By Tim Herbers

According to some sources the Chiefs are headed for another long season of embarrassing losses, while others claim Kansas City is on the verge of breaking into the middle group of teams in the league.

With training camp starting in a couple of weeks, the truth is that no one knows exactly what the season holds, not even Scott Pioli or Todd Haley.

Even so, I believe there are four major factors that will have an enormous impact on Chiefs win total this year.

By Clay Chastain

In 2006, big government ignored what 73,998 Kansas City, Missouri voters said they wanted and instead did what it wanted, making a mockery of democracy and setting Kansas City four-more years behind light rail cities that are going green and going strong.

Citizens your democracy’s on the line and your city is on the line because your city leaders have been out of line.

Citizens come to Union Station Saturday May 8th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to sign petitions to place before voters in November a complete, city-wide, multimodal world class light rail-based transit system headquartered at Union Station. 

Commentary by Skip Walther, President of the Missouri Bar Association.

In the 1930’s, our judges were hand-picked by Tom Pendergast, the head of the corrupt political machine in Kansas City. Pendergast wanted judges who would rule as he wished. If they failed in that regard, he replaced them.

Elections didn’t work because Pendergast committed widespread voter fraud, but our citizens voted in 1940 to abandon elections and instead adopt the country’s very first merit selection system for judges.

We will learn in the next few weeks whether the initiative petition effort that has been driven by Show Me Better Courts was a success. The petition seeks to scrap our own Non Partisan Court Plan and instead revert to partisan elections for every judge in Missouri, including Supreme Court judges.

And One of Them Invades Denmark!

Exit Blue, by Ivan G. Goldman (Black Heron Press; 2010)

Imagine a vice president who conducts business as he paces in front of a Citizen Kane-sized fireplace clutching a shotgun and a bottle of Jack Daniels. Now imagine a White House that plants a friendly male hooker in presidential press conferences. Which idea is more absurd? More factual?

Yes, those of us who were paying attention know that the White House-connected male hooker story is genuine. His name was Jeff Gannon, and he had no prior journalism experience, but he was mysteriously granted press credentials and allowed to range freely through W’s news conferences for years until he was finally, if you’ll excuse the expression, exposed. The president used to call on him by name and then field the absurdly friendly questions that always followed.

By Clay Chastain

A bed of roses has never been my destiny in Kansas City. Rather, more a bed of thorns.

When you act independently and challenge the status quo in Kansas City with new ideas---higher ups generally don’t like it. When you challenge the status quo and don’t live here--- the higher ups like it even less.

I agree that living outside Kansas City the last 10 years and trying to still help the city and its people is an odd situation that doesn’t help my cause and gives my enemies, like the Star Editorial Board and the I hate Clay Chastain “therefore I am” people, more ammunition to hurl at me.

So to begin with I do not see how I can direct the actions and the support of a large number of people my way on this light rail issue, or even read this editorial, if I do not first address this concern.

A lion of Kansas City journalism will roar no more. A distinguished 40-year career for journalist Thomas J. Bogdon ended after a long illness Saturday, January 16, 2010. He was 69.

The native of  Kansas City, Missouri, succumbed to pneumonia on January 16, 2010 at the University of Kansas Medical Center after a corageous battle with lung cancer. Until the final days of his life, he was a working journalist, directing his latest project, the online news weekly, KCTribune.com, from his hospital bed.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday night on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” he was encouraged by the White House Jobs Summit earlier and that he’s looking forward to working on the urgent goal of job creation.

Trumka told host Ed Schultz that in the discussions among President Obama, administration officials, economists and business leaders, there was a broad consensus that we need to fix an economy that has shed millions of jobs. Trumka said of the jobs summit:

I think it worked really well. The president really does understand the urgency of job creation. He said it on numerous occasions: jobs, jobs, jobs. I think his staff and Cabinet understand the importance of job creation. A lot of good ideas came out today that are usable. If we turn them around real quick, we can start putting Americans back to work in weeks.

by Victoria “I is EZ” Prater

Hashing. It sounds illegal, doesn’t it? But really, it’s the perfect combination of exercise, social interaction and beer. If Busch Light, PBR and Miller High Life aren’t good enough for you, go sit at some snotty bar in Power & Light. But if you can appreciate all-you-can-drink amounts of your dad’s favorite yard beer, you’ll fit right in.

Some of us are runners, but without much emphasis on speed, hence the slogan “drinking club with a running problem.” In fact, it may as well be “drinking club with a bi-pedal locomotion problem,” since many of our members walk rather than run.

Hashers are people of all ages from all walks of life who like to drop the hum-drum of the everyday for a few hours in exchange for beer, a smattering of exercise and a politically incorrect good time.

Clay Rodgers, a business representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), has announced his candidacy for the 55th District seat in the Missouri House of Representatives from Blue Springs. Rodgers is a Democrat.

The seat is currently held by Bryan Pratt. a Republican who is stepping down due to term limits.

Ryan Hobart, communications director of the Missouri Democratic Party, said there are no other announced candidates for the seat from either party. Primary elections will be in August 2010; the general election will be in November.

Rodgers reported in October that in the previous quarter he raised $10,300 in campaign contributions from 30 donors.

The KCTribune.com online news weekly announced this week of the appointment of Daniel Starling as Editor of the publication. Mr. Starling is long-time contributor to KCTribune.com and assumed the post following the death of Thomas J. Bogdon, its founder, publisher and editor. He is returning to Kansas City to assume the responsibilities of Editor of KCTribune.com and be closer to his family.

