Lebo KS Fire Victims Identfied

The four victims in a Saturday dawn blaze that swept their mobile home in the east-central town of Lebo Kansas have been identified.

According to the TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL- 25-year-old Michael O'Clair, 28-year-old Heather Super, 5-year-old Tafani Merrell, and 2-year-old Taylan Super all died in the mobile home fire in the 300 block of South Maple in Lebo.

Coffey County Fire District 1 crews and law officers responded to the fire at 6:22 a.m. Saturday morning and couldn't make entry into the heavily-involved dwelling until the fire was under control.

A cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

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MetroRegion Kansas City KCPL Power Outages as of 5 PM Saturday

Thousands of Kansas City MetroRegion customers of the Kansas City Power & Light Company are without electrical power at this hour late Saturday afternoon.

The map image- provided by KCP&L- shows the outages mostly caused by this morning and noon hour's thunderstorms that produced wind gusts as high as hurricane-force near St. Joseph.

More thunderstorms have developed in north-central Kansas- and a tornado watch is in effect for much of northern Kansas and southern Nebraska for Saturday night.

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Four Killed in Kansas MetroRegion Mobile Home Fire

Early Saturday morning- firefighters in Lebo and Coffey county KS were called to a mobile home fire.

KVOE-AM in Emporia and the Associated Press are reporting that firefighters were called to the fire around 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning- and once the fire was under control went inside the burned mobile home and found the 4 victims- 2 adults and 2 children.

The victim's names- and any other information about this fire is not yet being released by the Coffey county Sheriff's depatment.


Lebo- a town of just under 1000 people- is along Interstate-35 east of Emporia and is about 75 miles southwest of Downtown Kansas City MO..

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National Flood Outlook Graphic - June 19 2010

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"Devastated" Over America's Oily Gulf of Mexico- BP's Hayward Goes Yachting With The Rich

Certainly no one ASKED British Petroleum to trash America's Gulf of Mexico coast with oil.

So Tony Hayward- with all the stress of this oil gusher nearly a mile under the Gulf's surface- what to do- WHAT TO DO?


Well- unlike those "small" people devastated by BP's fuck-up- Hayward wanted HIS "life back-" so Hayward goes to a yacht race in Great Britain composed of mostly large (rich) people.


Americans should put a lien on Hayward's $700000 rowboat and put the damn thing in the Gulf to help with the oil cleanup....

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CSW WEATHER: Severe T-storm Watch No. 347 Until 5 a.m. Saturday- KS-MO-IL-IN

The Storm Prediction Center issued Severe Thunderstorm Watch No. 347 until 5 a.m. CDT for central- eastern and northern parts of the Kansas City MetroRegion.


In Kansas- only Leavenworth- Wyandotte and Johnson counties are in the watch.

In Missouri- all Metro counties- Buchanan on the north and Cass on the south and counties eastward are included in ST Watch No. 347.


The NWS weather radar image shown here from the Pleasant Hill MO site shows a line of storms from Doniphan county Kansas eastward across St. Joseph- Cameron and east-northeast.

This line is due to sag into northern parts of the Metro over the next hour- and slowly progress southward.

Be alert for torrential rainfall with this slow-moving storm line as well as a lot of lightning.

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Strange Photo Juxtapositions No. 167

Major league baseball portrays it's product as clean- All-American family fun.

The Chicago Cubs' image is clearly among the top-echelon baseball organizations in America purveying the notion of baseball- Mom and the American Flag.


But even Superman Dad needs a break after getting a 2nd mortage to buy the family tickets- loading everybody/everything up and making the long trek to the ballpark- enduring the game and most concessions times 3- then having the hometeam lose and everybody gets rained on.

Gentleman's club INDEED!

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Law Enforcement Concerned About Live Internet Broadcast of Police Tactical Operation

On June 7- police were surrounding a home in Blue Rapids KS in a standoff with a man who had shot a Marshall county sheriff's deputy and was holding the home's elderly female occupant hostage.

The man- 43-year-old Stephen Macomber of Topeka- was already wanted for murdering a Topeka man and robbing an Omaha-area bank in the days prior.


According to a story in The MARYSVILLE (KS) ADVOCATE written by Katelynn Hasler- quite a number of the area's residents were able to listen to police radio communications of the standoff on an Internet website.

Radio Reference.com apparently had a live scanner audio feed from a contributor in Kansas that was receiving broadcasts of sensitive tactical-operation information- and that has some law enforcement officials in the state concerned about the practice.


(NOTE: CSW does not re-transmit in any way ANY live police- fire or EMS radio broadcasts nor relay ANY potentially sensitive information gathered except to legitimate news organizations in the name of the First Amendment of the United States of America.)

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Corporate Welfare-Supported- Unfinished and Bankrupt KC-MO Plaza "West Edge" Project Headed For Auction

There are current KC-MO City Council members that approved the Tax-Increment Financing (TIF i.e. corporate welfare) for Bob Bernstein's West Edge fantasy.

The project went bankrupt- sits uncompleted and- according to this story in The KANSAS CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL- the property could well be auctioned-off with no floor- or minimum bid.


There's no mention in the KCBJ story telling how much this corporate welfare fiasco will cost KC-MO taxpayers- but then again it seems the City (Clowncil) has plenty of taxpayer's money to throw down holes (see proposed convention hotel pending-disaster).

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MetroRegion K.C. Weather: "Moderate Risk" of Severe Storms in Northern MetroRegion Today

The moderate risk area as outlined by the NWS' Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is generally along and north of U.S. 36 highway- including Atchison KS and cities such as St. Joseph- Maryville- Chillicothe- Kirksville- Bethany and Trenton- and the moderate risk lasts until about 7 a.m. Saturday morning.


Metro Kansas City and the southern areas of the MetroRegion are in a "slight risk" area for severe thunderstorms.


Primary severe threats today are large hail and winds of 58 m.p.h. or greater and- as is the risk with any severe thunderstorm- isolated tornadoes- especially in the moderate risk area.

More a threat will be torrential rainfalls that could produce deadly flash flooding- or at the very least exacerbate present flood conditions.

There's also a "slight risk" for severe storms Saturday through early Sunday from Metro Kansas City northward.

CSW will man the overnight hours Saturday and Sunday morning to let you know if any severe weather threatens the Metro.

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Minnesota Tornadoes Kill At Least 2

Tornadoes in west-central- northwestern and south-central Minnesota has killed at least 2 people and injured at least four.

Almora was the location of a woman killed trying to seek shelter in a ditch when the tornado struck the small enclave of 20 people around 5 p.m..

The woman's husband who was also trying to take shelter was seriously injured.

A man was killed and 3 were injured when a gas station in Mentor MN was destroyed by a tornado about 6:30 p.m. CDT..

High winds and possibly a tornado or two did heavy damage in the city of Wadena- but there are no initial reports of injuries- according to the MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE.



Later in the evening- a large tornado was reported near Albert Lea in south-central Minnesota.

Homes were reported destroyed with "people injured" in the area of Alden MN- according to the ALBERT LEA (MN) TRIBUNE.

Heavy damage was also reported in the community of Kiester.

UPDATE- Friday morning 0855 CDT- The ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE is now reporting one fatality and "dozens" of injuries.

Tornado watches and/or severe thunderstorms continue tonight from northern Kansas into Nebraska- Iowa- Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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