Legislative branch: The legislative branch is the Kansas Legislature. It is a bicameral legislature. It has the Kansas House of Representatives and the Kansas Senate. The House has 125 members, and the Senate has 40 members.
Judicial Branch: The judicial branch is headed by the Kansas Supreme Court. The Kansas Supreme Court has seven judges. If there is a spot open, the governor picks who to replace them.
Since the middle of the 20th century, Kansas has been socially conservative. In 1999 and 2005, the Board of Education voted to stop teaching evolution in schools. In 2005, Kansas banned same-sex marriage. In 2006, Kansas made the lowest age to marry 15 years old.
Kansas allowed women's suffrage in 1912. This was nearly a decade before the United States allowed it.
The state's current delegation to the Congress of the United States includes Republican Senators Pat Roberts of Dodge City and Jerry Moran of Manhattan; and Republican Representatives Roger Marshall of Great Bend (District 1), Steve Watkins (District 2), Ron Estes of Wichita (District 4), and Democratic Representative Sharice Davids (District 3).
Kansas has been strongly Republican. The Republican Party was very strong since Kansas became a state. This is because Republicans were very anti-slavery, and Kansas was also anti-slavery. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the United States Senate since 1932.
Abilene has the childhood house of Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Two Republican presidential candidates, Alf Landon and Bob Dole, were also from Kansas.
Primary and secondary schools are controlled by the Kansas State Department of Education. Public colleges and universities are controlled by the Kansas Board of Regents.
In 1999 and 2005, the Board of Education voted to teach intelligent design in science classes. Both times, they changed their decision after the next election.
The rock band Kansas was created Topeka. Many of the band's members are from there.
Joe Walsh, guitarist for the famous rock band the Eagles, was born in Wichita.
Danny Carey, drummer for the band Tool, was raised in Paola.
Singer Melissa Etheridge is from Leavenworth. Singer Martina McBride is from Sharon. Singer Janelle Monáe is from Kansas City.
In 1947, Kansas chose "Home on the Range" as their state song.
Kansas's most famous appearance in a book was as the home of Dorothy Gale. She is the main character in the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900).
The Plaza Cinema in Ottawa, Kansas was built on May 22, 1907. It is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest operating movie theater in the world.
The group that governs college sports in the United States is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Their headquarters were in Johnson County, Kansas from 1952 until moving to Indianapolis in 1999.
The state symbols of Kansas are:
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Maps
James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States.
He was the only president not to have married. His niece, Harriet Lane, stood in as First Lady. He was an experienced politician, and became president in 1857. His stances on slavery, and actions before the Civil War broke out, have been criticized by scholars.
James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791 in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, into a prosperous merchant family. He had four sisters and three brothers, and studied at the Old Stone Academy before entering Dickinson College in 1807. There he studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1812.
Buchanan was engaged to Anne C. Coleman, but she died early, and he never had children. He is the only U.S. President who was never married.
Buchanan served in both the House and Senate, representing Pennsylvania, as well as the Minister to Russia, under Andrew Jackson, before stepping taking the presidential career.
During the beginning of his presidency, he called slavery an issue of little importance. This was clearly not the case at the time; Northerners and Southerners were very divided on slavery, almost to the point of war.
The Supreme Court declared that African Americans were not American citizens and that the states were allowed to keep slavery legal. James Buchanan supported that decision because he did not want the pro-slavery states to stop being part of the United States.
Buchanan supported the rights of slave owners to keep their slaves and wanted Kansas to adopt a constitution that allowed slavery. Because of that, the Democratic Party was divided on that issue and after the 1858 Congressional election, there were more Republicans in Congress than Democrats. He did not get along with the Republicans.
He ordered troops to fight against Utah based on untrue information that Utah was planning a revolt. Buchanan later realized that he made a mistake and apologized.
During his term, the country was becoming more and more divided over the slavery issue. A few months before his term ended, some of the southern states decided that they were going to not be a part of the United States any more.
Buchanan believed that it was a bad thing, but he did nothing about it because he felt that using force against the south was against the Constitution. He did not even prepare the country for war.
At the end of his term, he left the next president, Abraham Lincoln, to face the greatest crisises in United States history, the Civil War.
Some historians think that Buchanan was the worst president, because he did nothing to prevent the Civil war.
Hand
A hand is the part of the body at the end of an arm. Most humans have two hands. Each hand usually has four fingers and a thumb. On the inside of the hand is the palm. The five bones inside this part of the hand are called metacarpals. The wrist connects the hand to the arm. The hand has 27 bones including the wrist bones.
When the fingers are all bent tightly, the hand forms a fist. The joints that are the hardest part of the fist are called knuckles. Many other animals, especially other primates, have hands that can hold things. Human hands can do things other hands cannot.
Rule
When something always does the same thing, one can say that there is a rule that it does what it does.
The word "rule" has many uses, including the following:
A "rule" in mathematics is a formula which allows a person to work out parts of the solution if he or she has certain information. For example, Pythagoras' theorem is a rule which states that if a person knows the lengths of two sides of a right-angled triangle he or she can work out the length of the third.
Rules, however, can also means laws created aby people in power - for example, school rules are the "laws" of a specific school.
1910s
The 1910s was the decade that started on January 1, 1910, and ended on December 31, 1919.
Bahrain
Bahrain (officially called Kingdom of Bahrain) is an island country in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia is to the west and is connected to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway, and Qatar is to the south across the Persian Gulf. The Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Bridge, not yet built, will link Bahrain to Qatar as the longest fixed bridge in the world.Qatar and Bahrain's flag is the same design but not the same colors because Qatar is white and maroon and Bahrain is white and red.
People have lived in Bahrain before there was writing. It has been ruled and influenced by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, and the Arabs, who made the island Muslim. Bahrain was in old times known as Dilmun, Tylos, Awal and Mishmahig.
The islands of Bahrain, set in the middle south of the Persian Gulf, have attracted many invaders in history. The word "Bahrain", "Two Seas", means that the islands contain two kinds of water, sweet water springs and salty water in the sea.