Kansas Legislation

Gov. Joan Finney, an abortion-rights foe, signed a bill Thursday that guarantees a woman's right to abortion but requires an eight-hour waiting period and parental notification. "I have repeatedly said I would sign legislation that restricts abortion in any way," Finney said. Anti-abortion advocates expressed disappointment with Finney.

The law in Kansas is explicit: A fetus old enough to survive outside the womb cannot be aborted -- unless continuing the pregnancy would endanger the woman's life or irreversibly harm her physical or mental health. In demanding access to the medical records of women who had late-term abortions, Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline suggested this week that doctors might be violating that law by aborting viable fetuses too freely.

After they've traveled around the world, where's a retired Kansas couple to go next? For Orville and LaVerne Cole, the answer was the state Capitol. In committee rooms and marble hallways, in the Statehouse library and the cramped office of Sen. Robert Tyson, the Coles served as interns in the 1998 session, wearing pink badges usually worn by college students. Orville Cole, 70, a retired attorney, helped Tyson translate the legalese contained in the bills that cross his desk.

After they've traveled around the world, where's a retired Kansas couple to go next? For Orville and LaVerne Cole, the answer was the state Capitol. In committee rooms and marble hallways, in the Statehouse library and the cramped office of Sen. Robert Tyson, the Coles served as interns in the 1998 session, wearing pink badges usually worn by college students. Orville Cole, 70, a retired attorney, helped Tyson translate the legalese contained in the bills that cross his desk.

The law in Kansas is explicit: A fetus old enough to survive outside the womb cannot be aborted -- unless continuing the pregnancy would endanger the woman's life or irreversibly harm her physical or mental health. In demanding access to the medical records of women who had late-term abortions, Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline suggested this week that doctors might be violating that law by aborting viable fetuses too freely.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas introduced legislation that would pay for a referendum to determine whether the people of Puerto Rico want the island commonwealth to be a state. Under Dole's bill, the question in the referendum--to be held anytime between Jan. 1, 1988 and Dec. 31, 1994--would be "Should Puerto Rico be admitted into the Union as a state?"

Citing "squalid conditions" at Midwestern puppy breeding farms, animal rights groups on Tuesday successfully lobbied the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a bill that would prohibit bringing into the state puppies under 12 weeks old without their mothers.

By the end of the week, it was hard to deny that something was wrong in the meatpacking industry: Monday, March 5: Specialty meat processor Doskocil Cos. of Hutchinson, Kan., filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. its major competitors--the so-called Big Three meatpackers--are all angling to snap up the company's slaughtering facilities, a Doskocil spokesman said. Thursday, March 8: Farmstead Foods of Albert Lea, Minn.

Struggling to balance surging public outrage over atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the known pitfalls of military intervention in the Balkans, the Bush Administration Wednesday called for a formal war crimes investigation and redoubled its demand for inspection of suspected ethnic death camps.

The Woodlands, the Kansas City, Kan., racetrack that Hollywood Park has agreed to buy for $70 million, including debt, isn't worth anywhere near that much, according to evidence surfacing this week in a Kansas tax dispute. The Woodlands is 60% owned by Hollywood Park Chairman R.D. Hubbard. The dispute, concerning a 1990-91 tax valuation in Wyandotte County, Kan., is being heard in Topeka by the state Board of Tax Appeals. The county is trying to defend its valuation of $59.

Gov. Joan Finney, an abortion-rights foe, signed a bill Thursday that guarantees a woman's right to abortion but requires an eight-hour waiting period and parental notification. "I have repeatedly said I would sign legislation that restricts abortion in any way," Finney said. Anti-abortion advocates expressed disappointment with Finney.

A Kuwaiti supertanker under U.S. Navy escort and flying the American flag hit a mine off a fortified Iranian island this morning and limped home with a hole in its port side. The supertanker Bridgeton was en route with another tanker to take on a cargo of oil in Kuwait when it was hit 120 miles southeast of the oil-rich northern emirate. Seconds after the explosion, Navy Lt. Richard Vogel radioed the destroyer Kidd, command ship of the U.S. Navy convoy, saying: "We've been hit! We've been hit!"

Who ultimately wins the race to put the Emporia story on screen will depend on which network says yes first to a script and other "elements." Meanwhile, we've tried to sort out the competitors for the coveted dramatic rights. First, the finalists: Henry Winkler nabbed dramatic rights from the convicted lovers for an ABC project. Winkler told Calendar he never got into a bidding situation: "I know what my intentions are, state them, and stand by them, hoping my past record speaks for itself."