Kansas and Kansas State

It's been a terrible week in the world of the BigBrownBlogger. My beloved Kansas Jayhawks lost to the KSU Kitties on Big Monday, just hours after earning the nation's #1 ranking.

ESPN had to go and tell me it was the first time a team had gotten it and lost it in the same day in the history of he ESPN coach's poll. Not a good record to set.

Anyway I'm cheering up now and will probably drop a little more wisdom on you in the following day. I just needed sometime to cry in beer. :-D

I'm going to call him J.K. Rowling at some point, I know it

Briefly met Winfield's new superintendent of schools Monday night and I think he was the wise pick. Knows the area, is finishing up a doctorate and started as a teacher in this school district. Easy pick.

One problem though, I keep wanting to call J.K. Campbell, J.K. Rowling - the Harry Potter author - instead. I've typed that name a couple times and figure it's only a matter of time before it ends up in print. :-/

Campbell's cast his own spell over the Winfield district already, I've heard from lots of folks that support him. A number of Ark City folks are sad to see him go, so he looks like a solid pick.

Let's hope so.

Udall police departures

I'm currently putting a story together on a story out of Udall regarding the resignation of the town's two paid police officers. That includes their chief of police.

Mayor Chris Lette tells me that chief Jeremy Billman has taken a job in the private sector and the other officer has been working two jobs for a couple years and is ready to cutback.

From what I know, they'll be leaving the force next week.

-20 Degrees??? Jeez

I've been a south central Kansas boy most of my life and, well, it seemed last night was about the coldest night I can really ever remember. I was out after midnight for a brief time and can only say that it was absolutely miserable. Even with no wind, the cold and darkness sliced right through.

Have to love Kansas, though, by Sunday it's supposed to be over 50 degrees for a high that day. Which means in just a few days we'll have seen a temperature swing of around 70 degrees.

Weird.

The movie poster

Yes, I've seen the story going around about "The Roommate" movie poster that has Southwestern College's Christy Hall on it. I've seen the poster, too. In my opinion it's pretty cool, not sure why the college is getting worked up about it.

This is one of those instances where you should follow the rule that any publicity is good publicity, even if it is a slasher movie. What else is there to do? Sue a big movie company? Haha... Good luck with that.

Enjoy the ride and get a little pub out of it. Which may be in fact what the college is doing by stirring up this little protest. ;-)

Mike Morton and pot

Mike Morton, the former local Democratic party chief busted with pot, is set to make a court appearance in Winfield next Monday.

We're keeping an eye on the case, as it moves through the court system. Morton was arrested in October and authorities found 200 pounds of pot in various stages of the growing process.

I'll let you know how things turn out on Monday.

Burden chief in court Friday

Burden Chief of Police Travis Lowe was in court Friday but nothing much really was accomplished. He's to be back in court Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. for another hearing.

Judge Nick St. Peter considered a motion that Lowe's attorney - Chris Rogers - had filed asking that the case be tossed out due to insufficient evidence. St. Peter said he'd take the request under advisement but wanted the court to hear more evidence in the case first.

I wouldn't expect this case to end up being plea bargained. Today in court it was very apparent that Rogers and prosecutor Chris Smith were fairly far apart on how this issue should be resolved. Expect it to end up in front of a jury because, if Lowe wants to continue as a cop, he probably needs this off his record entirely.

Smith, in open court, said he resented Rogers assertion that the state would bring charges against someone without any evidence to support such a charge.

So, I don't see Smith agreeing to a plea that would reduce charges enough for Lowe to remain a law enforcement officer. But we'll see.

Netflix fix: The First 48

I thought I would mention this because I know so many of us here are fascinated by crime and crime investigation.

Recently, not sure exactly when, Netflix added seasons 1-10 of the First 48 to its instant view line up. I've already watched way too many episodes of the show during our blast of winter weather.

Unfortunately I haven't found the Lester Street massacre episode, which is the episode I consider to be the best of the bunch. Oh well, it must not be on there for some reason.

Anyway, if you are a Netflixer and like good crime shows, or are already a fan of the show, check it out.

Brrrrrr........

Depending on which weather site or station you follow, it's somewhere between 0 and -7 outside. Yuck.

The national weather service has issued a warning about bundling up. Ideally we'd all stay inside, but if you have to go out, gloves, a hat, coat and very warm footwear are suggested as ways to avoid hypothermia and frostbite.

There are those of you convinced that winter is the best season. I've heard you say it. Definitely not in agreement with you on that one.

Burden Police Chief Travis Lowe

The weather closed the courthouse Tuesday which means Travis Lowe had his appearance in court rescheduled for Friday.

It should be an interesting appearance. Lowe's attorney, the always ornery Chris Rogers, is asking to have the charge against his client tossed out. I'll be interested to see how that goes.

I'll post at the 'Cow soon.

Can of ass whoop, meet Anderson Cooper

Buddy of mine on FaceBook asked if I knew that CNN's Anderson Cooper got roughed up in Cairo. I did a little reading and he's fine.

Reminds me of why it is I never wanted to do foreign coverage. Regular ole folks around here have threatened to kick my ass before, I couldn't imagine how I'd come across through a language barrier. :D

Here's Cooper talking about the incident.

The new blog

I've set up a new blog so that I'll have a place to comment and share some ideas on issues, without doing it at NewsCow.

Sometimes I see things online or in the news that I want to talk about and I don't really have a venue for doing that during the week. So, my plan is to do that here. National news topics, sports, I'll post a little bit of everything.

Over to the left I've added a little widget that lets you see the latest comments from over at the 'Cow. If you want to see the whole story just click jump to.

Let me know what you think.