Westport Gets National Kudos

Yahoo put this up a few days ago.

Where the Hipsters Are: the Brooklyn of Every State

And for Missouri, it's Westport, they say.



Missouri

Westport (Kansas City)

 A big thumbs-up to Cherokee Street in St. Louis for its Brooklyn-esque qualities, but Westport on the other side of the state is the spot. Westport is, first and foremost, an entertainment district. It’s where you party and eat like a king — at Port Fonda for Mexican, at Dave’s Stagecoach for the jukebox and a beer, at Kelly’s for a Guinness in a pub that’s been around forever but where the clientele has, well, shifted, and at Julep for a cocktail with an egg white in it. During the day there’s plenty to do as well, whether you want to search for an album at Mills Record Company to throw on your portable record player, grab a coffee at the 20+ year and still going Broadway Roasting, or get secondhand threads at Arizona Trading Company.

Just don't hang around late, after midnight, likely.

The Embarrassing States Of Missouri and Kansas State Legislators and Legislatures

It's difficult to see which is worse, frequently.

First, from Missouri, rather famously:

Missouri House speaker resigning after intern text messages

Kansas legislators, after slashing taxes for the wealthy and corporations and increasing them for the middle-, lower- and working-classes, hurting the state's credit rating and wiping out their budget, tries to raise some money. Once again, it would be on the backs, largely, of the lower, middle and upper classes but that should be no surprise. And even that failed.

Kansas House rejects proposed sales tax increase

Kansas needs to take care of its fiscal house and isn't, can't, it seems. 

Missouri needs to do all kinds of things, not least of which is work to get a fix for the infrastructure of the state. The highways, bridges and roads and the budgets for them need attention and fixing. The legislature is nowhere close to addressing and fixing that problem alone.

Shameful.

Kansas City? Weird?

Yes, Kansas City is on a list recently of the top 10 weirdest cities in the nation:

They're Weird and Proud: America’s Quirkiest Cities

Kansas City? Weird? Number 8 of 10?

What they had to say about us:

These Midwesterners may have struck readers as thrifty and no-nonsense, but that doesn’t make them dull. The city ranked highly for both its museums and its sense of history—though some of that history is distinctly outside the box. TakeThe 1950s All-Electric House, which was originally built to be a glimpse of the future (when everyone, for instance, would have electric curtain openers). Or you can explore the Arabia Steamboat Museum, where you can see a fascinating array of pre-Civil War artifacts, recovered 132 years after the boat sank in the Missouri River. The city also ranked in the top 10 for its coffee, exemplified nicely at Oddly Correct, where cream and sugar are verboten.

I ask again, weird? Kansas City?  It's Independence that has the Hair Museum.

The Best Burger in Missouri?

There's an article out today from Yahoo ranking the best burger in each of the 50 states:

Are These the Best Burgers in All 50 States?

And their pick for the number one burger in Missouri knocked me out:

Westport Flea Market Bar and Grill
Kansas City
The burger: Patty melt
The burger at Five Bistro in St. Louis was hard to beat. But Westport Flea Market, which is really less a flea market (check out the wacky cages in the front!) and more of a bar, just managed to take the top spot with their McGonigle’s Market beef burger. I like the patty melt here because it takes 5.5oz of that McGonigle beef and throws it on toasted rye with Swiss and grilled onions. But if you want a challenge, the Super Flea is five 10oz burgers topped with bacon, cheese, and 2lbs of fries. Eat it in 30 minutes and you’ll get a T-shirt, your picture on the wall, AND ALSO MAYBE DIE. Which is maybe why, as I said, we’re fans of the patty melt.

Pretty cool. Doubly great since McGonigle's Market also got a mention.
So now you know. Want the best burger in town? In the state? Here's your place. To Yahoo, anyway.

Congratulations, Missouri!

You're not on the list!

You're not in the top (bottom) 10:

The Unhealthiest State Is...

Neighbor Tennessee?  Yep.

Oklahoma?  Yes.

Kentucky? Check.

Arkansas?  Oh, yeah.

But Missouri? In the 10 most unhealthy states?



No!

Not this year, anyway.

So, enjoy, Missourians! Celebrate!

Just don't overdo it.

