Opinion
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GUEST COLUMN, Kristen Osenga, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar
The Justice Department has fired a shot across Big Tech’s bow. In a recent speech, Dina Kallay, a deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s antitrust division, criticized Big Tech for using supposedly “free” patent-licensing initiatives to poach smaller competitors’ technologies.
Her remarks come at a pivotal moment. The Alliance for Open Media — a consortium led by Amazon, Meta, Google, and other tech giants — announced a new video-streaming format that could soon be embedded in televisions and tablets.
The group claims the technology will be “royalty-free.” But such promises often come with strings attached.
Kallay didn’t mention the Alliance for Open Media by name, but her message was clear. Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department will defend small businesses from Big Tech’s anticompetitive depredations.
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GUEST COLUMN, Kevin McCullough, Townhall
What Leader Thune is pulling right now isn’t just politics as usual — it’s strategic brilliance in a moment when checkers players think they’re playing chess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has committed to forcing a vote on the SAVE America Act — legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register and voter ID at the polls — and in doing so he’s exposing the absurdity of Democratic obstruction in the face of overwhelming bipartisan public support.
On Fox News, Thune said bluntly: “We will put the Democrats on the record! … And we will make sure the Democrats are on the record opposing the most basic requirement: ensuring only American citizens vote in our elections.”
That is not only political tempo — that is bold constitutional leadership.
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MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
Immediately after His baptism, where the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and the Father spoke, Jesus was led by the same Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). After forty days and nights of fasting, the tempter came. The next ten verses reveal Satan's strategy and Jesus' responses.
Far from a mere psychological struggle or inner conflict, this was a real confrontation between the Son of God and a personal adversary whose aim is and always has been to derail God’s redemptive plan. The temptations targeted Jesus’ identity as Son of God, challenging His mission and His dependence on the Father.
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GUEST COLUMN, Greg Doering, Kansas Farm Bureau
There’s a routine to spring calving season based on numbers. Once tiny hooves start hitting the cold ground, a rhythm takes over until the last mama cow has delivered her baby. Each day is different, but they’re all based on counting.
I can still picture being sandwiched in the middle of the bench seat between my grandparents as we made the rounds through pastures to check on the progress. My grandfather kept one hand on the steering wheel with a pair of binoculars ready in the other.
We would slowly roll through the field, stopping abruptly for my grandfather to take a closer look at a cow. He’d raise the binoculars and quickly read off the number on the ear tag as my grandmother dutifully recorded the information in a spiralbound notebook.
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RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator
The old idiom “calm before the storm” could well have been applied to last week’s proceedings, as the anticipated halfway point or “turnaround turbulence” very much characterized Week 6 of the 2026 Legislative Session. The Senate only met for three days, but came close to setting some kind of record by voting on fully 50 bills on just one of those alone.
To keep it in perspective, we had debated or “worked” half of them the previous day; still, being called upon to quickly process that much information on a wide range of subjects is a challenge for even the most astute and learned among us, whoever they are.
Thankfully, we have highly competent professional staff, informed interest groups, knowledgeable hearing witnesses, and concerned constituents to assist us along the way. One thing you can always be sure of is that your senator is never acting completely alone on anything.