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Television pioneer Art Linkletter used to do a popular segment called “Kids Say the Darnest Things.” This year’s Republican presidential primary has proved you don’t have to be a kid to say the darnest things. Read More
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At the risk of crossing the line between politics and religion, we often think the governor of a state and the pastor of a church have much in common. They are both imperfect human beings, yet we expect them somehow to be a little better than those of us who look to them for guidance and inspiration. Read More
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Folks, I've got some good news and some bad news about the nation's ever-elusive quest for a sound energy policy. The good news: Finally there's some under-the-radar bipartisan consensus in Washington. The bad news: Both parties are dead wrong. Read More
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Washington's talking about cutting the military budget. Whoopee. Read More
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In his State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Congress to pass an agenda that helps start-ups and small businesses succeed. We have already introduced a plan that shares his goals. It's called the Startup Act. Read More
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Our nation has a long legacy of defending an individual’s religious freedoms. James Madison, the Father of our nation’s Constitution and the author of the Bill of Rights, once wrote that “conscience is the most sacred of all property.” Since our nation’s earliest days, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently affirmed our First Amendment right to exercise our religious beliefs freely. But today, recent decisions by the Obama Administration are threatening Americans’ ... Read More
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As one travels through rural Kansas it becomes readily apparent many small communities that once revolved around farm life are slowly fading away or have already died. Read More
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Business owner Ken Daniel, of Topeka, was beaming Thursday as he listened to members of Gov. Sam Brownback's cabinet explain to lawmakers details of the administration's latest tax and budget plans. Read More
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I generally make New Year's resolutions in hopes of becoming a better person — more disciplined, healthier, or, at the very least, less pathetic. Some of these resolutions last until nightfall. Some don't. None ever sees February. Read More
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In many respects, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 will be like any other day. The federal government will borrow about 40 cents out of every dollar it spends. Washington bureaucrats will remain unaware of and unconcerned about the economic and cultural consequences of their rules and regulations. Millions of Americans will remain out of work because of the tax and regulatory uncertainty scaring small businesses from taking risks to invest and hire new employees. And ... Read More
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Go to almost any meeting these days and at some point someone — usually a state or federal official — will get around to describing a project or policy plan as “a tradeoff.” Read More
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In honor of the Martin Luther King jr. Holiday, the Kansas Leadership Center is offering newspapers these columns about King and civic leadership. Read More
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The Senate remains out of session until January 23rd and I am spending time in Kansas. I look forward to Congress reconvening so my colleagues and I can tackle the many challenges our country is facing – including the national debt ... Read More
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2011 comes to a close with no U.S. combat troops in Iraq for the first time in two years shy of a decade. Veterans of that war return home — not to the celebrations of World War II or the bitterness and anger of Vietnam — but to a country more concerned with the economy than the official end of a war plagued by second thoughts. Read More
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The House is close to adjourning for 2011, but getting here has not been without a fight. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to represent Kansas in Congress this year. I have learned a lot working for you in Washington, but the best instructions I have received on my trips home every weekend during Session and in more than 70 town halls across the Big First. Those who have gotten in touch ... Read More
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It's now officially too late to do your Christmas shopping early. Read More
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Over the years, motorists at the intersection of Kansas Highways 156 and 140 have faced four-way stop signs and an overhead red light on K-140 and a yellow caution light on K-156. Read More
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The United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has issued a subpoena to the former CEO of MF Global, a major international commodities brokerage firm that collapsed after taking bad risks on European debt. Read More
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Every year about this time we do an editorial on the importance of shopping at home whenever possible. Two recent incidents have only strengthened our notion that independent, small-town businesses deserve our support. Consider: Read More
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To the Citizens of Ellsworth County: Read More
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Pick up a copy of any newspaper and several times a year you’ll find stories about the woes of rural Kansas. Read More
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In the land of the free and the home of the brave it is easy to take for granted our abilities to exercise our God-given liberties. Freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly as well our constitutionally-enshrined rights to vote and to air our grievances with government officials are just a few of the liberties many across the world are denied. Our freedoms and liberties represent the value and importance we place on the individual. But, ... Read More
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In response to my now famous "the-class-war-is-over-the-rich-guys-won" column, a gentleman from Kentucky writes a rather snarky letter posing several piercing questions that I will now answer: Read More
