By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Corn-based ethanol's supporters are whining, again. They want to keep governmental mandates to use the fuel. Too bad. It's time to kill the mandates, no matter what Garden City, Kan., ethanol backer Lee Reeve says.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Talk about great theater with huge consequences.
A battle is under way at City Hall over who should provide security at Kansas City International Airport.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Edwin Hall's surprise plea Wednesday that he murdered Kelsey Smith means he'll die in prison. It's a just punishment.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
First, The Woodlands dog and horse racing track announced plans Tuesday to shut down next month. Now the Las Vegas Sands Corp. has dropped out of the race to put a casino in Wyandotte County. Great news all around.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Stumbling around while looking for villains who caused $4-a-gallon gasoline, Congress has named its latest suspect: Speculators who allegedly have been driving up the cost of oil. Give me a break.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Right on cue, here come the Johnson County commissioners and staff to try to scare voters into approving the sales tax for public safety. Don't fall for it, voters.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Jan Marcason and other KC City Council members say they want a green sewer plan. They laud solutions like porous paving, rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels and vegetative swales that carry water runoff in place of sewer pipes. But let's be realistic.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
It's fascinating to watch Barack Obama change his opinions on the U.S. troop surge in Iraq. Sure, politicians flip-flop all the time. But wasn't Obama supposed to be different? Especially on such a core issue as the War in Iraq?
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Johnson County Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh and other sales-tax supporters are threatening to cut services or raise property taxes to pay for public safety projects if the Aug. 5 election fails. Actually, those are pretty good alternatives. Here's why.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Johnson County officials want to siphon $750 million from taxpayers over the next 25 years, ostensibly for public safety needs. That's outrageous. Especially when cities will skim more than $250 million of that money.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Are Johnson County voters sheep when it comes to passing tax increases? It's been that way for a long time, seemingly. But the times, they are a changing. And that's good news for opponents of the county's sales-tax request on the Aug. 5 ballot.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
He's wrong. Again. John McCain repeated his call Thursday in Kansas City for a gas-tax holiday. It's a stupid idea that would disrupt road projects and give Big Oil another chance to sock it to consumers.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
UPDATED FRIDAY PM
Let's be contrarians. Now that almost all the experts think $4 gasoline is here to stay, it's actually about time for the bubble in petroleum prices to pop. Just look at the last three days. (Oh, and remember 1986.)
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Johnson County officials are threatening voters with this ultimatum if a sales tax for public safety does not pass on Aug. 5: We might raise property taxes to pay for the projects. Hey, that's actually not a bad idea.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Mayor Mark Funkhouser once again is putting pressure on City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Now it's over Cauthen's inability to hire a new finance director -- nine months after the last one left over a disagreement with Cauthen.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Here's what supporters of the Johnson County sales tax for public safety aren't clearly telling the public: Approving the tax on Aug. 5 would create a $10 million fund for cities to spend, not the county.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The campaign to pass the Johnson County sales tax for public safety has a number of problems. I will point out several over the next few days. Here's the first.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
If Kansas Citians think Missouri's Department of Natural Resources is going to make sure KC's new $2.4 billion sewer-repair plan is full of truly "green solutions," think again.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
California residents can't seem to get enough of the gay marriage issue. Prediction: Coming soon to the nation's largest state -- a ban on such unions.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Pssst, want to see Kansas City government in action? Want to see a charade? On Monday, they were the same thing.
City Council members made snap decisions, ignored the wishes of citizens groups, and held a private discussion (except for one nosy columnist) to make their final decision.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
In a brief but strongly worded letter to City Manager Wayne Cauthen, Mayor Mark Funkhouser has told Cauthen to get on the stick and get KC police in charge of KCI security.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The much-needed effort to replace KCI's private security force with KC's Police Department got started in earnest today. Mayor Mark Funkhouser and Police Chief Jim Corwin made the strongest comments.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Federal jurors did the best they could with the great T-shirt controversy of 2008. They created losers all around.
The jurors fined Joe-College.com, the Lawrence company that sold some offending shirts. The jurors also told uppity University of Kansas officials that they couldn't control all the shirts sold by the company.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
(Updated at 2:30 p.m. with Sprint comments.)
Call it the Sprint Shocker.
Led by Overland Park, Johnson County cities will have to refund millions of sales-tax dollars to the county's largest employer over the next year or so. Road projects will be delayed. Citizen services will be affected. Why?
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
As an Aquila customer, I'm extremely glad that this poorly run utility is dead, absorbed by Great Plains Energy. I just wish Aquila's board of directors would stop rewarding CEO Rick Green with undeserved bonuses.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
UPDATED: Tuesday morning
At a meeting Monday, KC's housing and commercial development lawyers killed a "green" plan approved by not one, not two but three citizens groups. Surprised? Don't be.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The New Yorker magazine has struck again. Its latest illustrated cover -- showing Barack Obama in Muslim garb and wife Michelle carrying a machine gun in the Oval Office -- is highly offensive. But it's right on target as a right-wing caricature of the couple.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
As I predicted last month, Bombardier won't build its new jet at KCI. The company instead chose its home base of the Montreal area. KC didn't have the workforce and didn't dangle large enough tax breaks to clinch the deal.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The sad-sack KC Chiefs (4-12 in 2007) should get busy and trade for quarterback Brett Favre right now. What does the team have to lose?
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Local developers are trying to kill a key part of KC's green solutions for its $2.3 billion sewer repair problem. Here's the backdrop to this story:
