If you drive in the Kansas City metro, chances are you've hit a pothole and cringed as you imagine what it may have done to your car....

On Kelly Roos' drive home from work she often catches a whiff of patchouli around 31st and Main streets in Kansas City, Missouri. She asked curiousKC to sniff out the source. We took Roos on an olfactory adventure, where she learned the answer and what patchouli actually smells like. Got a question about Kansas City, the region or the people who live here? Anything you’ve always wondered about, found peculiar or downright confusing? Share your questions with KCPT’s curiousKC.  ...

Editor’s Note: This article uses a partial last name to respect the privacy of the individual. Her story and the facts presented are verified to be true. Most parents will do anything to provide for their children, especially around the holidays. Robin L., a single mother of two, is no different, but she made a mistake. Just before Christmas 2014, she was caught trying to steal a doll from a Dollar General Store in Kansas City, Missouri. As Robin was a first-time offender, and she had only committed a low-level crime, her case was eligible to go before a Neighborhood Accountability Board. Neighborhood Accountability Boards (NABs) exist across the country and other parts of the world as a model for restorative justice. Instead of facing a judge, offenders meet with community members and, in some cases the victims of the crime, to discuss what happened. The offender, victim, and board members agree collectively what must be done to repair the harm, and once an offender completes the process, the crime is removed from their record. The Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR), a local nonprofit, began its NAB program three years ago this month, and in that time has dismissed 137 cases from Kansas City’s municipal court. City Prosecutor Abby Mueller selects which cases to refer to the NAB. They have included incidents of trespassing, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, but the majority are shoplifting cases. She said although the NAB isn’t dramatically reducing the 200,000 cases the municipal court processes each year, it’s a valuable resource. “It gives an…...

Breakfast for dinner – long a refuge for working parents and college students – is heating up on restaurant menus. Leeway Franks (935 Iowa Street) in Lawrence and Cleaver & Cork (1333 Walnut Street) in Kansas City’s Power & Light District are preparing to roll out egg sandwiches and sweet potato hash to show how breakfast doesn’t have to be just the most important meal of the day, it can be the only meal of the day. “With breakfast, you’re in the driver’s seat and we’re just your valet,” said Lee Meisel, who owns and operates Leeway Franks with his wife K. “You just have to tell us which direction you want to go and we can take you there.” The new breakfast menu will debut this Saturday, February 20, at 8 a.m. Leeway Franks, which opened last July, is expanding its hours on Saturday to test the offerings. Adding a breakfast menu was a way for the small operation to utilize some of their current ingredients in unique ways. Meisel’s background as a butcher — he breaks down whole pigs and makes all of the sausage in house — meant that there was already chorizo for breakfast tacos and Canadian bacon for a Mega Muffin – an oversize English muffin stuffed with egg rounds, two slices of Canadian bacon, spicy mayo (Hellman’s with a hit of hot sauce), and melted American. Meisel knows that his sandwich has some of the same components as one of the world’s most famous breakfast sandwiches – the Egg McMuffin. He also knows why…...

  What about _________? Could you investigate __________? What’s up with ___________? Got a question about Kansas City, the region or the people who live here? Anything you’ve always wondered about, found peculiar or downright confusing? Share your questions with KCPT’s curiousKC. How does it work? After you share a question, KCPT producers and editors will sift through the submissions. Then every month we’ll put several questions into a voting round so you and others weigh-in on what we should investigate. When a question wins the popular vote, we'll use our multimedia reporting skills and a little creativity to answer it. As an added bonus, the question-asker has the option of working with us as we search for an answer. But why? Our goal is to include you and the public in our editorial decision-making, make journalism more transparent and strengthen our multimedia reporting. It’s a sort of news experiment modeled after the Curious City series at WBEZ in Chicago. What are you waiting for? Question everything and let your curiosity fuel our reporting! To get started just fill out the form below....

University of Missouri professor and author of "The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life," Steven Watts is one of a handful of featured historians in American Experience's four-hour epic documentary on Walt Disney, which will air in two parts beginning 8pm tonight on KCPT. "American Experience: Walt Disney," is Watts second project with the PBS history series, having been an integral part of "American Experience: Henry Ford." "It's actually been one of the highlights of my career to work with this series," Watts said. Earlier this month, Watts came to Kansas City for a special sneak preview of the documentary, where he discussed Missouri's influence on Disney, Disney's impact on American culture, and what he hopes viewers will take away from American Experience's unprecedented look at the man behind the mouse....

