KANSAS CITY EDITION
WWW.KANSASCITY.COM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2012
FYI
SPORTS DAILY
Our intrepid reporter (no, not one of the girls pictured here) goes undercover to learn the story behind the Fairy Princess, a 25-year tradition at the Kansas City Museum. | C1
The odds may be long, but if Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein wins the Heisman Trophy tonight in New York, he’ll achieve a goal he set back in high school. | B1
$1.00
TODAY’S WEATHER: LOW 35, HIGH 50. FROM SUN TO CLOUDS WITH CHANCE FOR EVENING RAIN. | B10
SUPREME COURT | Justices to hear two same-sex cases
Jogger’s widow is gradually healing
GAY MARRIAGE ON DOCKET Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 will be reviewed next year, injecting the court into controversial political fray. By MICHAEL DOYLE McClatchy Newspapers
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The Supreme Court turned to the issue of same-sex marriage Friday in a big way, agreeing to review a California ballot measure that banned it and a federal law that blocks benefits for married same-sex couples. In an ambitious move, the justices ASHINGTON |
agreed to consider a lower court’s decision striking down California’s Proposition 8. Simultaneously, they agreed to consider challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which blocks samesex married couples from receiving a host of federal benefits. The separate cases, to be heard next year, will thrust the often-divided high
court into hot political territory and tricky constitutional terrain. It “tees up the fundamental question of whether the Constitution’s promise of equality for all persons applies to gay men and lesbians when it comes to marriage,” said David Gans, the civil rights director of the Constitutional Accountability Center, which supports gay marriage. Meeting in a private session Friday morning, justices had to pick and choose among 10 different appeals
that deal in some fashion with samesex marriage. Eight of the appeals cases challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act. One appeal involved an Arizona law on benefits for state workers; one dealt with California’s Proposition 8. The justices took action a day after Maryland issued its first same-sex marriage licenses, after voters approved a ballot measure last month.
On Mother’s Day, an unknown assailant fatally shot Bobbie Stone’s husband. By BRIAN BURNES The Kansas City Star
SEE COURT | A16
Just before Thanksgiving, standing at a department store cosmetic counter, Bobbie Stone chatted with the clerk about holiday stress. Then she asked the clerk an unusual question. Did she follow the news? Stone identified herself as the widow of Harry Stone, the Raytown resident who, while jogging, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant on Mother’s Day. The stunned clerk hugged Stone. She said that she had been praying for Stone every day since the shooting. “She said, ‘It was God’s plan for you to come in so I could hug you,’ ” Stone recalled. It was one more example, Stone said recently, of how she has discerned God’s hand at work during the seven months since her husband’s death. She describes her path over that time as a slow journey toward light, away from the darkness that descended over her on May 13. The department store moment also suggests how Stone continues to be embraced by the community. Her husband, 60, was shot in an apparent random act of violence near 67th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard. He died later at a hospital. Police were looking for a
KC CHALLENGE | Virtual food drive is ‘putting hunger on the community’s agenda’
SEE BOBBIE STONE | A12
MEGAN TRUE | SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Stacey Vailejo (right) and daughter Isabel Vailejo were two of 75 volunteers who recently packed BackSnacks at Harvesters in Kansas City. Money given to the KC Challenge goes to the BackSnack program, which has grown from assisting 65 students to now aiding thousands.
A model for food banks across U.S. Jobless rate drops to 7.7% but growth is still sluggish More jobs were created in November than expected, but half a million people quit looking for work. By DIANE STAFFORD The Kansas City Star
The national jobless rate fell in November to its lowest rate in four years to a better-than-expected 7.7 percent, down from 7.9 percent in October. While economists and investors were concerned about business disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and fears about the fiscal cliff, Friday’s monthly jobs report “did not read like another natural disaster,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of
BUSINESS A14
CLASSIFIED B7
125,000
In two years, $500,000 has been donated so children here can have nourishment over the weekend. By LAURA BAUER The Kansas City Star
the West. But “it is also clear that the rate of job growth remains disappointingly slow,” he added. A net employment gain of 146,000 last month, and average job gains of about 150,000 a month over the last two years, aren’t enough to markedly improve the job market. “At this rate of job growth, it will take us more than 10 years to get back to the pre-recession employment rate,” said Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. A slow economic growth rate —
Mindi Jones was worried two months ago when she first handed out BackSnacks to kids at an elementary school in the Lee’s Summit district. How would she present the backpacks of food? What would she tell the kids? Hunger, and the idea that some families often don’t have enough money and food, can be personal. Sensitive. “I was a nervous wreck,” said Jones, a counselor at Greenwood Elementary. “I just didn’t know how the children would react.” For so long, community advocates say, the issue of childhood hunger has been tucked quietly into the background. People don’t talk much about it. Some hesitate to believe it’s real. That seems to have changed in Kansas City. When The Star partnered with the Harvesters food bank two years ago to launch a
SEE GROWTH | A20
SEE KC CHALLENGE | A16
COMICS C4-5
DEATHS A16-17
FYI C1
LOCAL A4
LOTTERIES A13
MOVIES C2
OPINION A18-19
Number of children in the 26-county area who live in homes where there often isn’t enough nutritious food. Every weekend, Harvesters provides backpacks full of food to 17,000 schoolchildren in the 26-county area who otherwise wouldn’t have enough to eat. Over the next two weeks, The Star will publish stories that show how hunger affects children and what people are doing about it.
PUZZLES B9, C5, C6
JILL TOYOSHIBA | THE STAR
Bobbie Stone says her husband’s dog Max misses him as much as she does. Bobbie and Max have been a comfort to each other since Harry Stone’s death.
This week’s best deals will keep cash in your pocket. See the Dealsaver ad on Page A5. Check out the ad on page A5 to find out how to get this deal, or go online to dealsaver.com/kansascity.
SPORTS DAILY B1
TOMORROW IN THE STAR: AN INVESTIGATION OF BIG BEEF’S HIDDEN COSTS TO YOUR HEALTH.
TV C3
133RD YEAR | NO. 82 | 6 SECTIONS