Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher
Christmas 2011: Through the Past Darkly into Year Four
Merry Christmas…
It’s been quite a year for KC Confidential. Lots of comings and goings – some planned, others not. But for the most part readers have stuck with us through good times and bad. We’re ending the year on a high note with readership up dramatically from where we were just last spring.
How much are we up?
More than double what we started the summer with, and up 90 percent the past three months and well over 300 percent in the last 30 days.
It’s not been easy.
Today: Former Jardine’s Owner Saddened by Events, Fox 4’s Tabloid TV Coverage
The past three weeks have been tough for Jardine’s founder Greg Halstead…
Halstead opened Jardine’s in 1992 as a restaurant and bar, but within months realized he’d made a mistake. The joint was losing money and Halstead called his pal Ron Schoonover – the former manager of Kansas City’s Playboy Club – to ask advice. Schoonover was running a successful jazz-themed bar and restaurant downtown called The Phoenix and he greenlighted Halstead’s idea of adding jazz to Jardine’s mix .The rest is history.
Hearne: The Off Kilter, Last Minute Christmas Gifts Giver’s Guide
It’s gonna be hard to top Brandon Leftridge‘s tongue-in-cheek, holiday gift suggestion of a totally real Opossum…
Or Jack Poessiger‘s dream holiday meal of a "crisp" Christmas Goose. But I’ll try. Shouldn’t be too hard to make it a little easier on the gift givers as well as the recipients.
Let’s start with the $12.50, handmade, pewter Atahualpa bottle stopper at Hobb’s in Lawrence.
"You know who this guy is?" asks Hobb’s owner Mark Swanson. "He was the last Inca emperor."
Who doesn’t need something like that to jam into their favorite bottle of Mezcal?
Looking for something at a higher price point? Not a problem.
Hearne: Buyers Line Up for Chance to Buy Plaza Jazz Club Jardine’s
It may be "all quiet" along the battle lines in the Jardine’s jazz club saga but…
The staff is gone – a couple of them fired, others told that they’d been fired. Many of KC’s top jazz musicians have joined a boycott of Jardine’s. A boycott allegedly spearheaded by Sons of Brasil trumpet player Stan Kessler, whose stepson – now former Jardine’s server – Raja called the cops on minutes before Kessler’s band showed up at the club to play, but then walked out.
No two ways about it, it’s been ugly. Not to mention confusing.
Yet while things have been relatively quiet in the media, that doesn’t mean there’s not been plenty going on behind the scenes, in places TV cameras are of little use.
Today: Thumbs Up to Joco Leaf Ban, H&M Shopping Report & Star’s New ‘913’
Something for everyone today, even Jardine’s haters and future Jardine’s lovers…
One of my all-time, good-for-the-earth, suburban pet peeves is taking a step towards being eliminated. Starting in January, yard waste will no longer be picked up in Johnson County and dumped in landfills.
Hats off to the Johnson County Commission for doing the right thing.
Today: Neverending Jardine’s Saga, a Mother Weighs in on Firing Rumors & More
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Amidst the back-and-forth tales of Jardine’s firing its entire staff lies a single, glaring contradiction…
The local news media – including this site – bought into and reported that owner Beena Raja had fired the Plaza jazz club’s entire staff. That fifteen people had been unceremoniously turned out on the streets right ahead of the holidays.
Nevermind that none of that had been confirmed with Jardine’s. Or later, when Raja was finally cornered she denied it, saying the general manager/cook had resigned, two staffers had been fired and another walked out. Not surprisingly a local waiter blogger championed the staff firing story without even attempting to contact Raja.
Worse yet, a local TV news organization that has lead much of the news charge on Jardine’s woes employs a reporter who’s daughter worked at Jardine’s and is alleged to have been among the three servers Raja found drinking for free at 4 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.
None of the stories I’ve seen disclosed that potential conflict to viewers.
Now let’s get to the heart of the matter.
Star Search: Star Sends ‘Thirsty’ Reporter to Jardine’s to Tell the Rest of the Story
Can I get a drumroll?
After two weeks of watching from the sidelines, the Kansas City Star is poised to enter the finger-pointing, media circus and soap opera surrounding embattled Plaza area jazz club Jardine’s.
Unlike Fox 4‘s fox hunt, count on the Star story being balanced. In other words, rather than just loading up on pissed off servers and a single musician who’s check got caught in a bank account freeze, the Star will weigh in with both sides of the story.
