“I think it would have been bad because I wouldn’t have been able to talk,” Will says.

And Will thinks he wouldn’t have been able to walk at all. That’s if the Grandview man had waited longer to call 9-1-1 when he was having a stroke.

An ambulance rushed him to Research Medical Center where a scan confirmed the stroke. Then he was injected with TPA, a drug to dissolve the blood clot in his brain.

TPA can be given up to four and a half hours after a stroke starts. A new study of nearly 60,000 patients, including Kansas City patients, confirms that the sooner within that time frame the drug is injected, the better.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients treated around 90 minutes after the onset — that’s just a little sooner than Will was treated — were 26 percent less likely to die and 51 percent more likely to walk when they left the hospital compared to people who were treated after three hours.

The study found a higher risk of death and disability with every 15 minutes lost.

“The more time we lose, the more nerve cells we lose in the brain,” says Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed, a neurologist at Research.

Dr. Ahmed says don’t think numbness on one side or trouble speaking will just go away with time. Call 9-1-1.

“Let the physicians in the E.R. decide whether you have a stroke or don’t have a stroke,” says Dr. Ahmed.

At Research, there are also efforts to reduce the time to treatment once a patient arrives. The stroke team even awards t-shirts to E.R. personnel who speed up the process.

“When I got here, they started working on me immediately,” says Will.

Dr. Ahmed says with more therapy, Will should see big improvement in his movement, and that would have been much less likely without timely treatment.

Peaden Harley, 21, said he was saying goodbye to his friends early Saturday morning when he saw flames coming out of an apartment building next door.

“There were kids in that house, and all I could think about were my kids,” Harley said.

He said he pounded on everyone’s doors and one man didn’t budge, so he kicked his door down. Harley said the man was hysterical, thinking he was breaking in to steal something.

Mike Raymond said he was sleeping on a bed that was on fire and the flames were shooting up next to his girlfriend’s one-week-old baby.

Raymond said if Harley didn’t go inside the burning building to wake people up, some of them would not have made it out alive.

An overgrown yard at a vacant house in Prairie Village, Kansas, has turned into a nightmare for neighbors. They worried that the tall grass was becoming a haven for snakes and wildlife.

Neighbors told FOX 4 that complaints to the city had produced no results. One neighbor even asked the city whether he could mow the lawn. But he says the city told him he couldn’t.

FOX 4 Problem Solvers called the city’s one and only code enforcement officer wondering what the city planned to do. The news was encouraging. She said that in accordance with Kansas law, she had already sent a warning letter to the property owner.  That warning was just returned to the city as undeliverable, giving Prarie Village the legal right to clean up this mess and charge it to the homeowner, who’s still listed as owner of this property, but hasn’t been since in months.

The day after FOX 4 Problem Solvers talked to Prairie Village, the city sent a yard crew out to clean up the lot, solving this particular problem.

Which brings us to another overgrown lot. This one is in Clay County on North Oak near 81st street in Kansas City. The grass is so tall that driver Gage McGarry said he has a tough time pulling out into traffic.

“I think something needs to be done with it because when I look I don’t know where oncoming traffic is or see the curb where I need to turn. So to me it’s a hazard.”

FOX 4 Problem Solvers called the company selling the parcel and a woman told us that the owner was letting the grass grow because he planned to mow it for hay. An interesting idea, but something Kansas City spokesman Danny Rotert says is completely illegal because the lot is not zoned agricultural.

“You don’t get to decide what you want to do with your lot because your neighbors have rights to,” said Rotert, who said the city had already mailed the owner a warning letter and if the lot isn’t mowed by this week, he will be fined.

The hole developed over the weekend at the office at 6507 Johnson Drive. According to a press release, a new course will be sectioned off and painted before motorcycle skills testing can resume.

The state’s Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka, Olathe and Ottowa driver licensing offices will continue to offer motorcycle skills tests.

For additional information about the Kansas Division of Vehicles operations, click here.

The suspect is seen a home surveillance video approaching the house in the 1900 block of Buckingham Road at about 3 p.m.

The man, described as a black man with a goatee, wearing red or orange shoes and grey sweats, came out of the woods and began looking into the home’s windows and checking its doors.

