Central U.S. Ice Storm Has Claimed 42 Lives

The winter storm reported here earlier this week created a swath of ice from the mid-southern Plains into the Ohio Valley.

Hardest hit were northern Arkansas and Kentucky- where whole towns were paralyzed.

Kentucky has reported 11 deaths related to the ice storm and officials from some counties were pleading for help- according to this Associated Press story.All photos courtesy of the Associated Press.

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Alaskan Volcano- Mount Redoubt - May Be about To Erupt

Scientists and just about everybody else in Alaska are now keeping a watchful eye on Mount Redoubt.

If Redoubt blows- it could be an explosive eruption similar to Washington states' Mount St. Helens and ash would probably cover Anchorage- located about 175 miles northeast of Mt. Redoubt.

It could well affect weather in the MetroRegion too.

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Pew Report: Kansas Citians Wished They Lived Elsewhere

For a "major-league" city- Kansas City scores low on where people would like to live.

According to a survey released this morning from the Pew Research Group- K.C. scored only above such cities as Cincinnati- Cleveland and Detroit as the least-attractive places to live.

All one has to do is see the priorities the City puts on neighborhoods- so much lip service.

The major league sport team corporations and glizy projects like entertainment districts in this town get more money than neighborhoods.

I won't even bring up the Kansas City School District- but I did anyway.

Much a surprise was that the beautiful City of Austin-TX did not even appear on the list.

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Family Murder-Suicide In Ohio Claims 4

According to the AP- this incident in Whitehall-OH involved 4 lives: the father, mother and their 2 children- ages 8 & 6.

What to do? What to do?

Family murder-suicides are becoming an epidemic!

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Decreasing Half-Lives For KC-MO Radio Systems

In the early 1960's- KC-MO had a VHF (Very High Frequency) radio system for it's police- fire and other city departments.


That radio system was reliable but 30 years later by the early 1990's- it was reported that parts for the VHF system were getting hard to find and that the city's radio system needed an upgrade.


In the early to mid 1990's- Kansas City-MO spent nearly $50-million on a new- 800mhz-trunk radio system including new radios for every cop and firefighter.


MAST-EMS was not included in the upgrade.


After numerous technical delays- including re-placement of transmitting and receiving towers- the new trunked system came on-line in the mid-90's. The system continued to suffer sporatic technical problems through the turn of the century.


At one time- the city was going to sue the radio system's installer- Ericsson. It's unknown what ever became of any settlement.


Now KC-MO wants a NEW radio system- and the claim is lack of availability of parts (software) and occasional failures (software- ill-placed towers) of this $50-million system- according to this story TODAY from The KANSAS CITY STAR..


The old system lasted about 30 years- the new system at around $50-million lasts (according to city officials) about 15 years- so we can extrapolate any NEW system to last what- 7 years?


The present radio system works just fine- I know- I listen to it enough.


If the Federal government wants people shifted off a certain radio spectrum- the Feds can PAY for those conversions out of the money made selling those radio spectrums to private corporations.


Kansas City-MO can't afford to replace $50-million radio systems every decade!

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Kansas City's Declining Neighborhoods - Loma Vista West

This was a neighborhood of mostly ranch-style homes- built in the late 1950's.



Occupied by the homes' owners- the 'hood began declining in the 1990's when HUD began acquiring properties.


Now probably more than half the homes here are rentals- as in evidence by the crap people leave at the curb when they move out. Yards are unmowed- snow unshovelled- etc..



This crap has been by the curb of this empty house on the southeast corner of 86th Street and Winchester for nearly 2 weeks now.

I'm calling the KC-MO Action Center about it this morning to see what the city will do about the trash these people left behind.



It's just another sign of the times where people seem to have no respect for themselves or others- and once-nice neighborhoods in KC-MO go to hell on the empty words of so much politician lip-service.

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Michigan WW-2 Vet Freezes To Death By Court Order

LINK TO STORY

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House Republicans Defeat Digital TV Conversion Delay

So your unprepared analog television WILL turn to snow as advertised ad-nauseam on February 17.

