Matt Schofield

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial columnist

A British Equalities and Human Rights Commission report has revealed that police are now arresting people to collect their DNA.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

The Irish knew the Frenchman had cheated. The Frenchman admitted he'd cheated. The millions who were watching on television very clearly saw the cheat.

And there are even videos, looping videos, that show the brief (two seconds) of cheating, again and again, all over the internet.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Kansas City is the 20th most dangerous city in the United States for pedestrians, according to a Transportation for America study.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

In my view, it's hard to argue against health care reform.

Health care costs are debilitating, they're killing entrepreneurial spirit, putting too many people at risk of financial ruin. The current health care system costs more than anyplace else and delivers far less than is received in other countries.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Well, the annual fatso survey results are out, and they don't look pretty for Missouri. They don't look good for Kansas, either, but, you know, the best way to hide your own belly roll is to stand next to a real fat friend.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

A United Nations report has condemned slow (if any) justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo prosecution in the murder of a journalist.

It's a good reminder that in much of the world, including but not limited to the Congo, a free flow of information is viewed as, at best, an annoyance by those in power.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

The computer news of the day: the world's fastest supercomputer is now found in Tennessee, not far, actually, from the world's third fastest supercomputer (also in the Volunteer State).

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board

A new study from The University of Rochester is raising concerns about some pretty common chemicals that are making boys less boy-ish.

Boys exposed to higher levels of the chemicals in the womb are less likely to want to play with toy guns or cars and are less likely to want to "play-fight."

By Matthew Schofield, Star editorial board columnist

A Dutch right-to-die group has made the rather civic minded decision that it's simply too difficult to find information on how to best kill oneself.

These being modern times, they've, of course, put all that information together on a new website.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Thank God for Sgt. Kimberly Munley.

The civilian officer at Fort Hood brought down Maj. Nidal M. Hasan with "an amazing and an aggressive performance."

The Star's Saturday editorial

There were warning signs that U.S. Army Major Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was unstable long before he allegedly shouted “God is great” in Arabic and opened fire at Fort Hood Thursday.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt makes an interesting point in a press release today;

"You can drive up to any gas station in the country, and they can immediately figure more out about your car than a doctor knows about a patient."

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt has joined the GOP chorus chiding President Barack Obama about sending Swine Flu vaccine to Guantanamo detainees, when the vaccine is in such short supply.

Blunt has a point. But it's a public relations point, not a substanitive one.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill's reaction to the announcement that President Barack Obama was been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

McCaskill is an admitted admirer of Obama, and was an early and important supporter of his presidential campaign.

Her comments:

"Today is an interesting moment for America to reflect on how the world view of our country has changed because of this president.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

So, Barack Obama, nine months into his presidency, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Does he deserve it?

The obvious answer is yes.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial columnist

None of our four area senators will be showing up at soup kitchens soon. So stop worrying.

Only Claire McCaskill pops up on the Senates' elite list, the 11 worth more than $10 million ( a list that includes John Kerry (think Heinz) and Jay Rockefeller (think Rockefeller).

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial columnist

The common belief around Kansas City is that no one walks or pedals a bike.

Kansas City is a car town, and will remain one, and should remain one, is the logic.
The city is too spread out, too hilly, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, for any outdoor mode of transport.

That's not totally true, of course.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

Osama bin Laden has issued some advice to Europeans:

The world vilest human notes: "an intelligent man does not waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington."

And then he goes on to note:

The Star's Saturday editorial

The facts are in: Despite a summer of denials, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s office knew almost immediately about dangerously high bacteria levels in late May in the Lake of the Ozarks.

Top Nixon aides, however, didn’t move to make that information public quickly enough.

The Star's Friday editorial

The current nationwide terrorism warnings serve as a good reminder: International terrorism hasn’t gone away, and won’t go away.

The Star's Wednesday editorial

True, caveats came attached to the good news that arrived in driveways and on computer screens Wednesday. But after the year this city has just been through, we’ll take good news in whatever form it arrives.

So, the good news:

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

The racism chatter has started again.

Missouri's Roy Blunt is in the center of it this time, with a speech to the religiously conservative Family Research Council. It started because he used a tale involving golf and monkeys.

The Star's Wednesday Editorial

Kansas and Missouri must pass statewide smoking bans, and the sooner the better.

Bans have immediate positive effects on heart attack rates, with heart attacks falling by at least 17 percent one year after passage and by more than a third after three years.

The Star's Tuesday Editorial

The community organization ACORN is not the boogeyman of American politics, but its problems are serious enough that Congress must suspend its financial support and fully investigate.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial columnist

In case you'd been losing sleep wondering just who would get Sen. John McCain's support in the race for Sen. Sam Brownback's seat in Kansas when he steps down in 2010, the answer is in:

U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran.

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial columnist

The match of the year in the wide world of chess pits ... Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. Uhm, haven't we seen this before?

By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star Editorial columnist

We've seen this before, and we will see it again: American officials warning that Afghanistan is a problem.

The answer, sadly, is that the answers aren't in more troops, or better tactics. The answers are found in history: Failure is inevitable.

By Matt Schofield, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Everything we need to know about life in the nation's Capitol today was summed up as some yahoo yelled out either "Liar" or "Why?" as President Barack Obama Wednesday night sought to correct misunderstandings about his health care plan.

By Matt Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

The idea of bringing the World Cup seems far off because it is far off.

Even if Kansas City is included in a United States bid, the earliest the games would actually be played at Arrowhead Stadium would be summer 2018 (if not summer 2022).

By Matt Schofield, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Let’s get this out of the way first: I like soccer.

I like it a lot. Therefore, I’m quite excited that Kansas City is still being considered as a host city for future World Cup games.

If you’re inclined to think that real sports are played only with hands or bats or clubs, well, I can’t agree with you.