Mike Vrabel Retires From Chiefs

Whether we have an NFL season or not, Mike Vrabel's NFL days are over. Vrabel has retired from the NFL to take a position at Ohio State as linebackers coach. Ohio State is Vrabel's alma mater.

The move comes as a shock to the Kansas City Chiefs' organization, who still had Vrabel listed as a starting linebacker. All reports indicate that the Chiefs expected Vrabel to both return for this season and see significant playing time.

Then again, with Vrabel's career coming to an end, the move makes sense. Vrabel wanted to get into coaching, and being a position coach for the college he played for is a dream job. He knew this opportunity may never open up again, and while unexpected, this is different than a player quitting a team for other personal reasons.

Vrabel was a two time All-American at Ohio State, and won three super bowl titles with the New England Patriots.

Kansas City News Celebrates 2 Years on July 12th

We're turning 2 years old!  We want to thank everyone for stopping by and reading our articles here at Kansas City News.  We've recently become a main fixture on page 1 of Google for the search "kansas city news" which is not a very easy task - we beat out several local newspapers, tv news stations and other Kansas City news sources and we appreciate it!  For our birthday we've given ourselves a little makeover, hope you like the new logos and artwork.

We are a grassroots website that is based solely in Kansas City, Missouri.  We are not some national website like about.com that generically reports (more like regurgitates) news stories without any real Kansas City insight.  All of our authors live in Kansas City, and they work hard to bring you honest, refreshing, and even downright opinionated Kansas City news stories.  We take pride in reporting the news to you in an honest manner, we don't dilute our stories by trying to be politically correct, we don't worry about whether or not we're going to offend anyone or not.  This is the news, and we tell it like it is, we're hoping that most of our Kansas City readers find that approach refreshing.  For our entire lives the news has been spoon fed to us by a limited amount of resources who force their opinion on us, and choose what news we get to hear and what news to edit out.  Kansas City has always been stuck with about 3 TV stations, and one newspaper to report the news and it's time that an honest, tell it like it is news source stepped up to tell Kansas City news the way it should be told.

We know that a crowd is gathering, we know that we gain more and more readers every week in Kansas City as we watch our website traffic stats rise.  Whether you read our articles because you appreciate our honesty and lack of appropriate filters, or you just stumbled in, we want you to know that we hope you continue to follow our Kansas City news stories.

Sincerely,

Kansas City News

Former Grandview Police Officer Charged with Murder, Rape

Prosecutors from both Jackson and Cass Counties announced this morning at a joint press conference that they are charging Jeffrey Moreland with murder and rape in connection with several cases that span a number of years. Moreland medically retired from the Grandview, MO Police Department several years ago before any of the alleged crimes took place.

The suspect picked up a woman walking down MO 291 in Harrisonville on June 30. He took her to his home and raped her. Afterward, he gave the woman $100, hit her on the head and told her she was stupid for getting into a car with a stranger. The investigation into her abduction and rape, and the DNA taken from that case, led to the break in the cold case murders from 2008 ands 2010.

Moreland has been charged with the 2008 murder of Cara Jo Roberts. Roberts was found in her bathtub, shot in the head. He has also been charged in the 2010 murder of Nina Whitney in south Kansas City.

Moreland had been a suspect in the murder investigations and was asked for a DNA sample on June 16th and declined. Well, he provided one by raping the woman on June 30 and was subsequently linked to the homicides. He fled the area and was arrested on July 5th in Des Moines. Good luck in prison Jeff, I hear they enjoy former Police Officers in there! You're going to be real popular.

Courts Rule in Favor of NFL, Deem Lockout Legal

Earlier this week, it appeared that the NFL lockout may soon be coming to an end. While negotiations have continued this week in New York, the 8th curcuit courts recently ruled in favor of the NFL, deeming that the lockout is indeed legal.

The decision came fresh off the news that Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith have started a second day of negotiations in New York. The ruling was not a surprise to both the owners and the players, as previous court decisions have often ended the same way regarding cases similar to the 2011 lockout.

While the news caught both the players and owners off guard, the ruling is not expected to be a factor in the present negotiations. Sources say that both parties feel an agreement is close to being reached, although we still do not know when that will be. While an agreement for how the revenue split should be settled appears close, there is still a lot of work to be done in regards to the new free agency rules. Progress is being made, but it appears that a decision is likely a few weeks away.

Royals Take Series Vs. White Sox, Pitching Continues To Impress

After Felipe Paulino and the Royals bullpen shut down the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, Bruce Chen delivered an even better performance yesterday. Chen only allowed one run in six innings of work, and Kansas City won 4-1. The win gave the Royals a series victory over the White Sox.

Kansas City's offense quickly gave Chen a lead, highlighted by Eric Hosmer's eighth home run of the season. Hosmer now has three multi-hit games in the last four days, and he has given the Royals' offense a major shot in the arm since being called up.

The biggest story of the day, however, was Chen. Time and time again, he was able to escape jams while keeping Chicago's batters off balance all day long. Starting pitching was a major concern a few weeks ago, however Paulino and Chen's recent performances have given Kansas City fans some renewed hope. The team still needs to address its starting rotation if it wants to compete in the future, but the situation doesn't seem nearly as dire as it did earlier in the season.

The Royals begin a new series tonight against the struggling Detroit Tigers. Danny Duffy (1-3) will get the start for Kansas City.