Freedom Festival Kansas City 2011

Just around the corner is the return of one of Kansas City's best concert series that has lay dormant for several years. The Freedom Festival, which is a revival of sorts of the old Spirit Festival in Kansas City, held at the Liberty Memorial Penn Valley Park on 23rd and Main will kick off next weekend on July 29th. The Freedom Festival has finalized it's line up with the addition of The Taxis, a Kansas City 80's band who will be opening for the Quad City DJ's on Saturday night, and also the addition of Spike Blake and Honky Tonk Rodeo, who will be opening for Kellie Pickler on Sunday night.

The musical line up for the entire weekend is as follows:

Friday, July 29
DJ 4:00pm
Trio Atzlan 5:00pm
Karma 6:00pm
Mamma V, Ellie and the Commotion 7:00pm
David Elliott 8:00pm
Dionne Warwick 9:00pm

Saturday, July 30
DJ 10:00AM
The Great Travelers 11:00am
Desert Wine 12:00pm
Sidekicks Latino Revolution 1:00pm
Embrace This Day 2:00pm
JD and the Chasers 3:00pm
The Marching Cobras 4:00 pm
Jus Marley 5:00pm
The Taxis 6:00pm
Quad City DJ's 7:00pm
Snap! 8:00pm
Crystal Waters 9:00pm

Sunday, July 31

DJ 10:00am
Miss Lady Blake 1:00pm
Nsane & T-Bun3 2:00pm
Sierra 3:00pm
Safe Passage 4:00pm
KC St. Andrew Pipes and Drums 5:00pm
Savage Amusement 6:00pm
Spike Blake & Honky Tonk Rodeo 7:00pm
Eden's Edge 8:00pm
Kellie Pickler 9:00pm
Finale Fireworks Spectacular

One Dead, One Critical in Chubby's Shooting

Chubby's on Broadway is an interesting place, especially at 2:30am. Never will you see a more generous assortment of freaks, east of California, congregated in one place. Or at least that's how I remember it when I lived around the corner back in the 90's. I suspect today it's a little more dangerous than it was, you know, with a thuggish element.

Anyway, last night it got real dangerous in the parking lot. Cops were called around 2:30 with reports of gunfire. When they arrived, one man was dead and another man injured. The dead man is described as black and in his 20s. The dead man is also a robbery suspect.

Two black men in a Cadillac (stereotype alert) attempted to rob two white guys (another stereotype alert) in the parking lot of Chubby's. Fortunately (well not if you are the dead man), the alleged victim of the robbery was packin'. Bad guy, DRT, justice served. White guy robbery victim was also shot in the leg and is in critical condition.

Chronic Litterbug Brought to Justice

Carole Green sure does like Lipton Iced Tea. Every morning the Bonner Springs resident would drink one on the way to work and throw the empty into Gary Bukaty's yard. Bukaty counts more than 200 times the bottle has been thrown on his property. He was fed up and decided to install a motion capture camera to catch the perpetrator of the heinous crime.

It worked, he spotted chronic litterbug and certified white trash, Carole Green throwing the bottle out her car window. Bukaty took the evidence to the Police. Green plead guilty to four counts of littering and was fined $1000.

Only four counts? Why did the prosecutor not go for more counts? I would assume he had the evidence. This guy had bags of these bottles that she threw on his yard.

Incidentally, the story was even featured on Inside Edition. Maybe she has a future doing advertisements for Lipton.

Sporting KC vs Newcastle United

In the absence of our vacationing sports writer, we bring you some Kansas City sports news:

Sporting KC will host EPL representative Newcastle United tonight at Livestrong Park. EPL representative Newcastle United will leave the luxury of their homeland where the weather is a mellow 59 degrees to come to Kansas City where it is in the triple digits, and what's the word for it?.......Um, oh yeah......HUMID. Last year around this time Sporting KC defeated another EPL team Manchester United, proving that the MLS can easily compete with the EPL. According to goalie Jimmy Nielsen, the MLS is considered a "retirement league" in other countries, and a win tonight against Newcastle United will go a long way to gain some respect with our tooth decayed friends across the pond. There is no doubt that soccer is much more popular in the UK and other countries, mostly because THEY DON'T HAVE THE NFL.

The sweltering weather should play in the Sporting's favor as the weather in Newcastle United's home town is 59 degrees and rainy. The forecast for tonight's match is 95 degrees and around 85% humidity. The Sporting KC roster for tonight is as follows:

10 M Jeferson Sporting Kansas City 27
3 M Korede Aiyegbusi Sporting Kansas City 23
22 M Davy Arnaud Sporting Kansas City 31
5 D Matt Besler Sporting Kansas City 24
99 F Omar Bravo Sporting Kansas City 31
9 F Teal Bunbury Sporting Kansas City 21
55 D Julio Cesar Sporting Kansas City 32
78 D Aurelien Collin Sporting Kansas City 25
25 D Daneil Cyrus Sporting Kansas City 20
20 F Birahim Diop Sporting Kansas City 32
14 D Kevin Ellis Sporting Kansas City 20
15 D Roger Espinoza Sporting Kansas City 24
2 D Michael Harrington Sporting Kansas City 25
23 F Kei Kamara Sporting Kansas City 26
21 GK Jon Kempin Sporting Kansas City 18
18 GK Eric Kronberg Sporting Kansas City 28
24 D Scott Lorenz Sporting Kansas City 23
7 F Chance Myers Sporting Kansas City 23
1 GK Jimmy Nielsen Sporting Kansas City 33
4 M Craig Rocastle Sporting Kansas City 29
11 F Soony Saad Sporting Kansas City 18
17 F C.J. Sapong Sporting Kansas City 22
32 D Luke Sassano Sporting Kansas City 25
16 D Seth Sinovic Sporting Kansas City 24
88 M Milos Stojcev Sporting Kansas City 24
6 D Shavar Thomas Sporting Kansas City 30
12 M Konrad Warzycha Sporting Kansas City 22
8 M Graham Zusi Sporting Kansas City 24

Three Kansas City Kansas Police Officers Indicted

We first told you in January about an alleged sting operation by the FBI where several Kansas City Kansas Police officers were arrested. It now becomes clear that a citizen filed a complaint last summer about officers stealing her property during the execution of a search warrant.

According to the Indictment, Tawana L Webster of Haskell Rd in Kansas City, KS was allegedly deprived of her Constitutional Rights to protection from seizure of her property without due course. In other words, the dirty pigs stole her shit while searching her house.

The Charged are:

Jeffrey M Bell
Darryl M Forrest
Dustin Sillings

All are charged with Conspiracy Against Rights carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in Federal Prison and a $250,000 fine.

Bell and Forrest are also charged with Deprivation of Rights for last summer stealing a Camcorder and a Play Station Portable from Ms. Webster during a search at her residence. Punishable by 1 yr and $100k fine.

All three are charged with theft of Government property for the January sting operation set up by the FBI. Cash and Video games were left at an apparent search warrant site. Forrest took $300 in cash and two Nintendo DS games, Sillings took $340 in cash, and Bell took a Nintendo DS game and a piece of computer equipment.

These acts show a blatent disregard for the officers swarn duties. It's detrimental to community cooperation with law enforcement, and just plain wrong. I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

At the very least, these guys need help for their video gaming addiction.