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Jul. 26The Aug. 2 primary election is fast approaching. In fact, it's now just a week away.

Now is the time to get acquainted with the candidates and issues that you'll see on your ballot, if you haven't already.

There are numerous opportunities to do so this week:

Joplin voters may attend an informational meeting on Proposition Public Safety from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Silver Creek Community Center, 3106 Silver Creek Drive. Attendees can talk with police Chief Sloan Rowland and Assistant Chief Andy Nimmo, of the Joplin Fire Department, along with members of the citizens committee for Proposition Public Safety and other city officials.

The proposal would levy a $1 tax for every $100 of assessed value on all real and personal property, with the revenue to provide better pay for and hire more police officers and firefighters. For a home with a market value of $150,000, the owner's property tax bill would increase by $285, and for personal property of $30,000 it would be about $100, city officials have said. City officials have projected that the taxes would produce about $9 million a year.

Carthage voters may attend an informational meeting about a new performing arts center at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the school district's auditorium, 714 S. Main St.

The ballot proposal seeks voter approval of an $18 million bond issue to build a performing arts center on the Carthage High School campus. It would extend the district's existing 83-cent debt service levy for two years from 2040 to 2042.

Learn more about the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian candidates seeking their party's nomination for the 7th Congressional District seat in a Joplin Globe series called The 5 Q's. Each candidate had the opportunity to respond directly to the same five questions about abortion, gun safety, the Ukraine crisis and more.

You can find that series in the Globe editions published July 12-16 and online at joplinglobe.com.

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Learn more about the top Republican and Democratic candidates for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat in a series of profiles from our partners at the Missouri Independent, a nonprofit, online news organization.

The Globe began running the profiles over the weekend and will conclude the day before the election. As of today, profiles of Republicans Dave Schatz and Billy Long and Democrat Spencer Toder have been published, with profiles of Republicans Vicky Hartzler, Eric Greitens and Eric Schmitt and Democrats Lucas Kunce and Trudy Busch Valentine still to come.

You can find the series in the Globe print and e-editions, and online at joplinglobe.com.

Original post:
EDITORIAL: Educate yourself on the candidates, ballot issues this week - Yahoo News

TOPEKA Independent governor candidate Dennis Pyle attended a Topeka gun show in a quest to gather some of the 5,000 petition signatures necessary to secure a spot on the November general election ballot.

The idea was to mine the assemblage of Second Amendment advocates for people open to Pyles decision to step away from the Republican Party to offer Kansas voters an alternative to presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee Derek Schmidt. Pyle, a state senator from Hiawatha since 2005, would join Schmidt, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Libertarian Party nominee Seth Cordell on statewide ballots.

Pyle has until noon Aug. 1 one day before the primary election to accumulate sufficient signatures to qualify. His movements on the GOPs right flank have drawn interest from Republicans and Democrats intrigued by the idea of Pyle being a wildcard in the three-month race to a finish Nov. 8.

His presence mirrors a belief among some Republicans that Schmidt didnt possess sufficiently staunch conservative views they wanted in a governor candidate.

Were working hard and diligently on the petition drive and everyone will find out the results on August 1, Pyle said.

Pyle wasnt the only person looking for petition signatures at the July gun show. State Rep. Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, also worked the crowd for signatures that could be added to Pyles pile. Miller wouldnt say how many he netted, but promised to turn over his signature sheets to the Pyle campaign.

It was more than a one-person job given the traffic. It went well, Miller said. There were a lot of people who didnt care for Derek Schmidt, because hes pretty much a waffler. As opposed to Pyle, who is a man of principle. I like Dennis.

The political sideshow at the firearm gathering brought together an unusual pairing, given Pyles persistently conservative approach in the Legislature and Millers dedication to Democratic politics in the Capitol. After Kelly was sworn into office as governor in 2019, Miller surrendered his House seat after selected by peers to complete the unexpired portion of Kellys Senate term. He later chose to return to House in 2021.

Larry Mzhickteno, who was a neighbor of Miller for more than a dozen years, said he was surprised to see Miller at the gun show. He said Miller was wearing a National Rifle Association hat and held a signature sheet with about 15 names on it. The goal of Miller and other Democrats was obvious, he said.

I think theyre trying to divide the number of votes Schmidt can get, Mzhickteno said. He was being awfully sneaky about it.

In a June announcement, Pyle said he was interested in entering the governors race to give voters of Kansas a diverse choice. He said he was a God-loving American, devoted to the Constitution and protecting our children.

Pyles appeal to voters could be important, especially if the Kelly and Schmidt race came down to the wire. In 2010, Pyle landed more than 31,000 votes in a Republican primary loss to U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who served Kansas 2nd District in Congress for a decade.

C.J. Grover, Schmidts campaign manager, said Kellys inability to defend her record as governor led her allies under false pretenses to trick voters into adding a candidate to the ballot in hopes of splitting the vote enough to deliver her a win despite a majority of Kansans wanting a different governor.

Shannon Pahls, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said acceptance by Pyle of petition signatures gathered by Miller or other Democrats would raise questions about Pyles adherence to conservative principles. She previously said a vote for Pyle in the 2022 election should be considered a vote for Kelly.

If Dennis Pyle has any integrity, he will reject all petition signatures gathered on his behalf by liberal Democrats helping Laura Kelly. The Kansas GOP calls on him to both reject them and make a public commitment that he will do so, Pahls said.

Kansas Democratic Party spokesperson Emma OBrien responded to Pyles announcement of interest in the governors race by suggesting his candidacy reflected Schmidts internal partisan problems and Kellys bipartisan work as a unifying leader.

