Per the article below from the Wichita Eagle, on the chance you might've forgotten me having mentioned it a time or two in the past in an email or on the blogs, the Kansas Senate Majority Leader, Derek Schmidt of Independence, mentioned below as the co-author of a proposed press shield bill in Kansas, was a housemate of mine in Arlington County for two years in the mid-'90's, including the year we had an amazing/unbearable week-long blizzard.
When I moved into the apt., less than a half-mile west of Fort Meyer, Derek was an LA for Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum and was going to Georgetown Law School at night, whose campus, as it happens, is off of Capitol Hill, on New Jersey Avenue, not actually in Georgetown
itself.
Derek was once the Editor of the well-known KU student paper, The Daily Kansan, while he was in Lawrence, which is a vocation at odds with what many Beltway Democrats consider typical Republican personality traits, but Derek had a very strong curiosity about lots of things, including like me, foreign affairs and public policy.
Right before Sen. Kassebaum retired, Derek and I had both moved out to different places, and he began working as the Foreign Affairs LA for Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
To my mind, to the extent that you ever heard of Hagel and foreign policy at all, because of what Tom Friedman of the NY Times or Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post wrote, it's due in large part to Derek's hard work.
Personally, I was not a fan of Hagel because I thought he was more than a little too full of himself, an over-preening guy first elected largely because then-Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson
ran one of the WORST U.S. Senate campaigns EVER, losing a huge lead to a largely unknown businessman -Chuck Hagel.
Ben Nelson won the next time he ran for Senate, chastened by the bad experiences. Also, as most of you have probably read or heard by now, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is thought
to President Obama's newest choice to be his Secretary of HHS. Since Kansas has a Lt. Governor, Derek won't become governor if she accepts. But in a few years...
Hope that many if not most of you will be able to join me tonight at 6 p.m. for the SFECC's
second-round workshop on a FEC commuter rail at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center Auditorium & Café, located at the intersection of U.S.-1 & Monroe Street, just a few blocks south of Young Circle.
I was VERY disappointed to go by there on Friday afternoon and not see anything about the meeting on their very visible message board out front, facing U.S.-1, or even a sandwich board.
Naturally, there was also nothing about the meeting anywhere near Young Circle or over towards the FEC tracks.
I just took a deep breath and gritted my teeth.
Yet another wasted golden opportunity, over a holiday weekend no less, to inform citizens about something they and their city would benefit from MORE than just about any other in the state.
But if they don't know about it, they won't come.
It doesn't get any simpler than that!
Not to put too fine a point on it, but even though I'm a longtime supporter of an FEC commuter rail connecting downtown Miami to Palm Beach County, if it can't find a natural constituency in Hollywood and its large population of professionals, a community that goes to work in both downtown Ft. Lauderdale and downtown Miami, it can't work anywhere in South Florida.
Which is why the lack of simple common sense and pro-active planning and logistics associated with this Hollywood meeting tonight -or for next Tuesday's in Aventura, which I'll also attend- to at least place signs or fliers in convenient places where people come-and-go and congregate, a week in advance, to create awareness and interest, whether at Starbucks, Publix or in front of the Center itself, is NOT a positive sign for a project I very much support.
There's no point in pretending otherwise.
This oversight will be among the things I mention at Saturday morning's regional Transit Summit at the Broward Convention Center, along with the longstanding and maddening transit disconnect between the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station and Fort Lauderdale Stadium during events, which ought to be a shining example.
You can still RSVP and attend the Transit Summit for free if you're interested by calling
954-788-7958 or by simply logging onto http://www.sfrta.fl.gov/summit/
A proposed shield law for journalists appears to have a better chance of passing in the Senate this year than in previous years.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing Friday on the bill. It would give some protection to journalists against having to reveal information such as confidential sources or their notes, unless ordered by a judge.
"It doesn't do any harm to go forward with it," said Committee Chairman Tim Owens, an Overland Park Republican. "Most people think we have a protection now, but this would codify what most people think already exists."
The bill is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican, and Senate Minority Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat.
"If it gets to the floor, I think we've got a shot," Schmidt said.
The bill is similar to one introduced two years ago by Schmidt and Hensley. It received a hearing last year in the same committee but died without a vote. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says 36 states have shield laws.
"We think courts have been less inclined in recent years to allow reporters to keep sources and information confidential, and so shield laws do become more and more important," Gregg Leslie, the group's legal defense director, said in a telephone interview.
There are efforts to get Congress to enact a federal shield law, but Leslie said that would only apply to federal courts.
The bill's opponents include Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican who was Judiciary Committee chairman last year and remains on the committee.
Vratil said the bill would give special protections to journalists.
"I haven't changed my mind," he said. "They still haven't demonstrated to my satisfaction a need for the law."
Sedgwick County Deputy District Attorney Kevin O'Connor said in written testimony that the bill is "a solution looking for a problem."
O'Connor said the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the idea of a reporter's privilege and the Kansas Supreme Court has recognized limited protections.
Mike Kautsch, University of Kansas Law School professor, said a 1978 state Supreme Court decision protects reporters only if the information being sought from them is not relevant to an accused criminal's defense.
Under the bill, a journalist still could be ordered to turn over information if a judge decides after a closed hearing that it was necessary.
But a judge could issue such an order only after determining that the information is relevant, it can't be obtained by other means, there's an "overriding" interest for those seeking the disclosure and it's necessary "to secure the interests of justice."
"We think it is as much about protection of our citizens as it is about protecting reporters," said Kent Cornish, executive director of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. "In a free society, information regarding corruption and wrongdoing should be able to come to light without fear of retribution."
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Proposed shield Law bill is SB 211.
