Kansas City News Blog

Gordon Reabe Jr.

​A federal judge sentenced the three pea brains sexual assault scammers who cooked up -- and botched -- a scheme to defraud a local car dealership.

Julie Bernet, 39, of Bacyrus, Kansas, and Lindsey Crawford, 24, of KCMO, hatched a bizarre plan to gold-dig a big sexual assault settlement out of a former employer by staging an assault/sexual assault (want details?) and trying to link it to the dealership.

Bernet and Crawford paid Gordon Reabe, Jr., 52, of Lee's Summit, $100,000 to assault them -- and sexually assault one of them -- in an effort to force a higher settlement from the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City dealership.

Now that plan is a Swiss-fucking-watch.

All three pleaded guilty (Reabe, Bernet and Crawford)  after police figured out that it was a hoax.

For his trouble, Reabe got a year and a day in federal prison without parole. Bernet received five months in a residential re-entry center and five months of house arrest. Crawford got three years probation. Each agreed to pay $5,259 to offset costs that Kansas City police incurred while investigating the non-existent crime.

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.

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.

Justin R. Bennett

​Justin R. Bennett, 23, has been found guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the stabbing death of his Keona N. Johnson in September of last year.

At the time of the killing, Bennett and Johnson had a 4-month-old son together.

Police responded to a domestic violence call at 10:45 p.m. in Independence and found a witness who explained that Johnson and Bennett had been arguing over the phone. Johnson and the witness drove to Johnson's home.

Johnson went upstairs, at which point the witness heard her scream "He's killing me!," according to the probable cause statement attached to Bennett's charging docs. The witness collected her kids, but left Johnson and Bennett's young son, and dialed 911 from another location.

Police checked the home at 205 E. South Ave. and observed a torn second-story screen. Moving through the house, they kicked open a locked door and found Johnson's body.

According to reports, she'd been stabbed more than 30 times. There was no sign of Bennett or the baby.

Working on a tip, Police located the suspect at 3311 Benton Blvd. Bennett had apparently sprayed lighter fluid on his bloody clothes and attempted to burn them in a backyard grill. Crime scene technicians also found bloody sneakers in the attic. The toddler was not harmed.

Bennett is scheduled for sentencing  January 15, 2010.

Via KMBC 9

Jase D. Stanton

​A Johnson County field coordinator for Todd Tiahrt's U.S. Senate campaign resigned yesterday after KMBC Channel 9's Micheal Mahoney confronted him about allegations of aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery.

Mahoney broke the story last night about charges against Jase D. Stanton for an alleged incident in July 2008.

JoCo prosecutors filed charges in July 2009 after someone, described only as a "sexual assault victim," filed a complaint with the Overland Park police.

Here's a snip from Mahoney:

Stanton refused to comment about his case. But in a short discussion with me he often sighed and seemed on the verge of trembling. At one point he just stated, "I guess this is going to cost me my job."

It did. Stanton resigned Wednesday. The Tihart campaign says it didn't know about the charges.

Stanton is being prosecuted in Johnson County by District Attorney Steve Howe's office. Stanton worked as a volunteer for Howe's campaign for DA.

Stanton has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but a plea hearing is scheduled for December 9.

Mary Pilcher Cook

​God bless Kansas state Sen. Mary Pilcher Cook of Shawnee, who is leading the effort to secure a Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment. Cook, who like others on the far right is afraid of a government takeover of everything, is already worried about Kansas losing its sovereignty.

"If you're like me, you are deeply concerned about the direction our country is headed, and you want to know the individuals who are at work, putting hard effort into seeing that our liberty is protected, " Pilcher Cook writes in her letter explaining the Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment. She is dedicated to (note the threatened, militaristic tone):

• Preserving the freedom of Kansans to provide for their health care.

• Safeguarding the liberty of Kansans from any federal government action, which would coerce participation in a health care system.

• Defending the independence of Kansans to pay directly for health care services without penalty.

