By Alex Smith
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bike commuters and enthusiasts soon may have more options for safely trekking through downtown Kansas City, Mo.

The Public Works Department disclosed plans Tuesday for redesigning traffic flow and creating bike lanes on a 1.5-mile stretch of Grand Avenue between the Crossroads and the River Market.
“It’s an opportunity to take Grand from a traditional 1960s six-lane arterial into a more walkable, livable three-lane street with bike lanes and better pedestrian accommodations,” said Wes Minder, manager of capital planning for the city.

To accommodate the bike lanes, the number of drivable car lanes on Grand Avenue would be reduced from four to two.

At a public comment session, Minder dismissed concerns that reducing the number of car lanes would create more traffic congestion. He said that, as the street is currently configured, drivers disrupt traffic flow whenever they turn left. That problem would be eliminated by the creation of a dedicated center-turn lane that would allow traffic to flow more continuously.

The proposed bike lanes would be buffered from traffic by a strip of painted road separating them from car lanes. Grand Avenue’s exterior parking lanes would be retained.

Eric Rodgers, executive director of BikeWalkKC, which advocates for cyclists and pedestrians, applauded the plan as a way to boost development downtown.

“The city’s been doing a really good job of adding bike lanes in the outlying areas – in the Northland, in the south – and the next step is to come back into the urban core and to the developed areas and add in bike lanes,” he said. “And Grand is a really good initial step to do that.”

The lanes are part of the city’s Bike KC plan, which was adopted in 2002. The Grand Avenue bikeway would complete 13 miles of bike lanes connecting downtown and nearby areas, including the Crossroads, River Market, the Westside, West Bottoms and the 18th and Vine District.

The Grand Avenue plan is funded largely by a federal congestion mitigation and air quality grant. The grant would provide 80 percent of the approximately $900,000 needed for the project. The remainder would come from the city.

Since launching the Bike KC plan, the city has created more than 50 miles of bike lanes and 352 miles of signed bike routes.

Bike-share stations first made their appearance in Kansas City in 2012. Seven were added last month for a total of 21 citywide.

Kansas City earned a bronze designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists in 2011. Then-mayor Mark Funkhouser announced the goal of winning a platinum designation by 2020.

Rodgers described the platinum designation goal as “really ambitious” but achievable.

“To get there, we’re going to need to do a lot more things like Grand (Avenue) in all parts of the city.” Rodgers said.

The Public Works Department is asking for public comment on the project for the next 30 days.

Officials say they anticipate the Grand Avenue project will be completed by fall 2015.

Alex Smith is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

MANCHESTER, Mo. (AP) — Dozens of people have interrupted holiday shopping at major retail stores around the St. Louis area to speak out about a grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who fatally shot Michael Brown.

The protests began Thanksgiving night and continued early Friday. Protesters spent a few minutes at each store, shouting inside. Officer in at least one store ordered them to leave. There was no immediate word of any arrests.

According to Johnetta Elzie, who had been tweeting and posting videos of the protests, demonstrations occurred at a Wal-Mart and Target in Brentwood, two Wal-Marts in St. Charles and one Wal-Mart in Manchester.

In the suburb of Ferguson, where Brown was shot on Aug. 9, there were no visible protests as the National Guard patrolled the area Thursday night.

BLUE SPRINGS (AP) – Police say two people have died in a shooting at a home in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs.

The Kansas City Star reports that police were called to the home around 7:30 a.m. Thursday and heard gunshots as they arrived. Police Sgt. Joe Fanara says both people were dead when officers entered the home.

Fanara says a third person was in the home but didn’t witness the shooting. Fanara says police are investigating the deaths but that no suspects were at large.

No other details were immediately available.

JIM SUHR, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A handful of people are gathered in downtown St. Louis for what the organizer is calling a “pro-community” car cruise.

Organizer Paul Byrd says the Thanksgiving morning cruise is meant to be peaceful and to counteract the violence seen earlier this week in Ferguson after a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

The Imperial, Missouri, man declined to say whether he supported Wilson but said he supports police officers.

There was minimal police presence across from Busch Stadium, where a handful of mostly pickup trucks were waiting in the cold, and no protesters.

Wednesday night’s protests in Ferguson were mostly quiet, with no reports of major confrontations or damage. Protests in Los Angeles and Oakland, California, saw dozens of arrests.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – A Kansas woman’s effort to get relief from a 25-year to life sentence for the murder of her mother has failed again.

The Kansas Supreme Court, in a published opinion Wednesday, denied the request for Tracie Miles, 34, Hutchinson, to withdraw her plea.

Two years ago, Judge Trish Rose denied the motion of Miles saying, “the defendant has not satisfied her burden of showing manifest injustice and the motion to withdraw the plea is denied.”

The high court stated a similar opinion.

The appeal started after now deceased Judge Richard Rome ruled he had no jurisdiction to hear arguments in the effort of Miles to withdraw her no contest pleas in the 1998 death of her mother.

In her motion, she alleges she didn’t understand what she was doing when she entered the pleas. She says her lawyer at the time, Tim Frieden, scared her by telling her if she didn’t take the plea, she could get the death penalty or a “Hard 40” sentence.

District Attorney Keith Schroeder argued at the time she was told of her rights and even signed an advice of rights form.

The Supreme Court ruled that, even if her attorney had previously misinformed or failed to fully inform Miles of the charges and possible penalties, any prejudice from that error was eliminated by the judge’s thoroughness at the plea hearing.

Miles was 17 when she and her 19-year-old boyfriend, Paul Nelson, were arrested for the murder of Miles’ mother, Sandra Kay Miles. Her body was found March 30, 1998, in her Hutchinson home. She had been struck with a wooden bear statue, then strangled. The two pleaded no contest to intentional first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and forgery, and received 25 to life sentences in 1999.

MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers will soon know how many calories they are eating when ordering off the menu at chain restaurants, picking up prepared foods at supermarkets and even eating a tub of popcorn at the movie theater.

The Food and Drug Administration is announcing long-delayed calorie labeling rules Tuesday, requiring establishments that sell prepared foods and have 20 or more locations to post the calorie content of food “clearly and conspicuously” on their menus. Companies will have until November 2015 to comply.

The regulations will also apply to convenience stores, bakeries, coffee shops, amusement parks and vending machines.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Turkey, stuffing and a helium-filled Thomas the Tank Engine are on the menu as friends and families gather across the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.

A wintry mix of snow and rain Wednesday hampered some holiday travel plans, grounding hundreds of flights and making for treacherous driving conditions in much of the Northeast.

A slight chance of rain or snow Thursday won’t deter the throngs of people who’ll be in midtown Manhattan for the nationally televised Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It will include six new giant balloons including Thomas the Tank Engine and the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger.

And to the delight of some and consternation of others, it’s increasingly become commonplace to see stores open on Thanksgiving, as retailers try to entice shoppers and kick off the holiday shopping season.