Recent Kansas editorials

The Kansas City Star, March 9

Only Susan Wagle, president of the Kansas Senate, could make her fellow Republican Jim Denning look like Winston Churchill. What’s she done now, you ask?

Publicly threatened the majority leader’s job for working with the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, that’s what. On legislation that has wide support from Kansans of all political stripes.

Of course, we speak of much-needed, inexcusably blocked Medicaid expansion, which Denning single-handedly killed last year but promised to pass this year. His reelection probably depends on it at this point - and that’s his Democratic rival state Rep. Cindy Holscher’s top issue. But it’s still to Denning’s credit that he’s pushing his expansion deal with Kelly, rather than only trying to look like he’s pushing it.

At a recent joint appearance with Denning, Kelly said, “We all know we have an issue with the Senate president, who is tying this issue to the constitutional amendment” on abortion “and not allowing debate on either this issue or any other health care issues right now. Talk about an immoral thing to do - that is one of them, because the lives of the people of Kansas are really on the line here.” All true.

And beyond the legislation itself, the idea that working across the aisle might be a firing offense sets a new standard for cynicism. Aren’t politicians in both parties always saying that people want their elected representatives to work together?

Wagle does get points for candor, though, in saying right out in the open that her problem with Denning’s bipartisanship is that it might hurt their party electorally: How dare he do something that would save some Kansans’ lives but hurt her U.S. Senate run?

She said Denning is “carrying the governor’s water” and as a result is putting Republicans in a “very bad situation.”

“It puts us all in a bind when you’re carrying the governor’s bill,” which she says most Republican lawmakers oppose.

The House passed expansion last year, and 22 senators are co-sponsors of the Kelly-Denning compromise - one more than the 21 needed to pass a bill.

The expansion would provide coverage to as many as 150,000 more low-income Kansans. Polling has shown that almost 7 in 10 Kansans support the expansion, 69% versus the 30% who oppose it. And these are not socialists, Senator Wagle. Kansas is a Republican state, remember?

She made it sound like these constituents aren’t people who desperately need health insurance - or who need their public servants to live up to that designation. In her telling, these are people she and her party need to show up for them rather than the other way around.

Wagle has promised that expansion won’t happen unless and until an amendment that says the state constitution doesn’t guarantee a right to an abortion - and that could pave the way for an abortion ban in Kansas - is passed in the Legislature.

“Our biggest voting bloc in a primary is the pro-life community, and we cannot be asked to step on that community and get reelected,” she told Denning. “So you’re putting us in a very difficult spot. Very, very difficult.’’

Beyond the question of why it’s ever pro-life to deny anyone greater access to health care, it’s Wagle herself who is putting her party in a bad place.

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The Topeka Capital-Journal, March 9

The number of women in prison in Kansas has grown significantly. Topeka Correctional Facility, the only women’s prison in the state, is now slightly above capacity.

The number of women in Kansas prisons has risen by 60 percent in the past decade, while the number of men has grown by only 14 percent, according to reporting from Kansas Public Radio.

Kansas is not unique in the growth of female prisoners. Numbers of incarcerated women are growing nationally. The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit research organization based in Massachusetts, reports that nationwide, women’s state prison populations grew 834% over the past 40 years, twice the rate of men’s growth.

Women are now the fastest-growing incarcerated population.

Women still make up a fairly small percentage of the overall prison population. Their comparatively small numbers mean that most training, rehabilitation and treatment programs designed for offenders were designed around incarcerated men.

Female offenders, however, are different than male offenders. The Prison Policy Initiative reports women have less access to money, making pre-trial detention in local jails more likely due to inability to afford bail. They are more likely to be in the criminal justice system due to nonviolent drug offenses.

More than 80 percent of incarcerated women are mothers, and most of those were primary caretakers for their children before being incarcerated. They are more likely to have mental health conditions and significantly more likely to have experienced domestic or sexual abuse.

After serving their sentences, differences persist. Women are less likely to recidivate when compared to male offenders, but they are also more likely to be homeless. They are more likely to return to prison or jail for violating conditions of their probation or parole.

Preventing women’s crimes requires different approaches and interventions than men’s. The influence of domestic and sexual violence on women’s criminal behavior cannot be overstated. Many women in prison have experienced violence, and their abusive partners are often involved in criminal activity.

Keeping women out of jails and prisons will certainly require support for victim’s services.

The network of 26 victim services programs around Kansas needs public and private support to offer counseling, shelter and other services to support victims. The most recent survey from the National Network to End Domestic Violence found that 221 victims of abuse in Kansas asked for services local programs were unable to provide in a single day.

Batterer’s Intervention Programs, which work to prevent abuse by working with offenders, are also critical to the effort and in need of support.

Drug and alcohol treatment, mental health treatment and other critical social safety net services can have a large impact on women’s likelihood of offending. The resources we offer women, particularly those with mental health conditions, addictions or living in poverty, have a real impact on the number of women that end up in our jails and prisons at taxpayer expense.

Kansas can and must do more to keep women out of prisons.

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The Manhattan Mercury, March 4

When there’s a big national or international crisis, many of us want to do something about it.

We want to donate money, volunteer our time, wear ribbons. Some actions make a difference; some probably don’t. But doing something makes us feel, at least for a time, a bit less helpless.

The global outbreak of this new strain of coronavirus is the latest cause for concern. As it picks up steam, infecting and killing folks around the world, more and more people feel compelled to take action. With a virus, it’s clear that individual actions do make a difference. Whether you wash your hands or stay home from certain events, for example, could ultimately affect a lot of people.

It’s important to note that, especially because some studies have shown that perhaps only 5% of people wash their hands sufficiently to kill or remove harmful germs.

But as we consider the useful and futile ways we’re responding to the coronavirus (buying masks, not touching our faces, stocking up on food) we’d like to show appreciation for some local researchers who are actually, actively fighting this virus.

As we reported Sunday, two virologists with the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine have been working on antiviral drugs to treat MERS human coronavirus and other viruses. Their work, funded through multi-million-dollar National Institutes of Health grants, extends to similar viruses including the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

The K-State virologists, Yungeong Kim and Kyeong-Ok “KC” Chang, have been working with a chemist at Wichita State and recently signed a new license agreement between K-State and a pharmaceutical company, Cocrystal Pharma Inc., which will research and develop the researchers’ antiviral compounds.

No antiviral drugs are yet available for human norovirus or coronaviruses, but the hope is that eventually these compounds could lead to effective drugs that will be available to the public.

There’s no telling how long that process could take or whether it will be successful, but we’re proud to see that some brilliant scientists in our very own city are developing drugs to battle the coronavirus and other harmful diseases.

The rest of us will have to be content to keep our hands clean.