The highlight of Joe Henke’s summers are his visits to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Henke is a world history and honors government teacher from Boonville, Missouri and has participated in the museum’s weeklong Summer Teacher Institute for the last seven years. This year on the eve of the 70th Anniversary of the Trinity Test, Henke and 48 other teachers from across the country took part in simulation of Truman’s options for ending WWII with Japan and the decision to use atomic weapons. “You all will be the best and the brightest” said, White House Decision Center director Mary McMurray with a smile as she welcomed the group. “The fate of the free world in 1945 is in your hands.” Designed to look like the West Wing, the White House Decision Center (WHDC) at the Truman Library immerses students and other visitors in some of the pivotal situations Truman faced during his presidency. [FLEX-CONTENT] “It’s a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in history,” McMurry said. “You have to work as a team to create your own solution and respond to a major crisis ranging from ending the war with Japan, the Berlin Airlift, civil rights in the postwar military, the Korean conflict and our newest simulation, addressing the end of the British Mandate in Palestine.” For today’s simulation each teacher is assigned one of eight roles ranging from President Truman to J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is often referred to as “the father of the atomic bomb.” Using actual intelligence and primary documents from Truman Library’s collection, each team…...

Jonathan Wei can pinpoint the exact moment when he realized that everything he thought he knew about those who served in the military was wrong. In 2006, Wei was teaching at the University of Oregon and was an advisor to a student veterans group there. One morning while talking with one of his students, who served as a Marine during the first Invasion of Iraq, Wei asked him if he missed being in uniform. “And he said, 'I hated every minute of it, but if I weren't married to my wife right now, I would be back there. I miss it every second.’" Wei said recalling the conversation. “He crooked his finger next to his eye like he was holding a gun and he said, 'You know there's nothing like the feeling of your finger on the trigger,’" Wei said. “And to me all of my sort of liberal bells and whistles went off. You know, 'Go away, end the conversation, this is going someplace that I am not going to be comfortable with.’" But Wei asked him to explain, and the student said that he missed serving because, in Iraq, he knew that everything he did was making an impact. Though Wei had been working with student veterans on service projects to help them feel less isolated on campus, in this moment he realized that the community needed to better understand the experiences of veterans. As an experiment Wei worked with veterans to share their experiences in the form of a play. “We did three shows and there were…...

Every Tuesday during her lunch hour Lynn Carlton has a standing appointment with a first grader at Wendell Phillips Elementary. In addition to her job as an urban planner at HOK in Kansas City, Missouri, Carlton is a volunteer with Lead to Read, and spends 30 minutes every week with her reading buddy Shamarian. Jean and Lynn Rundle founded Lead to Read in 2011 with a simple premise: make it easy for working adults to volunteer at nearby low-income schools....

When same-sex couples call immigration attorney Angela Williams, they often ask her if she’s OK working with a gay or lesbian couple. “I always say, ‘Yes I am, and I’m sorry that you have to ask me that,’” Williams said. Since the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down in 2013, Williams has helped around 20 same-sex binational couples successfully navigate the immigration process. In fact, the first same-sex couple to have their Adjustment Status Interview in the state of Missouri were Williams’ clients. Williams will be talking about the challenges facing same-sex binational couples this Saturday at a free screening of the new documentary “Limited Partnership.” The film follows the love story of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, the first gay couple to have their green card application denied by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the 1970s. In the denial letter the USCIS wrote, ”You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.” Before Saturday’s event, we talked with Williams about what challenges same-sex couples face when it comes to immigration, as well as her hopes for the future. How is applying for a green card different for same-sex couples? “Special things that I have found that are more of an issue with same-sex cases and less of issue with other cases are things dealing with family and relationships. One of the things they like to ask in the interview is, ‘Have you met each other's families?’ That is generally seen as something that means that you have a legitimate…...

“Kumu Hina,” a new documentary exploring the journey of a transgender Hawaiian woman, airs tonight on Independent Lens at 9 p.m. on KCPT. Kansas Citians got a sneak peek of the film in April at KCPT’s Community Cinema series. After the film, community partners from the Transgender Institute and Transas City, a local website dedicated to transgender and transexual issues, discussed generational and cultural differences that influence transgender identity. Transascity.org creator Una Nowling and her wife, Fiona, co-authored a reflection of the film. An excerpt follows, and you can read the whole review here. Updated to add: Stream the documentary online here. "Kumu Hina" is a documentary film about the life of Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (Hina), a teacher of the traditional dance of Hawaii and a transgender woman. The film focuses overtly upon four aspects of Hina’s life: her attempt to teach a group of male students at Hālau Lokahi Public Charter School how to perform traditional Hawaiian dance, her mentoring of a transgender boy (Hoonani Kamai) who is attempting to join the male group, her work as the chair of the Oahu Island Burial Council, and Hina’s relationship and marriage to her Fijian husband, Hema. But there is a continual subtext of a fifth aspect to Hina, which is the story of the traditional transgender people of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, who are called māhū*. (Please note that use of the term māhū should be done with care, as its meaning is complicated. It generally refers to “third gender” persons who may not necessarily consider themselves “transgender”. It has…...

