From a colleague:
A 3-member Committee of The Kansas State School Board will conduct hearings in Topeka next week, and possibly the week after, to evaluate proposed changes to the state science standards. Thursday through Saturday next week, May 5-7, the Committee will hear testimony from scientists, philosophers and educators who think the standards should incorporate language about the problems with Darwinian evolution — a group knownofficially as “the Minority.” Witnesses will include William Harris, Jonathan Wells, Charles Thaxton, Giuseppe Sermonti, Ralph Seelke, Russell Carlson, Bruce Simat, Bryan Leonard, Daniel Ely, Edward Peltzer, Jill Gonzalez-Bravo, John Sanford, Robert DiSilvestro, Roger DeHart, Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, Angus Menuge, James Barham, John Millam, Mustafa Akyol, Nancy Bryson, and John Calvert.
The Darwin-only crowd (i.e., those who think the standards should NOT include any mention of problems with Darwinian evolution) will be represented by Pedro Irigonegaray, the Topeka attorney who served as moderator of the Washburn Symposium several years ago. Irigonegaray (pronounced with the emphasis on “gon”) will cross-examine each witness — though the Darwin-only crowd has boasted that they will allow no discussion of science, but only political and religious motivations.
The Darwin-only crowd — known officially as “the Majority” — has been invited to testify the following week, Thursday-Saturday May 12-14. Since the Darwin-only folks have been loudly boycotting the event, it is not clear whether they will actually produce any witnesses, though if they plan to do so they must supply the Committee with a list by Monday, May 2. If they DO produce witnesses, John Calvert will have an opportunity to cross-examine them just as Irigonegaray will have cross-examined the Minority witnesses.
[Interested persons] in the Topeka area may want to attend one or more of the hearings, which will be held at Memorial Hall, 120 SW 10th Avenue, Topeka, from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM on the days listed above.