POLITICAL VANDALISM

My lowest regards to the person or persons that had to DRIVE into the yard to steal our MARK FUNKHOUSER FOR MAYOR sign.

Did you just like orange? You didn't touch the Al Brooks signs on this block.

Folks like ya-all are one of the reasons America is in the shape it's in.

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

THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT NEWS ITEMS OVERNIGHT
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***OVERNIGHT WEATHER***

Mid to high level cloud cover kept overnight temperatures in the low to mid-60's - more like May readings. Light breezes from the south kept Gulf moisture in place - where it will remain.

Temperatures more like mid-May will prevail until Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week - then a storm/frontal system will come into play - providing a chance for severe thunderstorms and a return to more normal highs around 60 degrees by next weekend.

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First with Kansas City Metro Region Breaking News - KSHB NBC41 ACTION NEWS.
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The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Saturday, March 24, 2007

***KC, KS. CAR WRECK VICTIM FOUND DEAD OF A GUNSHOT***
KC-KS Fire & EMS units were called to what was dispatched as a car wreck in the 3600 block of North 47th Street at 0411 CDT. What they found was the male driver dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

Police soon arrived, cordoned off the scene and called for investigators.
Police also would like to talk to the person that reported the crash "at 4:02" am by cellphone for any possible further informaton they may have.
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**HOME INVASION AND ASSAULT IN MERRIAM, KS**
A call was received here at News & Weather Central of an assault victim at was is apparently a criminal home invasion in the 8600 block of West 54th Terrace.
There was no report on the extent of injuries to the victim and police continued to investigate as of this report.
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**FIRES DAMAGES A VACANT HOUSE IN KC - A FIRE ALARM CAUSE INJURY TO A GLADSTONE, MO RESIDENT**

Five fire companies were rousted from bed at 0511 CDT to go fight a vacant house fire in the 2100 block of East 82nd Terrace.
The glow of flames illuminated the "1-story" structure when fire trucks first pulled up. The firefight was hindered by 3 dead fire hydrants in closest proximity to the fire.
The pyre is quelled by 0535 CDT with no injuries. Cause suspicious and under investigation.

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Just after 0400 CDT, GLADSTONE fire companies responded on an automatic fire alarm at a elderly-care facility in the 3000 block of N.E. 64th Street.
The call was a false alarm - but an elderly woman fell down some stairs during the fire alarm evacuation and had to be taken to a hospital.
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*POLICE PURSUITS RESULT IN AT LEAST 6 ARRESTS - NO INJURIES TO INNOCENTS*

The first chase started around 0130 CDT in south KC-MO.
An officer spotted a Cadillac with 3 possible male suspects of a shots-fired call in the Ruskin Heights area westbound on Bannister near I-435.
Speeds reached as high as 90 miles-per-hour as the suspect fled west on Bannister, then noth on Holmes where they bailed-out of the Caddy around 92nd Street and Charlotte.
The male driver was soon captured - and after an about 30-minute search by hound & helicopter - the other two were caught.
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The next chase was around 0220 CDT by a JOHNSON COUNTY KS. Sheriff's deputy of a car in southern OVERLAND PARK.
The pursuit is joined in progress southbound on Antioch from 139th Street- at speeds of "65-70" m.p.h..
The male driver with his female passenger turned west on 147th Street and stopped and attempted to flee at Carter. Both occupants were arrested.
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A brief chase on I-35 got the vehicle stopped & the possible suspect of a multiple-shots fired incident in OLATHE, KS. arrested around 0225 CDT.

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Around 0520 CDT, a KC-KS officer tried to "catch up with a car doing at least 100" on northbound I-635 approaching the Missouri River. The officer terminated the chase when it crossed the state line.
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*NOT ONLY BLOW-TORCH LINGERIE*

Shortly after 0630 CDT Saturday morning, police report a call from an employee of "the Victoria's Secret store in Zona Rosa" northwest of the interchange of I-29 & Barry Road.
The caller reported that "someone tried to dis-assemble an A.T.M. with a blow-torch."
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***OVERNIGHT WEATHER***

Clouds, occasional showers and continued mild and humid weather prevailed overnight.
Temperatures stayed around the 60-degree mark with light southerly breezes- pumping up Gulf of Mexico moisture.

