KC/NBA update....Milwaukee Bucks???

Milwaukee Bucks owner (and U.S. Senator) Herb Kohl is serious about selling his NBA franchise. He's continuing to say that he is waiting to find a buyer who will keep the team put in Wisconsin. The selling range for the team is said to be in the neighborhood of $400 million.

Thanks, but no thanks. Kansas City hoops fans are not going to cough up $60 per ticket to watch what's left of this franchise. This is a team headed to the lottery once again, a place they're likely to be seeing a lot of in the near future. In fact, since 1987 the Bucks have had only win season of 50 wins or better. In the past three years, they've parted ways with Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Tim Thomas, Keith Van Horn, and Gary Payton. The team's current best player, Michael Redd, is about to bust out via free agency and cash in somewhere near Ohio (one more hint: LeBron). The career of former Big 12 standout T.J. Ford is in doubt after being diagnosed with multiple, deteriorating physical conditions. The 2003 lottery pick hasn't played in over a year.

In fact, the Bucks have no player under contract beyond the 2006-2007 season. Essentially, any buyer would be getting an expansion team by the time a move would occur.

Student Columnist gets Social Security Issue Right

It takes a student publication to sometimes give us the alternative perspective not found in big, mainstream media.

UMKC's weekly student news publication, UNEWS has done what other publication in town dare not do: talk bad about social security.

Andrew Palmer, a frequent contributing columnist to UNEWS, smacks social security and government welfare upside the head in this week's column.

Kudos to Palmer the UNEWS brass for the having the gonads to go against the popular sentiments often printed about social security.

Rick Schroder's in Town! (well....Lawrence,KS)

THE Rick Schroder will premier his directorial debut (“Black Cloud”) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Liberty Hall in Lawrence. Schroder will attend and take questions after the film is screened. Tickets are $7 ($5 for students). Do NOT miss this chance to demand that he reveal secrets from what went down on Silver Spoons. I was kind of hoping that Alfonso Ribeiro ("Carlton" on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and danced in a mid-80's Michael Jackson/Pepsi commercial) would somehow be involved in this special screening and lecture. No dice....

KC Blurbmeister Strikes AGAIN!

Shawn Edwards, the Fox-TV/Kansas City Call media superstar, has issued his latest proclamation --- this time a blurb aimed at the Be Cool (the sequel to Get Shorty) bandwagon.

'The Coolest Movie of the Year!"

Meanwhile, the film was slammed by just about every respectable film critic. The Star's Robert Butler said of it: "(The film) feels forced and graceless. It's like a clumsy dancer who can't keep up with the sprightly beat being set by the band." The sequel was described by other reviews posted on rottentomatoes.com as "painful to sit through."

I thought of characterizing Edwards as a media whore......but I fear that would be offensive to actual whores.

Look at the way Edwards "interviews" entertainers when he's not drooling all over them -- here's a 'good' one from the Pitch about four years ago. It involves the third female in Destiny's Child.

Check out Filmsnobs.com and their take on the axis of evil (Hearne Christopher & Edwards) that has made every other film critic in the area come out looking like an out of touch confederate soldier. Here, they actually call him a "quote whore"....so now I feel better that I'm not the only one offending whores by labeling him with this title. Their letter on what's been going on is pretty revealing.

And finally.......

Last week, KMBZ 980 AM afternoon host Russ Johnson took Kemper Arena and Global Spectrum (facility management) to the woodshed after they had the gonads to display such a ridiculous looking 'logo' at center court during the Big 12 tournament. Johnson described the odd choice for a logo as an "alien symbol" on display to a national audience.

Details of Billionaire Bringing KC and the Star a Little Daily Competition

MSN.com's 'e-zine' Slate profiles multibillionaire Phillip Anschutz. The reclusive oil tycoon has trademark the title "Examiner" for the purposes of a daily newspaper (at last count he had bought up over 70 U.S. cities).

It was reported last fall that Kansas City is one of the area's Anschutz has targeted for his army of news publications. The Slate profile describes Anschutz as a "Republican ideologue and devout Christian." There are strong indications that his potential newspapers will follow this same tone.

In a February 2004 speech, he stated that he entered the movie business because he wanted to stop "cursing the darkness" and start making family fare.

The Star hasn't had daily competition in town since the first Bush White House.