Fun in Kansas City Today

This is apparently National Orange Popsicle Week, according to my trip across Kansas City today, to Mill Creek Park and the JC Nichols fountain on the Plaza.

And our buddy Slugger, of the Kansas City Royals showed, too.

I've no idea what it's about or why Slugger, of all people (people?), would be there, along with a table for KU Med Center but the fountain was flowing orange, as you can see. It was fun, if not nearly completely unexplained.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

And maybe have an orange popsicle.

Largest Employer in Missouri?

I saw this column last evening on Facebook, calling out the largest employer in each state.

The Largest Employer in Each State 

- 24/7 Wall St.

I'll get to Missouri but first, I was struck by what organization it is in Kansas. Perhaps you'll be surprised, too.

16. Kansas
> Largest employer: University of Kansas
> Employee headcount: 13,862

The University of Kansas spans five campuses and 13 schools, including the state’s only pharmacy and medicine schools. The university system employs 13,862 people. Excluding student workers, however, the headcount falls to 10,089, in line with the workforce of another major employer in the state, aviation manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems.

Now, here's the sad part.  

Missouri.

25. Missouri
> Largest employer: Walmart
> Employee headcount: 42,312

Walmart is the largest employer in Missouri by a considerable margin. As of March 4, 42,312 state residents worked in the retailer’s 157 locations throughout the state. The company’s presence in the state may be dwindling, however, as it closed four locations in early 2016 as part of a broader effort to focus on Supercenters and e-commerce.

Low wage paying, tax money absorbing Walmart.

Wal-Mart Relies On Taxpayers To Subsidize 

Low Wages

How disgusting. That's an eye-opener.

But wait. There's more. It gets sadder. And more desperate and pathetic and pitiful.

As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart has an outsized impact on state labor markets. Walmart is the only company to claim the top employer spot in more than one state. In fact, the nation’s largest retailer employs the most people in 19 states.

10 reasons Walmart is the worst company 

in America

Here's a List of Ten Reasons Walmart 

is the Worst

10 reasons Wal-Mart is the worst company 

in America

"The Truth of the Matter Is Walmart Is 

a Horrible Place to Work"

Walmart - Horrible place to work, verbally abusive managers

Remember when the best middle-class jobs in America were for the auto companies and they paid a decent, living wage?

Good luck, fellow Missourians.

This Sunday: Prostate Cancer Awareness Day at the K

What's wrong with Kansas (guest post)

LJ WORLD: Opinion: Something’s wrong in Kansas

MAY 09, 2014

This year’s legislative session has come to a fitting end. Revenues in April fell substantially from those that had been projected; Moody’s bond rating service downgraded Kansas bonds, making it more expensive for the state to borrow in the future; the governor blamed the revenue shortfalls on the Obama administration’s fiscal policies; and the honorable members of the Kansas House and Senate approved the budget in spite of the shortfalls with several members stating that they would deal with any problems “next year.”

I am surprised that they weren’t playing Jimmy Buffet songs while they voted and that none of them made a public statement quoting the famous economic maxim “Don’t worry; be happy.” To quote William Allen White, “What’s the matter with Kansas?”

This past legislative session has made it clear that any proper sense of responsibility, fiscal otherwise, has left the capitol building and taken up residence far from Kansas. When I was growing up and forming my own ideas about politics, a political “conservative” was someone who respected the status quo and who eschewed radical change. Republicans were known for their fiscal responsibility, as in Pat Nixon’s venerable “cloth coat.” Senator Dole was known for his willingness and ability to make compromises “across the aisle” in order to ensure that government did its job of serving the people.

This is not what is going on in Topeka any longer. Instead we have legislators who believe that fiscal prudence means only one thing: cutting taxes no matter what the effect on institutions of government and on the public. Our legislators no longer seem to care about facts. Important legislation, like the school finance bill, included radical changes to teacher job security without any serious attempt at fact-gathering or public hearings. Our court system’s funding structures were radically altered, again without fact-gathering or adequate hearings and, very possibly, in contravention of the Kansas Constitution. And, of course, a budget based on inaccurate assumptions and bad economics was passed that very well may not work in six months requiring debilitating interim cuts in state agency budgets. But it’s OK; don’t worry, be happy.

