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There's no better way for lawmakers to impress constituents nowadays than to pass draconian abortion restrictions, and no states are trying harder to enforce pregnancy than Kansas and Oklahoma. But which terrible, totalitarian abortion law is worse? Let's find out. More »
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An embarrassing Republican has issued a textbook non-apology weeks after forwarding an email that called First Lady Michelle Obama "Mrs. YoMamma" and implied that she and the Grinch were twins separated at birth. He's sorry people got mad. He didn't mean to offend anyone. But can we all agree that the President and First lady are black? I mean, what's up with that?! More »
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If you're one of those people who lives in constant fear of the outside world, this might be the ideal place for you to live! It's a condo complex that's built into a former nuclear missile silo in the middle of Kansas. That's about as secure as it gets. According to CBS News, "It's the only condo in the world capable of withstanding a direct nuclear attack." Well, that's a relief. More »
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There are plenty of reasons to be glad that you aren't in high school anymore. As full-fledged adults, we're no longer forced to write essays about the ATP cycle, running and swimming are strictly voluntary, and we aren't obligated to have a crush at least one member of a boy band. Another bonus: If we feel like making a joke about a politician online, the principal won't call us to his office and demand that we apologize. (Though, depending on your line of work and your employer's feelings on legalizing marijuana, you may end up out of a job. Maybe being all grown up isn't what it's cracked up to be.) More »
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Anti-abortion legislators are trying just about everything they can to restrict women's access to a legal procedure, from regulating the size of janitor's closets in clinics to arguing that a fertilized egg is exactly the same as a person (who may naturally exit the uterus and never grow any organs). It often seems like pro-choicers are on the defensive, so it's heartening to hear that rather than just struggling to keep existing clinics open, activists in Kansas are working to open new facilities. The ongoing effort in Wichita holds particular significance because it would bring abortion services back to the area for the first time since Dr. George Tiller was murdered in 2009. More »
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Kansas abortion providers have been battling anti-choice legislators for months over new restrictions that at one point threatened to close ever abortion clinic in the state. Now lawmakers have come back with less onerous regulations, but yesterday three doctors announced they're going to sue again because the requirements are still unreasonable and "irrational." More »
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Last week's Congressional passage of the Let Women Die ("Protect Life") Act capped off a year characterized by a dismayingly high number of abortion restricting bills, and there's no end to the fuckery in sight. Since Roe v. Wade has withstood decades of legal challenges, the next wave of abortion restricting laws won't try to take on Roe v. Wade directly; rather, they'll attempt to gradually ebb away at a woman's right to bodily autonomy by eliminating funding, legally redefining "life," and harassing and intimidating doctors interested in providing abortion services. This is going to be the best fall ever. More »
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We're in the midst of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and last night city officials in Topeka, Kansas marked the occasion by decriminalizing domestic violence. Their intent is actually to make sure that the cases will be prosecuted properly, not to encourage citizens to beat their spouses with impunity. However, the political maneuver has already let dozens of abusers off the hook and put their victims' lives in danger. More »
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When cities face a budget crunch, city government often has to make tough decisions — say, laying off municipal employees, reducing the amount of funding that can go to after school programs, increasing property taxes, cutting the amount of money that they spend on their own personal security detail. Sacrifices are made and belts are tightened and everyone battens down the hatches and waits for whatever's causing everyone trouble to pass. One county in Kansas has decided to go a different route and close budgetary hole by opening a legal loophole that would pass domestic battery prosecution off to another municipality. In doing so, they've initiated a budgetary standoff that may lead to the city of Topeka completely decriminalizing domestic violence. More »
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Kansas State University is embroiled in controversy over its longstanding slogan, "Every Man A Wildcat" (abbreviated EMAW). Some students want to change the line to "Every Person A Wildcat" — and traditionalists aren't happy. More »
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All around the country, state lawmakers are trying to force insurers not to cover abortions — not just when it comes to the upcoming state exchanges or for public employees, but even in private insurance plans. The ACLU, which is suing to overturn a Kansas law banning private insurance coverage of abortion, provides this handy map to help you keep track of the damage so far. (Theirs is interactive). Conservatives: All about free markets, except when it comes to your reproductive rights. More »
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For the second time this summer, a federal judge has struck down a ridiculous law passed by the Kansas legislature that would have limited women's access to healthcare. More »
