LJWorld.com stories: Opinion

Opinion: What if Trump gives illegal order?

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

If President Trump ordered a senior government official to support the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller, how should that person respond? Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, answered my question about that onstage last week at the Aspen Security Forum.

Opinion: A Jamboree of teachable moments

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Every time I share my concerns about Donald Trump’s impact on America’s children, a certain percentage of readers assure me that no child is paying attention to what our president says. I hope we can now all agree to put that magical thinking to rest in the wake of Trump’s spectacle of a speech to 24,000 boys attending the Boy Scout jamboree in West Virginia. Let’s review a few of the many teachable moments by reviewing some of the president’s claims in his 35-minute tirade, which left the Boy Scouts of America later insisting it is a nonpartisan organization — despite what Trump had just inflicted on the organization.

Editorial: Brownback sealed own fate

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The appointment of Sam Brownback to serve as ambassador at-large for international religious freedom will bring a fitting end to Brownback’s tumultuous six-and-a-half year run as Kansas’ governor. It is simply hard to imagine Brownback trying to lead the state through another legislative session given what transpired during the recently completed session, when a Legislature dominated by his own party gutted Brownback’s grand economic experiment and, in effect, his governorship.

Your Turn: City of Lawrence responds to editorial about budget

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

An editorial published in the Lawrence Journal-World on July 13 raised concerns about the proposed property tax mill increase given the growth in assessed valuation. Those concerns need to be addressed for all city taxpayers to understand the 2018 recommended budget.

Editorial: Openness a good goal

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The Lawrence school board’s commitment to transparency is key to overcoming perceptions that the board and, by extension, the school district aren’t always as open as they should be when it comes to school district issues.

Opinion: Congress is a slovenly institution

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

In January 1988, in Ronald Reagan’s final State of the Union address, he noisily dropped on a table next to the podium in the House chamber three recent continuing resolutions, each more than a thousand pages long.

Editorial: Voter turnout troubling

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Early voting numbers in the Aug. 1 Lawrence City Commission primary are so underwhelming that the City Commission may want to adjust its policies for future elections.

Opinion: Can Pompeo keep CIA out of ditch?

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

If the ghosts who inhabit the walls of the CIA could talk, they would tell Director Mike Pompeo to be careful. The agency is entering a danger zone where a White House in turmoil wants the CIA to take aggressive action overseas, but hasn’t developed the clear strategy or political support needed to sustain it.

Opinion: Why is Trump friendly with Putin?

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Leaving aside the question as to whether there was actual collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election, it is undisputed that candidate Donald Trump was eager for a friendship between our two nations. The most recent accounts of the president seeking out more one-on-one time with Putin at the G-20 dinner — using only a Russian translator — is the latest evidence that this enthusiasm is undiminished.

Opinion: Here’s an idea for making America great again

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

President Donald Trump may not yet have built his “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border or figured out a way to make Mexico pay for it, but immigration is one area where the president seems committed to keeping his campaign promises.

Editorial: Recording protects rights

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

A new state law requires all Kansas law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies for electronically recording interrogations and to implement those policies by July 2018. The law requires recording of all interrogations involving homicides and felony sex offenses. Local law enforcement agencies should embrace broad use of recording equipment as a proactive measure to protect the rights of officers as well as suspects.

Editorial: More money for lawmakers

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

It would be reasonable for the Kansas Legislature to pursue a pay increase in a future session.

Opinion: John McCain is a true U.S. patriot

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

In this unheroic era when prominent American males prove their abiding patriotism by prominently displaying an American flag pin in the lapel of their suit jacket, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., remains seriously out of step.

Opinion: Wild blue yonder ain’t what it used to be

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The aircraft arrayed around the spacious lawn of Maxwell Air Force Base, home of the Air University, mostly represent long-retired types. The largest, however, is a glistening B-52 bomber, which represents a still-employed component of the Air Force’s aging fleet: The youngest B-52 entered service in 1962. Sons have flown the same plane their fathers and grandfathers flew.

Opinion: GOP tackles nonexistent problem

Sun, 23 Jul 2017 06:00:00 -0500

A little context is critical here. It would be too easy to dismiss Donald Trump’s Commission on Electoral Integrity as superfluous evidence of the intellectual erosion of the Republican Party.

Editorial: An utter waste of time, money

Sun, 23 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Amid all of the challenges facing President Donald Trump, ferreting out voter fraud in the U.S. should be near the bottom. Yet there the president was last week, heralding the first meeting of the almost comical Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Your Turn: Editorial on Peaslee Tech was short-sighted

Sun, 23 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Recent articles have acknowledged Peaslee Tech’s benefit to our community and the value for economic development to Lawrence and Douglas County. Several aspects of the July 17 editorial, however, missed the point about Peaslee Tech’s role for Lawrence and the county.

Opinion: Don’t repeal health law; fix it now

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

On July 6 Sen. Jerry Moran temporarily embraced boldness after a town hall meeting in Palco, Kan. Our junior senator met hundreds of constituents to discuss the health care experiences of real people from all across the state. Rural and urban hospital administrators came to argue for Medicaid funding, and he got an earful from a western Kansas doctor who once provided care to the senator’s children.

Opinion: In Charlie Gard’s case, respect parents’ sovereignty

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

One cannot imagine a more wrenching moral dilemma than the case of little Charlie Gard. He is a beautiful 11-month-old boy with an incurable genetic disease. It depletes his cells’ energy-producing structures (the mitochondria), thereby progressively ravaging his organs. He cannot hear, he cannot see, he can barely open his eyes. He cannot swallow, he cannot move, he cannot breathe on his own. He suffers from severe epilepsy and his brain is seriously damaged. Doctors aren’t even sure whether he can feel pain.

Opinion: The CIA’s star-crossed Syrian action

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Syria adds another chapter to the star-crossed history of CIA paramilitary action. These efforts begin with the worthy objective of giving presidents policy options short of all-out war. But they often end with an untidy mess, in which rebels feel they have been “seduced and abandoned” by the promise of U.S. support that disappears when the political winds change.

Comments (0) - Read and Add your own Comments