Researchers Say Kansas Minimum Wage Increase a Plus for Businesses, Workers and Communities

(Dec 10, 2007) Topeka, KS – The nonpartisan, ad astra inst logo not-for-profit Ad Astra Institute (AAI) has released a 40- page report suggesting that the economic impact of minimum wage increases in Kansas would likely be positive for workers, businesses, employment and economic development. The report, "Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases in Kansas: A Background Report," estimates the number of Kansas workers likely to be affected by increases in the minimum wage, summarizes theories of economic impact and reviews actual effects of minimum wage increases in other states and cities.

The Kansas minimum wage of $2.65 per hour applies to workers in job categories not protected by the Federal minimum wage ($5.85). The study documents this under -examined category of workers at the lowest end of the wage spectrum. To help determine how minimum wage increases would affect Kansas businesses and local economies, the study draws on evidence from states and cities that have raised their minimum wages above the Federal level.

Among the findings of the report are:

• Kansas has the lowest minimum wage in the nation. The Kansas law has no effect on workers covered by the federal law, but covers certain employees exempt from the federal law. These include childcare workers, companions to the elderly or infirm, and employees of private firms grossing less than $500,000/year and not engaged in interstate commerce.
• A total of 17,000 Kansas workers received less than the $5.15 minimum wage in 2006. Researchers note that this figure will have risen as a result of the recent Federal minimum wage increase. There are an unknown number of workers not covered by federal law who received between $5.15 and $5.85 an hour.
• A minimum wage increase would have no substantial long-term effects on output, employment or profits. Short-run adjustments in prices, made by businesses reliant on low-wage workers, are likely to be much too small to have significant impacts on the overall price levels, and will not cause an ongoing inflationary spiral. The long-term benefits of greater consumer purchasing power, higher sales tax revenue, less turnover and absenteeism, a more productive workforce and a higher overall cash flow in the local economy are likely to compensate for a modest wage increase among the lowest paid workers in the Kansas economy.

More http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Issues/2007-55/2007-55.html

Download the report http://www.raisethewagekansas.org/wichita/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/report-12-3-07-kan.pdf

New Study - Same Verdict: Abstinence-Only Programs Don't Work!

In November, the release of Emerging Answers 2007: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, a report authored by Douglas Kirby, PhD, a leading researcher in adolescent health, confirmed, once again, that the $1.5 billion federal and state investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is a waste of taxpayer money.

The report, commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, examined both comprehensive sex education and abstinence-only programs. Of the 48 programs included in the study, the only programs that delayed sexual initiation were comprehensive sex education programs. Moreover, the report clearly states "there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence, or reduces the number of sexual partners."

To read the full press release, please visit:
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/news/press/110707.htm

For more on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, please visit:
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/abstinenceonly.htm

The Fakest Time of the Year: The 2007 Falsies Awards

From Center for Media and Democracy, December 7, 2007
By Diane Farsetta

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the year that the Falsies Awards have truly arrived!

Here at the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), we’ve dearly treasured our Falsies since we gave the first awards out in 2004. After 12 months of reporting on the cynical, manipulative and just plain anti-democratic pollution of our information environment, we love adding an extra dash of humor to our work. But this year’s Falsies Awards are extra super special.

Why, you ask? Well, more people responded to our Falsies Awards survey than ever before. Thanks to the more than 1,400 people who took part! Our Falsies are your Falsies, too. In addition, this year marks the first time there was an organized campaign in favor of one of our Falsies Awards nominees. To find out who was stuffing our Falsies survey, read on.

As always, Falsies Awards winners must stop by CMD’s office in Madison, Wisconsin, to collect their prizes. This year’s winners will receive a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, to obscure your real identity; the Online Deception Kit, comprised of a sock, buttons and thread, to make your own puppet; and a five-gallon bucket of Mr. Flack’s Special Greenwash Paint (warning: may not look green upon closer examination)!

With so many stellar nominees and few clear trends in the survey results, deciding on this year’s winners was no easy task. Our panel of judges awarded the coveted Gold Falsie to two belligerent groups. The Silver and Bronze Falsies recognize spinners of environmental and health issues, respectively. Dishonorable mentions go to drug pushers, troop users and reporter wanna-be’s. And thanks to the survey participants for nominating many worthy recipients for our Readers’ Choice and Win Against Spin Awards!

Draw up your chair and prepare to be both amused and dismayed. The winners of the 2007 Falsies Awards are…

Golden Falsie: “War More Years” and “For More Wars”

The only thing worse than failing to end a long, bloody and increasingly unpopular war might be trying to start a new one. All we are saying is that the joint winners of this year’s Gold Falsie should give peace a chance.

