Various KPR news

governor graves says the federal government has been talking a good game about the need for welfare reform but just wanted almost all attempts by kansas officials to make changes even though it's been more than twelve months now since the kansas legislature passed a series of major welfare reform measures grade says washington is still refusing for waivers that allow the state to implement many of those proposals for instance of all that would prevent deadbeat dads from receiving food stamps or medicaid benefits if they failed to keep up with their child support payments has been rejected by the department of agriculture another federal agency has stop kansas from limiting eligibility to its capital program only to those were physically able to work kansas officials argued it would be a waste of money providing job training to welfare recipients were unemployable the federal government disagreed now frustrated by continual bureaucratic roadblocks governor graves says if the federal government can't lead efforts to reform the welfare system it should just get out of the way at the state house this is mccain's reporting

lawmakers say it would be a mistake to underestimate the power of these seven and women to touch the lives of all kansans in the way they interpret state law and the kansas constitution in the thousands of rulings over the years the justices have decided everything from how kansas should finance its public school education what kinds of gambling should be permitted in the state in fact it was a kansas supreme court decision that effectively outlawed slot machines from being played within the state's borders given the scope of that power as the final arbiter of kansas for some legislators say its time those justices became accountable for their decisions at the ballot box that's dawn smith a former district court judge who is now a democrat state lawmaker representing dodge city smith says under the current system once appointed supreme court justices can literally stay on the

bench for life while the justices are subject to retention election every six years where voters can register a simple yes or no vote for continued service the reality is no kansas justice has never failed to be retained so it is not beyond the legislative who has concerns about what amounts to a life long tenure at the state supreme court justices republican house speaker tim shellenberger also has questions that's why he's called for a legislative committee to review the current method kansas uses to select its judges the summer even though the committee has met yet it is already receiving a lot of local opposition state representative henry helgason and a wichita democrat says the five justices can't easily be ousted from the bench because of their decisions is actually the supreme court's greatest strength the supreme court is supposed to be a an opportunity to not be as responsive to

the political forces that they may be weighing on the executive branch or the legislature branch but to look at the longer term and i think my own writing the supreme court he may put them more for political issues as opposed to be what's good for the society in the long run under the current system supreme court justices are essentially chosen in a partnership arrangement between a special nominating commission and the governor and the attorney over the age of thirty was permitted to practice law in kansas and has at least ten years of legal experience can submit their name to the nominating commission the commission is made up of five lawyers chosen by their own internal professional actions and for laypeople appointed by the governor they then narrow down the applicants before he names with a governor making the final choice rep smith says that system doesn't rule out political gamesmanship he says in the almost forty years kansas has used that method to appoint supreme court justices governors have seldom shows many went to the court was a lot of their own

political persuasion the head of the supreme court nominating commissioned leeward attorney lynne johnson admits it's difficult to find a lawyer or judge who does not have any political affiliations he says there is no evidence that any justice on the kansas supreme court has ever let politics interfere with their sound legal reasoning even rep smith who decries the current system concedes that point but johnson says how different things might be if the justices were forced to run for election think what it would be like if in fact the supreme court had to go out and spend part of its time running for office soliciting money but in this day and age you don't want to do anything that was you know television commercials do we want our supreme court justices elected on the basis of a thirty second commercial pretty soon it would be just like the rest of the world of the political race is one to say

what he did this or he did that or you couldn't get you would wait till rep kael called a republican from only thirty degrees o'connor also says there's no enough public knowledge about how the justices are right but they're legal rulings to enable voters to make informed decisions about their abilities most people don't go into the courtrooms and listen to the judges to see whether or not they're fair to see whether or not they're getting good day judge was to see whether or not there even so they're beyond the population is going to go in and vote for these people based on how nice their name sounds or how good their picture was in the paper perhaps if they even saw that but representative don smith argues that's no different than how many voters choose other top public officials in the state like the governor and the attorney general you know i'm going to avoid them a record of the

