Southwest Airlines' Plan B: leave KCI, and build new terminal in Gardner Ks! Financed with local Airport Revenue Bonds

Behind the scenes, Southwest Airlines may pull a Love Field strategy in metro KC.  Land their planes in Johnson County, and forget all about MCI in KCMO.  (Southwest does not fly out of Dallas/Ft Worth's "main" airport, they have Love Field.  Nor do they fly out of O'Hare in Chicago.  They use Midway.)

Gardner Municipal Airport in Joco.  Closer. Cheaper.
Faster than 75% of Southwest's passengers wasting 45 minutes each way to go to KCI.
Future home of Southwest Airlines.
And building their own terminal in Joco
would cost "peanuts" compared to KCI!!!

Every prudent business has backup plans.  Southwest, being an innovator and cost-conscious, and serving THEIR key market, which is the 75% of all passengers who live and or work in Johnson County, is no different.

What will the CEO of Southwest airlines, Gary C. Kelly, do?  Sure, he writes a few nice letters to KC Aviation Department to keep them happy.  But they are not legal commitments!  Meanwhile....since Sly James and the KCMO Council are dithering--and teasing with Burns & Mac....

Gary C. Kelly is the chief executive officer and chairman of Southwest Airlines.
He first joined the company in 1986 as Controller. In 1989,
Kelly was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance.

Has anyone checked the visitor logs in the Topeka capitol?

Has Governor Sam Brownback secretly offered tax breaks and incentives to Southwest?

What about the leaders of the Kansas Senate and the Kansas House?  Nick Jordan,
the Ks. Director of Revenue?  Jordan is DESPERATE to bring in some new revenues.

What about Acting Director Antonio Soave, Director of the Kansas Department of Commerce?  Landing Southwest Airlines in Kansas would be the plum of his career.

And finally, gubernatorial hopeful with the biggest ego in the state, Kris Kobach?  Rather than a white horse, he would so love to ride into office on a white jet.

 The KC Star is obsessed with financing Kansas schools this fall, definitely a great distraction.  Especially for a newspaper that has NO local reporters, no full time STATE reporters, and one pock-faced has-been who-cares-what-he-thinks columnist (named after a thorny flower).

The STAR is so Missouri-centric, they don't even consider what a superlative option this is.  To them, it's all about KCI.  They still actually hold to the old wives tale that it is an "international" airport!  

And has our Johnson County Teleprompter in Chief, BOCC Chairman Ed Eilert,  made Southwest an insider deal like he made for his investment buddies at King Louie???  Don't count our wooden Indian, Ed, out.   He can read his marching orders from a cue card with the best of 'em. Mister Ed can play the same game as Sly James--give the bond sales to private investors, paying 2% more per year to borrow money, rather than issue Airport Revenue Bonds.  

If Google Maps went offline, the STAR could not dispatch a courier to even FIND the Johnson County Board of Commissioners in Olathe unless someone left a trail of bread crumbs for them to follow.   Or they hailed an Uber.
(With the exception of Steve Vockrodt, their utility outfielder who lives halfway to Lawrence, so he knows the proper exit.  But he can't cover EVERY beat!)

As Tony says, "Stay tuned."

Thank you, Sly James! Your ill-reasoned plan to pay $15/hour minimum wage across MO will boost JoCo and save the KS economy!

Hosannas and praise to Sly James, Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.  You are doing MORE with your left-handed bungling than even Kansas Governor Sam Brownback thinks he is, to support the stalled economy in Johnson County, Kansas!!!

Sly James commenced his second term in August, kissing up to a local push from an organizing group of people all wearing red T-shirts to raise the minimum wage, just in KCMO, to $15 an hour.
Sly loves anything in a red shirt.  Just like he donned a red KCMO Firefighters button down shirt the night that JJ's Restaurant exploded and killed a worker--the night the KCMO firefighters drove away without turning off the gas leak, themselves, claiming (with a perhaps falsified FAX), that was somehow justified or prudent, because of some goofball policy that the "gas company had it covered"...no need for the Fire Department to actually do their tax-supported job.

So Mr. Big Red Jacket, we all know you love being on the news.  And so you supported the $15 an hour organizers, as well.  You made the news.

