The city council cracked down on party houses. The holiday season got underway with a Kansas City tradition. Those and other top stories of the week on the KCUR Saturday News Review.
Holiday Season Begins With Good Traffic, Protesters
Sixty-degree weather brought out an even larger crowd than usual for annual Plaza lighting ceremony, and 11 Plaza stores were open so celebrants could get an early start on Black Friday. Friday shopping crowds were large. A nationwide protest over pay and benefits turned out protesters at some WalMart stores, but the stores were fully staffed.
KC City Council Cracks Down On Party Houses
Kansas City's city council cracked down on after-hours party houses. Councilman Scott Wagner said until now, it was very difficult for police to do anything about them, even the ones that were selling liquor without a license. Wagner says the new law changes that by allowing police to break up the party without being invited inside. The new ordinance can also include consequences of $1,000 fines and jail time.
Changes Reduce Fire Department Power On Ambulance Board
The council also took step two in its effort to bring ambulance response times back within goals established before new 9-1-1 screening protocols were introduced. The council expanded the board that advises the ambulance service, adding another council member and an emergency medical physician. Ed Ford sponsored the plan, which he said will give better balance to what has been a fire-department-dominated committee.
Since the changes in dispatching, only about 63 percent of ambulance responses were meeting the 9-minute-or-under goal.
Hostess Brands Mediation Fauls, Liquidation Plans Continue
After what looked like a reprieve, about 200 Hostess Brands employees in Lenexa got layoff notices – most of them immediate – after last-minute mediation with the bakers' union hit impasse. Hostess will liquidate. The union is still opposing a plan for $1.75 million in bonuses to a yet unspecified part of the company's management.
College Students Supporting DREAM Act Picket Kobach Office
Kris Kobach offered a critical rebuttal of college students who picketed his office charging that his controversial immigration law work for other states was taking time from his duties as Kansas Secretary of State
Kansas Voter Photo-ID Law Proclaimed “A Success” At Polls
The Kansas voter photo-ID law is proclaimed a success by the man who advocated it and campaigned for its passage. Secretary of State Kris Kobach says fewer voters than expected cast provisional ballots in the November election – the first general election in which photo-ID was required at Kansas polls. Kobach says there were 717 provisional ballots out of more than a million cast – or a little over a half of one percent.
Lawyer Who Tweeted During Kline SUPCO Hearing Fired
Wrapping up the week, the lawyer who tweeted negative comments about Phill Kline during the Kansas Supreme Court hearing on ethics charges against him, was fired from her job as a research attorney for the state. Sarah Peterson may end up facing ethics charges herself.
Four Charged In Execution-Style Independence Murders
And three men and a woman were charged with the execution-style killing of three persons and wounding of a third in Independence last week. Police say the killers thought they would find money and drugs at the house