The Washington Post has moved Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to the top of the betting line for the veep slot on Sen. Barack Obama's ticket.

   For the record -- the crack Prime Buzz staff isn't buying it yet. 

   We're betting a prime speaking slot at the convention, and a cabinet job if she wants it and he wins.

    But veep? 

    Discuss.

Barack Obama is about to return to one of his strengths -- grass-roots campaigning.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, the campaign will launch a 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive aimed at getting millions more Americans registered to vote and involved in the '08 campaign.

The KC event will be at at the former Obama for America office at 3911 Main St.

More information about the event is at http://my.barackobama.com/voteforchange.

   As Missouri and Kansas push forward on a photo-ID-to-vote requirement, Democrats are pushing back.

  Jay Nixon said today photo ID legislation is "unfortunate."

   Appearing yesterday on the radio with well-known voting machine critic and blogger Brad Friedman, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan called the push for photo ID "absurd."

   (Carnahan's discussion -- by telephone -- was rare.  Her office usually refuses to make her available for questions from reporters in the state.)

    Photo ID in either state this November remains unlikely, although Carnahan said there's an outside chance Missouri voters would be asked to amend the state constitution to allow photo ID this August.

   Downtown Kansas City’s freshly minted Power & Light District got national exposure today as Blue Springs American Idol favorite David Cook appeared to soak up the adulation and play two tunes (highlights of which will be aired on Tuesday’s show, as they show the three remaining finalists appearing in their hometowns).

   Prime Buzz got to accompany City Manager Wayne Cauthen and City Councilwoman Jan Marcason backstage before the show. They thanked him for everything he’s doing for Kansas City, before they went on stage to present him with proclamations on behalf of the city and the state. Several council aides also went backstage, along with Mary Charles of City Communications. Excerpts will be on the city’s Channel 2 cable channel.

   It was the kind of political maneuver that not even a mother could love.

   But let’s be clear at the outset: House Republicans did not really vote against Mother’s Day this week. It just might appear that way.

   So beware GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Sam Graves of Missouri and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas – especially Tiahrt, since he played a key role in what is possibly the mother of all knuckled-headed political moves.

   What House Republicans did Wednesday was call for a second vote on a resolution honoring Mother’s Day that had already passed unanimously.

   A reasonable person might ask, why?

   Because Republicans were in a snit since Democrats wouldn’t let them in on the debate over the funding of troops in a supplemental spending bill. So how could the GOP get back at the Democrats and make their life a little miserable?

   Jack Shafer in Slate takes an important look at the unilateral decision by Tim Russert, et. al., that the Democratic race is over.

   But for Jack, and for everyone else writing about the subject:

   No one in TV -- NO ONE -- uses the word "klieg" to describe the lights used in the studio.

   Please stop.

    The Kansas City Water Department unveiled its proposed long-term sewer control plan to overhaul the system. Some council members question that the $2.3 billion plan doesn't include enough green solutions.

   To read more, click here:

 http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/612710.html

Who does the Voter ID bill protect?

Justus sounds off on Aquila vote

Video: Gravel and the Obama Girl

Mayor Mark Funkhouser offers a monthly progress report, a parody song about the coal power plant veto hits the Internet, and why ballots should be private.

Who does the Voter ID bill protect? 

MO Common Sense believes the Voter ID Act is just designed to suppress votes. Conservatism with Heart contends that the bill is needed to prevent voter fraud. 

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. | Hillary Clinton has a last chance to grab the nomination in this state, and she knows it.

 Hoarse from a cross-country campaign trip through three states, Clinton told die-hard supporters in southern Oregon she would keep running for president, and pressed for yet another debate.

  Barack Obama,  who has been handed the nomination _ prematurely perhaps _by the pundit class, will start his own campaign tour here Friday and Saturday. Clinton said it would be a great time to debate while Oregonians consider how to cast mail ballots that are already hanging on refrigerators in households across the state. The ballots will be counted May 20.

 Clinton was slated to speak Friday about health care at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.

  So far, Democratic Representative and superdelegate Dennis Moore has refused to answer any questions about which presidential candidate he supports.

   But wasn't that Moore walking with Sen. Barack Obama after the candidate's visit to the Capitol Thursday?

   And didn't Obama win the caucus in Kansas' third congressional district?

   Just askin'.

WASHINGTON | With the Democratic race close to over, an old ally _ organized labor _ has turned to attacking John McCain.

   Barack Obama solidified himself as front-runner over Hillary Clinton Tuesday with a massive win in North Carolina, and a narrow lose in Indiana. The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain.