I'm no expert on this stuff, but much of the language of Pilcher Cook's amendment makes no logical sense. For example, this sentence in the Explanatory Statement:

Ezequiel Olivas

​

Jose Guerrero

​Update (November 18): Now with pics!

***
After an early morning raid yesterday, Douglas County Sheriff's Office investigators took two men into custody on charges related to cockfighting and confiscated enough poultry for a month's worth of chicken nuggets.

Ezequiel Olivas, 44, was charged with three counts of unlawful conduct of cockfighting, which are felonies, and one count of unlawful possession of cockfighting paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.
Charges are pending for Jose Guerrero, 40, who was also taken into custody.

Police storming the sleeping farm compound at 2174 North 700 Road in Eudora at 7:30 a.m. also seized 118 gamecocks, 48 hens and 3 chicks, according to a statement from the Douglas County District Attorney.

Officers also found cockfighting paraphernalia, such as spurs, gaffs, swords and/or leather training spur covers, the statement says.

According to a sheriff's office spokesman, such implements are fastened to a cock's legs to weaponize it. Nice.

​A Missouri appeals court recently took up an interesting question: Does the use of a Whizzinator constitute forgery?

Robert Smothers of Moberly, Missouri, was subject to drug testing as a condition of his bond. Smothers was submitting a sample when a police officer administering the test heard a snapping noise. Asked about the suspicious ruckus, Smith allegedly admitted to using a Whizzinator device.

Randolph County charged Smothers with forgery and possession of forging instrumentality. Bogus, said Smith's lawyer, who argued that the state's forgery laws did not apply to urine samples. A circuit court agreed, and the charges were dismissed in 2008.

The prosecutor appealed, asserting that Smothers acted with a purpose to defraud.

I'll bet my Specialized that, if you ride a bike in this town, you know the name Sarah Gibson.

Sarah Gibson at Acme Bicycle Company

​In fact, many have probably shared a beer in a bike-strewn parking lot -- before Critical Mass, after Tour de Cowtown -- with the gravely voiced, gray-haired, bad-ass co-owner of equally bad-ass Acme Bicycle Company in the Crossroads District.

Well, get ready to say goodbye.

After nearly a decade running the eclectic bike shop that doubled as a hub of activism and partying, Gibson is closing shop and leaving Kansas City.

​Sinister portents abound, Kansas City! Normally, as rational skeptics, we'd laugh at the idea of anything unusual happening in 2012 -- a date getting a lot of attention for being the last year on the Mayan Calendar.

But then there's this story about the owners of Major League Baseball teams gathering in Chicago today to hash out a few things.

One of the topics that's reportedly up for discussion: the site of the 2012 All-Star Game.

And guess which city's stadium is considered the frontrunner?

Kansas City!

Sarah Palin

​In her most calculated move against the liberal media elite to date, celebrity ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is saying heck no to letting the fourth estate into her December 2 speaking engagement at the College of the Ozarks, the private college's PR director told the Springfield News-Leader.

To clarify, only those members of the media who got tickets for the reading will be let in, but video and audio recordings are forbidden. The college spokesperson said the decision to blackout media coverage was in Palin's contract and is mutual.

You'd think this was done to actually keep the media out. Bullshit. There are paparazzi photographers who will literally hide in bushes like Marine Corps snipers for a chance to photograph a celebrity who doesn't want to be seen (e.g. Britney Spears, et al.)

The old reverse-psychology trick. That's how you know you're dealing with an A-list celeb like Sarah fuckin' Palin.

From some cop's MySpace page.

​Yesterday, Kansas City Police Chief James Corwin announced a $8,000 grant from Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's foundation to buy a new vicious, snarling, face-biting member of the police force police dog.

On his blog, Corwin wrote that the new K-9 should be on duty by the end of the year -- just in time to cause would-be holiday burglars criminals to shit themselves, or sniff your car after you decline to be searched (that never works).

