Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher
Today: Was Don Harman Involved in Missing Iowa Anchor Jodi Husentruit?
Since I was outted in the comments section by the first comment….
I’ll give you a brief update. I’m flying really low today with three deadlines and no iPhone. So I’m limited on my reporting time, but now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag, I suspect this thing’s gonna snowball pretty fast.
The law enforcement talk here is indeed that Fox 4 meteorologist Don Harman was spoken to last week by officers investigating a cold case murder that has recently been reopened.
To be fair, while that may be true, it certainly doesn’t mean that Harman was a suspect in that case.
The case of a missing Mason City, Iowa TV anchor Jodi Husentruit was reopened in September.
Hearne: Fox 4 Meteorologist Don Harman Takes His Own Life
Here we ago again…
Yet another well-known Kansas City personality – Fox 4 weather wonk Don Harman – has taken his own life.
"He was a really good guy, a funny guy and he had a nice edge to him," says fellow meteroologist Gary Lezak of KSHB TV, Channel 41. "He’s one of the most popular personalities in the city – he just suffered from depression."
Today: The Ridiculous State of College Athletics & KU Football
Money talks..
While the heinous child abuse coverups at Penn State and Syracuse are the best examples of how big bucks have corrupted big time college sports, there are others.
Take Lowly KU’s dealings in the hiring and firing of football coach Turner Gill.
KU athletics director Sheahon Zenger wasn’t the one who stepped in it by hiring Gill. That distinction goes to ousted, former KU AD Lew Perkins who laid a $10 million contract on the unproven, ex-Nebraska footballer. The obvious-but-overlooked question being, why cough up $10 million for an untested coach with a losing record?
Zenger is the dude who blithely agreed to cut Gill a $6 million farewell check like it was no big deal.
Today: The Sad, Desperate State of the Pitch & Alternative Publishing in KC
This is not good…
At the exact time of year when it should be cashing in and getting well, what’s left of alternative newsweekly the Pitch is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. Even in its hazy, early days when I ran the show, we’d turn out 56 page issues during the all-important fourth quarter. Now, instead of flirting with 80 to 100 pages issues, it’s barely choking out 40.
This during the time of the year retailers and media count on to make ends meet.
And while good things have been said about the Pitch Web site, print is where the paychecks come from.
Hearne: Money. Power, Sex Rule Bigtime College Athletics & It’s Time For a Change
The Syracuse child molestation situation is just the tip of the college athletics moeny-go-round…
When I was a little kid, all I knew about college football was that people like Fred McMurray drove to the games in really old cars with racoon tails, in really old black and white movies.
The fans yelled super silly cheers and it wasn’t about whether the teams won or lost but how they played the game.
That was then…
Today it’s every man, woman and child for his or herself and the Almighty Buck is King of Kings.
Who cares how the game is played? Just win, baby!
Hearne: Karen Pletz Suicide Update, Florida Cops Await Preliminary Autopsy Results
The jury’s still out on exactly what went down in the unexpected death of Karen Pletz…
The one-time, high-flying, former head of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences was found dead last week in the Ft. Lauderdale condo she was holed up in shortly after midnight.
That after Pletz late 2009 ouster amid accusations she had embezzled more than $1.5 million, falsely claimed deductions of $65,000 in charitable contributions she did not make, got $50,291 in bogus travel reimbursements used for personal travel and entertainment, and using university monies to pay for cosmetic surgery.
In short, Pletz fell from the penthouse to the outhouse, and faced up to seven figures or more in legal fees and slam time, on top of public humiliation.
Raising the obvious question of whether Pletz took her own life.
Even George Washington University professor Margaret Soltan weighed to that effect.
Hearne: Costly, Dull, Freaky Michael Jackson Tribute Coming to KC
Fake Michael Jackson concert tix, anyone?
Visit the Star‘s main page and chances are you’ll get one of those delightful pop-up ads hawking $25 discounts on tickets to the upcoming MJ tribute show at Sprint Center.
That’s right, a tribute band headlining Sprint, and not just for one but for two nights, back-to-back. That’s a feat the creepy, gloved one himself might have have difficulty pulling off, were he not immortalized in death.
"That’s so lame," says one 30-something local MJ fan of the show. "And a little creepy."
