KC Buzz Blog

Morning buzz

In The Star:

   David Klepper has a full report on the Kansas Board of Education rescinding science standards that cast doubt on evolution.

   Matt Stearns details the infighting between Sen. Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney for the GOP conservative base.

   Kit Wagar reports that a Missouri state senator is trying to revive six projects stripped from a higher-ed bill because research in the buildings could somehow involve early stem cells.

   Lynn Horsley looks at the KC mayoral candidates' stands on smoking bans.

   Tim Hoover reports that safety advocates say this could be the year that a proposal passes allowing police to ticket Missouri motorists just for not wearing seat belts.

   Glenn Rice reports that a wall that has come to symbolize renewed political bickering between two Clay County officials may soon be coming down.

   Rice also reports that a Claycomo official offered some insight into why village leaders terminated three top officials late last year.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

   President Bush held his first news conference today since Dec. 20.

The Note lists Bush's press conferences by the year:

2001 — 4

2002 — 3

2003 — 4

2004 — 4

2005 — 7

2006 — 12

2007 — 1

   The Politico's John Bresnahan reports that top House Democrats, working with anti-war groups, have decided to pursue a "slow-bleed strategy" designed to gradually limit the administration's options. "Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself." 'There's a D-Day coming in here, and it's going to start with the supplemental and finish with the '08 [defense] budget,' said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Air and Land Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee."

   Under a "Clinton Camp Chides Obama for Distorting Her Iraq Position," ABC News' Teddy Davis explains that Sen. Hillary Clinton is in favor in favor of beginning a phased U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq — even though she does not share Sen. Barack Obama's support for specifying a date by which that withdrawal should be complete. But "the Obama campaign did not back down," writes the Chicago Sun Times' Lynn Sweet.

   Former first lady Nancy Reagan is inviting the leading GOP candidates to the first-ever debate at her husband's library in Simi Valley, Calif. "Ronnie always hoped the library would be a place where policymakers will debate the future," she said. "This presidential debate provides the opportunity to fulfill his wishes."

   The second controversial Edwards blogger, Melissa McEwan, has also decided to quit. 

   Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's daughter was arrested for DUI and "child endangerment," New York Daily News reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Mark Morris reports on the strong objections by federal prosecutors to Katheryn Shields' request to release the evidence in her mortgage fraud case.
• In his column, Steve Penn looks at the Freedom Inc. endorsements in the mayoral primary.
• David Klepper reports on the corporate tax cut moving through the Kansas Legslature.
• Tim Hoover covered a Missouri Senate committee hearing on a bill that would make it easier for homeowners to use deadly force.
• Brian Burnes sat down for a Q&A with Helen Thomas, who spoke yesterday in Independence.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Mitt Romney will officially announce his presidential bid today in Michigan. ABCNews has a preview. As for why he's announcing in Michigan, the Boston Globe says it "can be explained in two words: history and politics."
• A CBS News poll finds 44 percent believe Congress should pass a non-binding Iraq resolution but that 45 percent believe Congress should not pass it. In House debate today Minority Leader John Boehner will say: "Lincoln could have given up. ... But he didn't."
• The Boston Globe reports that some liberal congressional Democrats are disappointed to be voting on "a two-paragraph, non binding resolution disagreeing with Bush's decision to send additional troops to Iraq," rather than debating cutting off funding entirely.
• In an interview with C-SPAN, President Bush commented that the news on Iraq is taking a toll on his father, Bush 41. "I'm actually more concerned about him than I ever have been in my life because he's paying too much attention to the news" said Bush. ABC News' Teddy Davis has more.
• A couple of columnists offer thoughts on Sen. Hillary Clinton's war position: "I don't want to know how President Bush failed Hillary Clinton. I want to know how she failed her country," writes The Washington Post's Richard Cohen. In the Boston Globe, Peter Canellos writes: "When Hillary Rodham Clinton declared in New Hampshire last weekend that she had merely voted to give President Bush 'the authority to send inspectors back in to determine the truth' in Iraq, and not 'to authorize preemptive war,' she was putting her own generous spin on a resolution that was unambiguous in granting the power to go to war in Iraq."
• Amanda Marcotte, one of those controversial bloggers for John Edwards, announced her resignation last night. Here's the AP.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski 

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Laura Bauer examines the reluctance in Kansas to impose residency restrictions on child molesters.
• In the "Kansas Capitol Notebook," David Klepper and Jim Sullinger look at the funeral picketing bill and why it may be headed to court.
• In the "Missouri Capitol Notebook," Kit Wagar details last week's stem-cell debate before a House committee.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call, ABC's The Note and others.