A lesson for the Star and for all newspapers that want to survive

From yesterday's New York Times:

USA Today Goes Viral

As USA Today's publisher, the veteran newsman Larry Kramer is hoping America's largest-circulation newspaper will thrive in a world of social media and mobile platforms.

As I've pointed out before here, The New York Times did and is doing it, Yahoo did it. Heck, most all media sources understand this is what they must do.  From what I've seen of the Star, they still don't get it. They don't pay anyone, staff or locals, to videotape little bits of local events, especially the big ones, and then post them on their website. They do "photo galleries" but that's as close as it gets. They also cover things like this instead of more specifically local events:

‘Idiot’ takes selfie during Spain’s running of the bulls

As I write this, on Monday afternoon, their website offers 7 video links from the front page. One is on jumping jacks becoming the state exercise, two are on the Royals, two are on Schlitterbahn's new ride and one is on the Chiefs.  

That's it.

They need to become a multi-media site and source of local, state and regional events and people or they will surely be left in a dust heap. 

And sooner, rather than later.

See for yourself:    Kansas City Star

A challenge to the Star

Down in little old Springfield, Missouri, the local paper, the Springfield News-Leader, has come out swinging in the newspaper wars with a just-announced plan for their paper:

We're giving you more on Feb. 16

I was pleasantly surprised.  Here's some of the details:

Today, we are kicking off a campaign to tell you, our readers, about some exciting changes coming to the News-Leader every day starting Feb. 16.

As we continue our transformation as a leading news and information company, we are giving you MORE — at least 68 pages more each week in our print edition.

I hear from a lot of readers and I always appreciate their feedback. One thing I consistently hear is that you like our product, but want more information, more content, more local and national news, more sports. And starting Feb. 16, we will consistently give you at least 68 more pages of content each week.

We will use the next two weeks to promote the changes we are planning. But I wanted to give you some insights today — so as our valued readers, you have the inside story.

You have told us local news is more important, so we are giving you more local news — dedicating the entire first section to local news. We are giving you an expanded local business section every Sunday. We have invited a panel of local business experts to give us insights into the local business scene.

We are giving you more watchdog reporting. Amos Bridges, one of our leading experts on investigative reporting and open records, will be moving into this newly created position. Look for his reports each Sunday and Tuesday.

We are dedicating Page 2A to digital content and social media, what’s trending and what happened that is causing a buzz.

And we are giving you more news about your community, your schools and your neighbors — with content from the city, foundations, the library and several others in the community page.

We are also giving you more sports from your favorite Missouri college and pro teams.

It goes on from there.

The thing is, newspapers have to do something.  The thing nearly any media outlet--be they newspaper, online site, whatever--has virtually GOT to be a multi-media site. They've got to post articles, local, national and international but what really makes a former newspaper to stand out are the local stories, local writing. If a newspaper hasn't got that, what have they got? How would they be different than others?  

The fact is, they wouldn't. They wouldn't be any different.

So they have to do local stories, local color. And that travels well to online and video, or it can, if covered and covered well.

So anyway, this looks like quite a commitment and ambitious attempt on the part of this smaller paper. Who knows where it will go.  The thing is, I wouldn't think expanding the paper would be the way to go but being more ambitious, now that I think is what is needed. Instead of shrinking and shrinking and shrinking the paper and staff, which can lead nowhere but to lower interest from possible readers, somehow giving more stories, especially more local stories, is the way to go.

And that patently hasn't been where the Star has been headed the last several years.

Heck, for the last 4 decades.

Local man's lawsuit against David Glass and his Royals hits the interwebs

It's one thing for this story to once again hit the local Star, it's quite another to go out on Yahoo!:

Fan injured by hot dog suing Kan. City Royals

And here, too:

Why injured fan's lawsuit may stand a chance

The story:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- If it had been a foul ball or broken bat that struck John Coomer in the eye as he watched a Kansas City Royals game, the courts likely wouldn't force the team to pay for his surgeries and suffering.

But because it was a hot dog thrown by the team mascot - behind the back, no less - he just may have a case.

The Missouri Supreme Court is weighing whether the ''baseball rule'' - a legal standard that protects teams from being sued over fan injuries caused by events on the field, court or rink - should also apply to injuries caused by mascots or the other personnel that teams employ to engage fans. Because the case could set a legal precedent, it could change how teams in other cities and sports approach interacting with fans at their games.

