The Associated Press

The Kansas City Star, Nov. 1

Kansas City takes the crown, on the field and off:

One of the famous phrases attributed to Satchel Paige, the great Kansas City baseball player, was this: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

This bit of wisdom applies to the Royals in two ways. In the 2015 postseason the Royals gained on and then overcame every opponent they faced.

And coming home with the World Series trophy means the Royals — and their fans — don’t have to look back with longing and regret at 2014 or 1985 or all the fallow years in between.

When the Royals — once again in astounding fashion — came back and defeated the New York Mets Sunday night, 7-2 in 12 innings, they won the 2015 World Series four games to one.

But the team did much, much more than that during this endlessly exciting season.

Throughout the spring, summer and fall, the Royals helped bring this community together.

Fans from both sides of the state line, from Kansas City and all its suburbs, packed Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City area residents wore the color blue not just at the ballpark but at shopping centers, supermarkets, on the Country Country Plaza, all around the town.

In the world of sports, the Royals became known for their aggressive hitting style in 2015. They slugged fastballs better than most other teams. And they were relentless, pulling out many comebacks during the year but, most notably, in the postseason, where they set a record for most runs scored (51) in the seventh inning or later.

This community has had that same kind of come-from-behind attitude in recent years, which explains a lot about the revival of Kansas City.

It took an aggressive effort to get projects off the ground after so many lackluster years of neglect in the urban core.

It took relentless leadership by political officials — as well as by voters who embraced opportunities to create a better city.

The naysayers who said a decade ago that it wasn’t a good idea to build Sprint Center downtown? Wrong. The highly successful arena on Grand Boulevard will mark the starting point of the World Series victory parade on Tuesday, and the route will feature an up-and-coming downtown.

The doubters who predicted the Power & Light District would be a wasteland of inactivity? Also wrong. Fans packed the entertainment space shoulder-to-shoulder Sunday night and partied on long after the Royals became world champions.

The negative nannies on the streetcar and nearby redevelopment? So far, off base. The city, coincidentally, took possession of the first vehicle on Monday.

Much like the Royals — who wandered in baseball’s netherworld for so many years, losing more than 100 games four times in five years starting in 2002 — Kansas City has staged a comeback of its own.

There’s more: This Royals team is so good and so young, and has been to two straight World Series, we could see Kansas City back on baseball’s biggest postseason stage for years to come.

But for now, in early November, for the first time in 30 years, this metropolitan area will bask in the attention that comes with a World Series crown.

And we will wear it proudly.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 1

Republicans continue their war on voting rights:

For years, Republicans have argued that voter fraud is so great a threat to democracy that Americans should be required to present some form of photo ID — say, a driver’s license — before they can cast a ballot.

So it stands to reason that GOP leaders would be thrilled with new laws that automatically register people to vote when they obtain a driver’s license, right?

Not so much. Republicans claim that setting all those prospective voters loose with photo IDs, wait for it, increases the risk of fraud.

Apparently there’s just no pleasing the GOP — especially when the voters in question happen to belong to demographic groups that tend to vote against the party.

In the seven years since Barack Obama was elected president, 18 states — most of them led by Republicans — have passed laws requiring voters to show some form of ID. Research indicates that as many as 25 percent of African-Americans don’t have a government-issued ID, the form most often required. The numbers are also disproportionately high for Latinos, young people and the poor, all of whom tend to lean Democratic.

Thirty-two states, including Missouri, now have ID measures in effect. Nine require photo ID, and eight others have approved photo ID laws that grant narrow exceptions. Missouri’s attempts to require photo ID have been struck down by the courts, but the state GOP hasn’t given up.

Kansas and three other states have raised the hurdles even higher, requiring would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before they can register. Critics point out that many people don’t have ready access to their birth certificates or other types of proof. They’ve filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the Kansas law.

Amid all this, research continues to show that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. A recent study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, for example, found 31 incidents of alleged fraud by voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast in the United States between 2000 and 2014.

There are some rays of hope in the fight against disenfranchisement. In August, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Texas violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act when it imposed a strict voter ID law.

And voting rights advocates scored major victories this year when California and Oregon passed laws that automatically register people to vote when they receive their driver’s license, unless they opt out. Sixteen states, plus the District of Columbia, are considering similar measures, and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has introduced a bill to take the effort nationwide.

