CNET:

The extra cost for a hybrid car comes from the additional equipment in the driveline. Along with the gas engine, hybrid cars have an electric propulsion motor, a high voltage battery pack, and a power control module, this latter component determining how to feed electric power into the drive system.

Now, with many automakers offering some type of hybrid car, the competition has opened up. So what is the current status of the hybrid premium? We looked at a selection of 2012 hybrid models, comparing them with their straight gasoline counterparts, if any.

Topeka Capital-Journal:

Gov. Sam Brownback has gone on the offensive against a federal probe into the state’s waiting list for Medicaid services for the physically disabled, saying he is trying to clean up a mess left by previous administrations.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently passed complaints about the list to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation.

In a statement released by his office late Wednesday, Brownback said the state is in “full compliance” with federal law and that his managed care proposal, KanCare, will ease the waiting list. He also took a swing at former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who now heads HHS, saying the list began when Sebelius froze applications shortly before leaving for Washington, D.C.

“Effectively, Sec. Sebelius decided upon joining the Obama Administration that Gov. Sebelius and her policies were in violation of federal law,” Brownback said

David Brody, from the Christian Broadcasting Network, in 2009:

Did Brownback just Give Sebelius “Cover” on the Abortion Issue?

HHS Secretary Nominee Kathleen Sebelius may have just gotten the ‘cover’ she needs. Fellow Kansan and U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, a staunch pro-life Catholic seems to signal his support for her in a joint statement he made with Kansas’s other Senator Pat Roberts. Not one mention at all on Sebelius’s abortion record. Read below and then get my analysis:

“Congratulations to Governor Sebelius on being nominated to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services,” the Senators said. “It’s an honor for the State of Kansas to have an elected official appointed to the president’s cabinet. We are hopeful Governor Sebelius will be a voice for Kansas and rural America at the Department. We look forward to working with her on issues important to the state including a National Cancer Institute Designation at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.” (more…)

KansasReporter.org:

KS gov says Sebelius decision led to Medicaid flap

Thursday, April 26, 2012

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter

FAIRWAY — The federal government is investigating whether Kansas is violating the civil rights of 3,500 physically disabled residents who have waited years for help.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback bristles at the suggestion.

Brownback, a Republican, has told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, the state is not discriminating against disabled people. Kansas, in fact, is trying to clean up a mess left by former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Brownback said in a letter to Leon Rodriguez, head of the HHS Office of Civil Rights.

Sebelius is now the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, which has asked Justice Department investigators to review the situation,.  (more…)

Washington Post.

The Hill.

The Hill.

Wichita paper.

KAKE in Wichita.

RealClearPolitics polls.

The Daily Caller:

If you’re concerned about our nation’s growing fiscal crisis — and regardless of political persuasion, you should be — then Senator Tom Coburn’s new book, The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America, should be the next title you pick up. Coburn identifies the root of the current problem, exposes the devastating effects of staying the course and provides detailed solutions for getting the nation back on track. Pulling no punches, the senator goes after both Republicans and Democrats who are content with serving their own self-interests while ignoring the greater economic situation.

Senator Coburn has long been a deficit hawk intent on exposing waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. I was first introduced to his work last year, when he published a report entitled “The National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope.” The report came at a time when President Obama’s proposed budget would have increased NSF funding by $1 billion. The senator’s analysis revealed, among other frivolous expenditures, million-dollar grants to the Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study how rumors get started and $559,681 to the College of Charleston to observe how long a shrimp can run on a treadmill.

From Palin’s Facebook page:

I join commonsense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next Senator from Indiana. Conservatives of all stripes are uniting behind Richard Mourdock. It’s not just Indiana that benefits from sending the right Senator to serve for the right reasons; the nation as a whole benefits, and that is one reason why the eyes of so many around the nation are focused on the Indiana race.

Indiana deserves a conservative in the Senate who will fight for the Hoosier State, uphold our Constitution, and not just go along to get along with the vested interests of the permanent political class in D.C.

Richard Mourdock is the conservative choice for Indiana. Senator Lugar’s 36 years of service as a Senator are appreciated, but it’s time for the torch to pass to conservative leadership in Washington that promises to rein in government spending now.

Get the facts here. Learn more about Richard Mourdock at www.richardmourdock.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

- Sarah Palin

CitizenLink:

The Kansas Family Policy Council (KFPC) has been collecting petition signatures from people in those towns who feel adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to existing civil rights ordinances is a step that actually discriminates against churches. Many fear such laws trample religious liberties and freedom of conscience, and that privacy and safety issues regarding gender-segregated facilities will be ignored.

On Monday, the group delivered 344 petition signatures to the Salina City Commission. Within hours, the local newspaper had a copy of the petition and had published on its website the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all the people who signed it.

KansasReporter:

State Rep. Charlotte O’Hara, R-Overland Park, for example, isn’t shy about discussing with constituents what she perceives as the governor’s conservative shortcomings: His fight, for example, against the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — too weak, she says.

Brownback last summer returned a $31.5 million grant designed to help Kansas prepare for the federal act and vows to continue opposing it until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality in June.

The rejected money was intended to help develop insurance data banks needed for the act to work. But O’Hara and a small group of legislators fear the governor’s proposed replacement — data banks to help run the state’s welfare programs — could be used for the health-care plan.

O’Hara, who did not immediately return phone calls, has said she is disappointed in Brownback’s promotion of wind energy in Kansas, which she likens to similarly failed Washington, D.C., programs, and the governor’s seeming reluctance to push for a single-rate consumption tax to replace personal income taxes.

State Rep. Anthony Brown, R-Eudora, questions Brownback’s proposals for cutting government spending.

“To be fair, I don’t see the whole landscape as the governor does, but it’s frustrating that he’s not been as aggressive on the budget as we need,” said Brown, who is one of the House Appropriations Committee’s most vocal spending hawks.

ABC:

The Obama administration is challenging Arizona’s S.B. 1070, arguing that the Constitution gives the federal government authority to regulate immigration, and that the state law interferes with federal law.

Kobach rejects the challenge.

“The Supreme Court has said again and again that there is a role for the states to play. Congress is the primary actor in the field, but the states are permitted to act too, as long as Congress doesn’t ask them to get off the field, ” Kobach said in a recent interview.

AP:

A bitter split among conservative and moderate Republicans has prevented the Senate from approving legislation that redraws members’ districts. The House has approved a bipartisan plan for adjusting state representatives’ districts, but it has stalled in the Senate. Both chambers have approved a congressional redistricting plan and killed the other chamber’s proposal.

KCTV:

A former Shawnee Mission West High School teacher faces up to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual relations with students.

Michelle Preston, 28, pleaded guilty Monday inside a downtown Olathe courtroom to three counts of unlawful sexual relations with students occurring between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2010.

Wichita Eagle:

The announcement, via a written statement, came hours after about 800 developmentally disabled people and their supporters descended like a red-shirted tide on the Capitol lawn. They called on the Legislature and the governor to at least delay — and preferably kill — plans to bring their community-based long-term services under managed care.

WIBW:

In a news release, Gov. Sam Brownback and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer said they would endorse a proposal from the House, Senate and advocates for the developmentally disabled to postpone inclusion of waiver services for individuals with developmental disabilities until Jan. 1, 2014. During that time, the Governor’s office says, it would allow voluntary pilot programs.

Gardner News.