Kansas: The First Abortion-Free State? "The law also requires the health department to issue new licenses each year, and it grants additional authority to health department inspectors to conduct unannounced inspections, and to fine or shut down clinics ... the department wasted no time in drafting the new rules, issuing the final version on June 17 and informing clinics that they would have to comply with the rules by July 1. The new requirements require facilities to add extra bathrooms, drastically expand waiting and recovery areas, and even add larger janitor's closets, as one clinic employee told me—changes that clinics will have a heck of a time pulling off by the deadline. Under the new rule, clinics must also aquire state certification to admit patients, a process that takes 90 to 120 days, the staffer explained." Previously,
George Tiller (
2).
posted by geoff.
on Jun 23, 2011 -
91 comments
This past week, in an
open letter to Fred Phelps and his controversial Westboro Baptist Church, the hacker activist group Anonymous
issued an ultimatum: "... we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites. Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS." Yesterday, the Westboro Baptist Church took up the gauntlet, telling Anonymous, "
Bring It!" [
flyer].
[more inside]
posted by ericb
on Feb 20, 2011 -
252 comments
Even one of the greatest lines ever spoken in a movie can become hopelessly clichéd when repeated enough times, right,
Toto? (SingleYouTubeContaining58Clips)
[more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop
on Dec 17, 2010 -
30 comments
His radio station was shut down. His medical license was revoked. So
he ran for Governor. (
Time, 1932), and almost won. Twice. "Dr".
John R. Brinkley, the goat gland doctor, (
previously on Metafilter) had six weeks. He also had a plane, a huckster's skills, a staff skilled in promotion, and lots of chutzpah.
[more inside]
posted by julen
on Dec 16, 2010 -
10 comments
The old lady always called me her boy... and she kept me in her room from the time that I was born until her death, then willed me to her son Samuel. When she was dying she called me to her bedside... Taking my hand in hers she told me to be a good boy and stay with Samuel. To Samuel she said, "Keep my boy as long as you live to remember me by." Larry Lapsley began life as someone else's property, but he managed to break free from his mistress' dying wish by way of a remarkable journey that would lead him to becoming the first black homesteader in Saline County, Kansas:
When I came to Salina I was twenty-five years old and was without schooling. I had never gone to school a day in my life and I haven't any education yet but there is one thing I have, a good home and plenty of friends. [more inside]
posted by amyms
on Sep 18, 2010 -
22 comments
Though her nomination was a joke, instigated by a group of men hoping to inhibit the local activities of the Women's Christian Temperance Union by embarrassing female voters,
Susanna Madora "Dora" Kinsey Salter surprised the pranksters by winning two-thirds of the vote in the mayoral election of 1887 in tiny Argonia, Kansas, becoming not only America's first female mayor, but also earning the distinction of being the first woman elected to
any political office in the United States. Her official notice of election read:
Madam, You are hereby notified that at an election held in the city of Argonia on Monday April 4/87, for the purpose of electing city officers, you were duly elected to the office of Mayor of said city. You will take due notice thereof and govern yourself accordingly. Though she only served one term and had no further political ambitions, she became a hero of the early women's suffrage movement.
[more inside]
posted by amyms
on Sep 1, 2010 -
28 comments
"For the month of March 2010, the city of Topeka will be known as
Google, Kansas." Mayor Bill Bunten says the proclamation is an attempt to
stand out from the crowd, as cities around the United States have until March 26 to tell Google they're interested in participating in the
Fiber for Communities program, part of the company's recently announced plans to build a series of superfast broadband networks across the country [
previously on MetaFilter]. Other cities are trying to get Google's attention, but Duluth, Minnesota, has
upped the ante by pledging to name its firstborn sons "Google Fiber" and its firstborn daughters "Googlette Fiber" in a
video [YouTube, 3:34] spoofing Topeka's efforts.
posted by amyms
on Mar 4, 2010 -
47 comments
Metafilter's own Sean Tevis made history with his run for Kansas House of Representatives in 2008. Read more
here,
here, and
here. Sean is back and ready to commence
'Option 4', once again changing the way politics is done in Kansas. From his website "
Sean Tevis is visiting more than 50 politicians who can make open government a reality. He wears a different shirt with each politician. Eash shirt is unique and displays the names of 100 people like you. These shirts also have messages on them, which are Twitter-sized: 140 characters or less. The politician receives a copy of this shirt, too, for meeting with Sean. You get an account of this visit."
posted by jlowen
on May 6, 2009 -
25 comments
Today Kansas became
one step closer to raising its state minimum wage and shedding its embarrassing position as lowest set state minimum wage in the nation at $2.65 per hour. (Kansas minimum wage is lower than
Puerto Rico,
Guam, and the
Virgin Islands, though
5 states currently have no minimum wage whatsoever.) The Kansas Department of Labor estimates that over 20,000 Kansans earn less than the federal minimum wage. After passing the Kansas Senate by a vote of 33-7, will the
Speaker of the House allow a vote on
Senate Bill 160?
posted by jlowen
on Mar 18, 2009 -
72 comments
Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton was coaxed by her sister at the age of 68 to take a
blind contour drawing class in Ottawa, Kansas, in order to possibly help alleviate her 35-year bout with clinical depression. By the time of her death in 1993,
her work (article includes quicktime link of Elizabeth discussing her work and photo gallery) had been shown in several museums, including the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, and celebrated as an honest depiction of aging, mental health, and
feminist issues (google book link) in the US.
[more inside]
posted by sleepy pete
on Oct 4, 2007 -
15 comments
Orphan Trains of Kansas. A collection of histories, personal stories, newspaper accounts, pictures and other references.