Republicans contend the measures enable noncitizens to vote fraudulently. But both California and Oregon require multiple proofs of ID to obtain a driver’s license. Oregon, in fact, requires proof of citizenship from its drivers — the same proof Kansas requires from prospective voters. The difference between the two laws, of course, is that driving is a privilege and voting is a constitutionally protected right.

Automatic registration of voters is good for democracy, but it’s obvious that people who want to thwart the electoral process won’t give up easily.

In Republican-led Alabama, a state that requires photo ID from its voters, officials recently announced they would shut down 31 driver’s license offices where people can obtain IDs if they don’t drive. The closures were described as a cost-saving measure, but it’s no coincidence that they hit every county where African-Americans make up more than 75 percent of registered voters.

A state that once subjected its black citizens to “how many bubbles are in a bar of soap?” tests really ought to know better. And the rest of America shouldn’t have trouble picturing why today’s more genteel but equally pernicious obstacles to voting should fall.

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The Joplin Globe, Oct. 30

MoDot funding solution needed:

The $8.6 million Prigmor Avenue interchange on Interstate 44 opens today.

Enjoy it.

It’s the last major highway construction project slated for this region for now.

For lots of reasons, Missouri Department of Transportation funding has fallen in recent years, from $1.3 billion annually in 2009 to between $500 million and $600 million projected for fiscal year 2017. There are a lot of reasons for that, but how we got here is less of an issue than how we go forward.

Here’s what’s at stake:

— Future construction and maintenance. MoDOT officials have said the transportation money in the 2017 budget is not expected to be enough to maintain all of the state’s 33,000-mile highway system and 10,000 bridges. There are no additional expansion projects in future budgets, which means no money for the west corridor on the west side of Joplin or for Missouri’s share of the long-delayed Bella Vista bypass.

— Federal matching money. Missouri also risks losing federal highway funds in the future if we don’t generate money to use to qualify for the federal match. Every $4 from the federal government requires $1 in state funds.

Lawmakers say finding long-term transportation revenue is a priority. The governor says it’s a priority. The public wants it to be a priority.

But a previous sales tax plan to fund transportation was shot down by Missouri voters, and legislators couldn’t gather enough support in the last session for raising the state’s fuel tax. Tolls roads don’t have many fans, so that leaves the state with few options.

Raising the state’s fuel tax, meaning those who use the roads pay for them, seems the quickest, fairest solution. Or perhaps there’s another tool legislators have at their disposal.

In the meantime, take a drive out to the interchange, if only to remind yourself that infrastructure projects like these make roads safer, more efficient and lead to jobs.

And they cost money.

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St. Joseph News-Press, Oct. 31

Sentencing reform deserves long look:

Letting drug offenders out of prison quicker hardly qualifies as a conservative position — that is, until you hear someone like U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas make the case for sentencing reform.

The long-serving Republican is a sponsor of new legislation that would allow judges greater sentencing discretion for lower-level federal drug crimes. The proposal incorporates aims to put greater focus on the most serious and violent offenders, and to reduce the likelihood that ex-offenders will return to prison.

This legislation will have a difficult path to become law, but it has rare bipartisan support. This is one answer to what to do about the exploding federal prison system, which today houses 200,000 inmates in facilities that are overcrowded by an average of 36 percent.

Since 1986, when Congress approved mandatory minimum drug sentences, drug offenders are much more likely to be given prison time and much less likely to receive probation. By one calculation, drug offenders in federal prison in 2013 could expect to serve an average of 11 years, at a cost to taxpayers of well over $300,000 each.

Many of the nation’s top police chiefs contend in a recent joint statement that well-intended policies have led to an unacceptable rate of incarceration that is not required to bring down crime rates. Plus, the current approach diverts billions of dollars into prisons rather than prevention and rehabilitation.

“Arresting and imprisoning low-level offenders prevents us from focusing resources on violent crime,” says Garry McCarthy, Chicago police superintendent.

The police chiefs propose federal reforms similar to those already enacted in several states: increasing alternatives to arrest and prosecution, especially mental health and drug treatment; reclassifying some crimes and lowering some penalties; and eliminating mandatory minimums that are overly harsh.

These ideas, including the proposal advanced by Sen. Moran, come with hot-button concerns such as provisions that would make thousands of inmates already in the system eligible to petition for early release.

These matters are deserving of serious consideration. Sponsors should prepare to look for balance between reforms that could return thousands of offenders to society, perhaps without adequate justification, and allowing the current, unsustainable trends to continue.