KC Confidential

Whatever happened to big corporations doing the right thing in the public interest?

Or paying the price if they’re caught doing otherwise. Those were the days, huh? Which brings us to the very prickly situation at the 13 year-old  Cinemark Palace on the Plaza movie theater.

It’s no secret that the Kansas City Health Department and local media were alerted to a report that bedbugs were discovered at the Plaza movieplex. But rather than play it straight with the public at large and own up to the nightmarish pest presence, the Dallas-based theater chain engaged in a campaign of deceit and disinformation.

In her October 2nd column the Star‘s Joyce Smith got snookered into reporting that Cinemark’s Plaza Palace had closed temporarily merely because the company was “refurbishing the inside of the theater.” Continue reading →

Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing….

A prime example of that is evidenced in a recent column by Kansas City Star features columnist Jeneé Osterheldt about the bogus use of the color pink  to sell stuff during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

“Yes, I’m all about women’s issues, and breast cancer awareness is a recurring topic in my column,” Osterheldt writes. “But the color becomes blinding when big corporations slap pink on any and everything to hustle their products.”

Osterheldt’s reasoning is sound.

“For some products, very little money goes to the cure,” she continues. “Or the company has already given a flat donation and still slaps pink on products to play on the consumer’s conscience. The key is doing the research before you throw down your dollars.” Continue reading →

You won’t get ripped off for five buck pizza or rained out – but you will get the bejesus scared out of you…

That’s the plan at Monty Summers’ four haunted house cavalcade in Kansas City’s East Bottoms.

“I’ve been doing this for 38 years, crazy huh?” says Summers, the founder / owner of The Edge of Hell, Beast, Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe and Macabre Cinema. “People faint, pee their pants, hyperventilate – do all kinds of crazy stuff – and we have 18 to 20 adults every night that are scared to death and they leave (early). But you know, it’s the best advertising we have.”

Summers’ Edge of Hell – founded in 1975 – is the second oldest haunted house attraction in the country behind Akron, Ohio’s Haunted Schoolhouse that was established in 1974.

That out of an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 “haunted attractions” nationwide. Continue reading →

“Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Who didn’t grow up hearing that children’s limerick? Kansas City Health Department public information officer Jeff Hershberger did. So did Mark Lillis, the Bedbug Division manager for Schendel Pest Services.

And count me in.

None of the three of us thought much of it at the time. Continue reading →

Here we go, boys and girls…

This week’s options for what to check out and where – right here in the Cowtown.

Starting with…

You know it’s a big deal when KC Confidential political sparkplug David Scott Whinery, Esquire passes on a presidential debate to catch a concert – a retro romper stomper, no less.

Unlikely as it may seem, Whinery will be at the Midland tonight for ZZ Top at 8 p.m.

That’s right, the 43-year old blues rockers from Houston are still going – and not just going – they’re actually going strong. Continue reading →

Longtime Kansas City Star business columnist Jerry Heaster died last week after a long battle with cancer…

Let me start by saying what a great guy and supportive colleague Heaster was for most of my 16 years at the newspaper. I was pals with former Star reporter and columnist Jennifer Mann and was a regular visitor to Heaster and Mann’s little corner of the newsroom on the business desk.

Jennifer and I would chat about any number of things in the news or concerning the Star and Jerry offered himself up as an active participant in those discussions more often than not.

Many of those corner talks revolved around me grousing about significant story and news details that my editor in the FYI section removed from my column in the interest of playing it safe and/or PC. So as to not to draw fire from readers, other Star editors or pretty much anyone for that matter. Continue reading →