Beginning in 1854, charitable institutions in New York City began sending orphans on trains to the west to find new families, feeling that the children would fare better out west than on the streets of New York. Orphan trains arrived in Kansas between 1867 and 1930, and some 5000-6000 children were placed in Kansas homes.
posted by amyms
on Sep 22, 2007 -
30 comments
The Harveyville Project, located in Harveyville, Kansas, is a small town and getting smaller: There are only about 250 residents, and most are elderly. But after an artist bought an abandoned school to live in two years ago, there are some colorful new faces in town.
Conveniently located at the corner of No and Where. Nary a McDonalds nor Starbucks as far as the eye can see, but still a comfy drive from civilization.
Housed in two mid-century school buildings on nine acres on the edge of a tiny rural town, the Harveyville Project offers a quiet, secluded, distraction-free environment to jumpstart your creative work.
Such a cool idea. If I was still single I'd move there in a second to soak up the creative vibe.
posted by Hugh2d2
on Jun 5, 2007 -
71 comments
"A bad way to make a living." A series on the history and ecological impact of
strip mining in southeast Kansas during the early 20th century that includes articles, photo galleries with sound files, and video slideshows about the region. The area, known as the
"Little Balkans," because of the large Eastern European population that worked the mines, was a
large mining community that has given the US the
second largest electric shovel in the country, a home to
one of the largest socialist newspapers in the country (called
Appeal to Reason and
founded by Julius Wayland) as well as the
Little Blue Books series started by
Emanuel Haldeman-Julius in 1919. Oh yeah, it was
also --second paragraph-- the place that most of the
bootleg alcohol that fueled the
Kansas City Jazz Scene of
that time was from as well. Of course, if you should ever find yourself in SEKS, and you eat meat, go to either
Chicken Annie's or Chicken Mary's [transcript] since they're only a few miles apart in their modern incarnation.
The legends you hear growing up there aren't always true, but it doesn't matter because the onion rings are fantastic. And yes,
in some ways all Kansas has left is history.
posted by sleepy pete
on Mar 22, 2007 -
9 comments
Haters! The Libertarian candidate for the 24th District of the Kansas House was canvassing the local Mission, KS Arts and Eats festival, speaking with attendees and distributing campaign literature. Suddenly, a councilwoman approached him with a police officer and informed him he had to leave and would be charged with trespassing if he returned, an action which the Mayor has publicly denounced and has launched an investigation into.
posted by deusdiabolus
on Sep 30, 2006 -
31 comments
Whereas: Dada is a virgin microbe which penetrates with the insistence of air into all those spaces that reason has failed to fill with words and conventions. .
The mayor of Lawrence, Kansas proclaims February 4, April 1, March 28, July 15, August 2, August 7, August 16, August 26, September 18, September 22, October 1, October 17, and October 26, 2006 as International Dadaism Month.
posted by billysumday
on Feb 28, 2006 -
58 comments
"If God does not exist, and if religion is an illusion that the majority of men cannot live without...let men believe in the lies of religion since they cannot do without them, and let then a handful of sages, who know the truth and can live with it, keep it among themselves. Men are then divided into the wise and the foolish, the philosophers and the common men, and atheism becomes a guarded, esoteric doctrine--for if the illusions of religion were to be discredited, there is no telling with what madness men would be seized, with what uncontrollable anguish."
posted by empath
on Dec 6, 2005 -
75 comments
Intelligent Design. Traces of this epic masterpiece of creation can be found in all religious writings and traditions. It is to them that Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed referred. It is now time to welcome them. To your child's classroom.
posted by Otis
on Nov 18, 2005 -
12 comments
Flying Spagetti Monster expelled from Kansas The Kansas School Board has decided that it knows much more about the origins of life than the combined intelligence of all the scientists on the planet, and that fiction can be taught as fact. But seriously, if you don't even understand the scientific method, what business do you have setting academic policy?
posted by gallois
on Nov 8, 2005 -
187 comments
Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that homosexuals cannot be treated differently. In what conservative homophobes decry as another instance of judicual activism, the Kansas Supreme Court
unanimously struck down a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts, saying "moral disapproval" of such conduct is not enough to justify the different treatment. In
the decision the court ruled: 1. K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 violates the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. 2. The equal protection violation inherent in K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 is cured by the severance of the words "and are members of the opposite sex" from the statute.
posted by three blind mice
on Oct 22, 2005 -
66 comments
An open letter to the Citizens of Atwood. This past week, the residents of the small town of Atwood, Kansas voted 984 to 113 to deny gay couples any rights for their relationships (including hospital visitation). Now, the man who set up the town's newspaper website has not only left Atwood, but taken down the website and posted a (mostly) measured response to the town in place of it. Will putting a human face on those being discriminated against ever change the minds of some people, or is one passage in the bible enough for some people to keep justifying their bigoted ways?
posted by almostcool
on Apr 12, 2005 -
111 comments
"Just for the record, do you believe the Sun goes around the Earth or the Earth goes around the sun?" : Ages before
"Intelligent Design",
a bold PaleoCreationist pseudoscientific
gobbledygook - embodied by Tom Willis,
Creationism's man
in Kansas and head of the
Mid Atlantic Creation Research
Society - strode the Earth. The AAAS dissected the mess in
"Lions, Tigers and APES, Oh My! ; Creationism vs. Evolution in Kansas" (
Google cache) and one writer concluded :
"The War between the creationists and
the public schools is over. The creationists appear to have won" : now, in a Kansas that's scientifically proven
flatter than
a pancake,
Mona Lisa is as
happy as a clam, and
Kissing Frank's ass and appeals
to
mysterious watchmakers predominate, while on
the national stage,
God is a
real estate developer.
Meanwhile, a
new group
proposes better zoning bylaws :
Scientists and Engineers for Change
posted by troutfishing
on Sep 30, 2004 -
22 comments
