Police responded to a shooting at 10:15 p.m. Nov. 7 in the 3100 block of Minnesota Avenue, according to a spokesman.
When they arrived, officers found a man in his early 30s, shot inside his vehicle, the spokesman said.
The victim was taken to a hospital and later died from his injuries, according to the spokesman
The incident is under investigation by the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, which is encouraging anyone with information to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
Time is running out for the undecided to make up their minds in the presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and also for the other candidates and issues on the ballots.
Undecided voters are very important at this point in the election. While I personally am not undecided, the polls show there are still some voters who have not made up their minds.
One average of five respected national polls this week, from the Real Clear Politics website, showed a total of 94 percent of the voters would vote for one of the four leading presidential candidates. The remaining 6 percent may be committed to other candidates or may be undecided, and their decisions could make the difference in the election because polls show the top two candidates are close. Four out of five of these recent polls gave Clinton the lead at 3 to 4 points ahead this week, while the fifth poll cited gave Trump the lead with 2 points ahead.
I don’t blame the undecideds for not making up their minds yet. Maybe some think the candidates are too much alike, and maybe others really don’t like either one. Perhaps they are turned off by hateful remarks that were said this year. But there are real differences between the candidates this year on the issues, and voters will set the direction for future policies.
While flipping a coin in the voting booth is probably not against the law, there could be better ways of making up your mind.
If you are undecided, I recommend first doing some research on the candidates. Find the candidates’ positions on several issues you care about and see if it agrees with your position. The presidential candidates’ debates can be found on YouTube for review. Several stories about local candidates have appeared in the Wyandotte Daily during the campaign. A local candidate forum was on the KCKCC cable television channel.
There are several resources available online to compare the candidates’ stances on the issues. One of them is Project Vote Smart, http://votesmart.org/.
If you still can’t decide after the research, there are plenty of people who will tell you how to vote. But to make your own decision, you might try one of the processes that have been developed to guide people through tough dilemmas.
Ben Franklin was famous for making a list of pros and cons for important decisions. After you write the reasons for voting one way on one side of the paper and the reasons for a different way on the other side of the paper, give each item a number from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, for its importance. Then you can give weight to the pros and cons based on factors such as how likely will they occur. In this campaign, you might even want to award negative points on your list. Ask yourself some questions about your results, emphasizing what really matters to you.
Another way to make decisions, often used when there is a dilemma, is called the Potter box, named after an ethicist. In that process, a person draws a box on a paper, divided into four parts by a horizontal and vertical line. The top left box describes the facts of the situation. The next box uses the values that are part of the decision. The third box cites ethical principles being used (such as the golden mean or the greatest good for the greatest number), and in the fourth box you state your loyalties, in connection with this decision. The process might help undecided people reach a decision.
There is one sure thing for undecideds to remember this year: If you don’t vote, you are essentially letting everyone else decide for you. I would encourage undecided voters to try to come to some sort of decision and then vote this year.
To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email maryr@g3f.1db.myftpupload.com.
Besides the presidential election and the U.S. Senate contest, there are some interesting contests in Wyandotte County on Tuesday’s general election ballot.
Some of the most contested elections here this year include the state senate, state representative and U.S. representative races.
A couple of them involve moderate candidates challenging more conservative officeholders.
For the U.S. Senate, incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, is challenged by Patrick Wiesner, a Democrat from Lawrence. Robert D. Garrard, a Libertarian from Edgerton, also is running for Senate. The candidate did not attend a Wyandotte County forum in October.
Sen. Jerry Moran
Sen. Moran, who grew up in Plainville, Kan., was elected to the Senate in 2010. According to his campaign information, he is in favor of reducing spending, balancing the budget, and has opposed an increase in the tax burden.
He answered a question about gun control in a town hall appearance in Kansas City, Kan., earlier this year. He said that he worries that when the solution is a restriction on guns, that the rights would be taken away of the people who abide by the law, and it doesn’t change the availability of guns to people who don’t care about the law.
On immigration, Sen. Moran said immigration needs to be better handled by the federal government. He said America wants to be welcoming people who are in danger and who are fleeing their countries because of fear of persecution. He talked about a need for proper vetting, and said there was a need to find out who is a threat and keep them out of the country, but religion is not a criterion on which people should be judged, he said.
Sen. Moran said that clean air and water are important, and the question is how to do it so it isn’t damaging to people and the economy. He also said he was in favor of legislation that would help startup entrepreneurs.
Wiesner has served as a tax attorney in Overland Park and formerly as a U.S. Army lawyer. He holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Fort Hays State University, a Master of Business Administration from Fort Hays, and a law degree from the University of Kansas. He formerly ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
Patrick Wiesner
His campaign information stated that he favors paying off the $19.4 trillion federal debt within 25 to 30 years. Wiesner favors an immigration reform plan that would establish facilities that undocumented residents would travel to in northern Mexico, apply for legal status, then re-enter the United States legally, his campaign information stated. The residents would be charged a fee to cover the costs of the facilities and processing.
Wiesner believes that a conversion to nuclear power is the answer to global warming, according to his campaign information. Wind-generated power is part of his plan for providing electricity, but nuclear and fossil fuels also would be necessary because wind is unreliable, his campaign information stated.
For more information, visit:
moranforkansas.com/
www.wiesnerforsenate.com/
www.robertgarrard.org/
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Voters may check their polling place at Voter View, https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView/.
For more information on polling places and election hours, visit www.WycoVotes.org or call the election office at 913-573-8500.
Free bus service Tuesday
The Kansas City ATA has announced that all RideKC bus routes will be free on Tuesday, Nov. 8, to make it easier for citizens to vote in the general election. KCATA paratransit offered by KCATA also will be free to ride on Tuesday.
Recent polls in Kansas
A poll from the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University, taken from Nov. 1 through Nov. 3, showed that in Kansas, Donald Trump held a 24-point lead over Hillary Clinton, 58 percent to 34 percent.
The poll also showed Sen. Moran leading Wiesner, 77 percent to 13 percent, with Garrard at 10 percent.
The Fort Hays State poll also showed a close contest possible for Kansas Supreme Court justices. The poll found about 40 percent of likely voters said they would retain all Kansas Supreme Court justices, with 25 percent retaining some and 24 percent retaining none.
