Rampaging Chimp to go to Kansas City Zoo

If you haven't heard, Sue, the pet chimpanzee, went on a rampage in a South Kansas City neighborhood on Tuesday. Sue freed herself from her owner's truck, made obscene gestures at pedestrians, and damaged a police cruiser before being shot with a tranquilizer gun by Kansas City Animal Control. Her owner, Mark Archigo has had run ins with the law over his chimp for years. The city had confiscated the animal first in 1995 - at that time the zoo had made progress in assimilating Sue into the chimp population. Also, after another incident where Sue picked up a girl by the ankles and tossed her, the animal was supposed to be turned over, but never was. The seriousness of the situation has been highlighted by the horrific attack on a Connecticut woman in February of 2009.

Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff said the assimilation process could take months of even years. Sue would have to learn to be a chimpanzee again. Eat chimp food like a chimp, not off a plate - she must also get used to being around other chimps and the social structure that comes with it. A city spokesman said the only other alternative was to euthanize the animal. The city is on strong legal footing this time around since there is a history of problems with the animal.

Sue could go to the Zoo as early as today to begin her long journey back to being a chimp. She could live up to another 30 years in captivity. Hopefully her assimilation process goes smoothly, but she certainly can have a better life with other chimps rather than caged in a truck. By the way, Kansas City residents can visit the Zoo for free through the month of November!

Kansas City Charity Events - 2010 Charity Fundraisers in Kansas City

Kansas City Charity Events - 2010 Fundraisers

Kansas City is known for having some of the biggest and brightest charity fundraisers in the nation, but if you're not paying attention you might miss them. That's why we at Kansas City News dot pro are going to give you the skinny:

Bacchus Black Ball

Charity - The Bacchus Foundation
Event Location - The Madrid Theatre
Event Date - February 6th, 2010
Attire - Black Tie
Cost - $100 per person - $175 per couple

The 55th Annual Bacchus Ball will be held this year at The Madrid Theatre and will feature live entertainment by Kansas City's favorite 80's band, The Zeros.

Horizon Academy's Bayou Bash

Charity - Horizon Academy Kansas City
Event Location - Starlight Theater
Event Date - Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Attire - New Orleans Mardi Gras Theme
Cost - $115 per ticket (sponsorship available)

Horizon Academy will hold their 6th annual Bayou Bash this year at Starlight Theater. Auction items will include a "Pick Your Destination" vacation, a "Las Vegas, Baby" getaway, and other great items. Entertainment for the event has not yet been announced as Starlight Theater coordinator Lindsey Rood denied Horizen Academy's request for their choice of entertainment.

Code Red 2010 - The Millennial League

Charity - AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City
Event Location - Madrid Theatre
Event Date - Friday, February 12th, 2010
Attire - Business Casual to Black Tie
Cost - $20 general admission, $75 VIP
Purchase Tickets to Code Red 2010 Event

The Millennial League is targeted toward young business professionals (although the spokeswoman that was just on Fox 4 was around 55 years old) and they support the missions and goals of the AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City. The Millennial League's charity event is called "Val-O-Ween" and will feature live entertainment from The Zeros.

Sunflower House - Valentine Gala

Charity - Sunflower House
Event Location - Overland Park Sheraton
Event Date - Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Cost - $150 (sponsorship available)

The Sunflower House, a charity group that fights child abuse, will hold it's annual Valentine Gala this year featuring a V.I.P. cocktail hour, fine dining, and dancing to live music provided by Adam Blue Productions.

Children's Mercy Hospital's Red Hot Night

Charity - Children's Mercy Hospital
Event Location - Kansas City Convention Center
Event Date - Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Attire - Black Tie

The focus on this year's charity event is cancer research. Children’s Mercy is working towards achieving COG designation as a Phase I/II Clinical Trial Center within their Experimental Therapeutics Program – a prestigious designation held by fewer than 25 children’s hospitals worldwide.

The Red Ball

Charity - The American Red Cross
Event Location - The Sprint Center, Kansas City
Event Date - Friday, February 26th, 2010
Attire - Black Tie
Cost - $175 per ticket (sponsorship available)

In it's third year, The American Red Cross is set to roll out the red carpet once again this year for The Red Ball. This year, the event will feature a catered dinner from Levy Restaurants and entertainment from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The event is set in a beautifully decorated Sprint Center, complete with red cross lights in the front windows of the massive event space.

