Backwash

Hip-hop MC Priceless Diamonds describes herself as a "boss bitch" who grew up boosting clothes and turning the occasional trick. She's no angel, but she's got advice. So listen up, y'all.

I got a parking ticket at the library for being late paying my meter. Is it OK to write, "Here you go, bitches!" in the memo section of my check?

No. It's not going to go to the officer who wrote it, and the poor woman who has to open the mail doesn't need that grief. It would be better to go down to the precinct where the cops hang out and holler, "Did you get your fucking money, assholes?" If you're warrant-free and you're not scared of the police, why not let 'em know how you feel? We've got freedom of speech, don't we?

I know my boyfriend's password to his Yahoo account. Is it OK to check out who's sending him mail?

Yes, because you need to know who you're sleeping with, you hear? If you have the password, it's meant for you to listen. The Boss Bitch would want to know what her man is doing. She doesn't want to be looking stupid out there, the last one to know that her man is sleeping around. My man has the code to my answering machine, and I found out he was listening to my messages. I blew up. "That shit there makes me want to leave you!" But, honestly, I'd do it to him if I could. I just got smarter on my game. With my new boyfriends, I say don't leave a message. Ever.

Got a question only Priceless can answer? E-mail her at bossbitch@pitch.com.

Player Update
Back in May, we reported that Tony Peña might have left his job as Royals manager over more than the team's lousy record. At the time, he was also trying to get out of testifying in a divorce suit involving a couple who used to live across the street from him in Kansas City, North (KC Strip, "Royally Screwed," May 19). Monica Barrington is divorcing her husband, Kelly Locke, and attempting to get full custody of their four young children. Locke is fighting back, asking for shared custody -- and as is customary in such battles, both sides are trying to make the other look as unfit to raise children as possible. In Locke's arsenal was his accusation that the marriage busted up when Monica had an affair with Peña. In a court hearing, the Pitch heard the couple's au pair testify that Monica had admitted to the affair.

A trial was scheduled to take place late in June, but it's been delayed as the couple continues to wage war in court hearings. We snapped this photo of Monica as she left the Liberty courthouse after a court date August 18; meanwhile, Locke says things have been going his way lately, and he predicts that a settlement will come in the case, precluding the need for a trial.

Whew. That kind of news will surely be welcome down in the Dominican Republic.

To the Victor Go the Spoils?

Victor Callahan apparently just can't help himself.

The Democratic state senator from Independence isn't exactly known for making friends. We've often found him polite enough, but we've also experienced the behavior that leads critics to call him a "bully" (and those are the detractors in his own party). But Callahan's reputation seems to be enjoying a bit of a makeover.

That's partly because he's long been an antagonist of Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields. And as FBI investigators circle Shields' office in the wake of county lobbyist Bill Waris' guilty plea to bribery charges in July, some former Callahan foes now think that perhaps he was right in his harping about Shields.

And while skeptics called it a publicity stunt, we were moved in May when Callahan dropped his own health insurance to protest Matt Blunt's Medicaid cuts. "I just feel a moral responsibility," Callahan told the Star at the time. "This is my view of being part of public life. We're all in this together. We go up or down together."

But Callahan's actions at Saturday's Labor Day Parade made it hard to feel any new love for the man. That morning, the Star had reported that the FBI investigation was now focusing on contracts that Shields had approved, and at the rally after the parade, Callahan couldn't contain his gloating over that news. The event was packed with politicos as well as hard-working union members, and at one point, Callahan called out with glee to Mary O'Halloran, the former radio talk-show host now serving as a lefty on KCPT Channel 19's Ruckus.

"Sorry about your girl Shields!" Callahan yelled to O'Halloran.

Within easy earshot was at least one elected official who has sparred with Shields in the past -- and looked disgusted at Callahan's remark. "No matter what your politics, you don't wish that on anyone," said the politician -- whom we won't name, because it wasn't his fault he happened to be standing with a Pitch reporter when Callahan showed his ass.

C'mon, Victor. Would a little dignity be too much to ask?

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