department of people who do want to live smith says electing supreme court justices is not a new phenomenon around ten states currently do so in fact kansas for most of its history has also made its justices run in partisan elections rob keefe over was the kansas supreme court's public information officer says it was concerned the money rather than qualifications was deciding who sat on the high court bench in kansas prompted the state to pass a constitutional amendment back in nineteen fifty eight approving the current merit selection system but people were says even today it's those states which elect the justices that have attracted the most negative attention like in texas he says were in nineteen eighty seven the state supreme court justices were accused by the media all the ruling in favor of the pens all company in a multibillion dollar lawsuit with rival texaco only because pandas all have made substantial contributions to the sitting justices reelection campaigns want nothing has proven key vote

was says is the appearance of impropriety that has led to a loss of public trust in the actions of some justices in the state people was says it's not uncommon for supreme court justices in texas to spend a million dollars on that election campaigns well sure rep smith says it's unfair to pick on one state as an example of why electing supreme court justices doesn't work he says there are plenty of examples of alleged impropriety in states which don't align their top judiciary as in california where the lawsuit was filed against the chief justice back in nineteen seventy eight amid allegations that she delayed a controversial legal decision until after statewide elections were held it certain kansas lawmakers will hear more anecdotes like that one as they deliberate that sell mobile whether the state should change the way it selects its supreme

court justices the special committee examining the issue will submit its recommendations for possible legislative action at the start of the nineteen ninety six session in january at the state house this is mccain's reporting but is that the baby boomers might sink the social security system scared me so i try to immerse myself about money the first words a baby capitalist learns poured out of my mouth individual retirement account tax sheltered annuity now i'm trying to enlarge my vocabulary recently i called kat mccarthy is the kind of guy who doesn't have an address has got a car phone he took his bachelors at k you in nineteen eighty and as an investment firm vice president he's so young and successful but hecht screenwriter mike for spite demon with a dread disease he's taught k investment classes in his first out of pocket two hundred thirty thousand dollars so the students can get their feet wet on the market that some has

sworn to three hundred and sixty thousand in two years but like to take its course all year the stock market's been a lightning bolt shooting north on the charts in the bull's wall street are frolicking in pastures of long green my iras and essays are abloom it was mature mccarthy say that my baby capital strategies make a ton of sense to him he's my big brother and capitalism but so far ahead that only a chip implanted in my brain would close the gap saving he says is the key to wealth building start young because time is your ally producing miracles of compounding the low risk path is to put sixty percent of your savings in stocks and forty percent of the bonds the low risk investor goes with companies that make well in consumer products like a famous off track or dynamite razor mccarthy makes that sounds exciting is dancing the two step with alan greenspan the high risk approach which she recommends video is to pour one hundred percent of the stocks and companies with a small capital base he likes media and entertainment concerns cable and cellular stuff rather than what he calls the nineteen

forties companies was like chrysler and gm and he likes international stocks by asia first latin america's second europe last consider a twenty to twenty five percent level of commitment to the international sector when stocks get whacked the aggressive buy more shares at the moment when this seems counterintuitive most people say well the buckle mccarthy says they turn on the tv here about all the idiots who owns shares of better technology stocks and freeze your more good stock pickers show up on the back pages of forbes magazine says the weekly newspaper barons is tough for financial information as the buccaneers swagger mccarthy's talk that it comes from is professions vulnerability after always says most good brokers or write or sixty percent of the time for two months now he's been buying puts in essence an insurance policy against a market drop for two months he's been wrong ultimately

says investors will make mistakes but they have to learn to fly in their own style and offline yet just flooding boeing's a little those who haven't gotten that far should think again given the future of social security they could be sitting ducks who is currently chair of the senate education committee has sent in the kansas legislature for eleven years in his new rule set to take on what many contend is one of the most powerful jobs at the statehouse any state agency or program at once more money from the legislature has to appear before the chair of the senate ways and means committee the past chairman gas building that was said to wield so much influence in that regard he could almost single handedly decide whether a state program got more funding are not political commentators like martin harvard of harbors capitol report i predict there will be much more aggressive than his predecessor in capping state spending but holder says some areas of state government can expect to do well under his watch education and