Hearne: Midnight @ The Oasis; Occupy @ Wal Mart & Oak Park Mall Pulls Up Short
So you hung with the fam, got hammered and did the zombie thing…
More power to ya, but now you’re feeling a bit blue cause you missed out on those 46-inch Westinghouse LCD TVs at Target and didn’t even make it to Oak Park Mall for Midnight Madness, The Thanksgiving Edition.
Dude, that’s tough. But fortunately I did your dirty work for you and am here to tell the tale.
Wine, women, song – debauchery beyond belief – none were in evidence when I embarked with 14 year-old daughters Liza and Savannah for the Target store on Metcalf near Johnson Drive. We arrived at 11:54 p.m. Thanksgiving night to see a sea of people – hundreds – flooding and snaking around Target’s massive parking lot.
Today: T’was the Night Before Black Friday & All Through the Cowtown…
Let’s get right to the heart of the matter…
Greed is good – within reason. Face it, it’s the American Way. Without avarice – and its partner-in-crime marketing – we’d still be chiseling football scores onto cave walls. Flabby dudes would be stuck wearing loincloths at the beach instead of Speedos. And McRib would be the part of the Saber Tooth Tiger everyone threw away.
Which brings us to the Midnight Madness inflicted on KC consumers Thanksgiving night.
The mall and store openings born to a marraige of hype and tripe, greed versus need. Think about it. From a retailing standpoint, what’s the difference between dragging folks out of bed for a 6 a.m. sale the Friday after Thanksgiving and convincing them to bail on their families six hours earlier in the middle of the holiday?
For what? To do battle over a handful of cheap ass LCD television "doorbusters"?
Hearne: Rapscallions of the World Unite; KCC Wishes You a Happy Thanksgiving
In a universe where few holds go unbarred, it’s hard to come up with the words to express what passes for the gratitude of the KC Confidential family to our readers…
Especially given the vast majority of you have the decency, good sense and good taste to steer clear of the hardscrabble world that is the comments section. You’re a silent majority of sorts, albeit a very important one.
Is it halfway safe to assume that the 99 percent-plus of you who never comment are ardent admirers and true believers in the words set forth by the scribe-otherwise-known-as Craig Glazer? Or that your fondest desire would be to hug it out with me while professing that I can do no wrong?
Not likely.
Hearne: Karen Pletz Death Gives Appearance of Suicide
Here we go again…
With the seemingly obvious going unsaid. But the death of embattled former Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences head Karen Pletz would appear to be a suicide. The 64-year-old one-time civic leader was found dead in a Fort Lauderdale residence. Ft. Lauderdale police say no foul play was involved and that they are waiting to hear from the medical examiner.
Those full results, however, are not expected to be available for two to three months, says Broward County chief medical examiner Darin Trelka. Trelka declined to say whether Pletz left a note or address the issue of whether it appears to be a suicide.
However, one or both of the above would appear to be the case given that police say there was no apparent foul play and the medical examiner’s office is not making any efforts to expedite the examination.
Hearne: Star Dodges Layoffs Bullet, Bags Readers Again for Turkey Day Issue
Happy holidays from the Kansas City Star…
A rising economic tide (small but real) coupled with an optimistic outlook for retail sales this holiday season appears to have enabled new Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish to dodge the layoffs bullet this quarter and make Christmas 2011 that much the merrier for the 700 or so remaining newspaper staffers.
Despite 3rd quarter earnings by parent McClatchy company down 21 percent and ad revenue off 10 percent.
That said, things are looking up on the home front.
Hearne: What Lies Ahead for Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel on His DUI Bust
Right now, the focus is on money and sports…
But the unasked and unanswered question facing Gary Pinkel on his DUI bust this week is very much about what lies ahead – not in the court of public opinion – but in the court of law. To that end, let’s take a look at what the Mizzou football coach is likely to be facing, according to "The Missouri DUI Guide" at missouridwi.pro.
"ISSUE ONE: The Missouri Implied Consent Proceeding: Under Missouri’s implied consent law, any person who operates a motor vehicle is deemed to have given consent to a chemical test or tests of the person’s breath, blood, saliva or urine for the purpose of determining the alcohol or drug content of the person’s if the arresting officer has reasonable grounds to believe that they have committed a DWI.
Today: Happy Holidays, KC Confidential Christmas Bash @ Jardine’s a Go!
