A county in Kansas last year dropped charges against three women suspected of filing false rape accusations. The county’s response was not to make it less palatable for someone to file a false accusation, but to actually make it easier to file such a claim.
Douglas County law enforcement officials will be “updating” their training of attorneys and victim/witness coordinators to include radical new “trauma-informed” training material, which essentially teaches that any evidence of a false accusation is actually evidence of trauma caused by a real accusation. The Associated Press <a href="https://www.wowt.com/content/news/Kansas-county-making-changes-after-false-rape-report-cases-567669281.html">reported</a> that Lawrence, Kansas, District Attorney Charles Branson announced last week that employees in his office, as well as police detectives in the county, would have to complete a five-hour training course on how to conduct “trauma-informed” sexual assault investigations. That’s right, such “training” only ever applies to sexual assault investigations, not murders or burglaries or any other type of crime, in which an accuser who appears to be lying will be regarded suspiciously while an investigation takes place.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kansas-prosecutors-drop-false-accusation-charges-claiming-real-victims-would-be-hurt">reported</a>, police dropped charges against women who appeared to have made false allegations:
<blockquote>The situation began in mid-September, when a female University of Kansas student told police she had been raped the night before. She said at the time she had been drunk and didn’t remember much of the encounter and didn’t want to press charges. She gave them access to her phone and her text messages suggested the encounter was consensual but a “mistake.”
It appeared to police that the woman was trying to get back at her ex-boyfriend by sleeping with his friend, and only claimed it was rape after an acquaintance threatened to tell people about the sexual encounter. The woman threatened this acquaintance by saying: “I’m pretty sure it was borderline rape and I have the bruises and statements to prove it so if you want to go there let’s do it.”</blockquote>
The woman’s text messages also showed she joked about the incident, later claiming she did that because she was “unable at the time to admit she had been raped.” Then she started “remembering” the incident and began claiming she kept telling her ex-boyfriend’s friend “no” and tried to leave.
The charges against her were dropped because prosecutors feared real victims would be afraid to come forward if possibly fake victims were held accountable. As I wrote in December:
<blockquote>A claim that has permeated throughout the culture and infected law enforcement is that prosecuting women who lie about being raped or sexually assaulted will hurt women who have actually been raped or sexually assaulted. The theory is that real victims won’t come forward for fear of being prosecuted even though there’s no evidence to suspect that real victims become fearful when fake victims are held accountable for their lies.</blockquote>
The prosecutor’s office then dropped charges against two more women who were suspected of lying about being raped. Under “trauma-informed” investigations, it’s unlikely any woman will ever be held accountable for lying about being raped. Such “training” teaches investigators that if a woman appears to be lying, she’s just traumatized from the encounter. There is literally no way to prove a woman is lying, because all evidence of lying is claimed to be evidence of the assault.

Handcuffed

Women Were Charged With Making False Rape Accusations. The Charges Were Dismissed.

false accusations

Kansas

Sexual Assault

A claim that has permeated throughout the culture and infected law enforcement is that prosecuting women who lie about being raped or sexually assaulted will hurt women who have actually been raped or sexually assaulted. The theory is that real victims won’t come forward for fear of being prosecuted even though there’s no evidence to suspect that real victims become fearful when fake victims are held accountable for their lies.
Prosecutors in Lawrence, Kansas, however, have taken the claim to heart and have dropped false reporting charges against at least three women.
The situation began in mid-September, when a female University of Kansas student told police she had been raped the night before. She said at the time she had been drunk and didn’t remember much of the encounter and didn’t want to press charges. She gave them access to her phone and her text messages suggested the encounter was consensual but a “mistake.”
It appeared to police that the woman was trying to get back at her ex-boyfriend by sleeping with his friend, and only claimed it was rape after an acquaintance threatened to tell people about the sexual encounter. The woman threatened this acquaintance by saying: “I’m pretty sure it was borderline rape and I have the bruises and statements to prove it so if you want to go there let’s do it.” As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/she-told-cops-she-was-raped-text-messages-showed-ashe-schow">reported</a>, bruises do not form immediately after an injury and could have been caused by other actions.
The woman’s text messages showed her joking about the incident. She later claimed she was making light of the incident because she was “unable at the time to admit she had been raped.” She then started “remembering” the incident and started saying she had tried to tell her ex-boyfriend’s friend “no” and tried to leave but that he held her down.
The woman was arrested for making a false report, but prosecutors <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kansas-prosecutors-to-drop-false-rape-charges-for-fear-real-victims-wont-come-forward">dropped the charges</a> against her in November, citing fears that real victims would be afraid to come forward.
Now, a month later, prosecutors have dropped charges against two more women who allegedly made false claims. The Associated Press <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas/articles/2019-12-10/2-more-false-reporting-cases-dropped-in-kansas-college-town">reported</a> that two other cases of false reporting were dropped. Little is known about the two other cases, but the AP reported that one involved a woman who said she was raped and the other involved claims of domestic violence.
The Kansas City Star <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article237679439.html">reported</a> that the charges against the other two women were brought in the past two years but were dropped after the newspaper asked prosecutors about them. The Star reported that police officers in Lawrence are not trained properly to respond to claims of sexual abuse.
Media outlets are using the situation in Lawrence to further their cause of believing all women, with the Star and the AP focusing on low percentages of arrests in reported rape cases. Rape is notoriously difficult to prove in many cases, but that doesn’t prove it is handled differently than other reported crimes or that women are not being believed. These outlets also point to the low percentage of what they call “false accusations,” but they mislead readers because they are actually referring to cases where the false accusations were proven. It is even more difficult to prove a negative, so using such a number seeks only to give readers the false impression that false accusations are rare. The truth is we don’t know how many accusations are false and can never know.

couple in bed

Kansas Prosecutors Drop False Accusation Charges, Claiming Real Victims Would Be Hurt

Rape

A common tactic for the “believe all women” crowd is to claim that prosecuting false accusations will lead real victims to avoid reporting a crime. The mental gymnastics it takes to achieve the claim ignores the fact that false accusations actually hurt real victims because they make people less inclined to believe the next victim. Thus, false accusations need to be prosecuted to deter further criminals.
As it stands now, there is virtually no punishment for a woman who falsely accuses a man of sexual assault. The charge for such a false accusation is usually a misdemeanor charge for filing a false police report, a charge that doesn’t take into account the enormous toll the false accusation takes on the actual victim.
Now prosecutors in Kansas are feeding into this culture by dropping the charges against a woman police believe fabricated a rape claim in order to get back at her ex-boyfriend for moving on with his life. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/she-told-cops-she-was-raped-text-messages-showed-ashe-schow">previously reported</a>, the woman called police before entering a hospital for a rape examination. She gave police access to her phone, which quickly proved to them that the sex between the woman and her ex-boyfriend’s best friend was consensual. Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said the messages showed the University of Kansas student “fabricated the rape story to effect the relationship between herself and the victim … and her ex-boyfriend.”
“The State believes the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing, including: the testimony of (the victim), (her ex-boyfriend), law enforcement officers, and evidence collected by law enforcement, specifically, text messages from the Defendant to her friend … indicate the sexual encounter … was consensual,” Branson said in a statement.
The woman <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article234717197.html">told</a> the Kansas City Star that her messages joking about and downplaying her sexual encounter were due to her inability “at the time to admit she had been raped.”
The woman only called the incident rape the next day after one of her acquaintances said they would tell people what happened. The accuser texted this person back, saying, “I’m pretty sure it was borderline rape and I have the bruises and statements to prove it so if you want to go there let’s do it.”
Those bruises were on her arms, legs, and neck. She had been drinking the night before and said she didn’t remember how she got them. Bruises tend to show up 1 to 2 days after an injury, not hours.
The woman was arrested for making a false accusation, even though she told police she did not want to press charges. Police investigated anyway due to the seriousness of her allegations. Her legal fees have been paid for by a legal defense fund created during the #MeToo movement.
The Chicago Tribune <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-bc-us--false-rape-report-20191029-story.html">reported</a> that prosecutors are dropping the charges against the woman because of the “cost to our community and the negative impact on survivors of sexual violence cannot be ignored.&#8221;
&#8220;We are concerned this case, and the significant amount of misinformation surrounding it, could discourage other survivors from reporting their attack,&#8221; Branson said in a new statement. &#8220;That is unacceptable.&#8221;
Branson failed to address what dropping the case meant for victims of false accusations. As it stood, the woman only faced up to 23 months in jail for a felony false reporting charge. Had the male student been arrested, he faced decades in prison.
As is typical, media outlets won’t name the woman because she claims to be a victim of sexual assault.

