People: Crazy Little Men and Women >>

• Best Local Hero
  Children's Mercy Hospital
  In the first days after Hurricane Katrina hit, while many of us were still paralyzed with horror at the helplessness and suffering in New Orleans, Children's Mercy CEO Randall O'Donnell was on the phone with the CEO of New Orleans Children's Hospital -- the two doctors have known each other for... More >>
• Best Local International Hero
  Heart to Heart International
  Like the folks at Children's Mercy Hospital and others in the metro, volunteers for the Olathe-based relief organization Heart to Heart International were on the ground in Louisiana after Katrina hit. But their efforts have been far more widespread and ongoing. The group was founded more than... More >>
• Best Local Celebrity
  Stephen Johnson
  Unlike most of the city's reality-TV publicity whores, firefighter Stephen Johnson didn't try to become a star. This summer, the single father of five was surprised by Ty Pennington, the superanimated, tool-belt-toting host of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Pennington and his crew... More >>
• Best Celebrity Endorsement
  Melana Scantlin
  In that small window of time between achieving diva status on NBC's Average Joe and signing to be the woman now advertising numerous side dishes at Wendy's, Gladstone native Melana Scantlin found a product that's truly worth plugging when she became the on-air spokeswoman for Park University.... More >>
• Best TV Personality
  Jim Flink
  Television-ratings-sweeps periods turn even conscientious television newsies into fools for sex and mayhem. But one recent sweeps month found Channel 9's Jim Flink reporting the stories of patients denied treatment by their insurers. During another sweeps, he explained in great detail the trend... More >>
• Best TV Weathercaster
  Gary Amble
  There's a reason why Channel 5's blond, blue-eyed, dimpled morning meteorologist, Gary Amble, looks so good in the hours before dawn: He's damned near perfect before he even gets out of bed at 3:15 a.m. "I've got it down to almost like a fireman's drill," says Amble, an 11-year KCTV Channel 5... More >>
• Best Radio Personality
  Lazlo
  Although we crack a smile at many a quip and antic on KRBZ book; instructed impressionable youth in the ways of egg-slinging miscreancy; and performed, promoted and provoked all kinds of deviance -- in short, the guy is a spectacular asshole. But he's also usually right. We especially commend... More >>
• Best Star Reporter
  Steve Everly
  This year, as the war in Iraq slogged deeper into quagmire and gas prices choked paychecks everywhere, most of us cursed at Arabian oil controllers. But in June, Kansas City Star reporter Steve Everly made us see that the evildoers were here at home. Although the world's supply of crude oil is... More >>
• Best Blogger
  Josh Rosenau
  Last year's winner, Greg Beck, continues to pollute the Internet with his deliciously dirty rants ("Death's Door"), and we have other local favorites as well, such as the paranormal weirdness of Mac Tonnies' "Posthuman Blues," the voracious thrashing of all local media by Tony Botello's "Tony's... More >>
• Best Political Activist
  Alonzo Washington
  Before we knew Precious Doe's name was Erica Green, Alonzo Washington was accused of being a spotlight thief, of using a child's murder to pad his reputation as a community activist. But it was strictly for Green's benefit that Washington connected an 81-year-old tipster from Muskogee, Oklahoma,... More >>
• Best Political Comeback
  Saundra McFadden-Weaver
  At this time a year ago, Kansas City, Missouri, City Councilwoman Saundra McFadden-Weaver looked like a one-term wonder. Residents in the 3rd District complained that she was unresponsive, and the mayor stripped McFadden-Weaver of her meaningful committee assignments after feeling double-crossed... More >>
• Best Hope for Johnson County
  True Blue Women
  We know a few liberal women who live in Johnson County, and we know how lonely they can get. Happily, though, some of them found each other this year. Depressed after last November's election, these red-state women formed a group with a simple (yet daunting) mission: "True Blue gathers... More >>
• Best Professional Antagonist
  Judy Ancel
