PLEASE - VOTE TODAY

Today is election day in many locales- please take a few minutes to participate in democracy (republic)!

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Tropical Storm Edouard Makes Landfall

It happened around 7am this morning (see- click on radar- satellite pix for full size).
Edouard hit the Gulf coast right around the Texas-Louisiana border near Beaumont-Port Arthur with below hurricane-force winds.

The storm is now inland northeast of Houston.

The storm will move northwest into Texas today- dumping heavy rain.

Keeping an eye on the remnants of Edouard to see if it will affect the Kansas City MetroRegion weather by weekend (remember Dolly?).

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Economy- Bad Customer Service Causes Ameristar Casinos To Slash Jobs

Not too long ago- I posted about Ameristar on how they'd botched a promotion and gave absolutely no reply- let alone satisfaction- to customer complaints.

Their indifferent/bad customer service to their "meat & potatoes" players rivals that of AT&T and Cricket.

Now- according to this KANSAS CITY STAR story- Ameristar is "laying off 31" of their K.C. casino employees. Ameristar announced they're cutting player comps as well.

That's the way- don't answer customer concerns then go ahead and cut their freebees.

Brilliant corporate move!

Ameristar: try better customer service- as well as cleaning up the place and getting machines that work.

Until then- there's always 3 other casinos as well as Kansas.

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KANSAS CITY Metro-MetroRegion WEATHER: "Slight RIsk" Of Severe Storms Through Thursday

The Storm Prediction Center has portions of the Kansas City Metro as well as the MetroRegion is a "slight risk" forecast area for possible severe thunderstorms into Thursday morning.

The greatest severe threat will be large hail- damaging winds and heavy- possibly flooding- rainfalls.

Check here at CSW or electronic media for the latest updates on this situation.

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METRO KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING NEWS: Head-on Wreck On U.S. 69 In Overland Park

There is a reported 2-vehicle "head-on" wreck on southbound U.S. 69 south of 87th Street in Overland Park.

Johnson County MedAct reports the 2 patients.

Both are the drivers a "25-year-old male" and "27-year-old female"- the latter driving an S-U-V that overturned.

Neither have reported life-threatening injuries.

Traffic is at a near standstill on southbound U.S. 69- all the way north to I-35 .

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Actor Morgan Freeman "Seriously-Injured" In A Car Crash

The popular actor is in a Memphis-TN hospital in serious condition- according to this AP story.
It's reported Mr. Freeman was driving a car near his home in rural southern Mississippi when he lost control and crashed.

No one else was in the car and no alcohol or drugs were involved.

Morgan Freeman is 71.

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CSW Review Of Peter Cetera At Crown Center Friday

It was the first show this year of the city-favorite Crown Center Free Concerts last Friday- featuring Peter Cetera and a local warm-up band Drew6.

Compliments of Ameristar Casino- a "free" meal of BBQ at the World's Best- Arthur Bryant's- Ms. Rittenhouse and I sauntered in with our blanket.

We videoed about 5 of Peter's tunes- imbedded here. Next time- I'll bring the tripod (g=grin).

The weather was a tad warm & humid- but WTF- it's summer in the Kosmic City. The Crown Center concert venue filled to the max by the time Drew6 came on just after 8pm.

These guys look & sound a lot like the big-hair rock bands of the 1980's- as they tout on their website.

The guys sounded pretty good- actually rockin' the house more than the featured performer would. A tepid response from the cheap seats- typical of K.C.'s laidback "L.A. In The Heartland" personality.

Darkness and only a slight breeze waifed through this urban setting when Peter Cetera and his band "Bad Daddies" took the stage.

Sound problems marred the opener "Restless Heart" and the next tune ("Glory Of Love") before the techies could get it right.You can see Peter in the opener video walking to the side of the stage several times to complain to a sound techie.

A few numbers into the show- Peter started talking about the duets he's sang with a number of female recording artists- and how he hasn't exactly gotten along with "some (one)" of them.

If you guessed Cher- you guessed right. He went on a bit about his relations with Cher then went into the song he did with Cher- "After All."

When the female part came up- backup singer Kim Keyes- sounding EXACTLY like Cher- got the crowd's immediate attention. Wish I had videoed this one.