He then broke a back window and went into the home.

Police say the cameras also show a dark-colored car, believed to be the suspect’s vehicle, driving by the house twice. The vehicle appears to be a Jeep Patriot or Liberty and had Missouri license plates.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS or Liberty Police at 816-439-4701.

According to St. Louis County Police, the driver said he fled the scene because he was scared and said the crash was an accident.

The two-year-old, Darrion Griffin, died in his grandmother’s arms after he was hit by a white Dodge Durango. The child’s 17-year-old aunt, Sheriea Evans, was injured while trying to pull him to safety.

“My daughter, she tried to jump in front of him,” the victim’s grandmother, Alexandria Goree said in an interview with FOX 2. “Those pains, those bruises, the broken toe, were healed, but she will forever hold Darrion in her heart.”

Goree publicly pleaded for the driver to come forward.

On Monday, police found a white Dodge Durango and began questioning someone they called a ‘person-of-interest.’ On Tuesday, police announced the teenager had admitted he was the driver.

Goree’s neighbor, Doe Miller, said speeding is a chronic problem on her street, which doesn’t have sidewalks.

“They fly up and down this street all the time,” Miller said. “We said a child is going to get killed on this street, and sure enough, that’s what happened.”

Goree said it is important for families to show children how much they are loved, because, she learned, tragedies happen.

“Hug your child, keep him close,” she said.

Story written by FOX 4 intern Caitlin Holland

Those who live near 23rd Street and 291 Highway are calling for the city to take action.

The hospital, known as MCI, has been closed for five years and in that time it’s quickly become a breeding ground for criminals.

Saturday night, firefighters rushed to the main hospital building. Flames were shooting out of the top floor windows.

Neighbors tell FOX 4 News there’s been vandalism, and a lot police calls here as copper and other metal has been stripped out of the building.

And they claim it hasn’t stopped here. Some say nearby homes also are becoming targets for thieves and vandals.

Homeowners say they’ve waited too long for redevelopment. That’s why those watching the fire wanted the building to burn to the ground.

“That would be an improvement because at least it forces someone to come through and at least demolish the building or repair it and have it fixed,” said Dan Shimel, a nearby homeowner.

An Independence city council member tells FOX 4 News there are discussions taking place to sell the property to the city utility, Independence Power and Light.

The main hospital building, the one that caught fire over the weekend, would be torn down.
Another building, which used to be medical offices, would be remodeled as office space for Independence Power and Light.

The sale has not yet taken place.

Neighbors like Shimel are getting tired of waiting. His daughter was born at MCI back in 2006. He never dreamed then that the hospital that helped bring the community up would end up dragging the neighborhood down in such a short period of time.

Stylist Joey Figueiredo answered questions left on FOX 4′s Facebook page about how to look put-together in the hot weather.

Figueiredo said the best practices to avoid makeup meltdowns include using an oil-free moisturizer, an oil-controlling primer, a setting spray and pressed powder.

“A pressed powder is going to give you more of a matte sheen to your skin, instead of a loose mineral power which is going to buff your skin,” he said.

The best way to address frizzy hair is to make sure to lock in as much moisture as possible early, he said. Knowing your hair type is important, too.

“We have to actually understand what the structure of hair is first before we can actually understand what it does in the weather,” he said.

To protect skin from harmful rays without feeling sticky, Figueiredo said to look for oil-free sunscreens. He also said to look at skin products’ packaging, as many powders and moisturizers have SPF built-in already.

To find out more about Figueiredo’s styling services, click here.

One in five of those polled by Public Policy Polling say they prefer to spend time with their pets over most human beings.

And… almost a third (31%) say their pets sleep in the bed with them.

Interestingly, 52 percent of pet owners have dogs and 21 percent have a cats.

Vote your preference below!

“During the school year, kids have one job, and that is to be a student,” she said. “That kind of revolves around them.”

In the summer months, Crockett said families lose their sense of focus. To address this, Crockett has a list of tips for parents and kids on break:

• Assign fun summer chores
• Make theme days or weeks
• Join a reading program
• Co-op with other parents
• If all else fails, throw in a camp

She said summer provides a nice break from the normal routine, and that should be embraced.

