Overnight News - Saturday, 25 November 2006

KANSAS CITY, MO.

At 1:25am early Saturday morning, a man was found with multiple gunshots in the parking lot of the Save-A-Lot grocery store in the 8700 block of Blue Ridge. Police report the 34-year-old was shot by 4-5 black males who left southbound on Blue Ridge in an older-model dark blue or gray 4-door car. Even though the victim was shot at least 3 times according to the transporting MAST-EMS crew, his injuries did not sound to be immediately life-threatening.

Around 12:45am, a woman was critically injured during a disturbance at a house in the 3900 block of Bell. Police say a male was assaulting his girlfriend and pushed the girlfriend's mother, causing her to fall onto a piece of statuary which impaled her. The mother's injuries were critical and the perpetrator was arrested.

At 4:51am, emergency services were called to southbound I-29 south of I-635 on a 1-vehicle accident. There they found a vehicle had gone off the road containing a 45-year-old male. After the driver was extricated by the fire department, he was taken to a nearby trauma center in what the paramedic described as critical condition.

At 2:30am, another 45-year-old male was run over by a car in front of a tavern in the 8100 block of Hickman Mills Drive. That driver left the scene in what police said was a Chevy Monte Carlo. The victim was taken to a nearby medical center with a badly fractured leg.

KANSAS CITY, KS.

A house fire in the 2900 block of North 29th Street at 6:20am has displaced the three adults and 3 children occupying the structure. Firefighters reported flames showing from a back bedroom when they rolled up several minutes after the alarm. The fire was brought under control about 10 minutes later and no one was hurt.


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NWS' Winter Weather Outlook

You've no doubt by now heard all the local forecasters' predictions for the 2006-07 winter season.

Well- old Groucho has been a weather geek since he was 4-1/2 when that F-5 tornado leveled Ruskin Heights. Also a charter member of America's FIRST self-sponsored teenager weather service in the late 1960's and a storm 'chaser' since I started driving around 1970. So I DO know what a cloud is. (grin)

Regardless- I made my Winter prediction about a month ago: Temperatures and precipitation normal to slightly above normal.

Below are just-released charts from the National Weather Service that forecasts the temperature and precipitation trends for January, February and March of 2007. They seem to corelate my own prognostication.






For the short term - from now until about mid-December- it appears by the models (Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, etc.) that we will undergo a wide fluctuation of temperatures that nonetheless will average out to near normal. It also appears that several storm systems will affect the Kansas City MetroRegion during this period. Precipitation amounts will be normal to slightly above-normal through mid-December.

Of note- a storm system that will affect us by mid next week could produce severe thunderstorms close to but mainly south and southeast of the KC MetroRegion. While we will enjoy balmy conditions until the frontal passage - now forecast for early next Wednesday - the front will usher in a blast of Arctic air.

The Great Escape (Attempt)

Today is a holiday and as such a day off from all the sad & ugly news stories. So courtesy of the Associated Press- have a chuckle with us.

Turkeys Try to Catch Train Out of N.J.

RAMSEY, N.J. (AP) - Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.

"For a moment, it looked like the turkeys were waiting for the next outbound train," said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "Clearly, they're trying to catch a train and escape their fate."

Transit workers followed the bird's movements on surveillance cameras. "I have no idea how they got there," Stessel said.

A Ramsey police dispatcher said the department had received three calls about the traveling turkeys who also were blamed for causing morning rush hour traffic problems on a roadway.

"From time to time, I've heard calls that there are turkeys on the loose," said Erik Endress, president of the Ramsey Rescue Squad, a volunteer group. "Maybe they're trying to make a break."

The Winter Holidays in Kansas City

In case you can't make it to Kansas City during the Christmas holiday, here are a few photographs of The Plaza and Crown Center Christmas displays - from http://community.webshots.com/album/106148409odKzrw and published by a dhawblitzel.
Here's wishing for Peace On Earth and Goodwill toward ALL peoples ... someday...

Happy Thanksgiving !

Ole Groucho here and all the Marx Family wishes you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.