 “Senator McCain’s economic path would lead to disaster for America’s working families,” said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor organization.

WASHINGTON | Barack Obama got a front-runner’s welcome back at the Capitol on Thursday, pressing congressional “superdelegates” to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

 On the House floor, he was quickly surrounded by well-wishers calling him, “Mr. President” and reaching out to pat him on the back or shake his hand. The glad-handers included a few Republicans and supporters of his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 He picked up the superdelegate support of at least two lawmakers: Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, where Obama handily won the primary on Tuesday, and Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington state.

An amendment added to an ethics bill in the Missouri House today disallows the kind of shenanigans pulled in last month’s Kansas City bus service sales-tax election.

In the days leading up to the vote on whether to extend the 3/8-cent sales tax, a group called Kansas Citians Against Taxpayer Abuse ran anonymous TV ads and may have made phone calls opposing the extension. The group was funded by the American Democracy Alliance, a Missouri non-profit.

Jeff Roe was likely involved as well. For more details, read this story from the archives.

Today’s amendment, added by Kansas City Democrat Mike Talboy, deletes one seemingly obscure section of the state’s campaign finance law, thereby closing the loophole that lets groups employ such anonymous and late-breaking campaign tactics.

Statewide civic leaders in dark suits convinced Johnson County commissioners today to take a stab at becoming world leaders in a new information-based economy.

Meeting as a committee of the whole, commissioners voted to recommend placing a one-eighth cent sales-tax increase before voters on the Nov. 4 ballot.

If approved, the estimated $15 million in annual revenue would help fund the Johnson County Education Research Triangle that supporters say could one day find a cure for cancer, lure highly educated workers to the heartland and help make Kansas City one of the top 20 life-science centers in the country.

“This project is economic stimulus. It’s getting a piece of the new knowledge-based economy for Johnson County. It’s getting great return for little investment,” said Mary Birch, the government relations coordinator for the Lathrop & Gage law firm. “To be considered a great community, you’ve got to have ventures like this beyond just good public safety, roads and schools.”

JEFFERSON CITY | Missouri lawmakers on Thursday rejected a bill setting new restrictions on a troubled state fund for injured workers.

Several Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the legislation, which would’ve cut the maximum settlement amount that could be negotiated with injured workers and limited eligibility for the program.

Audits completed over the last year have suggested the Second Injury Fund, which provides benefits to workers with existing disabilities who have been re-injured on the job, will go broke in early 2009.

The bill’s failure could mean a statutory fix will not occur during this legislative session, which adjourns next Friday.

   JEFFERSON CITY – The Senate added new restrictions and boosted penalties Thursday for utilities that erect power plants illegally, but still approved legislation letting Aquila Inc. keep its Cass County generating station.

   The final 26-5 vote masked intense controversy over the bill, as lawmakers debated the appropriate penalty for a utility they agreed created its own problems by bullying local officials and making stupid decisions.

   The two points of view were captured during a discussion early in the day between Sens. Joan Bray and Kevin Engler.

In his column for Friday's paper, Mike Hendricks says he wishes Kansas City's mayor and light rail's biggest advocate would think smaller. Their big ideas about reginoal light rail could kill the only practical option out there, a starter line.

As an avowed lib, columnist Mike Hendricks ought to be outraged by Rush Limbaugh's attempt to influence the Democratic presidential race. Not so. See why in Live Mike.

Mayor Mark Funkhouser's "Priorities in Progress" regular newsletter e-mailed Thursday afternoon was a bit ahead of itself. On the topic of Downtown, the newsletter claimed the Cordish Co. "has filed a lawsuit against the city in hopes of stopping a plan to allow other entertainment districts to have open container liquor privileges."

Considering the stink it raised last month when it was reported Cordish was threatening such a lawsuit, it looked like news that the firm apparently had gone ahead and done it.

After an urgent inquiry however, it turns out, the mayor, or whoever wrote the newsletter, was wrong. A correction was promptly issued.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is dispatching the Rev. John Modest Miles to Kentucky at least twice to campaign for her before the commonwealth's May 20 primary.

Miles, pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church, said just because the pundits are demanding that Clinton drop out, he doesn't see why she should.

"I am not willing to give up on a miracle," he said.

If Florida and Michigan were given the chance to have revotes, then Clinton would pull into the lead in the popular vote, Miles maintains. He said the Democrats cannot disenfranchise the voters in two states. (both states have statewide elections in early August, which is when some have suggested revotes could be held before the convention).

He said Clinton would be prepared to hit the ground running on day one if elected president.

