High school football season is now in full swing and with that it’s time for an important Landmark-related announcement involving your favorite Rambling Moron.
The Landmark’s Chris Kamler will be on the mic calling high school football on Friday nights this fall. You’ll find his voice on KCMO 95.7/710 AM calling a game each and every week now through Thanksgiving.
“It’s my own show and we go to a different game each week,” says our man Kamler, a longtime Landmark columnist on page 3 where he pens a self-named column titled The Rambling Moron.
Most exciting announcement yet? “Next week’s Game of the Week is Park Hill at Staley,” Kamler told me.
So there you go, Park Hill fans. Tune in next Friday in crystal clear FM to hear the engaging, energetic and some would say (I wouldn’t, but some might) sexy voice of Chris Kamler calling your favorite team’s game.
You’re welcome.
A little more sports talk. To be more specific, a little more Park Hill-related sports talk.
Exciting news from the Royals this week, as they announced local standout Carter Jensen, a Park Hill graduate, has been called up to the big league club for the September stretch run. As you likely know, Jensen is a catcher and he has been tearing it up in AAA with the Omaha Storm Chasers. He is considered the Royals’ No. 2 minor league prospect and MLB’s No. 69 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline. Jensen was a third round draft pick in 2021 out of Park Hill and he now gets the opportunity to suit up for his hometown team–and let’s hope he gets some playing time.
He began this 2025 season at AA Northwest Arkansas. He struggled a bit into May when he made an adjustment in his swing. After the adjustment his numbers improved and he was promoted to AAA Omaha, where he tore it up. In 43 games at Omaha, Jensen smashed 14 homers and 11 doubles.
Jensen’s arrival with the big league club would allow Salvador Perez more days at first base or designated hitter, to give the veteran’s legs some rest. Here’s hoping the local guy continues the hot streak he had going in the minors.
Isn’t it ironic?
In one of his first acts as governor in January, Mike Kehoe ordered the Department of Corrections and the Division of Probation and Parole to set up a working group for a comprehensive study of parole rules. Per the governor, the group is to work toward “the goal of providing clarity, transparency, and accountability for the parole process.” The transparency part has become a problem, however, as press folks are pointing out the parole study group may be violating the Missouri Sunshine Law by holding secret meetings.
According to the Missouri Independent, the only time the 15-member panel has met in public was June 13 when it held a 25-minute public hearing in the Capitol Building. Since then it has met three times without posting any notice of the time or place of the meeting or allowing the public to attend. So much for transparency.
An executive assistant to the parole board has publicly said “no public notice is required as it is not an open meeting.” If you’re familiar with basics of the Sunshine Law, you know that comment is borderline lunacy.
A governmental body subject to Sunshine Law must post a notice of the time and place it intends to meet, with an agenda of items to be discussed, at least 24 hours in advance. To hold a closed meeting , the body must first open the meeting in public, with an agenda that cites specific exemptions in law that allow for closed meeting discussion. The body must hold a roll call vote to go into a closed session. The Sunshine Law also specifically covers “any advisory committee or commission appointed by the governor or executive order” in the definition of governmental bodies.
The Department of Corrections (DOC) somehow disagrees. “The working group meetings are not public meetings/hearings,” a spokeswoman told The Independent, presumably with a straight face. Meanwhile, the Missouri Press Association’s legal advisor obviously disagrees with the DOC’s stance. Dan Curry, an attorney who recently replaced the retired Jean Maneke as Missouri Press Association (of which The Landmark is a member) Sunshine expert, points out: “The working group is subject to all Sunshine requirements.” A spokeswoman for Gov. Kehoe did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
We’re not at all involved in driving the bus on this one but we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears open from the passenger seat.
From the ‘where are they now?’ department.
We had a quick but enjoyable visit from Tom Cole, former city administrator for Platte City, who dropped in The Landmark office on Tuesday. Cole is still very active in this area, doing his new entrepreneurial gig. He said he has been keeping extremely busy with his work as a small business advisor. Cole, of Liberty, said he has done a lot of work with construction companies in particular. Consulting for “start-ups, operations, problem solving” it says on his business card.
Your Kansas City Chiefs open the season on Friday night. Yes, Friday night. Set your DVR if you’ll be at a high school football game. KSHB Channel 41 in Kansas City will have the telecast.
Speaking of the Chiefs, a “study” sent my way recently reveals the Chiefs are the “second most popular NFL team in America.” That standing is based on the number of Google searches for the teams.
So who is the most popular NFL team according to Google searches? The Dallas Cowboys are the only team to top the Chiefs in that department. The team that comes in third surprised me. It’s the Detroit Lions. The NFL team last in Google searches? The Indianapolis Colts.
(On Friday night find Foley listening to Kamler call high school football in one ear and listening to the Chiefs game in the other ear while he’s in person at a different high school game)
