Thanksgiving is still four months away, but today I’m in an appreciative mood.
Let me cite just three “blessings” that recent news stories have impressed upon me.
:: I am grateful that…Kansas City is not in Detroit’s shoes.
Once the nation’s fourth largest city, Detroit filed for bankruptcy this afternoon. In an online story, The New York Times said the city’s debt was likely to be $18 to $20 BILLION.
In 1950, Detroit’s population was 1.8 million; today it is 700,000. In addition, The Times said, tens of thousands of abandoned buildings, vacant lots and unlit streets plague the urban area.
The story went on to say that one aspect of the bankruptcy that some other cities (including Kansas City, in all likelihood) will be watching is whether Detroit will be permitted to slash pension benefits. That will be decided in bankruptcy court and perhaps beyond. In order to cut pension benefits, the court would have to override a provision in the Michigan constitution that prohibits such action.
Here in Kansas City, Mayor Sly James and the City Council have shown that they don’t have the stomach for taking on the firefighters’ union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers. The mayor and council haven’t dared to take up a citizens committee’s proposal to reduce pension benefits for current and future city employees.
So, while I’m thankful that we’re not Detroit, someday — on some mayor and council’s watch — the pension situation is going to become a crisis in Kansas City, and the citizens are going to wring their hands and shake their fists at several mayors and councils that didn’t have the guts to deal with the issue before it became a crisis.
:: I am grateful that…Vladimir Putin is not my president.
A Russian judge has sentenced Russia’s most prominent opposition leader to five years in prison on a charge of embezzlement.
Mr. Congeniality
In another online story today, The New York Times said that “the Kremlin had made little effort to mask the political motivation of the prosecution” of Aleksei Navalny, a harsh Putin critic who aspired to political office.
Well, in Russia your dreams can get you in trouble.
Although the case against Navalny was thin and had been thrown out after an initial investigation, it was “resurrected by federal officials in Moscow,” The Times story said.
Then, when the case went to trial, it was strictly a kangaroo court. Not only did the main witness give contradictory evidence, The Times said, defense lawyers were not allowed to cross-examine him.
!!!!! No cross-examination !!!!!
Just to make sure Navalny didn’t get a fair hearing, the judge also prohibited the defense from calling 13 witnesses.
!!!!! No defense witnesses !!!!!
About all you can do is shake your head and take comfort in the fact that we’ve got enough nuclear weapons to keep Potentate Putin in check.
Editor’s note: Shortly after 3 a.m. today, The Times reported that Navalny had been released while his case is under appeal.
Here’s the lead sentence from that story:
“Russia’s most prominent opposition leader was released from police custody on Friday, a day after his conviction on embezzlement charges, as the Russian authorities edged back from a decision that set off angry protests in several of Russia’s largest cities.”
Maybe the potentate has overstepped his bounds this time…
:: Bringing it closer to home, I am grateful for…the Sprint Center and the Power & Light District.
In a story last week, The Star’s Kevin Collison wrote about an astounding (as far as I’m concerned) report done by the Downtown Council, an association of downtown businesses.
Ten years ago, in 2002, the report said, 2.5 million people visited downtown.
Last year, 13.4 million people visited downtown.
Think about it: Two point five million versus thirteen point four million over a decade.
The number soared, Collison said, “thanks to the huge investment that’s occurred the past half-dozen years in such entertainment venues as the Power & Light District, Sprint Center and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.”
The story said that the Power & Light District, which opened in 2007 and 2008, was “far and away” the biggest attraction last year, drawing 9.1 million visitors.
“The Power & Light District has become the central gathering point for the city,” Collison quoted Mike Hurd, the Downtown Council’s marketing director, as saying.
We should all be grateful that Kay Barnes and her council had the guts to put their legacy on the line when they opted to take a chance on a deal with the Cordish Companies to develop the Power & Light District. (That was in Barnes’ second term, from 2003 to 2007.)
Yes, Cordish, of Baltimore, is making a bundle of money off the deal, and Kansas City residents are subsidizing the district to the tune of $10 million to $15 million a year. But any day I’ll take the 13.4 million visitors a year in exchange for the public subsidy.
The subsidy will end some day, but the visitors, I expect, will keep on coming, and Kansas City, thanks to some courageous political leadership, should continue to have a thriving downtown.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I do not believe the stats of 13.4 million visitors a year. The former Mayor and the firm that designed the arena scaled it back and still had $64 million in cost overruns.
The empty lofts are a dime a dozen.
The Power and Light District is fun and I am glad it is downtown, but I do not think it is a success now. It will improve.
If you take 13.4/MM visitors per year divided by 365 days in a year, that averages out to 36,712 visitors per day. Explain that? Are we counting everyone that works downtown as a daily “visitor”?
I’m not so sure that Vlad Putin is any more innocent than our dear leader. Look how George Zimmerman got railroaded.
Detroit, a shining example of the success of liberal democrat policies.
Hmmmm….Excellent point, Smartman…Mike Hurd’s e-mail address is on the Downtown Council’s web site; I’ll ask for an explanation.
Well, I haven’t heard back from Hurd yet…But I e-mailed Kevin Collison, who wrote the story, and he helped clarify one issue.
I had noticed in his story, going back over it this morning, that he referred to the survey as “self-reported.” I asked him what he meant by that, and he said that the venues, such as Sprint Center, Gordon Biersch, the Bristol, etc., submitted their numbers to the Downtown Council, and the council simply compiled them.
Regarding what the term “visitors” referred to, Collison said he didn’t know and referred me to Hurd.
In my re-reading of the story, I also saw that Hurd acknowledged that the survey was “far from scientific.”