But that puzzled me.  Because Mayor James has a day job, as a lawyer.  It is illegal in Missouri for a city to pass a law controlling the minimum wage.  It must be a statewide thang.  So shouldn't he know better?

But oh well.  Details are not Sly's thang.  Like how to build a hotel downtown, without violating securities law, because your secret research report told you and the council that it won't pay for itself.
As of August 29,2015, the City of KCMO is claiming they don't have to release the secret research report, "because it was embedded and bundled inside a request for a sealed bid".  So even tho the taxpayers PAID for the report, they can't see it.  Details.  "It's a secret!"   (More on that soon.)

Another pesky detail this week:  Sly James now is scheming to borrow money from the Zoo Bond Fund to pay for a completely different project.  Might that be the same downtown hotel?  But wait.  The ballot issue promised the taxpayers when they voted for the penguins that the money would only go to the Zoo?  Details.

So when I read that Sly was grandstanding for the $15 an hour minimum wage, I just smiled.  Four years is a LONG time for him to campaign to replace Congressman Emanuel Cleaver in Congress.
He's gonna need alot of free headlines.  Like Donald Trump's race, it's far too early for details.

But now the news is reporting that Sly apparently read the state law, and perhaps had a "duh moment".  So now he is joining hands with union workers in St. Louis, and the new battle cry is "Raise the minimum wage across all of Missouri--to $15 an hour."  Coming soon to a red T-shirt near you.

To my mind, Sly James' campaign is the best news that Johnson County has had in a long time. Because every business that CAN migrate across our itty bitty and oh so close State Line Road--into Kansas for regular minimum wages--will do so.

The truth is this.  The economy has not recovered from 2008.  Businesses large and small are doing everything in their power just to survive.  And they are holding off on actual hiring.  Because we don't trust Congress not to jack up the tax code and the labor laws even worse.  And let's not even go there regarding Obamacare.  It's too big to repeal, too hard to repair and too soon to tell.

The second Big Truth is: newbie workers are not worth $15 an hour.  Period.  It doesn't matter if you exclude kids, late teens.  A greeter at Walmart is not worth $15 an hour.  They don't earn their keep. It's nice that they hire retirees.  But really, what do they do but check for shoplifters and point toward the return desk?  I want falling prices, not rising ones!  A rising tide floats all boats.  Imagine having to raise everyone's salary because the new hires start at $15 and hurt morale.  What would really happen?  Work the people you have to death, that's what.  NO new hires.

A new kid out of college, just learning their trade as a copywriter?  Not worth $15 an hour.  A new kid who just graduated from SM Northwest, learning how to load up trees at my favorite nursery, Family Tree Nursery in Shawnee?  Not worth $15 an hour.  (Ask for Woody.)  A newly hired empty nester Mom, seeking her first job in 18 years, anywhere, since the kids went away to college?  Not worth $15 an hour.  She might be, soon.  But not on Day 1.  So the franchisees and the entrepreneurs and the big box stores in Johnson County are not going to lose money, they just won't hire anyone starting out at $15 an hour.  Including the marcher carrying his sign UPSIDE DOWN!

So please, Sly James.  LET THE MIGRATION BEGIN.  You keep wearing your red T-shirts and your red KCFD button down shirt.  And send ALL your businesses over to Johnson County--it's in the Red State.

Hugs,

Tracy Thomas, publisher of JoCoPost.com
New publisher of KCMOPost.blogspot.com

How Facebook nearly made me falter on my search for JOY today…how about you?

I live in a great place, the most successful suburb in the Midwest, Johnson County, Kansas.  And yet, despite all my blessings, including the respite from too much rain, I keep noticing how little it takes to knock me off my game of living a life filled with joy.  Last weekend, with some uncertainties on the calendar, I set my deliberate intention to experience some pretty consistent happiness for three days in a row.  

My ‘mental FitBit’ average is about two days max.  I don’t wear a bracelet—I just pinch myself—and ask, “Am I happy?”  It’s very low tech.

(haha, I'll figure out this margin thang eventually.)

