Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher
Hearne: Goodbye Cruel World, Star Drops Layoffs Bombshell on Staff
They said it wouldn’t be done…
Nearly a month after notifying department heads of the need for staff cuts – then waiting a tortuously long time – the Kansas City Star unloaded on the faithful this morning as the cutting began.
As expected, the cuts come on the first day of a new pay period, Friday having been payday. However, the rumor was employees might have somehow dodged the layoffs bullet afer weeks passed and January came to an end.
It’s early but staffers rumored to have taken the hits include copy editor Don Munday who doubles as the newspaper’s Monday morning poetry quarterback with his Page 2 "Munday on Monday" poetry feature.
Munday declined to comment, but insiders say he was one of a group of staffers offered a buyout. Another, longtime reporter, Jim Sullinger, reportedly got the same offer and took the Star up on it.
Hearne: Tony, Tony, Tony! Remembering Chiefs Legend Tony DiPardo
Where to begin…
The obituaries are in, longtime Chiefs bandleader Tony DiPardo’s legendary contributions to the team and Kansas City extolled. The standard issue good stuff having been said, it’s time for some Tony D flashbacks from my years of partying with him (journalistically) in the pages of the Kansas City Star.
And then some…
Starting in 1993 when I called on TD to enhance a column by bringing his horn to 18th and Grand and blowing "War Dance!" in a tiny studio off the main newsroom. Off key as it was even then, it brought shit-eaters to the faces of editors and reporters alike who had little choice but to endure the many takes it took to get it more-or-less right for readers to call and hear the little man wail.
Today: The Ridiculously High Blood Alcohol Content of Brian Euston & What It Means
About deceased Westport party boy Brian Euston’s blood alcohol levels…
After spending an evening at Kelly’s in Westport with his friends, Euston blasted off in the wee small hours of the morning at closing time last fall for parts unknown. Then, after being "overly friendly" to a man’s girlfriend near America’s Pub – and being warned to leave her alone, but persisting in "getting into" her face – Euston was punched, fell, hit his head and later died, prosecutors say.
Now forget about the racial or security aspects of the incident…
The bottom line is Euston’s blood-alcohol level was .387, nearly five times the legal limit for drinking and driving. Five times!
".387 is pretty damn high," says an area attorney specializing in DUI law. "I mean, close to the highest I’ve seen. I’ve heard of people dying of alcohol poisoning at less than that. The fact that the kid could even walk is surprising to me. If you’re at .300 even there’s a good chance you’re face down in your own vomit."
Hearne: Did Kelly’s Overserve Man Killed in Westport?
Now that the cards are on the table in the Brian Euston murder investigation, the $64 million question remaining is, was he overserved that fateful night at Kelly‘s in Westport?
Lost in the search for what happened to the 24 year-old Kansas City man – found dead on a sidewalk near Kelly’s where he’d passed the night drinking – was what sort of shape Euston was in during those wee small hours of the morning.
Not that there weren’t hints.
A Facebook tribute page put together by Euston’s friends is loaded with dozens of photos of Euston waving beer bottles and making Animal House party faces. Clearly the dude was not the laid back sort – he was a party boy of the first order. And while police kept Euston’s autopsy results under wraps, they finally released his blood alcohol levels with the arrest details’
And guess what? The dude was totally wasted – nearly five times the legal limit to operate a vehicle!
Today: KCC Comments Crowd Haters Duke it Out With Glazer Groupies Over Size Matters
Oh, the incredible lightness of the comments section’s being…
I mean, really.
Here’s the deal. Comedy club magnate Craig Glazer buys a sexy-beyond-belief, flame red Lotus Evora sports car and the MENSA crowd goes crazy! Weighing in with guestimates as to his you-know-what size. Gotta be infinitesimally small, they insist. Why else get a car that cool?
Excuse me?
Since when did it become hip to poke around online under assumed names trying to guess someone’s schlong size?
But ladies and gentlemen, it’s very much come to that here on KC Confidential…
Hearne: Star Layoffs Limbo & Society Grande Dame Takes a Powder
Don’t look now, but so far so good….
After warning department heads a few weeks back of pending cuts, it’s been all quiet along the midwestern front at the Kansas City Star. The expected round of quarterly cutbacks and/or staff layoffs has failed to materialize. And now the month’s almost over.
The head scratching has sparked another rumor; that the layoffs have been postponed in the hope of brighter days ahead.
