Sunday, April 8, 2012

-- BREAKING NEWS UDATE --

KMBC.com


The search for one of two men wanted in connection with a home invasion in Raytown led authorities to another part of the metro. On Wednesday, a couple was held at gunpoint inside their home in the 8500 block of Everett Street. Police said two men crashed through the front door of the home.

Investigators said a tip in the case led them to the Blue Ridge Manor apartments in Grandview late Wednesday night. Police told KMBC's Brenda Washington that the man they were looking for stepped outside, saw officers and took off running.

The apartment building was evacuated and the neighborhood blocked off as police searched for the man. Despite an extensive search, no arrests were made.
KMBC.com
A Raytown couple fought back after two men burst into their home in the 8500 block of Everett Street Wednesday morning.

Police said the intruders were armed with a rifle and a handgun and demanded that the couple tell them where to find Robert and to hand over their money. Investigators said no one in the home was named Robert. The men held the couple at gunpoint while briefly searching the house.

When the men left, one homeowner got a gun and fired shots at them as they fled in a white SUV. The couple was not hurt.

No arrests have been made in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.


Intruders invade Raytown home, hold couple at gunpoint By GLENN E. RICE / grice@kcstar.com

Two gunmen burst into a Raytown home Wednesday, telling the couple inside that they were looking for their money and a man named “Robert.”

The incident occurred about 9:30 a.m. at a residence in 8500 block of Everett Street. The gunmen held the couple at gunpoint while they briefly searched the house, according to police.

One of the men pointed a rifle at the couple and the other intruder had a handgun. Neither resident was hurt.

As the gunmen left in a white SUV, one of the residents grabbed his own handgun and fired a shot at them.

Witnesses said they saw the vehicle speed west on 85th Street. Police said they did not know whether either intruder was injured.

The intruders are described as African-American men in their mid-20s. One is about 5 feet 8 inches and 150 pounds with a neatly trimmed mustache, a short afro-style haircut, a dark complexion and a round face. He wore a ball cap, light-colored shirt and dark pants.
The second man is about 6 feet and 165 pounds. He has dreadlocks and was wearing dark clothing and light-colored shoes.

Police ask anyone with information to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477) or text “TIP452” and a message to CRIMES (274637).


Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/11/3548475/gunmen-invade-raytown-home-seeking.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
 -- OF COMMUNITY INTEREST --
Friends of the Raytown Parks in conjunction with Raytown Parks and Recreation will be offering a free 5 week Tai Chi class on Thursday evenings at Colman Park, located at 59th and Lane Streets. The classes will begin this week on Thursday and run for five weeks. Participants are asked to meet at the flag pole monument located at the northwest corner of the park.

Tai Chi is a low impact activity that focuses on stretching and breathing.

The health effects of Tai Chi include strengthening the body’s bone structure, toning the muscles, increasing cardiovascular circulation, and flushing the body’s lymphatic system of toxins. The movements can enhance the body’s blood circulation and metabolism. When practiced properly, Tai Chi Chuan can be an effective form of self-defense.

About the instructor:
Donna Morgan specializes in Yang Tai Chi for health and relaxation and Chi Kung energy breathing exercises to harmonize mind, body and spirit. Her instructor is Master Scott Winokur, founder of the Midwest Chinese Martial Arts Center and president of the USA Xing Yong Chinese Martial Arts Association (USAXCMA).

For more information call the Raytown Parks office at 358-4100. Ask for Dave Turner.

-- OTHER WRITERS DISCUSS --
Illegal Sign Sweep Planned for Kansas City BY LYNN HORSLEY OF THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Kansas City crews will do a sweep April 17 for illegal signs on utility poles and in the public right-of-way, and the public is invited to help with the cleanup.

The City Council plans to beef up enforcement against junky signs on public property because they violate city code and clutter up neighborhoods.READ MORE

EDITOR'S NOTE: Raytown has conducted similar sweeps to remove illegal signs. Perhaps the City Council will take this opportunity to make expand the Kansas City Clean-up to an area wide event.

GREG WALTERS
SHOWDOWN IN RAYTOWN
New Legislative District Draws Three Candidates BY GREG WALTERS
Every ten years legislative and senatorial districts are re-aligned to fit population shifts in Missouri. 

