Picket Lines, Pitch

How silly are the End the Fed signs at Occupy Kansas City?

David Martin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:00:00 -0500

It was predictable that “End the Fed” signs would find their way to the Occupy Wall Street protest and its satellites.

One day last week, at the Occupy Kansas City site near the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, a dreadlocked and heavily pierced individual, who identified himself as Rocky, brandished a piece of cardboard that accused the Fed of treason.…

Occupy Wall Street spreads to Kansas City

David Martin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 06:00:00 -0500

The occupation was off to a tentative start when a trolley driver showed up with a bullhorn.

Taking inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, about 15 people showed up at Penn Valley Park at 9 a.m.…

Protest against gun and pawn shop at 63rd and Troost scheduled for October 10

Justin Kendall — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:11:00 -0500

Looks like a protest against the Smart Pawn shop, which sells guns and ammo at 63rd and Troost, is being planned for 5 p.m. October 10.…

Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket SlutWalk

David Martin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:20:34 -0500

Surprising no one, the Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket the SlutWalk march in Kansas City ~~on July 30~~. The mere mention of the word "slut" sent church officials reaching for the finger grease-stained pages of the Old Testament.…

Anti-Koch-brothers group parodies 1970s' 'I'd like to buy the world a Coke' commercial (video)

Justin Kendall — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:41:46 -0500

Wichita's ultraconservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch likely won't be amused by this video parodying the 1970s' "I'd like to buy the world a Coke." The video comes via the anti-Koch-brothers websites Koch Blocked and The Other 98 Percent.…

House Republicans hate the environment ... love taking care of Koch brothers' peeps

Justin Kendall — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:00:00 -0600

Because there's nothing like petty spite, House Republicans are getting rid of biodegradable cups in the Capitol lunchroom, replacing them with Styrofoam cups. Of course, there's going to be a link to Wichita's billionaire Koch brothers.…

Anonymous has a new target: The Koch brothers

Justin Kendall — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:00:00 -0600

The loose collective of hackers known as Anonymous have two new Kansas targets in their cross hairs: billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch of Wichita's Koch Industries.

Last week, Anonymous took on Topeka's gay-hating Westboro Baptist Church.…

Rachel Riley's 23rd Street PAC to prosecutors: 'We want justice!'

Nadia Pflaum — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:30:00 -0500

You can hear them chanting from blocks away: "We want justice! Prosecutors out!…

Ex-clown, others protest Ringling Bros. circus

Mandy Oaklander — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:00:00 -0500

Throngs of kids and parents swarmed the Sprint Center last night for the opening of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. But they had to pass by a different circus outside in order to make it into the Big Top.

A huge elephant, whose body was made of gray plastic tablecloth and whose legs were made of little humans, lumbered outside of the entrance with a sign on its back bemoaning the supposed cruelty done to his species by the circus.…

Anti-nuclear activists arrested during Honeywell plant protest

Mandy Oaklander — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:40:00 -0500

Protesters from as far away as Florida convened at the Honeywell plant construction site yesterday in south Kansas City. The protest was the culmination of a three-day gathering for the KC Nuclear Weapons Plant Conference.

The activists condemn the plant, which will replace one nearby and will be the first new nuclear weapons plant built in the United States in over 30 years.…

Street Justice team targets crime by ringing doorbells

Nadia Pflaum — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:00:00 -0500

"Tired of all the shootings and killings in our community?" asks a flier distributed by members of the AdHoc Group Against Crime. The organization is calling for volunteers "who are not afraid to walk neighborhoods, knock on doors and enter the homes of residents to discuss crime, shootings and unsolved homicides in a non-threatening manner."

Not surprisingly, the safety of said volunteers isn't guaranteed.…

Jason Miller and Bite Club bringing monkey research protest to a neighborhood near you

Justin Kendall — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:12:38 -0500

Animal rights activist Jason Miller appears to be working on another restraining order.

Miller and his fellow Bite Club of KC members have been banned

from the University of Kansas Medical Center, where security didn't take kindly to him passing out "Wanted" posters

targeting the so-called crimes of two researchers or his crusade

to end animal research.…

Kris Cheatum, local peace activist, dead at 73

Justin Kendall — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:00:00 -0500

Longtime peace activist Kris Cheatum died on June 6.

Back in 2006, I wrote about Cheatum and her husband, Lynn, ("Granny the Terrorist").…

PETA's latest bloody naked protest

Justin Kendall — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:30:03 -0500

I missed yesterday's PETA's anti-meat demonstration on the Country Club Plaza, but the animal rights organization sent over a few photos of nearly naked women wrapped in cellophane on a tray ... just like a KC strip.

Looks like a homicide scene.

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Mike Sanders hosts town hall for Bannister's sick workers

Nadia Pflaum — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:45:00 -0500

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's KC office director, Geoff Jolley, was supposed to find a date in May for Cleaver to host a town hall meeting for sick workers at the Bannister Federal Complex. For a week, though, he didn't return calls.