Coomer, of Overland Park, Kan., says he was injured at a September 2009 Royals game when the team's lion mascot, Sluggerrr, threw a 4-ounce, foil-wrapped wiener into the stands that struck his eye. He had to have two surgeries - one to repair a detached retina and the other to remove a cataract that developed and implant an artificial lens. Coomer's vision is worse now than before he was hurt and he has paid roughly $4,800 in medical costs, said his attorney, Robert Tormohlen.

But the fact is, Sluggerr didn't "throw" the hot dog, folks.  At the time this happened, Sluggerr was shooting these things from a cannon, of sorts. Unfortunately for Mr. Coomer--and Sluggerr and the team, frankly--it hit him in eye.

The thing is, I know John Coomer. John Coomer is a friend of mine. And I happen to know he originally merely asked the team to pay for his surgery and medical bills.

Mr. Glass and the team said no, solidly.

It was only then that Mr. C. then had to file suit, merely to cover the costs of said medical bills.

I'd have thought--and most people would, I think--that the team and virtually any other company would merely pay the bills, likely out of their insurance coverage, do the right thing, mark it up to good PR and call it a day.

Not the skin flint that David Glass is, apparently, sadly.

So now, not only has it gone to court but it's now going to the Missouri State Supreme Court.

Pitiful.

It just doesn't seem as though a few thousand dollars, to cover some medical bills for a fan who was injured at the stadium, by the team mascot, would much to ask or expect, given the millions upon millions the team makes each and every year, from all the other fans.

Shameful.

It's bad enough they don't win enough baseball, enough years, down through time.

They also have to first injure and then punish their own fans in the stands.

Ewing Kauffman must surely be--once again--spinning in his grave.

One last note (probably) on the Zimmerman verdict

David Simon, the writer and creator of "The Wire" TV show wrote the following on his blog The Audacity of Despair  I thought it too excellent and on point to not post here:

Trayvon

You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead.

In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all.  And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.

If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve.  I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies:  Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible.  I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country.  Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

Additional evidence why we shouldn't have "stand your ground" laws:    15 Shocking 'Stand Your Ground' Cases

Link:  'The Wire' Creator David Simon on Trayvon Martin Case

At what point do we learn? At what point do we change?

I was speaking last evening, late, with a friend that recently retired from the federal government's National Weather Service and told him what I thought--that all it's going to take, I expect, is one more hit, one hit in Florida of some major city, heaven forbid, and finally, finally more people will think there likely is a good chance of humans effecting weather with all the CO2 we're putting into the atmosphere.

Heaven forbid it's Miami but there it sits, like a bit of a big bullseye, jutting out into big bodies of water. 

Purely coincidentally, after I wrote this entire piece, I ran across this article:

As hurricanes loom, Florida insurance lives on borrowed time

Because of its size and geographical position, with 1,200 miles of coastline on a peninsula sticking out into the warm waters where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic, Florida is a uniquely risky insurance market. Most of its insured residential and commercial property - 79 per cent - lies in coastal areas vulnerable to both wind damage and flooding.

Coastal property is valued at just under $3 trillion, according to a report due to be released next week by AIR Worldwide, a global leader in catastrophe risk modeling. Florida accounts for almost 30 percent of the nation's entire $10 trillion coastal exposure, AIR found.

Only New York has as much exposure, with $3 trillion in coastal property, and that compares to $239 billion in South Carolina and $107 billion in Georgia.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Daytona, you name it. When/if that should happen, it'll be game over for Florida, if it's a big enough storm. There will be lots more believers.
In the meantime, there's Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, repeatedly hit by tornadoes in the last week.

Did you know there were 9--nine tornadoes in the last 36 hours?

And in the last 24 hours, there was this:

5 dead in tornado in Oklahoma City area, 50 hurt

And that, of course, is on top of the direct hit the suburb of Oklahoma City took in Moore, the previous week.

At what point do we think maybe the way we humans live on this planet maybe isn't sustainable?

At what point do we maybe think we need to stop pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

From the "I can't believe we have to even say this" file

From this breaking article today--this morning--on Yahoo! News:

5 Unfair Tax Breaks That Should Be Eliminated (link at bottom)

Here's the last one, number 5:

Tax break for offshoring U.S. jobs

Businesses also get their fair share of tax breaks and tax loopholes. The ability to save on corporate taxes by shipping operations overseas is one of the most vilified corporate tax breaks.