There’s a bit more to the story…
Today: Nigro Cries Foul, Vows the Strip Won’t Trip
Please be kind to Bill Nigro…
A certain local blogger – let’s see, what is his name? Oh yeah, Tony – has been riding the Kansas City Strip trolly system hard and putting it away harshly on his blog Tony’s Kansas City.
Not enough riders, too much tax money – never shoulda been subsidized by Kansas City, Tony says.
Enough already, Nigro cries.
Today: Streetside Countdown On, Sports Hyperbole Inc.
Best hurry!
By the time you read this you’ll have about an hour to haul ass to Westport and be there for the final hurrah of Streetside Records. Everything in the store had been marked to half the listed sale prices. Further closing discounts may yet be being offered.
You’ve got until 6 p.m., OK?
Which brings us to the reported rescue effort underway by Vinyl Renaissance. VR and Streetside staffers having confirmed the effort, VR’s manager took exception to the reports but declined further comment.
Let me tell you though, however they decide to cut the cake, all signs point to VR (or possibly some of its ownership group) looking at taking over Streetside’s space and running some kind of a retail music operation in it.
Now let’s talk about sports hyperbole for a minute…
Today: Lezak Cops to Blown Cast, KC to Pass Des Moines & School’s Out
Gary Lezak is 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time…
Now that we’ve got the bold face lying portion of this story out of the way, let’s revisit Lezak’s prediction that KC would only get maybe 13 inches of snow all winter.
"What you should say is that these two weeks are not going to count in my winter forecast," Lezak quips. "From January 11th to the 24th, we’re not going to count. Because we had 2.9 inches of snow before January 11th and at the end of this storm – we’re probably going to get 3 or 4 more inches. – it should dry out and then maybe we’ll get one or two more snows in February or March."
Today: Star Layoffs Delayed?
Hmmmm..
Three weeks into KC Star department heads being informed of the need for cutbacks and/or layoffs, still no hit list. Since the paper normally scheds the plank walkings at the beginning of a pay period – which would have been Monday but for MLK Day – today would have been the expected day.
But so far, so good, says a source.
Meaning what? The Monday after next?
Stay tuned.
Hearne: Streetside Records in Westport Closing Sunday, Savior in the Wings
Drop everything, grab your money and get thee to a record store…
Post haste. Streetside Records in Westport to be exact. Because the Save Streetside campaign on Facebook is history. The store as you know it will close at 6 p.m. this Sunday for all time Think end of an era..
Just one thing…
The King may be dead, but long live the King, sources say.
Hearne: Vinyl Renaissance to the Rescue, Streetside Saved!
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Just like that, a bold plan was hatched, a savior realized…
Streetside Records in Westport will go the way of the 8 Track Tape at 6 p.m. Sunday. But there’s a new fat lady’s in town and she’s ready to start to singing
Vinyl Renaissance – a used music store at 10922 Shawnee Mission Parkway is slated to reopen a music and audio store in the space now-operated by Streetside (formerly Pennylane) sometime in the near future, sources say. The exact plans – including what to name it – have yet to be sorted out, says one Vinyl Renaissance staffer who confirmed the move. But VR will remain in its current location in Shawnee and operate Streetside as well, the staffer says.
Today: Star Layoffs/Cutbacks Update & Cautious KU Elves
First let’s wonder aloud about the recently announced layoffs and or cutbacks at the Kansas City Star...
Department heads were told of the coming cuts three weeks back, so the deed could go down any day.Like tomorrow, Tuesday. That’s because the newspaper tends to lower the boom at the beginning of a pay period. Last Friday being payday and today being a holiday – Martin Luther King Day – Tuesday could be Blues Day.
Remember, cutbacks and/or layoffs are triggered at McClatchy when quarterly targets are not met.
So while the Star more than likely made money – radio advertising and retail sales were all up – remember, this is an ailing industry. Print circulation and readership continue to spiral downwards and this is a trend a healthier economy cannot unto itself cure.
Yes, an end to this recession would lift all boasts, but as former Star publisher Art Brisbane noted two years back, when the dot com recession went away, the Star‘s bottom line improved but classified advertising did not come back. And some of the newspaper’s largest remaining advertisers – grocery stores and car dealers – all continue to look and find more contemporary and cost effective ways to reach their target audiences.
And while the Star boasts of the readers it reaches online, unfortunately that’s not where the all-important big profits are.
