Tag: Alan Kneeland

KC preps for World Cup all-nighter, taste testing 23-hour drinking window for summer games

By Tommy Felts / November 13, 2025

Entrepreneurs want to tap into all the potential business they can when an estimated 650,000 visitors descend on Kansas City for the World Cup, said Jim Ready, detailing plans for a temporary expansion of alcohol sales in KCMO to accommodate a global audience in June and July 2026. The move is more of a stress…

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Push to change Troost’s racially-charged name stalls again, leaving vocal advocates disheartened

By Tommy Felts / May 6, 2025

Chris Goode stood at the podium Tuesday in council chambers at City Hall, voicing a frustration with the city’s repeated inaction on his proposal to change the name of Troost Avenue — a Kansas City thoroughfare with a legacy rooted in slavery — to Truth Avenue. “I want to keep my head up high, but…

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Meet the winners: Pitch Black competition rewards founders’ vision with $60K in prizes

By Tommy Felts / April 1, 2025

Founder Godfrey Riddle was overwhelmed with emotion Saturday, he said, after accepting the $30,000 grand prize at the Pitch Black Business Summit — a game-changing development for his sustainable, affordable housing venture, Civic Saint. “I’m feeling phenomenal. Shocked, relieved — just elated,” said Riddle, following the announcement of his win. “It’s crazy because when you…

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Alan Kneeland, The Combine

Startup: Holiday season gift card boom needn’t skip small biz; this discrete digital wallet-ready option keeps giving local

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2024

Gift cards are convenient — and the No. 1 most-requested present — Nicole Glass said, but there’s frequently just something impersonal and disconnected about them that makes many people feel bad about slipping one into a card or gift box. “It’s like, ‘I didn’t really know what you wanted. Here’s Starbucks,’” said Glass, president of…

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LaRonda LaNear, We Got It Covered

We Got It Covered: LaRonda LaNear feeds her soul (and yours) in a world catered to men

By Tommy Felts / March 11, 2021

LaRonda LaNear was tired of the working world’s status quo.  “I’ve always hated authority and it’s always been men in power, telling me what to do — and it never made sense,” she joked, shedding light on a real problem that robbed her of joy nearly every shift at every job she held.  “I took that…

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