The new dog will replace Rambo, who is arthritic and will be sent into retirement a big farm in the country with plenty of room to run and play.

Corwin was gushing in his blog post. Makes you wonder who he'll be cheering when the Steelers come to Arrowhead this weekend.

Burrell Edward Mohler Jr

​The daughters of Burrell Mohler Jr. told authorities that their father made them kidnap and kill a man, KCTV 5 reports. The TV station cites a warrant alleging that Mohler Jr. and his daughters stalked a 300-pound man from Independence Center to his home and then lured him into a trap and took him away to Mohler Jr.'s father's farm in Bates City.

According to KCTV 5, one of the girls claimed she stabbed the man in the back and her father stabbed him in the front, killing him. Then she claims that she and her sisters dug a grave and buried the man's body.

Here's a snip:

A document with the search warrant said that investigators found a glass fragment, an unknown type of bone, a credit card, eye glasses, a shoe or boot sole and a broken glass jar during digging done on the property on Nov. 10.

KCTV 5 also reports that the big dig on the Mohler family's old farm near Bates City was an effort to find the remains of a baby buried in the basement of the home. KCTV 5 says an alleged victim came forward, claiming the Mohlers locked her in a basement, raped her and buried the body of her infant child in the basement.

When authorities searched the property, they used radar in the basement, which showed a box-shaped object buried under the basement floor.

​Kansas City is shaking free of our suffering Royals -- at least, in the world of fake news.

Does it get any better than The Onion making up quotes for Mayor Funkhouser?

Observe:

"It was time to move in another direction," Kansas City mayor Mark Funkhouser said at a press conference. "There were some vested incentives that would have automatically kicked in if the Royals had finished higher than last place, or won more than one championship in their existence. But we just couldn't afford to make another mistake like that 18-year extension back in 1991."

Jeanette L. Lawrence

When Johnson County prosecutors charged her in the April 2009 death of a child at the daycare she ran out of her Olathe home, Jeanette L. Lawrence was writing a book about how to run a daycare.

Prosecutors have charged Lawrence with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated child endangerment in the death of 18-month-old Ava Patrick.

Authorities believed the girl pushed a chair to a fence separating toddlers and babies at the daycare, stood on the chair and then fell, getting her neck stuck between the fence slats and strangling to death. A complaint filed with the state accuses Lawrence of operating a daycare with more children than her license allowed. KMBC Channel 9 cited state records that showed that Lawrence was caring for 14 children -- when she should only have been caring for six -- at the time of Ava's death. Fox 4 reported that Lawrence was operating on a suspected license.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com lists a recently released book titled Your Child's Daycare: Everything you need to know from start to finish by Jeanette Lawrence. A paperback copy will set you back $18.99.

Lawrence's attorney, John Gerstle, says he was aware that his client was writing a book about daycare, but he wasn't certain the book on Amazon.com was the one Lawrence was writing.

The Pitch tried to reach Lawrence by phone, but her number has been disconnected.

The New York Times

Mr. and Mrs. Lisa Rockefeller...er, Edward Sebelius and Lisa Rockefeller

​Thanks to this weekend's "Weddings and Celebrations" section of The New York Times, we learned that Edward Sebelius, Kathleen Sebelilus' 28-year-old son, wed Lisa Rockefeller, also 28, last Saturday in Boca Grande, Florida. (Feel free to make "Big Mouth, Florida" jokes at this time.)

Hussein A. Ahmed

​Jackson County prosecutors charged Hussein A. Ahmed last week with allegedly attempting to have sex with his step daughter when she was younger than 14-years-old, according to the Jackson County's Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutors say Ahmed, 27, married his late brother's wife and cared for the brood. He's charged with first attempting to have sex with step-daughter sometime in 2004, when she less than 12-years-old.

In the first half of 2007, Ahmed allegedly tried again, this time impregnating the victim, who was younger than 14-years-old.

