KC Confidential

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.

Huisentruit was an anchor at KIMT in Mason City at the same time Harman worked there before leaving in 1999 to come to Kansas City. Like Harman this week, Huisentruit failed to show up for work around 4 a.m. on June 27, 1995. She was never heard from again and declared dead in 2001.

Police found evidence of s struggle at her apartment along with her red Mazda Miata. Neighbors reported hearing screams. The case has been covered by "America’s Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries." It was unearthed again last February by Nancy Grace.

Three years ago copies of pages from Huisentruit’s personal journal were mailed to the local newspaper and then turned over to police.

What was in those papers? Good question.

But a recently fired Iowa police officer has made accusations that police may have been involved in the anchor’s disappearance. That remains to be learned, and police and the FBI are reportedly working on the case

That’s it for now.

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.

Which seemed as if a reaction to what the station knew but hadn’t disclosed, that Harman had taken his life.

Having loaded up on suicide reading and feedback lately, the combination of severe depression and the holidays well could have played a role Harman’s sad, lonely final act. Then again, sources say Harman was handsomely paid – six-figures – and given Fox 4’s generally strong ratings and Harman’s popularity with viewers, it would not appear – on the surface anyway – that finances were an issue.

Harman with his wife and daughter lived in Woodbridge, a south Kansas City neighborhood where average home values in 2009 were $245,048 and the median household income $58,429. So from appearances anyway, he wasn’t living wildly over his head.

What then might have caused Harman to hang himself from the rafters of his house for his family to find?

I’m not going to go into it here, but the talk in law enforcement is that Harman was spoken to by police very recently about the possible reopening a cold case crime in another city. If true, count on the news breaking fairly fast.

I’ll be looking into it later today and try and report back as to whether there’s any truth to that rumor.

In the meantime a memorial fund has been set up for Harman’s family at the Tightwad Bank in Tightwad, Missouri (near Clinton). The phone number to call is 660-477-3500.

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. He knew weather really well. I’m in shock and I’m going to miss him. It’s just incredible – I almost can’t believe it. And he leaves two families behind; his Fox 4 family and his own family."

Harman joined Fox 4 in 1999, following Lezak’s departure and became an integral part of Fox 4’s morning crew with Mark Alford and Loren Halifax.

Oddly, just prior to the station announcing Harman’s death, its Web site pitched a coming story entitled, "Holiday Can Bring Stress, Sadness."

Indeed.

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.

The questions being, how long will advertisers put up with single-story issues? And if the best the Pitch can muster is 40 pages in the 4th quarter, how low might it go come January when advertisers traditionally pull back?

Even the Star was able to avert end-of-year layoffs (despite a steep drop in 3rd quarter corporate earnings)  owing in part to stepped-up advertising by retailers expecting a huger holiday. Meanwhile the Pitch is choking out issues with scarcely a single feature story.

Little wonder…

When new owner SouthComm took over last spring, the Pitch fielded four staff writers, three of which are now gone. The main three one might argue; Nadia Plaum, David Martin and Peter "Dead Eye" Rugg.

And while it’s refreshing to be rid of the generic, aging-hippie approach to feature writing that long plagued the Pitch, unfortunately the road it’s headed down now appears closer to that of vaccuous weekly Ink.

Which by the way is eating the Pitch’s lunch at 62 pages versus 40.

Not only is the Pitch short-hitting readers in story content, its column content falls well short of what it was putting out in the early 90s even. No sports, no theater, no art, no horoscopes. It’s pretty much down to food and movies.

Speaking of which…

So short-handed is the Pitch its movie reviews are being written by editor Scott Wilson.

While that’s not as outlandish as were Star editor Mike Fannin‘s to bat for Robert Butler, it’s an indication that massive layoffs and dramatically reduced revenues have resulted in all-hands-on-deck.

Which is doubly worrisome given the Pitch appears unable to participate in the robust retail climate benefiting other local media. Because when you get right down to it, does anybody really want Kansas City’s alternative paper of record to be Ink?

How sad and embarrassing would that be?

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.

