Month: June 2015

Same-sex marriage was legalized in all states today by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a ruling today, the Supreme Court decided that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution required a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out of state.

Today’s decision is considered to be a landmark ruling. It was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,” Kennedy wrote. “The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex.”

In Wyandotte County, gay couples began to marry legally last fall. However, several states including Kansas had challenged gay marriage.

On the news of the Supreme Court’s ruling today, Unified Government Mayor Mark Holland released this statement:

“I celebrate today with our LGBT brothers and sisters all over America at the Supreme Court’s historic decision legalizing marriage for all people! This is one of the great civil rights moments in our nation as we finally recognize that marriage is an institution based on love and should be available to everyone.

“The United States has always been a beacon of light for freedom and equality to the world. At a time when LGBT persons face discrimination, hatred, and even death in other countries, the United States now stands tall as a leader for justice.

“Let us now commit ourselves to the ongoing work of justice for others who remain the least, the last, and the lost, because, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’” – Mayor Mark Holland

Today’s Supreme Court ruling is online at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf.

At about 10:30 a.m. Monday, the Board of Public Utilities was reporting about 13,878 people were still without power in Kansas City, Kan.

David Mehlhaff, chief communications officer with the BPU, said there were almost 25,000 customers without power earlier this morning following a severe storm.

“We have trees uprooted, we have lines down across the city,” Mehlhaff said.

“We had winds up to 90 mph and that’s what played havoc with lines,” he said.
“When I stood outside and watched the winds, it was scary,” he said. “Once the winds stopped we started sending crews out.”

All utilities in the area are in the same situation, he added. The BPU has pulled in every crew it has, including some contract workers, he said.

Although he doesn’t know exactly when all power will be restored, “our goal is to get everybody up by tonight,” he said.

In some cases, there has been storm damage on the homes where the electric box has been pulled off the home, he said. That will take an electrician to help restore power, he added.

Today, it appears that remaining storms so far are moving to the south of Kansas City, so that may help the area dry out.

Damage is throughout the city, Mehlhaff said, while the central part of the city seems to be the heaviest concentration.