By DAVID MARTIN

David Cook fans who attended last night's American Idol show at the Sprint Center encountered a picket line. The ACLU's Racial Justice Program organized a protest against the dress code at the Power & Light District.

The ACLU and members of the City Council have complained that the Power & Light District's dress code -- which forbids white T-shirts and baggy clothing-- discriminates against African-Americans. Officials at the Cordish Co., the district's developer, have listened to the objections but held firm. "Nothing was resolved," ACLU attorney Joy Springfield said, "so that's why were here."

Most of the dozen protestors wore white T-shirts and held signs with messages such as "Race neutral" and "KC gave Cordish millions in tax breaks and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Richard Mabion, a community activist who lives in Kansas City, Kansas, intermittently yelled, "Open it up," as he marched. Mabion wore a shirt he picked up a Quindaro event, not the plain, extra-long white tee popular with young people.

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By C.J. Janovy

Still feeling high from watching Barack Obama's speech last night? Here are the latest updates from our intrepid (and probably, by now, very hungover) journalist colleagues at Westword, who've been putting out the Demver blog for more than a year now.

And starting now, prep for next week with Elephants in the Room, from our probably already hungover colleagues a at the City Pages in Minneapolis.

God bless you, and God bless America.

By CHRIS PACKHAM

Representative Spam from the Comments:

Miley-Cyrus-Fan says: hmm.. thank you very much. usefull information

Posted at: August 1, 2008 11:46 AM

Janet29 says: Super. It took almost a day to find this info. Thanks, great job. :)

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination last night with a pretty amazing speech. Uh, I actually mean that. Here's something I don't mean, so you can tell the difference: Kissing Rumer Willis would be exactly like kissing Officer John McClane — only without being gay!

This morning, I feel kind of like I got punched in the head. I can't think of anything mean to say about anyone. Except Wolf Blitzer. Have any of his important valves collapsed yet? Please, please, someone send a basket of cheese fries from the CNN commissary to his office. I'm a peaceful man, and I only wish he'd experience an incapacitating cardiac event that puts him on the sidelines for the duration of the campaign season.

After the jump, some actually mean things about political reporters. Oh, and because there are early reports coming in as I post this that Sen. John McCain might have picked foxy Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, click here, or on this artist's rendering of the Republican ticket, to confirm that you are a Republican:

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By DAVID MARTIN

When Kristen Ball's Boston terrier, Buster, was a puppy, she found him dozing in his food bowl. Ball, a 28-year-old CPA who lives in Mission, reached for her digital camera and snapped a picture of the impossibly cute scene.

Because of Ball’s alertness, Buster now has his own Hallmark card. Ball entered the picture of Buster in a contest search for images of funny and endearing pets, along with a birthday sentiment.

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by NADIA PFLAUM

Don't let anyone tell you it's nice out today. It's hot as balls. I was walking along on the Plaza, trying to think of other ways to describe the condition commonly known as "swamp ass," when I ran into Jessie, looking like a cool khaki breeze. In a sweater. The A/C on the Plaza is un-environmentally kickin', so I understood that she meant to spend a lot of time inside.

Jessie said that she likes to wear all different styles, as long as it's not constricting or tight. The girl likes comfort.

"If I had to choose, I'd say I go for a more modern hippie look," she said. She'd like to encourage Kansas Citians to look beyond the designer labels and trendy stores like Urban Outfitters on the Plaza -- where she got her dress, p.s. -- and explore Kansas City's vintage and resale shops for more uniqueness. "The styles from the past are what most of these designers are mimicking, anyway," she said, sensibly.

As for her style pet-peeves, her friends are the culprits. "One style that's definitely overrated is the skinny jeans and v-neck thing. It drives me crazy, it's all half my friends wear. They throw on Vans and Converse and they're done. I love American Apparel, don't get me wrong. It's cute, but it gets old fast. It's all my last boyfriend wore."