Was just riding up in a City Hall elevator with a CIMO employee and a worker toting cables. The worker explained to the CIMO employee that he was helping set up the new council offices.

The woman started in about how word was already "leaking" to the media about the new offices. (Is it a leak when the 24th floor is a mess with moving carts and council aides are boxing up their stuff and saying moving day is Monday?) The CIMO employee went on predicting that the media would blow the story out of proportion and make much ado about the swanky new offices.

"You know how the media is," she said. She then put her arms out into a half circle, bowed slightly and let out a half growl/half roar as if she were a tiger going for fresh meat.

After identifying myself to the indignant CIMO woman, I made a detour from my original destination. After all, I'm never one to turn down fresh meat. (My colleague Lynn Horsley earlier in the day had  asked for a cost breakdown from city officials).

   Need proof Sen. Hillary Clinton still thinks the race is on?

   An undeclared superdelegate tells Prime Buzz the Clinton campaign called today, urging the delegate to keep the powder dry.

   The message:  We don't expect you to come out for us now.  Just don't come out for him.

    The argument:  We're going to win in West Virginia, and this race is still very close, no matter what Tim Russert says.

    Sen. Barack Obama made his own appeal to undeclared supers in Washington today.

JEFFERSON CITY | The Missouri House gave final approval today to a controversial constitutional amendment concerning voter ID.

The amendment would give lawmakers the authority to pass legislation requiring voters to show photo identification before being allowed to cast a ballot. As a constitutional amendment, the measure would have to be approved by voters in order to go into effect.

The proposal now moves on to the Senate, where it must be passed before next Friday in order to go on the November ballot.

The issue cleaves sharply along political lines – Republicans argue voter ID requirements are necessary to prevent voter fraud while Democrats say the effort is aimed at disenfranchising poorer voters who are more inclined to vote their way.

Four-lanes or two-lanes. It just doesn't matter. Regardless of how many times you solicit public comment on a proposed parkway connecting Johnson and Cass counties, the answer still is overwhelmingly no.

The results from the latest round of public comment on the proposed South Metro Connector show that residents just don't want it regardless of what you build.

The Mid-America Regional Council tallied the latest results and here is what it found. It received 906 comments and 796 said they opposed building a new two-lane road linking the two counties while 110 were supportive.

For those aginners who don't want a two-lane road, many (496) said they wanted no road at all while another 293 were satisified with improving existing roads. Eighty-eight said they wanted a four-lane parkway while 38 wanted a freeway.

The Kansas City Council's Thursday catered luncheons are over. Kaput.

They've eaten the budget cut bullet.

With so many new faces on the council, last year the council members and Mayor Mark Funkhouser agreed to have weekly Thursday luncheons for each other and their staffs in an effort to get to know each other better.

The council members rotated the luncheons and paid for the meals out of their office budgets (unless the restaurant donated the food or a contributor picked up the tab, which the Missouri Ethics Commission said was legal but had to be reported).  They've been soul food, Mexican, Italian, deli and health food.

The lunches were fun when they were having fun. But they were a bit awkward when relations were a bit testy.

But today council members and their aides were headed out of the building for lunch. No more money for the "free" lunches.

Reports are surfacing that Barack Obama's campaign may have found a way to get Hillary Clinton out of the race gracefully and by this weekend.

The Obama campaign is willing to pay her debt, bills and loans to herself, which some estimate could top $25 million.

Others suggest that Obama might be better off for her to soldier on until the day after Kentucky and Oregon vote. Some pundits and bloggers say it would be embarrassing for Obama to suffer 30- to 40-point defeats in West Virginia and Kentucky while already the declared Democratic nominee.

    Kansas City Council offices on the 24th floor of City Hall are a shambles today, as council members prepare to move to their new digs on the 22nd floor. Officials tell Prime Buzz the actual moving day is Monday, so phones and email to the council members will be off that day. Council members should be in their new 22nd floor offices next Tuesday and phones will be back on then.

   A newly-released email shows a top election crimes official with the Department of Justice did not object to a controversial decision to indict four workers who registered voters for ACORN in Kansas City in 2006.

   The email -- from Craig Donsanto, then head of the Department's election crimes unit -- was obtained by Prime Buzz through a Freedom of Information Act request filed in March, 2007.

   The email provided is actually a chain of messages from local DOJ spokesman Don Ledford, former U.S. Attorney Brad Schlozman, and Donsanto, all related to the Nov. 1, 2006 indictments of four ACORN workers here just one week before the crucial 2006 election.

    Democrats have long claimed the ACORN indictments were politically motivated and violated the department's handbook, written by Donsanto, which discourages filing of voter charges close to an election.