For more of Hearne, go to kcconfidential.com
Ring around the revenue at Arrowhead
Posted 9/1/10
More bad news for the Kansas City Star…
With additional layoffs and cutbacks at the newspaper imminent – wrongly-rumored to be going down yesterday or the day before of this week – the atmosphere at 18th and Grand was already pretty gloomy.
Especially on the heels of the resignation of its last big gun columnist Jason Whitlock the week before and a string of startling revelations about Star editor Mike Fannin.
Whitlock, you may recall, spent the better part of three hours of live local radio and TV taking Fannin to task for being a party boy and engaging in an “inappropriate relationship” with his immediate subordinate, Star sports editor Holly Lawton.
KC Confidential compounded Fannin’s woes following Whitlock's marathon by reporting that others at the newspaper also believed Fannin and Lawton to have had a romantic relationship. And then that Fannin had turned down the editor’s post in April 2008, warning that he had skeletons that could come to light were he to take the top post. And that Fannin had to be restrained by Star security after confronting another employee he suspected of having an affair with his wife several years back.
That should about do it, right? Wrong.
Later KC Confidential found that according to digital court records, Fannin had been convicted of his second DUI in Wyandotte County shortly before being offered the editor job in 2008. Fannin served two days in jail, three days house arrest and a year’s probation at a local drug treatment center. KCC then found he’d been convicted of assault with bodily harm in 1994 while working at the Dallas Morning News.
That may sound like a lot to love but there's more.
With the layoffs at the newspaper looming Monday and Tuesday Fannin was nowhere to be seen. Took a couple personal days off, reportedly. And an anonymous commenter posted the following missive to KC Confidential:
“The Star has delayed layoffs while it tries to figure out what to do with its crazy editor. You can’t lay people off with Fannin at the helm. Too many potential lawsuits.”
Um, stay tuned…
Ring Around the Revenue at Arrowhead
To say that KC Confidential ringmaster Brian McTavish was unhappy with the new game day vibe at Arrowhead Stadium would be an understatement.
Most notably with the “totally distracting, please-make-it-stop advertising on the high-tech HD ribbon board extending around the entire inner circle of Arrowhead,” McTavish reports.
“The board’s video overkill promoted future football games, the Chiefs Cheerleaders calendar, soft drinks, beer and so much more. It qualified as the most exasperating thing I’ve encountered in 20 years as a Chiefs season ticket holder. And that’s pretty exasperating.”
The reason for McTavish’s angst?
“To say that the board – let’s just call it the “ad ribbon” – constantly sidetracked my focus from the game on the field only begins to communicate the inappropriate pummeling taken by my attention span,” McTavish says. “This is actually the second season at the renovated Arrowhead for the ad ribbon. But I guess the damn thing was only getting warmed up last year. At Friday’s game, it never stopped trying to sell me something. I take that back. Every once in a while it showed the faces of honored Chiefs players – although I’m a bit surprised that they weren’t depicted also enjoying a Diet Coke.”
The bottom line:
“When the football is snapped, do you want your attention pulled away even peripherally by commerce? Even if it’s not the intent of Chiefs management to distract from the field of play (although, given the less than stellar state of the team, one has to wonder), it’s still a result. And it’s a shame.
“Anyway, it feels like it’s going to be a long season at Arrowhead for these 52-year-old eyes. Here’s an idea for the concession stand: Eye drops! Put that on your ad ribbon and flash it.”
Hearne on the street…
Out with the old: It’s official. As of midnight this past Friday the smoking substance known as K2 is no more. Legally, that is. Missouri joined Kansas in banning the key ingredients in what is loosely referred to as synthetic marijuana.
So that’s that, right? Wrong.
The K2 supplier to Kansas City’s Coffee Wonk has been mad scientist-ing like mad to invent a legal substitute for K2 by the ban.
And it’s here.
The name of Coffee Wonk”s new game: “Heaven Scent” or “Syn.”
“It’s going very, very well,” says Wonk owner Micah Riggs. “What we have is the result of six months of testing – trial and error – rigorous testing to make sure it’s to people’s liking.”
So just how heavenly is Heaven’s Scent?
“Some people say they like it more than my old stuff,” Riggs says.
Speaking of K2…It’s not like area police are oblivious to the new Missouri law banning the popular new, uh, incense.
Take Kansas City police chief Jim Corwin.
Corwin was Johnny-on-the-spot on the topic the first thing Monday.
“K2 is now illegal in Missouri,” reads the headline.
“Missouri is the fifth state in the nation to make the sale or possession of K2 illegal,” Corwin blogged. “The penalties for selling or possessing K2 are now the same as selling or possessing marijuana…”
Oh and Corwin included a word to the wise:
“Our crime lab is working now to develop a field test for it.”
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com
Stargazers viewing a soap opera
Posted 8/27/10
Saddle up, Stargazers….
But first a warning; the ride could get a bit bumpy for a certain somebody or two at 17th and Grand. As in the Kansas City Star.
It all started last Friday when recently resigned Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock, armed with but his tongue and a passel of Gates Bar-B-Q, went live for three hours on 610 Sports and Time Warner’s Metro Sports with a mission in mind.
To bring down his now-former boss, Star editor Mike Fannin.
Make no mistake, Whitlock’s commentary and accusations were brutal. The highlight, if you will, being his accusation that Fannin had an “inappropriate relationship” with the woman he most likely had a hand in promoting to sports editor, Holly Lawton.
Lawton, by the way, announced her resignation from the newspaper a couple weeks earlier as tension mounted in the three-month long saga of “Where’s Whitlock?” in the Star sports pages.
If you recall, the Star bogusly ran weekly mini ads with Whitlock’s picture telling readers he was on “vacation.”
Whitlock shredded that fraudulence in the opening minutes of his monologue.
Enter the gang at KC Confidential…
The picture I painted of the once-ponytailed Fannin’s ascent at the Star was a checkered one.
