12/23/2007

By CHRIS GREEN

and SARAH KESSINGER

Harris News Service

Members of the state Board of Regents liked the idea of bringing a two-year math and sciences academy for gifted high school students to Fort Hays State University.

But school officials still have to iron out details of how the program will work following this week's announcement that Fort Hays State won the chance to house the Kansas Mathematics and Science Academy.

University officials hope to open the academy by August 2009, providing the state Legislature offers the necessary funding.

They also plan to make special accommodations to ensure that several dozen high school juniors and seniors receive adequate support and monitoring while living on a college campus.

But state Board of Regents Chairwoman Christine Downey-Schmidt wondered whether the academy might need to make an additional accommodation.

"Where are you going to house the mothers?" she quipped.

Putting the 'A' in 'AG'

Although the position's called "attorney general," one doesn't have to be a lawyer to serve in the role of the state's top law enforcement officer.

Stephanie Wing, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, said there's nothing in the constitution or state law that actually requires the attorney general to be an attorney.

That little-known quirk has become relevant in the wake of Paul Morrison's decision to resign from the office, effective Jan. 31, following his admission of an extramarital affair with a former subordinate.

Under the constitution, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has the responsibility of appointing someone to finish Morrison's term, which ends in 2010.

Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said the governor believes the position of attorney should be held by someone with a law degree.

"That will be a key requirement the governor has while searching for the right person who can restore faith and integrity in the office of attorney general," Corcoran said.

Can't quit coal, yet

Sen. Mark Taddiken, R-Clifton, spent a few days without power on his farm this month while the ice coating much of north-central Kansas downed tree limbs and toppled transmission lines.

The time offered him a look at life with a really high-priced energy source.

"It certainly makes you appreciate what we have today when you're running a generator on a tractor with $3 a gallon diesel fuel," he said. "That makes for $100-a-day fuel bills."

The experience made the electricity he normally buys from a local power cooperative "a lot more attractive."

While diesel-powered generators aren't the norm, other alternative energy sources are expected to get plenty of attention in the upcoming Legislature, Taddiken said. A debate over whether to allow Sunflower Electric to build two coal-fired power plants and whether to encourage alternative sources of electricity and efficiency will be on lawmakers' agenda.

"Hopefully we can find some type of solution. I don't think we can quit using coal and we need to find ways to do it responsibly," Taddiken said of carbon dioxide emitted by burning coal.

That won't come cheaply, he acknowledged.

"Everything you do gets more expensive, and it's the consumer who has to pay for it in the end."

Documented failure

Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kris Kobach said he's not deterred by a federal appeals court's repeated rejection of a legal challenge to Kansas' in-state tuition law that offers illegal immigrants a tuition break in some cases.

An attorney and law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kobach is lead counsel on the case. He now plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court whether it'll give it a look.

The appeals court in Denver, however, reiterated its contention Monday that the plaintiffs have no standing, because they aren't harmed by the law, which was passed in 2004 by the Kansas Legislature.

Kobach is representing a similar case in a state appeals court in California, which has a similar law. That challenge, he said, is moving slowly.

Early birds flock to CREP

It took just five hours for one county's farmers to sign up for all available payments Thursday under a new conservation program to permanently cap irrigation wells along the upper Arkansas River, federal officials said.

Other counties didn't see such enthusiasm early on. But at 5:30 a.m. on the first day of sign-up, nine Kearny County irrigators were in the parking lot waiting for Lakin's federal Farm Service Agency office to open and begin enrollment in CREP - Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

Each county has a 5,000-acre eligibility cap set earlier this year by the Legislature.

The payments apply to the river's corridor from Hamilton County on the Colorado line to western Rice County.

Greg Foley, executive director of the State Conservation Commission, issued a statement Friday that landowners shouldn't be discouraged if they don't get into the program this first sign-up period. The Legislature, which could consider more funding, is asking for a report on local response during the upcoming 2008 session.

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