If I sound rather angry, that’s because I am. The business of government is serious. The lives and welfare of Kansans depend upon the actions of the Legislature. Legislators hold office in trust, to serve the people. Legislators bear a heavy burden of responsibility, or at least they should. I have come to believe that a majority of the present Legislature does not care about their responsibilities to the people of Kansas.

Ideology has replaced politics. Ideology has replaced sound economic and fiscal policy. Ideology has replaced common sense. And the people of Kansas let this continue to happen. When will it end? What, indeed, is the matter with Kansas? I think, perhaps, it is time once again to ask this question and to apply some measure of accountability to our elected officials who seem to think that they may do whatever they want without reasonable thought or public input or factual basis for their actions. If we wait much longer to recognize that our legislators are not conservatives, but, instead, are radicals determined to undermine and destroy the social compact under which we have lived for generations, then it may well be too late to save our state.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.

2013: The year for sports in the Kansas City metro?

First, the Royals seem very real this year:

 

Is it time to take the Royals seriously as contenders?

 

Kansas City Royals: A Good Week, Or A Good Year? 

 

The Chiefs have gutted their team, added more new players and changed plenty of people in the front office:



Chiefs, No. 1 draft pick Eric Fisher pleased with first day of practice

And now this, only yesterday:

Andrew Wiggins among biggest recruiting victories in Kansas basketball history

To go along with it, the  Latest 2013-14 power rankings in basketball came out late yesterday and show our very same KU ranked 4th. What they had to say:

 

The wait is over. Andrew Wiggins has chosen Kansas. The deadline for entering the NBA Draft has come and gone. We've lost Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo and Ben McLemore to the pros, but Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State, Russ Smith of Louisville, and Shabazz Napier of Connecticut are staying.

Sorry, Florida State. If Wiggins had selected the Seminoles, you'd probably see them in our latest edition of the early 2013-14 rankings. But he didn't, so they're not. See how the rest of the field is shaping up.

 

4. Kansas: Despite the loss of five starters, the Jayhawks became a Final Four contender again when Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2013, signed his letter of intent to play at Kansas. The 6-foot-8 Wiggins is an unbelievable athlete and a real game changer for KU. Coach Bill Self has put together his best recruiting class ever, including Wayne Selden, center Joel Emblid, and shooters Conner Frankamp and Brennan Greene. Sophomore Perry Ellis and point guard Naadir Tharpe must provide leadership. Self isn't done; he'd like to add Memphis transfer Tarik Black. Kansas will be favored to win the Big 12 for a 10th consecutive season.

 

So let's not jinx it, sports fans.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

 

And enjoy.

While Kansas cuts higher education funds

This, from NBC News last evening at the same time the Kansas Legislature is cutting $29 million dollars more from the higher education budget:

Broke and ashamed: Many won't take handouts despite need

On college campuses, many students striving to make the grade don’t have enough food to eat. Trying to tackle this challenge, colleges are now bringing food pantries onto campuses, hoping to help students through these tough times.

Across the U.S., safety-net programs aimed at reaching the nearly 1 in 7 Americans living in poverty struggle to reach those in need. Food stamp enrollment climbed to record levels following the recent recession, with nearly 48 million participants in December 2012.

Other states are trying to help their students in college.

Not Kansas:

House Speaker Merrick OK with 4 percent cut to higher

education

Kansas, KU Basketball and the irony and hypocrisy of it all

What with this being a big week at present, for basketball in general but KU basketball, in specific, there's a terrific article out today from Think Progress on one of their star players, Ben McLemore:

What Kansas Basketball Star Ben McLemore Can Teach America About Poverty

I imagine teaching America something about poverty isn't exactly what Mr. McLemore wants to be all about but the article makes some excellent points:

Ben McLemore is a 6-foot-5 inch phenom, a 20-year-old redshirt freshman who leads one of college basketball’s best teams in scoring, has the Kansas Jayhawks on the verge of another deep run into the NCAA Tournament, and could be the first overall pick in June’s National Basketball Association Draft. McLemore is a contender for the national Freshman of the Year award and is a finalist for national Player of the Year awards too.

