Kansas City streetcar system should connect people not things
I will vote against the planned downtown Kansas City streetcar system because it will connect attractions, not people. The project reminds me of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts; it’s build for sound not people. Yet perhaps because of that contemporary emphasis upon things and not people, this streetcar …
Downtowners are leading on streetcar election
It’s not unusual for a small group to be the catalyst for something bigger than themselves. That’s what downtown residents are about to embrace. The voting process for the downtown streetcar is underway. This small project will trigger a transit renaissance in Kansas City, stimulating our economy and spurring private … Read More ⇒
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Let’s have an all-out streetcar fund drive
In the 1950s and early 1960s my mother used to take my siblings and me for streetcar rides from our home to shop in downtown St. Louis. It was always exciting to board the heavy metal car filled with strangers and ride the swaying, clickety-clacking contraption running on rails imbedded … Read More ⇒
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The agricultural version of Fannie Mae
While the U.S. economy as a whole remains sluggish, the farm sector has been doing well. Exceptionally well, in fact. Last year net farm income was a record $101 billion, and it’s expected to be only slightly off the pace in 2012. With the national debt ballooning and the federal … Read More ⇒
2
Running as a Mr. Fix-it isn’t enough
I’d guess that about now it’s panic time at President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters. Last week, a poll showed Republican Mitt Romney edging ahead of Obama 46-43 percent, but what really stood out was Romney’s support among women. The former Massachusetts governor had surged ahead, 46-44. What’s more, this was … Read More ⇒
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Missouri’s desultory, destructive session
This will be remembered in Missouri as the year the legislature didn’t even try. Lawmakers passed no significant job-creating legislation. They made only a weak, unsuccessful stab at reining in the runaway tax credits that gnaw into the state’s revenue. Attempts to make it easier for state education officials to … Read More ⇒
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Cleaver’s response on ‘costly vehicle lease’
I would like to respond to a recent media story entitled “Cleaver’s costly vehicle lease” from Sunday, May 6. I was shocked and disappointed to see the piece, which, I am told was written based on a report from the nationally syndicated newsmagazine program, ‘Inside Edition’. The article mentioned my … Read More ⇒
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Costly tax cut bill harms Kansas’ future
The Kansas Legislature may be determined to prolong the agony, but we are ready to wrap up this 2012 legislative session. It’s been awful, and the fallout from it may be disastrous. Attempts to draft a sane income-tax reform bill fell apart Friday. Unless they can be resurrected, Gov. Sam … Read More ⇒
5
Know the health risks of being on the pill
Today there is a product being sold that greatly increases the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and other deadly aliments, with 50 years of research demonstrating the danger, and it’s not tobacco. You’d expect the media, the Food and Drug Administration and women’s health organizations to … Read More ⇒
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Yes, KU could play MU in football again
Heads up, Kansas City sports fans. The KU and MU football teams could meet again under a new pact arranged by the Big 12 and Southeastern conferences on Friday. Their regular-season champions will meet in a special postseason bowl game starting after the 2014 season. So if KU wins the … Read More ⇒
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Indian tribe ‘employee’ thrives on payday loans
While Missouri’s many brick-and-mortar payday loan shops have been the focus of public ire and reform efforts over the last few years, an even more insidious operation has thrived across the state line in Overland Park. According to a class-action suit, Johnson County businessman Scott Tucker for years has presided … Read More ⇒
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KC sewer rates could soar even higher if bonds fail
In St. Louis, voters in June are being asked to approve $945 million in bonds to make federal required improvements. But if the bonds fail, sewer rates will have to more than double this year to do the work on a pay-as-you-go basis, bond boosters say. Now, look at KC, … Read More ⇒
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Romney deserves high praise
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney should get high praise for denouncing a conservative super PAC’s efforts to pull President Barack Obama’s former pastor into the 2012 campaign. The Ending Spending Action Fund planned to run a $10 million ad campaign drawing attention to racially provocative sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah … Read More ⇒
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Who wins in new KC sales tax: Taxpayers or firefighters?
To answer the question first, it’s firefighters. Of course. Here’s the situation: On Thursday, with City Council member Cindy Circo leading the way but with other council members backing her up, the council indicated it won’t promise KC taxpayers how much new revenue essentially created by a proposed half-cent sales … Read More ⇒
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Diversity should matter, especially to Kansas City police
Love Kansas City’s new initiative targeting people behind the town’s violent crimes; hate the name. A diversity of area officials — Mayor Sly James and Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté, two black men, and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, a woman — are behind the new program called … Read More ⇒
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Get behind a promising anti-violence plan in KC
Kansas City has too many shootings, too many killings and too many gun-toting thugs who have come to believe they can outwit the police. So the initiative announced this week, the KC No Violence Alliance, or KC NoVA, deserves support. It represents a comprehensive attempt to dramatically reduce violence in … Read More ⇒
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Bike lanes build a healther KC region
Today is National Bike to Work Day throughout America as well as the end of Bike Week in Kansas City. This deserved attention for a healthy alternative form of transportation got our wheels turning…. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the good intentions about building more bike paths and painting … Read More ⇒
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Kenyan in KC
At lunch with a colleague at The Star a few weeks ago, she asked what I had found most odd about America and Americans. Home is more than 7,000 miles east of Kansas City. When you’re that far from the familiar, it is possible to find a lot that happens … Read More ⇒
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Here’s City Hall’s secret on new sales tax plan
Mayor Sly James and City Council members Thursday talked for a long time about a proposed half-cent sales tax increase headed for the Aug. 7 ballot. But they never once mentioned a significant fact about the issue: It’s a $20 million a year tax increase. Under the plans discussed Thursday, … Read More ⇒
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Ditch the doughnuts; get bananas instead
The next time your mom tells you to eat your vegetables and fruits instead of potato chips and doughnuts, please take her seriously. A new U.S. Department of Agriculture study released Wednesday shows that not only are fruits and vegetables healthier for us than junk food, but they cost less … Read More ⇒
4
Face of America keeps changing
The face of America continues to change, becoming more like the land that existed before Columbus. The U.S. Census Bureau today reported that for the first time, the number of infants of color outnumbered those of whites. The census found that “50.4 percent of our nation’s population younger than age … Read More ⇒
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Kobach wants to make Kansas redistricting a federal case
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is asking the federal courts to take over the Kansas redistricting process. He’s right. (I know, it’s that once-in-a-blue-moon moment when I actually think that.) But the Kansas Legislature is at war over the redistricting issue, and the prospects for a truce and treaty … Read More ⇒
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James wisely kills one tax plan, but two more emerge
Pressed for time, Mayor Sly James on Wednesday dramatically reconfigured his tax and bond plans for Kansas City voters to consider this summer. The new plan needs work to make it understandable and acceptable for the ballot. On a frenetic morning, James met with other City Council members to unveil … Read More ⇒
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Rush Limbaugh debacle sullies Missouri, Tilley
The Missouri House chambers, meant to be a place of vigorous debate and many voices, this week became the locked province of radio host Rush Limbaugh and a few of his greatest admirers. They were on the inside. By order of House Speaker Steve Tilley, the public was on the … Read More ⇒
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When thugs declare open season on human beings
I am Harry Stone. You are Harry Stone. Except for one major difference. You and I are alive today. Harry Stone is dead. The 60-year-old Raytown resident was jogging early Sunday morning when he was shot and killed near 67th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard in Raytown. Police say all … Read More ⇒