Justice scales

Kansas Prosecutors To Drop False Rape Charges For Fear Real Victims Won’t Come Forward

Crime

A female student at the University of Kansas told police that she had been raped the day before. She didn’t remember all the details because, she said, she was drunk. She told the officers she didn’t want to press charges but gave them access to her phone before she entered the Lawrence Memorial Hospital for a rape examination.
After looking through her phone, police suspected she was not being truthful about the encounter and continued to investigate. They determined she had lied and arrested her for falsely reporting a felony crime.
The Kansas City Star did everything it could to <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article234717197.html">report</a> the story in a way favorable to the female accuser, including placing the misleading claim that only 2%-8% of rape accusations are false immediately under the paragraph explaining the woman was arrested. The study has been widely used to insist that women don’t lie about rape, even though the study’s percentages refer to accusations that were proven false. It is nearly impossible to prove a negative, so of course this number is low. An equally small percentage of rape reports result in a guilty finding before a jury, so using the same misleading method, one could say an equally small number of rape reports are true.
In reality, we don’t know how many reports are false because cases can be categorized as false or as having too little evidence to make an arrest, which doesn’t mean it is false or true.
As for the KU student, her text messages show that she “fabricated the rape story to effect the relationship between herself and the victim &#8230; and her ex-boyfriend,” according to Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson.
“The State believes the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing, including: the testimony of (the victim), (her ex-boyfriend), law enforcement officers, and evidence collected by law enforcement, specifically, text messages from the Defendant to her friend … indicate the sexual encounter … was consensual,” Branson said in a statement quoted by the Star.
The woman claimed she had been drinking and didn’t know how she ended up in bed with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend. She claimed to the Star that she joked about the incident with a friend in a text message because, as the outlet claimed, she was “unable at the time to admit she had been raped.”
She only claimed the incident was rape the next day after an acquaintance “threatened to tell people about the incident,” the Star reported.
The woman threatened the acquaintance back by texting: “I’m pretty sure it was borderline rape and I have the bruises and statements to prove it so if you want to go there let’s do it,” according to court documents reviewed by the Star.
The woman then began to “remember” the incident, claiming she tried to leave but her ex-boyfriend’s friend wouldn’t let her and that she told him “no” as he held her down. She apparently had bruises on her arms, legs, and neck that she could not explain. Bruises, however, don’t appear immediately after an injury and usually take 1-2 days to form.
Text messages sent after the incident to a friend “made light of the incident and seemed to suggest the encounter was consensual and ‘just a mistake on her part,’” the Star reported. When asked about the messages, the female student attempted to “downplay” the situation.
Weeks after the encounter, she went to KU’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access to file a Title IX complaint against the male student. Police told the school it doubted her story.
Text messages from the alleged perpetrator mentioned that the female student appeared to want to have sex with him.
Police allege the woman had sex with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend to get back at him, but then feared news of the encounter would spread.
“Furthermore, the detective said the woman likely decided to press charges after speaking with the university’s IOA office because she wanted to punish her on-again, off-again boyfriend for having a relationship with another woman at the same time as her,” the Star reported.
The woman’s attorney, paid for by a legal defense fund created during the #MeToo movement, naturally said the female student was telling the truth and chastising police for failing to adhere to “trauma-informed practices,” which insist women never lie and that any evidence of such is simply evidence of trauma and truth.

Woman texting

She Told The Cops She Was Raped. Text Messages Showed Otherwise. Now She’s Been Arrested.

Education

At Kansas University, some faculty members, calling Chick-fil-A a &#8220;bastion of bigotry,&#8221; are fighting against allowing America’s most popular fast-food chain to move from a campus basement to the school’s main student center as well as sponsor the &#8220;Chick-fil-A Coin Toss&#8221; for every home football game. The fast-food chain has operated for 15 years in the basement of KU&#8217;s Wescoe Hall, as <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article234526717.html">Kansascity.com</a> reported.
Members of the &#8220;Sexuality &amp; Gender Diversity Faculty and Staff Council&#8221; wrote a <a href="https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/kansan.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/da/eda01c72-c915-11e9-a0a3-a733f685306c/5d65a7fd5d3fd.pdf.pdf">letter to the university</a> stating, &#8220;In the Spring, we spoke out to denounce the decision to relocate the business, which has a history of supporting organizations that are hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, families, and communities.&#8221; The letter named Exodus International, which supports so-called &#8220;conversion therapy,&#8221; along with the Family Research Council (FRC); the letter cited the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, calling the FRC a &#8220;hate group.” The letter sniped, &#8220;While many Christians are supportive of the LGBTQ community and many are members themselves, the culture of Chick-fil-A fosters hate and discrimination on multiple levels &#8230; While we recognize that contractual obligations did not allow the complete removal of the brand from campus, we are outraged that they have been allowed to move from the Wescoe Underground to a new, bigger, more central location on the University of Kansas campus. Despite our denouncements and the university&#8217;s own moves to increase the campus&#8217;s diversity, equity, and inclusion, KU granted Chick-fil-A, a bastion of bigotry, a prime retail location in the heart of our campus.&#8221;
Speaking of Chick-fil-A&#8217;s move to the Memorial Union, the letter stated, &#8220;The Union was one of the first places on campus to incorporate gender inclusive bathrooms for the comfort and validation of the experiences and range of identities of the people who walk our halls. The arrival of Chick-fil-A in this building is insulting, counterproductive, and unacceptable.&#8221;
The letter continues, &#8220;We demand a guarantee from the Chancellor, KU Athletics, and the Provost that these contracts will not be renewed once expired.&#8221;
Acting provost Carl W. Lejuez responded to the LGBTQ actions by asserting, &#8220;Moving forward, I believe it is important to have thoughtful discussion and deliberation when we enter into contracts. In the future, we will do so in a manner that is transparent and informed by our commitment to affirm diversity and to be a welcoming and inclusive campus,&#8221; according to the University Daily Kansas, as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/chick-fil-a-kansas-university-campus">Fox News</a> reported.
But College Republicans at the university are fighting back; Garrett Miller, a spokesman for the College Republicans group at the university, noted of the fast-food chain&#8217;s university outlet, &#8220;Usually any time of day it&#8217;s just packed,&#8221; told <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7419825/Kansas-University-faculty-wants-Chick-fil-removed-campus-bastion-bigotry.html">DailyMail.com</a>, &#8220;Chick-fil-A doesn&#8217;t discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Anybody can go in and get their chicken. If you don&#8217;t like Chick-Fil-A, you can go somewhere else.&#8221;
Additionally, the College Republicans created a Facebook page titled, &#8220;Keep Chick-fil-A at KU&#8221; and a <a href="https://secure.winred.com/kansas-republican-party/kucollegerepublicans?fbclid=IwAR2yYZGc9CwQlDAIN-_4kbpSxfg0aACs2jjhz3GEg22SmXaOGkObUsxe6W4">petition</a> to keep the fast-food outlet on the campus. Miller noted that GOP congressman Steve Watkins would supply Chick-fil-A at the College Republicans&#8217; first meeting of the fall semester.
The <a href="https://rockchalkcentral.ku.edu/organization/kucrs">mission statement</a> of the KU College Republicans states: &#8220;It is the mission of the University of Kansas College Republicans to be open and welcoming to a large and diverse swath of ideals and to promote conservative values on campus to lift all Jayhawks. In honorably furthering those ideals, KUCRs campaign on a national, state, local, and campus level, and further discussions on the conservative solutions of limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, personal accountability, adherence to the Constitution and more.&#8221;

