As I write this, we are still uncertain whether we will be working into Saturday or if we will be going home later in the day without addressing the education issue. Several of us are willing to work throughout the weekend if we could resolve the education issue, but there are many in the body that are listening to the special interest of those who want state owned casinos and they are holding the rest of us hostage and using education to do it.

Not only is education being held hostage, but the eminent domain and tax cuts to small businesses are being held in the Senate to prevent resolution on those issues. That is how much pressure is being brought to bear on those who think that being the first state in the nation with state owned casinos is not the right thing for Kansas.

FUNERAL PICKETING
In response to the picketing of funerals of soldiers who have fallen in Iraq, and out of respect to their loved ones, the House made changes this week to the Kansas Funeral Picketing Act which prohibits persons from engaging in picketing or directed marches within 300 yards of any entrance to a cemetary, church, mortuary, or other location where a funeral is held or conducted. Picketers would also be prohibited from blocking public access while engaged in picketing or protesting.

Although many of us are supportive of freedom of _expression, we were relieved to be able to vote in support of this bill.

THE END IS AT HAND
Normally at the end of session there is so much to write about, but everyone seems to be in the same boat right now. We have had a difficult time accomplishing everything this session and it is not because we have not tried. I felt that the House education plan was as reasonable a plan as we could have had, but several of my co-legislators were willing to even vote against their own districts in order to thwart the effort.

The Veteran’s bill that would allow veterans to have a paid holiday for Veteran’s Day did not make it out of the Federal and State Committee in the House. It will come back next year in the form of a resolution. That will give the House a chance to vote on the issue.

The bill that would allow farmers the opportunity to use their own farm trucks to haul their refuse away from their farms is dead. Although we were allowed the opportunity of a hearing, the Kansas Motor Carriers Association lobbied so strongly against the bill that they effectively threatened to take more privileges from the registration of farm vehicles than they currently have.

The Baby Doe bill that was the result of newborns being born and abandoned to die made it almost all the way through the process, but at this time, if action is not taken soon, it will die as well. Meanwhile an 8lb. baby girl was discovered as her body was drug around the neighborhood near Hutchinson. The only penalty for this current act is littering! Baby Doe has died again from lack of action and response from the Senate side of the Capitol.

The final bill that I worked on this year was a Resolution that would have called for the flag to be lowered at half-mast when a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty. That bill did not even get a hearing.

Although there is much bad news about this session, I did have an opportunity to bring attention to Brenda Holmes of the Lyon County Department on Aging this week. Brenda has initiated the "Yellow Dot" program and it has not only caught on as a state wide program, but has gained national recognition as well.