Starting with the revelation that in April of 2008, Fannin – then my boss over at FYI – told me that Star publisher Mark Zieman had offered him the editor’s job. But Fannin had turned it down, warning Zieman that he had skeletons that could surface. Zieman convinced him to take the position and Fannin became editor of the paper in May 2008.
Fannin didn’t tell me what those skeletons were but I had a few ideas of what some of them might be. Starting with the story he told me of trying to beat up a dude he believed was involved with his wife on the main floor of the newspaper and having to be removed by Star security. There are other reports that could qualify as skeletons but no need to further embarrass Fannin here.
Combine this with the fact that several Star sources, myself included, shared Whitlock’s allegation about Fannin and Lawton.
Upon hearing the Whitlock allegation, two former Star editors concurred that, if true, such a relationship with a married, direct subordinate would be grounds for immediate dismissal.
Things were starting to get plenty prickly.
Then on Tuesday, Tony’s Kansas City posted an alleged mug shot of Fannin.
So KC Confidential investigated…
What we found in Wyandotte County District Court digital records was an unreported DUI conviction for Fannin in 2006, when he was stopped for allegedly driving 74 in a 65 zone on I-35 in Wyandotte County.
It was Fannin’s second DUI, court records said.
According to court records, Fannin pleaded guilty to the DUI, served his two days in jail, three under house arrest and a year’s probation with La Salida, Inc., an Overland Park drug treatment center.
Which brings us to the $64 million question(s).
Will Fannin step down as editor of the Star and what did publisher Mark Zieman know prior to promoting Fannin editor, despite Fannin’s warning not to?
Stay tuned…
Hearne on the street…
Big-band-o-ween: It’s not official yet, but the hot Halloweeen night ticket in town looks like it will be the Max Weinberg Big Band at Jardine’s on the Plaza. Weinberg is said to be thisclose to inking a deal for a two-show spookfest with his 17 piece band at the tiny jazz club.
Never heard of Max Weinberg? No way!
A quick check will reveal that not only is Weinberg Bruce Springsteen’s drummer, he’s also the dude who headed up late night television’s Conan O’Brien’s show the past seven or so years.
Hate to be cagey again but – you know the drill – stay tuned!
For more KC Confidential and Hearne check out kcconfidential.com
IT'S BEEN A ROUGH WEEK FOR THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Posted 8/18/10
Where to begin…
Hate to be a One Trick Pony, but it’s been a rough week for Kansas City’s newspaper of record, the Kansas City Star. So let’s get it over with and take a quick look at the past week’s Good, Bad and Ugly.
Won’t take long for the good…
Fledgling sports columnist Sam Mellinger seems to be getting his sea legs. It’s not easy coming out of the blue and writing compelling columns – the Ivan Foley’s of the world are not so much born but rather they come of age.
Or else they don’t.
In the case of young gun Mellinger, he’s following in some pretty hefty footsteps, that of former Star sports scribes Joe Posnanski (now with Sports Illustrated) and Jason Whitlock (now with Twitter, his mom and Gates Bar-B-Q).
It’s clear that Mellinger is no over-the-top wordsmith a-la Posnanski. Nor is he the overly loose cannon Whitlock has long been known to be. So absent those relatively sensationalistic attributes, Mellinger has to earn his journalistic stripes the old-fashioned way; by writing insightful, entertaining, well thought out missives and kicking a little butt here and there.
It’s actually a tougher task than his sexy former siblings, but if Mellinger can keep up the kind of good work he did putting the wood to KU athletics director Lew Perkins this past week, he’s got a shot. Let’s grade him a “P” for promising.
Now the bad…
Print journalism can be a prickly game. On radio especially and in television, goofs and gaffes can literally melt away into thin air. Did somebody say something? Missed it brushing your teeth, trying to talk the police office out of a speeding ticket or taking a bathroom or beer break.
That’s not the case with the written word…
Especially these days with the Internet. It’s a pretty easy proposition to track down what somebody wrote about something and bring those chickens right home to roost.
In the case of the Star, the newspaper has been hoodwinking readers for three months about the uncertain state of Jason Whitlock at the paper. He’s on vacation they’ve advertised on pretty much a weekly basis. Even last Sunday. Finally yesterday they wrote that the big galoot was “leaving” for a future-career-to-be-named-later.
Of course, the vacation ditties were bogus and the betting money is the newspaper – which is reportedly poised to announce more cutbacks and/or layoffs in the near future – couldn’t come to contract (as in money) terms with Whitlock.
KC Confidential did a lot of tealeaf reading in the absence of anything approaching forthcoming-ness by either Whitlock or the paper. For which yours truly garnered a nice scolding by Whitlock yesterday on Twitter.
- “HChristopher must get paid per fabrication,” one began. “If this is an indication of what ran in The Star for 16 years, Star owes a lot of apologies.”
- Added another, “KC Tweeps only: Hearne Christopher is the dumbest motherphucka on the planet. It's embarrassing a newspaper employed him. Embarrassing.”
Hello, at least I never paid anybody to write any of my columns for me.
I digress…
Now Whitlock is trying to raise money on Twitter to fly his mom in to cook for a media event at his house whereby he attempts to replicate LeBron James’ ESPN announcement last month of where he would play basketball. Only Whitlock wants local radio and TV stations to pay him to cover what he is calling “The Explanation” of why he and the Star are parting ways.
Not exactly earth shattering but what the heck, three months with no paycheck and who wouldn’t want to pick up a few pesos?
Look for the All-Star media gang bang to go down Friday or Monday, Whitlock Twittered late Tuesday.
Now the ugly…
The truth can be a bitter pill and the Star opted not to swallow two of them this past week.
So how about we administer that medicine here and now?
Three years ago the Liberty Memorial and World War I museum folks told the newspaper that it cost $40,000 to light that fake flame atop the Liberty Memorial monument.
