Some casual Friday numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July 2015 report: *Kansas lost 4,300 jobs last month — third-worst in the nation over that span. *Missouri added 11,900 jobs in that same time. *Missouri has added 38,400 jobs in the last year — a middle of the pack number, the 28th best in the nation *In that same…
Shares for the McClatchy Company, the Sacramento-based media corporation that owns the Kansas City Star, are trading too low for the New York Stock Exchange’s comfort. The NYSE expects companies on its exchange to trade for at least $1 a share; McClatchy has fallen below that standard several times in recent weeks. McClatchy stock traded for 96 cents a share…
Madisen Ward & The Mama Bear The Midland, Kansas City Thursday, August 20 The sheer number of people mobbing the merch table as they walked in and leaving with Madisen Ward & The Mama Bear’s Skeleton Crew LP should have been a good indicator of the response the pair would receive for their homecoming show at the Midland last night….
Kansas lawmakers are making headlines this week for prodding school districts seeking extra state funding to make it known how they have “used efficiencies to improve outcomes in the classroom.” The 38 school districts that have applied to get a share of a $12 million pie of K-12 aid earmarked for “extraordinary needs,” including those in Olathe and Kansas City,…
Over the past few years, musician David George has done some memorable things, including touring as John Fogerty’s guitarist and staging a Christmas show at RecordBar with original music. Now, at last, he has a proper full-length album from his band, David George & a Crooked Mile, called Radiant Man. The album’s been teased since the release of last summer’s Shine…
The recent, jaw-dropping $25 million bestowed upon the Kansas City Art Institute by an anonymous donor is not the only financial win for area arts organizations this week. The downtown Overland Park artists’ space InterUrban ArtHouse — we profiled IUAH and its founder, Nicole Emanuel, last year — has also come into some money, albeit a more modest sum. In…
There are those who argue that times gone before weren’t necessarily more innocent. Anyone who says this about America’s George H.W. Bush years, though, must consider Bill & Ted’s Excellent … Cereal. Not the bowl you think of when you think of Keanu Reeves’ and Alex Winter’s Wyld Stallyns bandmates in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the heartwarming tale of…
For those attending the 35th annual Kansas State Fiddling & Picking Championships, in Lawrence’s South Park, coordinator Gayle Sigurdson says it’s necessary that you be open to possibilities. Being that there’s no pre-registration, everything is day of the contest, with all competitors walking up to sign in. “The weather is honestly the biggest factor,” Sigurdson says. “Seventy-five to 90 contestants…
If you travel Armour Road in North Kansas City, you’ve surely seen the sign for Burritos To Go y Algo Mas, at 1910 Armour, near Helen’s JAD Bar and inside one of the few Pennsylvania-based Snappy Stores in the metro. I’d never felt compelled to stop in and try one of the burritos — until a friend of mine insisted…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20Tallgrass tap night, with Wooden Rooster and quality manager Courtney Pierson, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m. Ales for ALS with Uinta Brewing, featuring Hop Nosh IPA, Birthday Suit sour ale, Labyrinth Black Ale and Red IPL, at Barley’s Brew-haus (11924 W. 119th St., Overland Park), 6 p.m. A portion of the proceeds from these…
%{}% Screenland Armour breaks out rare beers and collaboration brews for the Arts & Crafts Beer Festival Beer nerds say they want festivals loaded with rare beers, short lines and generous pours. The third annual Arts & Crafts Beer Festival, Friday and Saturday at Screenland Armour, promises all three. With a list loaded with high-ABV beers, Screenland owners Adam Roberts…
Name: Andrea Kirsch Occupation: Digital marketing strategist and partner at MAKE Digital Group Twitter handle: @MAKEdigitalKC Hometown: Norfolk, Virginia Current neighborhood: Work in Westport and just bought a home on Weatherby Lake. After living in every neighborhood from Waldo to the City Market for the past 10 years, it is a nice change of pace and scenery. What I do:…
Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear It seems so long ago since we first discovered Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear singing acoustic folk songs in a tiny Independence coffee shop. Fast-forward, and the mother-and-son duo that was largely unknown even to locals is the metro’s breakout story of the year. It’s no surprise that Ward’s earth-shattering voice and Ruth’s…
Jordan Carr and Justin Betterton sit across from me, side by side on the couch at Carr’s apartment, though Carr frequently gets up to change a record. At the moment, it’s Gang of Four’s Solid Gold. We are supposed to be conducting an interview about lead singer Carr and guitarist Betterton’s hardcore band, Dark Ages, on the eve of a…
June 28, the day after his band played Arrowhead Stadium, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts spent more than three hours touring the American Jazz Museum. A fan since his teen years, he has long collected Charlie Parker memorabilia (a Christmas card that the jazzman once sent his wife, for instance), and he paused to regard Parker’s plastic saxophone, one of…
If we can agree that a restaurant which primarily serves grilled beef is a steakhouse, I’m telling you that the six-month-old Cleaver & Cork is a porkhouse. In the Power & Light District space that initially held Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, chef Alex Pope (of the Local Pig butcher shop, food truck and restaurant) has erected a porcine…
Musical Theater Heritage abides by its name with Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, a show written by MTH founder George Harter that’s equal parts show and tell, similar to his radio series A Night on the Town, on public radio (heard locally on KANU 91.5). Here, Harter digs into the background of legendary songwriting team Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe,…
I’ve never had such a pleasant evening watching two people play cards. As a tagline, that’s not likely to drive crowds to The Gin Game, the latest production by Kansas City Actors Theatre. But when the players at the table are actors Marilyn Lynch and Victor Raider-Wexler, we could all do with a few more hands. The script, a brisk…
Ralph Davis, Kansas City, Missouri’s Public Works deputy director, got a call from a Kansas City Business Journal reporter the first week of August. The writer was curious about the possibility that the streetcar’s projected opening date was in peril. The Cincinnati Business Courier had reported that the Ohio city’s streetcar order from a Spanish firm was running late, an…
On July 28, Mark VanLoh, director of Kansas City’s Aviation Department, executed an agreement that opened up Kansas City International Airport to the ride-sharing company Uber. Uber has been operating lawfully in Kansas City since April, when, after months of contentious negotiations, the City Council finalized an ordinance that Uber deemed acceptable. In doing so, the council dropped the cost…
Kansas Democrats, still smarting from a disappointing 2014 as they head into a crucial 2016 election cycle, are considering a rebrand. Instead of referring to the statewide party as the staid Kansas Democratic Party, they may start calling themselves Red State Democrats. That’s the idea promulgated by new KDP Chairman Larry Meeker, the former Lake Quivira mayor and banker who…
In March 2014, a 21-year-old woman who worked at, and lived in an apartment above, Nu Troost Tattoo (4101 Troost) discovered an intricate system of wires and hidden cameras installed inside her apartment that led down to a computer in the basement of the building. When the police were called, they found 11 hidden video cameras in the apartment. Four…
Chase Scroggins — coffee entrepreneur and former Cerner employee — is now officially in business as a coffee roaster. The 25-year-old graduate of the University of Alabama (where he majored in business administration, Spanish and health-care management) first came to the attention of The Pitch last month, when he launched the website for his fledgling Cafe Noble coffee-roasting business. At the…
