Free Republic

Faced with a shortage of hired hands, Kansas ranchers and farmers are appealing to their state’s secretary of agriculture for a solution. And he says he has one: hiring illegal immigrants. It’s an idea that’s unorthodox enough to turn heads but practical enough to justify a series of meetings with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — a meeting which Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman told the Topeka Capital-Journal he has attended. His goal is for the state government to organize a network of illegal immigrants and willing employers into a hiring network. No such arrangement, of course, can go...

Former Senate Majority Leader — and 1996 GOP Presidential nominee – Bob Dole just tore into Newt Gingrich with an open letter that violates Reagan’s 11th Commandment so many times, Bob Dole will be in the confessional until Easter. ... .. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway. ... Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew...

Pedro moved to the Kansas City area about 13 years ago and has held the same job for 11. Though he sometimes struggles to pay bills, he knows most people think he should receive no public aid. He’s an illegal immigrant. He doesn’t deserve handouts. He understands that. “I’ve never asked for anything for myself,” said Pedro, who didn’t want his last name used to protect his family. “Never. I just work. Work hard.” A new debate swirling around Kansas, though, isn’t about Pedro. It’s about two of his three children. They were born here, and one day they will...

5 Unusual Sales Taxes You Need To Avoid With the economy still struggling, states are getting fairly crafty with how they charge consumers via sales taxes. It's no secret that dubious, yet all-too enforceable government laws have been with us since the dawn of the civilized world. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs taxed cooking oil – of course, the main seller of cooking oil was the pharaoh. During the first century AD, the Roman empire taxed urine – a popular source of ammonia for common tasks like tanning hides and cleaning clothes. Then at the height of the Dark Ages...

An unlikely trio of House members has introduced an eclectic trio of gun-rights bills — one of which is a direct challenge to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other big-city mayors. With the support and aid of the Kansas State Rifle Association, Reps. Jana Goodman, Connie O'Brien and Jim Kelly came into the session locked and loaded, on a mission to make Kansas legally safer for gun sellers, gun manufacturers and corrections officers who want to conceal and carry. “It’s in the Constitution, and that right should be defended for self-protection,” Goodman said when asked why she is...

Four years ago, Larry Hall purchased an abandoned Atlas F missile silo in central Kansas. Today he is turning it into a doomsday survival condominium complex.

Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday called for a cut in the state personal income tax and minimal budget increases, saying that will put Kansas in the fast lane on the road to economic growth. "Let's put our 'lost decade' … in the rear view mirror and speed ahead — at 75 miles per hour — to make this decade the decade of growth and job creation," Brownback, a Republican, said in the State of the State address. But his plan hit immediate bumps from legislators. Brownback's proposal would cancel a scheduled decrease in the state sales tax rate,...

Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal apologized Thursday for forwarding an email poking fun at first lady Michelle Obama and referring to her as “Mrs. YoMama.” The Lawrence Journal-World reported Thursday that O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, sent the email from his personal account. The email also had a photo comparing Mrs. Obama to the Grinch and the subject line, “Twins separated at birth?” The photo has been circulating on the Internet and shows Mrs. Obama’s hair being swept by the wind, recalling a drawing of the fictional Dr. Seuss character from the classic Christmas cartoon. In forwarding the email, O’Neal joked...

So, tired of high taxes? Want to see big federal budget cuts? Congratulations. You're getting your wish. And you just cost 2,160 people in Kansas their jobs. [snip] Welcome to "living within our means," which means you don't necessarily have any means to live with. You can argue that cutting the defense budget has to be done, but those are some nice, well-paying jobs that are being lost. Jobs that the local Wal-Mart probably won't match. I suppose the real lesson, though, is that we can't have our cake and eat it too. You can't shrink government without cutting jobs....

A-29 Super Tucano Wins Air Force Bid for Light Air Support Mission SPARKS, Nev., Dec. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION and EMBRAER DEFENSE & SECURITY to supply aircraft, training and support to the Light Air Support program. A-29 Super Tucano to be built in Jacksonville, FL; over 70 U.S. companies to supply parts and services Eren Ozmen, President, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), and Luiz Carlos Aguiar, CEO, Embraer Defense and Security (Embraer), today announced that the U.S. Air Force has selected SNC, partnered with Embraer, to supply Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft to be used as...

As 2011 draws to a close, so do opportunities for farmers to take advantage of certain provisions of the federal tax code.... "The ability for bonus depreciation is changing, so if you're looking to make capital expenditures, this is the year to do it," ... "You can depreciate 100 percent now, it will go to 50 percent next year, and after that it could go away completely depending on what Congress does." ... The other significant impending change to the federal tax code involves Section 179, which according to Marrison, works somewhat similarly to the bonus depreciation allowance.