Typically, the result of those realignments has been legislative districts that carve Raytown up like a jigsaw puzzle. There have been years when Raytown has been represented by as many five district state legislators.

To the casual observer, those circumstances would seem to benefit Raytown.

In reality, the areas represented by chopped up districts receive less attention from state legislators because the geographic areas of the district take up such a small part of each legislative district.

This year’s map changes all that. For the first time in nearly 40 years, Raytown will have one state legislator representing the entire city.

WE GOT OURSELVES A RACE!
Three candidates have thrown their hat into the ring in this contest. To borrow and old phrase, “we got ourselves a race!”

Two Democrats have filed for the newly created district. Tom McDonald currently represents the north end of Raytown on the State Legislature. He is the only candidate running who has held a state level office.

His challenger in the August Democratic Primary will be Pat Riehle. Riehle was appointed by Mayor Sue Frank to the Raytown City Council. He later resigned from the seat due to a relocation of his job. Riehle filed for a seat on the Missouri State Legislature two years ago but was removed from the ballot for failing to submit required campaign reports in a timely manner.

Only one Republican has filed for the new Raytown seat. Jim Aziere, who currently serves on the Raytown City Council, lost in a bid against former State Legislator Terry Young.

Representative McDonald and Riehle will face each other in the August Democratic Primary. The winner will square off against Aziere in the November election.

CUTE STORY . . .
Two Nickels and Five Pennies
Here's a cute story to make you smile. Never judge someone's intentions too quickly.

When an ice cream sundae cost much less, a boy entered a coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?"

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.


The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it. "How much is a dish of plain ice cream?" he inquired.


Some people were now waiting for a table, and the waitress was impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she said angrily.


The little boy again counted the coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream."


The waitress brought the ice cream and walked away. The boy finished, paid the cashier, and departed. When the waitress came back, she swallowed hard at what she saw. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies--her tip.

FIT BOTTOMED GIRLS
Turning Your Running Up A Notch! BY KRISTEN
So, you’ve been running with some consistency. You can run a few miles, maybe more. Perhaps you even have a few races under your belt! But now you’re finding yourself running the same route at the same pace, and, well, it’s just not as exciting as it used to be. In fact, it’s downright boring.

In order to become a better, faster, stronger runner, you’ve got to mix it up. To determine the best ways to do just that, we’ve brought back Susan Lacke. Her first Q&A with us (How to Become a Runner, One Step at a Time) was a resounding success, so now we’re asking her the next logical question—once you’ve become a runner, what’s next? READ MORE


Check out this page later this week for The Paul Livius Report of what happens at Tuesday's night's City Council meeting and other breaking stories as they develop on Raytown's leading new source . . . The Raytown Report.

  To post a comment on this blog click on the word comments on the line directly below this sentence.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that all of Raytown will be in the same district but I probably won't be here to vote in the election.

I am curious. what other area(s) are in the district if any?

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

I love the story. I was great that little boy has a sense to give up what he wanted but never forgot to leave the tips. Impressive!!

Anonymous said...

Actually there is a portion of Raytown that will not be a part of the new district!

Anonymous said...

Don't bother with the sign sweep. I know some people who take them down every chance they get.

(and I'm one of 'em, heh heh heh)

Anonymous said...

I've always thought the best way to stop illegal signs is to put a bounty on them. Give 50 cents for every illegal sign turned in at Raytown City Hall. The streets would be swept clean of them in a heartbeat!

Anonymous said...

Only 50 cents to collect a sign is not enough. It takes more than 50 cents on gas to go around collecting signs and then taking them to City Hall. $5 per sign would make it worthwhile but then people would pick up legal signs.

There should be a record of where each sign came from and the company cited for a nusiance violation.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

UGLY SIGN ALERT!!!!!!

63rd and Raytown Trafficway, right in front of Smith Brothers Hardware. The heart of the soon to renovated downtown Raytown.

How long will is stay up?

Anonymous said...