He is also a product of the extreme poverty that grips millions of families across this country, a child whose mother worked multiple jobs in a vain attempt to make ends meet, a kid who often went days without food and found it “hard to play basketball when nothing is inside of you.” McLemore’s family often had to choose between food and electricity, as USA Today’s Eric Prisbell detailed in a profile of the Kansas star last week:

McLemore says the only meals he sometimes had were the free ones at school. His mother, he recalled, sometimes made the difficult decision to sell food stamps in order to pay bills. 

“Sometimes we would not have food so we could keep our lights on and have hot water,” he says. “She had to sacrifice for that.” 

When the family did not have hot water, McLemore remembers one nightly routine: Fill the bathtub with cold water. Heat up bowls of water in the microwave, then run them to the bathtub to make the tub water lukewarm for baths. The warmth never lasted, he says.

McLemore is months from being able to fully leave that past behind, a from-the-gutters-to-greatness success story that is so often repeated in sports. But the fact that McLemore’s family had to sell food stamps to afford light and heat, that they had to shuttle microwaved water to the tub for a warm bath, that they went days without food and slept huddled in the living room to avoid the bitter cold, is more a story of America’s failure than it is of McLemore’s success.

Our social safety net keeps millions of people out of poverty each year. It includes programs that help low-income families afford food, that helps poor children get breakfast and lunch at school. It also includes programs that help low-income families heat their homes, that help working mothers like McLemore’s afford child care, that help poor children get a better education. It includes programs that all Americans have heard of, like food stamps and welfare, and many, like WIC and LIHEAP, that go mostly unnoticed by anyone who doesn’t use them. Together, the programs form one of the stingiest social safety nets in the industrial world, and yet, it is these programs that have repeatedly faced the budget axe as American politicians keep cutting spending.

...every year we lose a countless number of Ben McLemores who, with a little more help, could have been scientists, doctors, teachers, or otherwise capable members of society and forged their own way out of the throes of extreme poverty.

It goes on from there.

It's a good to great article and more should read it.

And here's the rub: the irony, the gross irony and even hypocrisy of this is that here you have this very talented young man playing for Kansas, for the University of Kansas while at the same time, the Governor and the very Republican statehouse legislators keep slashing not just funds for the poor, heartlessly, but for education, too.

It's nearly overwhelming.

If we didn't read it in our newspapers and see it on the news nearly every day, it would be difficult to believe.

Is this who we are? Is this what America is about? Is this the heartless, cold, really stingy, short-sighted people we want to be?

It all certainly seems so.

And it didn't used to be.

Quote of the day--on current Kansas politics and politicians (and lessons for the rest of us)

Fantastic writing today from The Wichita Eagle-Beacon:

"Faith is powerful, but it’s no substitute for analysis or facts or shrewd political deal making. Moreover, in politics and policymaking, pure faith can be destructive. For one thing, the true believer 'cannot compromise over the holy without compromising the holy.'

Yet compromise on substance constitutes the essence of politics and policymaking in the American system.

The election of 2010 swept into office a wave of true believers – from Brownback to Secretary of State Kris Kobach to 30-plus Kansas House members. Cabinet members were recruited as much for their beliefs as for their skills.

The faith in small government runs rampant. Not small, effective government, but small government, period. Likewise, the belief that privatization of Medicaid will save money and provide better services, all the while producing profits, trumps careful analysis.

To be sure, belief – true, encompassing belief – is a remarkable leap, and one that we should hold in awe. But it’s incompatible with governing a state as a steward for the entire population." --Burdett Loomis, University of Kansas Political Science Professor.

Complete, brief article here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/06/2322974/belief-is-not-enough.html#storylink=cpy

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

KU B-ball Player Voted Best

From the news--Yahoo! News and the AP--today: Kansas’ Thomas Robinson leads AP All-America team "Kansas forward Thomas Robinson has even more in common with Blake Griffin now. Not everything, though. Robinson, who played through personal tragedy as a sophomore reserve, capped his junior season by being a unanimous selection to The Associated Press’ All-America team Monday, a day after leading the Jayhawks to the Final Four. The 6-foot-10 Robinson averaged 17.9 points and 11.8 rebounds this season and he was a first-team pick by all 65 members of the national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. The last unanimous pick was Griffin in 2009." Very cool. Link to original story: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-mensall-america

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I can think of no better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than with music and who better to do it than Connie Dover? (My many great thanks to KPR's and St. Joseph's own Bob McWilliams for introducing her music to me).