Half of this year’s Gold Falsie goes to the leadership of the U.S. Democratic Party. By all accounts, growing opposition to the Iraq war was a major factor in the Democrats’ November 2006 election victories, which gave them control of both houses of Congress. What have they done with that mandate? Not much. The tension between the public’s anti-war sentiment and the Democrats’ political wrangling came to a head in early 2007, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promoted a “compromise” war funding bill with no specific timetables, no binding measures and no chance of becoming law. As CMD’s John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote at the time, a stronger Iraq amendment by members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus was deep-sixed by the Democratic leadership and ignored by the Democrat-aligned online advocacy group MoveOn.

The Iraq war funding triangulation continues today. In early December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Democratic leaders, in order to avoid being seen either as capitulating to Bush on Iraq or as under-funding the military, “are looking at the option of advancing more money for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.” Meanwhile, “responsible” war critics are being encouraged to wait for General David Petraeus’s spring 2008 report, much as they were previously for Petraeus’s September 2007 report. It reminds us of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s infamous, never-ending six month timeframe for evaluating progress in Iraq.

No wonder that Congress’s approval ratings have sunk even lower than President Bush’s, or that Speaker Pelosi felt compelled to launch a PR campaign this autumn, touting the Democratic Congress’s accomplishments. At least now they can say they’ve won an award!

The other cup of the Gold Falsie goes to Freedom’s Watch, an influential Republican-associated lobbying group that advocates “peace through strength,” as described by its spokesman, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. In August 2007, the group launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign encouraging continued support for the “troop surge” in Iraq. The Freedom’s Watch print and television ads alleged a connection between Iraq and 9/11, without directly claiming that Iraq was responsible for the terrorist attacks — the same approach used by the Bush administration in the lead up to the March 2003 invasion.

More recently, Freedom’s Watch has been pushing for war with Iran. In September 2007, the group’s president Bradley Blakeman (a former assistant to President Bush) ominously stated, “If Hitler’s warnings were heeded when he wrote Mein Kampf he could have been stopped.” Just before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s U.S. visit, Freedom’s Watch ran a full-page New York Times ad that called him a “terrorist.” In October, the group organized a forum with several American Enterprise Institute fellows, designed to prove that Iran poses a significant security threat to the United States. The following month, news of a focus group apparently funded by Freedom’s Watch surfaced. “The basis of the whole thing was, ‘we’re going to go into Iran and what do we have to do to get you guys to go along with it,’” according to one participant.

In early December, when U.S. intelligence agencies reported that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program more than four years ago, Freedom’s Watch ignored the news for several days. Finally, one of their blog posts approvingly pointed to an editorial which, in their words, argued that the intelligence report showed “we must continue to pressure Iran on their weapons program.” That’s right — the weapons program that doesn’t exist. Why let reality get in the way of well-funded war mongering? With that chutzpah, FreedomWatch truly deserves the most false of Falsies!

Silver Falsie: “Deleting Heating”

Speaking of alternate realities, this year’s Silver Falsie goes to determined global warming skeptics who, when faced with evidence of climate change, simply remove it. Exhibit A is Philip A. Cooney, who headed the White House Council on Environmental Quality in between lobbying gigs for the American Petroleum Institute and Exxon Mobil. In March 2007, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released documents detailing “hundreds of instances” where Cooney had edited government reports to downplay the human contribution to and impacts of global warming. Cooney has no scientific credentials.

Exhibit B is the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), whose “heavy-handed” editing “eviscerated” the October 2007 Congressional testimony of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director on the likely health impacts of global warming. Her original testimony described “how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC’s analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels.” The OMB edits removed these details, cutting her testimony to less than half of its original length.

Exhibit C is the U.S. negotiators for the global warming statement released by the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial countries at their June 2007 summit. Draft documents revealed that the U.S. pressured other G-8 countries to remove commitments to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as an assessment that “tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice.”

These climate change cancelers have helped stymie attempts to address global warming for so long that hundreds of the world’s most prestigious climate scientists recently issued an impassioned cry for action. Of course, the skeptics would not be so effective were it not for a larger network that funds, develops and promotes their brand of Flat Earth-ism: companies like Exxon Mobil; think tanks like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Enterprise Institute and Cato Institute (whose Jerry Taylor claims that “scientists are in no position to intelligently guide public policy on climate change”); and celebrities like Bjorn Lomborg and Czech president Vaclav Klaus. Take a bow, everyone!

Bronze Falsie: “Impeding Breastfeeding”

Awarding a Falsie to groups spinning breastfeeding issues seems … well, especially appropriate. Apparently the folks at Ban the Bags, a campaign against formula company marketing in maternity hospitals, agree. They posted a call for their members to participate in our Falsies Awards survey, and votes for the formula industry came pouring in. Is this spinning a survey on spin? Our judges were divided on that question, but ultimately decided to discount survey responses where people only voted on the formula industry nominee.