• How many House Republicans will vote to disapprove the Iraq war this week. The Washington Post reports that GOP leaders realize some House Republicans are going to vote with the Democrats: "A senior Republican aide said the GOP leadership knows that Republicans from districts where the war is unpopular will have to vote with the Democrats to protect themselves. And that's okay, he said, adding that Republican leaders will not tell their members to stick with the party line."
• The New York Times looks at how Iraq played in both Sen. Barack Obama's weekend in Iowa and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's weekend in New Hampshire: "Mr. Obama's aides said they viewed Mrs. Clinton's vote on the war in 2002 and her refusal to explicitly disavow that vote as her single biggest vulnerability, and that Mr. Obama would point it out at every opportunity."
• The Quad City Times in Iowa reports that Obama delivered a stinging criticism of President Bush and his handling of Iraq, saying "we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted." Obama later apologized for using the word "wasted."
• The New York Times previews the possible appearance of Vice President Dick Cheney as a witness in the Libby trial. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that Cheney's support among conservatives and the general public has eroded.
• Newsweek's Jonathan Alter details some of Rudy Giuliani's more combative moments during his mayorship of New York City and wonders if his temperament will provide ammo for his rivals.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Sunday buzz

In The Star:

• Dave Helling looks at how Web video is affecting political campaigns.
• Sen. Barack Obama makes his presidential announcement.
• Mike Mansur reports on Jackson County employee bonuses and the lack of transparency thereof.
• In his Sunday column, Steve Kraske tries to ask Missouri AG Jay Nixon about getting Ameren contributions at the same time he's probing the company's role in the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse.
• In the KC mayoral primary race, The Star's editorial board endorses...Mark Funkhouser.

Elsewhere:

• The New York Times discovers that despite lobbying "reform," D.C. politicians are still at the trough.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Matt Stearns looks at how the early primary stampede in 2008 could affect Missouri's primary. Will it be an afterthought or the site of a showdown?
• Scott Canon interviews Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States.
• Mara Rose Williams reports on the controversy over a Missouri Senate committee axing six projects from a higher-ed bill because they may have something to do with stem-cell research.
• Lynn Horsley has a full report on the proposed KC budget.
• Kit Wagar reports that the Missouri House passed the Medicaid fraud bill.
• Wagar also reports that brushing aside concerns about cost, a Senate panel on Wednesday discussed a huge expansion of a subsidy program that rewards businesses for creating jobs.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks takes a poke at KC mayoral candidate Stan Glazer's plan for a giant Ferris wheel on the bank of the Missouri River.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Sen. Barack Obama will announce his presidential run tomorrow. In a USA Today interview, Obama says, "I am absolutely convinced that . . . We've got a message that I think will appeal to the American people." 
• Hotsoup's Ron Fournier thinks that Congress' failure to make progress on Iraq this week is a "Katrina moment" which could remind Americans about Washington's "failure to lead." Newt Gingrich tells Fournier that "legislative fights over slavery and the Vietnam War were messy, but those debates 'weren't as childish or trivial' as what we saw this week."  More Gingrich: "What is particularly sad is that the public has a correct understanding that none of the maneuvers matter because it's all so petty and, basically, public relations."
• Here's a couple of stories about Sen. John Edwards' decision to keep a couple of chastised bloggers on the payroll. Before they joined his campaign, they had personal Web logs on which they posted highly critical and profane thoughts about topics including the Roman Catholic Church, The Washington Post reports. The Politico notes the Edwards is taking heat from the religious left over his bloggers.
• Sen. Sam Brownback is in Michigan today as he begins weekend meetings with Republican activists, donors, and elected officials at the annual Michigan GOP state convention in Grand Rapids.
• On his Political Punch blog, Jake Tapper tests your political smarts with an Air Pelosi Quiz.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Mark Morris has a full report on the denial of Katheryn Shields' request for a speedy trial.
• Brian Burnes reports that Sugar Creek is making progress in its bid to get a casino.
• David Klepper covered a Kansas House hearing on the plan to require that girls get a cervical cancer vaccine.
• Kit Wagar was at a Missouri Senate hearing where KC community leaders asked for a housing code court.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny examines the split among House Democrats on how strong their resolution on Iraq should be. Zeleny also looks at the the Senate stalemate. 
• Kate Zernike of The Times profiles Sen. Joe Lieberman, unshackled by the pressures of partisanship and strongly defending President Bush's plan for Iraq.
• The Washington Post ed board slams Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for not disclosing the names of her fund-raising bundlers as Bush did in both of his campaigns and as Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have pledged to do.
• "AIR-OGANT NANCY," reads the New York Post headline on a story about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request that she use a military plane for trips.
• Columnist James Lileks proposes Rudy Giuliani's campaign slogan should be, "He dealt with Brooklyn. He can handle Iraq."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Kit Wagar reports on the Missouri House giving preliminary OK to a Medicaid fraud bill. Critics say the measure is largely toothless.
• Wagar also followed the House debate over stem-cell definitions.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks discovers that the Equal Rights Amendment is still alive.
• Mark Morris has a full account of Katheryn Shields' urging that her trial on mortgage fraud charges start soon.
• Russ Pulley reports on the votes yesterday in Blue Springs, which said no to a sales tax to fix streets; in Grain Valley, which approved a school bond issue, and Liberty, where a sales tax for the Liberty Triangle passed.
• Diane Carroll reports that the eight staffers fired by JoCo D.A. Phill Kline are now off the payroll.
• Mark Wiebe summarizes the state of the government address yesterday in WyCo. And here's the text.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• According to a new Gallup poll, 37 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job; 55 percent disapprove
• The Politico headlines a story: "GOP views Clinton as virtually unbeatable"
• And has Hillary Clinton locked up the big Democratic fund-raisers? The Washington Post reports that the guest list at the Clintons' home last night included "such major Democratic donors as Haim Saban, a Hollywood studio investor, Alan J. Patricof, a New York financier, and Kevin O'Keefe, a Chicago lawyer."
• Al Gore said the Bush administration "is now paying scientists to dispute global warming," CNN reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• A must read: Steve Kraske profiles political consultant Jeff Roe.
• In his column, Steve Penn fears that KC city manager Wayne Cauthen is becoming a political punching bag during the mayoral race.
• Jim Sullinger and David Klepper report on efforts to bring a $451 million federal research facility to the state.
• Klepper examines a debate over a bill in the Kansas Legislature to define the terms in the stem cell debate.
• Kevin Collison reports that credit agencies are giving KC good ratings on an upcoming bond sale.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call,: ABC's The Note and others.

