Garth Brooks Becomes K.C. Mayor-Pro-Tem

Give the guy a LOT of credit. To make SURE as many people as possible who wanted to see his shows- Garth Brooks is putting on 9 shows.

Most all of his regional die-hard fans that wanted tickets I'm sure were able to secure them.

Smart man. His ticket prices are very affordable times nine now. Not to mention get-here and set-up expenses divided by nine.

Mr. Brooks doesn't need to tour- just move to Branson and drive up for a gig at the KC-SC every month or so.

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Body Found In Belton-MO Not That Of Missing Teen

Police forensic experts have determined the badly-decomposed body found Friday afternoon is not that of missing Belton teen Kara Kopetsky.

Police however have not identified those remains.

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Anxious Wait For Identity Of Body Found In Belton-MO Friday

Belton Police have scheduled a press conference at noon today regarding a body found early Friday afternoon.

The badly-decomposed body was reportedly found by a Missouri department of Transportation (MODoT) worker in high underbrush near 163rd Street and southbound U.S. 71. The medical examiner was to perform an autopsy to determine the sex- age and method of death.

Dental records have been submitted by the family of Kara Kopetsky- the Belton-MO teen missing since May.

There were no significant incidents in the Kansas City MetroRegion from midnight to 7am Saturday morning.

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KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING NEWS:

A male has just been removed from the "partial collapse of a building under construction" on East 85th Street east of Prospect.

KC-MO fire companies had only received the call at 9:19am.

The MAST-EMS unit has yet to arrive as of this report- extent of injuries to the person caught inside the structure when it collapsed is not yet known.

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Don't Let This Man "Run Through The Halls Of (Your) High School"

One might wonder if that John Mayer hit influenced a 1987 alumni of a Lakeland-FL high school- Timothy Joseph Vaughn- according to the Associated Press article- to threaten to make the reunion a blood bath worse than Virginia Tech's.

Maybe in the joint- he can "scream at the top of (his) lungs" if he drops the soap in the prison shower....

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Casino Blues: Know When To Hold 'Em - Fold 'Em

With Kansas casinos looming closer to reality if not actual construction- one has to wonder how many more gaming dollars this MetroRegion can sustain.

Unlike Nevada towns like Vegas and Reno where different establishments line up in the same block for casual pedestrian business- Missouri laws require the casinos be near the Missouri River. Locally- four houses exist- Argosy in Riverside- Harrah's in North Kansas City and the Ameristar and Isle of Capri in Kansas City itself.

The closest casinos are Harrah's and Isle of Capri at about 2 miles- but are separated by the Muddy and railroad yards- in other words- you need to have or secure ground transportation to get to any of the KC area joints.

With a state-mandated loss limit of $500 per 2-hour "session"- the Ameristar has led the market in revenue for at least 3 years. Each local casino also covers the state-mandated $2 admission fee per player.

Three of the 4 casinos now have on-site upper-class hotels. The Ameristar is the most lavish of K.C.'s casinos- built as the Kansas City Station Casino in the late 1990's- it has an enclosed streetscape mall area with restaurants for all tastes and price ranges as well as a multi-screen cinema- concert venue and child care services.

Now comes the competition. Bids for a "destination" casino have been taken in Kansas City- KS.. Minimum was $250-million- or just below the cost of building Missouri's Ameristar complex. The bids received were of lavish resort-like casinos costing upwards of three-quarters of a billion dollars.

This is going to draw away many Kansas and Missouri gamblers- at least temporarily- out of curiosity if noting else. More importantly- it's going to draw the "high rollers" since Kansas casinos will have no loss limits. This of course is not counting slot machines allowed at the Woodlands dog and pony track- nor any other casinos planned such as the Wyandott People.

The Missouri side casinos are going to suffer short-term at the least. I believe at least one will wash out- and the one I think that will go would not be good for KC-MO revenues: the Isle of Capri.

The Isle has no hotel- although plans for one have been on the table for at least 2 years now. The Isle also has the lowest attendance and revenue in the market. The owners are not large corporations like those who own the Ameristar and Harrah's- better able to sustain during a drop in players for any extended length of time.