The heaviest precipitaion in the form of thunderstorms stayed in the western and northern parts of the MetroRegion.

Scattered showers- maybe some thunder - over the next 24 hours - but warm.

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

Your attention to the center ring please.

Ringmaster Barnes would like to make The Funk Man disappear with emails.

The ringmaster will then hoist herself on her own petard.

One thin dime - one-tenth of a dollar (free admittance for TIF lawyers and developers).

Please,
VOTE NEXT TUESDAY FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS!

VOTE FOR MARK FUNKHOUSER FOR MAYOR.


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BARNES GOES BALLISTIC

In yet another episode of Bizarro Kansas City, Mayor 'Briarcliff' Barnes about blew a gasket over the T.I.F. performance audit just released.

Barnes is trying to blame mayorial candidate Mark Funkhouser for HER and the present City Council (Al Brooks included of course) putting the city on the verge of bankruptcy.

In one of the most lack-of-class performances I've seen in years, Barnes has the nerve to tell the citizenry that the audit numbers are WRONG - and that somehow, someway, Funkhouser has manipulated the audit report.

Mayor Barnes- how much of this bullshit do you expect the citizens of this city to believe???

Funkhouser has tried to warn the Mayor and her do-my-bidding City Council (Al Brooks included of course) that they were running the city into financial ruin, but Barnes turns around and draws a line in the sand - and sticks her head right into it.


This mayorial election is all about responsible leadership. Nothing more.

Tax-increment financing (TIF) was originally intended for blighted INNER-CITY areas. Mayor, is your Briarcliff neighborhood inner-city blighted????

Oh, and you are only into us taxpayers for $86 million instead of nearly $200 million?

Al Brooks SAT on that City Council for 8 years and LET his fellow council people do this.

Oh- and what has Mr. Brooks- ON the Council for 8 years now- done about this city's crime rate?

Pontification and candle vigils.

Giving tax monies to upscale developments sure provides a lot of security (police) for the crime-ridden inner-city.

And what are YOU doing about crime Al?

WORST PRESIDENT EVER ASKS FOR "PATIENCE"

Or did he say "patients?"
As in those "honored soldiers" seeking to have their bodies and minds put together at places like Walter Reed or any V.A hospital in the country.

Heh- your government sure cares about your injuries eh patriot? "Go away, deal with it." Next life, get a good education before you join the military.

Or at LEAST talk to a veteran of another government fiasco FIRST.


I saw SOME citizen outrage this past weekend - but I wonder - how could ANYBODY in their right mind actually be SUPPORTING this war?

Yep- there were actually people protesting the anti-war protesters!


This nation- and it's people - have lost it's and their collective grip on reality and I'm needing a stiff drink.

The Kansas City MetroRegion Overnight News and Weather Report - Sunday, March 18, 2007

**GRANDVIEW, MO. STABBING KILLS A MAN**

Grandview police, fire & EMS were called to the 3600 block of Blue Ridge at 12:10 am on a reported stabbing in the parking lot of an apartment complex there.

When police arrived they found an apparent altercation had taken place.
The victim was critically wounded and died several hours later at an area trauma center.
One person was taken into police custody from the scene.
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**CRITICAL-INJURY WRECK AFTER INDEPENDENCE, MO POLICE CHASE**
A 2-vehicle wreck at U.S. 24 and Noland Road after a "police chase" according to AMR-EMS paramedics just after 1 a.m. resulted in critical injuries to a young adult male.

Reportedly the car would not stop at a police checkpoint and - "at a speeds around 80 m.p.h. T-boned (side-collided) with another car" according to AMR.

The critically-injured male reportedly had no pulse at the scene. He was taken to a nearby trauma center.