Forks and Corks for Harvesters

Charity - Harvesters
Event Location - Kansas City Convention Center
Event Date - April 29th, 2010
Attire - Business Casual

The 14th annual Forks and Corks will assemble this year at the Kansas City Convention Center and will feature several top Kansas City Restaurants serving their best cuisine, a silent auction and a delightful wine selection and tasting.

Wayside Waifs - Fur Ball 2010

Charity - Wayside Waifs
Event Location - Overland Park Convention Center
Event Date - May 8th, 2010
Attire - Formal / Business Casual

Kansas City's favorite charity and charity event, Wayside Waifs annual FurBall will be held this year at The Overland Park Convention Center and will feature a live auction, and entertainment provided by Adam Blue Productions.

Jazzoo 2010

Charity - The Kansas City Zoo
Event Location - The Kansas City Zoo
Event Date - June 4th, 2010
Attire - Creative Black Tie

Kansas City's most creative and outrageous charity event has and always will be Jazzoo. Jazzoo 2010 will be no exception as there will be dozens of Kansas City's finest restaurants on site at The Kansas City Zoo, featuring their best cuisine. Party right along side the animals as the entire zoo will be flowing with festively dressed party goers.

This year's entertainment has not yet been announced, but there are usually at least 3 different live bands playing all night long at different locations around the zoo grounds.

For more info visit Kansas City Charity Events

Jazzoo 2011 at the Kansas City Zoo Friday June 3rd

Jazzoo 2011, Kansas City's largest charity event, gets underway at 6:30pm Friday night.  Jazzoo 2011 tickets are still on sale and range in price from $175.00 for an individual ticket all the way up to $15,000.00 for a group donation package.  We opted this year for the corporate package and will be sponsoring The Kansas City Zoo for the 4th year in a row.  We have requested that our donation go toward the Panther cage as that cage is the most pathetic cage in the entire zoo, (although we know that we cannot "direct" our donation dollars, we joke about this situation with the FOTZ every year - sometimes over the microphone on the main stage).

Information about Jazzoo 2013

Entertainment for Jazzoo 2011 will feature local 80's tribute band The Zeros, who have requested their own stage this year to separate their fans from the old folks who typically stay near the main stage.  We interviewed "Shawn Zero", The Zeros band leader and he remarked about last year's Jazzoo problems with The Zeros sharing the main stage with elder band ELO.  "Yeah, we opened up for ELO, or whatever they are calling themselves, they weren't even the real ELO, more like an ELO tribute band with most of the original members long gone [notably the band's founder, main songwriter and lead singer Jeff Lynne] and they were bitchin' at us about our stage show.  We had our light boxes on the stage for the hot girls to dance on and they were backstage throwing a fit about it.  The manager was yelling at us trying to get us to get the girls off the stage but we were like 'hey man, this is part of our show, you old fuckers are just going to have to deal with it'."  So this year, The Zeros were given their very own stage.  The entertainment on the old folks stage for Jazzoo 2011 will feature The Little River Band and The Rainmakers.

Jazzoo 2011 will once again feature a wide array of Kansas City cuisine, represented by over 50 Kansas City restaurants including The Oak Room Intercontinental, The Skies Restaurant, and one of our favorite plaza fine dining restaurants Fogo De Chao.  It will be a hot one out there so dress appropriately.  Dress at Jazzoo is notoriously referred to as Creative Black Tie, you are supposed to improvise on some form of tuxedo or formal wear.  You will definitely see some strange get-ups at Jazzoo 2011, and some of them will probably be us.  See you all there!

Charity Event 2011 Fundraisers in Kansas City

Kansas City is home to several excellent Kansas City charity events and fundraisers in 2011, and here at Kansas City News we like to keep you up to speed on upcoming charity events that are happening in Kansas City and the surrounding areas. So far this year we've had some great charity events including The Kansas City Zoo's Flights for Flippers featuring dueling pianos and also the Zoo's Sunset Safari featuring the KC All Stars. There are some great charity events coming up in 2011 including:

October 15th, 2011

Charity Fundraiser for Camp Quality NWMO

Although this particular event is for Camp Quality staff only, they will be holding a National meeting on Saturday October 15th, 2011 at the Holiday Inn in St. Joseph, Missouri and will feature entertainment from Kansas City's dueling pianos. Camp Quality NWMO provides year round support for children with cancer and their families. They sponsor a week long camp for the kids around the second week of June located at Camp Farwesta, just outside Stewartsville, Missouri. Camp Quality NWMO began in 1986 with 40 campers and 40 companions. The charity now averages 105 campers and 105 companions annually and this year marks the 26th camp. To get involved with Camp Quality NWMO just visit their website at www.campqualitynwmo.org