In fact- Ms. Keyes filled-in the female vocal on all the duets sang this evening. The lady not only could sound like Cher- but Amy Grant (who Peter said "hates Kansas City" HeHe) as well on "Next Time I Fall."

Besides his duet solo hits- Peter and his band performed 4 CHICAGO-era songs- including "If You Leave Me Now" and "You're The Inspiration- songs he penned with the band.


Before I say what I'm going to say- it's qualified by my saying I have nothing against PC leaving the band.

However- Peter shouldn't do those CHICAGO songs that had lots of the horn parts.

They performed "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" from 1984's CHICAGO 17- no problem. But then PC and the band tried to do the end piece to that tune from the album- "Get Away"- a heavily horn-driven addition to "...Sorry" without horns.

It does not work Peter. Nor did that performance of "25 Or 6 To 4." Please stick to the CHICAGO tunes you wrote with few or no horns- or add them...

Of course- Peter performed his big hit "Glory Of Love" from the 1986 "Solitude/Solitaire" recording and soundtrack of the motion picture "Karate Kid-II."

All in all it was a fine evening and concert- once the sound problems and the emptiness of no brass on CHICAGO songs subsided.

Thank you Crown Center!

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Tropical Storm Edouard Could Become Hurricane Before Texas Landfall

Gulf of Mexico area weather forecasters are keeping a close watch on Edouard- located just below the Louisiana Gulf coast.

Here is the latest track forecast from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

This is the latest visible satellite picture of Edouard (click-on for full size) as well as 2 radar images- one taken earlier this morning and the last one more recent.

There is also a concern the remains of Edouard could affect the Central States weather later this week or this coming weekend.

The storm could produce more excessive rainfalls in or close to the Kansas City MetroRegion.

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Rural Fire Departments Face A Shortage Of Volunteers

Although I was on a paid- big-city fire department- I have long thought that the true heroes of the fire service were volunteers.

Volunteers face many of the same hazards- but perform their duties without or with little benefits or pay- they simply volunteer out of a sense of community.

This Associated Press story tells of the dearth of volunteer firefighters and EMS technicians in many rural areas of America.

Like relief from high fuel & food prices- don't expect any help anytime soon from Washington with the volunteer-less dilema.

The pollys are too busy trying to get their jobs back to actually DO anything....

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New Tropical Storm - Edouard- Off Louisiana Coast

A tropical storm named Edouard has developed off the coast of Louisiana- and is forecast to move westward to affect the upper and middle Texas Gulf coast.

Here is the latest satellite picture and NHC track forecast for Edouard.

Note that this storm is expected to reach NEAR hurricane strength upon landfall- perhaps somewhere between Houston & Corpus Christi- so stay tuned....

Also watching Edouard to see if his remains may affect the MetroRegion weather late this week and/or weekend.

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KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING NEWS: Violent Night In KC-MO

At least 6 people have been shot and at least one fatally in 2 overnight incidents in KC-MO..

The first incident was around 12:20am in the 4200 block of Tracy in Midtown.

Police followed 2 vehicles speeding from the scene to a hospital. Three victims were inside those vehicles- two reported to be in critical condition.

Moments later police arrive at the Tracy address- it's found to be a drive-by shooting.

There are 2 people shot there. One is a 45-year-old female in serious to critical condition- the other a 28-year-old male with minor wounds.

The only suspect information police had was a blue and white van .

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At 2:50 am- KC-MO police investigating a shots fired call find a man shot dead in what they report as "a botched carjacking attempt" on Armour just east of Main.

A passenger in the vehicle was not injured.

No other information yet on this incident.

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In other news-

A wall fell from a 3-story apartment building at 4130 Warwick in KC-MO around 1:45am Sunday morning.

No one was injured- but the building was evacuated and sealed-off until city inspectors could determine the building's structural integrity.

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A 27-year-old male has serious injuries after crashing his motorcycle in the 2600 block of Northwest Barry Road in KC-MO North just after 2am.

The man was not wearing a helmet.

The ambulance transporting this patient was at first diverted from one hospital- then had a tire blowout while enroute to another.

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KansasCity'sBreaking News Leader - NBC41 ACTION NEWS.

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