There’s no question that the formula industry, represented by the International Formula Council (IFC), deserves the Bronze Falsie. The September / October issue of Mothering Magazine reported on “stealth” websites that “appear to be grassroots advocacy sites, but are actually mouthpieces for the formula industry.” They include MomsFeedingFreedom.com, an IFC website that opposes restrictions on formula marketing in hospitals as attacks on “women’s access to information to make a legitimate choice.”

In August 2007, the Washington Post reported on an IFC lobbying campaign that succeeded in getting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to pull ads that dramatically illustrated the increased health risks faced by babies who do not breastfeed. The IFC portrayed the ads as “scaring expectant mothers into breast-feeding,” and hired a former Republican National Committee chair and former Food and Drug Administration official to lobby HHS. It probably didn’t hurt that most formula companies are “divisions of large pharmaceutical companies that are among the most generous campaign donors in the nation.”

For portraying accurate health information as alarmism and intrusive marketing campaigns as “freedom” — not to mention helping to keep U.S. breastfeeding rates well below those of European countries — this Falsie’s for you, IFC!

Dishonorable Mentions

The level of deception throughout 2007 simply can’t be adequately conveyed by our top Falsies Awards recipients. So we hope that you have some indignation left for the following winners of Dishonorable Mentions:

The Vaccine for Cancer: The pharmaceutical company Merck got more than it bargained for when it embarked on a high-pressure lobbying and PR campaign to get U.S. states to mandate the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for schoolgirls. Coincidentally, the only approved HPV vaccine at the time was Merck’s Gardasil. Working with the PR giant Edelman, and with help from Women in Government and other non-profit organizations that it funds, Merck succeeded in getting dozens of states to consider mandating the brand-new vaccine. After widespread criticism, Merck agreed to stop “lobbying” state governments, though it continues to “educate” them.

Support Our Dupes: What’s wrong with supporting U.S. troops? Nothing, per se, though a Pentagon program with multi-million dollar PR contracts, events seemingly geared to increase public support for the Iraq war, with questionable spending and fundraising practices, and ties to Christian evangelical groups trying to convert soldiers and Iraqis is another thing altogether. That’s America Supports You (ASY), which is currently under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general. In October 2007, the investigation widened to include hundreds of thousands of dollars in ASY contacts run through the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. The paper’s editors have called on the acting publisher to resign, after he refused to release information on the paper’s involvement with ASY.

To Thine Own Self Be Falsie: For many, the incident summed up the various “fake news” practices of the Bush administration, from video news releases to press conference plants to payola pundits. In late October, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) held a press conference on the California wildfires, giving reporters only 15 minutes’ notice and offering a phone line that reporters could use to listen but not ask questions. Instead, the questions came from FEMA staffers playing reporter. Two of the staffers involved lost their jobs, but two later received promotions. The Homeland Security Department’s investigation of FEMA’s fakery (which will not be made public) turned up a similar incident, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official asked questions during a February 2006 agency press conference.

Readers’ Choice Awards

As usual, our readers had their own list of Falsie-worth people, groups and institutions, ranging from Fox News to PBS, from Rudy Giuliani to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Survey participants made an especially good case for the following Readers’ Choice Award winners:

• Alexis Debat, a former ABC News consultant / reporter and “terrorism analyst” exposed in September 2007 for having padded his resume and published fake interviews with Barack Obama, Alan Greenspan and others. Debat also sought work with the Lincoln Group, the PR firm that planted stories in Iraqi newspapers, and had affiliations with think tanks and lobbying firms. “Seems Debat was good enough at saying the ‘right’ words in that paranoid climate [five years ago] to get a high-paying job” at ABC, wrote his nominator, who also criticized the lack of media coverage of Debat’s fall from grace.


• TV4US, an astroturf group funded by the telecom company AT&T. In May 2007, the Wisconsin branch of TV4US (which is headed by a Milwaukee PR and political consultant) delivered to all 132 state legislators binders listing what it said were supporters of a controversial cable franchise bill. Several people who opposed the bill, including two lawmakers, were stunned to find out that they were erroneously listed in the TV4US binders. Still, the franchise bill passed both houses of the Wisconsin legislature, helped along by AT&T’s many lobbyists and copious political donations.


• Edelman, the public relations firm for such clients as the American Petroleum Institute, Diebold, Microsoft and the pharmaceutical industry lobby group PhRMA. Edelman “deserves a special ‘life time achievement’ award for repeated boneheaded duplicity,” wrote its nominator, listing such deviousness as its “fake blogging campaign” for Wal-Mart and its “Ecomagination” campaign, “claiming General Electric is ‘green.’” Not surprisingly, a recent analysis of the Ecomagination campaign concluded that GE’s environmental initiatives leave something to be desired.

We couldn’t help but note the absence of a formerly perennial nominee — us, the Center for Media and Democracy! Should we take that as a compliment, or as a sign that we may have been a bit too agreeable over the past year? We’re not sure, but we firmly promise to do better in 2008.

