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THE KANSAS CITY STAR.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2012
WWW.KANSASCITY.COM
Hats for the holidays Scott Winkler and his 9-year-old daughter, Amy, both wore Santa hats Friday afternoon on an annual family visit to the Mayor’s Christmas Tree in Crown Center Square. Amy posed at the foot of the tree for a photograph.
Local
FRED BLOCHER | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Area snags Powerball gold again Weeks after Missourians win, Kansans win $50 million. By MATT CAMPBELL The Kansas City Star
The thing about odds is that even when they are against you, you can still win. The odds against winning the Powerball are already enormous. But imagine the chances of two families, just a few miles apart, hitting multimillion-dollar jackpots within a month of each other. A Johnson County couple on Friday was identified as the winner of a $50 million Powerball jackpot, exactly three weeks after a Platte County family was introduced as co-winner of a record $588 million Powerball jackpot. The difference is we got to see the beaming faces of the Missouri family as they acknowledged their good fortune. But Kansas is one of a handful of states that allow lottery winners to re-
main anonymous, and that is what this week’s winners have chosen to do. We know they are in their 70s, retired, and have been married 48 years. They have three children and five about-to-be-spoiled grandchildren. Their winning ticket was purchased on a whim at the 7-Eleven at 11023 Johnson Drive in Shawnee. “I wasn’t going to buy a Powerball ticket that evening,” the man told a Kansas Lottery official. “I had $6 left in my wallet and decided to go ahead and buy $6 in Powerball.” That gave him three sets of numbers on his Quick Pick ticket. The last set matched all five numbers plus the magic powerball in Wednesday’s drawing. Another thing we know about the winners is that they have level heads. They did all the right things. “After checking my ticket on the Internet, I immediately signed the back of the ticket and called a financial planner,” the man told the lottery offi-
cial. “Our financial planner was just as excited as we were about our win and came over to the house right away. He also helped us get into contact with an attorney.” The couple placed their treasure in a fireproof lockbox until they could go to Topeka to claim their prize at lottery headquarters. The winners opted for the lump sum of $22,875,816 after 30 percent was deducted for federal and state taxes. “Winning this amount of money is unbelievable,” the man told the Kansas Lottery. “We plan to share our winnings with our children and other family members and start college funds for our grandchildren. “We haven’t slept in two days, so we haven’t planned what else we might do with the winnings. You always have the thought of winning, but when you do win, it’s very overwhelming.” To reach Matt Campbell, call 816-234-4902 or send email to mcampbell@kcstar.com
JUDGE BLOCKS MISSOURI LAW ON INSURANCE Birth control coverage was at issue in the legislation. By DAVID A. LIEB The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY | A federal judge on Friday blocked a new Missouri law that requires insurers to exclude birth control coverage for moral objectors, ruling that it conflicts with an insurance mandate under President Barack Obama’s
health care law. The temporary restraining order halts the Missouri law just three months after the Republican-led legislature enacted it by overriding Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto. The state law requires insurers to issue policies without contraception coverage if it runs contrary to the religious or moral beliefs of an SEE MISSOURI | A9
COULD THIS BE STONEHENGE ON THE MISSOURI?
Girl’s birthday bounty turns to Christmas gifts for others By ERIC ADLER The Kansas City Star
If Christmas is a time of giving and birthdays are a time for getting, what do you do if you’re born on Dec. 23? If you’re Brielle Murray, you celebrate by giving presents away. That’s what the Overland Park sixth-grader, who turns 12 on Sunday, did Friday afternoon at Della Lamb Middle School, a charter school created from a former adult education building on St. John Avenue in Kansas City’s Northeast area. “Merry Christmas,” Brielle said as she and two friends passed out gifts to 36 of the school’s 58 sixth-graders present after a snow day. “Happy birthday,” the kids replied as the girls tore into presents of stuffed toys, lip gloss and mirrors. The boys unwrapped their boxes to reveal green goo and Nerf footballs. This is what Brielle has done every year since her seventh birthday. The idea, she concedes, wasn’t hers. It belonged to her mother. “I just presented the idea to her,” Marla Murray said. “We were having a birthday party for her. She had all these friends and all these gifts. She got gifts from us and, two days later, here’s Christmas with more gifts. I just started thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is too much for one person.’ ” So she spoke to her daughter. “I was kind of like self-conscious at first about giving away my presents,” Brielle said. But she decided it was OK, asking about 20 friends who were invited to her first-grade birthday party to bring gifts that she would donate to others. Her mom settled on the students in the charter school run by Della Lamb Community Services. Ninety-eight
JOHN SLEEZER | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
From Kaw Point in Kansas City, Kan., the sunrise over downtown Kansas City on Friday held a certain poignancy as the sun marked the shortest day of the year.