Kansas City once had 3 casinos- Sam's Town closed not long after the massive StationAmeristar opened. The Metro King of TIF could suffer a sizable chunk of revenue loss if it were to lose one of it's 2 remaining casinos.

On the bright side- maybe an empty Isle of Casino property could be developed into something useful/interesting in conjunction with Riverfront Park. A new home for the steamboat Arabia?

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Shut-Out For More Information With No Computer

This ALWAYS gets me- media outlets telling people "if you want to read more on this story- go to our (Internet site)."

Media people are surely assuming everybody has a computer or access to one- thinking homes and apartments have Pentiums like they were water faucets.

Get out of suburbia news types! Just like $1000-plus video screens we'll soon have to have in order to watch the 80 channels of schlock- I guess these folks figure those of us without computers will just run right out and buy one.

My suggestion however- is that if you REALLY want news nowadays- REAL news- you HAVE to get a computer.

Otherwise- be satisified with watching the Britney Spears and/or Paris Hilton Broadcasting Company commercial-fillers or similar front-page yuck.

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What Goes Around - Comes Around - WalMart Gets Theirs

For those who live and breathe The WalMart State- these are not good times.

First off- the slowdown of sales at WalMart. I guess more folks see them as I do- cut rate prices at the expense of quality American jobs and mistreatment of their own workers.

Speaking of WalMart workers- more and more states are suing WalMart- and winning- over shady employment practices the Bentonville-AR monolith engages in.

Karma sure has a way of biting asses. New joke: "What's worse than an American-owned WalMart? A Chinese-owned one...."

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Local Yokel Weighs In On Bush's Health Insurance Veto

Who else BUT: "House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-MO., said he was "absolutely confident" that the House would be able to sustain Bush's expected veto." AP - Oct. 3- 2007 (iTALICS MINE-gkm)

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BUSH VETOS CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE BILL

Now we'll see just how many Republicrats join the Demoblicans in overturning Dubya's veto of this piece of legislation that actually helps young Americans live.

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Politicians Have To Have THEIR Porn Too

An Ohio state polly was apparently giving a Powerpoint presentation to a high school class when- whoops!- up pops a photo of a topless female on the classroom screen- according to this story from the Associated Press.

This once again gives creedence to the old adage: Check your stuff before you display it.
Why wasn't high school that fun when I went???

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Jimmy Carter Has Cajones

I've always liked this ex-president- probably the last Harry Truman-like leader we've had or will ever have.

Jimmy is in Africa- Dafur- the genocide site where America isn't- and reportedly became angry when he was denied access to an area where the people are too afraid of reprisals if they speak to outsiders.

Imagine an occupying force raping your daughters. It's still happening- and this Once Great Nation gives nothing but lip service and surely none of hundreds of billions we spend elsewhere under the guise of "democracy."

If America's consistent about anything it's our inconsistency.

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Tickets Being Sold They Don't Even Have Yet

This is REALLY rich- 41Action News is reporting ticket brokers are ALREADY selling Garth Brooks tickets online- at more than $1000 a tix- and those tickets don't even go on sale until later this morning.

Ah- thank your local governor Blunt and your Missouri state politicos for the poor ticket brokers- won't you? Oh- even if God came to Sprint Arena- at more than $50 a pop- forget it....

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$150-Billion And Reader Polls

While Congress will most-likely feed another $150-billion to the Middle Eastern black holes- the latest CSW Iraq poll shows out of a record total of 35 votes- 20 or 57% think America should cut it's losses there.

Twelve or 34% thought America should stay and nine-percent or 3 weren't sure either way.

This one says a lot: A whopping 33 folks (IPs anyway) have weighed in (and broke the scale) on if Bush & Cheney should be impeached.
Again- it's 20- but 60% total- voting for America to cut it's losses and do it.

The other 13 indicate although they may not be happiest with the UCSA's best friends- no need to drag them through the mud because they've lied (grafted and treasoned) to the American people.

Gasoline is $2.45-2.50 a gallon around the I-70- Blue Ridge- U.S. 40- M-291-corridor.
Better news for the polls results on our individual present economic conditions now as opposed to a year ago: 20 votes- but a total of 14 reporting conditions a little to much worse economically compared to October 2006.

