New Leawood Lifestyle Magazine

Leawood has a new magazine. October is the second issue. It has been a quiet roll out but mine arrived in the mailbox. Pretty interesting that the new model for magazines is FREE considering magazines are folding everyday.............even an institution like Gourmet recently closed up shop.

If you haven't seen it it follows the same idea as 435 South yet much smaller......for a smaller area.

I checked out the website and saw they still had the premier issue on the sight so they might be working with a kitchen table staff but Leawood people are reading it.

So it makes me think if this is the future? Deadwood Daily newspapers can't make it and are making layoffs and some simply closing their doors yet magazines like 435 South and Leawood Lifestyle seem to have no problem getting enough advertisers to make money. The key is FREE and pretty good quality. Magazine subscription and newspaper sales are extremely soft but people read these. Soft news. Feel good news. Society news. Do I know anybody in these pictures from last month's charity event? Okay, so maybe it really isn't news.

I'll admit, we read these magazines at our home. You know I'm a wine lover and this issue has a nice article about a Wine Flights Bar..... However, I'm not sure where you would get an issue if you don't have a Leawood mailbox. Congrats to them on their new business venture. Starting with a feature on the first family of Leawood, the Dunn family, proves they know their local politics if nothing else.

Made me think though..........does every JOCO town need it's own magazine or is it just people who live in their own little Lifestyles of Rich and Famous that get one?

Some ideas for other upstart magazines........love to hear your (better) ideas.

1. Gardner's Trailer Park & Meth-Times

2. Mission Hills Really Rich, Old, White Lifestyles

3. Olathe's High School Football Monthly

4. Overland Park Annexation Monthly

5. The Stilwell Don't Tread on Me

Can't we just send all the KCK gang bangers to Shawnee Mission Park to handle this deer problem?

Has Kline gone mad? Stilwell loses vote to incorporate

I am a conservative Republican and am pretty much in lock step with the agenda. On some issues I'm even a little more radical. I want the government out of my life as much as possible.

I read today that Phil Kline has now flip flopped and decided to run for election as Johnson County Prosecutor. This is unfortunate. We all know the infighting that has been going on too long within the Johnson County Republican party. The Mods and Conservs are fighting over control of the party and while as a rule the conservatives have enjoyed control of the party infrastructure the Republican electorate has become increasingly moderate. So, the conservatives pick the candidates and the rank and file republicans vote for a moderate democrat instead. Unfortunately, the conservatives refuse to get the message and promote more moderate candidates.

So, Kline who has minimized his support to only the pro-life crowd has somehow decided there are enough of them to elect him. He is wrong. I like the quote today in the paper saying something like Kline has a strong ability to get people who don't like him to vote. His only goal in life is to pursue the Planned Parenthood case. Look, we need a real mechanism to make sure that children who are seeking these services haven't been raped or violated by family or friends. If crimes happened they need to be prosecuted but Phil has politicized to the point where it has no credibility. Why can't it be just like a gun shot at the hospital? In every case the police need to be called. In each case where an underage girl requests an abortion why can't they have someone review it and make sure there isn't incest, rape, etc? Relying on PP to report it isn't going to happen and children need to be protected but let's get the politics out of it.

Kline should have honored his word and not sought a full term as prosecutor. Tim Golba seems clearly thrilled. I'm against abortion as well but not in the militant way Mr. Golba pursues it. It is very rare that I speak out against a fellow Republican other than John Toplikar but he should have stepped aside and now hopefully he'll get beat in the primary and then that will be it.

Stilwell of Aubry Township had its bid to incorporate as a city was rejected by the JoCo Commission. Responsible commissioners voted no and idiots like John Toplikar voted for it. Why was a no vote the right thing? The area requested is too large. They needed a unanimous vote and that seems unlikely. Some have suggested that commissioners might support a smaller area closer to the size of Spring Hill. I'm not sure if the group outside the smaller area will go for it. Who gets to keep their seat in the lifeboat???? Toplikar is an idiot as I've said before. Anyone can see he took this vote because he knew it was a loser and had no chance of passing. He looks good and finds friends in the group. Again, it was a vote of NO COURAGE!