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The three remaining abortion clinics in Kansas — which is to say, the ones not already closed by the murder of an abortion provider in that state — are under threat of closing thanks to new, intentionally-unachievable regulations, Mother Jones reports. It's not just Kansas. More »
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Anti-choice bluster has given way to actual legislation, and guess who's paying the price? Low-income women, and any woman who would have sought care at the fourteen Planned Parenthood clinics that are closed or have been furloughed in Indiana and Minnesota. And more states are likely to follow. More »
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Both chambers of the Kansas legislature have approved a newly restrictive abortion access law that Governor Sam Brownback is expected to sign. More »
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We all have annoying friends who post TMI-ish pictures of their own frozen placentas or their infants' detached navels, but four Kansas nursing students have decided to up the Facebook oversharing ante... by posting pictures of someone else's placenta. More »
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• In response to the death of 15-year-old student Phoebe Prince, the Massachusetts Legislature voted today to pass an anti-bullying law. "This is a day we can be proud we have done something positive," said Rep. John Scibak. More »
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The Anderson County Attorney in Kansas, Frank Campbell, declined to prosecute the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl, but showed pictures of her rape to parents of the perpetrators and witnesses, supposedly because there was alcohol involved [Courthouse News Service] More »
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The AP is reporting that Nebraska doctor LeRoy Carhart (pictured) will step in to fill Dr. George Tiller's shoes, but the threat that anti-abortion group Operation Rescue will buy Tiller's clinic is unfortunately very, very real. More »
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A film version of the book What's the Matter With Kansas? shows that Kansas has been torn by the abortion debate since long before Dr. George Tiller's assassination, and that the issue remains at the heart of the state's contentious politics. More »
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Since the murder of Dr. George Tiller, many women who saw him for late-term abortions have spoken out about the caring he showed them during a deeply painful time in their lives. Their stories, and a pro-lifer's perspective, after the jump. More »
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Last night, two candlelight vigils were held in Kansas for Dr. George Tiller, the ob/gyn who was shot to death on Sunday morning. About 400 gathered in Wichita at Old Town Square and more than 100 people gathered at a park in Lawrence for vigils to honor Tiller. More »
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This country has a long and unfortunate history of attempting to — and succeeding in — disenfranchising minority voters. Given that, one would think the Republican Party would make every effort to avoid at least the appearance of disenfranchising minority voters, if it couldn't bring itself to stop doing it. But they don't, as the New York Times' rundown of the so-called unintentional problems with a 4 year old election law — and an avalanche of other articles over the last few months — makes clear. So we thought it about time to let you know all the ways Republicans are trying to stop you — and the Ohio voter in this picture— from exercising your right to vote. More »
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A golden retriever named Isabella at Safari Zoological Park in southeast Kansas has adopted three white tiger cubs who were abandoned by their mother. After the birth mother ignored the cubs the zoo owner, Tom Harvey, found a nursing dog to help the cubs survive. White tigers are not as "genetically stable" as their orange brethren because they are the result of inbreeding, but we sure hope these cuties make it. [AP] More »
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Zelma Henderson, a Kansas beautician and the sole surviving plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark 1954 federal desegregation case, died on Tuesday. She was 88. Henderson grew up in Colby, where her family was one of two black families; when she was a girl, her family moved to Oakley, a bigger town with more black people but no "black school", because Kansas law dictated that elementary schools should only be segregated in towns of 15,000 or more. But when she moved to Topeka and had children, they were bused to an all-black school on the other side of town. In 1950, the Topeka chapter of the NAACP organized a class-action suit and Mrs. Henderson served as a plaintiff. Coincidentally, the school in question, Sumner Elementary, is now on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's endangered list. [NY Times, CNN] More »
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Holy scat. I'm not sure why this story is deserving of a whole post, or where I'm going with it, but whatevs. A 35-year-old woman in Kansas sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years. She sat so long she became fused to the toilet. And for two years her boyfriend brought her food on the john. Her neighbor said the news "really doesn't surprise me"; he hadn't seen her in six years. Who are these people? Well, drug addicts obviously. But what drug glues you to a toilet for two years? And what, after two years, finally prompts your boyfriend to call someone? The story points out helpfully that their house "had another bathroom he could use." Did it get clogged or something? Or did she finally make it through the huge stack of New Yorkers? More »
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