The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Saturday, March 03, 2007

**FIRE FINISHES OFF VACANT NORTHEAST KC-MO APARTMENT BUILDING**

Six Kansas City, MO fire companies spent more than 2 hours on the scene of a "previously-burned" 2-story brick apartment building.

The call went out at 3:36 am to the 1000 block of Cleveland. The first arriving fire company reported the building "fully-involved" and the battle with the flames was conducted outside the vacant structure.

No one was injured and of course the suspicious-origin fire was under investigation.

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* OVERNIGHT WEATHER *

Snow showers and flurries dotted the KC Metro overnight, but accumulations were less than 1/4-inch.
Winds continued to gust into the low-30-m.p.h.-range from the northwest making temperatures that fell to 20-degrees at dawn feel like just above zero.


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First with Kansas City Metro Region Breaking News - KSHB NBC41 ACTION NEWS.

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BREAKING NEWS: FATALITY ACCIDENT ON I-470

***EASTBOUND I-470 IS CLOSED EAST OF RAYTOWN ROAD after an accident involving a "cargo van" and killing at least one around 2:30 pm Friday afternoon. ***

Accident Scene at I-470 & View High in southeastern KC-MO (Photo courtesy of the KC Scout Traffic System)


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First with Kansas City Metro Region Breaking News - KSHB NBC41 ACTION NEWS.
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Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday Night (Not HERE though)

Friendly Invasion

From the AP http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070302/D8NK2O0G0.html:


Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein


ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.
Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.
Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.

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Severe Storm Chances Over The Next 24 Hours

A low pressure center - stronger than the one last Sunday that produced an EF-1 tornado in Southwestern Johnson County, MO - will move close to Kansas City around pre-dawn Thursday.

Barometric pressure readings on Kansas City barometers may well go below 29.00 inches - VERY rare here.

Although this storm will be similar to last as far as available atmospheric dynamics, the last paragraph of Wednesday morning's Storm Prediction Center's Convective (Thunderstorm) Outlook caught my eye.

It reads as thus: ALONG WITH SOME POTENTIAL FOR LOCALLY-DAMAGING WINDS - LARGE HAIL AND ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE. GIVEN WIDESPREAD AREA OF VERY STRONG SHEAR...A COUPLE OF SIGNIFICANT TORNADOES CANNOT BE RULED OUT ANYWHERE FROM (EASTERN OKLAHOMA & EASTERN KANSAS) DURING THE AFTERNOON INTO (MISSOURI & ARKANSAS) THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. (AT THIS TIME) - WILL NOT INTRODUCE A MODERATE RISK - BUT THE POTENTIAL FOR AT LEAST A FEW SIGNIFICANT (SEVERE THUNDERSTORM) SUPERCELLS IS EVIDENT.


Please tune to NWS Weather Radio or log into this blog overnight tonight into Thursday morning for the very latest info on this developing situation.

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It's Brooks & The Funk!

With 100% of the vote in - Alvin Brooks will face off with Mark Funkhouser in the Kansas City general election on March 27.

Alvin Brooks wins the first spot in the 2-candidate runoff with 15,057 votes.

Mark Funkhouser wins the second spot with 14,726 votes.


Coming in a distant third place in the 12-candidate runoff was Al Riederer with 7,994 votes.

Fourth place went to Becky Nace with 5,454, fifth Jim Glover with 4,672, Ellis sixth with 3,809 and Fairfield seventh with 2,578 votes.

The rest of the field were Eddy at 856, Klein with 846, Glazier with 733, K. Shields with 622 & DiCapo last with 347 votes for a total of 49,700 mayorial votes cast.

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Dirty Tricks Mar KC Mayorial Election (PLEASE VOTE TUESDAY FOR FUNKHOUSER)

Boy, you can sure tell when career politicians are in trouble - they resort to dirty tricks & flat-out lies.

No WONDER America is in the shape it's in!!

