By DAVID MARTIN

A judge has ruled in favor of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council's effort to redevelop the old Horace Mann School on East 39th Street.

Earlier this week, Judge Justine Del Muro dismissed a city agency's petition for eminent domain. The agency, the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, had condemned the Mann building and awarded the development rights to a company called Prairie Dog.

The Ivanhoe neighborhood had also sought the development rights. Although the PIEA had rejected its proposal, the Ivanhoe council (smartly, it turns out) went ahead and executed an agreement to buy the school from its owner.

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By JUSTIN KENDALL

Baby Mangino.

By JUSTIN KENDALL

The black sheep of Fred Phelps' flock, Nate Phelps, recently gave an interview to a student newspaper in Western Canada.

The Ubyssey recaps Nate Phelps' alleged beatings at the hands of his father and his exile from the church. The younger Phelps is now a cab-driving atheist living in Cranbrook, British Columbia.

The most intriguing nugget in the story is Nate Phelps' claim that nephews he's never met have contacted him and told him they've left the Westboro Baptist Church.

“Once he made the choice, he’s cut off," Phelps says of his nephew Tim. "Everything that he grew up with is taken away from him, and he gets to wonder if he’s going to burn in hell….[He’s] living with that shadow.”

For his own part, Phelps says, "I just want peace. I want to not wake up fearful every morning.”

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

After years of endless meetings and technical negotiations it basically comes down to this: If Kansas City wants a bike path on the new Paseo Bridge it’s going to cost more than 4 million bucks. And the Missouri Department of Transportation isn’t going to pay a dime of it.

This fall, construction started on the $215 million overhaul of the Interstate 29/35 bridge that crosses the Missouri River just northeast of downtown. Everyday, MODOT estimates, more than 100,000 residents cross that bridge by car. That's something only a cyclist with a death wish would attempt.

The prospect of adding a lane for cyclists has been the source of debate for years. MODOT has agreed it's possible. The city councils on both sides of the river have expressed support.

But talk is cheap. Raising $100,000, on the other hand, speaks volumes.

At least, that’s the hope of Let’s Go KC, a local group of transit activists, who want to prove they’ve got too much clout to be treated like second-class commuters.

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By CHRIS PACKHAM

Happy Halloween, y'all, 'tis the spooky season to be terrifyingly jolly, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm more of a "Fourth of July"-type guy, myself, what with my Uncle Sam beard and the soaring apple-pie spangled eagles tattooed upon my magnificent biceps, but hey, man, whatever "fries your burger," y'know? I think I'm going to hand out lit sparklers to the l'il ghouls and Spongebobs who knock on my door tonight, or — for safety — unlit sparklers and a pack of matches.

After the jump, the final Daily Briefs of the month of October. Click here, or alternatively, click on yourself:

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By JUSTIN KENDALL

Planned Parenthood thinks nothing is scarier than John McCain and Sarah Palin haunting the White House. This afternoon at 4, Planned Parenthood advocates will let everyone on Plaza know just how frightening a McCain-Palin presidency would be for the pro-choice movement by throwing an anti-Palin themed party at the J.C. Nichols Fountain.

"While Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, rape victims were forced to pay up to $1,200 for the emergency exams used to prosecute attackers," the release says. "Her positions are clear — and extreme. The last thing women — or the country — need is a president and vice president who are prepared to turn back the clock on women's rights and repeal the protections of Roe v. Wade."

Ralliers are encouraged to dress up as their favorite politician, but maybe you should leave the Phill Kline costume at home.

By DAVID MARTIN

The beleaguered housing market is making an impact on homelessness in a way that has nothing to do with foreclosures.

Jackson County charges a $3 document fee on real-estate transactions. The county's Housing Resources Commission distributes the money to shelters and agencies that work to prevent homelessness.

The fund did well when home sales were robust and low interest rates encouraged refinancing. But in 2006, the county spent $796,000 while receiving $533,000 in fees. The county expects to receive just $388,000 this year.

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By PETER RUGG

We’ve told you about Pastor Eric Williams of the Calvary Temple Baptist Church twice in the last two years. He was one of the first ministers willing to openly discuss HIV infection rates, and he's one of the driving forces behind the week of prayer for victims of the virus here in Kansas City. Now his church is starting another health project to help people, especially children, get access to the same tools that keep their wealthier peers from going to the doctor with a case of diabetes.

