The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway. With the Royals of course no where in sight (but remember 2014 and 2015? Good times) I have adopted the San Diego Padres as my favorite team.
You might think it’s because Eric Hosmer plays there now. You would be incorrect. I’ve adopted the Padres because their new manager is a Smithville product. As we told you earlier this year the Padres are now managed by 39-year-old Jayce Tingler, who was a standout athlete in baseball and basketball at Smithville High School back in the day.
The Padres open the playoffs in a best two out of three series against the Cardinals, which began on Wednesday. Here’s hoping they’re still alive by the time you read this.
Good grief. Did you tune in for the first presidential debate Tuesday night? When that crap show was over I felt like I needed some Excedrins. And a shower.
When it comes to debates, historians will never confuse Trump-Biden with Lincoln-Douglas. Or even Nixon-Kennedy.
I suspect a lot of Americans lost a couple of IQ points just by watching. Which means I’m not sure I can afford to watch the next one.
Seriously, is there really a need to do another one of these? The lack of common professionalism, the constant interruptions, the verbal chaos. Unless future debate formats employ a tool by which the microphone of one candidate is cut while the other one is speaking, it all seems like a waste of time.
It’s sad that the presidential stage has come to this but here we are.
Your eyewitness reporter checking in:
There’s a global pandemic. Our presidential candidates argue like two drunk uncles at a family reunion. The Platte County Commissioners are handing out federal CARES dollars to family and friends and acting like it’s totally fine. The Platte County Commissioners are withholding federal dollars that were intended to go to the City of Kansas City and the Platte County Health Department out of political pettiness. The bullying Ferrelview police chief finally gets stripped of his law enforcement license. The City of Parkville is whizzing on the state open records law. The Parkville mayor is found guilty of violating state ethics laws. Public documents reveal the Parkville mayor has used her position and public resources to attempt to negatively impact business owners with whom she does not agree. The Parkville mayor has temper tantrums and meltdowns in public settings. The Parkville mayor is dropping F bombs and who gives a sh*ts in communications. The Parkville mayor gets a DWI.
Other than that, not much going on. Back to you in the studio.
Shortly after we broke the story of Parkville Mayor Nan Johnston’s DWI arrest at plattecountylandmark.com over the weekend, a Landmark reader sent me a text with this simple message: “I think you had this pegged.” Another reader called me Monday to say: “This makes you sound like a prophet.”
I appreciate the kind words the readers were passing along. But this one feels too easy. The late night temper tantrums and late night meltdowns in public forums were a pattern. Any other consistent observer of human behavior would also have seen something like this coming.
Two weeks ago in the Sept. 16 edition of The Landmark, I did my best to subtly put out a call to friends of Nan Johnston that they might want to consider some type of intervention. In the Sept. 16 Between the Lines was this observation:
“A lot of us have noticed a pattern. The most unintentionally entertaining Nan Johnston is the late night Nan Johnston. Some of the biggest temper tantrums and meltdowns by the Parkville mayor on social media and in emails have happened in the late night hours. (This is simply a fact-based observation, you’ll have to draw your own conclusions.) If Parkville loses that Sunshine lawsuit and you’re in the mood for some cheap after dark entertainment, hang by your computer. Unless a friend hides Nan’s internet devices, it will be glorious.”
Two days after that column appeared, a person who has made a career out of working in and with units of government, walked in The Landmark and offered this unsolicited comment: “If that doesn’t wake her up, nothing will.”
About 10 days later Nan gets pulled over for allegedly driving drunk at 1:18 a.m. and sadly, here we are.
In what he aptly termed a ‘CARES grant update,’ David Park of Platte County posted some interesting information about the county’s grant program that has been a source of controversy.
“At the most recent meeting of the (Platte County CARES small business grant) advisory committee established to review requests from businesses, it was announced that a maximum grant amount of $250,000 has been established,” wrote Park, who has attended many of the advisory committee meetings which are typically on Wednesdays.
Park also pointed out that of those businesses who have already been approved for grants, a total of zero have received the money yet. This confirms and updates what I was told two weeks ago. I was told that zero recipients have provided the detailed receipts/documents that would make the county auditor feel comfortable writing the grant payment checks to distribute the money.
Wow. Are some folks, either the businesses or county officials, getting uncomfortable at the thought of a future federal audit?
(Ivan Foley can be found watching the presidential debates on mute. Email him at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)