This time I made it to four days—including a great outing across the state line to First Friday, not getting shot in Westport, discovering a great new Italian diner, getting my favorite table at Urban Table, buying a ProBook on Newegg.com for $214 and a glorious surprise visit from a friend.

http://giphy.com/gifs/otnqsqqzmsw7K/html5joyous penquins

Perhaps four days was pushing it.  I finally launched this blog.  I found myself thinking the world’s most dangerous thought of expectation, “Surely THEN my life will work!”  Ha—do I never learn?  Father Alfred d’Souza said it best:

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way, some ‘thing’ to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid.  Then life would begin.  At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

Ten hours after I launched JoCoPost.com, the reality set in, “I just birthed this thing.  This helpless, unclothed, barely formatted and not SEO optimized baby.  Now there’s just a whole lotta work to be done until it grows bigger and graduates—eg is bought up by Huffington Post, the Koch Brothers or Donald Trump and elChapo.  

I don’t know enough.  And the mean boys are already massing against me on Tony’s site, www. tonyskansascity.com,  http://www.tonyskansascity.com/2015/08/tracy-thomas-launches-joco-post.html hating on me anonymously.”  (For the record, that pic was from a costume party.  I'm not that colorful when you spot me at The Aldi or The Costco.)

It is true: anonymous bad karmic acts and comments by others can take a psychic toll, even if one is like me.  I am not burdened by the usual High Affiliative Need-- to be liked.  Being the daughter of two critical parents was a blessing.  I ignore a lot of rejection.  I’m driven by the need to make a difference. Yet, the Butterfly Effect of global reaction remains a powerful vibratory force: actions on one side of the world make butterfly wings tremble on the opposite side of this planet.

Today I noticed something else: the power of Facebook to shake the leaves on my tree.  So there I was, reading a friend’s Facebook—announcing impending travel plans which  greatly saddened me. I fell out of joy.   For several hours, until I phoned my friend, I believed what I read.  Because Facebook said so! 

Now I am a Facebook virgin.  For five glorious years following a crippling telescoping Louisville ladder collapse, my lawyers had forbidden me to use social media.  Because jurors lie.  Despite every judge’s instructions, jurors Google or Facebook you.  During lunch or in the potty!  They don’t need to discuss with other jurors—Facebook just enabled them to form unshakeable biased opinions about the social causes you do not agree on.  That alone can often sink a verdict right there. 

via GIPHY

gavel

Facebook is insidious and dangerous.  Using your permissions, it ferrets out travel plans and posts them-- not “thinking” to delete them when they change.  Not only can that make your home vulnerable to burglars, it can affect relationships, hurt feelings--or get you in serious trouble at work.  Facebook also lies—almost daily, to gin up your addiction to checking it.  It emails you: “Your friend XYZ just updated their status.”  Not true!  Made ya look; made ya look!   

If Facebook can create this much souris in Johnson County, Kansas, with their intrusive spying and sharing and annoying false notifications, just how disruptive are they being to the US economy?? 

Bear with me, JoCoPost readers.  I am on this roller coaster of life.  Just like you.  We won’t always agree, but my intention is to generate discussion, invite more input, and together maybe we can right some wrongs, fix some broken systems—including local government.  Celebrate good people doing neat things.  And be better informed and connected like we used to be when we had a newspaper and local media that supported our need to really KNOW what is shaking our trees.

Tracy Thomas, Publisher

Beware, JoCo homeowners: Windows 10 is the lap dance of laptops.

Beware, JoCo homeowners: Windows 10 is the lap dance of laptops.

Dear JoCo homeowner or business owner: Warning!  I backed out of the so-called “free” upgrade to Windows 10.  Should you?

