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The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 53

Location:
Kansas City, Missouri
Issue Date:
Page:
53
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

mtmmm theaters become more affordable MONEYWISE Horae I fflm ASQfllECnjRE IBIS THE STORK OF KC5 PEOPLE la 3 S'- rni rfSl) 4 nrarcr ilUValj AND HOME Smarty Jones wins the Kentucky Derby SPORTS DAILY KANSAS CITY STAR $125 METROPOLITAN EDITIONNL Sunday May 2 2004 wwwkansascitycom AFTER Iraqis cheer Fallujah Marines depart shattered city "Clock ticking on assault gun ban Politics flaws put extension in doubt By RICK MONTGOMERY The Kneat City Star STORM In a little less than five months the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons will expire unless Washington lawmakers act to extend it But you still can walk up to an Overland Patk counter and slap down $360 for a Kd-Tec SUB 2000 The Northmoor home of Jennifer and Dan Wells was destroyed three days before their wedding by a tornado on May 4 2003 After the ceremony they went to their property to have wedding photos taken Last month they moved into a new house on the site of their former house her wedding dress nearly lost in the tornado hanging by the door of their rebuilt home PHOTOS BY DSC 0CH9 THE KANSAS CITY STAR Carbine ban or no ban With die look of something that Keanu Reeves might pack beneath his trench coat in the Matrix movies nifty little 9 mm folds in half to an 161 one Web site touts Assault weapon or not? Advocates on all sides of die issue confess to being confused To many the correct answer darts like a moving target somewhere be First glance Political fireworks are expected this summer as the 10-year ban on certain types of military-style weapons nears its Sept 13 expiration The assault weapons ban is opposed by the gun-rights lobby as well as some gun-control groups that say it worked By HANNAH ALLAM Knight Ridder Newspapers FALLUJAH Iraq Masked men carrying grenade launchers and waving Iraqi flags rode through the deserted streets of Fallujah on Saturday claiming victory in the withdrawal ofUS Marines A day after die US-led coalition announced it was handing over most security matters to a pop- DevdOMienb ular general from the former A US sol-Iraqi regime Fal- dier is killed lujah residents when his con-tentatively stepped out of shuttered homes They found demolished buildings uprooted palm trees rows of shelled villas and car windows riddled with bullet holes They took comfort in what they did not see: Story A-20 Americans For the Amen- latest news cans have been from Iraq go pushed out by towww true soldiers he- kansascity roic said com Shaker Adnan 35 who wore the burgundy beret and dark camouflage of the Fallujah Brigade the new proxy security force assembled by the coalition the Americans were men they would have never retreated" he said triumph came from tween on how and "whatever the law Such questions have compelled the most ardent gun-control groups to argue against extending the assault weapons ban at INSIDE STARTING OVER: A KCK letter carrier perseveres LIBERTY: Town falters but succumb CARRIAGE HILL: A Northland subdivision rallies EMOTIONAL JOURNEY: Family grasps for threads of hope BPU: On the ropes an agency resolves serve our customers" PAGES A-18 19 ON THE WEB Check out the storm photo piptif at kanaascityxom See WEAPONS A-14 For hundreds of area residents the first sensation wasshock The first emotion grief From there the surviving victims of a series of angry and capricious tornadoes that struck the Kansas City area last May 4 had to pick themselves up deal with the debris and set about reshaping their lives Two victims 81-year-old Ralph Dary and 46-year-old Sheny Roberts both of Kansas City Kan did not get that chance Daily's body was found outside his house next to a fire hydrant Roberts who lived a couple of blocks from Dary was taken to a hospital and was there until Oct 12 when she died of a heart attack caused by an infection she could not shake At least 94 tornadoes were reported in 10 states that day Thirty-seven persons were killed It was die worst day in US history for tornado outbreaks according to foe National Weather Service Spotters repotted nine tornadoes in die Kansas City area May 4 Hardest hit were Wyandotte Platte and Clay counties At least four tornadoes tore through urban areas In Missouri historic downtowns in Stockton and Pierce City were leveled But May 4 was just one day in a stretch of extraordinarily bad weather in the Midwest and STORY BI Bill GRAHAM surrounding regions that devastated homes businesses and trees Amid the tumult people fought back Tonja Speer who directs outpatient services at the Wyandot Center for Community