US-ECONOMY-RETAIL-FOOD

Faculty At Kansas University Want Chick-Fil-A Thrown Off Campus: It’s A ‘Bastion Of Bigotry’

Chick-fil-A

After a Catholic school in Kansas refused to enroll a kindergartner whose parents are gay, and a petition was launched against the school&#8217;s decision that was signed by over 1,800 people, a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6811409/Thousands-sign-petition-supporting-Catholic-schools-decision-deny-child-gay-couple-enrollment.html">second petition was launched</a> by others who supported the school&#8217;s decision and was signed by over 7,000 people.
The St. Ann Catholic school in Prairie Village, Kansas reportedly blocked the child&#8217;s attendance but other parents were unaware of the situation until Reverend Craig J. Maxim of St. Ann Catholic Church wrote a letter to parents in February, saying he asked for guidance from the archdiocese, which responded that the gay parents could not &#8220;model behaviors and attitudes consistent with the Church&#8217;s teachings.&#8221; Maxim wrote, &#8220;This creates a conflict for those children and what is experienced at home. It also could become a source of confusion for other school children.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article227148974.html">first petition</a> was addressed to Archbishop Joseph Naumann and school Superintendent Kathy O&#8217;Hara. It read, &#8220;Respectfully, we believe that the decision to deny a child of God access to such a wonderful community and education, based on the notion that his or her parent&#8217;s union is not in accordance with the Church&#8217;s teaching in Sacramental marriage, lacks the compassion and mercy of Christ&#8217;s message.&#8221;
O&#8217;Hara <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5761141-Archdiocesan-Media-Statement-Regarding-Same-Sex.html">responded</a> in part, &#8220;Matrimony is held up by the Catholic Church as a sacrament entered into between a man and a woman. Marriage is considered the building block of the family, of society, and the heart of the church. The Church&#8217;s teaching on marriage is clear and is not altered by the laws of civil society &#8230; The Church teaches that individuals with same sex attraction should be treated with dignity. However, the challenge regarding same sex couples and our Catholic schools is that same sex parents cannot model behaviors and attitudes regarding marriage and sexual morality consistent with essential components of the Church&#8217;s teachings.&#8221;
The second petition, addressed to Naumann, stated that it was created by &#8220;concerned faithful&#8221;&#8217; in the archdiocese. It asserted, &#8220;It is clear that the rapid secularization of our society is increasingly causing hostility to the practice of the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, the lack of sound catechesis can leave many Catholics to form their consciences on these issues based on the opinions of the world rather than the immutable truths of the Gospel.&#8221; It stated to Naumann, &#8220;Especially given the activity of many pressure groups in the Church today, we are all the more encouraged by your steadfast decision to uphold the perennial truths of the moral law &#8211; for everyone&#8217;s good.&#8221;
The petition added, &#8220;We are saddened to witness such attacks directed against our Mother the Church, and against you personally, in the aftermath of the decision of Saint Ann Catholic School not to admit as a student the child of a same sex &#8216;couple.&#8217; Although we are all sinners, and we cannot judge the intentions of the persons involved as faith-filled Catholics striving to raise all Catholic children in a hostile world, we know the grave damage that can be done by scandal.&#8221;

Petition Slams Catholic School For Excluding Child Of Gay Parents. Then Other Catholics Do This.

Catholic Church

Catholicism

LGBT

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ruled out his possible candidacy for a soon-to-be vacated U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Kansas. In addition to his prior service as CIA Director, Pompeo had also served as a Wichita-area U.S. Congressman for six years.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who has served in the Senate since 1997, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/kansas-sen-pat-roberts-announces-he-wont-seek-reelection-in-2020/2019/01/04/569b7bf4-0a1c-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html">announced</a> last month that he will not seek reelection in 2020.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/21/mike-pompeo-senate-1176869?nname=playbook-pm&amp;nid=0000015a-dd3e-d536-a37b-dd7fd8af0000&amp;nrid=00000169-02b0-df38-abe9-77bf94dd0001&amp;nlid=964328">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
The former Kansas congressman and CIA director had dodged questions about whether he planned on running in 2020 to claim the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, fueling speculation that he might by attending certain events and meeting with GOP operatives in the state.
But on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Today&#8221; show on Thursday, the secretary of state threw cold water on the prospect, telling anchor Craig Melvin &#8220;it&#8217;s ruled out.&#8221;
&#8220;I love Kansas. I&#8217;m going to be the secretary of State as long as President Trump gives me the opportunity to serve as America&#8217;s senior diplomat,&#8221; Pompeo said. &#8220;I love doing what I&#8217;m doing and I have 75,000 great warriors out and around the world trying to deliver for the American people.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Pompeo had <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/24/mike-pompeo-2020-senate-1121851">previously confirmed</a> that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had asked him to consider a 2020 Senate run, but Pompeo had otherwise previously been noncommittal as to whether he might leave the Executive Branch to return to the realm of elected office.
&#8220;Lots of folks have reached out to me and suggested I ought to do it,&#8221; Pompeo told Fox News last month, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/mike-pompeo-says-he-has-ruled-out-running-senate-seat-n973906">NBC News</a> today. &#8220;I have suggested to them that I have a very full plate as Secretary of State and I intend to keep doing this so long as President Trump will commit to it.&#8221;
The Kansas City Star&#8217;s lede <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article226581194.html">opines</a> that a &#8220;giant obstacle has been cleared from the path of Kansas politicians&#8221; who are interested in pursuing Roberts&#8217; soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, but otherwise would have been deterred by the presence in the race of a nationally prominent figure like Pompeo.
One possibly intriguing name for conservatives may be FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who is a 46-year-old Kansas native with degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago. Pai&#8217;s leadership for the Trump Administration in rolling back the FCC&#8217;s cumbersome net neutrality regulatory framework has earned him heaps of scorn from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24009/net-neutrality-protesters-target-fcc-chairmans-hank-berrien">Left</a>, but no shortage of praise from the <a href="https://conservative.org/article/acu-praises-fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-unwavering-resolve-and-congratulates-pai-fellow-commissioners-on-passage-of-order-to-restore-internet-freedom">Right</a>. He is well-liked and respected by many grassroots conservatives.
In December 2017, following FCC Commisioners&#8217; 3-2 procedural vote that set the wheels in motion for net neutrality&#8217;s demise and thereby made Pai the bête noire of large swathes of the Left-leaning tech nerd cognoscenti, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24691/breaking-net-neutrality-repealed-left-loses-its-ben-shapiro">mocked</a> the Left&#8217;s hyperbolic reaction:
<blockquote>
The level of panic set off by the end of net neutrality is utterly out of proportion to the actual effect that end is likely to have. The basic debate over net neutrality is actually a reasonable one: is the best way to ensure a better internet for consumers to ban internet service providers (ISPs) from charging certain content providers more for their use of bandwidth than others, or is it to free ISPs to charge what they want, thereby incentivizing ISPs to compete with one another to offer different services at different prices? &#8230;
This is a reasonable debate. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s not reasonable: the suggestion that your internet use is likely to change radically from what it was in 2015, before net neutrality went into effect. Here&#8217;s what else isn&#8217;t reasonable: people of the Left who think that Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter operate fine in the free market, and that consumers don&#8217;t have to worry about discrimination thanks to open competition, but that the same doesn&#8217;t apply to ISPs.
</blockquote>