Win Against Spin Awards

If PR were as effective as its practitioners make it out to be, we’d all be in deep trouble. Luckily, savvy reporters, citizen journalists and other media watchdogs have been effective at debunking spin and spreading media literacy. We would like to take a snark-free moment to honor the following Wins Against Spin, which were also nominated by our readers.

• WikiScanner, an innovative program by self-described “disruptive technologist” Virgil Griffith, which maps anonymous edits to Wikipedia, the popular online collaborative encyclopedia. WikiScanner caught several PR firms whitewashing entries on themselves and their clients, such as Hill & Knowton’s deleting passages on human rights abuses by the Maldives government. “WikiScanner is one of the few positive things to come out of this year’s War On Spin,” wrote one reader.


• Democracy Now!, the independent daily television and radio news program hosted by Amy Goodman. “In my opinion,” wrote its nominator, Democracy Now! “is the best anti-spin … news available in the media to a mass audience.” The multiple award-winning show currently airs on more than 650 stations and describes itself as “the largest public media collaboration in the U.S.”


• The Center for Media and Democracy — oh, here’s where we got nominated! Thanks to the reader who suggested CMD “pat yourselves on the back for progress at the FCC,” referring to our research into video news releases (VNRs) or “fake TV news,” and our work with the media reform group Free Press in support of VNR disclosure. In September 2007, the Federal Communications Commission proposed its first-ever fines for undisclosed VNR broadcasts. Comcast, the media company that may be fined, is currently appealing to the FCC.

See You in 2008!
If you would like to play with our Falsies survey numbers, see “Falsies 2007: Reader Responses.” While the Falsies Awards happen but once a year, CMD reports on deceptive PR and propaganda campaigns all the time. Keep informed on media issues by signing up for our Weekly Spin email and subscribing to our new Weekly Radio Spin podcast (XML feed here). Better yet, get involved! Our SourceWatch website is a collaborative encyclopedia of the “people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.” SourceWatch is housing a growing number of projects focused on everything from the U.S. Congress to the worldwide tobacco and nuclear power and weapons industries. Help us track the key players in whatever area interests you!

To our friends in the PR world, you can’t say that we never gave you anything. To our readers, citizen journalist colleagues and other supporters, a sincere thanks from all of us here at CMD.

This article is from Center for Media and Democracy. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.

Points to Remember on the Downtown Redevelopment Project

The Downtown Project has a current estimated cost of $194 million.

Dial Realty is set to invest $87 million in construction of all the retail, restaurants and residential units within the North and South Project Areas.

No public tax dollars will assist construction of any private business or residential development.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is estimated to contribute $25 million towards land assembly, public infrastructure within the project areas such as roads, sidewalks, lighting, water lines, sewer, stormwater, etc. TIF dollars are generated exclusively in the North and South Project areas. TIF includes the increase in property taxes and City sales tax generated from the new development. The City, County and School District continue to receive the "base" amount established in 2005, when the TIF district was created. Anything generated above and beyond this "base" is pledged towards the land acquisition and public infrastructure necessary to facilitate the North and South project areas.

There are two other "public" sources included in the Downtown project. The State of Kansas has dedicated their 5.3% in State sales tax generated within the North and South Project areas. The State has agreed to invest $50 million in the South Project area, specifically in the Flint Hills Discovery Center construction, and the South Project area land acquisition and public infrastructure.

The City will also implement Transportation Development Districts (TDD) that will generate an additional 1/2 cent sales tax on top of the total sales tax rate to help assist with the public infrastructure improvements. In total the TDD will generate another $7 million to the project. A flowchart of sources and uses is available for your review.

The City of Manhattan is scheduled to invest an additional $25 million - or roughly 13% of the total project - towards other public improvements in both the North and South project areas. Projects significant to the benefit to the community have been identified for this investment. These include 4th Street construction- north and south, opening up Leavenworth Street at 3rd Street (connection to the Mall), creating an intersection at 3rd Street and Pierre Street, purchasing the furniture, fixtures, exhibits and equipment for the Discovery Center, financing the construction of the Conference Center, and a portion of the 400-stall parking garage. It is also envisioned in the event excess property and sales tax are generated within the North and South project areas, the City would be reimbursed for these expenses and financed by the incremental dollars generated in the project.

Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan

Our show on 29 November looked at the Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan (FHRGP). The purpose of the FHRGP is to look at the impact the expansion of Ft. Riley will have on the area as it adds over 9,000 active personnel and nearly 2,000 new civilian positions to the Fort's existing infrastructure

The report looks at a broad array of topics concerning the quality of life in the region: public safety, housing, environmental impact, transportation, child care, health care, the economy, social services, etc. You can download a copy of the Executive Summary or the Draft Report at City of Manhattan Website:

http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/

Click on the link entitled: Learn More About the Flint Hills Regional Growth Plan

Weekly Radio Spin

On this show we also heard "Weekly Radio Spin," by the Center for Media and Democracy. This program is an audio report on the stories behind the news. In addition to Media Minute by Free Press, I am considering it as a regular feature to the Spring line-up for the show. Your comments are most appreciated.

