Standing behind the counter of a Midtown Kansas City vape shop, Billy Angus pondered the gravity of a new directive from Washington, D.C., aimed at an increasingly popular alternative to cigarettes: “It’s going to cause most of the industry to go out of business,” said Angus, manager of 816 Vapor, which sits along 39th Street. Electronic cigarettes are among a class of products known as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). They are typically composed of a simple battery and an atomizer-- a self-contained heating element. The atomizer heats a flavored liquid, or “juice,” that contains nicotine, producing vapor instead of smoke. Dissenting views about the regulation’s impact come from public health advocates, including the head of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, and from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which issued the rule through the Food and Drug Administration. In announcing the new regulation in May, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell called the move “an important step in the fight for a tobacco-free generation” and said it would “help us catch up with changes in the marketplace, put into place rules that protect our kids and give adults information they need to make informed decisions.” According to the FDA ,16 percent of high school and 5.3 percent of middle school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2015, making e-cigarettes the most commonly used tobacco product among youth for the second consecutive year. The new rule, which took effect Monday, extends the FDA’s authority over tobacco products to include ENDS. The regulation implements the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention…...

What happens when a regular coffee group gathers at a Brookside restaurant? Check out the latest episode of “Common Grounds” to find out. The hangout of choice for our coffee conversationalists is Bella Napoli Italian Restaurant, Deli, and Coffee Bar at 6229 Brookside Blvd. Sharon Grosshart, Fred Newman, Bob Miller, Nelson Maurice, and Jackie Allen invited our production crew to join them over a cup of joe. Talk of the upcoming elections turned to a discussion about campaign ads. “If they’re using incredible scare tactics, or they’re using fuzzy math, or they’re using slander,” Grosshart said, “I have a tendency to put that person down as someone I would never vote for. Never.” Allen was unimpressed with the TV pitches of Missouri’s gubernatorial candidates. “When you see the lady who wants to become a governor shooting, she does not need that to be heard,” she said. “[If] she proposes something great, maybe people will listen. And the men are always [the] same. They have to show that the gun is always behind [them].” “Common Grounds” is a regular video series produced by KCPT in association with Consensus, a nonprofit focused on community engagement. Its purpose is to capture the pulse of our community over coffee. The segments run as part of “Week in Review,” which airs on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sundays at 11 a.m. Flatland is also publishing the segments. If you’d like the Common Grounds team to head to your coffee shop or listen in to your group, contact us at commongrounds@kcpt.org. — Brett Baker…...

Reconciliation Services hosted the “Common Grounds” team this week, where the conversation included discussions about race and the violence gripping the nation. The Rev. Justin Mathews, Turbo Qualls, Tonya Adams, and Rodney Hendrix met in the internet cafe at the organization’s offices, 3101 Troost Ave. Matthews is the executive director of Reconciliation Services, and Qualls is the café’s program director and a case manager for the organization. Adams and Hendrix are volunteers at the organization. Reconciliation Services provides emergency services and case management for the residents of its neighborhood. It also provides internet access and digital literacy courses for area residents. Adams offered her perspective on living in the city as a single black woman. “People have a tendency to look down on me and treat me with disrespect,” she said. “They might not directly say, ‘You are nothing to me’ or ‘You are beneath me.’ But their actions speak louder than their words.” Qualls, meanwhile, was thinking about the recent incidents of police violence. “I don’t think it’s as simple as, ‘He was black, and the cops were white.’ That’s not going to serve to bring [a] solution. It’s just going to keep the problem going,” Qualls said. “In Minnesota, he had a license to carry his firearm. That’s something that [gives] every single NRA member and conservative white man who has been upset about Obama taking their guns an opportunity to show solidarity.” “Common Grounds” is a regular video series produced by KCPT in association with Consensus, a nonprofit focused on community engagement. Its purpose is to capture…...

This week the “Common Grounds” team heads southeast to the Cass County town of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, to sit down with four locals at the New Town Bicycle and Coffee Shop. Dwight and Anita Widaman, Dave Moore, and Bob White met in the narrow, brick building at 115 Wyoming St. in the historic downtown. The bike shop sits at the front of the business and gives way to musical equipment used for live music performances. The coffee shop sits farther back. [FLEX-CONTENT] Discussion turned to the elections. “I don’t see much of anything [Trump has] done to be different than has been done in previous elections. I think it’s because we have a 24-hour news cycle,” Dwight Widaman said. “We didn’t have that under LBJ, or Roosevelt, or Truman. Previous presidents who had a lot of bullyish qualities.“ Moore focused on Missouri’s gubernatorial race. “I’m attracted to the outsider because I think the system needs [to be] changed,” Moore said. “But I’m also very well aware that we all become parts of the systems in which we operate and it takes time.“ “Common Grounds” is a regular video series produced by KCPT in association with Consensus, a nonprofit focused on community engagement. Its purpose is to capture the pulse of our community over coffee. The segments run as part of “Week in Review,” which airs on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sundays at 11 a.m. Flatland is also publishing the segments. If you’d like the Common Grounds team to head to your coffee shop or listen in to your…...