“We don’t want to have the same structure and vigor that we have during the school year,” she said. “We want to have some fun.”

Summer reading is important, because kids can easily lose two grade levels if they go the break without any reading, she said.

To find out more about local reading programs, click here.

To find out more about local free concerts, click here.

Schieszer said the album is a collection of his social commentary as a young comedian in Los Angeles.

“Growing up comedically in LA, you get a lot of five-, six-minute, 10-minute or 15-minute sets,” he said. “I went through all my back logs and grabbed out the best of me practicing, refining, honing my comedy.”

Schieszer’s beard, something he’s been flaunting for three-months, is also a talking point in his stand-up, he said.

“It gets an amazing amount of attention from people,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s always guys.”

Schieszer said he wants to give his friends, family and his hometown the opportunity to see his performance.

“I look at things differently than the average person,” he said.

Schieszer’s album release and performance, along with six other comedians taking the stage, is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Mission Theater. Tickets are $12. For more information about the comedian, visit Schieszer’s website here.

The girl’s father, who is a blogger, says the agent looked at his daughter’s ID, commented on her age and told her to cover herself up.

The man has filed a formal complaint saying the TSA shouldn’t shame anyone.  The teen has also asked for an apology.

“I would tell him he has absolutely no right telling my daughter what she can and can’t wear,” Serena’s father said.

Serena’s mother says what is strange is that the girl was wearing a long-sleeved shirt at the time.

A TSA spokesperson says they’re reviewing the incident.

The disturbance that I was tracking through SW NE earlier this AM has generated a weak wave that is moving towards the KC area. This wave is interacting with the heating and OK instability building through the region. as a result it has fired up some new convection that is moving towards the ESE and may affect parts of the region over the next 6 hours or so. Not everyone will get rain out of this, but there could be some heavy downpours and decent thunder and lightning with it. Here is a radar snapshot from around 3PM showing the convection…

At this point a severe T/Storm Watch is not anticipated from the SPC however their may be some hail and gusty winds from the storms should they intensify. There have been some warnings out towards Manhattan and down towards the Lakes area.

JL

Not a lot going on around the area this morning as the sun is out and temperatures are warming up nicely. This blog will cover a few little things but there really isn’t a lot to blog about today.

1) Summer starts on Friday morning @ 12:04 AM. The summer solstice occurs when the tilt of the earth is most pointed towards the sun, even though because of the earth’s orbit, we can actually be farther away from the sun. It’s a bit complicated…perhaps this picture helps…

2) Supercell thunderstorms…take a look at this video…pretty neat showing the rotational aspect/beautiful structure of a supercell storm in NE the other day courtesy of @slchunters

3) Alaska weather…temperatures up there are sizzling for mid June. They will be enjoying virtually dark-free conditions with the beginning of summer, all that light plus a big upper level ridge creates heat in June, and their highs have responded/ In some cases ALL-TIME highs for some of the stations up there…

Check out some of the highs from yesterday

...ALL TIME RECORD HIGHS FALL AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS ACROSS SOUTH
CENTRAL ALASKA...

A EXPANSIVE RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER SOUTHERN ALASKA IS CONTINUING
THE STRING OF UNUSUALLY HOT DAYS. TEMPERATURES AT MANY LOCATIONS WERE
IN THE 80S TO MID 90S. 

THE FOLLOWING STATIONS SET ALL-TIME HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS TODAY:

TALKEETNA....96 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 91 SET ON JUNE 16
                  2013...JUNE 14 1969...AND JUNE 26 1953. 
CORDOVA......90 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 89 SET ON JULY 16 1995.
VALDEZ.......90 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 87 SET ON JUNE 26 1953
                  AND JUNE 25 1953. 
SEWARD.......88 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 87 SET ON JULY 4 1999. 

THE VALDEZ TEMPERATURE WAS RECORDED IN THE CITY OF VALDEZ. THE HIGH
TEMPERATURE AT THE AIRPORT WAS 84 DEGREES. 

TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN ABOVE NORMAL ON TUESDAY BUT WILL BE COOLER
THAN TODAY. THE COOLING TREND WILL CONTINUE ON WEDNESDAY.