• The Chicago Tribune's Aamer Madhani reports on the filibuster on the Iraq resolution "underscores the political peril and gamesmanship on on both sides."
• By waging war to save the surge, Bush backers are saying one thing and doing another, columnizes E.J. Dionne Jr. of The Washington Post.
• Democrats, naturally, are rejecting the Bush budget. But William Neikirk of the Chicago Tribune points out they face the daunting task of drafting their own. By criticizing program cuts, he writes Democrats have created a situation where they now must deal with huge future costs and perhaps craft reductions of their own if they are to have any credibility with the public.
• The Note draws attenttion to an Atlantic Monthly article by Ross Douthat that looks at the form of politics that President Bush has created during his tenure known as Bushism. To some, it would seem that for any 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, it'd be near political suicide to run on the same platforms that Bush stands for now, but look at the candidates now. "Someone must have forgotten to tell the GOP presidential field. If you consider how the nation's most ambitious Republicans are positioning themselves for 2008, Bushism looks like it could have surprising staying power."
• In his New York Post column, John Podhoretz works to debunk the notion that Rudy Giuliani is too liberal on some social policies for the GOP faithful. (Podhoretz notes that Giuliani has the same position on same-sex civil unions as Dick Cheney.)
• John Edwards joined Hillary Clinton"in saying he will not use public money for the primary or the general election, USA Today reports. 
• In the wake of the disclosure that he had an affair with his friend and campaign manager's wife, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "said he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Jay Leno, on Newsom's re-election chances: "Good luck trying to find another campaign manager."
• Barack Obama, who said he has never smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day, is now trying to quit: "I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Dave Helling points out critics of President Bush's health care plan saying that it could force some to accept lower Social Security payments.
• Helling also reports that JoCo, which spent millions installing touch-screen voting machines, now may have to spend millions more if Congress requires that voting machines have a paper trail.
• In his Sunday column, Steve Kraske reports that internal polling shows Al Brooks in the lead in the KC mayoral race.
• Jeffrey Spivak examines what the KC mayoral candidates want to do about city repairs.
• Spivak and Lynn Horsley kick off a parade of KC mayoral candidate profiles. Brooks is first up.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks tells Clay Chastain to be patient.
• In the "Kansas Capitol Notebook," David Klepper and Jim Sullinger write that Kansas legislators are taking another run at passing a bill to limit protests at funerals.
• In the "Missouri Capitol Notebook," Kit Wagar examines Sen. Chris Koster's bill to penalize utilities for outages.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Senate votes at 5:30 p.m. EST today on a motion to invoke cloture to limit debate on Sen. Carl Levin's non-binding resolution,
• Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack said "Congress has the constitutional responsibility and a moral duty to cut off funding." That makes him the first major candidate to say so, says ABCNews.com. More: "Real change is saying, We want our troops out of harm's way now. . . Not a cap — an end. Not eventually — immediately."
• Mark Leibovich of The New York Times pens an obit to Sen. John Kerry's presidential aspirations. From the story:  "Friends say that Kerry feels betrayed by (John) Edwards, whom he defeated easily in the 2004 Democratic primaries and faults for being too quick to second-guess their campaign, distance himself from it and embark on his own 2008 effort."
• Edwards is talking up his new health care proposal, claiming that it would cover the 47 million Americans who don't currently have insurance, bring down costs for most Americans, and assist them with payments. He would also "ask employers to do more," while the government helps to subsidize. But his failure to endorse a single payer health care system drew the ire of some proponents of such a plan, the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein reports.  And, Time's Joe Kein writes he's "not sure" he likes the sound of Edwards' plan: "Expanding Medicaid and putting more responsibility on the employers is exactly the wrong way to go."
• The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon looks at President Bush's secret for spending heavily on guns and butter without triggering huge inflation: "What's Mr. Bush's secret? Ingredient one: strong revenue growth driven by an economy distinguished by surging profits and rising incomes at the top, which are taxed more heavily than incomes at the bottom. Ingredient two: tax cuts and spending increases, which arrived when the U.S. economy needed a boost. Ingredient three, and perhaps the most significant: the willingness of foreigners to lend to the U.S., which finances the budget deficit without pushing up interest rates at a time when Americans don't save very much."
• In a Bob Novak column, Sen. John McCain says: "I will never vote for a tax increase, nor support a tax increase." The Note points out that Novak explores the effect that this has had on McCain's support among liberal journalists and other non-Republicans.
• Former Majority Leader Dick Armey says of Tom DeLay: "I don't like sneaky, conniving people."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Julius A. Karash and Jason Gertzen have the divided reactions to the KU Med Center's alliance with KC hospitals.
• Matt Stearns was at the National Prayer Breakfast led by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
• Kit Wagar examines proposals to make utilities pay if they repeatedly leave customers in the dark.
• Diane Carroll and Finn Bullers file a full report on the judge's decision that JoCo D.A. does not have to participate in grievance hearings for fired staffers.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Note says Robert Pear's Medicare/Medicaid story in The New York Times is the latest proof that next week's Bush budget will be deader on arrival than, say, a vintage 1980s Reagan budget.
• Four years after Howard Dean ignited his presidential campaign by forcefully identifying himself as representing "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," ABC News' Teddy Davis looks at the ways in which the 2008 presidential campaigns of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have each, in their own way, paid homage to Dean's anti-Iraq war, pro-universal health care, and Internet friendly campaign. "The American people have granted us power for two years," Dean told ABC News. "This is an audition period."
• Sen. Tim Johnson is now reading, The Caucus reports. One of his doctors described his progress "as miraculous."
• Donna Brazile "strongly implied" Al Gore could "be waiting to make a dramatic" WH '08 entrance, noting: "Wait till Oscar night."  Allentown Morning Call reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• David Goldstein has been following around Sen. Claire McCaskill and has a look at her first weeks in Washington.
• Jim Sullinger examines Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' plan to use highway money to repair university buildings.
• Kit Wagar finds that Missouri educational leaders like what's in a reform bill.
• Andy Hyland reports that a judge has blocked another annexation bid by Platte City.
• David Klepper updates attempts to make English the official language, with some exceptions, in Kansas.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Sen. Barack Obama notes that "no one would call" Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton "inarticulate.". And Sharpton told Biden: "I take a bath every day."
• Al Franken has begun calling "prominent DFLers in Minnesota to tell them he will definitely challenge" GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that that Sen. John Warner's announcement that he was amending his nonbinding Iraq resolution to say that the Senate "disagrees" with the president's troop increase, while also adding that he would add in clauses opposed to cutting off funding for the troops is designed to win over more Republicans.