City should fire Dial and change direction
By Christopher E. Renner
An edited version of this opinion column appeared in the 2 December 2007 Manhattan Mercury.

Dear Editor:
Since work prevents me from being able to attend the Planning Board meeting Monday, I want to publicly express my opinion of the Dial Reality’s modified proposal for our downtown: it's wrong, wrong, wrong! It is time the City fired Dial; admit that we have gone in the wrong direction; and, start over before we have a suburban mall in a urban setting, totally destroying our downtown.

Since beginning in 2006 I have hosted numerous programs on downtown redevelopment on Community Bridge, the talk show I host each Thursday on KSDB 91.9 FM. In preparing for these shows I have done a fair share of research on the subject and what I keep finding is that we have made and continue to make mistakes in our redevelopment plan. Every other downtown redevelopment project I have studied for comparable communities in population size and economic base have begun their redevelopment by forming a not-for-profit corporation to carry out the redevelopment project. This entity has worked closely with the local stakeholders and has enjoyed broad community support. Those who gave their downtowns to a private corporation, as we have, encountered the same problems we are facing that ended in lawsuits, abandoned projects and deep community divisions. Is this the future we want for Manhattan?

Some years ago, when I attended public meetings in which we discussed what we wanted for our downtown redevelopment, common themes emerged: people friendly, diverse, interconnected to the existing grid of roads and neighborhoods, supportive of locally own businesses, and a “destination” where we could enjoy a broad array of restaurants (not just a bunch of fast food outlets), the arts, and venues for cultural events. Where in the current proposal from Dial are those themes? They are not present because we have the wrong people in charge of our downtown redevelopment. What we are getting is asphalt and sprawl, not a cohesive area that will provide a stimulus for economic development.

Research repeatedly shows: in order to have a viable downtown requires having people live in the downtown area which has a broad array of shops and services that are able to turn a profit. Apparently Dial doesn’t read the same research that I have, but why should they? They have consistently demonstrated they do not want the same downtown that most of us who were part of the planning process wanted and still want. Have their executives even been to downtown Lawrence, Lincoln, Austin or Iowa City? Or Wichita’s Old Town for that matter where new development fits with the existing structures? None of these communities have suburban malls in their downtowns and neither should we! Manhattanites deserves a place where we can walk along streets lined with shops, restaurants, and sidewalk cafes that gives our community a place to call “home.”

As a community, we cannot afford to allow the redevelopment of our downtown to end in failure. Moreover, we cannot afford to put locally owned businesses out of business. Their investment in our community far out-strips anything a big box store will contribute. So why aren’t local businesses being encouraged to relocate to this area instead of bringing in national chain stores? Because Dial doesn’t know our community.

It is time that we took back our community and its future from Dial before we get an unsustainable city center, which is full of empty buildings in ten years. My plea to the Planning Board is to reject Dial’s proposal and give them the following directions: either they return to our original concept of an interconnected block-grid structured area with lots of housing options and parking garages instead of acres of asphalt, or it is time they admit they cannot deliver what was promised and we as a community begin working on our future by starting with a not-for-profit corporate to take over and correct the mistakes Dial has made; take back the land and sell it to local businesses making our downtown redevelopment right before any more time is lost.

In honor of those who are serving and who have served our nation

In honor of Veteran's Day, my uncle Francis who died defending Wake Island, and my my father who served in WWII, I'm posting the following list of politicians and their military record. This list was sent to me in 2005, so some of the people are no longer serving in Congress or the White House, but it still makes for interesting reading. It is something to think about. The list originated from Illinois State Sen. Howard W. Carroll, who asked that people make the effort of share this information.

Service in the Armed Forces Democrats (this is quite an eye-opener):

* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars,and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans -- the guys sending people to Afghanistan and Iraq:

* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." (The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; failed to show up for required physical.
* Bob Dornan: enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem, " although continued in NFL for 8 years as quarterback.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.

2008 Kansas Legislative Session with Senator Reitz and Representatives Carlin and Hawk.

Useful State Contact Information:

State Telephone Directory Listings:
http://www.da.ks.gov/phonebook

State Web Site
http://www.kansas.gov

State Operator Information
785-296-0111

Taxpayer Assistance - Dept. of Revenue
877-526-7738

Consumer Protection - Attorney General
785-296-3751

Department on Aging
800-432-3535

Vital Statistics (birth, death certificates, etc.) - Department of Health and Environment
785-296-1400

Unemployment Benefits - Dept. of Labor
(filing) 800-292-6333
(wage and hour questions) 785-296-5000

insurance Commissioner's Office
800-432-2484

Fair Trade Resources

On our 1 November show we discussed a variety of issues related to fair trade. To learn more visit the following sites:

Ten Thousand Villages:
http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/
You can order your holiday gifts on line and make sure the money you spend improves the lives of the artisans and craftspeople who make the product and does not go to line the pockets of rich multinationals corporations.

