The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 45

A potpourri of patricians plebeians and peccadilloes It's just become a law but some women have already seen its benefits and flaws Vocalist Natalie Merchant has left 10000 Maniacs the folkish pop band she fronted for the last 1 2 years Elektra Records has announced Merchant and the other band members Jerome Augustyniak Bob Buck Dennis Drew and Steven Gustafson have no definite plans expected that Merchant will embark on a solo career The most recent album Time in Eden" sold more than 1 million copies and sparked two chart singles Cut-out cut-up The trendy Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana Calif has a no-jacket required policy This is good because somebody stole the custom coats right off the backs of owners Sylvester Stallone Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger A guard discovered early Sunday that the 1 000 jackets and the cardboard cut-outs of the three action stars they adorned were missing One cut-out was found nearby but Tony specialty duds turned up was an orange jacket with beige sleeves the Schwarzenegger model was dark green leather and the Willis jacket was dark olive Family quarrel It took a long time but Michael Landon Jr finally is resolving his anger toward his father Landon was IS when Michael Landon Sr left his wife Lynn Noe for Cindy Clerico a young makeup artist for the hit TV show House on the (Landon later created to and died of cancer in 1991) The younger Landon tells TV Guide that he was kicked out of college for cutting class He used cocaine and marijuana and his parents cut him off financially was a complete he said Now 29 married and the father of a daughter 3 straightened out and followed Dad into showbiz playing Little Joe son in the upcoming TV movie The DAVID PULLIAMSpeclal to The Star By JOHN ARTELLARO Staff Writer print executive Lori Dany has put together a pretty impressive resume over the last seven years: two children two maternity leaves and four promotions So much for the practice of typecasting women as corporate underachievers when they take time off trying to balance family and career felt any feelings of that whatsoever not even said Dany who lives in Prairie Village and whose corporate title is manager of project planning for customer service Neither has lawyer Allison Murdock an associate with Stinson Mag and Fizzell one of Kansas top law firms In the last four years Murdock said several of her colleagues there have taken maternity leave without suffering any apparent career disruptions Several have made the jump to partner a goal Murdock continues to pursue now that back at work after a three-month maternity leave seen any problems with that so far" she said Stories like those of Dany and Murdock are the inspiration behind the federal Family and Medical Leave Act which went into effect Aug 5 It requires many large employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees for medical or family emergencies The theory is that those who take advantage of the provisions the majority of whom are expected to be women will be able to return to uninterrupted unstigmatized careers But both women took advantage of leave policies in place at their companies before it Sprint executive Lori Dany (above) took six-week maternity leaves the extent of her paid leave benefit for both of her children son Garrison 7 and daughter Taylor 8 months Her husband Patrick is a full-time homemaker Lawyer Allison Murdock (left) is back at work after a three-month maternity leave a combination of vacation time and paid leave "Without the income I definitely would have come back sooner" she says was mandated by law a sign of progressive attitudes in those firms that may not be matched by others that grant family leave only because the law now requires it Murdock considers herself fortunate and believes that discrimination against employees who take leaves may become a problem think definitely a she said I seen it here mean I think happening out there to Economics are another major factor The new law mandates only unpaid leave leading many critics to dub it a that will largely benefit double-income professional couples who can afford to bypass one paycheck for 12 weeks is not the greatest thing since sliced bread if people take advantage of said Maripat Blankenheim a spokesman for 9 to 5 the National Association of Working Women people take advantage See FAMILY F-4 Col 1 JEREL HARRISSpeclal to The Star newscast needs more seasoning Nasty girl reporting an unhealthy manipulation of news video an absolute lack of sports (even to the exclusion of that Royals score) and a preference for uninformed comment over expert opinion and analysis Some of the problems may come from having on-air staff members as well as a news director Mark Olinger with no news experience in Kansas City Although being new in town gives these reporters a fresh perspective it also means they have many sources a reputation for fairness or an understanding of previous developments A case in point was coverage of the Odyssey 2000 plan for Kansas City On Aug 1 reporter Amy Marcinkiewicz took 50 seconds to show that people were largely unaware of the See FOX F-SCol1 By BARRY GARRON TV-Radio Critic KSHB Channel 41 calls its new local newscast fast and At times 41 News at is all of that At other times it is fluff seriously short on facts and fresh as in green First the positives: a new emphasis on video using pictures to charge stories with feeling more than 1 8 minutes devoted to stories edging out all three affiliates a really short (40 seconds or so) weather forecast an enviable time slot warm and capable anchors Pam Davis and Jim Condelles and reporter Ted sharp and witty