At the time, according to the probable cause statement, the victim and her mother filed a police report saying the assailant was unknown. During interrogations, Ahmed claimed the charges against him are the product of a vengeful wife planning to divorce him.

We may never know.

Last week, on the same day the alleged rape victim came forward, police responded to a home on the 1200 block of Askew and found Ahmed's wife, 49-year-old Halimo Ahmed, dead. Police now are considering Halimo Ahmed's death a homicide.

The alleged rape victim aborted her pregnancy in 2007, but not before a DNA sample was taken. Police are matching that sample with a swab that Ahmed let them collect. Additional charges are pending, according to the prosecutor's office.

Power & Light security escorted a man in a white T-shirt out of the district's St. Patrick's Day party earlier this year.

​Acknowledging that its dress code was a public-relations debacle, Power & Light District officials announced their intention to form an oversight board.

Standing in front of the predominantly African-American workers who enforce the dress code in the district's Kansas City Live! block, Zed Smith, the district's managing partner, invited the NAACP, the Urban League, the Kansas City Police Department, elected officials and others to serve on the board. Smith said the board would meet in public and have authority over an independent contractor hired to enforce the dress code.

Smith said the "unprecedented" step was being taken in spite of the district's confidence that its dress code is color-blind. "Our objective here is transparency," Smith said. "We want to assure the community of Kansas City that the dress code is being implemented without bias, without regard to race."

Last year, city leaders complained that the Cordish Company, the district's developer, was using the dress code to exclude African-Americans. Denying the policy was racist, Cordish officials unsuccessfully resisted the city's attempt to rewrite the standards of acceptable dress.

No tickets for these ghosts.

​Last week, the Kansas City police announced targeted enforcement for jaywalkers and others violating the oft-overlooked pedestrians-in-crosswalks-have-right-of-way thing.

Police spent two days cruising the intersections around the Power & Light District, the Crossroads and on Broadway between 31st and Westport looking for lawbreakers. The majority of tickets were directed at cars, which isn't much of a surprise given that cars rule this town.

According to police, here's how it broke down:

• 116 traffic tickets to motorists who didn't yield to pedestrians
• 7 tickets to pedestrians who didn't use crosswalks
• 11 tickets for other violations
• 6 warnings

Thanks to those 140 careless peeps who learned a lesson so we don't have to. The coast is clear now. Feel free to go about your jaywalking, road-ruling business -- at your own risk.

Last week's Veterans Day was an unusually poignant one, coming just a day after the memorial service for 12 soldiers and a civilian killed at Fort Hood by a man who, as far as we still know, was one of their own. Wednesday was marked by political speeches expressing love and gratitude for those who served our country.

A couple of days later, though, there was a less-ceremonial and all-too-real veterans day at Memorial Hall in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. There, the Heart of America Stand Down and its volunteers spent the day feeding warm meals to homeless vets, giving them haircuts and medical screenings and handing out warm clothes. Stand Down says that on any given night, there are 1,800 homeless vets in Kansas City.

​
The vets we talked to were in good spirits and appreciated the help they were getting. But after hanging out there for a little bit, you couldn't help but wonder: If our nation's really so grateful, why do we even have homeless vets? Anyway, click on the photo above for a slideshow from that afternoon, which might give a sense of what some veterans' days are like the other 364 days of the year. 

Darrel Wayne Mohler

​Another family member has been charged in the sexual abuse case in Lafayette County.

Darrel Wayne Mohler, the 72-year-old brother of Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., is charged with two counts of felony rape.

The latest charges come after authorities cleared a man that they claimed was a suspect in the case.

Also, the father of an alleged victim is speaking out.

In other news, The Kansas City Star had a nice piece on the life and death of Ryan Goodman, the ironworker killed at the construction site of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The Weekend Scoreboard

The cancer-free Kansas City Chiefs beat the hated Oakland Raiders, 16-10, for win No. 2.

