Kansas City News Blog

​Picture the young artist, dreaming of becoming an editorial cartoonist. He's working hard: drawing for a weekly newspaper in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue, placing his pieces in a few small-town papers around Nebraska, constantly submitting his work to the Omaha World-Herald, only to be rejected. With encouragement from Kansas City Star cartoonist Lee Judge, at the time practically just a kid himself, our artist has started doing an occasional sports cartoon for the Star.

Until now he's had a weird life. His loose-hinged father is, among other disturbing things, beset by nervous tics that our cartoonist has inherited. As a child, our man had a tendency to poke his pinky into gooey cracks in the floor or lick window glass on the bus. He still must exert heroic effort to keep from sticking out his tongue at inappropriate times.

A Kansas City Royal comes to his psychological rescue.

The cartoonist is in the darkroom at his little newspaper, studying the Royals' roster, when he comes across the story of outfielder Jim Eisenreich.

After he was released by the Minnesota Twins, his contract was picked up by the Royals for one dollar. A bargain, as my father might say. What gives me pause is the mention of his tics. Although Eisenreich was a talented player, his symptoms were so bad that in Minnesota he was often booed off the field. As I read about his vocal tics and strange head and arm movements, I marvel at our similarities.

After Eisenreich's arrival in Kansas City, the story goes on to explain, a doctor diagnosed him with Tourette's syndrome.

Over the next few days in his darkroom, the cartoonist -- Jeffrey Koterba, now full time at the World-Herald and author of the gorgeous new memoir Inklings (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages, $25), can't stop thinking about Eisenreich.

I imagine him living in a modern, sprawling house, tootling around Kansas City's boulevards, dining in fancy restaurants, managing his syndrome as best he can. And like Kansas City, this syndrome that plagues him seems remote. My cartoons, my signature, "Koterba," may appear in print in Kansas City, but I exist in Omaha, struggling in my new marriage, taking care of a sick baby, paying hospital bills, making ends meet. Yet on deadline nights, when I climb into bed next to Joni with my smudged fingers, only to wake three hours later, I remind myself there was a time when I believed no woman would ever love me. To have this, at least, is nothing short of a miracle.

There are other miracles, too.

Photo from America's Most Wanted

​The Kansas Supreme Court ruled today that the man convicted of murdering Ali Kemp, a 19-year-old University of Kansas student from Johnson County, in a public swimming pool pump room in 2002 could not also be guilty of attempted rape without violating the "double jeopardy" protection of the Fifth Amendment.

In 2005, Kemp's murderer, Benjamin Appleby (aka Teddy Hoover), was convicted of first degree murder and attempted rape. He got a "hard 50" year sentence (five decades without the possibility of parole) for the murder conviction, and 228 months for the attempted rape, to be served consecutively.

The court ruled that since attempted rape is one of the two provisions that make a homicide first degree murder (the other is premeditation), convicting Appleby of attempted rape was double-dipping.

As such, the 228 month sentence was overturned. Appleby started serving the hard 50 in 2007. He'll be 81 when his debt to society is paid.

As we've thoroughly documented here, last night Kansas City's favorite performers gathered to declaim from Sarah Palin's new book, Amelia Bedelia Runs For Office. This time, Amelia's literal-mindedness accidentally destroys the Republican Party for a whole generation!

Also, she tries to teach herself to fly and goes kerplump on an Alaskan boardwalk full of Alaskan history and decency. Here are highlights from the first three readers, Ron Megee (in the ascot), David Wayne Reed (with the glasses) and Gail Bronfman Bunch (with both her knees scraped).


Dying camera batteries prevented me from capturing the epic and bosomy performance of Janet Henry, but, really, if I had, Tea Partiers might have drafted her impersonation as a third-party candidate. So it's probably for the best.

mlb.com

​It looks like the K is all but announced as the site of the 2012 All-Star Game. The MLB Owner's meeting just wrapped in Chicago, and Commissioner Bud Selig hinted that Kauffman Stadium's recent renovation has impressed a lot of people.

As a small digression, can you think of a better name for commissioner of baseball than "Bud." For some reason that just tickles me to no end. Yeah, I wrote "tickles," what of it?

Selig was quoted on MLB.com: "I haven't made a final decision, but we did promise (the Royals) an All-Star Game at some point. They did a magnificent job there. But I'm not going to say more than I've said."

Esther Lin/STRIKEFORCE

Rudy Bears is on the right. Nice tatt.

​If you met mixed martial arts fighter Rudy Bears in a darkened alley, you'd probably ask for directions. Heck, he'd probably offer them.

Outside the ring, the 31-year-old Independence man (Truman High class of '98) has an air of relaxed calm about him. You might even say soft spoken. Yet in the ring, he sheds his approachable demeanor and becomes a vicious beast.

Tonight, at Memorial Hall in KCK, Bears (10-3-0) will square off against undefeated up-and-comer Tyron Woodley (4-0) in tonight's STRIKEFORCE Challengers main event. Then, if Bears is successful he'll try to knee him in the kitchen and land a couple forearm strikes to his grill.

The Octagon

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For those who don't know -- and since mixed martial arts is one of the fastest
growing sports in the country, there probably aren't too many of you --
the action takes place in a octagonal ring surrounded by a head-high
chain link fence. Competitors with lots of tattoos try to pummel each
other with whatever skills and appendages they have available until one
of them is knocked out, can no longer defend him/herself, or submits.

