Perhaps it's for his grandchildren.

A Nintendo Wii was among items taken in a burglary of the Topeka home of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), reports the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Brownback, a long-time critic of the video game industry, has twice proposed Senate legislation aimed at forcing the ESRB to play games to completion before assigning a rating. He has also taken Sony to task for the use of Congo coltan in the PlayStation 2.

Brownback, who once harbored presidential aspirations, said last year that he would not run for re-election to the Senate in 2010. Instead, he is considered a likely contender for the governor's position in Kansas.

Also missing from his home were a laptop, flat screen TV, check book and jewelry. The case is under investigation by local police.

ABC News reports that President Barack Obama has turned to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) to fill the vacant cabinet post at the Department of Health and Human Services.

If confirmed, Sebelius will become the third member of the Obama cabinet with past ties to video game legislation. The others are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Commerce nominee Gary Locke.

As Governor in 2006, Sebelius pushed an unsuccessful attempt to legislate video games, saying at the time, "Video games and music lyrics promote violence..."

Ironically, in 2008 it was revealed that her son created a Grand Theft Auto-like board game and was marketing it by mail order from the Governor's official residence. At the time, Gov. Sebelius commented that she was proud of her son's creativity.

The Kansas Department of Transportation is offering citizens the opportunity to try their hand at balancing its budget - or not - via an innovative web-based tool.

Writing for the New York Times' Freakonomics blog, UCLA transportation researcher Eric Morris praises T-Link:

I can’t help but wonder how many urban planners were inspired to enter the profession by computer games like SimCity or Railroad Tycoon... these programs convey information about arcane topics like utility maintenance costs and right-of-way clearance in a fun and accessible manner...

 

Now the Kansas Department of Transportation has come up with a neat way to both educate the public about its services and get valuable feedback about customer preferences, using a game-like format. The T-Link Calculator allows you to set transportation policy in Kansas and see the fiscal results of your choices...

 

By presenting the information this way, [KDOT] reaches out to voters (particularly younger ones) who are accustomed to interactivity and immediate feedback from their information sources. I have a feeling that many people who would never think of sitting down and reading the state budget will warm to playing “transportation god” on this site.

Moreover, the site makes it clear that we can’t ask for everything from our government; tough budgetary choices have to be made...