I’ve become a fan of the River Market area in Kansas City. It’s a good place to kill a few hours if you have extra time on a weekend. The Planters Seed & Spice store is legit. Much more than seeds and spices. Lots of hardware stuff. Reminds me of the old time hardware stores in my hometown when I was a kid. There’s also an antique store down there–appropriately named River Market Antiques–where you can browse through three floors of vintage stuff for hours, should you so choose.
One of my favorite food places at the River Market is Il Lazzerone Pizza. So good. There’s an Il Lazzerone location in St. Joseph that is equally good. In face, a guy named Mahomes has been known to visit the St. Joseph location during training camp each summer.
Here’s the Il Lazzerone description of what they do, per their website: “Our Neapolitan style pizza features the freshest and most pure ingredients, quality ingredients. Our dough is some of the rarest and most traditional in the world, made with only four ingredients: yeast, flour, water, and salt. Once the dough has been mixed, it is left to naturally leaven and then shaped by hand. Our San Marzano tomatoes are grown at the base of Mount Vesuvius.”
Do you ever wonder if they have restaurants in Japan where American people cook in front of you with lawn chairs and a grill?
Don’t look now but there will be plenty of local politics to cuss and discuss in the spring. There will be a lot on the ballot for various entities in our coverage area. I won’t list them all now but some of the highlights will include a marijuana tax proposed in Platte City; a hotel/motel room tax in Platte City; also in Platte City, a proposal to make the terms for city elected offices four years instead of the current two years; a contested alderman race in Platte City in the spot currently occupied by the retiring John Higgins; an operating levy increase of 10 cents proposed by the Park Hill School District; a proposed increase of 30 cents in the debt service levy for Park Hill to fund $128 million in capital improvements; a $62 million bond issue question for Platte County R-3 voters, with the district “estimating” the school overall tax levy will remain unchanged; a contested school board race at Platte County R-3 with three candidates for two open spots; and the Central Platte Fire District will have a tax levy increase on the ballot.
There will be other races and questions around the county not in this list. Stay tuned as the April 8 election draws near.
Remember the mysterious drones flying over New Jersey a while back and our own federal government–the Biden Administration at the time– claimed to not have knowledge of who or what those drones were and couldn’t or wouldn’t explain what was going on? Then the whole situation just kind of faded out of the spotlight and out of the national news cycle.
President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt put an end to the mystery with this announcement on Tuesday:
“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time it got worse, due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
So really the only mysterious thing here is that the Biden Administration wasn’t at all forthcoming about the situation.
By the way, at just 27-years-old Karoline Leavitt is the youngest person to ever be named White House press secretary. Her first official press briefing event was held on Tuesday. She was very impressive.
Being press secretary for Trump–or any president, for that matter–is not an easy task. There is a lot of stress involved, which is why you often see presidents go through multiple press secretaries. Trump cycled through four press secretaries during his first four year term.
Hey. Here’s a Netflix recommendation for you.
It’s called The Madness. It is a thriller series in which a media pundit named Muncie Daniels (played by Colman Domingo) accidentally discovers a murder in the Poconos woods, subsequently finds himself framed for the crime and is forced to fight to clear his name while uncovering a deep conspiracy involving powerful political figures and disinformation campaigns.
A summary online points out that the series “explores themes of truth, manipulation, and the struggle to maintain integrity in a world of misinformation.”
It’s a series of eight episodes, if I remember correctly, and it’s engaging and addictive enough that you might find it hard to hit stop when your bedtime hits.
Got another Netflix suggestion for you but will save it for another time.
Your Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl again. Sure, it feels like this has become routine, but don’t ever take it for granted.
They’ll play the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. As you know the Chiefs are going for a third consecutive Super Bowl victory. That’s what is called a three-peat and it has never been done in the Super Bowl era.
Too early to give you a prediction but I will say the Eagles defensive front led by Jalen Carter and their star running back Saquon Barkley are going to provide some challenges for our favorite team. The Chiefs are known for playing close games. Buckle up, it might be another one of those Instant Classics. Let’s hope it is, because the Chiefs have become masters at winning games decided by one score.
(Find Foley walking aimlessly around the River Market. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