Here is the satellite picture from yesterday showing the clear air up there...

3) Our precipitation has varied quite a bit this year. Officially we're shy of 17" 
or so @ KCI. But take a look at some of the other cities in the region. Some have had almost 
doubled that...



4) Our next decent rain chance really doesn't get here till later tomorrow night
into Thursday. After that it looks a lot drier and hotter as well into the weekend.

5) My cats...I never try to waste your time or totally bore you on the blog by
showing pictures of our animals, but I have tweeted this out since my wife decided that for Father's Day to
dress up the cats in celebration. This is Abby who has got her bow-tie on!



Don't worry I won't be showing my pet pictures again for a long time, if ever! lol

Joe

Whatever your answer, you’re certain to enjoy it at Kansas City’s Union Station.

The Whydah is a pirate ship, which sank in 1717. Pirates at Union Station will tell you about their adventures on the Whydah, show you their treasures, and have sing-alongs.

It looks like a lot of fun. Watch FOX 4′s Matt Stewart’s visit with the Whydah’s (make-believe) Captain in the player above.

Click here for more information on the Union Station exhibit.

PC Magazine conducted a study to see which phone companies have the fastest and most reliable service and Sprint is at the bottom.

The magazine tested Long Term Evolution service, or LTE – better known as 4G service – in 30 cities, and AT&T took the top spot.

Nationally, AT&T scored a 97, while Verizon scored an 89 and Sprint scored at 44.
T-Mobile didn’t get a score because it doesn’t have 4G service in enough cities.

Sprint’s score was better in Kansas City, where the phone company is headquartered, but still fared at the bottom. In fact T-Mobile’s LTE service in Kansas City scored higher.

Local ratings gave AT&T a score of 94. T-Mobile and Verizon received an 86 and locally, Sprint scored a 60.

Testers drove to several spots in the 30-city test area and tested all four phone services at once to determine which LTE service worked best. And while testers agreed AT&T was fastest, they say Verizon was more reliable.

They all agreed Sprint is on the upswing.

But all their progress could be for naught if Sprint does not acquire Clearwire, which owns a valuable spectrum that Sprint wants to use to upgrade its 4G service…and Sprint has been working in recent months to buy up the majority of the company.

But Dish network recently swooped in with its own bid to try to buy Clearwire…and Sprint filed a lawsuit yesterday against Dish Network.

Then add on the fact we don’t know yet who will buy Sprint. Current bidders are Dish network or Japan-based Soft Bank.

What happens in the next few weeks will determine the future of Sprint, and whether the company can improve its cell phone service and win over more customers.

In some cases, property owners received values that had increased by as much as 40 to 50 percent.

Related: Jackson Co. to review some property assessments

The department received 18,000 appeals but now it looks like as many as 68,000 property values were incorrect.

The assessment department has extended the deadline for the appeal process and they have also extended their office hours.

Just before 2:00 a.m., crews from Overland Park Fire were called to a house in the 8800 block of Westbrooke Drive.

There was a fire in the basement and the bedroom of the single-story home. Firefighters say there was ammunition and fireworks in the home that began to discharge. They knocked down an outside wall and got to the bedroom fire that way.

“In the front bedroom, along with a lot of clutter, there were also some fireworks and some firearms or some ammunition and the fire that got into that room began to set some of that off,” said Jason Rhodes with the Overland Park Fire Department. “So, it certainly gave us a reason for pause, so we had to kind of pull back, regroup, and figure out what that was and get things contained and then we were able to go back in and isolate that and take care of it.”

“We can actually see where the fire traveled. We can’t ensure that it won’t rekindle,” said Julie Harper, Overland Park Battalion Chief. “We basically had to remove the entire room of origin, which was stacked pretty full.”

The smell of smoke awakened the residents, and all four got out of the house safely. The fire department said it’s still investigating how the fire started and investigators believe the home did not have working smoke alarms.

Rhodes said the family is fortunate they escaped without injury, but so are firefighters.

“Anytime we go into a home that’s filled with clutter, if you got a hoarding situation, it presents a lot of problems for us,” he said. “You don’t have that mobility. You can’t find fire quickly. You can’t get in and out of areas quickly so it’s very dangerous. These guys are really lucky. Everybody’s really lucky that we didn’t have any serious injuries or fatalities here.”