education for years here likely to be very charitable towards elementary and secondary education he is a big day of economic development programs those clinics that pretty good treatment with her now heading the ways and means committee senate leaders have chosen state senator steve marzolf you click on to take over the chairmanship of the senate education committee and the state house says mccain's reporting the a number of building contractors from wichita kan topeka urged to register then study committee to do away with the four point nine percent sales tax used in the modeling projects singled would stimulate the kansas economy of the contract is admitted their motives were as much for their own convenience and for the good of the state they said it was a nightmare for them to figure out how much work time they spend on how much time they spend doing new work so they could calculate how much sales tax that they are

dropping the tax would review state revenues by twenty six million dollars a year during the last session legislative democrats were all in favor of doing that they argue that those who could afford to build new houses got a tax break on labor costs so some kansans who couldn't afford to move but we did have the money to remodel their existing homes to measure that was derailed by the republican legislative leadership and none of the money last fall eighteen year old liliana whether from salon and spend twelve hours in labor and giving birth to her son matthew it was a traumatic experience for the young mother not only was she having her first child it was also the first time where they had ever set foot in the hospital before despite her confused feelings just four hours after the delivery weather was told to vacate her bed in the maternity ward she was informed that her insurance company was refusing to cover her

annie for the medical care of the hospital where this physician dr abou hadid is was outraged imagine your injury or eighteen years old you're a single mother you got a tough twelve fourteen or labored in allston us you know trying to get you're going to get when you go home and get four hours they wouldn't know about that call the nation's largest doctors organize asians says it's not just cruel but dangerous the american medical association insists women need more than twenty four hours to recuperate after giving birth and learn how to breast feed and care for their babies under the supervision of hospital nursing staff the ama warns that if the mother does not know how to breast feed probably maybe even old enough to eat and could become dehydrated the ama also says hospitalizations of less than twenty four hours means medical staff don't have a chance to actually test newborns for conditions like p k u which can cause mental retardation or join this which can lead to impaired hearing it from brain damage so an obstetrician who hunches on his twenty four

hour was an old insurance policies and also cause emotional harm to new mothers dr hodges says he's known cases where the mother has been el enough to receive coverage beyond twenty four hours but a healthy baby has not been eligible the result he says is that the mother and baby how important it's such anecdotal reports that have captured the attention of kansas insurance commissioner kathleen sebelius sebelius is currently conducting a survey of health insurance companies who do business in the state to see what kinds of policies they offer preliminary findings show the twenty four hour limits on hospital care for new mothers is almost standard practice among insurance companies and sabina says that even some providers that limit maternity care to just twelve hours as a mother who delivered to children and myself is the unthinkable to me to sort of be fitted into this streak die in

twenty four hours or less it does save money no question that one less house build a saves money short term money art but that an easy balance against what happens to people and that's exactly the kind of thing we're looking at sebelius hopes to propose legislation as january that would prevent health insurance companies in kansas from limiting maternity care coverage to twenty four hours or less severely is as it should be mandatory that insurance providers offer a minimum forty eight hour hospital stay the women having normal deliveries and ninety six hours buses every and that's only two other states currently have such laws they are new jersey and maryland any tempo to pass such restrictive legislation here is sure to run into a lot of opposition from the powerful insurance rens industry they insist the twenty four hours and out policy not only saves money but causes no harm to patients that difonzo is a spokesman for the health insurance association of america based in washington dc there's been no real empirical evidence to show that reading mama baby and a half ago

after twenty four hours is that get your medal to your mother or child care some evidence demonstrates that women come a lot faster in the home environment and also for the child there's one of the dread of airborne elephant right now the insurance industry's position is difficult to refute studies do show that hospitals and all the best place to recover from an illness the studies also show patients to become more susceptible to other illnesses the longer they stay in such health care facilities at the health insurance corporation of america is also correct what it says there is no empirical evidence to say that leaving the hospital less than twenty four hours after delivering a baby is harmful to like the mother or child belkacem ioc roll is a top official in the federal government's us public health service he says it may sound remarkable but not when a substantial scientific study has ever been conducted on the issue but this year oh says all that exists there were reports from physicians and patients who don't have it at that