And dagged if they could afford it.
It was to be a sad passing, but short of somebody else coughing up the cash, the light would have to go dark. Predictably somebody rode to the rescue to pick up the PR schmooze and it remained on.
But now the brains behind the memorial’s goofy fake flame are telling the Star they had it figured wrong and it’s been costing them $100,000 a year for the fake flame.
And does the Star rise to the journalistic occasion to call out the Liberty Memorialians for their stupidity and the waste of taxpayer and donor dollars?
Nope.
Instead, they gloss right over it and write a headline about how the memorial plans to save a buncha money on the flame. That if they spend another 20 grand they can get the utility bill down to maybe $60,000 or $70,000.
Huh? That’s nearly double the original $40,000.
Plus it’s not even a halfway cool-looking fake flame, few people even see or notice it at night, it’s a waste of energy resources and taxpayer dollars and they oughta get the Clued Out Award of the Century for not knowing it was costing them nearly three times as much money as they claimed.
Reality check, anyone?
But when it comes to bogus news reports, former Star editor Jim Fitzpatrick’s zinger takes the absolute cake.
Fitz noticed late last week that the Star had placed a story on its Web site slamming another locally-based company under the headline, “Sprint-Nextel merger among the nation’s worst.”
Just one problem…
Buried near the end of the story was a minor mention of the company that ranked Numero Uno in Bloomberg’s analysis of the 100 Worst Mergers.
None other than the Star’s parent company McClatchy for its red ink belching buyout of former Star parent Knight Ridder in 2006.
“Odd, then, isn’t it, that…Star editors chose to highlight the Sprint-Nextel merger when the very worst deal was, literally, right under their noses?” Fitzpatrick notes.
Go figure.
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com
THE DYLAN CONCERT; AND WHITLOCK REPORTED TO BE IN SALARY FIGHT WITH STAR
Posted 8/11/10
About pitching ace Zack Geinke’s dissatisfaction with playing for Kansas City’s bottom dwelling Royals…
Color Greinke gone, says Stanford & Sons main man Craig Glazer, a student of local sports.
For good reason, Glazer says.
As in the ineptitude of Royals owner David Glass.
“David Glass is a cheapskate trying to not lose money on his investment,” Glazer says.
“The truth is the Royals could not have fielded a division winner the last 15 years with all of their best players combined,” he adds.
Even fielding Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Jeff Suppan, Gary Gaetti, Greg Gagne, Jeff Montgomery, Billy Butler, Raul Ibanez Joakim Soria and Zack “the Royals would only have been good enough to win maybe 90 games at best,” Glazer says. “It’s a team that never was and never will be.”
Net result: Kansas City has come full circle from the days of the lowly A’s and Charlie O the Mule.
“They are now officially a permanent farm team for the real clubs in Major League Baseball,” Glazer says.
Like he swallowed a rolling stone
A moment of silence, please for iconic folk-rock poet Bob Dylan’s concert last week at Starlight…
Color it a disaster, reports KC Confidential entertainment reviewer Brian McTavish.
“To get overtly metaphorical, Dylan onstage is a dedicated yet aged working man with lots of nails in his tool box, but little strength left to usefully wield the hammer,” McTavish says. “The genius songwriter proved for the umpteenth time that his singing voice is totally shot and he no longer has any stage presence to speak of.”
Think that sounds harsh? Read on.
“Other than to provide a viewing for those who wish to extol him in person, perhaps Dylan should just stop wasting everyone’s time by performing in concert,” McTavish adds.
The bottom line:
“At least the top ticket price of $55 was relatively affordable. You couldn’t even go to the bathroom at a Paul McCartney concert for that kind of money. But, of course, McCartney still puts on a terrific show and he can (still) sing. Although, if you can sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ you can sing better than Bob Dylan.”
Last Dollar House Out Turn Out the Lights
Seems like only yesterday that the both the national and local landscapes were dotted with so-called Dollar Movie Houses.
No mas.
So says KC Confidential’s Jack Poessiger, who reports that with the recent closing of the Trailridge Cinema in Johnson County, but a single dollar house remains; what’s left of the Noland Fashion Square Six in Independence.
Poessiger points to the narrowing window between a first run movie’s release and its DVD street date as the main culprit. Where that time span has been as much as six months in years past, today it can run as little as four to six weeks. Combine that with the advent of Red Box DVD rentals and that doesn’t leave much on the table for the dollar dudes to try and scarf up.
Not to mention that tickets for the area’s last dollar house are now going for not $1 but $2 these days.
Where’s Whitlock, Take Deux
Still no word on what the future may hold for Kansas City Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock. The big galoot has been missing-in-action at the newspaper for coming up on 12 weeks now. And while the Star continues to run weekly Whitlock is on Vacation advisories (he did just Twitter that he was leaving Las Vegas), insiders say he is at a contract/salary impasse with the paper. As in they jammed a pay cut down his throat that he now wants removed before returning to 18th and Grand.
Think of it as a game of journalistic chicken with the Chiefs first preseason game going down Friday.
Speaking of Whitlock’s “vacation,” it would appear that Fox Sports didn’t get that memo, as W’s columns have appeared regularly during his standoff with the Star.
Hearne on the street:
The beat goes on: More tough times appear to be on the horizon for the Star which shuttered its Northland Bureau last year and has been laying off staffers – yours truly included – right, left and sideways the past two years.
Insiders say another round of layoffs is expected to be just around the corner, no later than fourth quarter 2010. Which jibes with word from newspaperlayoffs.com that the Star’s parent company McClatchy laid the pipe to 15 newsroom staffers last week at sister publication the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Stay tuned.
