Serving Kansas City (Wyandotte County) Kansas for over 50 years!
The Board of Public Utilities will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
On the agenda will be a visitors’ time, benchmarking update, customer satisfaction research update, board comments and general manager comments. There will be no work session June 27.
The BPU Board Leadership Search Committee will meet from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at the first floor conference room of the BPU offices, 540 Minnesota Ave.
The Kansas City T-Bones faced rain and the Cleburne Railroaders in the final game of the series but weathered the storm to win in exciting walk-off fashion 6-5.
Both teams struggled to get started with a scoreless first three innings. At the bottom of the third the skies opened up and sent both teams running for the dugout. After a 36-minute rain delay both teams returned to the field wet and ready to go.
The Railroaders got the first runs of the afternoon.
A base hit by veteran Rafael Palmeiro off Kansas City’s starting pitcher Tommy Collier kicked off the top of the fourth and was soon followed by a home run by Levi Scott that sent him and Palmeiro’s runner Chevy Clarke home.
Palmeiro’s son and teammate, Patrick, would have even better luck than his father in the following inning by hitting a two-run home run that would score him and Trevor Sealey.
In the bottom of the fifth the T-Bones heated up and finally put up their first runs of the game.
Nick Torres hit a ground-rule double to score Mason Davis for a single RBI off left-handed pitcher Michael Gunn. Torres then scored on an RBI single off the bat of Zach Walters. Dexter Kjerstad doubled, sending Zach Walters home and making the score 4-3.
In the seventh, Torres singled to left field, followed by another single by Kjerstad deep into right field that sent Torres to third. A fielder’s choice sent Keith Curcio to first and allowed Torres to score, tying the game 4-4.
The Railroaders answered the T-Bones in the eighth by scoring a run of their own. An RBI single by Alex Polston scored Cameron Monger and gave them the lead once again 5-4. That lead was short-lived as the T-Bones scored later that inning with a single RBI from Dylan Tice to score Angel Rosa tying the game again.
The game went into the tenth, with Cleburne not able to score in the top of the inning.
Tice, who leads the league in hits, then smashed a triple to left field off the Railroaders relief pitcher Shawn Blackwell. Cleburne elected to walk Todd Cunningham, who leads the league with a .397 average, to put runners at the corners.
Torres then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to send Tice home and give Kansas City a 6-5 win.
Kansas City’s starting pitcher Tommy Collier worked seven innings, giving up four runs, three earned, resulting in no decision.
Sam Street and Francisco Gracesqui both came in for relief. Joe Filemeno (2-1) who came in for the tenth is credited with the win.
The Railroaders’ starting pitcher Micheal Gunn kept four consecutive innings scoreless. He was replaced late in the fifth by Will Mathis. Relief pitching was also given by Cortland Cox and Shawn Blackwell. Blackwell (2-4) is credited with the loss.
With Sunday’s win, Kansas City improves to 21-13 on the season while Cleburne dropped to 12-22. The T-Bones continue their home stand at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday against the Lincoln Saltdogs.
Season, group, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the box office at 913-328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
– Story from T-Bones
by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, Kansas News Service
A devastating legal blow last week to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s voter fraud platform will, in all likelihood, land in the lap of one of six men vying for his job.
That person could decide whether to press or kill Kobach’s appeal of a federal ruling that blocks the office from making would-be voters dig up birth certificates or other documents that show U.S. citizenship.
In interviews with the Kansas News Service, Republican candidates, with the exception of one moderate, leaned toward forging ahead. They cited the need to defend state laws or the actions of state agencies.
“I would keep those cases going,” said Rep. Keith Esau, chairman of the House elections committee. “That’s what Kansas wants. That’s what we passed as a law.”
The range of opinions among Esau and his competition mean the issue is a point of differentiation in the five-man Republican primary.
Depending on who wins that August primary, the question could be a major issue in the general election against Democratic candidate and former Google executive Brian McClendon. He says he’s more concerned that Kansas blocked tens of thousands of voter applications in recent years than that a dozen non-citizen votes slipped through the cracks over two decades.
“At every stage, we’ve lost,” McClendon said. “I would stop investing in court cases like this and start focusing on solving problems in the state.”
The Kansas proof of citizenship requirement has been caught up in multiple state and federal lawsuits since taking effect in 2013.
The two lawsuits addressed last week were brought by the League of Women Voters and Kansans who were blocked from voting, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyers volunteering their time.
Chief District Judge Julie Robinson of the District of Kansas combined the suits and heard their cases at a dramatic trial last March. She struck down the voter registration requirement as illegal and unconstitutional. She also held Kobach in contempt for defying court orders and ordered him to get six hours of extra legal training after repeatedly running afoul of courtroom rules.
Legal experts say Kobach’s appeal, which needs to be filed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals by mid-July, could take more than a year to play out. Kobach is running for governor and leaves his current office in January, meaning his successor would inherit the role of defendant.
Rep. Scott Schwab, a former House elections chairman who helped shepherd the proof of citizenship requirement into law, said court outcomes often change upon appeal.
“This case is far from over,” he said. “Obviously, the judge had a bias against Kris. And maybe Kris deserved it, maybe not. I don’t know, I wasn’t in the courtroom. I just know sometimes personalities affect court decisions.”
An outlier among Republicans was Dennis Taylor, a more moderate candidate who led four state agencies under governors Mike Hayden and Sam Brownback.
“I don’t really see that there’s a basis for successful appeal,” said Taylor, a lawyer. “I think our resources would be much better spent auditing the elections and ensuring we have paper ballots in all counties.”
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.
See more at http://kcur.org/post/kobach-s-successors-will-likely-sort-after-effects-kansas-voter-fraud-ruling.