All that said, my hunch is this round of cuts won’t be a big one.
Today: The Social Network & the Journalists.
If you haven’t seen the movie, "The Social Network" yet, the DVD came out this week…
So just do it, OK?
And if you haven’t "friended" me on Facebook yet, better hop to that as well. I’m about three or four shy of the social network’s 5,000 friend max. So any day now we’re probably going to have to find another way to consumate our friendship
I know, I know, it’s cruel but you’ll find another reason to go on living…
Speaking of payoffs, the once-mighty Kansas City Star redesigned its Web site recently many of you may have noticed. I think it looks good. And at the bottom of its home page or whatever, it sports a hip little row of trendy options for news geezers to stay abreast of the changing times.
Twitter, text alerts, mobile… even Facebook, the social network.
But for all it’s still heavy duty clout, the newspaper’s only been able to enlist a paltry 177 Facebook friends.
Today: How to Dodge the Frozen Pipes Plumbing Bullet
The weather outside is frightful…
And for local plumbers – some might suspect – delightful. In the case of Roger ther Plumber there was heck to pay starting in the wee hours of this morning, with locals burning up the phone lines with tales of frozen water pipes.
"You know, I can measure what time people in Johnson County get up by the calls I got this morning," Roger says. "My phone started ringing at 5 after 4. Then the second wave of people started calling at 10 after 5. Then I went to the office and we had 18 more calls between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m."
Hearne: Pending Star Layoffs Come as Little Surprise
Since when did the obvious become startling?
I mean, really. For three years the Kansas City Star and other newspapers owned by the McClatchy Company have been passing out pink slips. It’s nothing new. The one-two punch of a dismal economy and a free fall in newspaper readership and circulation across the country have taken a brutal toll on a once prosperous industry.
So while some staffers at the Star were reportedly caught off guard last week when management told department heads to prepare for another round of layoffs, come on – how startling was it?
McClatchy sets quarterly goals for its papers and at the end of each period, cuts must be made if they don’t achieve those goals.
So while the Star is one of the brightest papers in McClatchy’s portfolio, it has to help carry the load of its less well endowed siblings in order to help keep the parent company afloat.
Hearne: Sports Babe 68 Flees the Scene at 18th & Grand
Just like that, now former Kansas City Star sports editor Holly Lawton has quietly left the newspaper.
"The new guy came in right after Christmas and Holly stayed for a week," says a source. "So she was here last week but not this."
Lawton – whose Twitter name was Sports Babe 68 – was widely believed by Star staffers to have been romantically involved with her boss, Star editor (and former sports section head) Mike Fannin. A belief aired publicly last summer by departing Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock.
Today: Updates, Lezak on Weather, Star Budget Cuts & Fiat of Olathe
Seems like only yesterday, KSHB weather wonk Gary Lezak issued his winter storm warning...
"It will be mostly dry through this winter but we’ll have a few storm systems," Lezak said here December 2nd. "Last year we had 12 winter storms and 44 inches of snow. This year I’m only seeing four to six chances of winter storms…I’m forecasting 13 inches of snow. And even though it’s 30 inches less than last year, that still leaves room for a 5-incher, a 3-icher, a couple 2-inchers and a 1-incher maybe. And that still leaves room for an ice storm."
The latest?
Today: Quoth the Ravens, Nevermore!
There’s good news and bad news where the playoffs stricken Kansas City Chiefs are concerned…
First the bad.
Not unexpectedly, the Chiefs got murdered by Murderland’s Baltimore Ravens, a team named after celebrated Baltimore poet Edgar Allan Poe. To sooth that macabre mauling, I offer an Eddy quote that may serve fans well.
"If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered."
Now the good:
The good news is there’s no more bad news!
Hearne: Why the Star Dropped Gary Lezak for Katie Horner
For four years KSHB TV weather wonk Gary Lezak laid down the daily local weather in the pages of the Kansas City Star.
No mas.
The newspaper recently handed the keys to its prominently featured weather casting kingdom to Lezak’s controversial rival Katie Horner on KCTV.
Lezak’s take on the switcheroo?
"It was a great honor for me being in the Kansas City Star every day for the last four years," he says. "Providing the most accurate forecast. But I don’t think providing an accurate forecast was good enough for them."
But why hop in the sack with the most controversial weather caster on local telelvision?
Horner has no less than five Facebook pages devoted to bagging on her for sensationalizing weathercasts.