features Now the negatives: news miserably underplayed stories in serious need of more Fox 41 News accents visual brief stories but lacks depth of reporting and sense of authority AT 9:00 His final request was to give the order: Taken west of Kirksville Mudd wrote McCullough bravely up and without a tremor in his manly frame or quiver in his clarion KIRKSVILLE Speaking of House on the Alison Amgrim who played curly haired troublemaker Nellie Oleson on the series really was a naughty girl went to work screamed at people broke things acted hideous and got she says was Nellie still lives by the way: morning before I have my Too busy to care Susan Ruttan whose Roxanne was so unceremoniously dumped from already has another job lined up She starts work Aug 30 on Reed: An Honest with Brian Dennehy The film is about a government informant in the witness protection program who turns to crime time Robert James Waller can sing too The Bridges of Madison County author wrote five originals for his album Ballads of Madison VH-1 likes Madison County video enough to add it into rotation Waller sings and plays guitar on five other songs by the likes of Bob Dylan and Jimmy Buffett in his recording debut not as if he needs the money: Bridges remains at the top of the fiction best-seller lists after a year At last count the American Book of the Year had sold more that 1 4 million copies in hardback Movie debut Oh no! Mr Bill of Night fame is part of a double feature with star Jim Varney aknowwhatlmean? Bill Goes to will be shown with Rides the latest Ernest movie in November In the short spoof his first film Mr Bill pokes fun at government officials No word on whether he ends up smooshed birthdays Former TV talk show host Mike Douglas is 68 Newspaper columnist Carl Rowan is 68 Actress Anna Massey is 56 Singer Eric Carmen is 44 Compiled from The press services by Evie Rapport I JAMES FISHER McCullough was returned to Kirksville Years later people would remember his military bearing his erect carriage Joseph A Mudd who soldiered with McCullough and wrote a chapter about him in his book With Porter in North Missouri said: wore a new and handsome gray uniform and so arrayed and bearing himself with his natural dignity looked every inch the soldier and sir knight His calm and gentlemanly deportment added to his apparent modest heroism called forth many expressions of admiration and actual McCullough has been a Missouri farmer driven oxen up the Oregon-Califomia Trail when he was just 2 1 Five years later in 1 854 he had driven a herd of horses back to Missouri married and settled down When war came he sided with the Confederacy fought at Lexington then was sent into north Missouri to raise troops For the federals it was an open and shut case executed a bunch the day before Why not one more? So McCullough was convicted in record time He made his requests He wrote his letter to his wife Then he handed over his watch and other personal articles to a Union officer promised to get them to Eloise KIRKSVILLE Mo Funny about Missouri history You read enough of it how old Jim Shields of Carrollton served as a US senator from three states including this one the background of the massacre at Gunn City and how the town of Rat in Shannon County was named and nothing much is a surprise But always something new Take Lt Col Frisby Henderson McCullough Confederate officer and surely one of the unique individuals in American military annals McCullough sentenced to death early in the Civil War for bushwhacking and being a guerrilla asked a couple of final favors from his Union captors here the afternoon of Aug 8 1 862 his final day on earth He wanted to write his wife telling her of his undying love for her Naturally that was seen as a pretty standard request Paper and a pen were provided Leaning against a fence McCullough wrote his farewell to his wife Eloise His second request was different He wanted to shout the order for his firing squad to shoot Now that was out of the ordinary No matter The Union commanders arrested arraigned tried and convicted McCullough that very day were obliging You want to give the Missouri voice he called out: I have done I have done as a principle of right Aim at the heart Only one shot hit him Apparently the firing squad was rattled Slumped on the ground McCullough asked his executioners to straighten his leg from under him and then said God forgive you this cold-blooded The squad finished him off with their pistols The execution caused a considerable dust-up in the newspapers in northern Missouri and letters of outrage made their way all the way back to the seat of the Confederate government in Richmond Even in 1 887 a quarter century after McCullough was shot McNeil the overall Union commander was still defending what had happened As for McCullough he was buried for a time in Kirksville Later he was reinterred at a place called Asbury Chapel Mo in Lewis County James column appears Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays in the Style section command they said well so be it The Union troops had their blood up after all Nineteen (some say 16) Confederates had been shot the day before on orders from Col John McNeil a soldier of the old school who considered that rebels who had been captured and paroled but then re-entered the ranks of the Confederacy forfeited their lives Meaning they should be shot out of hand Which he ordered McCullough was of a different stripe He was no parolee He was a recruiter one who sought out those Missouri farmers and callow youths who could turn the hills and hollows of north Missouri into places that no Yankee wanted to go For the Union McCullough was a virus one that had to be stamped out Captured near Edina east of here.