Maurice Copeland, the ex-KC Plant worker whose connections made this feature story possible, wasn't going to sit around and wait.…

Catherine Bleish of the Liberty Restoration Project featured on 'Anderson Cooper 360'

Nadia Pflaum — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:30:00 -0500

Yesterday, CNN's Anderson Cooper marked the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City with a segment on "the rise in rhetoric from groups on the political fringe."

CNN's Drew Griffen interviewed Parkville native Catherine Bleish, executive director of the local Liberty Restoration Project, which has staged protests in Kansas City against the use of red-light cameras, and most recently, against full-body scanners at the Kansas City International Airport.

Griffen described his meeting place with Bleish -- Brave New Books in Austin, Texas -- as "subterranean."…

Dennis Moore now a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act

Carolyn Szczepanski — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:00:21 -0500

Maybe it worked.

Less than two weeks ago, Will Suarez, a student at Johnson County Community College, organized a rally at the office of Congressman Dennis Moore. The Peru native wanted the Kansas Democrat to sign on to the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would make higher education accessible for undocumented kids, many of whom were brought into this country before they even knew how to read.

In a meeting that day, Moore expressed support for the measure.…

Protesters at airport don't want the TSA to see you naked

Nadia Pflaum — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:30:16 -0500

Members of the Liberty Restoration Project protested the use of full-body scanners at the Kansas City International Airport on Saturday. The responses from passengers was wide ranging.

"What if you need an MRI?" an old man snarled at the group as he exited the airport, shaking his head.

Tracy Ward, whose sign read, "Refuse the human microwaves!" retorted with a shrug, "I won't get one."…

Jason Miller, animal rights activist, hit with criminal trespassing warning

Carolyn Szczepanski — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:45:00 -0500

Jason Miller had another run-in with law enforcement last night, this time at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

The local animal rights activist, who went to battle for the deer in Shawnee Mission Park last year, has turned his attacks on KU Med, which uses monkeys in some clinical research studies.

Last month, an activist in Maine created a "Wanted" poster targeting the so-called crimes of two researchers at KU Med. Thursday night, those fliers earned Miller another encounter with the cops.

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Will Suarez asks Congressman Dennis Moore to DREAM

Carolyn Szczepanski — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Will Suarez and Sen. Sam Brownback were short-lived friends.

The Peru native and Johnson County Community College student became a fan of Brownback on Facebook and started posting comments on the Republican's wall, calling on the Kansas conservative to support a bill that would allow undocumented students obtain in-state college tuition.

It didn't take long for Suarez to find Brownback's Facebook minion had blocked him.

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Animal rights activists put out 'Wanted' poster for KU researchers

Carolyn Szczepanski — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:00:02 -0600

When animal rights activists first targeted research at the University of Kansas Medical Center last year they trotted out gory posters of crazed monkeys with weird electrodes poking out of their skulls.

Their latest posters have moved from bizarro horror flick to gun-sliging Western.

Last week, activist Jason Miller, best known for his sometimes-bloody defense of deer in Shawnee Mission Park, posted a provocative poster on his (multiple) blogs. It was enough to cause KU Med officials to alert the authorities.

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Jason Miller and Bite Club target Petland for mass-produced puppies

Carolyn Szczepanski — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:00:23 -0600

This weekend, animal rights activist Jason Miller and Bite Club of KC are targeting another retailer they claim is linked to animal abuse. This time the deer defenders are teaming up with a local group that crusades against puppy mills to protest Petland.

It's not the first time KC Citizens for Canine Causes has picketed Petland, one of the nation's largest pet stores with more than 130 locations (four in Missouri and four in Kansas).…

Video of Sunday's Red-light 'scamera' protest

Justin Kendall — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0600

Kansas City was one of 11 cities targeted in the "National Red Light Protest," a rally against the red-light "scameras" sprouting up across the country. Protesters from the Liberty Restoration Project held signs as it snowed at the intersection of 39th and Southwest Trafficway.…

Kansas City cyclists brave the snow in three-day journey to Jeff City

Carolyn Szczepanski — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0600

Corinna West

It was fitting that Corinna West loaded her bicycle with camping gear and started her frigid 162-mile journey to from Kansas City to Missouri's capital on the first day of the winter Olympics.

After all, she's an Olympian herself -- and cycling helped her get to the Games.

While training at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs as part of the American judo team in the 1990s, West commuted everywhere on two wheels. That cross-training, she says, gave her a leg up on her competition.…

Rally in support of Lawrence stores raided by feds this Saturday

Peter Rugg — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:39:14 -0600

In the wake of last week's federal raid of Lawrence stores Sacred Journey and Bouncing Bear Botanicals, and federal drug charges against one business owner, fans of the new-age stores will gather tomorrow in Lawrence to show support for the businesses.

Sacred Journey owner Natalie McAnulla, 27, will speak tomorrow during the rally at 2 p.m. in South Park, near the county courthouse on Massachusetts Street.…