Via Deadspin

​Missouri destroyed old man Snyder's Kansas State Wildcats. K-State needs a win next week at Nebraska to clinch the Big 12 North and become bowl eligible. That's what you get for scheduling weak non-conference competition (and losing to Louisiana-Lafayette). And do Tiger fans know how to celebrate or what?

Speaking of Nebraska, the Cornhuskers rolled the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence. The good news for Jayhawks -- no charges will be filed against football and basketball players after their family feud, and it's basketball season.

***
It's rainy. It's crappy. It's another Monday in the fake empire.

​Update: KMBC Channel 9 reports that police have cleared and released Larry Kidd.

Kidd told Fox 4 that being named as an "associate" of the Mohler family and treated as a suspect was a "horrible nightmare."

KSHB Channel 41 explains how Kidd's name was brought into the case -- a new release issued by police.

***
Add Larry Kidd to the list of men suspected of sexually abusing young children in Lafayette County.

Authorities say the 55-year-old Kansas City man is an "associate" of the Mohler family, and they suspect him of raping a child younger than 14. Last night, he was taken to the Lafayette County jail. He has not been formally charged. 

KMBC Channel 9 has video of Kidd (see the screen shot from KMBC above) arriving at a jail.

Also last night, police wrapped up their investigation at a farm near Bates City. They were searching for possible bodies buried on the farmland as well as jars buried with notes alleging abuse.

This all comes after one of the alleged victims, now 26, came forward in August with allegations of sexual abuse dating back to 1988. She apparently wasn't the only victim -- five others, now in their 20s and 30s, also told authorities that they were abused.

Scott P. Roeder

​The man who confessed to killing a Wichita abortion provider doesn't believe he can get a fair trial in Sedgwick County.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Scott Roeder's public defenders want his trial moved, citing news reports in the Eagle and a reported comment made by District Attorney Nola Foulston that Roeder's past could lead reasonable people to believe that he had been engaged in "alleged acts of American terrorism." Whatever would lead her to believe that?

Roeder has a busy calendar leading up to his January 11 trial.

His next hearing is set for December 9. A judge is scheduled to consider the request to move the trial on December 22.

Burrell Mohler Sr.

​The sickening allegations against Burrell Mohler Sr. and four of his sons have brought unwelcome attention to the Community of Christ, a church that's headquartered in Independence. Mohler and two of his sons, David Mohler and Jared Mohler, are lay ministers in the church. (Saying the allegations were being taken seriously, the church suspended the individuals' "priesthood licenses.")

At times like these, it's perhaps helpful to remind ourselves what the Community of Christ is and is not. When the story broke, NBC Action News referred to the church as "a cross between Christian Orthodox" -- huh? -- "and Mormonism."

The Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon Church, share the teachings of Joseph Smith. But they are not the same. The fork developed after Smith, the movement's original prophet, was killed by a mob in Illinois in 1844. Brigham Young led a group of followers to Utah. Smith's widow, Emma Smith, meanwhile, remained with her family in Illinois. Eventually, her eldest son, Joseph Smith III, reported receiving a calling from God to head a new church, which in 1872 became known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church moved to Independence in 1920.

Hans Joachim Keil is on the right

​Branson, Missouri, is not exactly the birthplace of sophistication. Perhaps it was just an innocent mistake when, on September 9, 2008, agents with the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Samoan man, Hans Joachim Keil, on the suspicion that Keil was not in the country legally.

See, Keil is a U.S. citizen. He has dual citizenship here and in Samoa and has lived in the U.S. for over 40 years. He also served for four years in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Keil is also a Samoan diplomat, and in that capacity, he makes frequent stops in Branson to check on a troupe of Samoan dancers who perform in a show called "Island Fire" at the Dutton Family Theater. The dancers are in the country on work visas, and have little contact with their families, so Keil would stop by to relay packages and messages to and from the island. (The human-trafficking investigation did not result in any charges against the theater.)

It shouldn't have taken the authorities long to determine that Keil is legit. But instead of being released with an apology, immigration officials and the U.S. Department of State kept Keil in jail for nine days on charges of "False Claim of Citizenship."

