Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher

Hearne: Kanrocksas Founder Chris Fritz Frozen Out of Fest He Named

How quickly they forget…. It barely got a mention in mainstream media reports in the Star and Pitch, but the between-the-lines big news about the second coming of Kanrocksas next year is that the fest’s founder, longtime area entertainment icon … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 14 Comments

Hearne: Star Layoffs Follow New McClatchy CEO’s Assurances to Star Staffers

Talk about a bolt from the blue… Today’s surprise axing of eight Kansas City Star staffers comes one week after new McClatchy President and CEO Patrick J. Talamantes visited the newspaper and assured newsroom staffers of brighter days ahead. McClatchy … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 5 Comments

Hearne: Star Stuns Newsroom, Axes Eight on Heels of Recent Job Furloughs

It’s a jungle down there… After only recently announcing that Kansas City Star employees will be required to take yet another week of unpaid “vacations,” the newspaper stunned newsroom employees today by laying off eight full-time staffers, including enormously popular … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 7 Comments

Hearne: Liquor Control Swats Firefly / Dark Horse Over Open Door Policy

Ah, the perils of an unlocked door… When it comes to senseless regulations, Kansas City takes the cake, says Westport businessman Bill Nigro. Especially the good folks at Regulated Industries aka Liquor Control. It all began four years back, when … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 5 Comments

Hearne: Lezak on How Dry We Are & Will Continue to Be Until…

Maybe Kansas City should schedule more Irish Fests… You know, in the interest of the area getting more rainfall.  After all, we’re in a drought and as most local worshipers of all things Irish know, the 10 year-old Irish Fest … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 3 Comments

Star Search: Dread, Shock & Awe Await KC Star Newsroom Inhabitants

“Rooms should not be put together for show but to nourish one’s well- being.” So stated celebrated American interior designer Albert Hadley. That aside, newsroom staffers at the Kansas City Star are quaking with dread over the prospect of taking … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 6 Comments

Hearne: Unhappy ‘Ink’ Magazine Editor Jocelyn Jacobson Bails on Star

They’re dropping like flies at 18th and Grand… Three today. However this time out, the body count at the Kansas City Star is exiting on a voluntary basis. Long missing TV critic Aaron Barnhart bit the dust (officially) earlier today. … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 8 Comments

Hearne: Ailing StarTV Critic Aaron Barnhart Quits Newspaper

This just in… After more than eight months on the missing in action list Kansas City Star television critic Aaron Barnhart has resigned his post at the newspaper. In a letter to the staff Star editor Mike Fannin put things … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 6 Comments

Hearne: Funkhouser Fingers Zoo for Past Illicit Cash Stash

Talk about boo at the zoo… When it comes to potential taxpayer ripoffs, the sky’s the limit in Kansas City – at least at the zoo. Or so it would seem based on an example cited by former Kansas City … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 8 Comments

Hearne: The KC Confidential Crass Comments Cleanup Conundrum

To be or not to be, that is the question… Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the Slings and Arrows of outrageous verbiage. Or to take journalistic arms against a sea of profanities, and by opposing end them: … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 57 Comments

Hearne: Entercom’s Point Lands Popular Jack FM Host Nycki Pace

There’ve been damn few free agent radio deals go down since the era of people-metered ratings dawned a few years back… For the most part music radio deejays are lucky to hang on to their paychecks period. Shut up and … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 25 Comments

Hearne: Ousted KU Athletics Head Lew Perkins’ Quiet Comeback

Long time no Lew Perkins… The fallen former KU athletics director hit the skids and then the road two years back after seven years of shaking down Jayhawk faithful for basketball and football ticket donation dough, a pair of hugely … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 6 Comments

Hearne: Fishy Jayhawk Justice Bequeaths Squealer Alert

Informant, snitch, tattletale, rat… Take your pick, KU ticket ripoff artist and party boy Rodney Jones – the mastermind behind the scandal that sent Kansas athletics director Lew Perkins packing – is now attempting to parlay his role in the … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 22 Comments

Hearne: Lance Armstrong Should Do the Right Thing for Livestrong, Sporting

At the very least, it won’t be easy… It’s almost implausible, but somehow, someway, beleaguered cyclist Lance Armstrong needs to fall on his sword and divorce himself from the organization that bears his name, The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 43 Comments

Car: Dark Automotive Day at KC Confidential as HC Sells Fiat

It’s been over a year since departing sports scribe Greg Hall made fun of my Fiat… Imagine. And what was that one dude’s name – Rogger – who wanted to bed my girlfriend on a losing bet he made about … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 13 Comments

Hearne: How ‘Expendables’ Screening @ Alamo Mainstreet Changed My Life

Hard as it is imagine, I had an epiphany while watching Expendables 2… It came to me at the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet downtown during the theater’s Van Dammage promotion. The Alamo gang wheeled out four cheesy Jean-Claude Van Damme action … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 4 Comments

Hearne: Best Buy’s Founder Flounders & Costly French Kiss

Remember the Nine Great American Companies that will never recover a few weeks back? Well, Best Buy is way too nouveau to qualify as a “great American company,” but it’s big enough and bad enough off to join Sprint, JC … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 3 Comments

Hearne: Wall Street Journal Bashes Ex Star Sports Scribe Joe Posnanski

No way this wasn’t going to happen… Sooner or later some of the big boys were bound to take chainsaws to former Kansas City Star sports columnist Joe Posnanski. It was inevitable. People here for the most part, were expecting … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 15 Comments

Hearne: Greenfest, It’s What’s for Dinner (Republicans Invited)

A funny thing happened the other day on the way to the office… I was talking with my real estate agent about what kind of car he was going to buy after he unloads a $2.5 million-plus mansion in Fall … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 22 Comments

Hearne: NY Times Smokes Star on Posnanski ‘Paterno’ Review

Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight… This journalistic contest was over before it started. In an attempt to breath relevance into the review of a book certain to be covered by the biggest guns in journalism, the Kansas … Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 8 Comments