Mike Pompeo Rules Himself Out Of Kansas’ Open 2020 Senate Seat

2020 Election

Mike Pompeo

Republican Party

State Department

U.S. Senate

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Republican is suing the Kansas City Star over a column published last week attributing several statements to him he said he did not make.
The column, written by contributing columnist Steve Rose, has since <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/steve-rose/article225109925.html">been taken down</a> as the paper investigates Denning&#8217;s lawsuit. Rose&#8217;s column was about the state&#8217;s Medicaid expansion, and he claimed Denning &#8220;finally confessed to me his reasons for rejecting it.&#8221; Rose also wrote that Denning &#8220;claimed, even today, that Kansas cannot afford the $14 million per year it would need to spend.&#8221; Further, Rose said Denning offered &#8220;lame excuses&#8221; for fighting the expansion.
Denning says he has not even spoken to Rose since 2016 and was not interviewed for the column. He also released emails that showed Rose offered to resign as a columnist if Denning stopped asking questions about what Denning said.
&#8220;I think Jim and you both are right. I would like to make this suggestion. Let it drop, and I will resign my column in The Star, effective today,&#8221; Rose wrote in response to an email from Denning&#8217;s chief of staff, Ethan Patterson. Patterson had asked when Rose had spoken to Denning.
Rose said he had already resigned when he made the offer to Denning&#8217;s office.
Rose also said he had spoken to Denning around April 13, 2018 about a column he wrote retracting his previous endorsement of Denning. Rose said Denning made the statements about Medicaid prior to that column, according to the <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article225208765.html">Kansas City Star</a> (yes, the same paper Denning is suing).
&#8220;We&#8217;ve always met and chatted and talked and it&#8217;s been that kind of a relationship,&#8221; Rose told the Star.
Denning is suing Cypress Media, the Kansas City Star, and Rose.
&#8220;The latest personal attack on me by Steve Rose and the KC Star is unethical and cannot stand,&#8221; Denning <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190128/jim-denning-files-defamation-claim-over-steve-rose-column-in-kansas-city-star">told the Topeka Capital-Journal</a>. &#8220;Mr. Rose even went so far as to offer his resignation if I kept quiet and looked the other way. Enough is enough.&#8221;
Michael Kuckelman, the attorney who filed the lawsuit for Denning, told the Capital-Journal the media &#8220;has wide berth of what they can say about an elected official &#8211; for good reason,&#8221; but said the comments still have to be truthful.
&#8220;They attribute a lot of comments to Sen. Denning that he did not make,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In fact, Sen. Denning wasn&#8217;t even interviewed for the article. And yet they attribute these comments to him, and he has received so much hate email and so forth as a result of these comments that he didn&#8217;t make.&#8221;
Denning said he has been subjected to nasty comments and public ridicule as a result of Rose&#8217;s column. He included in the lawsuit an example of one expletive-laden comment he received.
&#8220;I will not address you with a title,&#8221; the commenter wrote. &#8220;You must earn that respect, and believe me when I say that you never well. Who the (expletive) made you the judge, jury and executioner for those who need medical care? Who the (expletive) do you think you are, (expletive). What you are is a pathetic, insecure, piece of (expletive), and that is probably an insult to dog (expletive).&#8221;
Denning&#8217;s lawsuit claims Rose&#8217;s originally submitted column didn&#8217;t attribute the comments to anyone in particular, and was told by an editor to name his source.

Kansas Lawmaker Sues Newspaper, Claiming Columnist Made Up Quotes

Fake News

Lawsuit

The Associated Student Government at Emporia State University in Kansas tried to impeach the student body vice president for using the term &#8220;illegal alien&#8221; on her personal Facebook page. The vote failed a two-thirds approval vote with 11 votes in favor, seven against, and three abstentions.
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11515">Campus Reform</a> reports that Michaela Todd, a senior at the university and Campus Reform correspondent, was called to resign by fellow students and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. 
Todd used the phrase &#8220;illegal alien&#8221; in a supportive Facebook post about former Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach prior to election day on November 6.
&#8220;Put Kansas first, not illegal aliens,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;The millions of dollars spent on public welfare for illegal aliens in Kansas hurts Kansas taxpayers every single day.&#8221;
In July, the Justice Department <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/24/politics/justice-department-illegal-aliens-undocumented/index.html">instructed</a> U.S. attorneys to use the term &#8220;illegal alien&#8221; instead of &#8220;undocumented immigrant&#8221; because the &#8220;word &#8216;undocumented&#8217; is not based in US code and should not be used to describe someone&#8217;s illegal presence in the country.&#8221;
Students took screenshots of Todd&#8217;s post and shared it on social media labeling her post &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;ignorant.&#8221;
The Multicultural Greek Council said that Todd &#8220;does not represent us&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/EmporiaMgc/status/1060182367669760000">on Twitter</a> and called on the university to &#8220;take the measures needed to show us that she does not represent ESU either.&#8221;
Todd says she edited her post and deleted the phrase &#8220;illegal alien&#8221; after hearing that it upset some of her constituents, but says she doesn&#8217;t regret it.
&#8220;It was the correct term to use for the context of my post,&#8221; Todd told The Daily Wire. &#8220;While I do not regret my post or the language in it, I do understand that it upset certain people, and that was not my intentions behind it. The purpose of my post and the language in it was to reiterate what Kobach stood for and how his leadership would benefit Kansas.&#8221;
The student government Diversity and Inclusion Committee also called for Todd to resign last week, threatening to move forward with the impeachment process if she did not resign by Monday, according to <a href="http://www.esubulletin.com/news/senate-motion-to-impeach-student-body-vice-president-fails/article_03f4f704-e3c5-11e8-bbfd-fb8ed2c0eab2.html">the student newspaper</a>. On Wednesday, the committee rescinded its call for her to resign because of concerns over their own &#8220;safety and wellbeing.&#8221;
&#8220;Our committee would like to clarify that we did not intend to make Vice President Todd feel isolated in her community,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We want to make the systemic issues on campus more visible and be voices for marginalized students.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hornet Nation, please read the new important statement below. <a href="https://t.co/UdIVRyxQFM">pic.twitter.com/UdIVRyxQFM</a>
&#8212; ESU ASG (@EmporiaStateASG) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmporiaStateASG/status/1062748523408560133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Todd also said that the criticism she received upset her but believes that the solution is calling for better dialogue.
&#8220;It was crushing to see my peers call me an unfit leader, ignorant, and racist solely based on one post I made, expressing my political beliefs,&#8221; she said. &#8220;ESU strives to be a campus of diversity and inclusion, but the diversity of political thought is next to none. I have been taught that I may not be able to control what people say or do to me, but I can control how I react. Which is why I am dedicated to having better dialogue between students and myself, so that together we can learn and grow from listening to different perspectives and beliefs.&#8221;
After the Campus Reform article was posted, Todd says many of her fellow senators have claimed they received online attacks from people who do not attend the university.
&#8220;I have heard through other people on campus that senators are also receiving major backlash for the actions that they have made,&#8221; Todd stated. &#8220;They should not have to endure that, and I will support them through this.&#8221;
Todd does not plan to step down from her position and said that this will serve as a learning experience. 
&#8220;My hope is that through this whole issue, we the students are more open to having civil dialogue about different views and beliefs,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I have faith that our student body will be able to come out of this stronger and establish a new inclusive campus.&#8221;
On Thursday, the student government canceled its weekly meeting because of &#8220;serious concerns for the safety and well-being of the campus community.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8252;&#65039;&#8252;&#65039;URGENT UPDATE &#8252;&#65039; READ BELOW &#8252;&#65039;&#8252;&#65039; <a href="https://t.co/zRaBDGevtf">pic.twitter.com/zRaBDGevtf</a>
&#8212; ESU ASG (@EmporiaStateASG) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmporiaStateASG/status/1063201997761978369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Student Senate Tries To Impeach Student Body VP For Saying ‘Illegal Alien’ On Personal Facebook

