Kansas City News Blog

In this week's edition: the initiative that could make or break Mayor Mark Funkhouser, a session on how utilities might be screwing you into paying for their construction costs and free vegan popcorn.

The Mayor's New Tools Task Force, charged with finding new ways to revitalize economic development on Kansas City's East Side, meets the first Monday of the month from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Gregg Klice Community Center.

According to Missourians for Fair Electric Rates, there's a bill circulating at the statehouse that could stick citizens with the construction costs utilities have born for the past 50 years. Find out more when the group's "Truth Tour" stops at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church at noon on Wednesday.

The group with possibly the best name of any in the city -- Vegans Against Moral Schizophrenia -- is hosting a movie night at the Crossroads Infoshop at 6 Wednesday night. The film "Earthlings" is a documentary about "mankind's dependence on animals for pets, food, clothing, entertainment and use in experimentation." And, yes, there will be free vegan popcorn.

Get schooled on human rights issues on Friday when the University of Kansas hosts the day-long symposium, "National Security and Individual Liberty: Whose Rights at What Cost?" The sessions, including one with an attorney who represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay, runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 203 Green Hall on the KU campus.

Back on the East Side, the Troost Folks are organizing a citizen-based, door-to-door, neighborhood survey to better understand who lives in their area this weekend. To help out with the grassroots canvas, show up at 3101 Troost Avenue at 9 a.m. Saturday. The teams of door-knockers will wrap up by 1 p.m.