thirty pictures of twenty four over to date cambridge and at twelve hours we don't have it at your what is the difference in the outcomes of mothers and babies on their belt to see rosa's a study funded by the federal government is currently underway but the results won't be known until the end of next year at the earliest so line an obstetrician brought hodges says it's a scandal that no such research has been conducted before dr hodges says that may be because it's when they are not men who were directly affected by the issue he says that also might explain why insurance companies are targeting maternity care for cats or other kinds of health services i would question whether the reported huge recovery oregon a banana when i bet you've wanted more the male dominated board and i think it insurance company officials dismissed such allegations as unfounded they also point out that that twenty four hour an old policies and the unwavering regulations but simply guidelines which doctors have the ability to depart from if they have a

valid medical reason for doing so dan difonzo of the health insurance association of america usually with a condition or not talking about complications and complicated battle pregnancy again editor guidelines that have been set up and the bottom line are we continue to underscore that that the doctor make the accused by katie davis the delta hodges says that's not what happens in practice they were not crowing doctors what you were getting that guy wanting to do what they want without really not true what they do every year we continue elaborating we know that dr that your average winter's day with like one point five they were looking for one point zero akp above that want to revive her plan is a veiled threat kansas insurance commissioner kathleen sebelius says she intends to examine those allegations for that as your office continues to study the full impact twenty four hours about insurance policies are having on kansans the report is expected to be completed by the end of next month which

draft legislation brought before kansas lawmakers this january at the state house this is mccain's reporting in his past by the second week of july tenth of farmers would mean just about done with harvesting their wheat crop this year only thirty seven percent of the crops have so far been dealing with money feel slowing the start of trading in some areas and its way to progress in others the kansas agriculture statistics agency estimates the state wheat fields will produce about three hundred and two million bushels of the harvest is complete that's thirty percent less than last year the story is the same across the country yesterday the us department of agriculture sharply lowered its estimate for the nation's week artist predicting that we production would be the lowest since nineteen ninety one cannes is lieutenant governor issue of fraud was a farmer herself to the point kansas wheat crop is not just bad

news for farmers but we know in on an island community that yet there's no cop named greed can the factors because the farmer's not able to purchase that they would've purchased had they had an average or better than average crop was going in a raid in the grocery store but it may mean less bottom line dollars into the treasury frum says the state budget is already expected to be tried next year without a poor wheat crop to add to the financial burden at the state house this is mccain's recording for free legislative session as lawmakers are being told by state officials that kansas has not between mental retardation hospitals there are currently only around seven hundred mental retardation residents in the state's care and they could also fit into just two facilities the question lawmakers have been unwilling to face up to now though is which of those facilities should be closed because some state hospital the winfield state hospital or the kansas

neurological institute in topeka legislators from each of those areas have lobbied hard to make sure that local hospital didn't fall under the budget ax but governor bill graves says this new commission is intended to take the politics out of the hospital closure issue it seems the commission will also recommend the closure of one of the state's four mental health hospitals they are in la made topeka also wannabe and kansas city kansas hospital closure commission will make its recommendations public in a final report that will be released in december at the state house this is mccain's reporting i don't like some are actually that's not quite true but i don't like is being hired in kansas summer and heart are closely linked kansas plays to basically are asians on the theme of hot in the west is dry heat day after day of the hundred plus degrees supposedly made bearable by the wind which

blows from morning to dusk the mistral the surat go the santa ana have nothing on this constant companion of a prairie summer some say it was the relentless most of this wind added to the loneliness of sparse settlement which drove some pioneer women ad the wind blows up from the gulf of mexico to the south that is baked in the kiln of texas and oklahoma until its moisture is gone and it is as dry as a heartbreak by the time it gets to the high plains as the sun sets the wind usually dies down leaving the land stifling and sweltering in the dark many mornings i rose to walk it done what it was cool only to stare and sweaty disbelief at the back porch there monitor which still red in the eighties summer after summer i watched the green promise of my garden wither and succumbed to the sun and wind as other chapped lips of evaporating farm pines crack and crumble the rolling hills tanned like serious sunday there's gordon cancer

may think that winter as the season of def i think this summer that way in eastern kansas the thermometer usually hovers around ninety one was less impeded by high humidity which turns the whole region's sodden sweat which evaporated almost before emerged in the west clings like a fretful baby hot sticky stinky straight hair curls curly hair frizz is close goal and binding and bunching in the distance from the front door to the car west to east the effect on me is the same i retreat into the darkened cool cave i'm a cab my house and hibernate scanning the papers in the weather channel i hope to see the blue line of a cruel crime sweep down from canada drive its arrows and the bubble of ninety degrees piers it only can do a mortgage for a few hours the rest of the time i park myself in front of an air conditioning vent drink gallons of ice tea and plug my escape to the mountains where it is cool always for i know that these friends are only