For more KC Confidential and Hearne, check out kcconfidential.com
KC STAR NOT COMING CLEAN ABOUT WHITLOCK SITUATION
Posted 8/4/10
Suffice it to say, a lot of people at the Kansas City Star are not coming clean…
It’s not like they’re legally bound to or anything. But there’s an element of hypocrisy involved in the ongoing cover-up as to the status at the newspaper of Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock. W, as I like to call him - no offense George - has been absent from the sports pages of the Star since late May. He’s popped up (and off) from time to time in other media but he hasn’t touched the Star with his however-many-foot-long pole.
Nada.
At the same time the Star has let forth a few feeble utterances about W being on vacation. A vacation that hits the 10 week mark today, ladies and gentlemen. Trust me, in my 16 years at the Star, nobody ever waltzed off with that kind of umbrella drink time. Nobody.
Did Whitlock get his stomach stapled? Did his cat die? Is he working at a halfway home for unwed strippers? Is he at a contract impasse with the newspaper.
We don’t know and they won’t say, because the Star is too busy clamming up and tap dancing around the topic.
Here’s why that’s bogus.
Do you think for one minute if a star player for the Chiefs or high profile public figure dropped out of site for more than two months, the Star would do anything less than put on a full court press to get to the bottom of the matter?
If it were an athlete, the Star would be asking were there contract issues, health (or mental health) issues? Was it about money, sex, drugs and/or rock ‘n’ roll?
The news side of the Star would not rest until everyone involved had been put on the spot. And were anyone to clam up, they’d have been taken to task for not being forthcoming.
The newspaper would be all over the matter, demanding answers and refusing to settle for poppycock like it was a personnel matter.
Last week the plot thickened…
Whitlock’s boss, Star sports editor Holly Lawton stunned the newsroom by summarily resigning her post. Leaving a high-paying job in a rough recession for a position-to-be-named later in the private sector.
No way Lawton was about to be held accountable by returning a request for comment to KC Confidential. Instead she put on a third rate tap dance for a local blog, carrying on about how Whitlock’s column didn’t need much editing.
Say what?
When the guy drops out of site for this long, the thinking class public isn’t fumbling around wondering how much he got edited, they want to know why he’s not in the paper.
And if he’s really just on vacation, where’d he go? Journey to the center of the earth? Russian space flight?
The bottom line: The Star is making it perfectly clear to its readers that when it comes to news, there’s a double standard going at 18th and Grand. Do as they say, not as they do. If they have questions, you darn well better be ready to answer them. If you has questions about the Star, go fish.
For more KC Confidential and Hearne check out kcconfidential.com
SO REALLY, HOW GOOD WAS THE MCCARTNEY SHOW?
Posted 7/28/10
So just how way cool was this past weekend’s Paul McCartney show at the Sprint Center?
Depends of whom you ask…
To KC Confidential entertainment main man Brian McTavish the show was a life-changing experience. Godhead meets nirvana.
“The master tunesmith, remarkable performer and living legend led a nearly three-hour, 38-song epic of retro hits and hero worship that went down as an instant classic,” McTavish writes. “If you happened to be a part of the near-capacity throng that hung onto virtually every note, joyfully sang along and cheered in awe, this momentous gig constituted a cherished memory guaranteed to raise a smile for years to come.”
The flip side of McT’s paean: my humble but acerbic take.
McCartney can and did deliver, but he blew it by forcing Beatles-hungry Baby Boomers to wade through a nearly three-hour long set list of what for all but his most ardent admirers was a good hour too long.
And while Sir Paul did indeed deliver a rousing dose of Beatle juice at concert’s end, I bailed two hours and ten minutes in after putting up with his on-again, off-again approach to songbook overkill.
Oh, and the nearly 40-minute delayed start the Star reviewer forgot to mention. That converted the concert into a nearly four hour plus travel time affair.
You are there alert
Now a brief accounting of the show from your intrepid, keen-eyed, bubble bursting, deliverer of the goods.
For starters McCartney looked trim and pretty dang good for a 68 year-old dude. At least from a distance and on the giant screens alongside the stage. “It’s great to be back here,” he told to the crowd.
Before embarrassing himself. Twice.
“Thank-you! Thank-you, Kansas!” McCartney shouted, later adding, “Thank-you, everybody. Thank-you for this great welcome back to Kansas.”
We all know the drill; the show was in the great state of Missouri. As were McCartney's previous gigs here at Kemper Arena and Arrowhead Stadium. Maybe somebody from Garmin - on the Kansas side - needs to send him a nice GPS so he can figure out where he is.
One quick aside.
Over the years I’ve poked fun at local Beatles tribute band Liverpool, which pride themselves in sounding like the young, Beatles of old and doing a darn good job of it.
However, the dudes in Liverpool have this inexplicable obsession with dressing up like the youthful Fab Four. That's is fine, I suppose, but do they really need to wear those really bad Beatles wigs? You end up with 60-ish men cast as 20-somethings which makes for a very odd disconnect. Kinda like casting 69 year-old Ann-Margret in the lead role of the musical “Annie.”
The point being, McCartney’s wearing of a Nehru jacket combined with his major league dark hair dye job (he’s pushing 70 without a single gray hair?) makes for a solidarity of sorts with our local, million-year-old faux Beatles band.
While McCartney's concert did indeed finish strong - with a flurry of nonstop Beatles hit finally – wading through his solo, non hits catalogue was more than a little tedious.
“I love the Beatles,” Jardine’s jazz club owner Beena Brandsgard said two hours into the show before leaving early. “But for me, it’s kind of boring.”
Hearne on the street…
King of Sting rides again: Stanford & Sons comedy club kingpin Craig Glazer has inked a deal for a follow up to his 2008 true crime hardcover, “The King of Sting; The Amazing True Story of a Modern American Outlaw.”
The book came out in paperback in May and a major motion picture deal is in the works.
“I’m starting on King of Sting II this week,” Glazer says. “That’s not the title, it’s the working title. The title will be something like, ‘Sex, Drugs & Comedy by the King of Sting.’ ”
The $64 million question: fiction or nonfiction again?