October 29th, 2011

First Hand Foundation's Masquerade Ball "Night of the Titans"

The 2011 Masquerade Ball marks the 6th year in a row that Cerner's First Hand Foundation has held this creative black tie charity fundraiser. Definitely geared toward the young Kansas City hipsters, this upscale event is held at The Midland Theater by AMC and will feature live music by Dr. Zhivegas produced by Adam Blue Productions. Catering will be provided by Hyatt Regency Catering, and there will be an open bar for the entire night from 7pm - 12am and an after party at Windows on Main on the top floor of the Midland Theater. Tickets for the Masquerade Ball 2011 are $110.00 for single tickets and sponsorship level tickets range from $1000 to $60,000. To purchase tickets please visit https://applications.cerner.com/firsthand. The First Hand Foundation is not-for-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization that provides funding so individual children may have access to health care that would otherwise be impossible. Backed by Cerner, the First Hand Foundation's mission is to directly impact the health status of a young life. This Kansas City charity was founded in 1995 and has distributed more than $14 million to impact 134,000 young lives in 76 countries.

Larry Moore Recognizes Adam Blue Productions, KC All Stars for Kansas City Charity Event Contributions

KMBC-TV's Larry Moore recognized Adam Blue Productions and also The KC All Stars recently for their contributions to multiple Kansas City charity organizations in the past several years. In Moore's testimonial he tells Kansas City viewers that these charity organizations "could not have raised the amount donations that they did in recent years without the help of Adam Blue Productions and The KC All Stars".

Adam Blue Productions is the largest band booking agency in Kansas City, and they have recently branched out to include Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson, Arizona, Vero Beach, Tampa Bay, and South Beach Florida, and they have also incorporated Nationally and will expand to include 473 US cities by August of 2012 via their new National band booking website "Bands for Hire Live!". Adam Blue Productions donates their efforts to several major Kansas City charity organizations including The American Red Cross, The Dream Factory, The Make a Wish Foundation, The Whole Person, The American Heart Association, Children's Mercy Hospital, Wayside Waifs, The Kansas City Zoo, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and several other Kansas City charity organizations.

The KC All Stars, voted "Best Band in Kansas City" 3 years in a row, were also mentioned by Larry Moore as being a strong contributor to the Kansas City charity community as well.

Both Adam Blue Productions and The KC All Stars have contributed countless hours and donations to local Kansas City charity organizations and will continue to do so according to CEO Adam Blue; "Absolutely, we plan to build on our past contributions to the wonderful charity organizations in Kansas City by doing our best to assist them with the success of their operations with a special focus on Kansas City charity events." Larry Moore deserves a lot of credit as well as he MC's and hosts several large charity events in Kansas City each year. Together as a team, Larry Moore, Adam Blue Productions and The KC All Stars are making a positive difference in the Kansas City community.

Larry Moore recognizes Adam Blue Productions, The KC All Stars, Kansas City News, official kc news site with breaking stories on The Kansas City Royals, Chiefs, charity events, the 2012 MLB All Star Game, weather, sports, MU, KU, ufo sightings, dui checkpoints, Kansas City neighborhoods, nightlife, concerts, the Sprint Center, the Power and Light District and current Kansas City news articles.

American Royal Barbecue Fires Up Today

American Royal Barbecue Fires Up Today

The 31st Annual American Royal Barbecue starts Thursday and continues through this Sunday October 3rd. Known as the "World Series of Barbecue" the American Royal is the largest Barbecue competition in the world! There are over 500 contestants in several different categories including brisket, ribs, sauce, dessert and many others. The event is open to the public starting Friday. Tickets are $13 and kids under 5 are free.

Activities include live music - with all the local favorites - such as Blues artists Samantha Fish and Trampled Under Foot. Tribute bands to Lynard Skynard, Journey, and The Beatles will also perform. You can check out a schedule of Live entertainment here. Of course there will be a Kids Fun Fest Area with activities for the children including a petting zoo. you can sample Barbecue and have a couple of beers as well. A Texas Hold-em Tournament will also be held Saturday night at 7PM. A $65 donation is required to participate in the poker tournament, you can register here. And with no Chiefs game (or Missouri Tigers, not that they would be on TV anyway) this weekend, it will give you something to do on Saturday and Sunday.