temporary it is as if some giant dragon blowing in the gulf and hales and draws air from the north standing it will exhale and send its hot damp vetted breath over us again since he took office last january kansas governor bill graves who's gone to great lengths to make sure the public will it is his administration is made up of more than just himself running the government the problem can be in constant question she appears regularly with a governmental weekly press conferences oftentimes graves we deferred to from judgment and answering reporters' questions you were appointed by governor graves as a secretary in administration from is the first lieutenant governor in recent memory to serve on the cabinet political observers like modern horror of horrors capital reports

say without extensive political experience it makes a great deal of sense for grapes to make full use of that talent he's almost like a walking talking almanac given that they're an almanac of the korea desk and he has about those unusually to go through a time in the senate the state board of education he's been politically active since he was a pup came out of the second state's office whether that little interplay with the state legislature she is a very important member of that pain in the role he played from says she's a close personal advisor to the governor on agricultural issues based on a longtime experience of a green farmer in western kansas and in the area of education in kansas we have as you know an unusual situation in the education commissioner it's not a secretary of education getting on the governor's cabinet with my education never an area where fire with a great deal of my

time on the governor will often ask for advice in that area we speak on the nineteen fifties believed that baby the fact that the lieutenant governor's seat the governor wants a day is unusual enough the fact that he or she talks to the government daily is even more amazing a professor of political science at the university i watched the administration's now five governors before you know the administration that it promised land lieutenant governors in kansas have traditionally played in almost inconsequential role in helping run the affairs of state in the event that the governor should die er become permanently disabled in office lieutenant governor would take over the reins of power and the government in pakistan and

governor just being used in a phony oral attending graduations conferences and social events when the government is too busy to attend political commentator martin harvard says sometimes lieutenant governors have even been reluctant to perform those functions horwitz says republican governor mike hayden's running mate the project walker celebrated his home in overland park you know it's going for that see the quest is the governor's mansion in topeka ron collins' lieutenant governor during his second term in office calm talking was also seeing rally in public r martin who served as a colonnade for the democratic governor made it clear he did not want his running mate playing an active role in his administration an elementary drawing one way i think he wanted the attention focused on him martin says a reluctance to share the limelight also seems to be the reason why governor john finn he refused to give her running mate an active role in the administration when she was in office and i'm going to let you go

a lucrative position but one that far removed from the political activity at the statehouse really young i needed to present lieutenant governor shuler from san francisco made it clear to him during a transition into office that he felt good at golf and he had treated him in a very clear to me he said you know i i'm not invited think it will be a rare and a huge huge conflict and what he had said i think the year the problems vision was that he could do for him that unlawful mccain before a neighbor fanny side too bob martin a former coordinator chief of staff to senate democratic leader jerry cox says the present government seems less locked up in his own personality than many previous offer solace of being martin says great shows a willingness to share power without feeling it compromises his leadership races to be very relaxed about capping expertise where we can find the one thing he said he would in the campaign i think it's one thing that's what they want dick mellinger

yes i don't see governor gray is going to be the only person at the podium i think he doesn't have a sego totally wrapped up economy mean the governor well grapes has doing the first part of his tim be willing to share much of his power with his lieutenant governor observers say that may change over time that a democratic gay bar hopping so the well have so far been no open displays of discord between grapes and from that means that mighty attention to show in some areas such as school finance well grapes have shown a willingness to change the current system from have expressed their concern about how that would affect their own constituency base of small school districts in western kansas martin says those tensions could become heightened over the next four years one thing we really have and the pleasure the governor and she has a very aggressive person and that i think will come out as much territory for herself that he will allow that should you regret that now