8:03PM, DUH, Which sign???? You mean the Raytown Clean Up Day sign? It is there every year to alert citizens to that event. Or do you mean the rotating advertising in Smith Bros window? That one has been there years. If it doesn't meet code, I am sure it is grandfathered. I only notice it if I am waiting for a red light otherwise it is unnoticeable.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Last nigh about 6:00 o'clock I saw a sign on a telephone pole in front of Smith brothers announcing "we buy houses" with a phone number.

I'd like to think someone has already taken it down.

Will check it out today and post whether or not it is still there.

Anonymous said...

My house is for sale, but not to illegal sign posters.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Criminal activity in Raytown now how can that be with all the hard work our professionals at city hall are doing to keep our city clean and safe.

I am sure many regulars on this blog will say that there is nothing that can be done to stop crime and they would be correct.

We can though do things to help drive crime back to other cities which all starts with things like enforcing code violations.

We can also be pro-active and stop any speeder or other traffic violation instead of looking the other way.

The word will get out if you are a criminal Raytown is not the city not to hang out in.

It takes true professionals at city hall to understand we have issue that those very professionals are not enforcing the laws and until we do we will see more criminal activity.

Should we be surprised that those professionals at city hall are not doing anything when they are not invested in the city being they live in places like Raymore.

Maybe next year our Mayor will get a national award for being Mayor of a city having one of the highest crime rates and one of the smallest populations.

Maybe then and only then will the rest of Raytown wake up and call him and his professionals on the carpet about the downward path he is leading Raytown.

Pat Casady said...

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

Anonymous said...

If we cannot solve the problem of people trashing our city with illegal signs how on earth can you expect to solve the problems of crime?

Turning away from the problem and acting like it is not there is not a solution.

At the very least expose the problem so that our city leaders can pull their heads out of the clouds and work for solutions.

If they will not. Replace them with with people who will try to tackle tough problems.

That means somebody else will have to step up.

Will you?

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:49

It is nice to know you understand the issues that are not being addressed by city hall are from the open failure of our elected officals.

The only ones that are worth anything all represent Wards 4 & 5 as Alderman. They actively take the time to search out code violations. I wish they would be the mighty four that work to eliminate the codes departement as it is being the codes departent is not pro-active and it sure is not the responsablity of the Board of Alderman to be pro-active for if it was the rest of our fine elected officals would be out doing it too.

The big question in all this mess is where is the Mayor and why is he not out trying to improve the issue with trash in our city.

Does he just like spending our money with no positive results!

A Word On Codes said...

Sec. 13-146. - Nuisance, property used for other than residential purposes.

3)

Allow or cause any vehicle to be parked on the premises, except that portion that is constructed and surfaced for parking and driveway purposes.


For those who don't understand this means in Raytown you cannot park on the grass!

Anonymous said...

Those in Raytown need to speak softly and carry a big gun.

Since Department Heads don't live in Raytown, they don't give a damn! Thank God the Police Chief is required to be a resident as an elected official.

Andy Whiteman

Salamander said...

Next time you wonder how come our country is in such a financial straits keep the following in mind.

Some years ago, our Congressman, Emanuel Cleaver decided to go into the car wash business.

To obtain financing he and his wife went to the Government SBA (Small Business Administration).

They borrowed $1.25 million dollars.

The car wash opened but things did not go well.

First, Mr. Cleaver apparantly neglected to pay over $20,000.00 in delinquent business and real estate taxes.

Enter the nosey KC Star. They made the delinquency public.

It was an oversight. Or, at least that is what Mr. Cleaver claimed. The Salamander wonders: How many readers, when they receive and overdue tax bill in the amount of $20,000+ dollars just toss it aside and forget about the intrusion into their daily routine?

Somehow or other that bill was paid.

Not too long after our Congressman's "day of forgetfulness" the greedy bankers who had loaned him $1.25 million to build the car wash demanded he repay the loan.

Because of missed payments, the amount has now escalated to a tidy $1.4 million dollars.

Now we all know how terrible banks are. They get upset when someone doesn't pay them back.

And, according to the KC Star, Mr. Cleaver most certainly is not repaying the loan.

Enter the solution to all of the Congressman's problems. -- The SBA, affectionately dubbed Small Business Administration; this august group has guaranteed most of the Cleaver Car Wash Loan.

See how simple things are, folks.

Our Congressman -- and he is running for re-election -- can't or won't pay the loan he made from the bank. The solution is simple.