Perkins, btw went down amidst a $2 million ticket scandal, which pales in comparision to the $9 million buyouts for football coaches Mark Mangino and Gill

But nobody really seems to care, because money is no object when it comes to college sports. And now Zenger can go out, roll the dice again and cut some other coach a multi-million dollar deal. Someone like former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. That’s the talk anyway.

Star sports scribe Sam Mellinger even characterized the hiring of Leach by KU as the "best case scenario."

Hold it right there….

Leach is the dude Texas Tech fired for player abuse, the same thing KU fired former football coach Mark Mangino for two years ago. Then Leach filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Tech – a lawsuit still pending – and a suit against ESPN. In other words, he’s what they call litigious.

And this is the kinda guy KU needs to hire?

A coach who was terminated because of "his irresponsible treatment of a player diagnosed with a brain concussion and his unwillingness to work with Tech leadership to resolve the issue," the university contends.

Oh, I forgot. Leach is a winner and KU could makes lots of money. Who cares if he’s a standup guy?

Turner Gill was a standup guy and look where that got KU.

All of which shich speaks to my point yesterday; unless someone steps in and finds a way to dial out the ridiculous profits in college sports – take them out of the hands of the power brokers that currently control them – corruption and waste will continue to reign.

Nothing will matter except winning. Money will remain no object. And whatever needs to be covered up to keep the good times rolling will continue to be covered up.

The question that remains is, will Gill’s replacement be able to afford to take over the payments on Gill’s seven-figure manse at Fall Creek Farms in Lawrence? Count on it.

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, for two nights, no less. 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."

Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour with Cirque du Soleil will play here February 21 and 22.

Speaking of creepy, check out the review of the show by Williamette Week in Oregon.

"It was around the time the human-sized dancing glove showed up that Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson show got kind of weird," it begins. "Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of strange stuff happening before then, not the least of which being the appearance of an actor dressed as Bubbles, Jackson’s famous pet monkey, who later ascended a platform to DJ above the crowd. But that’s almost predictable. Of course there would be a guy in a monkey suit wearing overalls and a striped shirt running around, pounding his hands on the stage like a French-Canadian circus version of Andy Serkis. A big, sparkling anthropomorphic glove, though? That looks like the Hamburger Helper mascot gone fabulous? Well, that’s a special stroke of brilliant weirdness. And that’s not even mentioning the dancers who leaped out of a pair of giant shoes seconds later."

That said, the review characterizes the show as boring.

"And that, really, is where the Immortal Tour becomes an affront to Jackson’s legacy," the review continues. "He would never want his name attached to something that wasn’t top-drawer entertainment…All the chaos just sort of blended together into an incomprehensible swirl of noise and light and tumbling and mimes and LED costumes and robot dancers—which has it’s charms, to be sure, but for the most part just made my eyes glaze over." 

Tickets for the MJ trib shows range from $50 for nosebleeds to $175 for the really good seats, plus of course facility and convenience service charges of $19.60 per.  So try and snag the $25 discount which basically basically covers the service charges.

Or check out the $250 VIP package that includes a "premium ticket located in the best rows of the floor," a souvenir lanyard, program and "exclusive gift."

As Michael might say, don’t stop til you get enough!

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 in on Pletz demise.

"Karen Pletz, ex-president of Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences…has died – probably by suicide," Soltan blogs."Pletz was facing immensities of litigation."

Meanwhile, back in Ft. Lauderdale, police await the preliminary results on Pletz from the medical examiner.

"There’s nothing more to say at this point until then," says Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Travis Mandell.

Mandell was on his way out of town for Thanksgiving when, "I suffered the barrage of calls from Kansas City media" he jokes. "I didn’t know you guys had so many television stations."

Despite the keen interest here in Pletz death, Ft. Lauderdale police are treating it as a normal "unknown death," Mandell says. "No one gets preferential treatment."

You may recall, Ft. Lauderdale’s medical examiner told me last week it would take two to three months before full results of Pletz autopsy would be available.

Pletz husband Jack Pletz – a Jefferson City, Missouri attorney – did not return a call for this column.