Aha, the ex's style. Well, that'll be anyone's pet peeve.

by NADIA PFLAUM

Check out this music-video-slash-commercial for Peggy Noland's designs, filmed by the Ssion's Cody Cricheloe and Drew Bolton, and starring Corrie Van Ausdal.

By CHRIS PACKHAM

From the Comments:

wumble says: You know when you dream all your childhood about becoming a princess, and then you just happen to be rich, white, blonde, and beautiful, and then you become adept throughout junior high and high school at various sexual tecnhiques, often in cars parked behind Oak Park Mall, and then you pledge sorority at college and enjoy, with your likeminded sisters, your full flowering as a member of your class, and then you graduate and meet an investment banker and the suddenly, bam, he proposes, and you move off to Leawood, become his princess?

That's what I feel like today. I didn't just get what I wanted. I got what I fucking deserve.

(Except that Trevor showed up and was confusing.)

My beautiful suit of clothes: Whenever I go down to the Department of Health and Senior Services office for my WIC card, I wear my white tuxedo so nobody on the street will know about my dependence on state largess. Usually they don't even notice my flip-flops, if I walk quietly. "Look at that fancy, fancy man," they say in my imagination, amidst the constant, imaginary murmur of voices talking about how awesome I am. "He must be stepping into the WIC office to pick up his social-worker girlfriend for lunch," they say. Then I have to make up a story for the clerks in the office, so they won't think I'm rich and cut off the free-flowing cheap tuna faucet. "It's a costume. I stand outside the tax preparation office and wave at cars," is what I usually tell them, implying that it's day-labor work. "None of the other guys at the Labor Ready office ever show up in a tuxedo."

The fancy clothes make the sexy man, and in this case, they're really easy to slip on because it's a super-sexy burial tuxedo I bought cheap from an undertaker — as it turns out, burial suits in the formal category aren't in high demand. It's open in the back so you can slide it onto a corpse, so it just pulls on in one piece, like a smock. This one time, I was being chased by the Green Apple Market security guard over some bullshit beef about some packs of batteries, and I got away by stepping around a corner, ripping it off with one pull and stuffing it in a bag. It's the best fifteen bucks I ever spent, and the reason I'm bringing it up here is that I fell asleep at the MAX bus stop at 20th and Main yesterday and somebody pulled it off of me and walked away with it. Now I have to go into the WIC office wearing my cargo shorts and my "LET'S FLIP A COIN, HEADS I GET TAIL, TAILS I GET HEAD" T-shirt.

After the jump, I am unavoidably compelled to write something about the 2008 Democratic National Convention, even though everyone else on the planet is writing about it. Seriously, it's like the internet has turned into the Dark Knight and Barack Obama box these days. I'm seriously thinking of taking up ham radio. Anyway, click here, or on this flyer I've been leaving under windshield wipers in downtown parking lots:

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Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from area basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.
Wacky Summer Mad Libs

Author: Roger Price, Leonard Stern and deeply bored, anonymous children
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 1988
Discovered at: Second Chance Thrift, 1229 E. 63rd Street
Representative Quote:
page 13: “If none of these smell activities appeal to you, take up a/an fat hobby such as saving dogs or learning how to cook Chinese dinosaurs.”

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By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE

Click on the photo for a slide show from the doggie auditions.

Yesterday, the Lyric Opera held doggie auditions for a role in its production of La Boheme. Although the French script specifically calls for a poodle, the Lyric opened tryouts to any "beautiful toy dog." As the owner of a miniature pinscher named Scooby, I sensed an opportunity.

But considering that Scooby -- The Pitch newsroom’s unofficial mascot -- is a smelly old grump who knows few commands, I figured the opportunity would be for humor.

The audition forms called for dogs that knew basic obedience. Scooby’s a leader-of-the-pack kind of guy. He runs out to the end of his leash on walks, and he’ll only sit if he’s certain there’s a snack involved.

He does know one sentence pretty well. Ask him, "Scooby, are you hungry?" and he turns into a maniac, jumping and huffing and gnawing at your arm. He even once ate a chunk of ham as big as your fist. But I was pretty sure the Opera wouldn’t be impressed by this trick.

