KC Confidential

Mike Valentine
Cries Foul on Car & Driver Radar test

Why is it that we seldom seem get the entire story?

My theory – and it’s an obvious one – m-o-n-e-y. Which brings me to the January issue of Car and Driver magazine and its first-in-a-long-time Radar Test.

That’s right, fellow traffic scofflaws, over the years Car & Driver has periodically conducted extensive tests of traffic radar detectors for folks who don’t like the idea of spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, just because they slipped up and were going a few extra miles-per-hour over the speed limit on the way to giving birth or trying to get to a movie, funeral or church service in time to get a little texting in before things got too distracting.

And for those of you who follow such things, engineer geek Mike Valentine‘s detector, the Valentine One has long reigned atop the slagheap of wannabes detectors from Escort (that Valentine co-founded), Bel, Cobra, Whistler and other pretenders to the throne.

Until now.

“Who builds the best high-end detector?” C&D’s headline asks. Continue reading →

There’s a reason fledgling journalists don’t get many  front page story assignments…

That being it takes time and experience to sharpen the skills and develop the critical thinking necessary to report hard news, not just write whatever somebody says and run with it as gospel.

That’s where you can get into trouble.

Especially when the sources being quoted have an obvious vested interest in spinning the story to their advantage. That’s when you’re supposed to reach out and attempt to corroborate what’s being said with independent sources and/or experts in the given field.

Which didn’t happen in the case of Kansas City Star intern Tess Hart’s double-barrelled attaboy this week about Kansas City public television station KCPT’s recent acquisition of radio station 90.9 FM The Bridge. Continue reading →

Sam Smith to the rescue

A couple weeks back the Scribe pretty much nailed the Kansas City of today…

Oh sure, he still loves it here – blah, blah, blah – but the excitement’s gone. The wide open, we can do anything – damn the torpedos – attitude of our storied (and at times criminal) past.

Sure, things are better than they were 10 years ago, but we’re still not Denver – not Austin, Dallas, Atlanta or Indianapolis even. We’re a sleepy city in too many critical ways – politically inept and predictable – with something important missing in the overall mix…too many somethings.

Why would the Republican Convention come to Kansas City? Even the Future Farmers  bailed long ago because Louisville was more fun.

Ever been to Louisville?

But wait, we’re not alone. Continue reading →

As rhetorical questions go, how long you should leave the Christmas lights up ranks fairly high…

Given that Christmas, after all, comes and goes on December 25, wouldn’t the 26th seem as good a time as any to take them down? Or perhaps the first of January following New Year’s Eve. The eight-day-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah commenced on November 27th, so there no reason there to keep the lights ablaze.

Yet we seem to live in a world where people can’t seem to get enough Christmas.

The escape from all of our cares Christmas.

I mean, screw Thanksgiving.  Continue reading →

Weather, weather everywhere and not a drop to shovel…

Think of the weather conditions here as the lull before the storms. So says KSHB TV weather wonk Gary Lezak about the area’s relatively mild climes as parts of the rest of the country suffers through record snowfalls.

So what lies ahead?

Continue reading →