But then- poor people don't give much to the Republican Party....

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Five Mass Family Killings In A Year Worries Southern California Authorities

The latest murder-suicides came from a Los Angeles suburb.

The latest was yesterday's Wilmingon-CA killings that left a family of 5 dead.

The murderer-father Ervin Lupoe who turned the gun on himself after the killings- had faxed his reasons and intents to a LA TV station- according to the Associated Press story.

The father and his wife reportedly had been recently fired from their jobs over some misrepresentation regarding child care.

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Metro K.C. BREAKING NEWS: "Small Fire" At Oak Park Mall

Overland Park and Lenexa-KS fire companies were sent to a reported fire in the back room of a business "next to Dillards on the second level" of the Oak Park Mall around 11:35am Wednesday morning.

At 11:44am- an OPFD fire official says there was a "small fire that activated and was put out by the sprinkler system" at the address of 11675 West 95th Street.

There have been no reports of any injuries- and firefighters are currently ventilating the smoke

It took until 11:50am to shut down the sprinkler system- so water cleanup for sure with damage likely.

The fire was reported under control at 11:53am..


An investigation to determine what caused the fire is underway too.

Oak Park Mall is Metro Kansas City's largest enclosed shopping mall.

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That Wuz The Past Two Weeks That Wuz

Talk about crappy...

Friday- January 16 an Independence woman aiming her ghetto-cruising SUV aimlessly smashes into the side of my van just 2 days out of the shop with almost $500 of work done- rendering Harry (my van) undrivable.
Going on the 2nd week now without ANY transportation and the Independence woman's insurance company- American Family- can even tell me or my insurance company- Allstate- whether their no-driver is insured or not.

IF that other driver is NOT insured- I have to play cop and fill out the Missouri uninsured motorist form on the OTHER driver and send it in myself.

As far as Allstates' reaction to all this? Slow- even though we have full coverage.

The insurance companies sure as HELL are fast to take YOUR money- but damn slow to pay out or expediate your claim when the time comes and the customer's in need.

We're all in shaky hands there.

Item No. 2 is my paycheck. I'm on automatic pay. It's been that way with every employer I've had since 1991 and it's been this way with my current employer since 2004.

The check was a week late in arriving- so I contact my employer- only to find out THEY changed the game to requiring "an invoice" and didn't even bother to show me the respect and/or common decency to TELL ME IN ADVANCE.


Don't call me anytime soon to go out- 'cause my dance card is full for awhile.

Wish I'd taken that law school scholarship now....

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Independence-MO City Manager Arrested For Drunk Driving

A politician got drug tested by police Tuesday.

The politician (unelected - but a polly all the same) was Independence-MO city manager Robert Heacock and the testing agency was the Lee's Summit Police department.
According to the LSPD- Heacock was caught driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.09- above the "legal" limit of DWI by 0.01.

Will Heacock: 1) pay a stiff fine- 2) do any jail time- 3) resign his position of considerable responsibility or will Heacock be 4) treated like an upper-class citizen and not have to be subject to 1 through 3?

Stay tuned....

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Five Dead In Another L.A.-Area Murder-Suicide

This doesn't top the Demented Santa- but the AP reports 5 are dead in Wilmington-CA- about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles in what police there are calling a murder-suicide.

Police also reported children among the dead.

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K.C. MetroRegion WEATHER: Out Goes Snow - In Comes Cold

Light snow continues to fall off and on throughout Metro Kansas City and very light snow and/or freezing drizzle continues over much of our MetroRegion.

Clicking on the following images- you can see the visible satellite photos in various stages of resolution - as well as the NWS Doppler weather radar image from Topeka-KS that covers Metro K.C. quite well thankewvurrymuch.

You can't see most of the very light precip on radar even though the radar is in it's most sensitive mode. But a band of blue you see from southern Johnson through Miami into Franklin counties in KS bears watching as that indicates a heavier precip area.