If any of you are taking in a movie this weekend- may I suggest the new film 'Bobby"- a picture about the late Senator and 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

Robert Altman Dead at 81

Kansas City native son and motion picture director Robert Altman died in a Los Angeles hospital Monday night.

Altman was famous for such films as 'M*A*S*H*'- 'Nashville' and 2001's 'Gosford Park.' He had been past-nominated for 5 Academy Awards, and only earlier this year received the Academy's 'Lifetime Achievment' Oscar for his extensive and often out-of-the-mainstream film work.

Born in Kansas City, MO. February 20, 1925, Altman moved from his hometown in the late 1950's but often returned to visit friends & family.

BULLETIN ...

There is a serious-injury accident on I-70 Westbound near Oak Grove.

Reportedly- at least two trucks were involved and at least one of the vehicles burst into flames.
The driver of one truck - a "60-year-old male" was extricated from the burning truck "by bystanders" according to Research Eagle-3 medical helicopter.

Traffic on I-70 near Oak Grove will be slowed or stopped for at least the next 30 minutes.

Mark Funkhouser Announces Candidacy for KC Mayor

Joining a field of what seems like more than a thousand candidates, former Kansas City auditor Mark Funkhouser has thrown his accountant's hat into the ring to be KC's next mayor.

I have long liked this gentleman and his no-nonsense 'Harry Truman-like' approach to the city's fiscal matters. I liked him even more after getting into a tiff with Mayor Barnes earlier this year over city financial issues.

Mark Funkhouser as mayor will make SURE that this city will focus on economically-sound projects as he has ALWAYS looked out for the Kansas City taxpayer.

I heartily endorse this man to be our next mayor.

Sanity Finds It's Way to FOX Network

Well ... FOX has announced they're NOT going to air the O.J. Simpson interview '(If) I Did It.'

No word yet what FOX will replace this piece of nonsense with or if that will be something equally inane and insulting to it's viewers' intelligence.

BULLETIN

Seven fire companies from 3 Johnson County, Kansas fire depart-
ments are extin-
guishing the last flames in a 2-story house in the 17900 block of Dearborn.

Smoke was visible from a fire station several miles away just after the 9:54 am call was sent out Sunday morning. The fire reportedly began in the rear of the house and spread throughout the interior.

The occupants escaped uninjured and no other injuries as of this report.

Kansas City, Kansas police were busy early Sunday morning.

Just after 3 am- an Asian man was found dead in his home in the 700 block of Sandusky. The victim was discovered by the man's wife upon her return from work. The means of the man's death are not yet known as police continue to investigate this as a homicide.

Just before 1:30 am- emergency services responded to a reported shooting at South 10th Street and Ray. When police arrived- they were told by witnesses that the victim had been loaded into a white van and driven away. A crime scene was located and the law was seeking 2 Hispanic male suspects who left in Ford Probe.

Also in KC, KS - A newspaper carrier reports being kidnapped with the threat of a weapon around 5 am from the 4400 block of Shawnee Drive and driven to the area of 43rd & Leavenworth Road. The carrier was not hurt. The suspects- one and possibly as many as three white males - took the man's van -leaving newspapers scattered on a freeway on ramp as they sped away.


Fire damaged homes in both Kansas Citys overnight.
The first blaze was in a lived-in home in the 2600 block of North 21st Place in KC, KS.. Two streams were used to quell the flames. Two adults and two children were displaced and sought Red Cross assistance. No one was injured.

A fire in KC, MO. heavily-damaged a 2-1/2-story vacant house in the 3700 block of Indiana just before 4:30 am.. Police reported a black male was seen walking away from the area with a gas can in his hand. No arrests made and no one was hurt.


A Gardner, KS. man is being sought by police after he tried to run over his wife with his pickup truck. The incident occurred about 1:50 am in the 200 block of East Colleen Court. THe woman's injuries were minor according to MEDACT-EMS.


A one-car wreck seriously injured a 29-year-old man in southeastern Jackson County, MO. just before 6 am.. The crash happened at U.S. 50 and M-150 and it's reported the man's vehicle left the road, crashed into a tree and overturned. The driver was flown by medical helicopter to an area hospital.


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