In January, Carie Charles-Worth’s ex-husband showed up at her Catholic school in El Cajon, California. At the time, the school was placed on lockdown and the ex-husband was arrested and thrown in jail. Now that he’s out, Charles-Worth is out of a job.

“I left that afternoon and was told I was taking the week off and haven’t been back since,” Charles-Worth said. “How do you explain to your kids that they don’t get to go back to their school, their friends.”

Harlesworth is considering filing a lawsuit against the school.

The newly-crowned Miss Kansas 2013, who’ll be competing in Miss America in September, is all about breaking stereotypes to set the record straight on so-called pageant girls.

She looks the part of a pageant queen, and she even sounds like one in her operatic performance. While Miss Kansas, 22-year-old Theresa Vail, wears the shoes of a pageant queen, she’s really more comfortable in a pair of combat boots.

“I’ve always wanted to be in the military, and I had the privilege of doing that when I was 17,” Theresa explained.

Theresa’s in the Kansas Army National Guard where she’s currently serving as a dental technician.

“Nobody expects a soldier to be a beauty queen,” she said.

It was fellow soldiers who encouraged Theresa to go for the crown.

“I’m all about breaking stereotypes, and that’s why I thought pageant systems would be the way to go,” Theresa said.

She continues to break stereotypes in the pageant world. She’s an archer, working on a bow-hunting show for the Outdoor Channel.

“We have two hunts as of right now. We need 13 to air a season, so we’re just waiting until September for deer season,” she explained.

Theresa’s a great shot, a qualified expert marksman with an M-16 and she’s an adrenaline seeker. She used to even race motorcycles. On top of that, Theresa’s nearly fluent in Chinese.

She’s using her diverse background as a way to inspire other young women that they too can be a pageant queen or anything else they’d like to be.

“Right now, everyone thinks of Miss America as this girl on a pedestal, and I want her to come down from that. She is just a normal girl,” Theresa said.

A normal girl with a high-profile job and a crown that matches everything, even camo.
Theresa attends Kansas State University. She plans to go to dental school and become an Army dentist.

For more information about the Miss America Organization, click here.

For more information about Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, click here.

Connect with Abby Eden: Facebook |  Twitter | Email

Hundreds of protesters converged on Kobach’s front porch Saturday.

The Sunflower Community Action group says more than 700 people gathered at Trinity United Methodist Church to talk about what they call common sense immigration reform.

From the church, a couple hundred boarded buses to Secretary Kobach’s house, they say, to deliver a personal message to him.

“Kris Kobach, we know you can do it. We know you can stand with us,” a member of the Sunflower Community Action group says into a bullhorn while facing the crowd of protesters.

Video posted online by the group shows a rally on the front steps of Kobach’s home.

“We hope that our fathers will not be gone tomorrow,” the man continues in his speech to the crowd.

In a statement the group says they gathered outside Kobach’s home to remind him that Kansans believe in keeping families together — adding Kobach has spent years promoting hateful policies that force families, friends and neighbors to live in fear.

“There ain’t no power like the power of the people and the power of the people don’t stop …” the crowd chants as they leave Kobach’s home and march through the neighborhood.

In the video shot by the Sunflower action group, protesters can be seen leaving shoes at Kobach’s door, they say to symbolize all the families left fatherless due to deportation.

“We’ve left these shoes here so maybe Mr. Kobach can try to fill them because these are the shoes of the fathers he deported, that have been deported by his laws that he’s lobbied for and passed.”

In an interview with FOX News on Monday, Kobach says he was not home Saturday during the protest, but told the FOX News reporter he was appalled, saying, “They have a right to protest at my office or at public places. But they don’t have a right to enter someone’s private property and engage in this kind of intimidation.”

Kobach went on to say, “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the second amendment — if we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid because it took the police 15 minutes to show up.”

The KCK Police Department issued a statement saying it is aware of the protest and is reviewing matters to determine if any laws were violated.

On a separate note, Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Mark Holland is the pastor of the church where the protestors gathered Saturday before the demonstration.

Neither Holland nor Kobach returned our calls for comment.