Kansas City, Mo.

Faster bus line to debut today

The Kansas City area’s mass transit authority, faced with decreased ridership, is rolling out a new bus line intended to get people to their destinations faster.

Funded largely with federal money, the $21 million bus line will run 5 1/2 miles, from the city’s River Market area to the Country Club Plaza shopping district. The line, which will be introduced today, will use designated lanes, make fewer stops and can keep a traffic signal from turning red.

“It’s like light rail on rubber tires,” said Greg Lever, executive director of the nonprofit Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.

The Metro Area Express, or MAX, replaces a bus route that made 40 stops and took about 24 minutes. The new line makes 19 stops and is expected to take about 18 minutes.

Kansas City, Mo.

Alligator found in subdivision pond

A security guard at a subdivision south of Kansas City didn’t know what to think when someone called to say an alligator was in the community’s lake.

Darrell Lancaster took his rifle and looked anyway, and, on Thursday, bagged a 7-foot-long gator in the Loch Lloyd subdivision in Cass County.

Authorities are trying to figure out where the reptile came from. It’s illegal to release an animal into the wild that isn’t native to Missouri. The lake has a 3,000-acre watershed, so the gator didn’t necessarily come from a Loch Lloyd resident.

While some residents said they opposed killing the gator, state biologist Wendy Sangster said the reptile wouldn’t have survived the winter.

Following a trip to the taxidermist, the alligator will have a permanent place in the subdivision’s clubhouse.

Olathe

Police make arrest filming DUI scene

Olathe police were filming a staged drunken driving arrest for a public service announcement when they nearly got a real one.

In the middle of filming, a driver stopped and asked an officer directing traffic around the film crew if he knew how to get to Belton, Mo.

Police Sgt. Mike Butaud said the officer could smell alcohol on the man and saw a bottle of vodka in the car.

He asked the driver to get out of the car for a sobriety test, borrowing the preliminary breath tester being used in the fake arrest to see if the man had been drinking.

The breath test indicated the man’s blood alcohol level was below the legal limit, but the officer gave the man a ticket for transportation of an open container.

El Dorado

Homicide victim’s family raises reward

The family of a woman found dead last year in her fire-damaged home near Benton has added $11,000 to the reward money for arrest and conviction of her killer.

Dennis Stackley of Parker, Colo., said Friday that the relatives of Carol Mould hope the additional money, added to $5,000 provided by the governor’s reward fund, would prompt someone to step forward with information.

Authorities found the body of Mould, 43, while responding to a report of a fire at her home. Her death was later ruled a homicide.

“Murder is something you never dream will happen to someone you know, someone you love,” said Stackley, a former Barber County sheriff.

“Not knowing how, why or who committed this makes it impossible for us to move forward.”