Steven W. Burgess

​Former Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Steven W. Burgess pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl while she was detained on July 24, 2007.

The 35-year-old Independence man is facing 14 years in prison.

The facts are pretty twisted.

Here's how the Department of Justice described it in a press release:

Burgess then put the victim in handcuffs and, while patting her down, inappropriately touched her in a sexual manner. Burgess removed the handcuffs and told her to get in the car, keep the door open and her feet touching the ground outside the car. Burgess stood in front of her and compelled her to perform oral sex on him while she sat in his patrol vehicle. At one point, Burgess made her get on her knees to perform oral sex on him.

Really, guy? You thought that'd be OK?

Afterward, Burgess took the victim to her aunt's house. He told her that she could not tell anyone about the forced oral sex, or he would disclose that she had been caught in the park drinking.

​The Shawnee Mission School District says notorious artist of phallic Florida and ex-teacher Ryan Haraughty isn't offering a full disclosure on the reason he was axed.

The district issued a long-winded statement about taking education seriously and taking appropriate action and how this wasn't a personality conflict between Mr. H and the principal and lots of blah, blah, blah.

But this part was rather intriguing:

"Mr. Haraughty has communicated to students, parents and the media that the decision to terminate him was based on one specific incident. The termination of Mr. Haraughty's contract was not based on one incident. The decision was based on numerous incidents over an extended period of time. Mr. Haraughty has failed to communicate this in his statements to parents, students, and the media. We are sorry that we can't get more specific regarding the incidents but the school district wants to be clear that what has been communicated by Mr. Haraughty is not a true representation of his situation.

Say it isn't so, Mr. Haraughty.

Buck O'Neil

​Tomorrow would have been Buck O'Neil's 98th birthday.

In honor of the true Kansas City legend, all 10 local First Watch breakfast spots are donating all -- all -- of Friday's profits to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Pretty sweet deal.

Several old ballplayers will be signing autographs at the First Watches around the city. The NLBM knows who and where.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (1616 E. 18th St.) also has a day of events planned for Saturday, including $1 admission and free cupcakes!

It's still a shame that we can't get Buck in the Hall of Fame.

Photo via the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Burrel Mohler Sr

​

Burrell Edward Mohler Jr

​I'd like to say that I was shocked by this week's story of five men charged with sexually abusing young girls and a boy in their own family.

But after what we learned in January about Danial Rinehart and the allegations that he impregnated one of his daughters four times (only one of the children survived), I'm not surprised by the allegations against the Mohler men.

David Mohler

​

Jared Leroy Mohler

​I can't be anymore. It'd be naive to think that this shit doesn't happen all the time here because it does. 

So yesterday investigators searched a farm near Bates City for jars buried in the ground with notes in them, left by children claiming they'd been sexually abused by men in the Mohler family. The children were supposedly told if they buried their bad memories, they'd go away.

Roland Mohler

​If the allegations are true, the bury-your-bad-memories plan might bite the Mohler men in the ass.

The Star's Donald Bradley has a thorough story this morning, saying authorities were searching the farm "for evidence of rape, sodomy, beastiality and possible homicide."

Deb Hermann

​Frustrated by the lack of activity at Antioch Center, Northland representatives want to put pressure on the shopping center's erstwhile redeveloper.

Eastbourne Investments, the aging mall's Canadian owner, put forward a plan in 2004 to remake the mall with taxpayer assistance. The City Council approved a deal in which tax-increment financing (TIF) and other public sources would cover half of the $80 million project's costs.

Yet today Antioch Center remains an outdated, salmon-colored facility with few tenants. And city officials are getting impatient. "Nothing has happened," says Kansas City Councilwoman Deb Hermann.

Hermann sits on a committee that advises the Antioch TIF plan. Last month, the committee discussed Eastbourne's inability to make things happen. The committee passed a motion asking the TIF Commission to review the redevelopment agreement.