Visit to "Confidential" high school; plus, weekend links and more video

On Friday I joined several other Kansas City Star columnists, including Mike Hendricks (to my right), Vern Barnet (to my left) and John Mark Eberhart (man in black), at an annual columnists panel convened for the AP English students at Blue Valley Northwest High School. That's right, the very high school featured in the WE series "High School Confidential." Happily, my grilling at the hands of BVNW students was light; after all, I was the guy who blew its cover. There are two "Northwest Highs" in Overland Park, and the show never reveals which one it is. A high school, however, is not a minor, and I didn't get why we were supposed to treat it as such and obscure its identity. Water under the bridge, I suppose.

Speaking of water, as in rainwater, my page one story about J. Eggleston and his daughter Stefanie ran today. Here's the blog entry I wrote after discovering his detailed analysis of Kansas City weathercasters had made the NYT Freakonomics blog.

Oh, and speaking of "High School Confidential," last episode airs 9 p.m. CT Monday on WE. It's a nice wrap to the series if you missed all the previous eps. Here's my Sunday story on it and the marathon of "Day Under Fire" programs, shot by Kansas City's Wide Awake Films.

And now, here's the second in a series of videos running on local cable right now. In this exciting installment, Cynthia Smith and I talk about the writers' strike's aftermath.