• "The revised resolution would express the Senate's opposition to the troop increase but would vow to protect funding for the troops. The resolution does not include Democratic language saying the Bush plan is against the national interest, but it also drops an earlier provision by Warner suggesting Senate support for some additional troops," The Washington Post points out.
• The fact that the House might take up the Warner language cleanly is not good news for the White House, The Hill says. It has a good examination of the varied Iraq resolutions that House Democrats might propose.
• The Democratic National Committee kicks off its winter meeting today. The Note says that the Rules & Bylaws Committee takes up the DNC's "bonus delegate" program for a vote. The program is aimed at rewarding those states who buck the front-loading trend and move their nomination contests later than currently scheduled in 2008.
• The Senate is expected to vote on a minimum wage increase today.
• The Los Angeles Times writes up the year-end totals in the 2008 presidential cash race.
• Susan Page of USA Today takes a look at the conundrum Rudy Giuliani faces in his battle for the White House: "The question is this: Can the thrice-married New Yorker — a supporter of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control — win the nomination of a Republican Party that has become increasingly dependent on and influenced by conservative Christians?" The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins finds Giuliani "unacceptable," and plans to take him out if he shows strength.
• The Washington Times claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seeking Bush administration support for military aircraft to transport her and her (political) family back and forth from San Francisco to Washington.
• "This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate, on either side of a political issue. It is my child," Mary Cheney tells The New York Times.
• Shrek is at the front of a new federal campaign against obesity, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• David Klepper examines the Kansas plan requiring that girls get a vaccine for a disease that causes cervical cancer.
• John Shultz and Brad Cooper look at KC's problem with broken water mains.
• Kit Wagar reports on a meeting of the Missouri House Special Committee on Tax Reform considering tax cuts on various forms of retirement income.
• Lynn Horsley and Dave Helling find KC mayoral candidates trading accusations over the delayed release of a TIF audit.
• Horsley also has more on Clay Chastain warning of legal action if the city sidetracks his light rail plan.
• Tim Hoover reports on a Missouri proposal that would increase child-care subsidies.
• Matt Stearns reports that several U.S. senators are demanding that the Food and Drug Administration suspend plans to close several regional laboratories.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Note calls attention to an interview by the New York Observer's Jason Horowitz with Sen. Joe Biden, who's officially announcing his presidential run today. Biden didn't mince words about Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and John Edwards. On Clinton, Biden calls the likely results of her position on Iraq, "nothing but disaster." (Biden favors partition.) Biden goes on in inimitable fashion to talk about Clinton's political standing: "Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?" he asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won't win the election. "Everyone in the world knows her. Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can't break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They've looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?"
• The Washington Post reports that after initially aiming to rally around a single Iraq resolution that would allow the GOP senators to express doubts about the plan without stating their outright opposition, Republicans appear to be "balkinizing," with at least five Republican drafts now in play and more GOPers stating their reservations.
• The Post also reports that for the first time, Obama proposed setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq: "Obama's legislation . . . would remove all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008."
• In Iowa yesterday, Sen. Sam Brownback told the Des Moines Register he wants to focus on issues like human trafficking, climate change and poverty that are consensus builders. When asked how he will overcome his current dark horse status, he invoked Obama: "Did you know who Barack Obama was at this time a year ago? I think I will be in that spot once the voter contact is made."
• Brownback is in Michigan today where he plans to deliver a speech entitled "The Proper Role of the Judiciary."
• Alaska GOP Sen. Ted Stevens is pushing a bill that aims to make online porn harder to "stumble upon," the Anchorage Daily News reports.
• Ex-Donald Trump wife Marla Maples has sent a mass e-mail in support of Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• DeAnn Smith lines solid double to the gap: JaCo officials are questioning the Royals' plans to use public money for a $900,000 video coaching system; the county is also cutting 19 jobs.
• Kit Wagar reports that a resolution to block pay raises for judges and elected officials died in the Missouri Senate.
• Diane Carroll has more on the court maneuvering over the staffers JoCo D.A. Phill Kline dismissed. The staffers are still on the payroll.
• David Klepper covered a hearing in which critics slammed plans for a huge coal plant near Holcomb, Kan.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that former Presidents Bush and Clinton will jointly deliver the commencement address at the University of New Hampshire on May 19. The Note draws attention to the reporter's observation: "The more Bush-41 and Bill Clinton appear together, the less vulnerable Hillary Clinton is to very vitriolic Republican attacks."
• A Quinnipiac poll of Ohio found Clinton with a 3-to-1 lead over any Democrat. She also leads John McCain, 46 percent to 42 percent and Rudy Giuliani 46 percent to 42 percent. Giuliani is the top choice of Ohio Republicans with 30 percent. McCain follows with 22 percent. Here's the AP story.
• John Edwards acknowledges he may have been too inexperienced in 2004.
• Texas GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison tells The Washington Times she would consider an offer to run for vice president.
• James Baker will finally testify on the Iraq Study Group report, The Hill reveals.
• The Hill also reportst that Sen. Chuck Hagel is leaving open the possibility of retiring from the Senate in 2008.
• Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback begins a four state weeklong campaign tour starting today in Iowa.
• It's Vice President Cheney's 66th birthday.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Mike Casey and David Klepper examine bills in the Kansas and Missouri legislatures to toughen insurance regulation in response to their Star series on consumer problems.
• In their Kansas "Capitol Notebook," Klepper and Jim Sullinger report that supporters of the concealed-carry law are miffed that local jurisdictions are passing restrictions not in the state law.
• In their Missouri "Capitol Notebook," Kit Wagar and Tim Hoover note Gov. Matt Blunt's new humble attitude.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• At an Iowa town hall meeting, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew laughs but also questions later in the press about what she meant when she theatrically and with a conspiratorial smile repeated back a question — “What, in my background, equips me to deal with evil and bad men?”  She later said: "I get a little funny and now I'm getting psycho-analyzed!"
• The former Republican governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee confirmed he is filing exploratory paperwork for a presidential bid, saying "America needs folks that understand what it is to start at the bottom." He compared poll numbers "to his experience running marathons," the Arkansas News reports.
• Jeb Bush told GOPers to "stop moping around." He announced: "I'm not going to criticize the president of the United States." Adding, "I like Justice Roberts. I like Justice Alito."
• Sen. Joe Lieberman on the White House race: "So I'm open to supporting a Democrat, Republican or even an independent."