My candidate of choice, MArk Funkhouser, sent this little snippet about the recent goings-on:


"NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING REACHES NEW LOW


Mayoral candidate Mark Funkhouser continues to be the target of unethical attacks from his opponents. With the Tuesday primary approaching, voters have been receiving automated phone calls, also known as “robo calls,” from someone claiming to be affiliated with Funkhouser's campaign. Some of these calls are intentionally designed to be annoying by tying up phone lines for up to 15 minutes. Others have included vicious attacks on other mayoral candidates in an attempt to cast Funkhouser as someone running a dirty campaign.

Funkhouser said today that neither he nor anyone helping him to get elected has anything to do with the calls.

“No one in my campaign or hired by my campaign, is making any mechanical calls,” Funkhouser said, adding, “I think they are obnoxious. As a matter of fact, my wife and I were approached about this method of campaigning and we flatly refused it. The only calls that citizens will receive from our campaign are live calls from our volunteers asking very specific questions about their choices for the upcoming election, nothing more.”

Funkhouser called this latest smear tactic “disturbing,” but he's not concerned about its potential impact on the primary.

“It's disconcerting that people believe they need to cheat to win in our political system,” he said. “If anything, my campaign has shown the exact opposite. I and my supporters have made a commitment to tell the truth and play fair, and yet we've moved into the lead.”

He added, “The public is tired of old-school politics, and we believe that Kansas Citians are intelligent enough to not fall for these lies.”

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God Bless The Child?

A MAST-EMS paramedic crew has transported "a 1-month-old female" in critical condition with "facial trauma" to Children's Mercy hospital.

The call came in for "a bleeding infant" near 41st Street & Montgall around 8:45 am.

Initially, the EMS crew and police thought the child had suffered "blunt force trauma" to her face - however the MAST paramedic was "certain" the child's injuries resulted from "an animal mauling."

The report also stated there "was a puppy in the residence at the time but (as they were told by another occupant of the residence) it was not near the child."

Police continue to investigate.

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The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Sunday, February 25, 2007

**PRE-DAWN FIRE DAMAGES LEE'S SUMMIT FOUR-PLEX- BUT THE PEOPLE GET OUT OKAY**

The fire broke out in the garage of one of the units in the 3500 block of Northeast Independence Avenue just before 5:15 am..

When the first Lee's Summit police officer arrived minutes later, he reported "flames and 2 cars in the garage" with the fire spreading. He initially could not find the occupants of that unit nor one other in the 4-plex, but all had escaped uninjured.

The flames were put out by 5:50 am with fire, smoke and/or water damage to at least three of the the four attached units. The fire was believed started by one of the cars in the garage.

A house pet did die in the fire but there were no other casualties.

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**AT LEAST THREE MALES SHOT IN THE KC METRO OVERNIGHT**

> Two of the victims were in Kansas City, Mo.: Around 12:15 am Sunday morning, a male was found shot in the chest just south of former-Mayor Cleaver's church at 56th St. & The Paseo. Police could get no suspect info from the victim.

> Another shooting victim- police say his injuries were "serious"- was a "walk-in" to the E-R of a local hospital just after 5 am. There wasn't any more information on this incident.

> The 3rd victim (or 2nd chronologically) was in Independence, MO just before 12:30 am - "a drive-by" shooting at "23rd St. & Scott. AMR-EMS service reported the victim "was a male shot in the leg." There's no other info on this incident yet either.

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*ARGENTINE AREA OF KC-KS IN THE DARK*

An electrical transformer blew in the area of 33rd St. and Strong around 2:30 am Sunday morning, sending a several square-mile area into darkness.
It's not known when electrical service was restoreD to the area.

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* OVERNIGHT WEATHER *

Rain that turned to snow moved into the KC Metro around midnight. Precipitation amounts were generally under 1/4-inch Metro-wide.
Temperatures remained just above freezing all night - falling from the lower-40's at midnight to a degree or two above freezing at dawn.
West winds gusting to the low-30-m.p.h.-range made temperatures feel more like the lower 20's by dawn.

Another strong storm system will affect the KC MetroRegion later this week - probably bringing in March like a lion.

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First with Kansas City Metro Region Breaking News - KSHB NBC41 ACTION NEWS.

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