Month: July 2022

Monarchs bring their own fireworks Sunday night

by Adam Cook, Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs (30-16) made it back-to-back nights with fireworks for 4th of July weekend, except this time they were on the field instead of in the air after a walkoff grand slam gave Kansas City the win and the sweep over the Gary SouthShore RailCats (20-27) on Sunday.

Monarchs starting pitcher Nick Belzer started the game on the right track with a three-batter inning with the help of a zero out double play.

This set the Monarchs up for success in the bottom half, where Darnell Sweeney took the first pitch of the game for the Monarchs offense to the right field Home Run Hill, giving Kansas City an early 1-0 lead.

In the second, the RailCats’ offense showed a little more life. Victor Nova led the inning with a fly ball to center that got lost in the sun, giving him a leadoff double. This was followed by a Jesus Marriaga single to score Nova, evening the score at one.

Belzer then recorded a strikeout and flyout in the next two batters, and picked Marriaga off at first base to end the inning.

The RailCats stayed on Belzer in the top of the third, leading off the inning with a single from Jackson Smith and a double from Alec Olund, giving Gary runners at the corners with no outs. Smith attempted to go home on a ground ball to Monarchs third baseman David Thompson, but a heads-up play from Thompson nabbed him at the plate, keeping the score tied while Olund advanced to third.

A sacrifice fly to center by Daniel Lingua gave the RailCats their first lead of the series before Belzer escaped the inning without any more damage. In the bottom half, the Monarchs offense once again began to come together. A leadoff single from Darnell Sweeney set him up to swipe his 19th bag of the season, tying the league lead. Two batters later, Matt Adams flew out to center field, advancing Sweeney to third. Next man up David Thompson then delivered with a two-out RBI single over the second baseman to score Sweeney and even the score at two before the turn of the inning.

In the top of the fourth, Belzer got back on track and retired the side in three batters for the first time since the first. Unfortunately for the Monarchs, this was the theme of the inning, as RailCats starter Adam Heidenfelder returned the 1-2-3 favor to the Monarchs bats.

In the fifth, the RailCats’ Alec Olund hit a one-out triple that set Thomas Walraven up with an RBI opportunity. Walraven took advantage of this and then some with a deep two-run home run to left, putting the RailCats ahead 4-2. The Monarchs didn’t let the RailCats escape the inning unscathed, however, as they led off the bottom half of the sixth with back-to-back doubles from Sweeney and Kevin Santa, bringing Kansas City within one, 4-3.


Jordan Martinson relieved Nick Belzer to begin the sixth inning for the Monarchs, and recorded a perfect 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom half, the Monarchs made some noise on the bases with a single and a walk but stranded Willie Abreu at third base to end the inning.


The seventh and the eighth did not provide any fireworks on Fourth of July eve, as only two batters reached base over the two innings, both by way of the walk.


Jameson McGrane came on in the top of the ninth and allowed a leadoff single to Victor Nova, but he then struck out the next three batters to strand him on the bases, handing the Monarchs bats a one-run deficit entering the bottom of the ninth.

After the first two Monarchs of the inning were sat down in order, the next two, Matt Adams and David Thompson, reached base after being hit by pitches. This brought first baseman Casey Gillaspie to the plate with the game on the line. Gillaspie hit a backhand ground ball to shortstop Daniel Lingua, who overthrew first baseman Chris Burgess to score Adams, evening the score at four and sending the game to the tenth inning.

McGrane remained on the bump for the top of the tenth, except this time with a runner at second base for the extra-innings rule. Then, he attempted to score on a ground ball to second baseman Kevin Santa, but Santa delivered a bullet to catcher J.C. Escarra to nab him at the plate and keep the score tied.

In the bottom half, Gaby Guerrero began the inning at second base but remained there after back-to-back strikeouts to begin the inning. With two outs, the RailCats opted to intentionally walk Darnell Sweeney to get to Kevin Santa, who was then unintentionally walked on a 3-2 count, bringing all-star Jan Hernandez to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. In the clutch situation, Hernandez did what Hernandez does, and sent a deep drive to right field for a walkoff grand slam, sending a roar through Legends Field and giving the Monarchs the win and the sweep.

The Monarchs hit the road on Monday, July 4, as they face the Cleburne Railroaders for a three-game series starting at 7:06 p.m. The match can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:36 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.

Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.

At naturalization ceremony, immigrants celebrate ‘beginning of a new life’ for Independence Day

Ming Zhang, an Overland Park resident, made her naturalization official during a special ceremony for 47 immigrants in honor of Independence Day. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)

by Margaret Mellot, Kansas Reflector

In the nearly 14 years she’s been in the U.S., Ming Zhang has completed her law degree, started a family and moved to Kansas.

A day before Independence Day, she celebrated her naturalization alongside 46 other new citizens.

Zhang, an Overland Park resident, gave her Oath of Citizenship outside the Children’s Mercy Park field in Kansas City, Kansas, as a part of a special effort by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to welcome new citizens across the country during the first week of July.