I’ve been quoting the survey’s numbers to people the last week or so, but from here on, I don’t think I’m going to use them. My eyes tell me that the Power & Light District is largely a success, but I don’t trust the stats. Maybe that’s why The Star buried the story “inside” the paper.
Hell of a nice catch, smarty.
Dead on the money with the Zimmerman comment.
I would like to self report that I am not bald, fat and look a lot younger than I am.
Prior to Obama, there were three prosecutions under the Espionage Act (including Dan Ellsberg by the Nixon DOJ). During the Obama presidency, there have been seven such prosecutions: more than double the number under all prior US presidents combined.
Mr. Transparency doesn’t like whistleblowers or leaking (other than the leaking that puts him in a good light).
In addition, he has presided over the targeting for assassination of American citizens and a drone policy that is creating more ememies than killing them. He is serving as judge, jury and executioner. For a man with a Nobel Peace Prize……(unearned then, should be returned today).
Putin is a Russian communist. Nothing surprises me about what’s going on over there. Obama is the POTUS. Surely we have higher standards.
Just a comparison here, but…
Putin has kangaroo court for his political adversary.
Obama appoints a new D.A. to the Zimmerman case just to get a trial.
In Russian court, the defense gets no witnesses and no cross examination from the defense.
In the U.S. court we allow a new charge at the end of the trial (manslaughter) and Zimmerman is tried by a jury of six women (not 12 peers).
Both cases don’t end up as planned.
Putin adversary gets released the day after convicted, but not acquitted.
Obama all of a sudden has no comment about Zimmerman once acquitted but lets his cohorts run rampant stirring the pot.
I know these lines aren’t exactly parallel, but it’s too close for my comfort and makes me feel like we’re a lot closer to the commies than we’d like to admit.
Oh, my, Jason, there are a couple of major problems with your comparison…First, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, appointed Angela Corey to prosecute Zimmerman. Corey is state’s attorney for Florida’s Fourth Judicial District. Like Scott, she is a Republican.
Also, just this afternoon Obama made extensive comments on race relations, using the Martin case as his springboard.
I’m putting you in the comments penalty box for excessive imagination.
Alright, Power Play for JimmyC, however the Obama comments came out just today, and fortunately we were very busy at work today, so you were my breaking news source on that one…pat on the back ;)
I trust you on your first point that it wasn’t Obama who issued the new D.A. and I’m sure it was all of his own accord since an elephant surely wouldn’t take orders from a donkey (do you like how I didn’t resort to calling democrats that other word for donkey? ha ha). I apparently made an assumption there.
That being said, my point was that both cases were, in my opinion, an obvious misuse of power. Feel free to argue that point, I appreciate your comments. I believe everything else I said wasn’t disputed. Does a misuse of judicial power matter more in one country than another? Is adding charges at the closing of a trial and a six person jury (of the opposite sex?!) not unprecedented? I’m not a lawyer, but this doesn’t exactly fit in with my idea of a fair trial. I was really amazed at the verdict to be quite honest. I didn’t think he had a snowballs’ chance in the Mojave at acquittal. I know you followed a lot of court cases in your career, and I’m curious if you have ever seen this before.
I took the time to read the link you posted. Just for the sake of saying that there are two sides to every story, please take a look at this, http://news.yahoo.com/black-americas-real-problem-isnt-white-racism-070000529.html and feel free to add or subtract 20 points from any of the percentages as I don’t know how true they are. I’m skeptical when it come to percentage based analysis, but at least some of this sounds believable.
One more thing, it doesn’t really matter to me whether Gov. Scott is a Republican or a Democrat, as I am neither. Bad apples fall on both sides of the fence as far as I’m concerned. I was born and raised an American and will be an American until I die. The biggest problem we have right now is one of self entitlement where people vote for what suits themselves, rather than voting for whats good for the nation as a whole…and both parties are guilty of that, I’m afraid. Everyone blames the politicians (myself included), but what got them in there in the first place? They pander to what we want to hear and we vote them in. Pretty simple.
I look forward to your reply! I hope I didn’t let my imagination run away with itself this time! LOL
Also, to quote your story,
“Although the case against Navalny was thin and had been thrown out after an initial investigation, it was ‘resurrected by federal officials in Moscow,’ The Times story said.”
Doesn’t necessarily name Putin, does it? But I can see the implication. Penalty on you! I’ll get a few seconds of full strength before you get out of the box! Cheers!
So if I go to the SC for a concert I get counted. If I go “bouncin” after the concert to a half dozen bars I get counted. One visit, seven hits. Definitely sounds like government work to me.
Jason — First of all, I’m the ref around here; you can’t put anybody in the penalty box. But I’m going to let you out because you did your time without squawking and you wrote a nice, 439-word essay. (In high school we had to write a 600-word essay when we got a JUG slip, to stay after school for misbehaving. JUG? Justice Under God…
…On Zimmerman, my guess, when the jury went out, was that they would come back with a manslaughter verdict. But when I read The New York Times’ account of the verdict and wrap-up, I could see how they could come back with a not-guilty verdict. Beyond a reasonable doubt is a high standard to overcome when there are no objective witnesses and minimal physical evidence. Also, it seems pretty clear that Martin was standing over Zimmerman when Zimmerman shot him. So, I think that, in the moment, it probably was a case of self-defense…Nevertheless, Zimmerman should never have gotten out of the truck. There was no indication whatsoever that Martin was creating a problem or had trouble on his mind. He was guilty only of being a Young Black Man Walking in a White Neighborhood After Dark.
It was a matter for police to handle, not some looney, trigger happy vigilante.