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By JEN CHEN

Every time I go to Dave’s Stagecoach on Westport Road, I have to take a peek into the window of Bon Bon Atelier. This cool boutique, which is next door to one of my favorite bars, is a little jewel-box of a shop; it’s always tantalizing me with its cute displays of purses, shoes and other girly things. When I stopped in yesterday to check out an interesting-looking nautical-inspired purse, I finally got to meet the stylish Betsy Blodgett, who owns the store with her sister, Emily Blodgett-Panos.

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By CHRIS PACKHAM

From the Comments:

Jenlyn says: How dare you be such a pompous jerk about the Watchmen movie. Not only nerds want to see it. I was in line at the supermarket the other day and overheard an elderly lady expressing her fond opinion of it to the cashier. You aren't even considering the size and diversity of the audience that it will bring, so instead of criticizing something that you will pay nine dollars for anyway, shut up and let the world enjoy one of the most-hyped up movies of the year.

Sen. Barack Obama spoke yesterday at the American Airlines Overhaul Base, but I have a friend who says he also worked out alongside a giant Secret Service detail at the Scott Fitness location in the West Crossroads early in the morning. Seriously, and no joking, you guys. She missed him by about 20 minutes, bringing to a grand total of eight her near-brushes with famous people she missed by just a few minutes, including Bill Murray, Jaleel White, JM J. Bullock and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. All at various Scott Fitness locations!

After the jump, some stuff I worked on all morning, as a kind of hobby. Click here, or on this photographic metaphor of me working on Internet blogs:

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By PETER RUGG

Apparently KC’s long history with smoking meat wasn’t enough to sell the Canadian-based Bradley Smoker, according to this article in the Register-Mail of Galesburg, Illinois.

Galesburg, a town of fewer than 34,000 people on the west side of Illinois, beat us to be the home of Bradley’s new distribution center. Company president Wade Bradely credited Galesburg sales representatives and the town’s economic development association for the town’s selection over Kansas City and several other contenders.

If a city nicknamed Cowtown doesn’t have the economic development experts to land this business, something needs to be seriously examined.

BY CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

Students in the Kansas City, Missouri, School District are returning to class this week for the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. But they’re not the only ones getting graded.

Last spring, Melissa Eddy, a mother of two elementary students in the district, was outraged when the school board pushed out yet another short-lived superintendent, Anthony Amato, and then refused to discuss its reasoning with dismayed parents. So she and a group of other parents decided to compel the board to behave better using the same tactics teachers do.

On Wednesday night, half a dozen parents from Do the Right Thing for Kids will be at the board meeting, sitting in the front row with clipboards and sharpened pencils. This year, the school board members will be getting reports cards, too.

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By DAVID MARTIN

A 38-year-old office building at the corner of State Line Road and Shawnee Mission Parkway always catches my eye. The building seems futuristic and dated at the same time, much like the 1967 version of Disney's Tomorrowland.

Similar designs appear elsewhere. Linscott Haylett, the architecture firm that imagined the Shawnee Mission Parkway building, sketched the Activities Center and Unity Inn at Unity Village. I am unable to verify this, but the Mormon Visitors' Center in Independence also appears to be a Linscott Haylett design. (A church spokeswoman in Utah says the visitors' center was designed by a company that did not exist when the building opened in 1971; Linscott Haylett Wheat officials did not respond to requests for comment.)

An architect I know says Linscott Haylett took inspiration from the work of Minoru Yamasaki, who is best-known for the World Trade Center. The designs in this area look similar to a Yamasaki building that opened in Minneapolis in 1964.

Click on the photo for a slide show.

It was One Love for a diverse crowd that enjoyed blissed-out tunes, organic foods and environmental education at the Uptown Theater this past weekend. Farmers, raw-food enthusiasts and eco entrepreneurs rubbed shoulders during the two-day Green Fest.

Click on the photo of Lemons in the Kitchen's Rachel Fracassa to see a slide show.