BackSnack assistance is a boon to family Grandmother raising two in Henry County helps stretch money to the next payday. By LAURA BAUER The Kansas City Star
DAVID EULITT | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Brielle Murray (standing in back, wearing a black coat) looked on as Della Lamb Middle School students opened presents Friday.
percent of its 605 kindergarten to eighth-grade students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Throughout the year, Della Lamb looks for donations of holiday gifts as part of its Operation Santa Claus to provide to the growing number of low-income families in Kansas City. This year the organization, working with corporate sponsors that include U.S. Bank and Slim4Life Weight Loss, gathered donated gifts for 2,700 children in 1,700 families. But they can always use more. That first year, Brielle added her gifts to those gathered by Della Lamb and handed out by Santa Claus to the charter school’s children. “When I saw the kids’ reactions, how happy they were, I didn’t have a second thought about not doing it again,” Brielle said. So she has every year, passing out
the gifts with two classmates. This year they were Tori Donnici and Devin Sommerville from Blue Valley Middle School. Instead of asking friends invited to Brielle’s birthday parties to donate their gifts, Marla Murray, who works as a network engineer, now shops and buys the gifts herself, looking for sales, with a budget of about $10 for each of about 60 students. Brielle is still having a birthday party Sunday. In lieu of gifts, guests are asked to bring a donation toward the purchase of gifts for Della Lamb. “If we had a Brielle for every grade level, what a blessing that would be,” Akers said. Said Brielle: “I just get the feeling that it’s helping other kids. I don’t know. It puts like a smile on my face.” To reach Eric Adler, call 816-234-4431 or send email to eadler@kcstar.com.
In this rural corner of Henry County, Mo., about 90 miles southeast of Kansas City, Vickie Thrasher is raising two of her grandchildren. She wanted to give them a better life and keep them out of the child welfare system. She spent most of her savings to get them what they needed — toys and clothes, bedding and other essentials — and now the three live in her two-bedroom mobile home. A cook at a nearby hospital, Thrasher says gas to and from work and the kids’ school can run from $160 to $200 every two weeks. Add in the mortgage payment, light bill and phone and there’s often not a lot of money for food. The $180 she gets in monthly federal food assistance doesn’t go far for three people. “A lot of times we run from payday to payday,” Thrasher said. SEE HUNGER | A5
TAMMY LJUNGBLAD | THE STAR
Vickie Thrasher, grandmother of Jazs, 5, and Jerry, 7, appreciates the BackSnacks the children receive at their elementary school in rural Henry County, Mo. “A lot of times we run from payday to payday,” Thrasher said.
HOW YOU CAN HELP For the third year, The Star is partnering with Harvesters to host a virtual food drive. All money raised will go to Harvesters’ BackSnack program for kids. Go to feedingkckids.harvesters.org to make a donation. If you’d like, you can designate your donation in the honor or memory of a family member or friend. The Star will publish the dedications on Christmas Day. Dedications need to be in by 5 p.m. Sunday to appear in the Christmas paper.
FOR PHOTO ALBUMS OF EVENTS ACROSS KANSAS CITY, SEE COMMUNITY FACES AT WWW.KANSASCITY.COM