Antonio Rosas is nearly blind from glaucoma, and his daughter, Gina, uses a wheelchair due to a rare neuroimmune disorder. So it’s hard for them to get out and worship with their fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses in their hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Yet their deep faith is pulling them through a weekslong summer trek to regional conventions, which included a late June stop in Independence, Missouri, and is scheduled to wrap up next month in Oklahoma City. They spent the July Fourth holiday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “This is a chance for me to associate with my spiritual family,” Gina Rosas said while in Independence. “I don’t know a lot of the people here, but they’re my friends. I know I can count on them for help. They’re right next to me right now, and they love me. I love them. It’s given me a lot of comfort just to be here.” [FLEX-CONTENT] Driving their handicap-accessible minivan is wife and mother Elizabeth Rosas. With the air conditioning on, Gina Rosas rides in a heated seat and is covered by blankets to keep her spine relaxed. At 0.8 percent, Jehovah’s Witnesses rank above only “Other Christian” as the smallest sliver of U.S. Christians, according to the Pew Research Center. Nevertheless, the faith has approximately 20 million adherents worldwide, and the regional community is large enough that local officials anticipated drawing roughly 8,000 attendees combined to the two recent conventions at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence. As many people know from the evangelists who show up unexpectedly on their doorsteps, Jehovah’s Witnesses…...

This week’s episode of “Common Grounds” comes to you from our down-the-street neighbor, the Good Samaritan Project, where we visited with six members of Kansas City’s LGBT community.   Ash R. Allee, Gina Vidal, Greg Razer, Hugo Ximello-Salido, Matt Parker Green, and Stuart Hinds were the diverse coffee conversationalists who gathered at the project’s offices, 3030 Walnut St. in Kansas City.   [FLEX-CONTENT]   Top of mind was last month’s mass-killing at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which led to a discussion about the importance of bars and clubs to the LGBT community.   “Even our most ardent straight allies don’t fully appreciate the sanctuary that they are,” Razer said. “That that is the one place in the world that we can go and truly be ourselves. That we can hold hands, or dance, and not have to look at our surroundings.”   [FLEX-CONTENT]   Hinds lamented the repercussions from Orlando that have reverberated all the way to our community.   “It’s really heartbreaking to hear that your partner doesn’t want to go out at all. That you’re scared to go to a gay bar,” Hinds said. “I can’t tell you how much that (angers me), because this wasn’t supposed to happen to this generation. It’s just infuriating.”   “Common Grounds” is a regular video series produced by KCPT in association with Consensus, a nonprofit focused on community engagement. Its purpose is to capture the pulse of our community over coffee. The segments run as part of “Week in Review,” which airs on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and again…...

Located a stone’s throw away from the seat of government in Wyandotte County is a small coffee shop. A Cup on the Hill, 730 Minnesota Ave., opened two years ago with the help of Community Housing of Wyandotte County and remains one of the few coffee shops in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. Its rarity and location made it a perfect starting point for the new KCPT video series “Common Grounds.” This project allows community members to chew on a variety of issues over a cup of joe. [FLEX-CONTENT] For this first segment, the “Common Grounds” crew corralled four diverse Kansans for a discussion about the presidential election and one of the state’s hottest political issues: school funding. The four community members Diosselyn Tot, Jessica Zieg, Nicky Tomasic, and John Altevogt met last week. The staff at A Cup on the Hill graciously allowed KCPT to rearrange furniture to create what you see on screen. That wasn’t the only bit of “movie magic” involved in the production of the first episode. There may or may not have been some hot water used to create the effect of a steaming coffee cup. [FLEX-CONTENT] “Common Grounds” is the creation of Nick Haines, host of “Week in Review.” "This election year has shown us that large numbers of citizens are feeling disenfranchised, ignored and taken for granted," Haines said. KCPT’s partner on the series is Consensus, a local nonprofit with a long history of community engagement. The segments will run as part of “Week in Review,” which airs on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sundays…...