That being said, this is going to be a delicate tightrope walk for Star music man Tim Finn.
Hearne: Jardine’s Wants to Pay Off Former Staff Today & Move On
Olly Olly in come free…
In the interest of fairplay – in a local soap opera of historic, tabloid TV news proportion – I bring you the following message from the jazz club known as Jardine’s just off the Country Club Plaza:
Come and get it!
That’s right, as reported here last week, Jardine’s owner Beena Raja has her checkbook at the ready and wants to settle up with members of her now-former wait staff. Including the pair that were fired, the manager who resigned and the dozen or so others who vanished into thin air.
"I want to pay all of the employees," Raja says. "I went back through my records and I want to pay them today."
Just one problem…
Today: Fox 4 Falls for Phoney Picket Photo Op While Musicians Boycott Plaza Jazz Club
The most sensational scandal in the modern Kansas City Jazz history is unfolding before our eyes…
If you thought jazz was dead in this town, think again. Granted, lip service from the usual suspects and the undying passion of ardent aficiondos aside, jazz isn’t exactly a popular art form these days.
Far from it.
Don’t get me wrong though. There’s a ton of quality live jazz around town spearheaded by artists like Mark Lowrey, Brandon Draper, Megan Birdsall, Danny Embrey, Lonnie McFadden, Shay Estes, Hermon Mehari and Mark Southerland. It just doesn’t get much media attention, and outside of venues like the Folly, Mutual Musicians Foundation and Jardine’s, not a lot of foot traffic.
Speaking of foot traffic…
A pair of former Jardine’s servers and a handful of their friends layed down a small town news style photo op for Fox 4 tonight around 7:30 p.m. The servers and scab friends picketed Jardine’s for Channel 4’s 9 and 10 p.m. news. Is it actually that easy to get on local television news these days?
I thought you had to actually be murdered or die in a fire or car crash.
Today: Game On, KC Confidential Christmas Bash 5:30 pm Today @ at Jardines
The incredible lightness of survival….
Against all odds – or so it might seem – the annual KC Confidential Christmas Wilding will indeed go down at 5:30 p.m. tonight at Jardine’s. The troops will be out in force. Me, Glazer, Jack, Katie, Matt Donnelly, Mark Edelman, Tony the Tiger, Fitz, Mermaid, Tracy, Roger the Plumber, Nigro, members the comments hit squad and many more.
Think of it as a party out-of-bounds.
Flak jackets option.
Hearne: Overland Park Mom, Others Uncomfortable With How Don Harman Treated
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"They won’t have Don Harman to kick around anymore."
That’s how a Facebook message to me began from Overland Park mom and former school teacher Dena LeeAnne Campbell. They being some of Harman’s on-air co-hosts at Channel 4. Having watched Fox 4’s early morning show for years, "Something about him resonated with me," Campbell says of Harman.
And something about the interplay between Harman and some of the other anchors didn’t seem quite right to her.
"I just remember sometimes turning the TV off because it was so uncomfortable," Campbell says. "Particularly Mark Alford, but sometimes they would go too far with needling him. They’d make fun of what he was wearing, what he said. They used to needle him about his car. I don’t think it was malicious, but when they got on a roll teasing and needling him, it just didn’t stop. Isn’t that bullying?
Star Search: Bogus Lindsay Lohan Playboy Cover Tops Most Read Hit Parade on KC Star
For nearly THE ENTIRE DAY a mere link to a story about child-star-turned-trainwreck Lindsay Lohan topped the "most read" news stories on the Kansas City Star‘s Web site…
I kid you not.
Let’s do the math monkey; the newspaper fields a 700-person staff, boasts a reach of more than one million local readers a week and has a virtual monopoly on what passes for news in KC. Yet the best it can do tease with a weak link to a purloined People Magazine story reporting Lohan’s upcoming Playboy cover has been "leaked."
Unfortunately for Star readers who "bit" on the tease, the link turned out to be entirely bogus.
Today: The Truth & Nothing But the Truth About The Don Harman Reporting
Let’s take it from the top, good, bad and ugly…
As reported first last week on KC Confidential, deceased Fox 4 meteorologist Don Harman suffered from depression. And he took his own life.
But like many sudden, dramatic news events, Harman’s death was shrouded in secrecy and rumors abounded as to why and how he killed himself. Was there a note? Concerned, interested viewers and fans wanted to know more.
