Gone Mild stays fixated on the ethics free Jackson County Legislature, which is now allowing nonprofit groups to sell fireworks to increase their revenues. Dan has his doubts. "I attend a lot of nonprofit meetings, I read a lot of nonprofit publications, and I know a lot of nonprofit executives. Never once have I heard anybody propose that fireworks sales are the solution for the funding crisis faced by nonprofits. Not once." So you're calling them liars?
In November, local anti-war activists and concerned members of the armed forces organized a grim exhibition at Avila University, calling attention to the rising rate of soldier suicide. "The War Within" featured pairs of ghostly white combat boots, displaying in stark imagery the 48 soldiers from Kansas and Missouri who committed suicide after serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The Army is expected to announce later today that this disturbing trend is only worsening.
Marc ConklinYesterday, the Wyandotte County coroner confirmed that BPU official Marc Conklin committed suicide. An autopsy revealed that the 44-year-old former chief administrative officer of the utility had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday. In the last couple of years, I've written quite a bit about Conklin. Every story a negative one, starting with an expose on credit card abuses ("Lunch Money," November 30, 2006) by high-ranking
officials at the utility -- namely, Conklin.
KCTV Channel 5 is always trying to creep us out. This time, our live, late breaking, investigative friends say a woman is blaming her 23-year-old son's suicide in 2007 on an 18-year-old book called Final Exit, which offers advice on offing yourself in painless ways (the book's author, Derek Humphry, defends the book is for the terminally ill). The woman, Suzanne Torregrossa, told KCTV-5 that her son referenced the book in his suicide note, writing that he'd be filling his lungs with helium. Actu
​Earlier this year, the Army promised to make suicide prevention its number one priority in 2009, rolling out a series of new training tools designed to keep soldiers from taking their own lives.
But this year is looking worse than 2008.
In 2008, 140 active-duty, Army soldiers committed suicide, the highest number since the service started keeping track 30 years ago. Yesterday, the Army announced its August statistics -- 11 suspected suicides among active-duty members. (Accordi
from myspace.com/dennishess​Dennis Hess died June 15. Three months earlier, he'd been hospitalized. According to his widow, Lena Hess, and her lawyer, Robert Arnold, Hess tried to commit suicide by mixing prescription drugs and alcohol. But his friends and family say the March incident was an accident. In an interview with Sgt. Chad Phillips of the Platte County Sheriff's Department, Lena Hess described what her lawyer characterized as Dennis Hess' first suicide attempt. Lena said she received
