August 2024

Ms.

As renters and would-be homeowners struggle with the high cost of housing, the Biden administration has announced policies to address this strain on household budgets.That includes $100 million in funding for a program to incentivize affordable housing production and streamlining loan application processes to expedite building more housing.Some of those proposals — such as a cap on rent increases from corporate landlords — call for Congressional action, while others are rules and grants that can be done without legislative approval.

Last April, the Kansas Legislature approved a bill making it a crime to coerce another person to have an abortion.

TOPEKA — One of the special prosecutors tasked with reviewing the actions of law enforcement officers who raided the Marion County Record says more details will become public as criminal and civil cases proceed.But for now, Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson would prefer to let the report that he and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett released earlier this month speak for itself.Their report cleared former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody and other officers of criminal wrongdoing in planning or carrying out the raid, even though the officers had imagined a nonexistent crime, and ignored state and federal laws and constitutional protections.

WICHITA — The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned a Kansas elementary school principal for allowing someone from a Christian missionary group to hand out Bibles to students during recess.ACLU of Kansas officials said Katie Struebing, principal at East Elementary School in Belleville, invited a representative from Gideons International to distribute Bibles at the school in May.In a letter to Struebing and Belleville school board members, the ACLU of Kansas warned that the principal’s actions violated the First Amendment, which mandates governmental neutrality when it comes to religion.“By allowing members of Gideon International to distribute Gideon Bibles to students, a public school district was providing a ‘stamp of approval’ upon the Gideon version of the Bible, creating an unconstitutional preference for one religion over another,” wrote Monica Bennett, legal director for ACLU of Kansas.She said the principal also violated the school district’s own policy, which prohibits employees from promoting religious viewpoints.“A majority of the American public do not believe it proper for public schools to influence the religious beliefs of school children,” Bennett wrote.

Last week a new police presence appeared in the 300 block of Main Street downtown.