The Federal Government will more than likely step in and clean up this little misunderstanding.

Not to worry. When your government is almost 15 trillion dollars in debt why bother yourself about a few million dollars?

The Salamander

P.S., The foregoing takes less than 3 minutes to read. During that period, of 180 seconds, the national debt has increased almost 3 million dollars.

Anonymous said...

The single family home is being outlawed in California and I suspect that Raytown is head the same way with the multi-family and miniature lot communities they are approving:

http://www.760kfmb.com/story/17382991/is-california-waging-war-against-suburbia

Anonymous said...

Don't you guys understand the mayor wants us to help our neighbors clean up and take care of their property. What year is he living in? The city can't go look in someones back yard for a code violation but we as neighbors are to go and help clean up this mess that the owner made. Codes just needs to do their job and do it everyday write tickets and everything will be cleaned up. By the way I saw Dave Babson doing some work for a change not much work but at least making it look like he was trying.

Anonymous said...

Great news. Home invasions in Raytown. I know, raise more taxes so the Police can purchase more Ford Excursions to go to their out of town siminars and conferences at lakeside resorts. Give them all a big raise and dump more taxpayers dollars into their bloated pension plan while we're at it.

Anonymous said...

This is a metro area and the whole area (even the elite KS side) is suffering from crime.

If more home owners were armed and shot home invaders, it may slow down home invasions.

We need to make criminals feel very unwelcome in Raytown. Maybe we need to post "CRIMINALS STAY OUT!" signs in place of the illegal signs.

Whoever was complaining about the illegal sign at Smith Bros, I drove by there last night but I was so focused on the traffic that I didn't have time to look for the sign. I think if people are paying attention to their driving, they won't see the signs.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Great News...

I cannot believe it was not already reported on this blog, but the citizen of Independance at least are educated enough to vote down the police tax their police department and elected officals were trying to push.

Come on Raytown!

We supported the bull that our elected officials gave us for needing that public safety tax now it is time to make them actually earn it.

Call your elected officals tonight at home and not those silly numbers listed on the city's website as we all know Jim Azier doesn't live at city hall so why is he listed their number other then to find yet another way to get out of the job he was elected to do.

What a waste of our tax dollars!

Anonymous said...

The BOA held 2 illegal Public Hearings at the last meeting. Both were for a conditional use permit. The illegal part is that John Benson withheld reading the condition until after Public Comment was closed thereby depriving the public of their right to comment. After the reading of the conditions for the day care, I had an issue with one of the conditions but I was deprived of my right to comment.

The 2 public hearings should be voided as ILLEGAL since they weren't held properly and the first hearing held at the next BOA with the 2nd public hearing at the following BOA.

5:59PM, I know a person who calls Jim Aziere so obviously his number is available. Have you checked the phone book?

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Andy,

You are correct there is crime throughout the metro, but there are things that are not being done in Raytown that would help drive crime to other areas of the metro.

If you doubt me do some research and you will see we do not have the professional staff that our elected officials want us to believe work at city hall or they would be putting in to place the things that are recommend as best practice by other communities.

Clearly our city's best interest is not what is in their hearts to achieve.

As for the normal citizen dealing with crime in their homes or businesses with firearms you will also find that when that happens crime normally goes down in that area and adjacent areas for some time when the information is made public. It seems the criminals fear they too might run across the wrong citizen while out committing their crimes and therefore take their bad actions to other places.

I would bet the Mayor and other elected officials are starting to worry that the citizens who shot at the criminals the other day are not the only ones in Raytown who are willing to take the law into their own hands and fear Raytown will get even more negative headlines in the news.

The bad part is the Mayor and other elected officials will not get off the pot and do anything to provide us with the safe community they promised us.

Anonymous said...

Thank you to whoever put out the info on the codes meaning "No Parking On The Grass"

Maybe one of the good folks at city hall can get some of those chair warmers out and do something about this problem.

Anonymous said...

Everyone has answers, but no one runs for office.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see if the invaded homeowner will face charges for firing at a fleeing vehicle, since this is illegal. Know the law before you shoot.

Anonymous said...

Anon 4/14.

I am sure the NRA would disagree with you