So there I was, getting ready to post to this new blog, and it sure sounded good—after all, I am a happy Windows 7 gal.  I have two PCs that use Windows 7.  Unless we are talking clothing, a 10 sure sounds more attractive than a 7.  Let’s not go there.  Surely Microsoft has my best interests at heart.  They’re not greedy like Apple.  To get my attention, Microsoft completely skipped over the 9.  All Version 7’s and Version 8’s including 8.1  would get a “free upgrade to Windows 10”!  (That skipping the 9 was a genius marketing move, by the way.  That’s called a disruptor in brain theory.  Counting up sequentially, 7,8,9,10 is so rote.  The long plod of techno history.  One version at a time, like the Bataan Death March until the robots wipe us out.  But Eureka, by skipping the 9—now your Broca’s Area—the Great Decider or Procrastinator living in  your pre-frontal cortex-- is wide awake, begging you to tell it more…)

What Microsoft soft-peddled was, version 10 of Windows MAY ONLY FREE FOR THE FIRST YEAR!  It’s like pre-marital sex.  Windows 10 is the lap dance of laptops.  Because after the free year, then when you are all entangled and committed, and can’t really go back to your old life without a lawyer’s help, then they may hit you up for an estimated $129 a year.  Forever.  Opinions differ on this, including Forbes.  But certainly, added features will be monetized.  

Luckily, whilst I was bragging to web designer and SEO optimizer Rick Peterson at Brand Central who was finishing up the design of this blog, JoCoPost, he alerted me to the questions I should have asked from the gitgo.  Is free really free?  Is it just a tease?  A free temporary upgrade?  And more importantly, is what you are using currently working?  I concluded, my Mom’s Iowegian advice  was right: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.   

So I backed out of the Windows 10 upgrade, right when they got to the vows of Till Death Do Us Part.  In fact, I just now went to NewEgg.com and bought yet another registered Windows 7 HP laptop, for $214.  So much for Kansas not having the tax-free weekend while Missouri is gobbling up sales.

And I won't even mention Windows 10's spyware.  Bring back Edward Snowden, please.

Windows 10 does have some advantages.  It takes the very unhappy Windows 8 people back to the features they loved and lost, when they left Windows 7.  So it's kinda like getting divorced and then dating your high school sweetheart. 

Now you 8's are really in a quandary.  Unless you have a touch screen, Windows 8 is sucky.  So go back or go forward.  Just be informed.  Liberty personal injury attorney Julie Cooper says, "I'm divorcing the 8 I hate, so I have to upgrade to 10.  I also hope to use Cortana for dictating the 200 emails I get daily."

I’ve heard of Cortana.  But like 66% of Americans, I much prefer Google’s search engine.  And Google Chrome.  Is it so important for me to hear a woman’s voice that I would divorce myself from saying, ”OK Google”??  With Windows 10, I'd be constantly badgered into marrying into Bing, which is Cortana’s tribe.  So what sounded so great initially is really a big decision.  Would I move from Johnson County back to KCMO, just because I found an attractive house with a granite kitchen?  BING-O: Heck no.   

Now I can’t just blame the Kansas City Star for not analyzing this news.  Nobody reads it, especially here in Johnson County, where they no longer cover the local news or publish a zone section.  I only read it free, online—and only after someone calls me to check a story of interest.  And they’ve let go all of their best reporters, from 2000 employees now to around 500, including the reporters with tech beats who might have done this story.  Nor can I blame the local TV stations—after all, their average story length is now about 45 seconds, max 70 seconds.  And as my favorite video editor at Channel 9, KMBC.com, John Crumley, says, “If the story isn’t weather related, or there’s a crime or a fire, it probably won’t make the air.”   So, unless Jon Stewart had told me, before he retired from the Daily Show (moment of silence here), then how was I to know?  It wasn’t in Vanity Fair.  I checked.

But wait, there's more.  Let’s put a pencil to the cost of this, just for OUR county.  Someone do the math and comment here, please.  Do your part to support the citizens and businesses in Johnson County.   How many homeowners are there in Johnson County?  Assume 90% of them own at least one PC, hence Windows.  Ditto for the businesses here.  Assume five PC’s per business there.  Now multiply every PC by $129 a year.  (That’s about double the increase the BOCC/Johnson County Commission is going to increase your property taxes each year—another needless cost, but that’s another blog post.)

So please share this post with your neighbors, colleagues and family.  Including those out of town, or still in KCMO (my favorite place to visit).  And sign up to receive these JoCoPost.com blog posts.  Let’s all stick together.  Till the robots wipe us out.  Or the second big comet hits the Earth.  Now THAT will make Channel 9’s newscast.