Behavioral Healthcare said most victims had persevered "Overall been pretty amazed at their Speer said "Of all the contacts had resilience is by far the biggest part of the picture" Consider Dan and Jennifer Wells The Northmoor home was destroyed Nevertheless they proceeded with wedding plans three days later Hours after the ceremony they went back to their property to have wedding photos taken A news photo of the couple tiptoeing through the rubble ran in papers throughout the country Like many who found themselves in the path the Wellses have rebuilt On April 23 the couple moved into a new frame house on the site of their former house They rebuilt the home next to Dan carpentry shop and they put a beauty salon in one room for Jennifer hair-styling business Their three children (from previous marriages) have new bedrooms "You give Jennifer Wells said took a year to get back a long time to not THE KANSAS CITY STAR See FALLUJAH A-12 Gardner body is found in creek By JAMES HART The Kanti City Star COMING TOMORROW Rebuilding small-town Westerners attacked Gunmen kill at least five foreign workers in Saudi Arabia including two Americans and drag one body through the streets Stoty A-I3 wwwkansascitycom WEATHER feel sorrow for our loss of a beautiful little girl but we are thankful she was able to give happiness to others Kathy Hinds grandmother Letters strengthen a friendship bom of tragedy Finl glance By STEVE ROCK The Iiiiii City Star Hinds to be mad at the world shake her fist at the heavens High 61 Low 38 Clouds cool Forecast C-16 DEPARTMENTS The grandmother of a Missouri child-abuse victim has formed a close bond with an Iowa woman who received the kidneys of her granddaughter A month ago Alonzo Brooks walked out the front door of his house in Gardner on his way to a Saturday night party outside La Cygne Kan worry I'D be back tonight" he told his mother Brooks never came home On Saturday afternoon four weeks after he disappeared a search party erf friends and relatives found his body in Middle Creek in a tangle of brush not far from the house where he was last seen The Linn County Department on Saturday determined the case was a homicide The FBI was investigating to see whether Brooks a 23-year-old black man was the victim of a hate crime So far there is no evidence that Brooks was killed because of the calm of his skin the sheriff department said No me has been charged or arrested in tile Gardner death But the discovery Saturday answered at least one painful question for his family never going to be any closure for the rest of our his brother Billy bodes said at a neweeonference Saturday at least we know what happened to 124th year No 228 29 sections imVBBIHB QASSflED H4 BGKBtNIS DEATHS B-78 V0OMGS F-7 FYI F4 to and question everything to harbor resentment toward a state social services program she believes foiled Bryanna Having Brandhorst in her life gave her another perspective takes the hate out" Hinds said And it aU started with those letters March 16 2002 Hinds to Brandhorst: 'In my mind I have started th is letter many times each time differently but each time the same Your name is Bryanna She was a very special person My name is Kbthy and I hope to keep in contact with you I do not want to intrude in your life I only would like to know you are go- LaGRANGB Mo In a dark corner of a room in Kathy modest home packed away in six cardboard boxes are solemn reminders of the only granddaughter Hinds has ever known Clothes Toys Books There they sit bring myself to part with Hinds said granddaughter Bryanna Neece should be celebrating her 4th birthday Monday She should be frolicking in yard about a mile from the tranquil waters of the Mississippi River Instead body is buried some 75 miles away The victim of child abuse Bryanna died in January 2002 at 20 months Hinds wants so badly to forget She wants even more to remember And so just down the hall past the bookcase decorated with no Bryanna Neece SIM IV AND COMO ft SIM MAGAM AM) NIAK and forever changed them both Brandhorst was an organ recipient someone whose failing kidneys had restricted her lifestyle and demanded regular dialysis treatments Bryanna was the donor and I will always have that Brandhorst said recently by phone dwell on it but always This relationship this bond forged in the aftermath of personal tragedy helped rase the pain for Hinds tdter death It would have been easy for fewer than four pictures of Bryanna past the toy car Bryanna loved to ride are reminders of a different sort Letters Lots of letters On tiie other end of those letters is Sandy Brandhorst 57 from Waterloo Iowa A woman whose life by sheer chance intersected with 8 See LETTERS A-6.

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