observers of kansas government's a shilling from his political ambitions and loving god romans around the statehouse have a running for governor and the great saints two terms in office she's also rumored to be considering a run for congress as a capstone for a political career lieutenant governor and i think everyone's aware of that political commentator martin love affairs with kansas congressman pat roberts likely to make a run for senate with the retirement of bob dole or nancy kassebaum from would be a shoo in for the first district seat in western kansas farm they can't when i lived in the fed had i didn't know that i would have opportunity to be majority leader if in fact there are other opportunities in the future i know that i will look at them and consider them for now though from fish he's happy with what he's doing and he's more concerned about getting bill graves reelected than trying to win a higher octaves of that has mccain's recording

third irishman it's sunday morning at the redeemer lutheran church in shawnee and opulent suburban kansas city parishioners gathering this morning for sunday school services wanted to listen to the usual teachers instead they're about to hear from a politician nancy brown is a formica as a state lawmaker who describes herself as a born again christian what sets brown aside from that really is his status as director of the johnson county based group main street coalition a fledgling organization that they need moderate republicans were fighting what they believe is a hostile takeover of the gop by the religious right this is not development

just as the christian coalition has used the pulpit to preach its political message in a mainstream coalition is using that same forum to try and beat the religious right at their own game using traditional churches across the state and recruiting like minded ministers into the fold brown says the mainstream coalitions message is that all christians are not the same i question the fact that the media right now are saying that the christian right is where everybody's that i don't believe that i don't really i don't believe that the majority of the united states while the religious right may not represent a majority of americans they do have an overwhelming presence in the gop recent survey show that evangelical christians now make up one out of every three paid up members of the republican party last year the kansas gop elected born again christian david miller as its chairman miller has been for many years the voice of the state's largest anti abortion group kansans for life and the religious conservatives are taking leadership roles gen granger a self described born again

christian and computer salesman from kansas city was recently elected chair of the windup county gop grange is adamant that in the new republican party the issue of abortion should take center stage we don't want it swept under the rug is it doesn't matter to me i would love to see abortion out on the country i don't understand how someone can be a true bible believing christians and be pro choice it's that kind of rhetoric from top republican officials in kansas but brown says has mobilized members of the main street coalition it's one thing to be in control of the region their mission and accounts on that and this is america after alison have that right what i object to is taking over the government and then having that kind of philosophy that anybody else that doesn't wait exactly like they do that pass a law and therefore not only have a binding wrong i really just say go wrong

in other they're working against the government and i think that's what really bothers me at night you know really as a takeover of government in the name of god in the name of a god dr seeley my car and i think that we share your differently as a tax exempt registered charity the mainstream coalition is not allowed to run candidates in elections the group though does say that report cards on candidates from the religious right describing their positions on sensitive issues from abortion to prayer and sex education in schools the main street coalition is also infiltrating christian coalition meetings around the state in an effort to find out who their rising political personalities are and the campaign tactics they using it's a high risk political strategy that often leads to open confrontation mainstream director nancy brown says she's received telephone death threats and a home has been persistently picketed white man who is a minister was actually reading the bible and yelling that i was going to run home until the rise against me and also it wasn't just the beginning that what they were doing but there was a car carry a

billboard with a fetus and with a side of the practices as rep brown why she kills babies and that was going around my neighborhood ministers in the mainstream coalition who using their pulpits to speak out against the religious right are also paying a price for that news for declining church attendance frank dorsey senior pastor at the asbury methodist church in prairie village says a long time members of his congregation have been unsettled by his decision to bring politics into the pews you know we have to run the risk and if someone gets offended them the door is always open for them to come and talk whitman and that's where we handle it and sometimes people will lead on a tether and other people just the workers ms doucet just or c refuse to stay silent along with other mainstream coalition members he's been encouraging kansas republicans to cross party lines during elections if their only choice is to vote for religious right candidates while such open

defiance threatens a schism within the kansas republican party the head of a kansas gop david miller refuses to even acknowledge the mainstream coalition's existence miller has declined to answer any questions concerning the group pretending they don't exist though will make the mainstream coalition go away in the last twelve months the group has grown from a dozen party activists to membership role of more than five hundred other chapters are also being formed across the state recently a chapter opened up in topeka whitmore group scheduled to fall and lawrence wichita in korea and manhattan that don't have the resources and membership base of christian conservative groups in the state the mainstream coalitions numbers still appear puny the antiabortion group kansans for life for instance has more than ten thousand active members alone political scientist burdett loomis at the university of kansas says that's only part of the problem confronting the mainstream coalition their biggest challenge he says is a coin get apathetic voters to