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Linda Mowery-Denning Editor-Publisher Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter 220 N. Douglas Ave. Ellsworth, Kan. 67439 (785) 472-5085 At first I wasn’t sure I was reading the CNN report correctly. The story hinged on special pavement that uses the impact of human feet to generate electricity. That’s right. A young man in Britain has invented a device that harvests the energy from a footfall hitting the pavement to power things like LED lights. Talk about ... Read More
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I was out of the country for a couple of weeks and came back to be greeted by yet another Republican presidential debate. I was so pleased. I hadn't realized how much I missed that goofy bunch of crazy kids. I've grown especially fond of Ron Paul, the Congressman from Mars. He's against all government enterprises, up to and including painting yellow lines on the highway. (I'm not sure whether he's physically shrinking or his ... Read More
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Pink isn’t one of those flamboyant, in-your-face colors. Instead, it has a quiet, sustained power — the kind of power it takes to fight a disease that will affect one in eight women during their lifetimes. Read More
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Stephen Colbert, every liberal's favorite mock conservative, has taken to calling his viewers "heroes" as he exhorts them to contribute to his Super PAC. Read More
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In response to a letter from congressional Agriculture Committee leadership recommending a $23 billion farm spending cut, the Center for Rural Affairs urged that a portion of the savings come from ending the single most wasteful and counterproductive feature of current farm policy - unlimited federal crop and revenue insurance subsidies to the nation's largest farms and wealthiest landowners. Read More
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When the House passed trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and Korea earlier this past week, it was a big victory not only for America, but especially for Kansas farmers and ranchers. Amid the country’s dire economic outlook and persistently high unemployment rate, these agreements are a glimmer of hope that America can reverse its current course with new markets and new jobs. Read More
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I was standing on a street one evening near my home in Washington, DC — it seems like ages ago now — with a chatty friend who travels often to New York. He mentioned that a few New Yorkers were planning an "occupation" of Wall Street. Read More
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It's been a little more than 50 years since I first walked into the Des Moines Register newsroom to begin a career in journalism. Read More
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Linda Mowery-Denning Editor-Publisher Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter 220 N. Douglas Ave. Ellsworth, Kan. 67439 (785) 472-5085 ----- Original Message ----- From: "MoranNews (Moran)" <MoranNews@moran.senate.gov> To:<ldenning@eaglecom.net> Cc: Sent:Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:26:01 -0400 Subject:Editorial by Sen. Jerry Moran: Preserving Our Natural Resources v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 ... Read More
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The increasingly extreme conservative ideology pervading Congress and the tea party is infused with a dogmatic creed of rugged individualism, used to justify policies that benefit only the super-rich and large corporations, while hurting — even killing — the rest of us. Read More
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Let’s be honest about this — country and western music is not something we search out. That said, we wouldn’t miss Saturday night’s concert at Ellsworth High School’s Performing Arts Center. Read More
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No one will ever forget that September morning 10 years ago when they heard the news: America is under attack. On that fateful day, four passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an open field in Pennsylvania – taking nearly 3,000 innocent lives in the worst attack on our country since Pearl Harbor. In a matter of minutes, lives were forever changed as firemen rushed to answer the ... Read More
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When we moved to Ellsworth almost a decade ago, fall was a favorite time — in part because most weekdays started with the sounds of the Ellsworth High School marching band practicing its routines in the grassy area below Shanelec Field. Read More
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Ah, Labor Day, the holiday when we honor Organized Labor. You know, unions and stuff like that. Yes, there'll be picnics and speeches detailing the enormous contribution unions make to our nation's prosperity. Political candidates will extol the virtues of the American worker and… Read More
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Tens of millions of people will soon observe the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. In New York City, the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died on that day will be read out loud and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama will join the families of the victims to unveil a new memorial. Obama will also visit the Pentagon, and both he and Vice President Joe Biden will visit the Pennsylvania ... Read More
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Our problem in Washington is this: we have too many 5-watt bulbs sitting in 100-watt sockets. Read More
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Rural Kansas has always prided itself on its independent, can-do spirit. That image at times was more fiction than fact, given the billions of federal dollars that have flowed into the state to support agriculture and other aspects of the Kansas economy. Read More
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Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to get out of Washington, DC and travel to small towns and farm towns in the heartland of the country. I sat down with small business owners, farmers and ranchers in Iowa; I had lunch with veterans in Cannon Falls, Minnesota; and I talked to plant workers at a seed distributor in Atkinson, Illinois. Read More
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Many of us complain from well-worn arm chairs and couches about the gridlock and partisanship in Washington D.C. We lament the extremism that masquerades as politics’ contemporary face. We pine for the days when the gulf between the parties didn’t span time or Twilight Zones. Read More
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