Sunday buzz

In The Star:

• Matt Stearns finds that Democrats are slowing being enmeshed in D.C.'s lobbying culture.
• Lynn Horsley points out the problems the next KC mayor will have with the city's increasing debt.
• In his column, Steve Kraske wonders why the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus took a pass on making an endorsement in the mayoral race.

Elsewhere:

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that President Bush’s expectation that his successor would inherit the problems in Iraq was “the height of irresponsibility” and that Americans “should expect him to extricate our country” from the war there before he leaves office in early 2009.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Steve Kraske and Alan Bavley have a full account of President Bush's visit to Lee's Summit.
• DeAnn Smith reports that JaCo exec Mike Sanders and the Circuit Court judges have reached a budget deal.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• CNN is reporting that the Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to capture or kill Iranian agents in Iraq who are plotting attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. The policy, signed by President Bush in the last couple of months, is aimed at Iranian agents planning attacks with Iraqi militiamen, a U.S. national security official said Friday.
• CNN also said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has gone to Iraq.
• George Pataki, breaking ranks with Bush and the 2008 GOP frontrunners, says he opposes a surge.
• ABC News reports Sen. Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, is in financial and legal trouble, accused of failing to repay $109,000 in loans from a carnival company whose owners received controversial pardons issued by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his presidency.
• Time has eight keys to the 2008 race.
• "I knew I was black when I started the race" -- former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., refusing to blame his loss in the Tennessee Senate contest on racism.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Tim Hoover and Kit Wagar file a full report on Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's State of the State address. The Democratic response is there, too.
• Hoover also has a story on the Missouri House rejecting pay raises. The odds that the Senate will refuse the raises is unclear.
• In advance of President Bush's visit to Lee's Summit today, Julius Karash and Diane Stafford have an excellent article looking at his health care proposal.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Note says Bob Novak's column on the declining Bush presidency is a must-read, especially the kicker graph quote from "a ranking House committee member," who says, "The president and his aides are irrelevant and out of touch, removed from realizing what happened in an election."
• The Caucus blog at The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton said last night that she would soon propose a plan "about how we get to universal coverage" for health care.
• The Boston Globe reports that John Kerry's advisers said his decision to not run for president anymore came down to a political calculation that he would face long odds. He launched a new Web site, setadeadline.com, to get troops home from Iraq.
• In a CNN interview, Vice President Dick Cheney rather simplistically predicted that Clinton won't become president "because she's a Democrat."
• Former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr of Tennessee is expected to be named chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council today, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
• The Washington Post's E.J.Dionne Jr. thinks Sen. Jim Webb's State of the Union performance was "a salutary sign that Democrats just might be getting over the battered party syndrome that has left so many of them terrified of saying exactly what's on their minds." The column is headlined, "Reagan Democrat."
• "An ABC News producer and crew visited the school in Jakarta, Indonesia, attended by" Sen. Sen. Barack Obama "in his youth and found it to be a normal government public school without even a hint of the extremist elements reported by various conservative news outlets," reports ABC News' Jake Tapper. He closed: "As Mark Twain once said, 'A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,' and with the race for the White House getting started so early, so are the lies and their trips around the world."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Steve Everly continues his ground-breaking work by reporting that the National Conference of Weights and Measures will vote on allowing temperature-adjusted fuel to be sold in the United States.
• Tim Hoover has the details of a sweeping proposal by Missouri GOP state Sen. Chris Koster targeting employers who hire illegal workers and landlords who give them shelter.
• Kit Wagar writes up Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's pledge to boost funding for public schools by $214 million over the next 18 months.
• Jim Sullinger reports that Kansas lawmakers took the first step toward helping the university system deal with $727 million in delayed maintenance.
• Tim Hoover and John Shultz update efforts to fix a glitch in the minimum wage law that could force cities to pay millions more in overtime to firefighters and police officers.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports that Democrats "had a meeting early yesterday where they discussed how they would take their cues from Nancy Pelosi (at the State of the Union address). And she was very very disciplined on when she got up and when she didn't. Whenever the talk was about the President's strategy on Iraq, she stayed sitting — even when Vice President Cheney got up. The minute they talked about the troops, she practically jumped out of her seat — other Democrats followed."
• Susan Page writes in USA Today that the once confident President Bush lost his boldness from the 2006 State of the Union and delivered a more constrained speech.
• Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times observes that Bush pLpaid attention to climate change on the same day Al Gore was nominated for two Oscars.