Little Wildcatter's coloring problem goes viral

First it was in The Kansas City Star (see link below), now it hit the internets and went viral--it's one of the main stories right now on Yahoo! News: Kindergarten K-State fan refuses to color Jayhawk mascot despite teacher’s ire In case you hadn't heard or seen it yet: As reported in detail at Lost Lettermen and the Kansas City Star, 5-year-old Emma Burton of Olathe, Kan., refused to participate in a class coloring assignment when she and her classmates were told to color in a Jayhawk, the mascot of the University of Kansas. The coloring exercise was part of the kindergarten class' celebration of the state of Kansas. Personally, I think she sounds like a bit of a typical, suburban, spoiled brat. Go here for the rest of the story: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/kindergarten-k-state-fan-refuses-color-jayhawk-mascot-170922025.html; http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/12/3425341/color-this-little-wildcat-purple.html

On the incredibility of the KU ticket scandal

There's so many questions to ask about this KU ticket scandal.

To begin, how did these thinking, seemingly bright, intelligent people think this was somehow okay to do?

How is it they thought they could even take one--or four--tickets, resell them, reap the profit and that that was, as I said, somehow okay?

Then to take thousands?

What religion were they raised in?  Because I can tell you, by atheist standards, that is decidedly not "okay".

Were they satanists or anarchists maybe?

How do you face your spouse when you participate in this kind of thing?

Your kids?

The rest of your family?

On what planet do you live on that this is okay?

No one's a saint but I thought maybe taking a few ink pens from the office was even theft.

I've worked with KU employees for years, too, and everyone I met over there had a kind of reverence for the place.  How do you go from thinking of it fondly and respecting it to ripping it off for thousands of dollars for years?

Does it never occur to you, while you're taking these tickets and the added profits that a) it's illegal, b) it would be a felony if you were caught and c) it would ruin you, in your career and socially, for the rest of your life?

While, at the same time, reflecting horribly--horribly--on your family--your wife, your children, your Mother and Father, your brothers and sisters.  (And I'm very intentionally capitalizing the parents reference here.  It's not a grammatical error).

More questions--

How is it you think you're going to, then, steal these thousands of tickets and have no one notice?

Next, how is it you think you're going to not only do all this and have no one notice but also have a group of, what?  Seven of you in on this theft and everyone is going to somehow, magically, all keep quiet?

There were even two people on the staff who didn't participate--I assume wouldn't--but they also knew about what was going on.  They're even getting probation on this deal and they didn't even take part.

Did none of these people ever hear the saying by Ben Franklin so long ago "Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead"?

I can't think of a more bizarre crime committed by so many people.

Murder and/or dismemberment, you figure, is by someone psychotic and insane.

This just seems like blatant greed, run amuck.

How ultimately, finally, tragic and sad.

Now, for nothing.

Links:  http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/12/2871136/final-defendant-in-ku-ticket-scandal.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.kansascity.com/search_results/?q=ku%20ticket%20scandal

PRESIDENT PICKS KU!

How cool is that?

And President Obama’s choice to win the NCAA tournament is …

Rick Chandler     Mar 16, 2011

President Obama filled out his NCAA Tournament bracket today, picking Kansas — that’s a red state! — as his eventual tourney champ.


And Mitch McConnell says the President isn't willing to work with the other side.


Here's hoping the President is right.


Link to original post:  http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2011/03/16/video-and-president-obamas-choice-to-win-the-ncaa-tournament-is/
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=President+Obama's+bracket&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=87b61fcb467d95

Completions

From the time City Manager Wayne Cauthen was fired until someone--anyone--from the city responded to questions of why, exactly, he was let go--impropriety, incompetence or whatever--it was 5 days, from November 19th to the 24th, until City Councilwoman Jan Marcason gave reason.

That was too long. It should have been immediate, since he was a public employee.

That said, I would like to salute and thank Ms. Marcason for giving her constituents reason and information why this took place, even if it was delayed. She was the only person who did, from what I've seen.

Lastly, on a completely different note, I wrote here last week that I thought it likely University of Kansas Football Coach Mark Mangino could be out of his job by Monday or Tuesday this week, given the situation.

I only missed it by two days.

Next prediction: Lew Perkins clock is ticking down.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Links: http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6659
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1609908.html