U.S. businesses get a tax deduction for the costs they incur in relocating their domestic operations to a foreign location. True, it's not a special tax break for moving, say, a factory and its 600 jobs from St. Louis to Singapore. If the company had moved from St. Louis to Indianapolis, the business would get the same tax deduction. And, says the Tax Foundation, jobs are at least three times more likely to be relocated from one state to another than overseas.

Still, when U.S. unemployment is high, a tax break that rewards the elimination of more U.S. jobs seems like a really bad idea.

I've said this before here, that any and all tax deductions that reward companies and people for offshoring jobs should, without doubt, be rescinded. The Democrats proposed it in Congress, a year or two ago, but it was killed by that other political party as "raising taxes."

We need jobs here, first of all, and second, there shouldn't be tax breaks for offshoring manufacturing or other jobs because, after all, we need the tax revenue here in the States.

It's difficult to believe we even have to say this, isn't it?

Link to original post: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-egregious-tax-loopholes-benefit-080033155.html

Wierd news today out of Washington, Missouri

Breaking today:

Young Boys Meet Through Friends and Discover They are Brothers

Two boys in Washington, Mo., received the surprise of a lifetime while visiting their neighborhood swimming pool in June. Twelve-year-old Isaac Nolting was introduced to 13-year-old Dakotah Zimmer by a friend of a friend. They quickly noticed similarities in their appearance. They had the same hair, feet, nose and hands. People even started asking if they were related. Dakotah told Isaac that he had a brother who was adopted by a woman named Dawn.

When Isaac got home, he asked his mom, Dawn Nolting, if he was adopted. She revealed that in fact he was, and that his mother had been a teenager who was unable to take care of him the way that she wanted to when he was a baby. Dawn volunteered to look after him, and his mother visited him often but never took him home again. Dawn eventually adopted Isaac when he was 18 months old. She had been looking for the right time to tell him, but just had not gotten up the courage to do so. Dawn knew the two boys would meet soon, because they would be at the same school the following academic year.

So the mystery was solved. Isaac and Dakotah are brothers. The boys' biological mother passed away in 2007, and their father died a year later. Dakotah now lives with his biological grandmother and his sister, Ashley, in Augusta, Mo.

Pretty cool.

Link to original story: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/young-boys-meet-friends-discover-brothers-185007313.html

Let's be clear, he didn't "keep us safe for 8 years"

If anything rankles me, it's when people either don't know their history or worse, when some one or some group out-and-out changes history, for their convenience. One of the worst of those, from the last few years, is that then-President George W. Bush "kept us safe for 8 years."

This is, ladies and gentlemen, an unmitigated, bold-face lie. It is an untruth of a huge magnitude.

There have been obvious ways to know this, too, ever since that ugly, fateful day back in 2001 that is being commemorated today, too.

We've known for years that security at our airports was lax. How else could you explain the ability of anyone--anyone--let alone terrorists, being able to board planes at public, commercial airports with box cutters and/or pocket knives like the ones used to hijack that plane that day? I know as just weeks before 9/11, I boarded a flight for none other than George W. Bush's hometown airport with about a dozen business-sponsored and engraved pocket knives. I handed them out as small gifts to clients. They listed our company on them, of course.

So we've known this for years but today, yet more information came out, proving further that this President George W. Bush shirked his duties and responsibilities in that job and that led, at least in part, to the Twin Towers in New York being attacked, along with the Pentagon, as we know:

The Deafness Before the Storm

IT was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history.

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

It's the truth. It's history. To say otherwise is either to be badly, badly mistaken or a liar.

And it sickens me.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html?_r=0

http://news.yahoo.com/report-documents-disclose-9-11-warnings-081156564--politics.html

Facebook research out of the University of Missouri

Posted yesterday on Yahoo! News:

What Your Facebook Page Says About Your Personality

If you think you're keeping any secrets on Facebook, think again. It's not just what you post on the social networking site, but how you post it that reveals what kind of person you are.

That's the contention of researchers at the University of Missouri who have developed a new scale that judges people's personality based on how they use the popular social media site.

The scale reveals that those who like high-risk activity tend to update their status, upload photos and interact with friends frequently. While conversely, those who are more reserved tend to merely scroll through Facebook's "news feed," and don't upload photos or actively engage with their friends.