Illegal Immigration

Students

Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump boasted, cryptically, on Twitter that he was &#8220;5 for 5.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
5 for 5!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1027200569096765441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
But while mainstream media struggled to figure out precisely what the president meant, results from five Republican primaries rolled in, and Trump endorsed the winner in all five primaries &#8212; something that sets him far apart from previous presidents, including President Barack Obama, who notoriously failed to pick winners during much of his tenure.
Trump racked up a win in Ohio: Trump-backed <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/08/08/trump-backed-goper-claims-victory-in-special-election-for-ohio-congressional-seat/">Republican Troy Balderson eked out</a> a &#8220;razor-thin&#8221; win in an Ohio special election, defeating Democrat Danny O&#8217;Connor. Democrats tried to play off the loss as a &#8220;win&#8221; (because of the narrow margin) even though, before the vote, Democrats touted O&#8217;Connor as the first splash in what they believe will be a &#8220;blue wave&#8221; in November.
And one in Kansas: Trump-endorsed Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach also found himself narrowly edging out his opponent, a fellow Republican running against the Trump agenda. Trump tweeted support for Kobach on Monday, calling Kobach a &#8220;fantastic guy.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s Ohio and Kansas candidates are in mandated recounts, but both are expected to maintain their victories.
The president&#8217;s victory tour rolled on to Missouri: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article187102488.html">hosted Trump for a campaign rally last November</a> and touted the president&#8217;s support throughout his campaign. He sailed to an easy win Tuesday and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/josh-hawley-missouri-senate.html">will face embattled Sen. Claire McCaskill in November</a> &#8212; a Senate seat that Republicans believe he can pick up.
And Trump racked up two wins in Michigan: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette won his primary, and John James, whom the president called &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1027032629063892993">a future STAR of the Republican party</a>,&#8221; won the state&#8217;s GOP contest to challenge Michigan&#8217;s longtime Democratic Senator, Debbie Stabenow.
That makes Trump officially &#8216;5 for 5&#8217; as advertised. He rounded out his victory lap with more positive stats.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The Republicans have now won 8 out of 9 House Seats, yet if you listen to the Fake News Media you would think we are being clobbered. Why can&#8217;t they play it straight, so unfair to the Republican Party and in particular, your favorite President!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1027211440225243137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
As long as I campaign and/or support Senate and House candidates (within reason), they will win! I LOVE the people, &amp; they certainly seem to like the job I&#8217;m doing. If I find the time, in between China, Iran, the Economy and much more, which I must, we will have a giant Red Wave!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1027214330503352320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
A &#8220;red wave&#8221; may be somewhat ambitious, but it&#8217;s clear the Democratic &#8220;blue wave&#8221; is currently just a trickle.

President Trump Boasts That He Went ‘5 For 5’ – And He’s RIGHT

Donald Trump

Michigan

Ohio

A sheriff from Kansas has a plan to keep schools safe: Arm school personnel. 
Sheriff Tom Morse from Jackson County hopes to prevent schools from being soft targets and <a href="https://www.jasoks.org/press-release-18-0727/">outlined his plan</a> in a recent press release. Morse claims he does not trust politicians to keep children safe and believes the best course of action is taking matters into the hands of the Sheriff&#8217;s Department. 
&#8220;While politicians continue to fight, and activists feud with each other, it only wastes time and delays our schools from being secure,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Further inaction will only result in more tragedy.&#8221;
Morse proposes using the current &#8220;special deputy&#8221; program, which allows sheriffs to have an unpaid deputy who has duties such as serving papers and warrants, transferring prisoners, or acting as a regular deputy.
&#8220;My plan would allow school personnel to apply to be a School Protection Special Deputy for the purpose of entering the School Defender Initiative Program that would be created for our country.&#8221;
Morse claims that personnel would include administrators, maintenance, coaches, and other staff. 
The program would require all applicants to undergo the same vetting as a full-time deputy, including background investigations, physiological testing, applicant testing, polygraphs, and firearm training that would exceed the number of training hours full-time officers receive in the police academy. Participants would also be highly trained in active shooting drills and will have to undergo quarterly refresher classes. 
Morse envisions the participants to act similarly to Federal Air Marshals as in they only reveal their identity and that they are armed when there is a threat. He believes that schools should be &#8220;hardened like many government buildings,&#8221; including entrances being limited, individuals being screened before entering, and armed personnel on site.
&#8220;Why have we taken so long in this nation to protect our greatest treasures, our children?&#8221; he asks. &#8220;We need to make changes in how we protect our children and the changes need to start today.&#8221;
&#8220;While I do not have much faith that our politicians will find solutions anytime soon, I believe with some hard work and dedication we can change our schools from being soft targets,&#8221; Morse writes. &#8220;I encourage the sheriffs in this state and nation to stand up and take the lead in securing our schools.&#8221;
Teachers in Kansas have been permitted to carry firearms since 2013 but the state&#8217;s primary insurer refused to cover schools with armed staff, causing the state legislature to propose a bill to prohibit insurers from denying coverage for this reason.

Kansas Sheriff Hopes To Arm School Staff To Prevent School Shootings

Gun Laws

Gun-Free Zones

Shooting

On Wednesday, Kansas Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who will face off in the GOP gubernatorial primary in August, jointly condemned the University of Kansas for a <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/11/university-kansas-flies-altered-us-flag-takes-heat/">defaced American flag</a> flown on the Lawrence campus.
Colyer called the flying of the flag &#8220;disrespectful,&#8221; adding it was &#8220;absolutely unacceptable&#8221; and that it should be removed immediately. Kobach called the flying of the flag &#8220;outrageous&#8221; and asserted, &#8220;The fact that they call it art does not make it any less of a desecration of our flag. I call upon the university to take down that flag right away.&#8221;
The defaced flag, which is emblazoned with two black abstract shapes as well as a black-and-white sock, is referred to as &#8220;Untitled (Flag 2), one of a series of flag displays started last fall as part of a project titled &#8216;Pledges of Allegiance.&#8217;&#8221;
Colyer stated he had expressed his outrage to university Chancellor Doug Girod and board of regents President Blake Flanders; the flag was <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/state/article214705000.html">taken down</a> Wednesday afternoon. KU Chancellor Douglas Girod posted a message on KU&#8217;s website stating, &#8220;While we want to foster difficult dialogue, we cannot allow that dialogue to put our people or property in harm&#8217;s way. We have begun the process of relocating the exhibit to the Spencer Museum of Art, where we can continue the important conversation it has generated.&#8221;
University of Kansas spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said that the project had been funded with private money.
On Wednesday, before the statements from Colyer and Kobach, Steve Watkins, a combat veteran and GOP candidate for Kansas&#8217; 2nd Congressional District, had stated that the &#8220;defaced American flag&#8221; was disrespectful to the military. He added, &#8220;To those who would trample, burn, or deface the flag, thank a soldier. It hurts me to see a defaced flag fly at the University of Kansas.&#8221;
According to the flag&#8217;s creator, Josephine Meckseper, it represented a deeply polarized country. The black and white sock in the corner &#8220;takes on a new symbolic meaning in light of the recent imprisonment of immigrant children at the border. &#8230; It&#8217;s about time for our differences to unite us rather than divide us.&#8221;

After GOP Governor and Secretary Of State Condemn It, University Of Kansas Takes Down Defaced American Flag