Fair Trade Advocates:
http://www.k-state.edu/fairtrade/
A good spot to begin learning about Fair Trade.

For information about "Buy Nothing Day" on 23 November, visit:
http://www.adbusters.org

Oxfam American
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

Watch Oxfam's video "Reform the Farm Bill" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLTsE0rVeo

Watch a video on fair trade coffee vs. Starbucks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZGr2SBg-F8

Then visit:
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=starbucks_main.html

But choose locally owned coffee shops over the multinational!

You might also be interested in reading a commentary: "The Great Retraining Lie: how our government gives false hope to workers displaced by so-called "free trade" by offering retraining to obtain jobs that will never replace the economic security inherent in a job lost to so-called "free trade." The false hope is offered by Democrats and Republicans. Visit:
http://www.workinglife.org/

Fair Trade Events - November 11 - 13

Sunday, November 11

12:00 PM - 6:00PM Annual German meal and Ten thousand Villages Bazaar at Potoff Hall, Cico Park.

6:00pm CrossRoads of ECM. Hunger Banquet. Hosted by KSU Fair Trade Advocates. Exciting and educational, the Hunger Banquet engages diners in learning about global inequality through a "world-wide banquet." Dinner served, catered by The Little Grill. Tickets available at ECM and all walk-ins are welcome. Suggested donation for students: $4.


Monday, November 12
10:00am-4:00pm Sunflower, Cottonwood and Flint Hills Rooms of K-State Student Union. Fair Trade Marketplace.
11:30am-12:30pm Presentation by Summer Lewis, Interfaith Liaison for Equal Exchange. K-State Student Union Stateroom 2.
12-1pm Fair Trade Fashion Show. K-State Student Union.
1-2pm Eyes of Bastet Belly Dancers. Bosco Student Plaza.
7pm Film: "Silent Killer" Hemisphere Room, Hale Library. Panel discussion following. The event is co-sponsored by KSU Fair Trade Advocates and the Dow Chemical Multicultural Resource Center. "Silent Killer" is a powerful documentary about the unfinished campaign against world hunger, addressing the role of agricultural development, biotechnology and anti-hunger movements.

Tuesday, November 13
10am-4pm Fair Trade Marketplace.
12-1pm "Higher or Lower" Fair Trade Game Show. Bosco Student Plaza. A fun activity for everyone! Stop by and win Fair Trade prizes. Organized by KSU Fair Trade Advocates.
12-1pm Union Foodcourt "walk through" fashion show.

Wednesday, November 14
10am-4pm Fair Trade Marketplace.
11:30am-12:30pm Presentation by Summer Lewis, Interfaith Liaison for Equal Exchange. K-State Student Union Flint Hills Room.
12-1pm Yosakoi Japanese Dance Group. Bosco Student Plaza.

Additional Activities and Events:
Tuesday, November 13
Connections Reign: Under our Umbrella for Social Change, partly organized by WOMST 380 "Women and Global Social Change"
10:30am-1:30pm "Connections Reign". General activities booths - Bosco Student Plaza and inside the Union on the first floor, near foodcourt. Activities include: Social Change trivia contest and prizes, Education on women's safety: help color high heels to represent the number of women who are assaulted every four years at K-State.

Recycling Bin Scavenger Hunt: prizes provided by Howie's recycling, Fair Trade educational activities and events: learn about how fair trade helps end hunger and promotes gender, racial and cultural inclusivity. Buy your Fair Trade t-shirt, and learn where to buy Fair Trade t-shirts for your organizations.

5:30-7pm High Heel Walk to End Violence Against Women at K-State and in Manhattan. All organizations and individual men and women are encouraged to participate. Men and women will wear high heels and other shoes to "walk a Mile in Women's Shoes". Participants show that they are both identifying with women and the violence that women face, and protesting the ongoing violence against women. At 5:30 pm meet in from of the Beach Art Museum for our walk through Aggieville. Food provided. Prizes given for best overall outfit, prettiest shoes and the group with most participants.

Downtown Redevelopment

Our show on October 25th was dedicated to the topic of downtown redevelopment and our guests included Gwyn Riffel of Downtown Manhattan, Inc. and Barbara and Jay Nelson of the Strecker- Nelson Art Galley.