I don’t want to rush the Holiday Spirit but…
This just in: the annual KC Confidential Christmas Wilding is slated for Monday December 12th at Jardine’s. That’s right from 5:30 p.m. until ? (alias 9:30 p.m), the staff, friends, foes and confused minions of KC Confidential are invited to kick out the jams – or not – at Kansas City’s top jazz club just off the Plaza. Recently remodeled and revamped, I might add.
Not that we’ll be pounding down jazz that night.
Think of it as Black Monday.
Hearne: How the FFA Screwed KC & We Got Stuck w/ R. Crosby Kemper Jr.’s AFA
It’s like this; once upon a time the annual National FFA gangbang was one of KC’;s most prized possessions…
From it’s inception, each October for 70 years, thousands of blue-jacketed farm kids clod-hopped their way here, dropping tons of dough while behaving well. They were colorful, plentiful, magical even. That is, until 1998 when Louisville stole ’em – walked off with our tourism crown jewel – and they’ve been gone ever since.
KC politicos vowed to get ’em back, but nearly a generation has passed since the 37,000-strong blue-jacketed farm kids last roamed the Plaza and Downtown.
Hearne: Unreported Truth; MU Coach Pinkel Backed Paterno, Blew Penn State Call
The mindless minions who rely on the print edition of the Kansas City Star for news were treated to this headline yesterday:
"Penn State News Disgusts Pinkel"
Unfortunately, what those readers are unaware of is, the Star‘s story was little more than a mulligan for the Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel. That after Pinkel blew it badly last week on St. Louis radio, where he was not only not disgusted by the Penn State nightmare, he effectively came down on the side of its fired and disgraced football coach Joe Paterno.
Where was this reported? On former Riverfront Times alt weekly main man Ray Hartman‘s blog, that’s where.
Hartman’s headline: "Gary Pinkel Cuts A Little Slack For Joe Paterno"
No tap-dancing there.
Hearne: The Baby Lisa Story Nobody Else in KC (Including KCTV) is Reporting
As I’ve said before, some of the biggest scoops in recent years have been broken by the National Enquirer...
They may play a bit fast and loose with the celebrity fluff at times, but when it comes to nailing down news like the John Edwards love triangle or our own Missing Baby Lisa story, they play it pretty straight down the line.
Which brings us to the Enquirer’s "Twisted Secret Life Of Baby Lisa’s Mom" story.
Hearne: Houston, We Have Questions; Was Moon Landing Fake & Where R the Bluejackets?
What is it about astronaut quotes that make them so damn enduring?
From "One small step" to "Houston, we have a problem" – they’ve morphed from mere utterances into pop culture icons. And now that I’m trapped in Houston for the second time this year, it’s finally happened. I got kidnapped to the Houston Space Center – the home away from home of NASA – and forced by captors to take the new Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour. Which I can now report, is a bit of a snore.
In other words, don’t even think about canceling the family vacation to Bali Bali.
Not that I didn’t have a jolly good time, within reason, owing mostly to a college kid named Graham who was our tour guide. He updated me on vital NASA stuff like that after three long years on the job he’s still only making $8.75 an hour.
Houston, times are tough…
Hearne: Jason Whitlock Rips Penn State Coach Joe Paterno on MSNBC’s ‘Ed Show”
Long time no Whitlock…
Been a while since locals have had a chance to chew on former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock’s cud. Other than his blog on Fox. Or the odd pissing match call to 610 Sports’ Nick Wright to rile up local sports bloggers.
But last night the straw that used to stir KC’s sports shake was live and large on MSNBC‘s "Ed Show" dissing newly axed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
"If he had an ounce of self-awareness – and he’s no different than the athletes, the young immature athletes (but) this guy is 84 – he would have stepped aside immediately," Whitlock told viewers.
Star Search: KC International Raceway, Eight-Year-Old Drag Racers Get Light Touch
Last year I embarked on a mission to blog the Kansas City Star each and every day…
To critique and comment on the news and views presented by the Star to by far the largest number of Kansas Citians reached by any other local news media.
What a genius stroke that was.
Two or three weeks in, it became painfully obvious that the job entailed bagging on the newspaper over-and-over for much of the same stuff. Frankly, I got tired of the nagging, so I backed off. The idea being that every so often, I’d trot out a Star Search column when the muse hits.
To that end, let’s take a gander at yesterday’s Star…
