, a letter was sent to Olathe South High School students by Assistant Principal Candy Birch. In the letter, Birch said in her role as activities director that she wanted to give students an additional opportunity to connect with each other. "So we are planning an outing open to our African-American sophomores and juniors," she wrote. The event on April 5 would include a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, lunch at Arthur Bryant's...

Civil rights groups on Friday appealed last week’s federal court decision that said states can require proof of citizenship on their voter registration forms — a ruling the activist groups said runs counter to Supreme Court precedent. The judge had ruled that the federal Election Assistance Commission couldn’t refuse requests by Kansas and Arizona that registration cards distributed in their states include proof of citizenship requirements. But the activists said that imposes an illegal burden on would-be voters. “The EAC has the authority to reject the states’ unproven claims and unreasonable request to require more paperwork from eligible Americans who...

A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld a 2011 Kansas law that would stop federal family planning money the state receives from flowing to two Planned Parenthood clinics. The ruling overturned a Kansas federal judge's preliminary injunction that stopped the state from eliminating the federal funding to family planning clinics Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri operates in Wichita and Hays. No abortion services are provided at the health centers and Planned Parenthood has said they would lose more than $330,000 in funding, their eligibility for a low-cost drug-purchasing program and it likely would lead to the Hays clinic...

President Obama’s populist economic pitch is fizzling. The White House hoped to hammer Republicans this year on an array of pocketbook issues centered on hiking the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, an effort meant to appeal to independents and rally Democrats to the polls. Three months in, Obama’s approval ratings are flailing in the low 40s, and Senate Democrats haven’t even been able to unify their 55 members on a minimum wage bill. That’s made it tougher to contrast the positions of Democrats with Republicans in an election year that is shaping up to be about the healthcare law...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Kansas can strip two Planned Parenthood clinics of federal family planning money while the organization moves forward with its legal challenge of a state law it says is retaliation for its advocacy of abortion rights. Kansas is among several conservative states that have sought in recent years to strip Planned Parenthood of funding. At issue in Tuesday's ruling is money distributed to states under Title X, a federally financed family planning program. The Title X money targets low-income individuals seeking reproductive services such as birth control, pregnancy testing, cancer screenings and treatment...

March 24, 2014 Boehner Spokesman Calls Reid’s GOP/Crimea Comments ‘Unhinged’ STEPHEN KRUISER Somebody had to say it. “The Senate Majority Leader sounds completely unhinged,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told Business Insider in an email. “The House has acted, and is continuing to act, in a reasonable and responsible way to give the White House the tools it needs to hold President Putin accountable.”Every time Reid opens his mouth something remarkably ignorant comes out of it. Nancy Pelosi may be devious and an awful person, but she’s not stupid (she does dumb it down for the cameras, I believe). Reid, however,...