Month: July 2015

Ozone alert issued for Saturday

orange alert
The year’s first orange ozone alert has been issued for Saturday, July 25.

The alert means that an unhealthy level of ground-level ozone, also known as smog, is expected Saturday in the Kansas City area.

Residents are advised that ozone pollution can cause a variety of problems in healthy adults, including chest pains, coughing, nausea, throat irritation and difficulty breathing.

Those who are sensitive to air pollution, including children, seniors and people with breathing or heart problems, should limit their exposure to outdoor air between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday. Consider scheduling activities before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.

Residents are asked to reduce pollution by reducing their driving, not mowing the lawn from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., not grilling outdoors, carpooling, taking the bus and postponing refueling vehicles.

Fares for regular bus routes are reduced on Ozone Alert days.

The Mid-America Regional Council Air Quality Program issues the skycasts every day. The skycasts can be found at www.marc.org/Environment/Air-Quality/SkyCast/About.

Public asked to try to identify scam suspects

Kansas City, Kan., police are asking the puiblic's assistance to identify suspects. (Photos from Kansas City, Kan., Police Department)
Kansas City, Kan., police are asking the puiblic’s assistance to identify suspects. (Photos from Kansas City, Kan., Police Department)

Kansas City, Kan., police are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying suspects in a confidence scam.

According to police, the confidence scam was operating outside a retail store in western Wyandotte County.

In this scam, police said the female victim was approached by a suspect in the store’s parking lot under the ruse that he needed help for an associate of his that has a mistrust of nad had previous problems with banks. He said they were from Atlanta, Ga.

The victim agreed to take the suspect to a nearby business where they met a second suspect, who corroborated the first suspect’s story, police said.

The suspects promised to give the victim a larger sum of money in exchange for a lesser amount of her money if she would help them open a local bank account in the second suspect’s name, the police spokesman said.

The victim took the suspects to an area bank where they went inside to allegedly withdraw their money, police said. They showed the victim an envelope containing money when they returned.

The suspects then asked the victim to withdrawal money from her bank’s account to show that her bank account was valid and that she could be trusted with the suspect’s money, police said.

After the victim withdrew the money from her bank, they drove to the adjacent store’s parking lot where the suspects took the victim’s money from the car’s console and left on foot saying they would be right back, but never returned, according to police.

The first suspect is described as a man in his 40s, about 5-10, 200 pounds, and wearing a green shirt and pants that match.

The second suspect was described as a man in his 40s as well, about 5-6, 200 pounds, and was wearing dark clothing, police said.

The Kansas City, Kan., Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is encouraging anyone with information to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).