For more information of Downtown Manhattan visit their website at:
http://downtown.manhattanks.org/

For information on the downtown redevelopment project visit:
http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/index.asp?NID=264

Commentary to think about:
The American Police State
by Chris Hedges
Published on Monday, October 29, 2007 by TruthDig.com

A Dallas jury, a week ago, deadlocked in its deliberations and caused a mistrial in the government case against this country’s largest Islamic charity. The action raises a defiant fist on the sinking ship of American democracy.

If we lived in a state where due process and the rule of law could curb the despotism of the Bush administration, this mistrial might be counted a victory. But we do not. The jury may have rejected the federal government’s claim that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development funneled millions of dollars to Middle Eastern terrorists. It may have acquitted Mohammad el-Mezain, the former chairman of the foundation, of virtually all criminal charges related to funding terrorism (the jury deadlocked on one of the 32 charges against el-Mezain), and it may have deadlocked on the charges that had been lodged against four other former leaders of the charity, but don’t be fooled. This mistrial will do nothing to impede the administration’s ongoing contempt for the rule of law. It will do nothing to stop the curtailment of our civil liberties and rights. The grim march toward a police state continues.

Constitutional rights are minor inconveniences, noisome chatter, flies to be batted away on the steady road to despotism. And no one, not the courts, not the press, not the gutless Democratic opposition, not a compliant and passive citizenry hypnotized by tawdry television spectacles and celebrity gossip, seems capable of stopping the process. Those in power know this. We, too, might as well know it.

The Bush administration, which froze the foundation’s finances three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and indicted its officials three years later on charges that they provided funds for the militant group Hamas, has ensured that the foundation and all other Palestinian charities will never reopen in the United States. Any organized support for Palestinians from within the U.S. has been rendered impossible. The goal of the Israeli government and the Bush administration-despite the charade of peace negotiations to be held at Annapolis-is to grind defiant Palestinians into the dirt. Israel, which has plunged the Gaza Strip into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has now begun to ban fuel supplies and sever electrical service. The severe deprivation, the Israelis hope, will see the overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza and the reinstatement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has become the Marshal Pétain of the Palestinian people.

The Dallas trial-like all of the major terrorism trials conducted by this administration, from the Florida case against the Palestinian activist Dr. Sami al-Arian, which also ended in a mistrial, to the recent decision by a jury in Chicago to acquit two men of charges of financing Hamas-has been a judicial failure. William Neal, a juror in the Dallas trial, told the Associated Press that the case “was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.”

Such trials, however, have been politically expedient. The accusations, true or untrue, serve the aims of the administration. A jury in Tampa, Chicago or Dallas can dismiss the government’s assaults on individual rights, but the draconian restrictions put in place because of the mendacious charges remain firmly implanted within the system. It is the charges, not the facts, which matter.

Dr. al-Arian, who was supposed to have been released and deported in April, is still in a Virginia prison because he will not testify in a separate case before a grand jury. The professor, broken by the long ordeal of his trial and unable to raise another million dollars in legal fees for a retrial, pleaded guilty to a minor charge in the hopes that his persecution would end. It has not. Or take the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who in 2002 was spirited away by Homeland Security from JFK Airport to Syria, where he spent 10 months being tortured in a coffin-like cell. He was, upon his release, exonerated of terrorism. Arar testified before a House panel this month about how he was abducted by the U.S. and interrogated, stripped of his legal rights and tortured. But he couldn’t testify in person. He spoke to the House members on a video link from Canada. He is forbidden by Homeland Security to enter the United States because he allegedly poses a threat to national security.

Those accused of being involved in conspiracies and terrorism plots, as in all police states, become nonpersons. There is no rehabilitation. There is no justice.

“He was never given a hearing nor did the Canadian consulate, his lawyer, or his family know of his fate,” Amnesty International wrote of Arar. “Expulsion in such circumstances, without a fair hearing, and to a country known for regularly torturing their prisoners, violates the U.S. Government’s obligations under international law, specifically the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”

You can almost hear Dick Cheney yawn.

The Bush administration shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development six years ago and froze its assets. There was no hearing or trial. It became a crime for anyone to engage in transactions with the foundation. The administration never produced evidence to support the charges. It did not have any. In the “war on terror,” evidence is unnecessary. An executive order is enough. The foundation sued the government in a federal court in the District of Columbia. Behind closed doors, the government presented secret evidence that the charity had no opportunity to see or rebut. The charity’s case was dismissed.

The government has closed seven Muslim charities in the United States and frozen their assets. Not one of them, or any person associated with them, has been found guilty of financing terrorism. They will remain shut. George W. Bush can tar any organization or individual, here or abroad, as being part of a terrorist conspiracy and by fiat render them powerless. He does not need to make formal charges. He does not need to wait for a trial verdict. Secret evidence, which these court cases have exposed as a sham, is enough. The juries in Tampa, Chicago and Dallas did their duty. They spoke for the rights of citizens. They spoke for the protection of due process and the rule of law. They threw small hurdles in front of the emergent police state. But the abuse rolls on. I fear terrorism. I know it is real. I am sure terrorists will strike again on American soil. But while terrorists can wound and disrupt our democracy, only we can kill it.

Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.“ For more information on Chris Hedges, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges

The 1987 March on Washington Twenty Years Later

by Christopher E. Renner

20 years ago today (11 October) I stood on the corner of Pennsylvania and 15th Streets in Washington directing the human traffic that flowed by for three and a half hours. Over 300,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their allies march passed me during the course of those hours. My role was to be a peace keeper - to keep the marchers moving and standing between any counter-protesters that might show up. Only one did - yelling that we “were wrong,” he threw himself into the marchers pushing me to the ground. He brought the march to a stop - he looked at thousands of people looking back at him. Dumbfounded, he turned and walked away. That was the only reported event of violence against the marchers along the route the entire day.

Many of the marchers, like myself, were angry over the government's slow and inadequate response to the AIDS crisis - President Reagan had refused to even say the word in public - as well as the Supreme Court's 1986 decision to uphold sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick. A decision the court would overturn 14 years later in Lawrence v. Texas.

As the last marchers came by, we peace keepers joined the rear of the march and when we arrived on the National Mall we were greet by over 500,000 people. Today researchers put the number at closer to 650,000 people, even if the New York Times had repeatedly reported that only 200,000 people had shown up. Today the 1987 March is considered the largest civil rights march in the history of the US.

In a foreshadowing of more recent protests, the day before the March, an estimated 2,000 Gay and Lesbian couples exchanged marriage vows in front of the Internal Revenue Service. On the Monday after the March, more than 600 protesters were arrested at the US Supreme Court protesting the 1986 Hardwick Decision, making it the largest act of civil disobedience since the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

1987 had been a watershed for me. I had spent the summer attending graduated school and traveling North American with Italian friends the months of August and September. Landing in Washington a week before the march, I walked into the March’s offices and said: “I here, put me to work.” People were just amazed that someone would come from Italy to work on the March. In the next few days, more and more of us showed up at the office door. We were there to create change.

The 1987 March was the first time the NAMES Project quilt was displayed. It succeeded in bringing national attention to the impact of AIDS on gay communities. In the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, and a president who pretended that as long as gay people, and people from Haiti and hemophiliacs were dying, it was okay; a tapestry of nearly two thousand fabric panels offered a powerful tribute to the lives of some of those who had been lost in the pandemic.

I had lost my first friends in 1986 to AIDS. The first to died was Jack Jacknick, who died on my 30th birthday. By the time the march took place I had lost ten friends. I was angry, extremely angry. In my backpack were three quit panels I had made while I was at my childhood home in Beattie before the March. I had heard about this effort to make a quilt to memorialize people who had died, since so many had died alone, as we, the most industrialized, richest nation on earth, reacted with fear and ignorance to the health crisis unfolding before our eyes.

I listened to Jessie Jackson make an impassioned speech on the need for human rights and medical care for the poor. Looked for friends, who I never found -- how do you find anyone in 500,000 people? Toward the late afternoon, I began working towards the west end of the Mall, to the place the Name Project Quilt was displayed.

Entering the display was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. It was too personal; too filled with pain; too emotionally wrenching for me to describe it words. As I looked at the panels, sadness filled me; then tears filled my eyes. I looked at memorials made by friends, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, life partners and teachers. They gave the crisis a human face, a face that haunts me to this day. How could so many Americans died what was a truly horrific death and our government pretend they didn’t exist?

As I walked though the NAMES Project display, it brought to my mind the memories of a holocaust survivor I had read in his memoir: The Men with the Pink Triangle. No single book has had more of an effect on my life than that book. It forever changed how I see the world and government. As I looked at the quite crowd walking through the display, I saw survivors of a new holocaust.

Twenty years later the AIDS crisis has killed all but three of the gay friends I had alive in 1987. As a nation, we still fail to publicly hold our government accountable for the disinformation and inaction of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Moreover, young people are more at risk of contracting HIV today than they were in 1987. We have failed to provide comprehensive health education to those who need it the most. Young people walk into their early 20s without the knowledge they need to save their own lives.

Twenty years later, much has changed and much has not. AIDS no longer is the emotional issue it was in 1987. The human rights movement for LGBT equality has been high-jacked by those pushing the assimilationist agenda of “married respectability” while issues of racism, classism and ablism go unchecked in most of the LGBT community. Yes sodomy is no longer a crime, but in Kansas the statute is still on the law books and gay males are still harassed by the police. Lesbian women and their relationships are belittled by the mainstream media as nothing more than sexual fantasies for heterosexual males. Since after all, male heterosexuals are what it’s all about, right?

So twenty years later I am still waiting for the most basic of rights: freedom from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations, which is why I marched twenty years ago and why I continue to fight.