Opinion

With control of the 50-50 Senate up for grabs, it looks like the GOP could well come up short even in a favorable political environment because of questionable choices of candidates in key races. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking earlier this month, acknowledged this, saying, “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate.” He continued, “Senate races are just different. They’re statewide. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”

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The examples abound of America’s lurch toward greater extremism on both the right and left. It’s getting to the point where free speech is being stifled by self-righteous word police on the left and screaming, armed lunatics on the far right. Each side uses the other’s examples as justification for even more extreme behavior, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis so aptly demonstrated with his derisive reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying, “Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”

To the editor: Who wants to reduce Noland Road from 23rd to 24 Highway from four lanes to two lanes? Nobody! Except the city of Independence and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. Noland Road from 23rd Street to 24 Highway is one of the few main north-south arteries in Independence for trucks as well as Square traffic and others passing through to 24.

I attended an extremely poor, extremely diverse high school in Sacramento where we were constantly told that attending college was the only way to pull ourselves out of poverty and reach the middle class. But the only way to afford the ridiculous cost of even community college or a state school was via loans so predatory that they all but ensured we would never be able to pull ourselves out of debt.

With Wednesday’s long-awaited announcement forgiving the debts of certain student borrowers, President Joe Biden hopes to give Democrats a boost in this fall’s midterm elections. Whatever the shortterm political gains, the decision is a costly mistake — and one that the administration will almost certainly come to regret.

Missouri legislators are to meet soon to consider cutting taxes. Some tax relief is a good idea, but the plan laid out by Gov.