“We were going to write fiction but it’s going to be nonfiction,” Glazer says. “It goes from my release from prison in 1989 until now. And it’s a true story, there won’t be anything in it that didn’t happen.”
No word on whether one story Glazer is allegedly sitting on - about partying with some very high up folks at the Kansas City Star - will be included in the second coming.
Let the shivering in everyone's shoes commence!
For more Hearne and KC Confidential, check out kcconfidential.com
IS IT THE END OF THE LINE FOR K2 IN MISSOURI?
Posted 7/22/10
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em…
The end is near in Missouri for the smoking substance known as K2.
Or is it? Not if Kansas City coffee shop operator Micah Riggs has a say in the matter. Riggs owns and operates Coffee Wonk at 3535 Broadway in midtown.
In general terms, the leafy substance K2 is what the legal system describes as a synthetic cannabinoid or in layman’s terms, manmade marijuana.
“K2 is the generic term,” Riggs says. “But to me that’s like saying chocolate chip cookies. Nabisco might make one. Pepperidge Farm might make another. It’s the same product but there are no set ways of doing it. I’m going to retire the name K2 August 28th.”
That’s because Gov. Jay Nixon signed into law a bill outlawing “K2” and classifying products containing its ingredients as controlled substances.
The new Missouri’s law goes into effect on August 28.
“This whole thing smacks of election year (bs) – especially in Missouri,” Riggs says. “A lot of the people pushing this bill were just looking to get re-elected; they had ulterior motives.”
Things were different in the great state of (former Big 12 powerhouse) Nebraska.
“In Nebraska, the governor just said, ‘We’re not going to worry about this – nobody’s getting hurt,’ ” Riggs says. “ ‘I’m not going to sign any bills; let’s not make this a priority.’ ”
How K2 got its name?
“I don’t know,” Riggs says. “My assumption is that K2 is the second highest mountain in the world next to Mt. Everest. So it’s like second to marijuana. You know, like just a little pun.”
K2 was banned in Kansas earlier this year, but its sale flourishes in coffee shops, mini marts and the like throughout Kansas City, Mo.
The reason: it’s profitable, Riggs concedes.
“The markup on coffee’s a lot higher than K2,” he says. “But I make more money on K2 because I have a higher volume of K2 sales.”
Riggs argument is keep it legal and regulate it to keep it away from minors.
“This is a completely non toxic substance with a low percentage of carcinogens,” Riggs says. “And we need to tell people that instead of acting like we’re doing something shady. We’re not selling crack or anything.”
For the record, Riggs says he neither does alcohol nor drugs.
The type of person who buys and consumes K2?
“I sell to military people and firefighters, people who work hard and just want to enjoy themselves at the end of the day,” Riggs says.
The number of businesses and folks selling K2 in the Greater Kansas City region?
“Oh, a lot,” Riggs says. “A lot of the Arabs that own gas stations and tobacco shops. In Kansas City (the police) don’t care. Get out of Kansas City and they do - in more rural areas. I’ve talked to (police here) about it and they say, ‘We’ve got bigger things to worry about in this town.’ ”
One loophole in the new Missouri bill that could work in Riggs favor: there are different ways to make K2-like substances.
“It’s the same product but there is no set way of doing it,” Riggs says.
Meanwhile back at the Coffee Wonk, Riggs has hired lobbyists and is planning to expand his biz to Florida and a state in the northeast to be named later.
“I have a shop opening in Florida next month,” he says. “When I decide to go somewhere, first I find the place, then I retain a lobbyist and then I sign a lease. You think I might be doing well here but I pay $5,000 per state per month to keep this legal and keep bills from coming up – even reaching committee or anything.”
As basically the lone fighter of Missouri’s K2 bill – and coming in late at that – Riggs says he was only able to soften some elements of the statute.
“I went to a committee meeting in Jeff City on 420 Day of all the days and they brought up the issue and a bunch of police said, ‘I’m for this issue,’” Riggs says. “Then I got up there and knocked the wind out of it and said, ‘Do you realize what seven years in prison does to someone?’…It was too late to kill the bill but we got the felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor and the emergency part killed.”
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com
LAZY REPORTING TYPES FALL FOR MAG'S METHOD
Posted 7/9/10
Is Kansas City getting short shrift when it comes to top touring Broadway musicals?
“Kansas City missing out on Broadway hits seems to be an old script,” reads a headline in the Kansas City Star. Something about unfulfilled promises by the out-of-town company that holds exclusive rights to touring Broadway musicals at the Music Hall.
But let’s review.
News reporting at its finest…
In the wide world of journalistic sucker punches, Vanity Fair has laid one on Kansas City Star business reporter Joyce Smith.
Nothing really new, but here’s how it went down.
The ‘zine included KCK’s Oklahoma Joe’s barbecue as one of “the country’s best BBQ joints.”
However, the so-called award went down in something resembling an advertising special section of the magazine.
Make no mistake, Oklahoma Joe’s is one of KC’s best barbecue eateries. Along with Gates, Arthur Bryant, Jack Stack, etc.
The bottom line: Vanity Fair’s “award” is one the oldest PR schmoozes in the book.
Every year; national magazines anoint disparate parts of the country with distinctions – good and bad – of some sort or another. You know the drill; fittest, fattest, most livable, affordable, best place to find a job, start a family, retire, avoid skin cancer.
You name it.
Seldom is any methodology for whatever is being awarded convincingly laid out.
And count on the winners and/or losers being widely distributed around the country. That way lazy local media like the Star are certain to “report” the news, generating magazine sales and publicity for the pub.
Simple, huh?
In the case of Oklahoma Joe’s, it goes down on a page peppered with thinly veiled advertisements (including retail prices and where to buy) for barbecue products like the Big Green Egg, Abita Beer, the Shun Ken Onion meat cleaver and a half dozen or so other BBQ-related items being pitched by retailers like Amazon and Williams Sonoma.