care about the activities of the religious right in the first place lewis as well as a lot of talk about the christian conservative agenda the public is not at this stage seeing any visible manifestations of that in everyday lives you do not for the party's manifest themselves that you say aha here's the religious right so terrible i don't really see the policy in fact i think that if you had i'm looking for campaign the governorship if you had a very specific kind of policy is affecting school activities for example then you may well get that grass roots mobilization the mainstream coalition hopeful but mainstream coalition members like nancy brown says if kansas voters wait until that point to get mobilized it may very well be too late they insist the time to act is now at the state house this is mccain's recording at a

rehearsal came to order on a warm thursday evening in the downtown kansas city church room was buzzing with talk of the corps upcoming tour of england and scotland the church's canon john schaefer lead the group on its second british to her the decade shaver says acquire rights to performance of the country's most famous places of worship we're starting in edinburgh were going to sing at st mary's cathedral in edinburgh which is the the anglican cathedral there and then were going to sing at some governments to riches a nice cold weather although actually small building in nottingham sure i were singing at the cathedral which is in cambridge are and then were singing a concert hall and offered a witches and saw coke had a concert in harbin which is an architecture and then finally we're going to london's starter week again the tour is not a mere pleasure trip require will have ample time to see what the country has to offer but the group is real responsibility as opposed to it to require that performs one evening and goes on the way the rest of the time for instance the grayson holy trinity choir will be the actual service choir at london's famous

westminster abbey shavers as the choir is fully prepared to take on the tax we are that we are replacing the regular choir for one week what happens is english course go on holiday or as they call it at the end of july and it requires perhaps from england perhaps from united states to come in and sing for a four week covering six evening services added to morning services two sunday morning services and shavers as well the history westminster abbey there has been and still is a tradition of all male choirs he hopes that although his choir is composed of men and women to sell the more it's official or quite the abbey as a choir of boys and men and has been ever since vice posed ten hundred whenever the building was was found an armed and so its rather unique for a choir of women and men to be singing at a place like this although what we do hear grayson holy trinity cathedral as i do trying to cultivate a sound that is rather in english in color last time we were there a friend of mine who had graduated from college when they

happen to be in the congregation and she said it was hard to tell women from boys which was cities grayson holy trinity choir has established for itself a good reputation as a result of its nineteen ninety one appearance at westminster abbey which lasted only a short time according to shave or not all choirs are asked back for a second time at the air between we sang only one service the westminster but it was really good and when we when we wrote to ask if we could come back home it was my intention to sing for a weekend on friday saturday and sunday and the presenter rebecca's that will really likely to do a whole week so we consider that to be an honor to be chosen to do what we can just instead of just a few days ago the choir has planned for it to or has a particular order to it each evening a certain songs to be rendered by the choir according to the church of england book a prayer for example chamber knows ahead of time that on the seventh of august the thirty seven songs will be a part of the service and he had to be prepared well ahead of time as warm holds true for each evening service of our

reforms we agreed to hear music that goes to save bert morrow in givens and people like that coming from this side a seventeenth century then we'll have some music of henry purcell who streisand to re up his death we're i guess celebrating this year he's the us army who's airing today a the year at least

and who yeah right and is willing to sacrifice to get all its the most thrilling thing that's ever happened and the first trip was absolutely wonderful i went in knowing that i wouldn't have a job when i came back and it took me almost three years to find a job after i came back i lost one job just recently and found another one luckily of mine and i'll be going on the trip

without any paper the time i'm gone for the job at this time i will have a job like that so much as it is intense and it was members of the group stephanie battle has a responsibility of saying a major solo and benjamin britten's today and she admits to some nervousness about sowing in westminster abbey but she believes in tripoli were that the choir grayson holy trinity cathedral beginning a farewell performance on the evening of july twenty fifth in the cathedral a set of the public and we knew that we had after the british isles a eight