DENVER — Starting Jan. 1, getting shark fins, caffeinated beer, cough syrup or a tan is going to be tougher than it was in 2011. The National Conference of State Legislatures issued Monday its annual list of laws set to take effect in 2012, and there was nothing but bad news for connoisseurs of shark-fin soup. Oregon and California passed laws prohibiting the sale, trade, or distribution of the fins, which are considered a delicacy in China. California also became the first state in the nation to require a prescription for obtaining any drug containing dextromethorphan, an ingredient found in...

A Wichita man has been arrested in connection with the death of a 5-year-old child. Police say the boy was shot and killed in Lakewood, Colorado by a 3-year-old. Lakewood police say officers were called to an apartment complex Friday morning to investigate a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found the 5-year-old suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. The boy was taken to a local hospital where he later died. Police say a 3-year-old friend whose family was visiting from Kansas accidentally shot the 5-year-old. The circumstances of the shooting have not been released. Officials...

If members of Occupy Kansas City want to march in the streets next week, they’ll need to pay a $4,100 fee for police protection, police commissioners announced Friday. ****snip**** Members of the movement have camped peacefully for months in a city park south of the Liberty Memorial. At a meeting earlier this month, a lawyer representing the group asked the police to waive the cost of having officers shut down traffic near Ninth and Main streets. The lawyer, Gina Chiala, said the march would be called “The death of the social safety net,” would involve about 100 people and would...

Republican elder statesman and former Senate leader Bob Dole on Sunday endorsed Mitt Romney to be the Republican presidential nominee, a day after the former Massachusetts governor received the backing of Iowa's main newspaper. In an open letter to Iowa voters, Dole - himself a former presidential candidate - said a great deal was at stake on January 3, when Iowa votes in the first nominating contest for the 2012 presidential election. "A number of my friends are currently candidates seeking the GOP nomination. But the time has now come for us to decide who among them can defeat Barack...

An executive of a financial exchange monitoring MF Global told senators Tuesday that Jon Corzine, the former head of the financial firm, knew that loans were improperly made with customer funds. The claim was made just minutes after Corzine professed his ignorance for how up to $1.2 billion in customer funds had gone missing. Terrence Duffy, the executive chairman of CME Group, the exchange that regulates MF Global, told the Senate Agriculture Committee that a CME auditor was told by an MF Global executive that Corzine knew that a loan was made to a European affiliate of the company, and...

At WH Holiday Reception last night, a reporter asked Pres Obama how he liked the BBQ from “We B Smokin’ in Osawatomie, Kansas on Tuesday. “You had BBQ?” a surprised Mrs Obama chimed in. Pres Obama seemed momentarily flustered. “You didn’t tell me you had BBQ,” said the First Lady. Pres Obama explained to his wife that reporters were miffed that they didn’t get any BBQ. Mrs. Obama would have known about the BBQ drop-by if she read the WH press pool reports – or followed certain Twitter sites.

Channeling his inner Teddy Roosevelt, President Obama on Tuesday gave a feisty speech in Osawatomie, Kansas that sought to rebut Republican arguments that he is waging class warfare...[Snip] We’ll leave the politics to others, but how accurate were some of his facts?  “I mean, understand, it's not as if we haven't tried this theory. Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history. And what did they get us? The slowest job growth in half a century...[Snip] Inserting the words “for the wealthy” was interesting phrasing by...

Today in Osawatomie, Kan., Barack Obama laid bare his progressive agenda, calling for more federal involvement in education, increased spending on infrastructure, an extension of the payroll tax cut and increased taxes on the rich. He even invoked Teddy “the Trustbuster” Roosevelt, who, if you’ll recall, became increasingly socialistic as the sun of his national stardom began to set. Not surprisingly, Obama was disingenuous in a few places — but just a few. At one point, he said he had already signed $1 trillion in spending cuts into law. Presumably, he was referring to the cuts included in the debt...

OSAWATOMIE, KAN. -- President Obama will give an economic speech in Osawatomie, Kan., Tuesday at a location the White House says it was very specific in picking and was meant to stir echoes of President Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt spoke in the very same town more than 100 years ago on Aug. 31, 1910, where he presented his vision for America and the coming 1912 election. Sound familiar? That's by design. snip Roosevelt gave what was called a "New Nationalism" agenda, talking about regulation on special interests (even using that term), and calling out for welfare, human rights and a greater...