There’s no evidence of any methodology, analysis or reporting whatsoever going into selection of Vanity Fair’s nine named Best BBQ Joints.
And conveniently – as if to ensure the widest publicity possible – the nine winners include unlikely barbecue havens Chicago, Brooklyn and Los Angeles along with the usual suspects, Kansas City, Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee.
There isn’t so much as an accompanying story or writer or reporter’s byline.
None of which prevented the Star from slapping word of Oklahoma Joe’s “win” on the front page of its Web site under the headline, “Oklahoma Joe’s makes Vanity Fair list.”
So what (if any) reporting went into the newspaper’s trumpeting of the so-called news?
Oh yeah, almost forgot: actress Angelina Jolie graces the magazine’s cover, Smith writes.
Hearne on the street…
Baseball Yawner: Leave it to KC Confidential hit man Tony Botello to spank the air out of Kansas City’s 2012 All-Star Game balloon hoopla. In the form of a July 1st slight by ESPN the Magazine’s anonymous “MLB Player X”:
“I have one teammate who actually complained about being named an All-Star because it's the only week in eight months he can spend decent time with his family, away from baseball,” Player X says. “I also know for a fact that guys around the majors are not psyched about the prospect of spending All-Star week in Kansas City in 2012. The park isn't great, and there's just not much going on in that town.”
Hold it right there…
The Royals pride and joy – it’s new-last-season stadium - “isn’t great”? Not much going on in former KC mayor Kay Barnes red ink belching Power & light District?
Botello’s take: “Basically, The All-Star game isn’t that big of a deal. Most folks understand that those overblown estimates about all the revenue the game generates are nothing more than PR fodder. And that this might not so much be an event for this town to shine but rather another grand disappointment.”
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com
IS KANSAS CITY MISSING BROADWAY HITS?
Posted 6/30/10
Is Kansas City getting short shrift when it comes to top touring Broadway musicals?
“Kansas City missing out on Broadway hits seems to be an old script,” reads a headline in the Kansas City Star. Something about unfulfilled promises by the out-of-town company that holds exclusive rights to touring Broadway musicals at the Music Hall.
But let’s review.
Four years ago the Theater League lost its right to book Broadway musicals at the new, improved Music Hall in downtown Kansas City when powerhouse producer Broadway Across America outbid the local company.
And while there was some posturing at the time about which company might bring in the bigger shows like Lion King sooner, the awarding of the contract was all about the money. Both theater companies submitted bids and Broadway Across America bid more.
Now, in the interest of spinning a storyline, the Kansas City Star is trying to rewrite history.
Its front page story states “the contract went to Broadway Across America precisely because it was seen as a corrective to the complaint often lodged about the Theater League — it didn’t bring in hot, new shows fast enough,” theater critic Robert Trussell writes.
Hold it right there…
Let’s take a look at what Trussell wrote in a 2006 news story about Broadway’s snatching the Music Hall rights from the Theater League:
"Both Live Nation and Theater League had a lot to bring to the table,” Oscar McGaskey, executive director of the Kansas City Convention Center said then. “... but it did boil down to the finances."
Translation: Broadway Across America won because it shelled out more $$$ than Theater League, plain and simple. Not because of then KC councilman Chuck Eddy’s distracting grandstanding about who might bring bigger shows.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Edelman says of Star’s new storyline. “It wasn’t much of a story.”
The real reason KC isn’t getting some of the huger, hipper shows sooner?
“It takes time for shows to get to you,” Edelman explains. “These tours are only going to 11 cities in a year, that’s why it takes time to get a show like Jersey Boys. Trussell interviewed me and mentioned Billy Elliott – but Billy Elliott just opened in Chicago this year. So it’s not like it’s been other places – everybody’s trying to get it. And we’ll get it, too. The other thing is that Jersey Boys is going back and repeating some of the big cities, so it might play some cities twice before it gets to smaller cities,” Edelman says.
What about Jersey Boys playing Des Moines next month?
“That’s sort of disappointing,” Edelman says. “But they do have a bigger theater (more money to be made) and that theater does its own booking - so there’s never a conflict. You know, when you need six weeks at once and you’re the home of the symphony or the opera, it’s not always easy to get the dates.”
The bottom line: forget about the Star’s flimsy controversy, now that the Music Hall has a large enough stage and load in area, KC will get what it’s going to get when the shows and dates are available.
“Anything is possible,” Edelman says.” I mean it’s routing, capacity and availability - those are the big three.”
Little House on the Cowtown
The cast and crew of Starlight Theater’s summer kickoff, Little House on the Prairie, the Musical did more than just hit town, lay down some shows and peel out with the cash.
Backed by all-grown-up-now Little House star Melissa Gilbert they chipped in some cash and took time off to help max out a home for lucky local homeowner Kim Banks and her 14 year-old daughter Danisha Banks.
“We’ve built a home in every city we’ve been in,” Gilbert says of the 28-city national tour. “Every one is different but I haven’t been able to work because my back is out.
As which came first popularity-wise – the television show or the schoolbooks – Little House was a childhood staple prior to its eight year TV run that started in 1974.
“I read it in second grade,” Gilbert says. “Before I did the show. And that was in the early ‘70s.”
On Gilbert’s transition on going from a child in the TV series to a mom in the musical, “I played Laura from when I was nine until I was 19,” she says. “But that was a long time ago. And now I am a mother with four children of my own and it’d be ridiculous for me to play Laura.”
Any out there backstage tale to tell from touring with the show?
“There are tons,” Gilbert says. “But unfortunately they’re very blue.”
Hearne on the street…
Twilight Saga update: KC Confidential movie man Jack Poessiger describes the new Eclipse as “a two hour and four minute-long hot teen soap opera” and “Twilight fans wouldn’t have it any other way.”
There’s more…
While “for teenage girls it just doesn’t get any better than this,” Poessiger writes. “Even some of the most tired scenes of teenage love are now jolted by realistic cinematic effects.”