The female driver of the vehicle being pursued - heard sobbing on radio transmissions- was not badly hurt and taken to another hospital.
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*FIRES DAMAGE BUILDINGS IN LAWRENCE, KS & BLUE SPRINGS, MO.*

The fire in Lawrence heavily-damaged offices in a 2-story building in the 1900 block of West 25th Street just after midnight.
Flames were showing when the first fire truck arrived - and a 2nd-alarm was sounded.
The fire was reported under control at 12:20 am and no injuries occurred.
The cause was under investigation.

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Flames broke out in the bedroom of a residential structure in the 500 block of N.E. 6th Street in Blue Springs around 5:20 am Sunday morning.
The occupants escaped unharmed - but extra fire department assistance was needed to bring the fire under control an hour later.
No one was hurt and the cause of this fire is being investigated.

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* OVERNIGHT WEATHER *

It became cloudy early Sunday morning with brisk easterly breezes that made temperatures around the freezing mark seem like as low as the lower-20's at dawn.

The coming week will be a wet one with several chances of showers and thunderstorms all week. There is some chance for severe thunderstorms by mid to late week. Temperatures will once again warm to near or as much as 15-degrees above normal by mid-week.

Spring officially begins Wednesday, March 21.

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First with Kansas City Metro Region Breaking News - KSHB NBC41 ACTION NEWS.
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WE WANT THE T.I.F. PERFORMANCE AUDIT RELEASED NOW!

More and more people are becoming aware that this report has been held.

More and more KC VOTERS are becoming suspect the REASON the report is being held is strictly political.

And ALL of them know Al Brooks is ON the present council and are putting this one plus one proposition together.

Mr. Funkhouser - THIS is YOUR issue! You need to harp unfailingly on this lack of release of the report.

THE PEOPLE ARE LISTENING!

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Now Playing

The music we hear is the fabric upon which many of our lives is sewn. In late 1969, I happened to first see who would become that fabric in mine.

On a cold, rainy September day, guitar licks from somebody who many said "sounded like Hendrix" drew us to the stage at the KC International Raceway grounds.


Chicago Transit Authority would become simply Chicago the next year. According to many 'ex-fans,' the band would become too commercial in another four. The guy who sounded like Hendrix - Terry Kath - would die in less than 9 years from that September day.

Yet their music became the music of my life - the raiser of spirit and the searcher of soul.


Ladies and gentlemen - for those of you who have loved and lost - I dedicate to you ...
Thunder And Lightning

(From Chicago 14. ©1980 Words and Music by Robert Lamm, Danny Seraphine and Peter Cetera)

I thought, that you thought, that we thought,
We were bound to each other;
But it's not that way, we don't care
About one another;
Thunder and lightning, showed me all
The threats you weren't saying;
Thunder and lightning,
Gonna' throw it all away;

Thunder and lightning, and you touched
My life without warning;
Oh how I loved you, you loved me,
Now, what are we thinking?
Thunder and lightning, will burn you
Just as sure as I'm singing;
Thunder and lightning,
Didn't know our love would end this way;

You got your way, we're to blame,
but that's okay;
Another time, another place,
It's one more game;
After all is said and done,
we'll overcome,
The psychological setback of a time on the run;

It hurt to see you play games that
Were so one-sided,
I dealt the cards but the aces
Were in your back pocket;
Thunder and lightning, won't let you
Alone 'til I'm paying;
Thunder and lightning,
Didn't know our love could end this way.

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Daffodils

There's a place at Longview Lake where I take my walks that, for many years, has served as an excellent harbinger of spring.

Evidentally once the location of a homestead, this patch of ground is literally overflowing with the first flower of spring.

Their cheery, bright-yellow blooms wave in a welcomingly-warm breeze full of anticipation of the coming season.

It seems the soul of every living thing is replenished - you can almost feel the electricity in the air as if it were the opening night of a new Broadway show.

There can be no doubt that Spring is a special season. New life, new hope.

We surely cannot be so consumed with personal affairs or the affronts of society at such a time. We must all find our little place that fills our souls, brings us inner peace.

Such a simple flower as the daffodil makes me realize how life is so fragile and fleeting and yet so beautiful. No wonder Spring is my favorite season.


Thank you Mother Earth, Mother Nature!



In memory of Maynard Pierce & Jeff Kessler.

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