• The Boston Globe's Peter Canellos thinks that Bush "seemed to be reading from former President Bill Clinton's script from 1995," where he toned down his rhetoric "to implicitly contrast his reasonableness with the increasingly outspoken attacks by Democrats."
• CBN has an interview with Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback in which he calls into question Mitt Romney's credentials as a social conservative: "At times he's said different things on these issues. I think that's all going to come out during a long campaign."
• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Iowa this weekend. And the New Hampshire Union Leader reports she will make her first New Hampshire visit on Feb. 3 and 4 and return in March for the state Democrats' "100 Club" dinner.
• DraftObama.org has compiled a list of "Honorary Celebrity Members" including George Clooney, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and Will Smith.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Matt Stearns reports on Sen. Sam Brownback's appearance in Washington at an anti-abortion rally.
• Joe Robertson looks at Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's call to inject $4 million into math and science programs at public schools.
• Brad Cooper examines plans to limit payday loans.
• Jim Sullinger reports on bills in the Kansas Legislature that would help school districts avoid raising taxes.
• Diane Carroll reports that the fired employees' suit against JoCo D.A. Phill Kline is moving to federal court.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• President Bush's annual address to the nation will occur this evening at 8 p.m. CST. The Note notes that for the first time in history, the U.S. House Sergeant at Arms says, "Madam Speaker, the President of the United States." Bloomberg News has a preview of the speech.
• On CNN this morning, Sen. Hillary Clinton fired back at Liz Cheney -- daughter of the Vice President and former deputy assistant secretary of state -- who wrote an op-ed criticizing her for "hemming and hawing about her vote for the war resolution."  Clinton shot back: "I've been a consistent critic of this administration's war planning. They've been dead wrong. They've been wrong in the war, they've been wrong in alienating the rest of the world."
• David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times writes that "the public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend." Why? Clinton has decided not to participate in the public financing system for either the nomination fight or the general election.
• Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel is the the most bipartisan person in Washington, the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman writes.
• Ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert "is set to publicly endorse" Mitt Romney for president tomorrow, the new online Web site The Politico reports.
• The Politico also reports that Sen. John McCain thinks Bush "was very badly served" by Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" was nominated for an Oscar today, and the movie's "I Need to Wake Up" was nominated under "Best Song." Go to Oscar.com.
• The Washington Post's Dana Milbank concludes that Brownback is in his element among social conservatives, and that he's not "zany" for thinking he can ride Christian conservative support all the way to the GOP nomination.
• Brownback spoke at a "Blogs4Life conference" where he noted he drives a hybrid Honda Civic, Townhall.com reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Scott Canon writes about an idea in Iowa to turn its presidential caucuses into a TV extravaganza.
• David Goldstein reports that Missouri and Kansas GOP members of Congress are kind of happy to vote their consciences and not the party line.
• Robert Trussell examines a proposal in the General Assembly to tap into the Missouri Cultural Trust for other spending.
• Laura Bauer reports that Kansas AG Paul Morrison will be personally prosecuting at least one high-profile case a year.
• In the "Missouri Capitol Report," Tim Hoover and Kit Wagar write about the meeting last week between Gov. Matt Blunt and KC Symphony officials. It seems the two sides give slightly different accounts of the meeting.
• In the "Kansas Capitol Report," Jim Sullinger and David Klepper write about one lawmaker's proposal to determine how fit or fat Kansas kids are.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• A Newsweek poll shows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama leading John McCain in 2008 White House matchups. Clinton leads McCain 48 percent to 47 percent, while Obama has a 46 percent to 44 percent lead. In an ABC News/ Washington Post poll, she leads McCain 50 percent to 45 percent and Obama leads 47 percent to 45 percent.
• The ABC/Post poll also shows Clinton leading the Democratic field with 41 percent to Obama's 17 percent, John Edwards' 11 percent and Al Gore's 10 percent. Rudy Giuliani leads the GOP field with 34 percent to McCain's 27 percent; Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are tied with 9 percent.
• The Post reports that Clinton's campaign posted a 1,250-word memo from strategist and pollster Mark Penn that begins: "People are always asking, can Hillary Clinton win the presidency? Of course she can."
• Billionaire George Soros is backing Obama over Clinton, The New York Times discovers.
• USA Today has an interview with President Bush on the eve of the State of the Union address. Bush his Iraq plan and the paper points out how that could affect Sen. McCain.  The president's priorities for Tuesday night: "We need to come across the aisle and work together." "What happens in Iraq matters to your security here at home." "I'm going to talk about how our foreign policy is more than just spreading freedom, it's also to help people who suffer from disease and hunger."
• Sen. Chuck Hagel tells the Omaha World-Herald  he hasn't completely rule out a bid as an independent."
• In Sunday's Post, George Will writes that Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's thinking is "what today's liberalism looks like when organized by a first-class mind."
• Former GOP representative and Gov. Bill Janklow of South Dakota will emerge from his manslaughter probation today.
• Former GOP Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio could become neighbors with jailed ex-"Survivor" Richard Hatch, the Cleveland Plain Dealer blog reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Halftime buzz

