Canadian Christmas train to arrive today, greeted by KC Current players

Kansas City Current women’s soccer players will meet the Canadian Pacific holiday train arriving Sunday at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri.

Soccer players Alex Loera, Addisyn Merrick, Cassie Miller, Hailie Mace and Mallory Weber will meet the public at the event.

The public may attend from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, in the Haverty Family Yards at Union Station.

The event is free and open to the public. Donations will be taken for Harvesters.

The Snow Globes will entertain.

Parking in the West Yards covered garage will cost $12 per vehicle.

Biden chooses former Jackson County prosecutor to head U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas

Kate E. Brubacher was part of a team that fought for the exoneration of Kevin Strickland, who spent 43 years in prison for a triple murder he didn’t commit. Strickland was exonerated in late 2021.

by Dan Margolies, KCUR and Kansas News Service

President Joe Biden’s pick to be the next U.S. Attorney in Kansas is a former assistant Jackson County, Missouri, prosecutor who last year helped free a man wrongly convicted of murder.

Kate E. Brubacher, a native of North Newton, Kansas, comes from a Mennonite farming background. She served in the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office from 2016 until August of this year. She has extensive experience in private practice and a graduate degree in religion from Yale Divinity School.

In 2016, she oversaw a program to stem violent crime in Kansas City, Missouri’s urban core. The program focused on the East Patrol Division, the most violent part of the city.

She was part of a team of Jackson County prosecutors who fought for the exoneration of Kevin Strickland, who spent 43 years in prison for a triple murder he didn’t commit. Strickland was exonerated in late 2021.

Reached at her Kansas City area home, Brubacher said she was “honored to be nominated and am looking forward to the confirmation process.” She declined to say more.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Brubacher was one of the most accomplished attorneys in her office, with stellar skills as a legal researcher and writer. She said Brubacher did much of the briefing in the Strickland case and was instrumental in his exoneration.

“I will tell you in all earnestness that she is one of the best lawyers that I’ve met, to come through this office,” Baker said.

Baker said that Brubacher handled a wide variety of cases, ranging from property crimes to murder.

Brubacher received her undergraduate degree in philosophy and religious studies as well as a master’s degree from Stanford University in 2003. She received her law degree from Yale Law School in 2010 and her M.A.R. (Master of Arts in Religion) in ethics from Yale Divinity School in 2007.

Before joining the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, she was a lawyer with Cravath Swain and Moore in New York and Cooley LLP in New York, both prominent corporate law firms.

In law school, she was a founding director of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (now the International Refugee Assistance Project) and an editor on the Yale Journal of International Law.

Before law school, she lived in Ghana and, through the Mennonite Mission Network, co-founded the Liberian Widows Initiative, which provided small business loans to Liberian women in the aftermath of the civil war in that country.

Brubacher is married and has three children. She serves on the board of Bethel College in North Newton. The college is affiliated with the Mennonite Church.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas has been headed by Acting U.S. Attorney Duston J. Slinkard, a career prosecutor, since Stephen McAllister resigned as U.S. Attorney in February 2021. McAllister stepped down along with all 92 other U.S. Attorneys in the country, which is customary when a new president takes office. U.S. Attorneys serve at the president’s discretion and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Kansas has about 50 prosecutors and 50 support staff at offices in Kansas City, Kansas, Topeka and Wichita. U.S. Attorneys are the chief federal law enforcement officers in their districts and also handle civil litigation in which the United States is a party.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Kansas has a rich history. One former U.S. Attorney, Cyrus Schofield, left in the 1870s under a legal cloud after he was accused of taking bribes from railroads.

In 1916, U.S. Attorney Fred Robertson prosecuted Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” for murdering a federal prison guard. Another head of the office, Newell “Punk” George, managed a string of boxers on the side in the 1960s.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See more at https://www.kmuw.org/2022-11-29/biden-chooses-former-jackson-county-prosecutor-to-head-u-s-attorneys-office-in-kansas

Watch parties start Monday for World Cup matches

Watch parties are starting Monday, Nov. 21, at the KC Power and Light District in Kansas City, Missouri, for World Cup matches.

The watch parties start at 1 p.m. Monday with the U.S. vs. Wales kickoff. Thirty-two national teams will play 64 matches from Nov. 20 to Dec. 18 in Qatar.

The watch parties will be at KC Live! In the Power and Light District.

Broadcasts for U.S. and Mexico matches will be shown live on the theater-sized LED screen, which is 40 feet wide and 18 feet high. Match commentary will play through a covered outdoor venue in English for USMNT matches and in Spanish for El Tri matches.

On Tuesday morning, Mexico will play Poland at 10 a.m., and will be part of the watch party.

Scheduled Nov. 25 is USA vs. England at 1 p.m.; Nov. 26, Mexico vs. Argentine at 1 p.m.; Nov. 29, USA vs. Iran at 1 p.m.; and Nov. 30, Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia at 1 p.m.

Tickets for admission to the watch parties are free for all ages and available to reserve in advance via SeatGeek. It will be first-come, first-serve.

No Other Pub, 1370 Grand Blvd., will be open for all World Cup matches kicking off at 9 a.m. or later (excluding Thanksgiving Day) for indoor watch parties using the venue’s 10 foot by 15 foot video wall and surrounding HDTV screens.