A Kansas family who lost sight of their son for mere moments may now owe a community center more than $130,000, <a href="http://abc7chicago.com/family-on-the-hook-for-$132000-after-son-topples-statue/3606699/">according to WGN News</a>.
Sarah Goodman and her family were at a wedding at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center last month when she briefly lost sight of her five year old son. Suddenly, she says, she heard yelling &#8212; a Community Center employee screaming &#8220;Where is your mother?&#8221;
When she ran to investigate, she found her five year old son had &#8220;hugged&#8221; a mosaic bust of a Greek goddess and had toppled the statue off its base, leaving it broken on the floor.<a href="http://abc7chicago.com/family-on-the-hook-for-$132000-after-son-topples-statue/3606699/"> Surveillance footage captured the incident</a>, showing the small boy throwing his arms around the statue before it tumbles to the ground almost on top of him.
But what should have been an unfortunate incident turned into a major story when Goodman found out that the bust wasn&#8217;t just a piece of public art, but a priceless sculpture entitled, &#8220;Aphrodite di Kansas City&#8221; by artist Bill Lyons &#8212; and it cost a whopping $132,000.
&#8220;This glass mosaic torso is laying on the ground and someone is following me around demanding my personal information,&#8221; Goodman told local media. &#8220;&#8216;Maybe this is like 800 or something.&#8217; No, it&#8217;s $132,000!&#8221;
The city&#8217;s insurance company sent the Goodmans a bill for the full price of the statue, claiming that they were negligent in not closely supervising their young children. The statue, it turns out, was &#8220;on loan to the city,&#8221; and they aren&#8217;t happy that someone at a party knocked it over.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a societal responsibility that you may not interact with it if it&#8217;s not designed for interaction,&#8221; a city official told WGN.
The Goodmans say they had no idea the art was expensive, and that something that precious should have been placed behind glass or marked with a &#8220;do not touch&#8221; sign. Standing alone and unsecured in a hallway, the statue was a safety hazard.
&#8220;My children are well-supervised, but all people get distracted,&#8221; Goodman told reporters.
&#8220;It&#8217;s in the main walkway,&#8221; she added about the statue. &#8220;Not a separate room, not plexiglas, not protected, not held down.&#8221;
For now, the family says they aren&#8217;t paying the bill, and they&#8217;re waiting to see whether the city takes legal action.

Kansas Family Forced To Pay $132,000 After Kid Breaks ‘Public Art’ Installation

Street Art

In the highly unlikely possibility that a Kansas police officer&#8217;s body camera gets turned off during an incident, it might be the result of a new state law signed on Thursday by Governor Jeff Colyer. The law states that it is illegal for a Kansas cop to have sex with someone pulled over for a traffic violation or someone detained in a criminal investigation.
As the <a href="http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article210902319.html">Wichita Eagle reports</a>, the new law bans sexual relations &#8220;during the course of a traffic stop, a custodial interrogation, an interview in connection with an investigation, or while the law enforcement officer has such person detained.&#8221;
Before the law, introduced by Democratic Rep. Cindy Holscher, was passed, Kansas was one of 33 states without a similar law on the books. Holscher told the Wichita Eagle that two cases catalyzed her to take action. One was the case of Lamont McIntyre of Kansas City, who was finally released last year after 23 years in prison after being convicted of a crime he had not committed. Investigators in his case found that the detective who arrested him had been forcing women in Kansas City&#8217;s black community, including McIntyre&#8217;s mother, to have sex with him by threatening to arrest them or their relatives. McIntyre&#8217;s mother testified that she believed the detective targeted her son after she rejected the detective&#8217;s manipulations.
The other case Holscher cited revolved around a teenager in New York who alleged she had been <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/01/04/teen-sues-nypd-city-and-officers-over-alleged-cop-rape/">raped by two police officers in the back of their van</a> last October. The alleged attack started in a Coney Island Chipotle parking lot and then continued as the partners drove through Bay Ridge. The officers claimed that the sex had been consensual.
Both sides of the political aisle supported Holscher&#8217;s bill. Rep. John Carmichael (D-Wichita), an attorney and member of the Judiciary Committee, was surprised the law was not already on the books, saying, &#8220;Those of us who have been there for a few years thought it was something that had already been taken care of in the law.&#8221; He added of Holscher, &#8220;She called me about this. I said, &#8216;You mean it&#8217;s not against the law?&#8217; She said, &#8216;No, it&#8217;s not.&#8217; I checked with the revisor (of statutes) and it was not specifically against the law in Kansas.&#8221;
Rep. John Whitmer, a Republican from Wichita, stated, &#8220;Most officers are great guys and women who are working hard, but there&#8217;s always the one.&#8221;

Kansas Passes Law Forbidding Cops From Having Sex During Traffic Stops

Police

Catalyzed by the Valentine&#8217;s Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, some Kansas legislators have proposed legislation that would <a href="https://apnews.com/885daa19f4394aa99e64fd7ba582d79b">hold schools legally responsible</a> if they refuse to allow teachers to carry guns and the school is attacked. The bill would also authorize districts to let certain staff members carry firearms in schools if they have a license to carry concealed firearms and undergo additional special training, according to the <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2018/mar/26/battle-over-arming-teachers-set-begin-kansas-house/">Lawrence Journal-World</a>.
Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Republican who helped write the legislation, pointed out to the House Insurance Committee that in many cases, it could take precious minutes for police to arrive in case of an imminent attack, and in smaller districts in which school resource officers aren&#8217;t hired because of a lack of funding, the bill would allow for the &#8220;next best thing,&#8221; adding, &#8220;It is not, if our kids will be killed. It is, when will they be killed and what are we doing to prevent it?&#8221;
Teachers in Kansas have been allowed to carry concealed guns since 2013 but school districts ended that practice after EMC Insurance Companies, the state&#8217;s primary school insurer, would not cover schools with armed staff. The proposed bill would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to a school because it permitted its teachers or staff members to carry weapons.
Democratic Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park school teacher who opposes the bill, stated, &#8220;The further we go down this rabbit hole, the more chance there is for even more obnoxious legislation moving forward.&#8221;
In addition to the bill, which had its first hearing before the House Insurance Committee on Tuesday, Republican leaders in the House offered another bill that is centered on improving school infrastructure without addressing whether to arm teachers.

Kansas Legislation Proposes Making Schools Liable If They Won’t Allow Armed Teachers

Guns

This has been one doggone awful week for United Airlines. 
On Monday, a French bulldog died in an overhead bin on a United flight after a flight attendant told its owners to put it there.
The next day, passenger Kara Swindle went to collect her family&#8217;s German Shepherd, Irgo, at a United cargo facility in Kansas City. Her family, she said, was completing their move from Oregon to Wichita.
But Irgo wasn&#8217;t there. 
Irgo was in Japan.
Because United accidentally put him on a flight to Tokyo. 
In the pup&#8217;s place was a Great Dane that United was supposed to have sent to Japan.
Swindle said that she didn&#8217;t find out until 2:30 a.m. where Irgo was. That&#8217;s when his flight landed in Japan.
&#8220;This has just all been a whirlwind,&#8221; Swindle told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/us/united-flight-dog-mix-up/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNN</a>.
She added that Irgo hadn&#8217;t eaten or drank anything for the duration of the 16-plus hours flight, and that he missed three days worth of medication for an ear infection. Presumably the medication won&#8217;t be available until he gets home.
United released a statement apologizing for the mix-up, explaining that it occurred when the two dogs were being placed on connecting flights in Denver.
&#8220;We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened,&#8221; United&#8217;s statement read in part. 
On Thursday, United was set to fly Irgo on a private charter from Tokyo to Wichita. Maybe this dog will have its day, after all.