Bears says he's been preparing and training for the last two months at Caveman Crew Mixed Martial Arts, a pretty badass-looking gym in Raytown. People bleed there.

There are rules but not with respect to style, and fighters come from a variety of different people-hurting background. Bears, a 31-year-old with a wiry muscular frame, is trained in jujitsu and is mostly a stand-and-striker, which means he likes to fight on his feet.

Watch him pummel a dude after the jump.

Woodley, Bears' body-fat-lacking opponent, is a two-time All American wrestler for the University of Missouri, so Bears said he's been training counter-wrestling maneuvers. Bears is considered the underdog.

Bears says he likes fighting at home. "Definitely," he says. "They chant my name because of the movie Rudy."

The action starts tonight at 10 p.m. Undercards begin at 8 p.m.

Mark Mangino

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University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino is on the hot seat. KU's meter maids hate him. Former players hate him. The parents of former players hate him. Even some current players don't like him.

My decoder ring says Mangino has lost the confidence of Athletic Director Lew Perkins. But Perkins will be in a tough spot if the Jayhawks knock off No. 2-rated Texas in Austin 

What do you think KU should do with Mangino?

Janet Henry goes full Palin.

​The big news this week is that photogenic real American Sarah Palin has kinda/sorta written a Young Adult book about why everybody should quit their jobs. But books are hard and take time to read! Understanding the dilemma Going Rogue presents to non-elitists, local theater people last night performed the public service of reading Palin's book aloud at the Fishtank Performance Studio at 1715 Wyandotte.

There several dozen Crossroads types packed in a tiny room whose aluminum foil wall-paper suggests either '50s sci-fi or what life is like for a baked potato. A two buck donation was good for a can of Hamms. Organizer Lisa Cordes explained the rules: She'd edited the book down some, but promised "We did try to maintain the spirit, flavor and narrative of the tale." Also, we had to drink any time Palin:

• Mentions Ronald Reagan

• Uses folksy language

• Bashes the media

• Writes "Dang," "Give me a break" or "Bullcrap."

• Refers to any of the following children and/or potpourri flavors: Piper, Trigg, Track, Tripp, Willow or Bristol

Low comedy and much drunkenness ensued.

Burrel Mohler Jr.

​Fox 4 reports that the mother of the alleged sexual abuse victims and a former Mormon bishop in Independence knew about the allegations of sexual abuse inside the Mohler family. 

Ex-bishop Paul Tonga told Fox 4 that Burrel Mohler Jr.'s wife came to him several times and relayed fears that her husband was abusing their children.

Tonga, who was the leader of the church where Mohler Jr.'s worshiped, explained that he questioned Burrel Mohler Jr. and the children, but didn't learn anything.

"He denied the accusation," Tonga said. "Nobody admitted anything for the children."

Tonga said his investigation ended there. He did not explain why he never contacted police.

The Kansas City Star also reports that police confiscated 65 videotapes from an uncle of the alleged victims.

Greyhound Portrait #1 by Dustin Maberry

One of these things is not like the other. See why at the Paragraph's latest art show

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1. Pretend it's First Friday, not the third. The Charlotte Street Foundation is sponsoring a few openings tonight, including Mythmakers at the Paragraph.

2. Laugh spontaneously. The Holy Cow! improv troupe entertains at the Westport Coffee House theater Friday night.

3. Remember why giving a kid a gun for Christmas is a bad idea. (He'll shoot his eye out!) The Kansas City Repertory Theater presents A Christmas Story, the Musical! in a run that begins tonight at UMKC's Spencer Theatre.

4. Celebrate the first anniversary of an art co-op in Olathe. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, the First Art Gallery of Olathe will hold a reception that features food, beverages, art and live music.

5. Get a jump on your holiday shopping, Lithuanian style. There's a Lithuanian Holiday Market at Lenexa Community Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

6. Watch scantily clad ladies wriggle for a good cause. The Kansas City Society of Burlesque performs at Korruption on Saturday night. The show -- Shake Your What-Not for Food -- benefits Harvesters and Ark of Friends. Admission is $10 or 10 canned goods.

7. Get ready for some football! The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Arrowhead on Sunday.

Find more ways to waste tonight, Saturday and Sunday in The Pitch calendar.
One of these things is not like the other. See why at the Paragraph's latest art show.

Emanuel Cleaver II

​Neither Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II nor Jacob Turk, the Republican challenger who'd like to replace Cleaver in 2010, has taken part in the Department of Energy's Former Beryllium Workers Medical Surveillance Program for former Kansas City Plant employees, though coincidentally, they both worked there.

Cleaver worked at the Kansas City Plant when he first came to Kansas City in 1968; it was his first job after he graduated from the then-segregated Prairie View A&M. He worked as a quality control checker on the manufacturing line, which paid his bills while he worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Jacob Turk

​According to Danny Rotert, the Congressman's communications director, "He has spoken to other former employees who have had some health issues but he has not had any problems associated with beryllium."

Via e-mail, Turk tells The Pitch, "I worked at Bendix from 1982 to 1985 before leaving to start my own company. I have in the past been contacted by the company running the screening program for beryllium exposure and after an exhaustive conversation on the phone about the ins and outs of the program decided not to opt in.

"Once I found out there is no cure for berylliosis and that the program was just to monitor the progress of the disease, I made the decision not to trust my personal medical history to the government or a contractor and not to have a record of a pre-existing condition. ... I do believe more does need to be done for those who have developed berylliosis or chronic beryllium disease (CBD)."