  Outspoken Judy Ancel prefers to be called a professional troublemaker. She relishes confronting the status quo in all of her public roles. "There aren't very many role models for young people anymore, of people who visibly fought the system and won," Ancel says. The Chicago native is the... More >>
• Best Cop
  Doug Niemeier
  Kansas City, Missouri, Police Sgt. Doug Niemeier answered the call when two bodies were discovered in a detached garage at 26th Street and Montgall Avenue on September 2, 2004. In the weeks that followed, Niemeier ran the investigation that led to the arrest of Terry Blair, who was eventually... More >>
• Best Security Guard
  Jim Mason
  Smiling and maybe a little too quick to wave, Jim Mason is no tough, stone-faced security guard. Standing post at the entrance to the (still relatively) new Central Library downtown, Mason, 65, says he keeps his voice to a whisper when he tells people they are breaking the rules. Before his... More >>
• Best City Dwellers
  The Urban Society of Kansas City
  Kansas City has a long history of obedience to corporate masters. As a result, much of the landscape serves profits better than it does people. The Urban Society of Kansas City was organized a year ago to inject a little humanity into our surroundings. Made up of progressive architects, urban... More >>
• Best Builder
  Jason F. McLennan
  If white flight and suburban sprawl combine to form the menacing cloud that hangs over Kansas City, then architect and author Jason F. McLennan and his Elements team make up the silver lining. And if McLennan's 2004 work on environmentally friendly, or "green," design, The Philosophy of... More >>
• Best Mood Lifters
  Greeters at Costco
  Costco is all about convenience. Investing in cases of bottled water and giant jugs of detergent makes it possible to avoid frequent shopping trips. So it makes sense that shoppers would just go to the Costco down the street, right? Wrong. Our research reveals that even some Johnson Countians... More >>
• Best Wheeler-Dealer
  Greg Weld
  Greg Weld has been making car wheels in Kansas City for more than three decades, so forgive us if he just caught our attention this year when Sean "P. Diddy" (at the time) Combs announced that he wanted to work with Weld's company to design a line of custom wheels. "Wheels have become a fashion... More >>
• Best Recycler
  Creston Witte of SoPro Fabrications
  Creston Witte, who is 24, collects used restaurant cooking oil and makes it into biodiesel to run the electricity, heating and cooling in his custom metalworking and sign-making shop. So far, he collects vegetable, canola and olive oil -- anything nonpetroleum -- from five restaurants: Lidia's... More >>
• Best Wino
  Doug Frost
  George Brett's home-run-hitting arms, Len Dawson's spiral-ready palm -- there are many celebrated body parts in Kansas City history. But only one can rival them all on a global scale: Doug Frost's tongue. Of course, Frost needed more than superhuman taste buds to become one of only three people... More >>
• Best Arts Activist (1 Comment)
  Jim Leedy
  Jim Leedy is a Crossroads District pioneer. Twenty years ago, the sculptor and Kansas City Art Institute instructor bought a building in what was then a forgettable part of town so he could have affordable studio space. Today, the Crossroads is a thriving community of galleries, restaurants and... More >>
• Best Local Writer
  Chuck Haddix
  In some cities, a Friday or Saturday night at home just feels lame. In Kansas City, it means catching some blues and jazz on Chuck Haddix's Fish Fry on KCUR 89.3. So when we heard that Haddix had co-authored a book with New Yorker Frank Driggs on the history of Kansas City jazz, we were excited.... More >>
• Best Bartender
  Mokie
  Good bartenders are happy to see their patrons, memorize drink orders and remain calm even when the bar is busy beyond capacity. Great bartenders act as sounding boards for their patrons and are capable of knowledgeably discussing a wide range of topics. Mokie (Michael Curry) has his bases... More >>
• Best Familiar Face on the Late- Night Scene
  Becki Sherwood
  Rebecca Ann Sherwood -- Becki to her friends, the Beckinator to her disciples -- is the living embodiment of why simply being there is the best way to support the music scene. But she doesn't stop there. This 26-year-old has seen more bands than God. Her list-manic Web site,... More >>