BlogKC » Media

Gone Mild on Kevin Collison

William Rockhill Nelson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:17:58 +0000

Be sure to check out this excellent post at Gone Mild on Kevin Collison, the Star’s development columnist who champions the giving of KCMO tax dollars to big developers, from the comfort of his home in Prairie Village. For more context, read Joe Miller’s December piece on Collison.

Northland Sun stops publishing

William Rockhill Nelson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:18:23 +0000

Sun newspapers has suspended publication of the Northland Sun Tribune, which covered northern KCMO, Gladstone, Parkville, etc. For the moment, Sun continues to publish newspapers in Liberty, Smithville, Johnson County, and south KCMO.

Business Journal: NPG Newspapers suspends publication of the Kansas City Northland’s Sun Tribune

Fake Katie Horner on Twitter

William Rockhill Nelson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:38:25 +0000

Just discovered this gem… twitter.com/fakekatiehorner

Missouri legislators and columnist to live-tweet State of the Union

William Rockhill Nelson — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:44:59 +0000

Several Kansas Citians are representing the Midwest in a national live-tweeting of tonight’s State of the Union Address. State Senator Jolie Justus, State Representative Ryan Silvey, blogger Tom Ryan, and KC Star columnist Barb Shelly are all participating.

Follow the hashtag #OPEDSOTU to see tweets all of the politicians and journalists participating in the this national project.

Seattle Times: Live-Tweeting President Obama’s State of the Union.

Great rebuttal to the Pitch’s Hyde Park story

William Rockhill Nelson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:59:22 +0000

Toellner Tells It has a great analysis and rebuttal to the Pitch’s piece on Armour Boulevard Crime and concentrated Section 8 housing.

Pitch finally publishes piece on Armour Boulevard crime wave

William Rockhill Nelson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:35:14 +0000

The Pitch has finally published Peter Rugg’s months of work on the effects of a super concentration of Section 8 housing on Armour Boulevard in the Hyde Park neighborhood, and the result is a big fat “meh”.

It’s just a big collection of quotes with a small bit of “journalism” mixed in between, in a failed attempt to synthesize a coherent story. Despite so many quotes, the piece fails to actually tell the stories of the people living in Section 8, the neighbors trying to improve the neighborhood, or the government officials who have re-created housing projects out of a program meant to replace the projects.

Overall it just perpetuates tired stereotypes of class and racial division, ignoring efforts to create a vibrant, mixed community in one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. The title alone speaks volumes.

Pitch: Along Armour, Hyde Parkers battle low renters in an epic urban struggle

KC burger rage goes international

William Rockhill Nelson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:14:15 +0000

International media has picked up the video of a local woman going crazy at McDonalds at Linwood and Main in Midtown. River city is getting awesome free publicity everywhere from Europe to Australia. You stay classy, KC!

Warhol at Union Station, Pulitzer photography at Truman Library

William Rockhill Nelson — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:55 +0000

KC is currently hosting two excellent traveling exhibitions, and both are great opportunities to escape the snow and ice for a bit this holiday weekend.

Andy Warhol at Union Station through January 10th
Over 80 pieces of the pop artists portfolios are on display. Be sure to download the mp3 audio tour in advance and take your music player with you.

Pulitzer Prize photographs at Truman Presidential Library through January 24th.
Highlights include Marines raising the US flag of Iowa Jima in Japan, Babe Ruth retiring his baseball jersey, Elian Gonzalez being seized by federal agents, the September 11th attacks in New York, and many more.

Snowmygod!

William Rockhill Nelson — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:07:23 +0000

If you get tired of the 24/7 weathergasm on local TV, check out the KC Weather Podcast for some non-melodramatic information. kcweather.org on the Web or @kcweather on Twitter.

Could recession and big losses to JoCo be leading to changes in KC corporate welfare?

William Rockhill Nelson — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:27:40 +0000

First. The Business Journal reports that JP Morgan is moving 800 jobs from south KC to Overland Park, thanks to $15 million in tax credits from the State of Kansas (Yay for OneKC!). This despite the fact that such tax breaks are bankrupting Kansas instead of producing revenue, and contributing to teacher layoffs and other cuts. The company rejected the City’s offer for space in the Town Pavilion building, despite the huge investment made to make Downtown more attractive to businesses.

Second: Today Joe Miller at KC Downtowner has news of a big shakeup at the City’s Economic Development Corporation. The EDC is the quasi-city agency charged the keeping those 800 JP Morgan jobs in the City, as well as keeping the Wizards from moving to KCK. The EDC is actually considering focusing on small businesses and startups instead of chasing giant corporations!

Third: Joe Miller at KC Downtowner also exposes the conflicts of interest of Kevin Collison, the Star’s business columnist. Apparently Kevin drinks with the developers on Fridays and then wakes up on Mondays and writes columns championing big tax breaks for his drinking buddies – tax breaks that don’t seem to be helping the City all that much.