Governor Mark Parkinson’s Capitol Blog

Guest Blog
First Lady Stacy Parkinson

October 21, 2009

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH

When I graduated from law school 25 years ago, I worked as an assistant D.A. in Johnson County and prosecuted cases involving domestic violence and child abuse.  That is when I first became familiar with a world that I wish did not exist - a world in which one in every four women experiences domestic violence in her lifetime; a world where 1.3 million women are victim of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.  Unfortunately, domestic violence continues to be a raging epidemic affecting individuals in every community regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or education background.  With the economic pressures that have been placed on families over the past year, families remain at high risk, and in Kansas alone, it is estimated that almost 141,000 women will be victims of domestic violence in 2009.

October 13, 2009

I never thought I would have two blog entries in a row that relate to KPERS, but here we go - KPERS is the retirement system for public employees in Kansas.  It’s a huge deal because there are 250,000 Kansans in the retirement system, which is almost 10% of our state’s entire population.  It includes state workers, teachers, judges, firefighters, police officers and public employees at all levels of government.