Mr. Starling is a graduate of the University of Kansas’ William Allen White School of Journalism where he studied photojournalism. Mr. Starling worked for various publications around Kansas and Missouri during the 1990’s as a freelance photographer, with the Kansas City Star/Times, Kansas City Business Journal, Pitch Weekly, the Independence Examiner, before becoming a reporter/photographer/associate editor for the Labor Times, under Mr. Bogdon.

Mr. Starling relocated to New York City to pursue his writing, photography and music careers. While in New York, Mr. Starling worked for various community newspapers, magazines and media, until witnessing the events of September 11th, 2001. He left journalism for pacifist politics becoming a Green Party activist and organizer.

Mr. Starling helped Co-Chair the Green Party Office in Manhattan until 2005 and is a former member of the Green Party of the United States Editorial Board, helping with its national publication, Green Pages.

“My editorial policies will follow those set down by my friend and founder, Tom Bogdon, who inspired me to put down my camera and pick up a pen,” said Starling.

Judy Ancel, President, The Cross Border Network

A hundred and four years ago in the Mexican State of Sonora copper miners for American owned Cananea Consolidated Copper Company went on strike. They were protesting deplorable conditions, inequality between the 5,360 Mexican miners who earned 3.5 pesos a day and the 2,200 American workers who got five pesos for the same work. The strike was greeted with violent repression by the company which summoned an American posse, led by Arizona Rangers. The striking miners reacted by lynching two Americans who had fired on the strikers. Strike leaders were then arrested and imprisoned.

The Cananea strike gets the credit in Mexico for starting the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Photojournalist David Bacon writes, “The 1906 battle not only heralded revolution to come, but was the first strike organized on both sides of the border, by the first real cross-border activists,” the Flores Magon brothers who had organized in communities of Mexican railroad workers in East Los Angeles and St. Louis. The Flores Magon brothers supported the Industrial Workers of the World, which organized low-wage workers without regard to color or immigrant status. After the Cananea strike, the brothers spent years on the run, not only from federales of dictator Porfirio Diaz, but from U.S. authorities. They were eventually sent to Leavenworth, where Ricardo Flores Magon died.

by Rhiannon Ross

The veteran Kansas City journalist, whose 40-year career included reporting, editing and publishing, died January 16th at the University of Kansas Medical Center after waging a long battle with lung cancer.

Fond memories of Tom, as well as accolades hailing him as a Kansas City “journalism legend,” continue to appear on Internet sites around the area and beyond.

Longtime CNN Headline News Anchor Chuck Roberts wrote from Atlanta, “No one articulated the city’s problems and potential better. Tom was irreplaceable...I admired him greatly.”

Dear readers,

The staff of the Kansas City Tribune would like to apologize for recent delays in the publication of our weekly. Sadly, we must announce that our Publisher, Editor-in-Chief and founder Thomas J. Bogdon, has taken ill and will be on an indefinite leave-of-absence. Mr. Bogdon is currently being treated at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

The staff wishes Tom the best, and is hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.

The Kansas City Tribune will resume publishing on January 1st, 2010, under the direction of Interim Managing Editor Daniel Starling, who is also a columnist for the Tribune.

Tom would like to thank all of our readers from around the Kansas City area for their years of support of “the Trib” and believes, as we do, the best is yet to come.

We hope that all of our readers enjoy a joyous and prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,

The Tribune Staff

As WTO Ministerial begins in Geneva, Senators, President of United Steelworkers, Advocates Outline Steps to Address Deficit, Strengthen U.S. Economy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Marking the ten-year anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) demonstrations in Seattle and the Nov. 30-Dec 2 WTO ministerial in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) today announced that they will reintroduce the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act. Brown first introduced the TRADE Act in 2008.

The legislation would revamp U.S. trade policy by mandating trade pact reviews, establishing higher standards, protecting workers in developing nations, and restoring Congressional oversight of future trade agreements. The bill would mandate trade pact reviews, establish standards, protect workers in developing nations, and would help restore Congressional oversight of future trade agreements.

Opinion

By Ryan Hobar
Communications Director,
Missouri Democratic Party

FLASHBACK – “There’s Nothing That Happens in Congress That Roy Blunt Isn’t a Major Architect of.”

Jefferson City, MO -- Seven years ago today, shortly after Roy Blunt’s election as majority whip, George Bush’s political director Ken Mehlman told the Kansas City Star that “there’s nothing that happens in Congress that Roy Blunt isn’t a major architect of.” [Kansas City Star, 11/30/02]

Even way back then, according to the Star, Congressman Roy Blunt had already “mastered the game” of DC power politics by being an “inside player” and “twisting arms to prevent party defections.”
Congressman Roy Blunt – father of former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt – represents Southwest Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Bush administration, he was a Republican leader in congress and Tom Delay’s right hand man.

Without notice, Mayor Mark Funkhouser on Thursday achieved his long-sought objective: the removal from office of City Manager Wayne Cauthen.

“I believe we need new leadership for the City,” Funkhouser wrote in a letter to his City Council colleagues. “As of today, I am exercising the authority given to me as the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri to suspend the City Manager, effective immediately. In the interim, the city manager has been asked to vacate the premises immediately.”

Earlier in the day, Funkhouser walked into Cauthen’s office and demanded the city manager’s resignation. When Cauthen declined, Funkhouser informed Cauthen he was suspended, and had Cauthen escorted from the building.

“I don’t want to comment,” Cauthen said. “It’s similar to what’s been going on before.”