A Satellite And Radar Look At Tropical Storm Fay

Centered over northwestern Lake Okeechobee in South Florida- Tropical Storm Fay appears to have a small eye on radar. This eye feature is not visible on the satellite images of Fay however.

Fay will continue to move north- then erratic movement of the storm is forecast- back west
possibly into the Gulf of Mexico later this week- where it could regain strength.

Keep tuned....

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Powell Garden's Butterfly Showcase

Last Sunday- Ms. Rittenhouse- her daughter- granddaughter and I went to the 2008 Festival of Butterflies at Powell Gardens.

For those of you who have never been there- Powell Gardens is a nature retreat located on U.S. 50 in extreme northwestern Johnson County MO..Like the Kauffman Memorial Gardens here in K.C.- Powell Gardens contains a phethora of flowers and fauna native to the Central States- along with other more exotic varieties.

There is also a variety of sculptures and statuary throughout the Garden.


There's a trolley service on weekends- for Powell Gardens is quite expansive with a number of walking trails. There is a chapel available for weddings
and such- also a picnic area just inside the main gate.

But this particular time it was the beauty of butterflies that drew us and thousands of others the past 2 weekends.
I encourage my fellow citizens to support this beautiful gem of our Metro area- for they do not ask for taxpayer subsidies or tax relief.

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The Bullet Point on Metro Kansas City Public Transit

A post at the K.C. Light Rail.com blog tells of a Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) meeting to get public input on street-based- fuel-guzzling rapid bus lines.

The meeting was last night in Riverside at their City Hall starting at 7pm.

Irony? There's no bus service to that area after 7pm- according to the post.
I guess you had to DRIVE there to comment on ATA bus service. Uh-huh.

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Troubled Federal Agency That Guarantees Pensions Proposes Risky Plan

That Federal agency is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation or PBGC who underwrites and guarantees America's corporate pension plans.

The PBGC's bottom line is very shaky these days like everthing else financial. The PBGC redeems those pension plans gutted by corporate failures and greed.

The Associated Press reports a PBGC plan to increase it's liquidity- and the Government Accounting Office (GAO) thinks that plan is risky business.

The American taxpayer may well end up bailing-out the PBGC- as we apparently are about to bail-out that irresponsible twosome-Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac.

No ideas whatsoever from Washington how to bail-out we American taxpayers.....

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Skyrocketing Costs Hitting School Districts Hard

The super-inflation we're all suffering this election year has also hit your local school district hard- according to the Associated Press.

Due to continuing high fuel prices- some school districts are going to four-day weeks- others are cutting educational field trips and like activities.
Food costs are also severe. More than a few districts across America have been forced to raise the price of school lunches.

For the problem of high food prices- why don't school districts and other entities affected start vegetable gardens?

To address the fuel concerns- let more kids WALK to school. This will provide environmental solutions as well as helping American kids' obesity problems.

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When Analog TV Broadcasts End- So Does TV On Cell Phones- Portables

If you're one who likes watching TV shows on your itty-bitty cellphone screen- you won't like February 17- 2009.
According to this story by the Associated Press- cellphones will also become victim to the changeover from analog to digital television signals.

It's said that even if America's cellphones COULD pick up the digital signals- the way we are making the transition to digital TV would make reception difficult.

Many Americans are just now cluing into this transition- and not liking the things they hear about no-more analog.

Many of us will have to rely on corporate AM radio instead of our portable TVs in case of a power outage after next February.

This will be one HUGE step backward as most all AM stations don't even HAVE "local" news anymore.

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Tropical Storm Fay Could Become Hurricane Before Striking West Florida

That's what the NWS' National Hurricane Center (NHC) says.

The storm is shown on this visible satellite pic- centered around Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

According to the NHC latest forecast track- the storm will move over western Cuba and intensify once it enters the warm S.E. Gulf of Mexico waters.
People along the entire western Florida coast as well as the Panhandle should make preparations now.

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Metro Kansas City News: Two Teens Injured- One Critically- In Rural JoCo-KS Wreck

Two teenaged females were injured- one critically- when the car they were in left the road near 199th Street and Beverly and crashed into a field around sunrise Saturday morning.

Both occupants were ejected from the car as it landed in the field. The vehicle was reportedly driven by a 16-year-old.

A passenger was found by rescue crews face down and unresponsive in a ditch. She- along with the driver- were taken to a JoCo-KS trauma center.

Police had reason to believe that the driver was under the influence when the crash occurred.

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Metro Kansas City News: Raytown Standoff Yields Armed Robbery Suspects

Kansas City-MO police tactical team members were called to assist the Raytown police around 12:20am Saturday morning.

Reportedly- Raytown PD had a house surrounded on 70th Terrace near Raytown Road that contained at least 2 armed robbery suspects.

Police made telephone contact with an occupant just before 1am- and about 20 minutes later at least 3 persons in that house exited and surrendered to police.

There were no injuries and police haven't said yet what armed robbery the suspects are accused of..

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The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Saturday, August 16, 2008

*** TWO DEAD IN OVERLAND PARK- KS ***

*** Two people are dead of reported gunshot wounds in the 5500 block of West 92nd Place in a call police received just after 1:45am Saturday morning.

Police won't say yet if this is a murder suicide- but one- then a 2nd victim was found at the residence there. Police are investigating as of this report.

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UPDATE- 1515 CDT- OPPD are now confirming this was a murder-suicide.

Police say a 21-year-old man shot and killed his father. The 21-year-old was initially found dead of a gunshot to the head in the front yard of the house near 92nd Place & Nall around 2am.

When officers went inside the residence- they found the father who had also been shot. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

There is no word yet on a possible motive in this rare Overland Park-KS murder-suicide.

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** ONE DEAD IN CLAY COUNTY-MO WRECK **

*** The Missouri Highway Patrol reports a 66-year-old woman driver was killed when her vehicle went off U.S. 69 into the Fishing River in Mosby late Friday night..

The Rayville-MO woman died at the scene after the 11:55pm crash. Her next of kin had not yet been notified as of this report- so her name is withheld here..

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

Temperatures in the 60's with light winds prevailed over the Kansas City MetroRegion overnight.

A lovely summer weekend in store- with highs in the low to middle-80's and lows in the 60's.

The next chance for any organized precipitation looks to be mid next week.

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Kansas City's Breaking News Leader - NBC41 ACTION NEWS.

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Alabama's Largest County Going Bankrupt

Jefferson County- which includes the City of Birmingham- has a $3.2-BILLION debt that it can't handle.

Voters in that county of around 658000 residents decide in November whether Jefferson County declares bankruptcy or not.

Two things strike me from the Associated Press story.

One is the fact that this would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history (the Orange County-CA failure in 1994 was less than $2-bil).

Thing two is one way the county got to bankruptcy- and we better pay heed to this- was the cost to separate their sanitary and stormwater sewer system.

Have a fine weekend everybody!

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