GREAT BEND, Kan. - The results are in, unemployment in Kansas jumped during the month of January from 6.2% to 7.1%. Kansas needs jobs; no one will argue with that. Kansas needs good paying jobs, jobs where a person can work hard, receive a paycheck and not have to worry about food at the end of the month. That should not be a debate.

It is no secret legislature in Kansas has continued to hand out tax exemptions and
give sweetheart deals to major corporations for years, while at the same time enacting tax cuts. Now the state is in trouble and according to The Pew Center On The States, a nonpartisan organization, it may be several years before our states realize just how dire our budget situation is. This is because of two reasons - people in the state of Kansas will need monetary support from the state while they are unemployed, and people are spending less. Both issues have only just begun. When people spend less money that means less revenue, or taxes for the state, this will begin to really hit the budget in the next fiscal year.

WICHITA, Kan. - Like many other progressives, I voted for President Obama with the hope that he could facilitate positive change. But, alas, on issue after issue, Obama has been playing a one-note samba titled "Let the corporations have their way." The guy who was elected because he was "from the outside" has put in place a team that seems to be full of insiders.

In regard to our expectation that Obama would rein-in the banking industry, it's frustrating to find out the banking industry is not only fighting rule changes, but virtually the same rules and same people are still in place that led to our economic crisis.

I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

WICHITA, Kan. - With current financial difficulties facing the country, I find it hard that a service like Kwedit is going help solve the countries current economic crisis. The truth of the matter is although the government, banks, and other financial institutions certainly share the brunt of responsibility for the recession, the public shares a part of the blame, maxing out credit cards so one can have all the latest gadgets and live beyond their means, was a problem even before the recent meltdown.

Here is Stephen Colbert doing an expose albeit in a statical and humorous way shows the sad state of the mainstream media.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Noted sociologist Gay Seidman will be visiting Kansas State University to deliver the 10th Annual Donald J. Adamchak Distinguished Lecture Monday, March 8th (International Women's Day) at 7 pm in Forum Hall of K-State Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Professor Seidman is the Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, director of their African Studies program, and an internationally recognized expert on global production, labor, and human rights. Her lecture, Citizens, Markets, and Transnational Activism: Can Consumer Boycotts and Independent Monitoring End Sweatshops? builds on her recent book, Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Transnational Activism (Russell Sage, 2007). Professor Seidman has won graduate and undergraduate teaching awards, is a prolific scholar, and has experience as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist.

GREAT BEND, Kan. - State Senator Holland's biography offers some interesting comparisons and contrasts with his Republican opponent U.S. Senator Sam Brownback. One of these men will be the next Governor of Kansas.

One area where Holland has a huge edge over Brownback is in business experience, time spent working in the private sector. Holland has spent 29 years in the information technology business, first working on a major IT systems initiative at the ATSF railway.
Sen. HollandHe founded Holland Technologies, Inc., an information technology firm in 1992, serving as the company's president. Holland is clearly a "private sector" guy, who got involved in politics fairly late in life to push for better education opportunities for Kansas children.

Senator Brownback's resume is pretty thin on private sector experience. He worked for a radio station as a broadcaster for about a year after his undergraduate work at KSU, and then went to law school at KU. After law school, he spent several years practicing law in Manhattan before becoming State Agriculture Secretary in 1986.

Brownback left the private sector permanently in 1986. Brownback has spent the last 24 years working for the government, while Holland continues to run a small business while serving as a part-time citizen-legislator.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Monthly Film Series sponsored by the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice, the Manhattan/Riley County League of Women Voters and private donors, brings a powerful documentary, American Casino, to the community this month that looks into the causes of the 2008 economic crisis.

The viewing will take place at 6:30 pm on Tuesday 9 February at the Manhattan Public Library Auditorium. The public is invited to attend.

"American Casino is a powerful and shocking look at the subprime lending scandal. If you want to understand how the US financial system failed and how mortgage companies ripped off the poor, see this film," commented Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning economist.

HAYS, Kan. - In 2010, the world's biggest corporation and largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), expects to add approximately 38 million square feet of retail space through remodels of existing stores and by accelerating growth of new stores. In the last decade, many U.S. cities have sweetened these deals for Wal-Mart in hopes that the retailer will move into their neighborhoods and boost local economic development.

If Wal-Mart seeks to expand operations in your area, its developers may approach your city leaders looking for tax advantages and tax exemptions. Even in this economy, some city or county governments may be enticed by the sales pitch, willing to accept Wal-Mart's assurances that its new stores can stimulate local employment and improve its local business climate.

Before giving Wal-Mart any new taxpayer gifts, municipalities might wish to read a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Loyola University Chicago.

The study's results suggest that communities shouldn't see Wal-Mart or other big-box retailers as panacea for local economic problems.

EMPORIA, Kan. - A recent Kansas Supreme Court decision upheld the Wabaunsee County Commission's decision to enact a countywide ban on commercial wind turbines. I don't fault the Court's reasoning -- I am very disappointed in Wabaunsee's elected officials and in the citizens of Wabaunsee who supported the restrictions.

COLBY, Kan. - Prosperity cannot be attained by the lowering of the Federal Income Tax rates! At least not prosperity for the masses of people.

Income tax rates have fluctuated up and down since the first income tax was levied to fund the military in the earliest days of our Nation. And, in all honesty, there is very little correlation suggesting business boomed when taxes were down and then lagged when taxes went up.

SALINA, Kan. - Some programs that the government has previously said would be in deficit in the near future may actually have a surplus instead, once you account for the improved health and productivity of the population if real health care reform is implemented.

As the national discussion of health care focuses on costs, a new study from North Carolina State University shows that it might be more accurate to think of health care spending as an investment that can spur economic growth. The study also shows that government projections of health care costs and financing may be unduly pessimistic.

"Health care spending should be viewed as an investment in future capital, contributing to a productive workforce, rather than merely as an expenditure," says Dr. Al Headen, associate professor of economics at NC State and a co-author of a paper appearing in the Dec. 15 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

People are living longer and are retaining their ability to be productive members of society - they are able to work, pay taxes, consume goods and go on vacation.