Committees from the Kansas House and Senate will meet in early session before the legislature returns. The meetings will be on April 17 – 18. The legislature is scheduled to return on April 25.

The committees will try to hammer out a state budget that can be approved by the full legislature as soon as possible once business resumes. They were working on the budget just before recess when agreements fell apart. They went to recess without passing a budget bill.

As a result, the Supreme Court ordered furloughs for the state courts. The lack of a state budget was cited as the main reason for the furloughs.

If you enjoy track and field and would like to help out this event, the Kansas Relays needs volunteers. The event is April 18 – 21, 2012. If you give more than four hours of your time to help, you will receive a free Kansas Relays T-shirt.

Go to this web site for information: http://www.kuathletics.com/sports/c-relay/spec-rel/kan-relays-volunteer-form.html

Kansas Drivers’ License bureau is unable to issue licenses because of a computer problem. The server for the state’s computer system is down with no promise of when it will be restored.

Kansas is currently in the middle of a $40 million dollar computer system upgrade. The new system will be able to keep all data for drivers’ license, title ownership and vehicle registration.

The state’s license offices are currently closed.

Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss has ordered a furlough of state court employees. The order affects 1500 state employees. The furlough will be effective for April 13, April 27, May 11, May 25 and June 8.

The order came as a result of the Kansas Legislature’s failure to pass a state budget before recessing. While a bill was introduced, it got hung up in discussions and delays until they decided to recess without passing it.

While some options were given to Justice Nuss, he places the onus directly on the legislature for its failure to perform one of its primary functions, to fund the government. It’s possible that the furloughs could be changed once the legsilature returns from recess and passes the budget.

Of course, it’s the states laboring court workers who are the big losers.

Several Congressional Democrats have responded to questions and comments by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during the Affordable Care Act oral argument session.

Scalia made a startling statement during the questioning. He said that the justices could not be expected to actually read the entire law. Since the law contains 2700 pages, it was too much to expect them to digest all that.

Isn’t that what the United States Supreme Court is supposed to do? How can they decide on the merits of the law if they don’t read the thing? It’s absolutely incredible that a Supreme Court justice would make such a comment.

He also made a comment that was more political than judicial. He wondered aloud about the over-reaching power of the federal government. That was not a comment about the law itself, it was an indicator that he is probably against the federal mandate to buy insurance.

It’s not likely that the Court will publish its decision before June.

On Wednesday, a Kansas House vote fell short of the votes needed to amend to the state’s constitution. The amendment was intended to stipulate that only the state legislature can decide how revenue will be spent.

The amendment was introduced in response to the past decisions by the state’s courts that changed the way public schools are funded. Leaders of the legislature were trying to change the constitution so that courts could not interfere in matters of legislative spending.

The amendment was a clear attempt to freeze out the courts in future decisions of public school funding. It was, in essence, a ploy to end the ability of the judiciary to oversee the legislature.

In the Kansas Senate, Governor Brownback’s tax reform plan was initially defeated. Then later a motion was made to reconsider that vote. The tax plan then passed in the second attempt.

After the first vote, there were some phone calls to Senate Republicans. After those phone calls the second vote was taken. The Governor then made a statement that he was glad for the passage of the bill.

When one person can cause legislators to do what they’re told and change a vote, that is the definition of power.

The House has rejected a plan to divide Wyandotte County in their redistricting efforts. The plan, submitted and lobbied by Speaker Mike O’Neal put part of Wyandotte County in the rural 1st Congressional district.

The plan the House has advanced puts all of Lawrence in the 2nd district, eliminating the division of the city into two districts. The 3rd district would be Wyandotte, Johnson and the northern part of Miami counties. However, the final plan will be voted on Wednesday. Other changes are possible before the vote.

Kansas House Republicans approved a congressional redistricting map that splits KCK between the 3rd and 1st Congressional districts. This is a blatant gerrymandering attempt to keep a large number of Democratic leaning voters out of 3rd district congressional races.

This plan had no support in the public discussion forums and experienced wide opposition by representatives of both parties. The committee vote was even; 11 - 11. House Speaker O’Neal voted for approval, breaking the tie to approve the map.

It will now go to the full house for discussion and vote. Once the House approves their map it will be reconciled with the Senate’s version. If no agreement is reached it will go to court to be resolved.

It is now obvious to all that there is no attempt whatsoever to hide the “In-Your-Face” partisanship demonstrated by the Republicans in their redistricting agenda. They mean to insure that Democrats are no longer able to garner enough votes to send a Democrat to the U. S. House of Representatives from the 3rd district. No explanation of population distribution will serve to cover up this vengeful action.

Kansas House Republicans can n0 longer stand on any claim of working for the good of the state or even the good of the people. They are working for the extreme conservative agenda that helps only those currently empowered.

The Kansas House passed a bill making changes to the state’s concealed carry law. The changes allow holders of the concealed carry permits to bring weapons into more places than the original law permitted.

Should the Senate pass the bill as is and Gov. Brownback sign it into law, all public buildings would allow concealed weapons. Hospitals, nursing homes and other places could exempt themselves.

There is a claim of economic impact. With all public buildings available for concealed carry, metal detectors and armed guards could be removed from many of them, saving the cost of manpower.

There’s no time to work on the state’s economy. But there’s time to waste making sure people carrying guns can have more convenience.