Missouri doctoral student Heather Shoenberger developed the scale after surveying people about their use of Facebook and having them take a personality test.

Those who leaned toward high-risk activities were labeled as "appetitive," with those who were more reserved in their activities labeled as "aversive." While both personality types use Facebook frequently, Shoenberger found significant differences in how each uses the social media site.

"If you're highly "appetitive" or lean toward high-risk activities, you're more likely to want to engage with media that are more exciting, whereas those who are higher in the "aversive" trait tend to enjoy safer and more predictable media experiences," Shoenberger said.

The scale could help advertisers target online audiences easier, according to Shoenberger.

"I believe this could really help advertisers and certain types of media groups target potential customers with particular ads on social media sites," Shoenberger said. "Identifying these individuals using the motivation activation measure can give advertisers an advantage over their competitors and bring some order to online advertising."

For example, she says companies that want to target consumers for a high-risk activity should try to determine who is active on Facebook and frequently posting pictures and updating their status.

The study was recently presented at the International Communication Association Conference in Phoenix.

So, Facebook users, if you're interested, check it out. If not a Facebook user, you may just want to know what our state university is up to, at least in one department and example.

Links: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-page-says-personality-100406443.html

Ailing Hugo Chavez, earlier today: "Don't take me yet"

8 year old KU fan goes viral

This little guy, above, is 8 year old Palmer Kiefer of Wichita, Kansas, and all of a sudden, he's gone a bit viral. He was highlighted in an article in The Wichita Eagle-Beacon and now he's gone out across those pesky internets. He's on Yahoo! News, the LostLetterman.com website and another site called The Dagger. It seems young Mr. Keifer there just won't take off his trusty, lucky KU jersey: "He's only 8 years old, but Kansas super fan Palmer Kiefer already knows that you never mess with a winning streak.

"And with his beloved Jayhawks in the Final Four on Saturday, the second-grader from Wichita, Kan., is closing in on two weeks of wearing his lucky No. 15 Kansas jersey, the number of former KU star Mario Chalmers and current guard Elijah Johnson. Palmer has worn it every day since Friday, March 16, when Kansas defeated Detroit in the NCAA tournament's second round — and it's not coming off for good until the Jayhawks lose or win it all Monday night in New Orleans." That is one devoted fan. And who's to say it hasn't helped? Links: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/eight-old-kansas-jayhawks-fan-refuses-off-jersey-224641404.html; http://www.lostlettermen.com/ku-fan-8-wont-take-off-luckey-jersey/; http://www.kansas.com/2012/03/26/2273534/second-grader-hasnt-taken-off.html

President O on Mizzou's B-Ball

This President, it is well-known, follows NCAA basketball and its corresponding "March Madness", going so far as to annually do his own brackets. While he picks North Carolina to win it all, he has this to say about our very own Mizzou: "The perimeter play of Missouri right now is outstanding." So, fight on, Mizzou. This is the same President who picked KU to win it all last year. Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/president-obama-picks-north-carolina-win-ncaa-tournament-135225878.html

Entertainment overnight

More transitioning from TV only to computers

Are you aware of this yet? Comedian/political commentator Bill Maher of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" is taking his political humor and satire standup show online to Yahoo!. It is to air this Thursday at 9:30 pm Central time. It should be interesting, at least, if not fascinating. I predict it will be wildly successful, first, and that it will herald the further shifting of more media events AWAY from television--or strictly television--and more and more to streaming to TV AND the internet. Also, as this is done, if the source is wanting a younger and younger audience, it will go far more purely to a computer-only stream. Now, before any of you "oldsters" panic, keep in mind that, if you get current and updated, your computer can or will be able to hook straight into your television monitor so relax. Stay tuned, so to speak (no pun intended). This will get more and more interesting. It will also accelerate very soon, too, this transition. Links: http://screen.yahoo.com/crazystupidpolitics/?SR=sr3_50373111_go; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/business/media/young-people-are-watching-but-less-often-on-tv.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

On those Valentine's Day treats

From Men's Health Magazine and Yahoo! Health: Best and Worst Valentine's Day CandyAnd check it out--our own Russell Stover Milk Chocolate Almonds are on the list: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/best-worst-valentine-candy. Happy Valentine's Day, y'all.