For more Hearne and KC Confidential, check out our effects at kcconfidential.com
STRIP CLUB LAW LIKELY TO FACE LEGAL CHALLENGE
Posted 6/23/10
The two worst aspects of a now-pending Missouri law dropping the hammer on strip clubs and adult bookstores in the state:
“The hours of operation is probably the biggest thing,” says Kansas City attorney Richard Bryant, who represents adult businesses. “Like any club, these businesses are doing the largest percentage of their business between midnight and 3 a.m. and they’ve had no problems at all. And these businesses have been around for years.”
Under the new bill, adult businesses would have to be closed between midnight to 6 a.m.
Second worst: “How far they can restrict the apparel of the dancers,” Bryant says. “As I read it, it essentially says the dancers must wear the equivalent of a full swimsuit.”
While that may not seem Victorian, it’s a far cry from Totally Nude Temptations on Grand in downtown Kansas City.
Look for Bryant to take swift legal action if the bill is signed into law by Missouri governor Jay Nixon between now and July 10. If Nixon fails to sign or veto the bill, it would automatically become law, taking effect in late August, Bryant says.
Bryant’s prediction: a judge will toss out the new political adult entertainment football in short order.
“I think a judge will say…the legislation was enacted incorrectly,” Bryant says. “The reality of it is, this gives the judge an easy way of resolving a case that could become very complicated otherwise. And one of the things we’re going to be doing this time around is we’re going to be filing this in Jackson County. So the judge will be drawing on their own experiences, and that the reality is, these businesses cause no harm.”
Case in point: “Remember several years ago when Bazooka’s went downtown and everybody said all these terrible things were going to happen?” Bryant says. “And the reality is, none of that happened.”
Vintage Rock T-shirt renaissance
Fashion victims of the world unite!
Things are looking up – stylistically speaking. Especially for laid back types who prefer hip-looking t-shirts and denim to designer duds.
So says Hobbs buyer and KC Confidential fashion diva Shauna Swanson.
Not only are backpacks back for hipsters and adults, vintage rock Ts are all the rage, Swanson says.
“These vintage – sometimes absolutely ragged Ts – have become so popular that depending on the band or rock god you long to sport on your chest, they can sell for thousands of dollars,” Swanson says.
Vintage T-shirt buyer Riley Tussey’s take: “They don’t make band Ts like they used to,” Tussey says. “It used to stand for something to be at a show, it meant that you were making history—you were a part of something. Now, who really cares, ya know? Are you really gonna walk around wearing a Justin Beiber T-shirt? Not unless you’re 7.”
Swanson says, first research bands that are hot and look for shirts with killer designs that are “soft and worn in.”
Oh and one more thing…
“Any time you’re shopping vintage, look for something that means something to you,” Tussey adds. “Buy a band T where you actually know the band. It’s embarrassing when you don’t. Posers never prosper!”
Hearne on the street…
No Jayhawks: KC Confidential hit man Tony Botello on wealthy Johnson County Kansans meddling in Missouri affairs:
“Johnson County is home to freeloaders and horrible people with an entitlement complex,” Botello writes.
For more KC Confidential & Hearne, check out kcconfidential.com. Email him at hearne@kcconfidential.com
IT'S A WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS, SAYS NICK WRIGHT
Posted 6/9/10
There’s more to the state of area sports today than embattled KU athletic director Lew Perkins and the sorry state of the Big 12…
Maybe not a lot– or so it seems – but some.
Enough for 610 Sports afternoon drive host Nick Wright to pass along a few musings and predictions.
Starting with is K-State football really back with Bill Snyder at the helm?
“No, no, no, no, no,” Wright says. “I think the only thing K-State sports has going for it is Frank Martin and they’re very fortunate to have him.”
On KU football:
“I like the Turner Gill hire because a black guy has a hard time getting a (head coach) job in college football. But once you have a job, it’s a tremendous recruiting advantage. I still think KU with the best coach in the country will never be anything more than a second tier football program.”
On MU joining the Big 10:
“Will MU go to the Big 10? I think so. And if they have the opportunity they’d be dumb not to. The Big 10 already has 11 teams and they still call it the Big 10.”
The Big 10 could become a 16-team super conference, Wright adds.
Then what becomes of the rest of the Big 12?
“The conferences that would remain would be the Pac 10, the SEC, the Big 10 and the ACC,” Wright says. “And the Big 12 and the Big East would go away.”
Leaving KU and K-State exactly where?
“Some people think KU would not go to a major conference – I don’t think that,” Wright says. “There are a lot of conferences that would say that (KU) raises their basketball profile for the conference.”
K-State’s future is a far murkier matter, Wright says.
On the Chiefs:
“I think they have the potential to be a much better team this year,” Wright says. “I’m still curious though how they are going to stop the run – they didn’t address that in the draft.”
Can the Royals hope to succeed with Dan Glass – a former Wal-Mart store main man and the son of owner David Glass – running the show?
“Yes, if the people making the personnel decisions don’t make any mistakes. I think the (Glasses), at the end of the day, are going to make two decisions; who is the GM and how much they are going to spend. They are not the type that meddles.”
As for son Dan’s real world, pre-Royals qualifications for the post (other than being related to the team owner), “What you’re describing is very common in sports,” Wright says. “The fact that somebody owns a team and their son or daughter runs it – that is sports – that’s how it works in sports. And people say, in no other industry do you give your son, who has little or no experience in sports the job – but that’s how they do it in sports. I don’t think Dan Glass is the reason the Royals are doing so poorly.”
Any advice for Tiger Woods:
“Yeah, get a divorce and go back to living your life, man. The sponsorship money may never come back, but you gotta be you. He should have done that a long time ago.
You’re not supposed to cheat on beautiful, white women man and Tiger did it. So get a divorce, lose $500 million and get back to winning golf tournaments.”