“I just really love the freedom here,” Zhang said. “(The) people are friendly and the culture — I just really fell in love here.”

With a passion for justice, Zhang knew she wanted to study in the U.S. She moved in 2008 to study in upstate New York at Cornell University, where she went on to complete her Juris Doctor and meet her husband. Together, they moved to his home state of Kansas.

“After I went to law school in China, I realized that I wanted to come abroad,” Zhang said, “and then see what the common law is like here in the States versus China. After that, it was just amazing work.”

While giving their Oath of Allegiance, many immigrants cried during their last step before becoming a U.S. citizen. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)

U.S. District Judge Robert D. Berger administered the Oath of Citizenship for the new citizens, who came from 27 countries: Algeria, Brazil, Burma, Canada, China, Congo (Kinshasa), Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Lithuania, Granada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Samuel Swift-Perez joined his brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after leaving Venezuela in 2014 following political unrest attributed to many of the country’s economic policies.

“(This ceremony) means the beginning of a new life,” Samuel said. “It’s actually some kind of relief, to feel finally as a citizen because (for immigrants) you actually are a temporary resident and then a permanent resident, but you still feel a little limited. But now I feel very, very good and I’m very happy.”

He moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he met his wife, Lacey Swift-Perez. They’ve been married for four years now and said they’re looking forward to what’s ahead. Wiping tears from her face, Lacey said the ceremony marked the end of uncertainty and fear for her husband’s future.

“I’m really grateful for this process,” Lacey said. “I’m really grateful that we made it to this point that he is now a full citizen and is able to be safe in our country.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids attended the naturalization ceremony July 3, in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids was in attendance to show support for the new U.S. citizens. For her first time seeing a naturalization ceremony, Davids said she was excited to celebrate the 47 new citizens.

“It’s pretty amazing to get the chance to be here,” Rep. Davids said. “A lot of people work really, really hard to be able to go through the entire process with the tests and everything else. I feel honored that I get to be part of this.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/07/04/at-naturalization-ceremony-immigrants-celebrate-beginning-of-a-new-life-for-independence-day/

History made: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as U.S. Supreme Court justice

by Jacob Fischler, Kansas Reflector

Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court after she was sworn in Thursday by Chief Justice John Roberts and her mentor, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer — whose retirement was official moments earlier.

The swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court making Jackson’s place in history official took barely three minutes and capped a months-long process that began when Breyer announced in January he intended to step down at the end of the court term.

Jackson’s husband, Patrick, held two Bibles upon which Jackson swore her oath. One was a family edition and one had been donated to the court in 1906 by Justice John Marshall Harlan, the only justice to dissent in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case that upheld racial segregation.

Roberts administered the constitutional oath, while Breyer, for whom Jackson clerked two decades ago, administered the judicial oath. Roberts and Breyer were dressed in black robes while Jackson wore a navy dress.

“On behalf of all of the members of the court, I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” Roberts said to close the ceremony, using Jackson’s new title for the first time.

Other than reciting her pledges, Jackson did not speak during the ceremony.

Roberts said that Jackson’s daughters, Leila and Talia, were present in the audience.

At a White House event in April celebrating her Senate confirmation the previous day, Jackson did address the historic nature of her confirmation.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” she said. “But we’ve made it. We’ve made it, all of us.”

Rocky confirmation

President Joe Biden vowed on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would nominate a Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court and did so by selecting Jackson two months after Breyer announced his retirement.

Jackson’s addition will not change the ideological balance of the court, whose 6-3 conservative majority has riled Democrats with consequential rulings on major cases in recent weeks.

But a faction of Republican senators — led by Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Texas’ Ted Cruz — still pursued an aggressive campaign against her confirmation, showing how partisan high court selections have become.

Over two days of questioning, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Jackson over her sentencing record in child pornography cases, defense of terrorism suspects and views of culture war issues like critical race theory and the definition of a woman.

Democrats and other supporters, including police associations, said the attacks were unfair and praised Jackson as highly qualified.

Following a grueling week of confirmation hearings, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson in a 53-47 vote in April. Three Republicans — Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Utah’s Mitt Romney — joined all Democrats in voting for her.

Florida background

In addition to being the first Black woman on the court, Jackson on Thursday became the court’s first former public defender and its first person from Florida. Born in Washington, D.C., Jackson grew up in Miami.

Jackson, 51, graduated from Harvard University in 1992 and Harvard Law School cum laude in 1996. She later clerked for a federal trial court in Massachusetts, a federal appeals court covering northeastern states and for Breyer.

She worked in private practice before joining the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2003 and becoming a federal public defender in 2005.

She began her judicial career as a U.S. District judge in Washington, D.C., in 2007. Biden nominated her to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year. The Senate confirmed her for that position in a 53-44 vote.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/30/history-made-ketanji-brown-jackson-sworn-in-as-u-s-supreme-court-justice/