NOT AGAIN! United Airlines Mistakenly Flies Kansas-Bound German Shepherd to Japan

Dogs

Japan

Oregon

United Airlines

Last week, a vehicle parked in a lot not far from the Kansas State University campus was found with virulently racist statements all over it. Kansas State issued a <a href="https://www.k-state.edu/media/update/20171101statement/">statement</a> in which they asked for the facts to be gathered before the university responded publicly, writing:
<blockquote>
We thank the Riley County Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation for their <a href="http://www.rileycountypolice.org/news/2017/11/06/no-charges-in-racist-graffiti-case">prompt investigation of an alleged hate crime</a>. The possibility of hate crimes in our communities affects the very fabric of our daily lives. We want to acknowledge the anger and pain felt by many in our community when racist pictures and words were posted on social media. We encourage anyone who feels affected to take advantage of the many university resources available through student life, human capital services and counseling services. Our first response always will be to look out for the members of our K-State family.
This situation reminds us again that the responsible path is to gather the facts before we respond publicly. This becomes even more important in an age where inaccurate social media claims are routinely accepted as truthful. We appreciate that the results of this investigation have exposed the facts and allow us to move forward.
</blockquote>
Meanwhile, some in the media assumed the incident was a racist attack that was part of a trend at the university; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/11/03/us/ap-us-racist-graffiti-kansas.html?_r=0">the Associated Press</a> wrote, &#8220;Kansas State University is stepping up police patrols and taking other safety measures following a spate of racial incidents that culminated this week when a black man&#8217;s car parked near campus was scrawled with racist graffiti.&#8221;
A man claiming to be the car&#8217;s owner called <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/article182199416.html">The Kansas City Star</a>, informing the paper that the vandalism and the resulting social media explosion has made it &#8220;impossible for me to go anywhere. I can&#8217;t drive my car anywhere without people stopping me.&#8221; The Star said the man claimed he did not want the attention and had withdrawn from the university, intending to return to his home in California.
But the university denied the vehicle&#8217;s owner was ever a student, at least not anyone with the name under which the vehicle was registered.
Then, on Monday, a young black man, Dauntarius Williams, 21, came forward to admit the car was his and he had <a href="http://www.kctv5.com/story/36776234/police-owner-of-racist-graffiti-covered-car-found-near-kansas-state-admits-he-did-it">staged the occurrence</a> as &#8220;a Halloween prank that got out of hand.&#8221;
The Riley County Police Department posted a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RileyCountyPD/">statement on Facebook</a> in which they explained what happened and included Williams&#8217; apology:
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Man’s Car Found With Racist Graffiti On It. He Did It Himself.

Racism

Kansas is electing a new governor in 2018, and although the gubernatorial race is in its very early stages, a quirk of state law has led to an otherwise quiet election process drawing the eyes of the nation.
Kansas has no age restrictions for its gubernatorial candidates. As a result, four teenagers have decided to join the fray. 16-year-old Jack Bergeson was the first to toss his hat in the ring. He&#8217;s running as a Democrat. After Bergeson came Tyler Ruzich, Ethan Randleas, and Dominic Scavuzzo &#8212; each 17 years old, and each running on the Republican side.
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The Daily Wire spoke with all four candidates, and (for the most part) asked them all the same set of questions. Any deviations come as a result of the way in which the conversation was moving with the particular candidate.
Q: Why did you decide to run?
RANDLEAS: I think that the state is in a dismal situation, and both parties are getting it wrong.
SCAVUZZO: I&#8217;ve been interested in politics my whole life; I began watching CNN at a young age. I wanted to be caught up on national, state, and local politics. Over the past year, I&#8217;ve really strengthened my political views. I went to the inauguration of our last president in January with a school group. Over the summer, I went to a Kansas Boy&#8217;s State in Manhattan, Kansas, and I met guys from all over the state. I heard all their concerns, and it appeared that they felt like they couldn&#8217;t be heard in our current government. So I thought if we had a youthful voice, that could really help our government&#8217;s transparency.
BERGESON: I&#8217;ve always been interested in politics. So many young people are apathetic, they don&#8217;t care. I honestly understand it because most politicians don&#8217;t seem to care about what matters to younger people, so what&#8217;s the point? I understand it. So I think we have to offer a candidate that will appeal to everyone, and if you do that, you will have a much higher interest from everyone, including younger people.
RUZICH: I will say that a big part of why I ran is the idea that a good, stable democracy needs to have a process that invites all people that are legally allowed to vote &#8212; that definitely involves younger people. Younger people bring such a new set of ideas and principles that truly reflect what tomorrow&#8217;s leaders bring to the table. I&#8217;ve always found that it&#8217;s good for any democracy or electoral process to really invite young people to participate. I&#8217;ve really felt that our state has kind of neglected young people and that there really wasn&#8217;t any enthusiasm about the 2018 gubernatorial race up until Jack and I started coming to the forefront. I think I can make a big change in the electoral system in the state of Kansas.
Q: What is your platform?
RANDLEAS: My general platform is that the government has become too intrusive into people&#8217;s lives, that education funding has become ridiculously inefficient, and that the government is now in the business of regulating people instead of protecting natural rights. [Regarding the Second Amendment], I believe that any law abiding citizen should be allowed to own any amount of guns they so choose. I don&#8217;t think you can legislate evil. I think that evil people will do evil things regardless of the tools they have available.
SCAVUZZO: Education is obviously an issue in Kansas right now that everyone&#8217;s concerned about. The problem isn&#8217;t necessarily that we need to raise taxes, I think we just need to figure out how to disperse the money better, and fix our school formula to see how the districts get money, and make sure that each student is adequately funded.
This goes into the idea of transparency that I would like to spread &#8212; I saw a bill offered by a representative from a city in Kansas which stated that we put a bill up 24 hours before we vote on it (48 hours if it&#8217;s a budget bill) to let the people know what&#8217;s going on, so they can have their say and contact their representatives.
BERGESON: I&#8217;m running on a lot of Bernie Sanders&#8217; campaign issues &#8212; higher minimum wage. Although I&#8217;m in favor of his health care plan, I don&#8217;t think it would work just at the state level &#8212; I think we need a national infrastructure for that. I&#8217;m campaigning on a temporary compromise plan that will work until there is national health care reform. I&#8217;m also for expanding public transportation and rail. I&#8217;m also campaigning on an increase in teacher pay. Our education system is dismal, and I think that could be a fix in the short term.
Even if I lose, I still think the four of us have the chance to drastically change the way younger people view politics in the future.
RUZICH: Our state Republican Party has really been divided between sort of the ultra conservative wing and the moderate wing. I believe in free press, and free speech on our state&#8217;s public colleges &#8212; that really needs to be protected. I feel that the essence of the First Amendment and its purpose is really going down hill, especially on college campuses. The First Amendment needs to be protected.
I do believe in reducing the state&#8217;s sales tax, and another alternative is having a small reduction of the state&#8217;s corporate income tax. I believe small businesses, S-Corps, should be exempt from that tax. Nothing too much because when we gutted it, that was our state&#8217;s primary source of revenue and how we funded public education and state Medicaid. We need to find a realistic way to raise revenue, and that&#8217;s what I plan to do. Gaining the revenue with the corporate tax rate, we&#8217;ll fund this properly, and hopefully, once we get our budget balanced, we should address cutting the state sales tax, which is one of the highest in the nation if you combine it with county taxes.
Overall, that principle of fiscal responsibility, being a moderate, and just trying to not be too far to the Left of too far to the Right, but trying to bring all sides and meet in the middle. I think that&#8217;s what this country and state needs.
Q: Is this a serious run for governor, or is this an attempt to raise political awareness among young people? If you win, are you ready to govern?
RANDLEAS: We ran because we thought we could win. It was a very serious thing. It stemmed from the others running, but we believe that we can win.
BERGESON: In order to run, you have to be able to say &#8220;Yes&#8221; to that question. Otherwise, it&#8217;s not worth running. What matters is what you want to get done. People say experience is important, and yes, there is validity to that. But also, I think it&#8217;s far more about what you want to get done. Do you care about people? Are you doing this for the right reasons? And for me, I have to check those boxes. For the little stuff, where I&#8217;m a little shaky or I may not understand the intricacies of how to run the state government, I&#8217;m sure there are far more experienced people that I would seek out to help me with the day-to-day stuff. I think I would be ready.
SCAVUZZO: I&#8217;m definitely playing to win. You know, the odds are definitely stacked against me because I&#8217;m a 17-year-old. A good goal for this would be to get younger people interested and involved in Kansas politics. I&#8217;m 100% ready to govern.
RUZICH: I wouldn&#8217;t be running if I didn&#8217;t think I could win. I know it&#8217;s a long shot, but I bring a whole lot of ambition and energy to this race I feel is not present in the other campaigns, and where there&#8217;s a will, there&#8217;s a way. I&#8217;m not going to be alone in this; it&#8217;s not just a one-man job. You have a running mate, there are department heads, you have the state legislature you can refer to and consult with. Just because I don&#8217;t have the resume of people who came before me doesn&#8217;t mean that I can&#8217;t bring forward better results. I believe in going back to the basics of good government, which I believe makes me ready to govern.
Q: How did your parents react to your candidacy?
RANDLEAS: They thought it was awesome; they were really supportive.
BERGESON: You know, they were skeptical at the very beginning, but pretty soon, it was very supportive, very interested.
SCAVUZZO: My mom&#8217;s initial reaction was kind of just like: &#8220;Are you crazy?&#8221; Then she heard what I had to say, and she understood. My dad&#8217;s been very supportive.
RUZICH: They were 100% supportive of it. They really did enjoy seeing me acting upon my love for politics and government, and really taking initiative. Even though I have different views from them on certain things, they were always encouraging me to develop my own views.
Q: Is there anything else you&#8217;d like to say to readers and Kansas voters that we may not have covered?
RANDLEAS: I think that I truly stand for personal liberties and limited government. If you want a candidate that&#8217;s consistent and sticks to those principles, I am that one.
BERGESON: I don&#8217;t think so, no.
SCAVUZZO: I think our state has a lot of potential. We have agriculture and oil in the west, aerospace industry in the south, and an economic engine in eastern Kansas. I think if we can get all of that meshed together, unified, Kansas can become a very vibrant and powerful state.
RUZICH: I&#8217;ve always considers myself to be a Republican for the next generation. What I truly do believe in is not an agenda that is far to the Right or far to the Left, but an agenda that is going to move the state forward, and getting back to the basics of good government, and protecting civil liberties.
Q: What would you say to those dismissing your candidacy as a young person?
BERGESON: You know, I can&#8217;t say it shocks me. I was expecting it. At the same time, I think it proves that the system is reluctant to change. For some of those people, I think it&#8217;s less about the experience and more about whether or not you have orthodox political beliefs.
Q: What do you think about your state&#8217;s current governor, Sam Brownback?
RUZICH: I think our current governor, Sam Brownback, shows that a good resume doesn&#8217;t mean good results. He really fits all the [criteria] of someone who would be qualified to govern this state, but that doesn&#8217;t mean he came up with the promised results. The drastic tax cuts were supposed to bring all this economic growth and, as a conservative, I do believe in overall lower taxation, and fiscal responsibility, but I don&#8217;t believe that fiscal responsibility has to mean fiscal recklessness. Not only did we cut taxes, we also just made one of the biggest cuts to public education and our state Medicaid system.
Q: What are your thoughts on President Trump?
RANDLEAS: You&#8217;ve got to take everything he does one by one. He&#8217;s not a conservative, and he&#8217;s not really a Republican all the time. He flip flops on a lot of things, but I think his deregulation efforts are awesome; I think his policy of not forcing companies to carry insurance plans with birth control provided is awesome because that&#8217;s a liberty issue. Then again, I don&#8217;t like that he worked directly with Pelosi and Schumer on the budget. It&#8217;s really hit and miss. His infrastructure spending proposal is ridiculous. It&#8217;s Keynesian economic theory that&#8217;s been proven not to work.
Conclusion
I&#8217;d like to thank Mr. Bergeson, Mr. Scavuzzo, Mr. Randleas, and Mr. Ruzich for participating in this interview. The 2018 gubernatorial race in the state of Kansas may be one for the ages. Watch for further coverage as the election process develops.
Follow Jack Bergeson on Twitter @VoteBergeson18
Follow Dominic Scavuzzo on Twitter @ScavuzzoForGov
Follow Ethan Randleas on Twitter @Randleas4Gov
Tyler Ruzich has yet to create an official Twitter handle.

EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Wire Interviews All Four Teenage Candidates For Kansas Governor

Tyler Ruzich, a 17-year-old high school student, has decided to run for governor of Kansas.
Ruzich, who&#8217;s running as a moderate Republican, isn&#8217;t the first teen to throw his hat in the ring &#8212; he isn&#8217;t even the latest. Ruzich&#8217;s entry into the race comes just one month after 16-year-old Jack Bergeson <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/08/14/16-year-old-cant-vote-but-he-is-running-for-kansas-governor/">entered</a> as a Democrat. In September, 17-year-old Ethan Randleas also <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article175956836.html">announced</a> a run for governor.
Kansas has no age or experiential requirements for their gubernatorial candidates.
On Saturday, Ruzich appeared on Fox &amp; Friends to discuss his run for Kansas governor.
On why he decided to run:
<blockquote>
I&#8217;ve been a great friend of Jack Bergeson for a while, a few years &#8211; the teen running as a Democrat in Wichita. &#8230;
We both knew that we have a love for debate, politics, and government. When I found out that he was running, and he got in touch with me, one of the first things that he told me is that: &#8220;Tyler, you&#8217;ve gotta run; you gotta run as a Republican; you gotta get young people excited about this election.&#8221; And so it was really, I think, a bipartisan decision &#8230; to get young people involved in this political campaign, in this election.
</blockquote>
On his parents being supporters of Bernie Sanders:
<blockquote>
The great thing is that they&#8217;ve always encouraged me to explore new ideas, read literature that challenges my current views, whether it was reading Ayn Rand&#8217;s Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, or something from Noam Chomsky. It really doesn&#8217;t matter what the viewpoint is of the literature, the books I read, the media that I watch, wherever it may come from, they&#8217;ve always emphasized that it&#8217;s important to get all different viewpoints. &#8230;
</blockquote>
Ruzich currently has no official website.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5fF6NOel7M0" width="720"></iframe></div>

17-Year-Old Becomes Second Teenager To Enter Kansas Race For Governor

Kansas-based Planned Parenthood doctor Allen S. Palmer performed an abortion on a 13-year-old girl who was impregnated by her 19-year-old &#8220;boyfriend&#8221; (which is statutory rape) in December of 2014. The 78-year-old abortionist neglected to preserve and submit fetal tissue from the abortion to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, as required by law.
The Kansas Board of Healing Arts suspended Palmer&#8217;s osteopathic medicine license for 90 days, <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2017/09/19/planned-parenthood-doc-losing-license-after-doing-abortion-on-raped-13-year-old-claims-he-didnt-know-her-age/">reported</a> Life News on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, he will be back to taking the lives of unborn children as early as December of this year.
&#8220;The Board of Healing Arts found that Palmer had an independent duty to abide by the law and ensure his own compliance, and found it was wrong for him to conduct a surgical abortion without having looked at the young patient&#8217;s medical record or history,&#8221; notes Life News. 
The board concluded that Palmer committed the following violations:
<blockquote>
&#8226; Unprofessional conduct; 
&#8226; Conduct likely to harm the public and hinder a criminal investigation; 
&#8226; Failure to properly supervise, direct or delegate actions required of a licensee.
</blockquote>
After Planned Parenthood reported Palmer for the infraction, the abortionist blamed the abortion mill for a &#8220;system failure,&#8221; as they neglected to inform him of the young girl&#8217;s age.
President of Operation Rescue Troy Newman noted of the incident, &#8220;It is unusual to see Planned Parenthood throw one of their abortionists under the bus, but in this case, it was probably to save themselves from being charged.&#8221;
&#8220;We are just glad that for now there is one less abortionist in Kansas. That is great news for women and their babies,&#8221; he added.

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