House Burns In Johnson County MO

Firefighters from at least 5 departments battled a lived-in house fire in northwestern Johnson County MO early Saturday morning.

The alarm went out at 1:15 am for the 600 block of Northwest 1801 Road where a "shed was fully-engulfed" in flames.

The fire quickly spread to the back of the residence- and Elm with Western District fire crews needed help. Two units from Jackson County's Lone Jack FPD also responded.

The fire wasn't declared under control until 2:34 am- but no injuries have been reported.

An investigation as to the fire's cause is underway.

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SUV Crash In Independence MO Injures Two

Independence MO emergency services report that at around 1:25 am Saturday morning- a sport utility vehicle with 2 occupants struck a tree on Jones Road nead Bundschu.



Reports are the SUV was going around "40-50 MPH" when it left the roadway.

AMR-EMS transported the "19-year-old female driver" and "21-year-old male passenger" to a local hospital in serious condition.

A paramedic told CSW neither occupant was wearing a seatbelt and no air bags went off.

IPD is investigating the wreck.

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Lenexa-KS 'City Center' Developer Files For Bankruptcy

As the "recession (depression) improves" (- more and more developers are biting the dust.

The latest bankruptcy involves Shawnee Village Associates- a developer of Lenexa's City Center project where all construction activity has come to a grinding halt.

In addition- a KC-MO firm that abandoned the core city for Lenexa's greener pastures aren't getting the developer's promises fullfilled and could leave their new building- according to the KANSAS CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL..

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Snowstorm In Houston Texas

Yeah- it got down into the teens this morning here in the Kansas City MetroRegion- but the sun is strong right now and the ground is clear.

Not the case in Houston- where you can see by this TransStar traffic camera just east of downtown- it's snowing heavily.

We should see our FIRST snowflakes later Sunday- with a 'significant' snowstorm still on tap for Tuesday in our MetroRegion.

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American Corporations' 'Dead Buildings'

We see it all over towns and cities across America- businesses that seemingly out-grow their old locations and build new structures- often with TIFs (corporate welfare)-leaving their old buildings behind.


In Metro Kansas City- this is common with corporations like Walmart and Quiktrip- with Walmart being one of the worst in abandoning their old locations and leaving them to rot.

Walmart eyesores abound locally- the 2 best examples being the old Supercenter in the 9300 block of Hillcrest in south KC-MO and in Raytown- at 67th Street and Blue Ridge.

Tax subsidies were issued by both cities for the world's biggest corporation to leave their old buildings where they were for new structures.

South KC-MO's Walmart was replaced- with taxpayer subsidies- by the new location at the old Blue Ridge Mall at U.S. 40 and Sterling.

The OLD Walmart on Hillcrest along with the Benjamin Plaza strip center slides into an unsightly un-attraction for motorists on busy I-435- not to mention area residents.

A planned development for the old Bannister Mall area that once included a new soccer stadium for the Kansas City Wizards will likely never be built in my lifetime.

Meanwhile Raytown's old Walmart on busy Blue Ridge- along with the strip shopping center that it anchored- becomes a civic eyesore while Raytown's new Walmart on Missouri-350 could cost that Jackson County city's taxpayers millions of dollars in corporate welfare.

It's not nearly as bad with Quiktrip- most of their old locations are bought by smaller convenience-store chains.

What burns me is why don't cities DEMAND that old locations are either sold or demolished before corporate welfare is issued for new locations?

Both Walmart cases I have mentioned here have resulted in or at the very least continues the declines of the surrounding neighborhoods with their abandoned- crumbling buildings.

Cities where corporations want to leave old locations for new ones and corporate welfare is involved should INSIST that old locations be sold or leveled before ANY 'welfare' kicks in.

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British Couple Make X-Rated Movies To Pay For Wedding

In our never-ending search to bring you the news- I sometimes come across stories like these...

Australia's TASMANIAN MERCURY reports a British couple who wanted a "dream (expensive) wedding"- decided to make porn movies to raise the money needed for their nuptuals.


As one commenter on the story said- wonder what the couple's future children would think of their parent's 'home movies?'

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Significant Snowstorm Possible In K.C. MetroRegion Early Next Week

In meteorology circles- winter actually begins on December 1st.



We'd not have long to wait as it turns out- with sub-freezing temperatures becoming prevalent locally within 2 days of that date and now- according to a surprising agreement among operational weather models- a major snowstorm possible a week into December.



Right now- it appears a low pressure/storm system will intensify over the southern Rockies by Monday- moving across the Kansas City MetroRegion.



The image here is one of the model-run forecast periods for next Tuesday.



The blue lines are air temperatures (converted to degrees Fahrenheit) that shows the freezing line south of Kansas City and even colder air temperatures over the far northern portions of the MetroRegion.



The green shading indicates precipitation- snow- with the darker green area on this forecast map right over the Metro K.C. region.



Other forecast periods both before and after this map's forecast indicate snow could possibly begin in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday morning and continue in varying intensities until early Wednesday morning.



The Topeka NWS office are already indicating that "4 to 8-inches" of snow could occur in east-central Kansas Tuesday- and that amount can be extrapolated into Metro Kansas City.



Bear in mind this storm is still about 5 days away- with even a much-lesser snow chance here on Sunday with another weaker system.



This is just a heads-up for the early-next-week storm possibility- with updates here at CSW as needed with updates on the looming storm.

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Jeanne Lou Meyer 1931-2009

Operations on this blog are suspended UFN due to the passing of my mother this morning.

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Afghanistan War To Be Escalated

What DIDN'T work for the Soviets in the 1980's apparently does not apply to the United Corporate States (UCS).

President Obama is slated to go on TV Tuesday night to convince this recession (depression)-battered populace that he's sending MORE troops to that 19-century-like nation.

Never mind the sheer cost of all that added to our too-bloated national deficit- nor the loss of Ameica's most important resource: our young men & women.

Neither America- nor the rest of the industrialized world for that matter- can stop terrorism. As I've said on this blog before- when you have nothing- you have nothing to lose.

America would have FAR more success cutting each Afghani a check for a new house- big screen and car.

It would probably cost the American taxpayers FAR less and save a lot of people's sons and daughters- on BOTH sides....

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Snow Wednesday?

The new weather model runs are advertising a snowstorm developing over Missouri on Wednesday.

Right now- it appears that Metro Kansas City is on the northwestern edge of this developing storm- but the models have been all over the place for the past week- so we probably won't know until later tomorrow (Tuesday) if we'll get any of this or not.

Worse- my big-frame office computer is down and I'm relegated to Ms. Rittenhouse's "backup"- so I'm a bit hampered by graphics- etc..

Hopefully- we're back up on the office rig (power supply) before Wednesday but if not- at least I can run downstairs with a handfull of maps- radios & the industrial-sized cup-o-hot drink.

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Oops- That Was A Fatality Structure Fire In KC-KS

Well- I first reported the fire in Kansas City KS earlier this Sunday morning- but what I didn't hear was that firefighters later found a body inside an apartment there.


My most-able colleagues at KSHB-41 Action News report that a "53-year-old man was found (dead) by firefighters near a smoldering mattress"


The victim's name has not been released- the fire caused about "$10000" in damage and the investigation results as to the cause was still pending.

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