- HOME
- NEWS
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- FYI/LIVING
- ENTERTAINMENT
- OPINION
- JOBS
- CARS
- REAL ESTATE
- RENTALS
- CLASSIFIEDS
- SHOPPING
- EXTRAS
Navy Seal Matthew J. Bourgeois of Tallahassee, Fla., was killed in 2002 by a mine explosion in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Thanks, of course, doesn’t cover our nation’s gratitude to its millions of veterans. But those who have signed up or been shipped off to protect our country haven’t done it for the praise or gratitude.
Kansas Citians, it’s time to think big — bigger than World Series or Super Bowl status. Think World Cup soccer, here, in 2018 or 2022.
Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa notes that human nature demands two things from the world around us. One is a hero, someone we pray will solve our problems. The other is a villain, someone to blame for creating them. Without both, life lacks the clarity many crave.
Cathy and David Bryant never planned on needing help from the state of Kansas. They had good jobs, a home, a savings account, medical insurance and two healthy kids.
Kansas’ fiscal neglect of its mentally retarded and developmentally disabled citizens is a disgrace. More than 4,000 families are waiting for services. Some have been on hold for more than four years. Workers who help severely disabled Kansans live in the community receive a paltry average wage of $8.83 an hour.
Last April, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver began promoting an effort to use federal stimulus funds to upgrade 150 square blocks of inner Kansas City. He called it the Green Impact Zone. “I’m so excited, I’m trying to calm down,” Cleaver had said. “This is a perfect storm of opportunity.”
There were warning signs that U.S. Army Major Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was unstable long before he allegedly shouted “God is great” in Arabic and opened fire at Fort Hood Thursday. Press reports quickly found that Hasan — who is believed to have killed 13 and wounded 30 before he was shot, wounded and arrested — had drawn attention because of his behavior at Fort Hood and at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he worked previously.
The Missouri Housing Development Commission has been through a rocky period. In June, a state audit criticized it for incomplete record-keeping, conflict-of-interest problems and weak rules on contracting. And the panel’s executive director was interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into low-income housing projects.
Those extra coats and blankets in good condition can get a new home Saturday, during the annual Project Warmth drive to benefit people in need. This year, 14 locations metrowide will accept blankets, coats and financial donations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers will receive the goods and help load them onto well-marked trucks. Go to projectwarmthkc.com to find a site nearest you.
Jackson County taxpayers missed out on a chance to save $56,000 — and probably much more — while holding Tuesday’s election that renewed an anti-drug sales tax. More vigilance by County Executive Mike Sanders and his staff could have helped shave the total bill for the election, now estimated at a staggering $847,000 for just the COMBAT tax issue.
It’s not often you find one federal agency criticizing another, but that’s what happened after the investigation of a 2008 motor coach crash in which 17 people from Texas died en route to a southwest Missouri music festival. The National Transportation Safety Board, which looks into crashes and recommends safety improvements, recently admonished the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for doing too little on motor coach safety.
Last year, a committee of experts published an alarming report on childhood obesity for a scholarly journal published by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The committee listed a litany of dietary habits that cause children to pack on the pounds. First on the list: “Frequently consuming fast food and large volumes of sweet beverages (e.g., fruit juices, soft drinks).”
Two essential law enforcement taxes are on the short list of local ballot issues today. Jackson County voters will decide whether to renew a quarter-cent sales tax for the Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax (COMBAT) for seven more years.
The Parks and Recreation Department recently began seeking $168,000 in private funds to keep Kansas City’s glorious collection of public fountains turned on in 2010. But that’s the second best way to prevent the city’s 48 fountains from going dry and becoming an embarrassment for the self-proclaimed “City of Fountains.” The best option is for city officials to approve taxpayer funds for a key asset in Kansas City — paying for electricity to operate the ornamental fountains.
As the H1N1 flu vaccine trickles into the Kansas City area, there’s a central point worth repeating: It’s been tested and it appears to be safe. Despite the Internet hullabaloo, the panicky chat and the opinion polls that show folks are leery of just what’s in those doses, the swine flu vaccine remains an important weapon in combating a very nasty virus.
On Tuesday, voters in Jackson and Clay counties will decide whether they want to renew separate law enforcement sales taxes. But taxpayers in those counties will end up paying very different amounts to hold those elections.
The Star previously has offered its recommendations for four separate elections that will be on Tuesday’s ballots in Missouri. Here is a recap. Jackson County
I’ve experienced scary stuff in my time, including heart procedures, a near-death experience, and various muggings. Yet none scarier than the unshakeable specter this last year of … possible unemployment. It was haunting enough moving to a new city, finding a decent job and going down to one income so my wife could study. Then a ghoulish phantom started visiting my company. Each week, more unfortunates eerily vanished into the land of the laid-off.
Iran appears ready to agree to ship its enriched uranium to France and Russia for processing into nuclear fuel. This would be a positive step; perhaps the first positive step since the Iranian nuclear program became public earlier this decade. The United States should embrace this Iranian concession.
Playing with taxpayer money, Kansas officials recently endorsed a generous — check that — extremely generous offer to the Kansas City Wizards and Cerner Corp. Now, Gov. Mark Parkinson says the state won’t sweeten a proposal to use $229.5 million in public subsidies to help build a Wizards stadium and a Cerner office complex in Wyandotte County.
The handwriting was on the wall last year, when American Airlines announced plans to move several hundred jobs at its Kansas City overhaul base to Tulsa, Okla. Yet Wednesday still brought a disheartening note of finality: Next September, the facility will close.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said a list of possible budget cuts at Johnson County Community College fit into the category of “personnel matters of non-elected officials” and could be discussed in a closed meeting. We couldn’t disagree more.
Many military personnel who acquired post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are being inappropriately discharged, despite Pentagon assurances that proper policy is being followed.
How Chiefs running back Larry Johnson should be using Twitter now.
The toll from Sunday’s bombings in Baghdad has climbed past 150 dead and 500 wounded, making one point very clear: A good U.S. exit from Iraq will be neither quick nor easy. President Barack Obama was only partly correct when he noted, “These bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, women and children.”
The murder of George Tiller was appalling on its own. But now Dennis Roeder, the man accused of shooting the physician point-blank in his church, is being embraced by a phalanx of fellow extremists. As a Kansas City Star story revealed Sunday, supporters are organizing a fundraiser to help with Roeder’s legal defense.
Coming soon to a public sidewalk near you … A petition calling for early voting in Missouri.
It’s a visible use of Jackson County’s anti-drug money: Police tactical squads carry out raids on suspected drug houses, often by battering open the doors. Police obtain search warrants before initiating the raids, often after undercover officers purchase drugs at the site.
Jackson County’s Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax was initiated in 1989 to respond to a wave of drug-fueled crime that swept through Kansas City’s neighborhoods. Twenty years later, money from the quarter-cent sales tax known as COMBAT has become a crucial revenue source for county government, law enforcement, and a host of treatment and prevention programs.
Two years ago a citizens group sensibly recommended that COMBAT officials update the mission and goals for using anti-drug tax revenue. But it’s troubling that this important work won’t be completed before voters decide whether to renew the anti-drug tax on Nov. 3. Voters should have been told prior to the election, not after, whether major changes will be made.
