Kansas Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto

Senator Beverly Gossage*

By: Sherman Smith 

TOPEKA — Senate and House Republicans voted Tuesday to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of legislation that bans gender-affirming care for minors, rejecting pleas from Democrats to turn attention instead to issues that would help Kansas families.

Republicans used their dominance in both chambers to summon the two-thirds majorities needed to override the veto with votes of 31-9 in the Senate and 85-34 in the House. The unscheduled votes caught Democrats off-guard.

Senate Bill 63 prohibits health care providers from providing surgery, hormones or puberty blockers to children who identify as a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Health care providers who break the law will be stripped of their license.

It also prohibits the use of state funds for psychological treatment for transgender children, bans state employees from promoting “social transitioning” and outlaws liability insurance for damages related to gender-affirming care.

A national anti-LGBTQ+ group called Do Not Harm drafted the model legislation, which is billed as the “Help Not Harm Act.”

Kelly responded to the veto override by saying it was “inappropriate that the Legislature dictate to parents how to best raise their children.”

“It is unfortunate that the first bill the Legislature sent me this session is focused on putting politicians between Kansans and their private medical decisions instead of prioritizing solutions to issues like rising prices and the cost of groceries, which would benefit everyone,” Kelly said. “This divisive bill will undoubtedly have ripple effects that harm Kansas families, our businesses, and our economy and intensify our workforce shortage issue.”

After DEI Fight With Legislature, University Of Wyoming Launches Image Makeover

Sunday, February 16, 2025

The University of Wyoming is trying to improve its public image. 

The school has come under fire from the Wyoming Legislature over the past year for issues like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs on campus. Now, the school is launching a “Wyoming First” agenda for teacher education and putting more effort into actively promoting its Wyoming-focused programs.

UW President Ed Seidel told Cowboy State Daily the school’s top priority is trying to figure out how it can help advance the state.

“We are really trying to make a statement to the state that we’re here for the state,” Seidel said. “It’s very important to us that people understand that we’re here for the whole state, no matter where you’re from, and that means every student, every town, every organization across the state.”

Last year, the Legislature cut funding for the school’s DEI office. In response, the UW Board of Trustees cut the office while still retaining some of its services.

The Canadian Experience Includes Some of the World's Most Permissive Policies Regarding Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

The full article can be viewed here:  https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/02/13/new-hampshire-is-debating-legalized-assisted-suicide-heres-how-its-worked-out-elsewhere/   

Quebec became the first Canadian province to legalize assisted suicide in 2014. Since then, however, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled it legal for all Canadians.

After multiple expansions, Canadian law includes some of the world’s most permissive policies on assisted suicide. Since 2021, a patient does not have to be terminally ill to receive the drugs in Canada, but rather may be experiencing a long and complicated condition – including disability alone – that impacts their quality of life. The law there also allows a provider to directly administer the drugs rather than require the patient self-administer. (When a provider administers the drug, it’s called euthanasia.) Some opponents have called these expansions part of a so-called slippery slope.

The practice has exploded there. Assisted dying now represents roughly 1 in 20 Canadian deaths, according to an annual report released in December by Health Canada with data from 2023, the most recent available. That’s 15,300 deaths, or 4.7% of deaths in the country. Most – roughly 96% – had a terminal illness, but a small minority – around 4% – fit into the category of illness with a natural death not “reasonably foreseeable.” The median age was 77.7.

In recent years, Canada’s assisted-suicide policies have garnered criticism for disproportionately being used by the poor and disabled.

Idaho House Passes Legislation to end Taxpayer Funding for Teachers Unions

February 13, 2025  

(Boise) – The Idaho House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation to end taxpayer funding for teachers unions. Introduced by Rep. Judy Boyle (R-Midvale) [pictured here] and Sen. Ben Toews (R-Coeur d’ Alene), House Bill 98 passed by a vote of 40-29. Nineteen Republicans joined all 10 of the chamber’s Democrats in voting against the proposal. If adopted, this Freedom Foundation-supported proposal would make teachers unions more accountable .... 

Freedom Foundation testimony in support of HB 98 before the House State Affairs Committee:

using public payroll systems and personnel to deduct union dues from teachers’ paychecks; contributing taxpayer funds to a teachers union; providing teachers with paid leave to engage in union operations and activism, unless the union reimburses the district for the value of the teacher’s time out of the classroom; paying teachers’ union dues for them with taxpayer funds; providing more of a teacher’s personal information to a union than is disclosable under the Public Records Act, unless the teacher authorizes the disclosure; requiring teachers to meet or interact with a teachers union if they do not wish to do so; and distributing communications or membership solicitations on behalf of a teachers union.

Argentina Announces Withdrawal From WHO

By Owen Evens

The Argentine government has announced its decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the “catastrophic” economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

In a statement shared on social media platform X on Feb. 5, the office of Argentine President Javier Milei [president's photo pictured here] stated that the COVID-19 lockdowns were one of the greatest economic catastrophes in world history, citing the severe and lasting impact on global economies as Argentina’s primary reason for pulling out.

“The WHO was established in 1948 to coordinate global health emergency responses, but it failed its most significant test: it promoted indefinite quarantines without scientific backing during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement reads in English translation.

“These quarantines caused one of the largest economic catastrophes in world history.”

Vaccines Were Supposed to End the Pandemic. Excess Death Figures Tell a Different Story.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/vaccines-supposed-end-pandemic-excess-death-figures-different-story/?utm_id=20250207

By Michael Tomlinson

In the ongoing struggle to write the history of the pandemic years, nothing is more important than mortality — did the world’s governments save us from mass mortality or not?

The grand strategy (which as I have said before was neither grand nor strategic) was to lock down the population of whole countries as an interim measure “until a vaccine becomes available.”

This was a novel (and completely unproven) strategy to defeat a supposedly completely novel virus, on the grounds that no human had ever encountered anything like SARS-CoV-2 before so no one would have any preexisting immunity to it.

But the clue is in the name — SARS-CoV-2 was named after SARS to which it was closely related, sharing approximately 79% of its genome sequence according to this paper in Nature.