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com
KC CITY HALL DESCRIBED AS 'SKUZZY WORLD?'
Posted 6/3/10
Miller time
Author and former mayoral aide Joe Miller’s take on the Kansas City Star’s story about KC mayor Mark Funkhouser’s chief of staff Kendrick Blackwood…
“Funkhouser’s chief of staff hangs tough,” the headline reads.
“The interesting part of the story is that Kendrick’s dad was conspicuously missing from the story,” Miller says. “I can’t imagine that (the Star) wouldn’t try to call him. And (they) called me two or three weeks ago, so (they’ve) been working on it a while.”
Blackwood’s dad is former KC Councilman and mayoral candidate George Blackwood.
“The other thing that’s interesting about it is (his father) was (former KC mayor) Emanuel Cleaver’s vote getter; so he has real skill at pulling the council together. And this story makes it clear that Kendrick and (Funkhouser) don’t. So that’s an interesting contrast.”
Case in point: “No one disputes the notion that Blackwood is often stuck in the middle of skirmishes pitting council members against the mayor and his wife,” the Star story asserts.
Miller’s overall take on the younger Blackwood?
“I like Kendrick a lot and I’m not denigrating him for doing that job,” Miller says. “It’s a horrible job – the job is just awful at this level…(and) he’s a really good guy who fulfills that job as they want it and he appears very happy in it.”
The end game for Blackwood: a bright future, Miller predicts.
“I’m not faulting Kendrick for not having what it takes to make Terry Riley behave. And there are obviously people at City Hall that have integrity, but overall it’s a skuzzy world.”
Eat what, where?
About the print ad for the Margarita’s restaurant chain that ran in a recent issue of the Pitch…
“Margarita’s introduces The Ultimate Blueberry Margarita,” the ad begins. “It’s a panty dropper.”
Accompanying the ad copy is an illustration of woman from the thighs down removing her purple thong underwear.
The kicker: “Taste our Taco.”
Cowtowner Carrie Dilbeck Brockman’s take on the ad: tasteless.
“I look at this ad and I think, what’s on her G-string,” Brockman says. “And then I never want to go to Margarita’s.”
Hearne on the Street…
Still the Sailor Man…for now: a Memorial Day weekend visit to Chester, Illinois – a short ferry ride across the Mississippi from St. Genevieve, Mo. just south of St Louis takes you to the home of the cartoon character Popeye.
Chester’s the home of Popeye creator E.C. Segar and home to the Popeye museum and Spinach Can Collectibles. The tiny town is dotted with Popeye statues and murals and holds a Popeye Picnic every September.
But it seems Popeye’s syndicator is placing its bets on Betty Boop, says museum operator Debbie Brooks.
“Even though they’re showing Popeye cartoons on Boomerang, they’re not promoting him like they are Betty Boop,” Brooks says.
The $64 million question: will the Popeye character live on when Baby Boomers move on to that Big Spinach Can in the sky? Already there are fewer and fewer Popeye artifacts being made for Brooks to sell.
Which didn’t stop “Twister” movie star Bill Paxton from stopping by last year, Brooks says.
“They were following the path the tornado took here in the 1920s, just to get out of Hollywood,” Brooks says. “It was a tornado that went through three states in the '20s, so they were still doing the Twister thing. But (Bill) knew all about Popeye and he bought DVDs for his kids."
For more Hearne and KC Confidential check out kcconfidential.com.
JUST HOW WILD WAS THIS BLONDE?
Posted 5/27/10
How dry it was
A good cause was had by all at last weekend’s BeerFest in Westport. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about a good time.
“The KC BeerFest happened yesterday in Westport,” KC Beer Blog’s Paul Ner reports. “Happened is most cordial word I can use to describe the event. In case you hadn't heard yet, the event ended a little earlier than expected... about two and a half hours earlier than expected or advertised. No, there wasn't a freak thunderstorm or underage flash mob, but rather a beer shortage. I've heard different stories about what caused the shortage but they all follow a common theme: someone didn't bring the amount of beer they were supposed to.”
Which actually should have come as little surprise to Ner after attending last fall’s BeerFest at the Legends in KCK.
“It was cold, there were a lot of people and there wasn't enough beer,” Ner wrote just ahead of this year’s BeerFest.
So much for the once bitten philosophy.
BeerFest vol Bill Nigro has another take.
Yes the fest ran out of the good stuff early. And yes, the crowd was allegedly larger than anticipated by organizers.
However, “They never ran completely out of beer,” Nigro says. “But they ran out of the stuff people wanted to taste.”
The bottom line: “Nobody left un-hammered,” Nigro quips. “How’s that?”
Rockhill Tennis Club update
Last week’s historic 95 year-old Rockhill Tennis Club’s estate sale is in the books.
The $64 million question: was it a going out of business sale?
A walk through left the impression that pretty much anything and everything not nailed down was up for grabs. Cheap. The club’s baby grand, its tennis bubble, chandeliers, furniture, holiday decorations, artworks, dishes, glasses – even the “original oak pub bar.”
Kinda sad.
Given the Nelson-Atkins Museum was the one booting the club, sending it hurtling towards an uncertain future.
Which brings us to its uncertain past, according to one local bon vivant whose friend described the Rockhill Club member mix thusly:
“The men would all sit on one side of the pool talking about recipes and decorating. And the women would sit on the other side of the pool talking about sports and finance. He thought it was a closet club.”
Hearne on the Street…
Last call: Saturday is last call time for Plaza meat/meet market Blonde (in the former Annie’s Santa Fe). It plans to reopen in September under new ownership with a new name.
So how wild was it there? “Here’s a place with a swing by the bar, stripper poles for dancing and unisex bathrooms – you tell me what was going on,” says one Blonde regular. “You didn’t necessarily have to leave the club to have sex.”
For earlier Hearne columns in The Landmark click here