the year at ces fb well folks iola humbled and i celebrated the fourth of july my grandson's house in topeka the dawn's early light and the rest of the day to was cloudy with the lingering smoke of cheap fireworks and so full of the smell of gunpowder at the city might as well have been a battlefield there were so many flags that to be the neighborhood's decorated patriotic as though wal mart and planned a celebration at the broad stripes and bright stars were replaced by little plastic many strides in tiny painted on starz an all of those small flags on sticks stuck everywhere and yards did not

gallantly strain they hung lamp like grandpa's wool socks on a clothesline that was certainly a lot of rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air little kid down driveways all over town late lady fingers and passed them at each other or at the dog rumbling along the fence all the cat's hearing under or just glances don't have the energy bottle rocket climbed into the sky and there've been read sticks littered yards and house roof like the ashes of black pellets nails littered the sidewalk like dogs do and every once in a while that evening when one of the neighbor kids lewis parker or hell or roman candle about him like the statue of liberty porch i can see that there are many flag was still there but i had no wonder there's the many flag still wave or the land of the free

and the home of the brave is freedom that celebrated by fire or by giving every kid in topeka handful of black cats to terrorize the neighbors by gathering folks together to watch thousands of dollars worth of explosions and then battle each other to park in austin carr ms goforth committee reported one broken leg and two heart attacks in the rush to get away from washburn university when the rainy tuesday night is bravery tested by watching fireworks you might as well as barker in front of the dairy cow called bossy breaks for continuing to chew her cut soundbite of course braved the rain to cut loose a little after ten o'clock that night my grandson's good all winded when indoors where half a bag a roman candle still on land but iowa and i stayed out on the porch where the only a pyrotechnic display it was like me they only sound and then the crackling sheets a hurry

it was nice to think of everyone finding shelter in out of the rain looking out and thinking about something bigger than themselves you're just as well be the flag i said i'll are working under you talkin about she asked i said call i thought i wish we all felt sheltered as we watched a flag that was bigger than ourselves the stripes til broad enough to include everyone the stars are bright enough for holder's an american dreams i sure wish this country and more to celebrate and more to think about and then explosions at making bombs or surviving them homes on july twenty six he or kansas will celebrate its one hundred and twenty fifth birthday that's right it was july twenty six eighteen cents he won a small group of our ancestors were left behind by their wagon train and not been

smart enough to know they've been abandoned they thought they'd arrived i guess we're here one of them said they named the place here and we've been here ever since now tommy and heady burns are here boosters we call them at the rack their brains that think something fitting for a celebration of one hundred and twenty five years they argued for a teacher with a logo if you lived in here you wouldn't be there now than one soldier to our roster of former citizens would be h a g those who have been here and bought i call a town meeting to discuss the burns teacher idea other heads prevailed and we decided to piece i hear a quilt to hang in the window of our world's first smallest brick south asian abandoned carnegie library i put my sweetheart i'll a humble of former home economics teacher in charge it should be a

quote an individual blocks with no particular pattern each brought piece by any interested citizens in iowa then we will gather together to quote it together here here i said that sounds like here iowa it was a month and hear some of what we've got caught anderson's block is already whitened blue was season oh isn't pleased stitched into it over and over crazy cop he said and handed over label name or did when she calls covered dish and it is so realistic you can almost no agreement mushroom soup martha beat get a traditional flower garden and her husband read the one he called their call with the danish bonnie bonnie all of the demolition derby museum piece together a crazy square that looks like a record that's because i like rex he said mr peterson of the drive through congress in car was decidedly traditional and he did a log cabin that my favorite syrup do

you say harry and tommy burns around in a quote block that was a bright red star around the star where the words you are here now in this ad tommy when he led a great teacher folks our humble pieced together half of a wedding ring pattern and i did the same together we had wandering between us know we told everybody we're not hitting that were planning a marriage were just doing something together and when i think about that and conte anderson and so you can make you know we all sat down around a frame and started quoting some of us made final stages than others some of us stuck to the quilt pattern and others didn't we talk we argue we caught up with each other's children grandchildren nieces and nephews we work together for ten nights before are your quill was finished and there was a story or a joint or an actor or a quiet here in every stitch oh i don't like coming in heavy barges block they speak

for most others we are here and we love it and will stay for one hundred and twenty five more years for gleaning