Barb Shelly

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

A fair amount of attention is being paid to an oped piece by Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of Harvard Medical School. He gives the health care reform efforts in Congress a failing grade and says,

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I observe the day after Thanksgiving by hitting the eliptical machine at the gym. While there, plugged into my personal TV set via earphones, I learned that shoppers were lined up at stores nationwide!

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Either Lou Dobbs has seen the light or he's a flip-flopper extraordinaire.

The former CNN anchor, who shamelessly made a name for himself by blaming illegal immigration for all the nation's woes, now is trying to make up with Latinos.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has done the Legislature a huge favor by taking on the unwelcome task of making the deep cuts to balance this year's budget. That means lawmakers can concentrate on making the dismal prospects for next year's budget when they return to Topeka in January.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I'll be interested to see what Dennis Moore does in the remainder of his final term in Congress. Freed from the burden of looking toward the next election, will he take some stands, show some fire? Lately he's been a consumate fence sitter.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I've been on the road for a week and missed all the action with the Wayne Cauthen firing.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Rev. Mark Tolbert's resignation from a Power & Light District advisory board is a big deal.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The appalling charges being filed against Burrell E. Mohler Sr. and a growing circle of his relatives and acquaintances raise the question of whether child rape went unreported.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I don't see why John Boehner is accusing Eric Holder of exercising political motives with his decision to move the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-defendants to federal court in New York City. Given Republicans' skill in whipping up peoples' fears, the attorney general's decision is bound to be hugely unpopular.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Something as sweeping as health care reform, we’re being told, should have bipartisan support. The creation of the interstate highway system did. And the Civil Rights Act. Ditto the Social Security Act of 1935.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Free speech can be a messy thing. Somebody needs to tell that to Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

The justice, usually a defender of the First Amendment, wasn't exactly free and easy when it came to coverage of a talk he gave at Dalton, a private high school in Manhattan.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

According to the AP, Scott Roeder will argue at trial that it should be legal to use lethal force to protect a fetus, just as lethal force can be justified to protect a child.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The murders of 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood are horrifying. They show us once again that the casualties of war aren't confined to overseas battlefields.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The merits of the discrimination case filed against a nightclub in the Power & Light District remain to be seen.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

It doesn’t pay to be reclusive when you’re trying to build up a small university on the wind-blown Kansas prairie.

And so, once a year, Edward H. Hammond hits the road. The president of Fort Hays State University visits journalists, alumni and just about anyone who will take time to listen to his story.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

This has got to be a good day for Guy Bailey, the former UMKC chancellor who took off to become president of Texas Tech University last year.

Lone Star voters yesterday approved a constitutional amendment that will mean a nice extra cash flow for Texas Tech and other campuses.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I don't think either Republican or Democratic stalwarts should be greatly cheered by Tuesday's election returns. But maybe Americans should be, as the results showed voters pretty much holding to the political center.

Virginia went Republican, big time, but that's pretty much a return to politics as usual.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

I suppose it had to come to this.

We've heard about the helicopter parents who accompany their college students to course registration, and greet them with a wakeup call every morning.

Now, it seems, the parental copter is even hovering over graduate school.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

"Deficits are wrong, high taxes are wrong, federal stimulus is wrong."

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Having said a lot of nice things about Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson this week, I'll add one last thought:

He needs to get together with Cerner CEO Neal Patterson and close the deal to bring the new Cerner facility and Wizards soccer stadium to Wyandotte County.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has been impressive this week.

He drew the line on state giveaways for the Wizards/Cerner deal. How often does a politician do that?

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Some of the Kansas Republican legislators should take a deep breath. The histrionics prompted by the resignation of Commerce Secretary David Kerr are completely unwarranted.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

News, they told us in college journalism class, is whatever happens within a two-mile radius of your home. Or, better yet, within two miles of your editor’s home.

I’m not sure that holds true anymore, now that news is whatever is on one’s Facebook page, or cable channel, or Twitter updates.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Never let it be said Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon can't learn from experience.

Criticized for his first economic development director pick -- a lawyer who turned out to be inexperienced in the art of the development deal -- Nixon has gone for a pro.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Police in the San Francisco suburbs are investigating a horrendous incident in which a 15-year-old girl was apparently gang-raped and assaulted for two and a half hours. People allegedly watched and didn't report it. The incident took place outside of a high school homecoming dance.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Good for eBay. It won't allow anti-abortion extremists to post violence-glorifying items on its Internet auction service.

Supporters of accused killer Dennis Roeder had planned to auction items such as an autographed copy of "A Time to Kill," a firebomber's memoir; and a manual with suggestions for closing abortion clinics, including by bombing. Money raised was intended to be used for Roeder's legal defense. He is accused of murdering abortion doctor George Tiller as Tiller attended church.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The FAA has yanked the licenses of the two Northwest pilots who claim to be so engrossed with their laptop computers they overshot the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

The way things turned out, it's kind of ironic the pilots were working so hard to figure out their new work schedules. They won't need them now.

Bill OttoBy Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

From the Topeka Capital-Journal comes word that Kansas Rep. Bill Otto plans to post a new video on YouTube next week, this one a bit friendlier to President Obama.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

(Ooops. I'm correcting an error below. The fine on the red-light camera tickets is $100, no points on the license.)

Here's an epilogue to our post of a couple days ago about Kansas City's red light cameras nabbing motorists for not coming to a complete stop before making a right-hand turn.

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Jackson County has been financing the war on drugs with a quarter-cent sales tax since 1989, and voters are being asked to re-up for at least seven more years.