National Weather Service graphic
After a few scattered morning showers and thunderstorms Friday, generally dry and quiet conditions are expected through the majority of the holiday weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures will gradually increase through the weekend, then the warming trend will halt Monday as thunderstorm chances return, the weather service said.
Today’s high will be 78. Skies will be partly sunny, and there is a 30 percent chance of rain, mainly before noon, according to the weather service.
Tonight, the low will be around 64, the weather service said.
On Saturday, Independence Day, the high will be 83. A calm wind will become southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning, the weather service said.
For Saturday night, there will be partly cloudy skies, with a low of 69, according to the weather service. The wind will be from the southeast around 6 mph.
Sunday, there will be mostly sunny skies with a high near 86, the weather service said. Expect a south southeast wind of 6 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Sunday night’s forecast is a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. It will be mostly cloudy with a low around 72, the weather service said.
Alvin Sykes (Photo from Kansas City, Mo. Library) by Mary Rupert
Alvin Sykes feels that finally, after he has worked so hard for years to advance human rights and civil rights, everything is starting to come together.
The Kansas City, Kan., human rights activist was recently honored at the Urban Libraries Council convention in San Jose, Calif. He told the group his story of how he received much of his self-taught education as a teen through the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library, then, in later years, he used the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library extensively to work on human rights and civil rights cases. He was instrumental in getting a civil rights law passed that allowed cold cases to be reopened.
The Kansas City, Mo., Public Library named him a Scholar in Residence in 2013. Sykes has also served on the Wyandotte County Library Board.
Sykes said the highlight of his presentation to the urban libraries convention last week was telling the group that when they return to their home libraries, when they see a library user who is hungry and has papers scattered all over the place, don’t snub them because what they’re working on may someday be signed by the president of the United States.
”They were on their feet applauding for a couple of minutes. I didn’t know how to respond,” he said.
He was asked for his autograph and invited to speak at libraries around the nation, he said.
“That was a really profound experience for me,” Sykes said. “It all started here in KCK when I was a teenager. I never had a clue it would lead to this.”
A documentary film crew taped his presentation, and is planning to come to the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library this month to film a speakers’ event, he said. Stanley Nelson is the executive producer of this film, “Free for All, Inside the Public Library.”
Sykes and former Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma will be speaking July 23 at the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library on “The Power of Dialogue” and how it led to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007. Sykes worked with Coburn to get the civil rights bill passed. As Sykes explains it, Coburn had put a hold on the Till bill, and Sykes convinced him to become a supporter of it, leading to its enactment.
Sykes currently is assisting with an effort to get the Emmett Till bill extended as a permanent law. The first bill had a 10-year sunset. He wants the law expanded to cover not only racially motivated murders, but also other crimes, including more than civil rights cases. If it is approved, federal resources could be used to investigate cases. In some cases, results could be turned over to the states for prosecution.
On July 24, former Sen. Coburn will appear at a private reception for supporters of Sykes’ autobiography, “Show Me Justice.” That event is raising money for a self-published book. Sykes said the film crew plans to be there.
Sykes said it was Nelson’s earlier documentary film on Emmett Till’s murder, shown on The American Experience on PBS, that inspired him to look into the Emmett Till case.
“To turn out to be him, was just tremendous,” Sykes said. “I’m hoping he’ll come with the crew when they come here on July 23.”
Sykes is a believer in public libraries.
“It’s a lifelong educational tool,” said Sykes, who dropped out of high school as a teenager. “You can always come to the library after you get out of high school and college, there’s no limitation of how you can use it and when you can use the libraries.”
A special meeting of the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education has been called for 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 7, at the superintendent’s conference room on the third floor of the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools Central Office and Training Center, 2010 N. 59th St., Kansas City, Kan.
On the agenda are regular business items in the published agenda, as well as the human resources report and recommendations, and the payment of bills.
