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JJ's Restaurant staffers get boost Saturday night

Scott Wilson — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:09:21 -0600

Over on Fat City, Charles Ferruzza has this update to his coverage of the aftermath of the explosion at JJ's:

In addition to the local groups planning fundraising events or arranging for donation sites for the employees of JJ's Restaurant, the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association has organized a one-day, citywide effort for Kansas City restaurants and diners to raise money. Tomorrow - Saturday, February 23 - nearly 50 area restaurants are donating 10 percent of sales to the JJ's Restaurant Fund.…
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Rufus L. Young kills self before police can arrest him on murder charges

Peter Rugg — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:12:47 -0500

Police were looking for Rufus L. Young ever since his ex-girlfriend, Naushay Riley, and her mother, Jackie M. Riley, were found dead in their home early Thursday morning.

But before he could be apprehended, police say, he shot himself in the head last night at an Independence motel.…

ACLU challenges Westport trespassing charge

David Martin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:40:31 -0500

The ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri intervened on behalf of a man who was charged with violating the city's trespassing ordinance in May. The ACLU asked that the case against Nicholas "Wick" Thomas be thrown out because he was using a sidewalk in Westport at the time of his arrest. On July 18, the city prosecutor dismissed the charge.…

Missouri innovators make the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek - for fake weed

Peter Rugg — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:44:47 -0500

Let no one say this state doesn't have the forward-thinking business leaders who can give the words "Made in Missouri" meaning someday. Yes, in years to come, you'll have scaled the heights of success, be sitting on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, and the cabana boy will walk through the white sand toward your beach chair carrying a silver tray.…

Diocese appoints Father Joseph Powers to handle sex-abuse complaints

Peter Rugg — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:37:00 -0500

In their effort to recover from the ongoing sex-abuse scandal, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese has removed Vicar General Robert Murphy from his job handling sex-abuse complaints.

Murphy is succeeded as vicar by the Rev. Joseph Powers.…

Unrealized sports resort pitched to KCK in '07 owes $500,000

David Martin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:05:20 -0500

Four years ago, a group of men approached the Unified Government of Wyandotte County with an ambitious proposal. They wanted to transform a flood plain into a $980 million "sports and entertainment destination resort."

The project, Sport World Live, sounded like a mash-up of the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World and the mother of all youth sports complexes.…

Midtown developer Brent Lambi resurfaces, settles lawsuit with former lover

David Martin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:00:00 -0500

The Katz Drug building, which serves as an unofficial gateway to Westport, is for sale. The Art Deco landmark on Main Street, empty since 2006, will be sold at an auction on August 11.…

Phoenix, the black lab set on fire, is looking happy and healthy

Peter Rugg — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:11:54 -0500

There was a good amount of righteous outrage in the metro this May when the story broke about Phoenix, a 1-year-old black lab who'd been set on fire then denied medical attention. Phoenix's owner, Maria Alarcon-Suarez, waited a full day before getting the dog to a vet, and when she did finally take him, she claimed that he was a stray she'd just found wandering the streets.…

Kansas NOW delivers $4,000 worth of miniature tires to Rep. Pete DeGraaf for his rape comments

Peter Rugg — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:12:04 -0500

Abortion-rights supporters gathered at the steps of the Kansas state Capitol Wednesday to demand an apology from Rep. Pete DeGraaf for his comparing the preparing for the possibility of a rape pregnancy to keeping a spare tire in your trunk, but law enforcement stopped them from personally delivering spare tires to DeGraaf.

"We had the tires, and they told us we couldn't have them in the state building," Kari Ann Rinker, state coordinator for the National Organization for Women, told The Pitch. "The police confiscated them, and I had to ask for them to give the tires back to us for our presentation.…

Was Ryder Spillman killed because of a skateboarding feud?

Peter Rugg — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:40:12 -0500

This Easter, 16-year-old Ryder Spillman was shot dead near the Thomas Edison Elementary School in Kansas City, Kansas.

Now details are emerging about what could have led to the homicide, and police say a feud between rival skateboarders may have been the cause.

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Southwest's planetarium: one more casualty of this school year

Nadia Pflaum — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:00:00 -0500

Did your public high school have a planetarium? Yeah, mine didn't either.…

CDC advises Bannister workers to eat fruits and veggies to avoid cancer

Nadia Pflaum — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:02:55 -0500

I don't know about you guys, but I am so glad that the federal government is here to look after the health and well-being of workers at the much-maligned (but not malignant!) Bannister Federal Complex.…

Over one hundred KCMSD teachers get the ax -- including our source

Nadia Pflaum — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:55:37 -0500

Last Friday, 115 teachers with the Kansas City, Missouri, School District received notice that their contracts would not be renewed for the 2011-12 school year, district representatives confirm.