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By CHRIS PACKHAM

Asshole consumers are dragging the economy down by prioritizing their "food" and "medicine" purchases over small luxuries like blood diamonds, stairlifts for gliding easily between the floors of their houses or ride-able miniature Silver Spoons railroads for luring young children to their back yards, the bottom has totally fallen right out of the market for those, you guys. Oh, and here's a replica of King Tut's throne, which you can purchase for $895, or — if you order two — $875:

The kinda' mainstream New York Times says, "Consumers are clearly in retreat, and the economy is suffering. The year-over-year increase in real G.D.P. is 0.8 percent, the lowest for any four-quarter period since 2001." GAZE UPON KING TUT'S MAGNIFICENT THRONE, consumers, and consider that credit is getting cheap again. To quote a wise, twisted, evil man, "The American way of life is non-negotiable." But zero percent financing is available through MAY, 2009 if you act quickly. After the jump, naked photographs of Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks. Click here or, because I absolutely can't think of anything else, click on Zardoz:

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By NADIA PFLAUM

Driving along State Line Road between 43rd Street and Shawnee Mission Parkway, you see almost as many Obama signs as Halloween pumpkins. That makes the one McCain-Palin sign stand out all the more. The next address over displays an Obama sign. What seems a little awkward, though, is that the two addresses are halves of the same duplex. It's one thing ro share a street with a bitter political rival. It's another to share a wall. Right?

Actually, says Bill Griffiths, owner of the McCain sign, it's not so bad. Then again, he's the landlord for the address next door. His renters, the three young women with the Obama sign out front, all graduated from Bishop Miege High School.

"I like them a lot," Griffiths says. "I won't have any problems with it [the Obama sign]. I used to be a waiter at the Capital Grille, and there, I was referred to as the staff Republican. I'm used to dealing with people whose views are contrary to my own. I used to joke that I was an affirmative-action hire in terms of my political beliefs."

Griffiths works at Sprint now. He says he used to be a pretty rabid Republican, but these days he's pretty moderate. "When McCain picked Palin, I told my wife that I was really happy. We'll either have our first black president our our first female vice president. Either is a good thing for the country."

So there won't be any furniture thrown through the duplex's common wall on Election Day. But things could get a little heated next door to Griffiths, where the Obama sign stands. "It's probably more awkward within our household," says Genevieve Schlake, who put up the Obama sign. One of her roommates is a staunch Republican. Roomie Molly Lindquist says she's undecided. Lindquist tries to stay in the middle as her roommates duke it out. "It's crazy," Lindquist says, laughing.

Just two of many households whose occupants will breathe sighs of relief on November 5 -- assuming there's a declared winner.

By JEN CHEN

Back in June, my co-worker Justin went to Barnes & Noble on the Plaza and found a handwritten note stuck in a book. As he documented in this Plog entry, he unfolded the note and found something akin to a missing persons ad. The writer, a young woman, left the letter for a guy she spotted on a previous visit.

“You were on the second floor of B and N. I saw you looking at me and we made eyes a few times,” she wrote. “It looked like you were with another woman, so I didn’t want to be too obvious, but I wanted to say, you’re very handsome. I have black hair. If she wasn’t actually with you, tell me what I was wearing.” The note, which was written on flowery stationery, included a Craigslist e-mail address at the end.

Well, we finally found the note writer (kind of).

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By ALAN SCHERSTUHL

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.

Do Cats Have ESP?
Author: Jeane Dixon
Publisher: Aaron Publishing Group
Date: 1998
Discovered at: Salvation Army, 1223 Santa Fe, Olathe
The Cover Promises: If you own this book, you own no others.
Representative Quote:
page 55, “I spoke to the cat the way one does when meeting an attractive stranger. 'Hello,' I said. 'Where did you come from? You are very beautiful. Do you understand me?' ”

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By DAVID MARTIN

This photo, taken Wednesday at around 10:30 a.m., confirms the rumors that Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser now conducts a significant amount of city business at home. Last month, the City Council passed an ordinance that more or less banished his wife and primary adviser, Gloria Squitiro, from City Hall.

The cars were photographed outside the mayor's Brookside home. They belong to Kendrick Blackwood, Funkhouser's chief of staff, and Joe Miller, his communications director.

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By CHRIS PACKHAM

Over my usual breakfast of coffee, Hydroxycut and a fistful of creatine powder, I learned that the Dow has jumped up 11 percent this week. So, the econocalypse is obviously over. You can all emerge from your underground armageddon shelters, y'all, it's totally starting to smell like a gym towel in there. I guess gym-towel-smelling Ayn Rand was right! Maybe we should start herding up all the poors and the olds, now, and sequestering them in "Happy Camps" on the outskirts of Enlightened Self-Interest. "Circle today as one of those days that the fundamental issues trumped panic and fear," says one fancy fucking know-it-all analyst. Meaning, "circle yesterday," he was totally talking about yesterday. The Dow is not the economy, though, just judging from my net worth, which tends not to fluctuate at all, so I'm still planning to celebrate a frugal Christmas festivus this year by giving all my friends URLs to funny websites as presents.

After the jump, some discussion of national politics and fun shows on the teevee. Click here or here:

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By PETER RUGG

If you’re one of those people who’s been stressing over the tiniest minutia of the presidential election, this is fair warning to stop reading now. If you choose to follow us down this rabbit hole of nonpartisan research predicting a total disaster in Missouri on November 4, please don’t blame The Pitch for the sudden urge to claw out your eyes and fill out an absentee ballot with your own blood.

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