Crap! I found something useful in the The Sun

In these days of going green and reducing your carbon footprint I had been bothered by the decision of the The Sun newspaper to deliver something I had little intention of ever reading to my driveway once a week.

I made it a practice of simply taking it off the driveway, skinning the plastic and putting it straight into the green tub. I didn't even want to give it the chance that I might be interested in the content. I always just viewed it as worthless.

Today was different. Today for some reason I looked at it after pulling back the plastic. I saw an article by Steve Rose breaking some news about the admission of Sam Brownback that he might be interested in running for governor. It was interesting so I read it. Then I saw another article about the Stilwell annexation. As you know, I've been interested in that so I read that as well. Okay this is getting silly, I'm finishing my first cup of coffee and haven't even broken open The Star. So, I think to myself......The Star probably wrote on these same topics today if I'd just look. So, I look but no.....this is news only reported by The Sun.

Crap, I am forced to admit that I read The Sun and found it nice and useful. Well done.

Brownback for Governor? Whatever it takes to get the governor's mansion back in republican hands I'm pretty much for right now. I mean in this solid red state it is embarrassing to have a democrat.

Stilwell annexation fight? I wrote pretty extensively on it awhile back so if you want to see where I stand go back a few months but in a nutshell I think those who want to fight to keep Overland Park out are selfish and emotionally unrealistic. It was interesting to see that a couple property owners are asking for OP annexation and the guy quoted, Darrel Dougan, thinks they are just trying to make a buck. Like I said before......there will be many, many more. Further, he is dreaming if he thinks he can maintain services without raising the mill. This is fight I think they lose.

John Toplikar is a spineless pud

I'm going to make this pretty short today. I wrote earlier about some annexation issues regarding OP and Stilwell and of course the big news yesterday was that the JoCo Commissioners voted to approve a smaller area of OP's annexation request.

Those against it vowed to fight on, including Tom Watson whose land is included in the annexation, but it will be money and time wasted along with the public hearing. It will happen and hopefully we'll gain some well thought out long term planning for that area. Hopefully, we'll avoid some of the other issues like leapfrogging, endless strip malls, etc that normally come along with haphazard planning in suburban sprawl.

I want to point out John Toplikar's "no" vote on the annexation. What a lame turd. I've watched this guy for the better part of 15 years in his public service and never seen him take a risk for the public. From his days on the Olathe City Council to a first failed bid for the House in which many elephants crossed and voted for a donkey in Ruth Ann Hackler to keep him from embarrassing us all further, I've seen this guy with the mental capacity only to know enough to just do with the majority of his constituents approve thus just hang around in public service for all these years. Of course he has gone on to serve us in several elected positions, City Council, Kansas House, JoCo Commission.....all with a amazing lack of imagination and creativity. I've love to see one creative initiative he has come up with that he had to fight for and risk going against his constituents because he thought it was right for the future.

So, he votes no on this annexation because it has zero risk. He knew the votes were there, he knows OP is the best equipped to handle to development of that area and he knows that if they didn't do it you'd have reckless developement all the way to Miami county. He knows all this and voted no because he knew it would be easier to say he was against it. We don't need a representative in his spot, we need a pollster. Let a poll decide the vote. What a pee brain. Surbaugh said in the paper she had friends on both sides who wouldn't speak to her over the issue. At least she has the stones to make the call and she along with the others stepped up and made a decision that was in the best interest of the area.

For some reason he has a strong organization that supports him and he would be tough to unseat but at least he is in a relatively low profile spot where he can't embarrass us too much. Look, he may a nice enough fella. I don't know him. He just doesn't seem very intelligent to me.

Let's be real here. It isn't an issue of IF the area will see massive developement over the next 10 years, it is HOW it will be developed. I'm not an OP resident but no question they are the best equipped to manage this expansion. I just hope they do it right.