One of the axed educators, English teacher Amy Smith (not her real name), was

interviewed as part of this week's feature story on Southwest High

School.…

115 KCMSD teachers get the ax -- including our source

Nadia Pflaum — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:49:55 -0500

interviewed as part of this week's feature story on Southwest High

School.…

Radiation physicist Wayne Knox sheds light on plutonium at Kansas City Plant

Nadia Pflaum — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:00:00 -0500

Don't dismiss Wayne Knox as an "activist." Though he is the president of an advocacy group called Cold War Soldiers, whose chief objective is to obtain fair medical treatment and compensation for nuclear workers and their families, he comes with some hefty scientific credentials.…

Plutonium is stored at Kansas City Plant, according to Department of Energy report

Nadia Pflaum — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:00:00 -0500

According to a 1994 Department of Energy report, 10 "packages" of plutonium totaling 1.2 grams of the highly radioactive element are stored at the Kansas City Plant.

The report contradicts longtime assurances from the plant's owner, Honeywell, and government agencies including the National Nuclear Security Administration, the General Services Administration and EPA Region 7 that the Kansas City Plant manufactures only non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons.

The report, Plutonium Working Group Report on Environmental, Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated With the Department's Plutonium Storage, Volume 1, was obtained by the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Miller Nichols Library via inter-library loan.…

Kansas Hy-Vee really wants you to be able to buy hard liquor from them

Peter Rugg — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:26:31 -0500

If you don't follow every liquor-law development in Kansas with baited breath, here's a short recap: The state is considering new laws that would let grocery and convenience stores sell full-strength booze starting in 2017. Mom-and-pop liquor-store owners are campaigning against it because they think it'll put them out of business.…

The airplane that made Howard Hughes pee his pants (video)

David Martin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:00:00 -0600

In the 2004 movie The Aviator, Howard Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) gets his first look at a model of an airplane that Lockheed was developing. "Jiminy Cricket!"…

Tony's Kansas City in The Pitch: No models were harmed in the making of this story. That we know of.

Joe Tone — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 -0600

In this week's Pitch, I take a wild stab at understanding and explaining Tony Botello, the 36-year-old blogger behind Tony's Kansas City. (Conclusion: He likes boobs more than he likes the women who have them and way more than he likes Funkhouser.)…

Ron Marts ordered to close Marts Memorial by March 11

Ben Palosaari — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:30:00 -0600

Ron Marts' career as a funeral director in Missouri is scheduled to come to an end on March 11. Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs lifted a stay this morning on an order from the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors that had revoked Marts' license.…

Rachelle Santiago, therapist accused of stalking married soldier, charged with a slew of crazy shit

Peter Rugg — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:00:00 -0600

The latest development in the therapist-turned-psycho-stalker case of Rachelle Santiago is here. Santiago was indicted yesterday on charges of stalking, attempting to elude police, sexual battery, making a terroristic threat and unlawfully entering a federal military installation.…

Brad Lager gets his pork butt handed to him by angry Savannah residents

Nadia Pflaum — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:00:00 -0600

Last week, Missouri state Sen. Brad Lager faced the wrath of nearly 100 angry people who were gathered at the firehouse on Savannah, Missouri's main drag. The residents of Savannah -- a rural, bedroom community just north of St. Joseph -- hurled questions at the lawmaker concerning his bill that would significantly impact property owners' rights to sue the operators of massive, factory hog-feeding operations -- hog farms with a reputation for depressing local property values and their neighbors' quality of life.

The Savannah residents' outrage is more urgent now that a new CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) is in the development phase, just two miles outside of town.…

Dr. Thomas Gill, former Jackson County medical examiner, back in the news in a big way

Nadia Pflaum — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:00:00 -0600

What became of Dr. Thomas Gill after leaving his post as Jackson County's medical examiner? Turns out, the beleaguered corpse-cutter is the subject of a recent investigation by the nonprofit journalists at Propublica and a documentary by PBS' Frontline.…

Faced with lawsuit, Dr. Mila Means won't offer abortions in Wichita after all

Peter Rugg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:01:00 -0600

In December, Aid for Women announced that it was training Dr. Mila Means on abortion procedures so she could finally bring those services back to Wichita this year. Since Dr. George Tiller was murdered in 2009, the largest city in Kansas has been without abortion services.…

Russ Ptacek's reporting leads to payouts for sick workers at the Bannister Federal Complex

Nadia Pflaum — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:30:00 -0600

NBC Action News investigator Russ Ptacek is doing the Lord's work. It takes saintly patience to untangle the federal tapestry of bureaucratic red tape that is the Bannister Federal

Complex.

Ptacek continues to uncover shady details regarding a coverup at Bannister, which houses offices for the GSA as well as the Honeywell-operated factory for making parts for nuclear weapons for the National Nuclear Security Administration.…