Legislature does more harm than good

The Kansas State Assembly’s House Appropriations Committee recently green-lighted a bill that would cut 4 percent from the state’s higher education budget. In dollars, that’s about 29 million. This bill is backed by the House of Representatives’ conservative Republicans, in the name of saving businesses from paying higher taxes, a design to help them grow. In all reality though, it’s actually hurting them and their future workforce by putting a larger burden on Kansas public universities and the students that pay tuition there. This measure comes after Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has pledged to avoid higher education cuts.  Brownback has repeatedly expressed his commitment to funding higher education; most recently at Higher Education Day, in…

Dollars and sense?

Ain’t nobody got money for that Jessica Sewing | design chief $1.75 more an hour can surely buy a ton of Ramen noodles. When I heard that President Obama, during his State of the Union address, proposed an increase in the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 to $9 an hour I was bey ond ecstatic. I am juggling three jobs and can still barely afford my bills. Increasing minimum wage by nearly $2 would allow me to not have to work so many hours. To the average Joe that may not sound like that big of an increase, but if you do that math it really is. Increasing it to $9 means, for…

Playing with its customers

Sony throws down gaming gauntlet with the PS4 Anthony Piecs Marcano | guest writer PlayStation. The name harkens to the days when consumers were first introduced to after-school sessions with “Crash Bandicoot,” late nights with “Resident Evil” and long, coffee-fueled weekends with “Final Fantasy.” As time passed, we destroyed our friends’ cars in “Twisted Metal,” fought pirates and thieves with Nathan Drake in “Uncharted” and even slayed the Greek gods with Kratos in “God of War.” With the current gaming generation quickly coming to a close, gamers around the world have been eagerly waiting to know what the big three console manufacturers have in store for them. Were the big console makers really working on…

Partisanship costs billions

Marcus Clem Last Friday, the nation learned three things about its Congress. 1) The Democrats blame the Republicans for their unwillingness to compromise. 2) The Republicans blame the Democrats for advocating unacceptable tax hikes and spending levels. 3) Americans learned what this all really means, beneath the spin and the hyper-partisanship: Broken Our system is broken. There is simply no other honest explanation for a legislature that has, again and again, bucked the best interest of the people that put it into office. This truth is beyond question. It will only become more apparent as the pain from the “sequestration” cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 slowly but inevitably bleeds $85 billion…

Last week’s opinion condescending to Catholics

Dear Editor, I was very excited about the prospect of seeing what kind of pros and cons piece the Collegio would write about the resignation of Pope Benedict the XVI. I’m sorry to say that the article wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. The pros were insightful and I applaud the writer for her insight. On the other hand, the cons were hateful, condescending and very uninformed. What was written was ill-explained and had nothing to do with the cons of the pope stepping down. I was even more appalled that someone who had no previous knowledge about Catholicism was asked to write about the various effects that the pope’s resignation would…

Waste of time?

Award season a guilty pleasure Casey Beal | guest writer Some people think award season is nothing but a bunch of rich people dressing up and rubbing the public’s faces in how much more money they have than us. I, however, am not one of those people. I love award season. It’s fun watching all these multimillionaires wear their fancy clothes and blubber all over themselves and act so surprised when they win their category. People enjoy the awards for many reasons. Some like to watch just to see if their guesses are correct. Others watch so they can make fun of the losers. Then, there are those who watch to see if these people,…