All the polls are listed top to bottom along the left of this site- if you haven't voted- please indulge yourself.

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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: "Slight Risk" of Severe Thunderstorms Today

Once again- the NWS's Storm Prediction Center has most of the K.C. MetroRegion under a "slight risk" of severe thunderstorms- forecast valid from 7am today through 7am Wednesday.

The primary severe threat today is strong winds and possible tornadoes with supercell storms. The 2nd image (click to enlarge) depicts the area with the greatest chance of tornadoes. This higher tornado probability area includes most of Metro Kansas City on it's northwestern edge.

More on this situation as it develops....

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CURRENT KC WEATHER RADAR IMAGE

KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING WEATHER: SEVERE STORM WARNING JOHNSON COUNTY KS

WARNING UNTIL 4:45PM.
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KANSAS CITY'S WEATHER: CURRENT RADAR

CLICK TO ENLARGE.
Heavy rain has begun at the Kansas Speedway and the NASCAR race is on hold at this time.

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KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING WEATHER: SEVERE STORM WARNING FOR PLATTE COUNTY MO

This warning is in effect until 4:15pm.

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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: Severe Storm Watch No. 697 Continues For KC

The Severe Thunderstorm Watch continues for the entire KC MetroRegion.

Here is the current weather radar- the image is centered on the Kansas Speedway. Storms will move rapidly southwest to northeast across the Metro during the next hour.

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The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Sunday, September 30, 2008

* METRO NOISY - NO ONE HEARD DEAD *

*** Two shooting victims arrived at area trauma centers after a reported shooting in Kansas City-MO's River Market area just before 3am Sunday morning.

Those victims were reported by police as two males in 2 separate vehicles and their injuries reported to be non life-threatening.

Also from the scene it was reported a security guard had "pepper-sprayed a possible suspect."

*** KC-MO police conducted a tactical operation in a southeastern neighborhood Sunday morning.

The "Operation-100" was called in the neighborhood of East 89th Street and Lane during the 4 o-clock hour.

By 6:15am- it was determined no one was inside the house officers had surrounded after a disturbance there.

*** Just before dawn- Shawnee-KS authorities were sent to the Barton Crossing apartments in the 6100 block of Barton- where a male in his mid-20's had been stabbed at least 8 times "possibly by a flat-head screwdriver."

His wounds although serious- were not considered immediately life-threatening.

Police were seeking a named female suspect who lived in the complex where the victim was found- that suspect left the scene in a car.

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<><><> OVERNIGHT WEATHER <><> <>

South winds were brisk and gusty throughout the Kansas City MetroRegion overnight and with the help of increasing high cloudiness- kept temperatures in the 60-65-degree range.

With the warm start and sunshine- temperatures should rapidly bound to the 80-degree mark by early afternoon. Around this time- a potent upper-air system and front will be entering the western MetroRegion- and spreading across the entire area by early evening.

Atmospheric moisture is marginal at best- but daytime heating and other factors may produce at least a scattered line of showers and storms along the front by early afternoon. Some of the storms could be severe with the best chance of storms in the Kansas City Metro between 12 and 4pm this afternoon.

Still above-normal temperatures for most of the coming first week of October- with another chance of storms and possible severe weather on Tuesday.

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Kansas City's Breaking News Leader - NBC41 ACTION NEWS.
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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: NWS-SPC Says "Slight Risk" Of Severe Storms Today

If you see/click-on the map image- this "official" National Weather Service's branch Storm Prediction Center forecast-area for possible severe thunderstorms includes us. This forecast is valid 7am to 7am- this thru Monday mornings.

Personally- I think whatever blows through between about 1pm and 5pm will do just that- it won't last very long. This system has a lot of upper-air dynamics- but little moisture to work with and daytime heating will be important as well.

The best chances for any severe storms I think will be along and east of I-35- mostly in Missouri. Otherwise- no activity threatening the MetroRegion at this time- it's well to the northwest moving into Nebraska.

A noisy news night here (knocking on wood) so FAR nothing major- and I'm plan to remain on the weather watch through at least early afternoon.

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