Continue reading here:
Pyle pushes ahead with hunt for 5K signatures to join November ballot in Kansas governor's race - Kansas Reflector

On July 26, 1990, I attended the historic White House ceremony where President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). At the time, I didnt think about how different life for disabled Americans might be today, thirty-two years later. I just wanted to enjoy the victorious day and wait until tomorrow to think about what happens next.

Back then, I wasnt so nave as to think that the ADA would fix everything. But I couldnt have had a sense of the absurd sharp enough to have predicted that the power of the ADA would be tested in the manner it is being tested now.

I could never have guessed that someday there would be companies like Uber with brutally libertarian business models that harshly clash with the ADA. Its hard enough for a wheelchair user like me to get an Uber ride because drivers use private vehicles and almost none of them are wheelchair accessible. And on top of that, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit late last year accusing Uber of charging extra fees to many disabled customers, a violation of Title III of the ADA.

The lawsuit stated that since 2016, Uber added an additional fee to some disabled people who took more than two minutes to get loaded into the vehicle and ready to ride. The lawsuit said disabled people may often need additional loading time for many reasons, including that they might also have a mobility device like a wheelchair or walker that may need to be folded or disassembled.

And hell, a lot of the time we just move slower than other people.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Uber in which the company agreed to forego charging waiting fees to anyone that certifies that they or someone with whom they frequently ride may require extra boarding time due to a disability. The announcement also said Uber would pay nearly $1.8 million to more than 1,000 riders who complained to the company about being charged wait time fees because of a disability.

I also never would have foreseen that someday a vast amount of goods, services, and information would be obtained via a virtual global marketplace known as the Internet. But today it is a whole new frontier of ADA violations.

Disabled folks often find that websites arent accessible to them, especially blind people who cant access information thats only presented visually. For example , if a website is incompatible with the screen reader a blind person uses, written or graphic information will not be converted into speech. Thats as aggravating, insulting, and disadvantageous as encountering a brick and mortar establishment that isnt accessible.

According to the law firm Seyfarth Shaw, nearly 2,900 federal web accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2021, compared to slightly more than 800 in 2017.

I guess this is how its always going to be. The ADA will always be a work in progress. Who knows what challenges it will face in the future? But at least it gives disabled folks a fighting chance at achieving justice.

See the article here:
Smart Ass Cripple: The ADA's Bittersweet Anniversary - Progressive.org

(The Center Square) Recent polling highlights where potential voters stand when looking ahead to the gubernatorial election and whether or not voters would support a J.B. Pritzker presidential campaign.

The poll consisted of over 1,200 registered voters in Illinois and was done by Victory Research. The polling shows Pritzker with a 10-point lead over state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, with the incumbent Democratic governor garnering 48.9% of the vote. Bailey got 39%. The Libertarian candidate got 2%.

Rod McCulloch, the owner of Victory Research, told The Center Square that while Pritzker is in the lead currently, past elections could tell a different story.

Illinois has a well-deserved reputation of being a blue state, but it does not always act that way in off-year elections, McCulloch said. In the last two off-year elections in which a Democrat was in the White House, 2014 and 2010, the Republicans did very well.

Pritzker has seen a boost in the national spotlight due in part to his stance on abortion and his handling of the July 4th mass shooting in Highland Park.

Out of the 1,200 voters, nearly 10% are undecided. McCulloch said many Democrats had supported Pritzkers views on those issues, but the undecided voters have placed their importance on other issues.

Among those undecided voters, and there was 10.1 percent undecided, very few of them chose either abortion or guns as their many issues, McCulloch said. They were much more focused on inflation, energy prices, and crime.

The poll also highlighted a potential presidential campaign by Pritzker if he is re-elected and current President Joe Biden decides not to seek another term in 2024.

Research shows that 77% of Illinois Democrats would support a national campaign by the Illinois governor.

More than 76% of voters in heavily Democratic Chicago want the now first-term governor to run for president. In addition, 70.4% of Illinois African-American voters favor a Pritzker presidential candidacy, and 55.4% of Illinois Hispanic voters favor a potential Pritzker campaign for president.

McCulloch suggested there are things that the governor could potentially base a campaign off of.

He could campaign on all the things that the Democrats talk about nationally as far as their agenda goes, McCulloch told The Center Square. He has accomplished all those on a state level, for better or worse. So that is what he would run on.

Nearly 90% of Republican voters do not support a presidential campaign from Pritzker. Of the nearly 10% that do, McCulloch said they want him out of the governors office in any way possible.

It turns out that most republican voters are united about one thing, and that is that they want to get rid of Governor Pritzker.

Read more from the original source:
Poll shows 10% undecided in Illinois governor's race focused on inflation, crime - Heartlander News

Local

Written By: David Elliott Published Date: 07-25-2022

There are three locally contested races in the August 2 Primary Election in Russell County.

Incumbent Republican Troy Waymaster will face Republican Noah Erichsen for the Kansas House of Representatives District 109 seat, which includes Russell County. There is no Democrat in the race, but Libertarian Peter Solie is running in the November General Election.

Republican Aaron Steinert will face Republican Crystal Miner for District Magistrate Judge District 20 Position 3. The position is currently held by Democrat Andrea Cross. She is running for reelection and unopposed in the Primary.

And incumbent Republican Steve Reinhardt will face Republican Dean Haselhorst for Russell County Commissioner District 1. There is no Democrat running, so the winner of the Primary will be unopposed in November's General Election.

KRSL News reached out to each of the candidates in these contested races and requested they each fill out a questionnaire with responses to basic questions about them, why they're running and their goals if elected.

Read their responses below:

Kansas House of Representatives District 109:

District Magistrate Judge District 20 Position 3:

Russell County Commissioner District 1:

Go here to see the original:
Know the Candidates: August 2 Primary Election - KRSL