From The Star:

• Donald Bradley reports that Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes announced today  she will support spending $54 million this year to repair streets, bridges and other areas of deferred maintenance.
• Matt Campbell points out that halfway through his or her term, the next mayor of Kansas City may face a crisis in public transportation. That’s when a sales tax that now helps keep the buses running will shift toward building a light-rail system that voters approved in November. Then comes the hard part: how to proceed on that mandate and not gut the bus system. “The elephant in the room right now is light rail,” said Mell Henderson of the Mid-America Regional Council. “So I think it would be very helpful for the mayoral candidates to articulate how they would lead the community through an implementation of whatever plan.”
• In his column, Steve Kraske thinks that Becky Nace's fundraising puts her at the forefront of the KC mayoral race.

Elsewhere:

• It looks like Bill Richardson is jumping into the White House race.
• And here's an NYT analysis of Sen. Hillary Clinton's chances.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Saturday buzz

In The Star:

• David Klepper reports that Kansas AG Paul Morrison and Phill Kline disagree on who has possession of the abortion records in question.
• Lynn Horsley has more on the search for the missing IRS records at City Hall.

Elsewhere:

• Guess what? Hillary Clinton announced on her new campaign Web site this morning: "I’m in. And I’m in to win.”
• President Bush will propose in his State of the Union address a tax break for people who buy their own health insurance and a limit on how much coverage individuals can receive tax free at work.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