At any rate- the atmospheric systems causing the precip is moving away and taking it's dynamics with it.
So by late evening- the precip should end from northwest to southeast across the MetroRegion and colder air pushes in on gusty northwesterly winds.

We're lucky.
Folks from Oklahoma and northern Texas into the Ohio Valley are experiencing an ice storm. Northern Arkansas and south to southeastern Missouri's been hit pretty hard by 3/4 to 1-1/2-inches of ice and many are without power down there.

GOOD NEWS: The temperature should finally rise above freezing just in time for the coming weekend- with temps around or slightly above average through early next week- so say the weather charts I'm looking at.

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Oil Companies' Shameless Greed

Even though as I type this the price of a barrel of oil is DOWN to $42.96- prices for a gallon of gasoline in Metro Kansas City went UP overnight to around $1.74 ($1.739).

Leading the way was our own local greed-monger- Quik Trip- who HAS to be the fastest fingers on the draw when it comes to raising gas prices locally.

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My Wish For Rush Limbaugh

I don't listen to this clown like ever. But my spies tell me that Herr Limbaugh apparently hopes President Obama "fails."

That's really odd- because for YEARS now I have wished that Dumb- Fat Idiot Limbaugh would fail too.

I believe that wishes CAN come true!

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Space - The Final Resting-Place

This will be the voyage of the remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry died December 18- 2008 and I missed it- but both remains will be launched into space forever by Celestis Inc.- "a company that specializes in "memorial spaceflights"- according to the Associated Press.

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You Can BUY Them Here- But Don't LIGHT Them Here

No- no- I'm not talking about society's hypocrisy with tobacco products- I'm talking about Jackson County-MO fireworks.

Our non-ethically-bound county legislature has approved the SALE of fireworks in Jackson County but- the KANSAS CITY STAR story notes- you cannot LIGHT those fireworks if local laws do not allow.

And local laws don't even allow fireworks to be shot-off in unincorporated Jackson County- but hey- you'll be able to BUY the gunpowder goodies there.

Uh-huh....

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Another Monster Truck Fatality

This death was during a show in Madison-WI and it wasn't a spectator that died- but the show's promoter- George Eisenhart Jr..

The guy walked into the path of one of the monster trucks during the show- according to the Associated Press.

THIS time- the show was halted. Week before last- a similar show continued in Tacoma-WA after a boy in the stands was killed by flying monster truck debris.

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Jackson County-MO Legislators Get Ethical Target Painted On Them

Or- perhaps more accurately- a non-ethical target.

The Jackson County Legislature and it's ELECTED pollys finds themselves defending their lack of ethical oversight.
Fellow K.C. blogger Dan over at GONE MILD continues to hold these non-drug-tested politicians' feet to the fire over this issue.

I'm not that concerned about Jackson County pollys ethics now- for I like the rest of the populace will respond come the next Legislature election.

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President Obama Declares War On Foreign Energy Use

In a speech broadcast live from Washington DC- President Obama has stressed his insistence that America ween itself off foreign energy sources.

It sounds as though Obama is serious- we've heard this "energy independence" spiel before- starting with President Nixon.

America needs to follow through now- hard to do when municipalities are cutting public transit routes while raising fares for less coverage.

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MetroRegion K.C. WEATHER: Winter Weather South

Counties in our western through eastern MetroRegion are included in NWS-issued Winter Weather Advisories.

At this time Metro Kansas City counties are not included.

Included are Kansas communities such as Lawrence- Ottawa- Garnett- Paola- Osawatomie and Mound City.

In Missouri: Harrisonville- Butler- Nevada- Clinton- Warrensburg- Sedalia and Marshall are in this Winter Weather Advisory.
Two to 4 inches of snow are expected by Tuesday afternoon in the above areas.

If you live from eastern Oklahoma through northern Arkansas and southern to southeastern Missouri- an Ice Storm Warning is in effect through Tuesday.

Ice accumulations are expected to range from 1/2 to inch. This WILL cause power outtages and tree damage.

More here as updated....

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