Dan Verbeck

Kansas City, Mo. – Work is about to begin retrofitting the Heart of America Bridge for bicyclists and walkers. The $3.4 million job is scheduled to be completed by the fall. For the first time in at least a hundred years, Kansas City will have a bridge usable for non motorized traffic.

Planners picked the bridge over others based on safety, lowest environmental impact and cost. A concrete barrier will separate bikes and pedestrians from traffic.

Kansas City, Mo. – Thirty years in federal prison with no opportunity for parole is the sentence today for a man who engaged in a gun battle with Kansas City Police.

The illegal possession of a gun charge and conviction followed a 2007 traffic check stop near 71st and Myrtle. Evidence showed 24-year-old Ali Akbar Walker started shooting from a car's backseat. Officer Paul Clark was severely wounded.

Kansas City, Mo. – Two Kansas City area nurseries which shelter endangered infants and toddlers will continue operating with state aid. They are included in a dozen around Missouri that were expecting funds-cutoff this week.

Riverside, Mo. – More has been learned about the man who was shot to death by police yesterday afternoon in north suburban Riverside. The man killed in a wooded area near Vivion Road and Gateway Drive is identified as Mahir Al-Hakim of Gladstone.

Riverside Police Sergeant Dennis Jones said family members described the 29 year old Al-Hakim as depressive.

Kansas City, Mo. – The Area Transportation Authority expects to be in a tough financial state by 2013. It faces possibility of cuts in service by one-third. The message was delivered to the Kansas City Council this afternoon.

A major impact will come from loss of one-time federal stimulus money.

Kansas City, Mo. – Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton spent slightly more than an hour today before a Kansas City federal grand jury investigating graft and political corruption in the statehouse.

Jetton appeared agitated and conceded he is concerned about the probe. He talked with reporters outside the courthouse where the grand jury is considering allegations a bill to screw down the lid on adult entertainment was killed in 2005 in return for a $35 thousand payoff.

Kansas City, Mo. – The Attorneys General from Missouri and Kansas are teaming with the Federal Trade Commission to counter growing confidence games used against holders of foreclosed mortgages.

It's the work of sharks in the quasi financial world. Kansas had no complaints about companies offering to fix foreclosures---and didn't-- in year 20007. Attorney General Steven Six counts it at 171 last year and into the hundreds this year.

Fort Leavenworth, Kan. – The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff brought a message to military students at Fort Leavenworth they would not likely have heard less than a generation ago: that improving the global economy is a stratagem to stave off wars.

Admiral Mike Mullen told the Command and General Staff College one of his largest concerns is how to get economic engines moving so parents in both the U. S. and around the world can raise their children to a higher standard of living.

Kansas City, Mo. – Former city councilman Alvin Brooks was appointed to Kansas City's board of Police Commissioners this week by Governor Jay Nixon. Brooks became a police officer in the 1950s, and has since become known as anti-crime activist.

Brooks' appointment comes at a time when a couple of neighborhoods in Kansas City are gripped with fear, and racial tension after a series of rapes. Police think five recent rapes were committed by the same man, a composite drawing is of a heavy-set, bald-headed, African American man with pitted cheeks.

Kansas City, Mo. – One of Kansas City's most recognizable civic activists has been appointed by the Missouri Governor to the city's Board of Police Commissioners: Former policeman, a former member of the city council and mayoral candidate, Alvin Brooks.

Kansas City, Mo. – Facing a $65 million budget deficit in the coming year, the Kansas City Council has started listening to city departments' pleas for operating money. Parks and Recreation was among the first.

Kansas City – The woman who led Kansas City police on a chase and was shot to death by them late last night was 19 years old and in a stolen SUV.

Jessica Jones was from Kansas City Kansas. Four officers fired handguns at her as she tried to drive out of a dead end street. The police account says the woman had nearly hit a police car to start the chase.

Kansas City, Mo. – Kansas City Missouri police shot and killed a woman late last night on the city's near west side. Early official accounts suggest officers thought she was going to run over them. It happened in an industrial district between Signal Hill and Southwest Boulevard.

This is the story from police Captain Rich Lockhart.

Kansas City, Mo. – A pre-dawn rape today would be the fifth committed by the same man in the center part of Kansas City. Police believe it's the attacker who struck four times within four months.

From what police will reveal, this new scenario was similar to the others around the Waldo district since late September, 2009. Twice the attacker came in through an unlocked door or window, once a sliding patio door.

Kansas City, M0. – As many as 25 hundred people fled the main federal office building in downtown Kansas City this afternoon. Fire in a basement electrical system produced acrid smoke.

Firefighters attacked the fire for half an hour with CO2 extinguishers as occupants of the Bolling Office Building used stairways to get out. Fire Marshal Floyd Peoples said no one was seriously hurt, although some complained of difficulty breathing.

The building was closed for business the rest of the day.