News

1. Curtis Salgado - Soul Shot (Alligator)
2. Johnnie Bassett - I Can Make That Happen (Sly Dog)
3. Little Feat - Rooster Rag (Rounder)
4. Rockin' Johnny Band - Grim Reaper (Delmark)
5. Rick Estrin and the Nightcats - ONe Wrong Turn (Alligator)
6. Albert Castiglia - Living the Dream (Blues Leaf)
7. Mannish Boys - Double Dynamite (Delta Groove)
8. The 44s - Americana (Rip Cat)
9. Tedeschi Trucks Band - Everybody's Talkin' (Sony Masterworks)
10. Anthony Gomes - Up 2 Zero (Anthony Gomes)
11. Nathan James and the Rhythm Scratchers - Wh

A federal judge has agreed with the Kansas State Fair in a free speech challenge filed by an animal-rights group.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled Tuesday the fair is a so-called "limited public forum." He said fair officials acted reasonably in requiring People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to shield people walking by its booth from easily seeing images depicting animal slaughter.

PETA sued the state, the Kansas Fair Board and the fair's general manager, arguing the restrictions violate its free speech rights.

One way musicians create tension in a melody or chord progression is through use of a suspension.

Here’s a little music theory for you: the suspension. A suspension is a note that clashes with the harmony and needs to move to another note to resolve the tension. For instance, the fourth note above the root of a chord is dissonant, and likes to move to the third note, which is consonant. Here’s a 4-3 suspension on a piano; the tension in this C chord is resolved when the dissonant F moves to the consonant E:

Example 1: 4 3 suspension.piano

Labor Day! Was there ever a more anachronistic holiday in this era when those nasty, horrible, pinko unions are blamed for everything from that bruise you got when you tripped in your driveway to Hurricane Isaac which those devious labor unions whipped up just to upstage the Republican National Convention?

And to think that we have a national holiday that was begun by union members and sanctioned by the Congress and President Grover Cleveland in 1894 after the Pullman Strike to celebrate American labor! Oh, the shame.

The Kansas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Friday in a challenge to the air quality permit granted almost two years ago for construction of a coal-fired power plant in Southwest Kansas.

The Sunflower case is to be taken up at 9:00 a.m. The arguments will be streamed live online from the Kansas Supreme Court.

A beetle that has killed millions of ash trees in the eastern U.S. and parts of the South has now been detected in Kansas.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture said Thursday a live emerald ash borer was found in a tree in Wyandotte County.

Trees there were being inspected after the presence of emerald ash borer was found last month in nearby Platte County, Missouri.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified Kansas of the confirmation Wednesday.

During a confirmation hearing, a group of state senators raised their concerns about the level of support for funding the Kansas public defender system.

Questions were raised yesterday during hearings to confirm appointments by Gov. Sam Brownback to various state agency positions. Among them were Paul Eugene Beck and Kevin Mark Smith, who were named to the Board of Indigent Defense.

Senator Tim Owens, an Overland Park Republican, asked the pair if they would be willing to press Brownback for funding to keep the public defenders' office functioning.

A panel of district court judges in Topeka heard closing arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit over state education funding.

Attorney Alan Rupe represents a group of school districts, students and parents suing the state.

He says lawmakers aren’t living up to promises to increase school spending and some students aren’t receiving an adequate education.

“We might be doing OK for some of our kids, but when it comes to our constitution - and that’s an adequate education for all kids - we are falling behind,” says Rupe.

Officials do not expect a special election in Topeka to result in a legal battle because it didn’t reverse the outcome of a Republican primary for the Kansas House. 

Shawnee County officials Wednesday certified the results from the special election. It was held Tuesday for a single polling place in Topeka where some voters received the wrong ballots in the Aug. 7 primary election.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal is suing Kansas over restrictions imposed on its booth at this year’s Kansas State Fair.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday asks the court to prohibit interference with the group’s free speech rights at next month’s fair in Hutchinson. It also names the Kansas State Fair Board and the fair’s general manager as defendants.