Dear Friends,

Old Shawnee Days was a great success — thanks to all who helped in the parade and at the booth. In the parade we handed out candy and magnets with helpful phone numbers on them. At the booth, we gave out fresh hot popcorn and helium balloons with "Mary Pilcher Cook" on them. These efforts give us more name recognition so people become more aware of who we are and how we stand on our country's founding fathers' principles. Many people stopped by to chat and ask what they could do about all of the government overreach.

As you know, I attended a conference on "Climate Change: Scientific Debate and Economic Analysis" sponsored by the Heartland Institute. You can see the schedule and watch the YouTubes and videos at this site: http://www.heartland.org/events/WashingtonDC09/proceedings.html.

Many scientists, who for many years had been silent for fear of repercussions, were speaking up at this event. Several voiced their determination to expose that "global warming" is not based on empirical science but instead is a partisan grab for political power. One speaker, John Theon, Ph.D., former NASA project manager, and atmospheric physicist, had testimony that struck me in particular.

Theon was at NASA headquarters and responsible for all the NASA weather and climate research programs from 1982-1994. After explaining the types of scientific research they cultivated at NASA, he admitted the "modeling may have been neglected," and so he would "never live down the reputation of being James Hansen's boss." He had to approve Hansen's budget and funding for many years but it was not until 1988 when Hansen testified before a Senate Committee of which Albert Gore was a member, that he paid serious attention to Hansen's work.

Hansen's testimony was an embarrassment to NASA because the official NASA position was — they didn't understand the climate system well enough to make a reliable forecast. However, at this time Theon did not speak up... You can go to the website and hear the remainder of his speech. Let's be grateful Theon is speaking up now.

There are many excellent presentations to be viewed at the Heartland website. Rather than going into all the details, I encourage you to pick and choose the topics you might have an interest about. I do recommend Theon, and also Idso. Be sure to watch Watts' video about surface stations. That gets downright humorous.

Now the good news — U.S. Senator James Inhofe was confident the cap and trade bill would not pass the Senate. He said the votes did not exist. As you can imagine, I particularly enjoyed his speech, and could relate to many of the things he said. However, we need to keep speaking up to make sure our voices are heard. As you may know, I signed an opposition letter to the Waxman-Markey legislation (cap and trade legislation) that was sent to all members of U.S. Congress on June 16. You can read the letter here.

You can read a story about it here.

Every email, every letter, every phone call makes a difference. Don't give up!

In honor of your liberty,
Mary Pilcher Cook

Charts, charts, and more charts

Dear Friends,

You can relax now! We are out of session and your liberty is safe once again. We go in for one more day, called Sine Die, on Thursday, June 4, to clean up any problems or possibly override vetoes.

In this newsletter I will focus on the budget and spending in education. I will address abortion, energy and other issues in future newsletters.

Briefly, the Senate passed the budget bill, 21 to 17. The House concurred with the Senate on the budget and the bill now is in front of our new governor, Mark Parkinson.

This budget leaves the state with almost no cash in the bank so even the slightest negative change in the Kansas economy could cause the Legislature to go back into a special session. I voted against the budget which I believe amounts to the Legislature putting bubblegum in the hole of a dam.

As you can see, when the federal money is no longer available, we will be looking over a steep cliff. Public schools need to be aware of the upcoming deficit and prepare by cutting their spending.

The chart below shows the percentage change every year for the past 11 years in educational spending. The changes are cumulative.

Enrollment tells another story. In 2005, Kansas included enrollment for military districts.

Most people don't mind their tax dollars going for education, but they want to know where the money is going and they would like to have more transparency. I offered an amendment to the budget that would simply require school districts to keep their check registers online, but the measure failed, 16-22. The votes are displayed here.

You can investigate further in the details listed on the Legislative Reports page on my website.

I will be sending out another newsletter soon on other subjects.

Mary Pilcher Cook

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