• In The Star:
• Lynn Horsley reports that 26 IRS computer tapes containing taxpayer information are missing from City Hall.
• Horsley was there for a Kansas City Council presentation pointing out legal and logistical problems with Clay Chastain's light rail proposal.
• Kit Wagar reveals that Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt wants to study an expansion of Medicaid's managed care system to help low-income patients while lowering costs to the state.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Former Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney gets 30 months in prison.
• In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi states that the Congress would not be cutting any funding for the U.S. troops in Iraq, saying, "The president knows that because the troops are in harm's way, that we won't cut off the resources. That's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way." Here's an interview excerpt.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Iran: "This morning, I'd like to be clear: The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking Congressional authorization."
• John M. Broder of The New York Times writes that departing chairman Ken Mehlman's words at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting were a warning that the GOP would "suffer even more devastating losses in 2008 than it did in 2006 if it did not reach out to minorities and address voter concerns over ethics."
• Bloomberg reportst that Pelosi's plans to create a new committee on global warming have created a "palpable" tension with Democratic committee chairs.
• Tomorrow, Kansas GOP Sen. Sam Brownback officially announces his presidential candidacy in Topeka and then makes that first crucial campaign stop on Sunday by sitting down with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Kit Wagar reports that Warren Erdman's appointment to the MU Board of Curators was approved by a state Senate panel, but that Lee's Summit Republican Sen. Matt Bartle is threatening defeat on the floor through delaying tactics.
• Tim Hoover files an update on the cable wars between the cable TV industry and phone companies who want to be able to deliver similar services. A compromise bill is moving forward in the General Assembly.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The new Diageo/Hotline poll shows 35 percent of registered voters approve of President Bush's job performance, down from 41 percent in mid-November. In White House matchups, John McCain leads Hillary Clinton 48 percent to 39 percent, while Clinton trails Rudy Giuliani 48 percent to 40 percent. The same poll has 31 percent approving of the job Congress is doing and 36 percent approving of the job Nancy Pelosi is doing. Thirty-four percent say the war in Iraq should be Congress' top priority.
• In a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, a majority of Americans oppose more troops in Iraq and nearly half the country wants Congress to block Bush's deployment of more U.S. troops. 
• But The Washington Post's Dana Milbank points out that "for all the bills introduced yesterday, none is likely to force President Bush to change course in Iraq. Proposals such as (Sen. Joe) Biden's are 'nonbinding' and others don't have enough votes to pass. 'There is very little chance in the short run that we are going to pass any legislation,' (Sen.) Clinton confided during her news conference. Asked to elaborate, she explained: 'I can count.'"
• There are a lot of stories about Clinton's evolving war position. In a New York Times interview, she takes a swipe at Sen. John Edwards: "Hours after  Clinton's announcement, (Sen. Barack) Obama said that he, too, would support a cap on troop levels. Clinton also took her own glancing shot back at Edwards, saying in the interview that it was important for political candidates in 2008 to avoid 'finger-pointing, hot rhetoric' on Iraq." More: "'I am cursed with the responsibility gene.' she said. 'I am. I admit to that. You've got to be very careful in how you proceed with any combat situation in which American lives are at stake.'"
• And the Chicago Tribune includes this blind quote in a look at Clinton's latest formulation on Iraq:  "A strategist for a rival Democratic campaign accused Clinton of being 'trapped by gender' in needing to appear tough enough to govern, in the mold of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi." 'She and her campaign understandably have been obsessed with preserving her general election viability,' said the strategist, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. 'They understand that a liberal dovish woman is not about to be elected president in a post-9/11 America. So they find themselves trailing public opinion on the war, badly trailing Democratic primary opinion on the war and just hoping the left gives her a pass.'"
• Former Missouri Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt is joining FTI Consulting Inc. as a consultant and adviser, through an exclusive agreement with his consulting firm, Gephardt & Associates LLC, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• At the Scooter Libby trial, the courtroom erupted in laughter when a potential juror answered a question about Vice President Dick Cheney with: "I'm not sure I'd like to go bird hunting with him."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski 

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• McClatchy's Steven Thomma files on Sen. Barack Obama making it official. (And here's a Thomma story on whether the United States is ready for a non-white president.)
• McClatchy's Renee Schoof reports on GOP opposition to the surge.
• Kit Wagar outlines GOP priorities in the Missouri General Assembly. Tax cuts top the list.
• Diane Carroll reports on JoCo DA Phill Kline being ordered to participate in grievance hearings over the staff he let go. There's also now a gag order in place.
• DeAnn Smith reports that the JaCo Legislature has decided stun guns are not a good idea in county buildings.
• Lynn Horsley details the controversy over a KC printing contract that a council committee will examine today.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Note says the Los Angeles Times has the best reporting on Hillary Clinton vs. Obama fundraising. It also calls attention to this quote from Obama adviser David Axelrod: "There is such a compulsion on the part of the political community and political media community to create a steel cage match between Clinton and Obama you can almost see the fight posters."
• The Democrats have chose Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to give the party's rebuttal to President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has more.
• MoveOn.org is launching a $250,000 TV ad buy ripping Sen. John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential frontrunner, for wanting to send more U.S. troops to Iraq: "John McCain has done more than just embrace George Bush's failed policy in Iraq. It's actually his idea to escalate the war there," the narrator claims in the ad which begins airing today in Iowa and New Hampshire. Danny Diaz, a McCain spokesman: "MoveOn.Org is an out-of-the-mainstream organization that has a long history of airing inflammatory material, even comparing the President to Hitler. It is not surprising that a liberal group opposed to military action after Sept. 11 would attack Senator McCain's conservative values, as well as changing strategy and securing victory in Iraq." ABC News' Teddy Davis has more on the Political Radar blog.
• The Washington Post's ed board criticizes the Democratic majority on energy policy, writing that "hitting up oil companies is a poor substitute for a real energy policy."
• Under a new bill, Kansas would hold its primary on the first Tuesday of February, the Wichita Eagle reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning brrrrr!

In The Star:

• In his column, Steve Penn takes readers on a tour of KC mayoral candidates' Web sites.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's "The Note" and others.

• A USA Today/Gallup poll shows President Bush's job approval rating at 34 percent while a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll puts it at 35 percent The CNN poll has 51 percent approving of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's job performance; 22 percent disapprove.
• Bush will do an interview today for PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
• Illinois Sen. Barack Obama today established a presidential exploratory committee that is expected to lead immediately into a full-blown campaign for president.
• In an op-ed, Scot Lehigh of the Boston Globe writes that Al Gore just might be the Democrats' strongest candidate in 2008: "(A) Democratic source says that in recent weeks, the former vice president's camp has quietly put out feelers to presidential politicos, asking whether they are committed for 2008."
• The New York Times' Robin Toner leads: "The promise may not outlast their political honeymoon, but Democratic Congressional leaders say they are