In the good, old days at the Kansas City Star, the newspaper could sit on breaking news stories too complex for television news to scoop them on. Pretty much anything besides murder, fires and petty consumer fraud.
And that’s exactly what the Star‘s Aaron Barnhart did in Harman’s case. Barnhart didn’t slide across home plate with a War & Peace version of what had happened until nearly 10 p.m. after the stadium had emptied.
Star Search: No Layoffs But Holiday Cheer MIA at KC Star
Without question, things are looking up at the Kansas City Star heading into the holidays….
New publisher Mi-Ai Parrish has been all over the newsroom and able to weather the bad financial numbers from corporate without going the layoffs route. In part because of the recent wave of optimism on the economy and advertiser’s anticipation of better holiday sales.
That’s a good thing.
However, sources say the atmosphere among the 700 or so Star survivors (there were more than 2,000 prior to the dot com recession of the early 2000s) is still grim.
"It used to be full of life here, now it’s just empty," says one Star staffer. "Now it’s devoid of life."
Today: Iowa Police Say Deceased Fox 4 Meteorologist Not Involved, Not Interviewed
Scratch one area law enforcement rumor…
The rumor that deceased Fox 4 meteorologist Don Harman was interviewed recently by Mason City, Iowa police or the FBI about the case of long-missing TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit: Bogus.
That according to Mason City Investigations Supervisor Lt. Frank Stearns.
"That’s not true," Sterns says. "He was not interviewed. Don Harman has never been a person of interest."
Nor, as noted it the orginal reporting here, merely a source in a stepped-up investigation.
Today: Jardine’s Owner Vows to Open Plaza Jazz Club for KCC Xmas Bash & More
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This just in…
Jardine’s owner Beena Raja says she will open the popular Plaza area jazz club on December 12th for the KC Confidential holiday wilding and remain open for specific engagements such as the upcoming Julia Othmer and Ida McBeth shows.
Raja stopped short of saying exactly why she fired the staff last week and shuttered the club after Karrin Allyson‘s shows Tuesday. Something about feeling that some staffers were taking advantage of the club. So she changed the locks and cleaned house.
Hearne: The Best of and The Enigma That Was Don Harman
Let’s lighten things up a bit where the Don Harman tragedy is concerned…
While most viewers of Fox 4‘s popular morning news show knew only the bright, sunny side of Harman, I got to see a surprisingly different side of the affable weather wonk after covering a handful of his early exploits in my column in the Kansas City Star.
Let’s revisit those happier times, then I’ll share an anecdote with you about a personal encounter with Harman after writing those largely innocuous items.
Hearne: Vaunted Plaza Jazz Club Jardine’s Fires Staff, Closes for ‘Repairs’
This just in…
Kansas City’s premier jazz club Jardine’s has been closed since Tuesday’s Karrin Allyson concert there "for repairs." That’s what the sign says, anyway. But local musicians and Jardine’s staffers don’t appear to know exactly what’s going on.
"I regret to announce that my band WILL NOT be performing tonight at Jardine’s Jazz Club," musician Dave Stephens wrote on his Facebook page at 6:07 p.m. Thursday. "The owner of the club fired her entire staff yesterday and subsequently there would be no one there to work the show. My apologies to those of you who were planning on attending. I just found out about this a few minutes ago."
Today: ‘River City’ Gives Don Harman a Pass on Disappearance of Missing Iowa Anchor
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On this cold, rainy, dreary day I bring heartening news to the fans and supporters of Don Harman.…
While I’ve yet to hear back from police Lt. Frank Sterns in Mason City, Iowa, I was able to connect with sources there familiar with the case of long-missing, early-morning news anchor Jodi Husentruit.
Let’s review.
Hearne: Fox 4 Meteorologist Don Harman Suicide May Prove a Shocker
At the risk of turning this site into a Suicide Zone I’m going to wade into the mystery of Don Harman‘s death…
If you followed my early reporting on the Fox 4 weatherman’s passing yesterday, you undoubtedly noticed that fellow meteorologist Gary Lezak – the guy Harman replaced in 1999 when Lezak left Fox4 for greener pastures – noted that Harman had serious issues with depression. A detail which seemed to be driven home by the fact that prior to addressing Harman’s death, Fox 4 posted its intention to do a story on holiday stress and sadness on its Web site.