“I named my tumor Walt. Humor = tool.” “2-0, baby. No rematch, please.” “Cancer is a word. Not a sentence.” “Overcoming physical, social, economic, emotional hurdles.” “Wonder when it will win.” These short narratives are just a handful of the many our newsroom received from community members describing their experience with cancer. As part of local reporting project around Ken Burns’ “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” we asked Kansas Citians to tell us about how cancer has impacted them, and over 50 people responded. Their submissions informed our reporting, like this story about two women who turned to blogging after their diagnosis. Others were sources for a major piece about the business of cancer. Nearly all of the stories became part of a digital story wall, where patients, survivors and loved ones reflected on their experiences. “I feel it is extremely important to share my story about my cancer journey for many reasons,” said Amanda Krysa, who was one of the first to share her story with our newsroom. She blogs about her ongoing battle with breast cancer. “First and foremost, it makes me feel better when I can talk about it. It's important to let cancer patients know that they are not alone,” she said. Krysa said that, for her, it’s also helpful to hear other people’s cancer stories and relate to them. “Cancer patients are all superheroes, and they all have an epic story to tell,” she said....

One of the first questions gender therapist and coach Caroline Gibbs asks people who are considering transitioning from male to female or from female to male is if they want to “blend into society.” Gibbs said that nearly everyone she has worked with at the Transgender Institute answers that question with an emphatic yes. It has been 12 years since Gibbs worked with her first transgender client, and, to date, she has helped over 1,000 people transition. This has meant not only counseling individuals and their families, but also connecting clients with resources to make their voice, hair, makeup, clothing and, in some cases, jobs match the gender they identify with. Six local women that Gibbs worked with are the stars of the reality show “New Girls on the Block,” which will premiere Saturday, April 11 on the Discovery Life Channel. This Saturday, some of Gibb’s clients from the Transgender Institute will share their insights about transitioning in Kansas City after a free screening of the documentary “Kumu Hina.” Gibbs will also be there to speak about her work with the institute. The film follows a transwoman and transboy in Hawaii, where Pacific Islander culture celebrates those that are “in the middle” between male and female. Gibbs has big plans, including helping other cities open their own Transgender Institutes and building a Kansas City shelter for homeless trans women and men. She spoke with Flatland about the history of the institute and her vision for the future. What is The Transgender Institute? “The Transgender Institute is a holistic organization that…...

Cancer survivors, caregivers, advocates and community members gathered at Union Station for KCPT’s sneak preview of and discussion about “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” on Tuesday evening. The preview included several clips from the expansive six hour series, which will air on KCPT over three consecutive nights beginning Monday, March 30 at 8 p.m. From early descriptions of cancer that Egyptians recorded 4,000 years ago on papyrus to how families today struggle with the enormous cost of treatment, the clips covered a wide range of topics. A panel of local experts then related to cancer’s impact in our metro. University of Kansas Cancer Center Director Dr. Roy Jensen was one of four panelists that helped contextualize issues presented in the film in terms of what we see in Kansas and Missouri. Jensen emphasized the importance of cancer prevention and early detection. He said that both states have done a poor job of investing in public health and that too much of burden falls on patients and their families. Panelist Consuelo Ross, who is a breast cancer survivor and has devoted her career to helping underserved population navigate the health system, echoed Jensen’s statements and said that her cancer journey was a financial struggle. People who are uninsured or poor have a 10 to 15 percent lower survival rate five years from their diagnosis, according to sources in the film. Beyond the economic impact of cancer, the discussion also centered on advances in treatment. The final clip from the documentary featured the story of Emily Whitehead, a young girl with…...

All public schools in the U.S. are required by federal law to designate a liaison for homeless students. The McKinney-Vento Act, passed in 1987, spells out what schools are required to provide students in order to minimize barriers to education created by homelessness. Under the act, the definition of “homeless” is rather broad, and can include students that don’t have a stable or regular residence as well as those that must share housing in the event of a loss of regular housing. The recent documentary “The Homestretch” — which will be shown tomorrow, Saturday March 14, as part of KCPT’s Community Cinema series — illustrates the crucial role schools can play in providing services and resources for homeless students in Chicago. To understand more about how homelessness impacts students in our metro, Flatland interviewed the McKinney-Vento social worker for Shawnee Mission School District, David Aramovich. Aramovich has been a social worker for 33 years and working in school districts for the last eight years. This is the second time he has served as the district’s McKinney-Vento social worker, a position that fluctuates depending on school funding. Describe how your job serves homeless students and their families. “It varies. This morning I’ve been working with one of the universities for one of our students that has been living in a hotel on the Missouri side. We brought her to a college visit, and we’re just looking at every possible way to make that happen for her financially. “There’s a wonderful program called Giving the Basics, which provides human dignity items that…...

The number of people who passed the GED exam in Kansas last year is the lowest it’s been in decades. And adult education centers, which for years have helped ensure that students are ready for the test, have been cut out of the process.

In 1944, Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal wrote in “An American Dilemma” — his landmark, 1,800-page study — that the subordination of African-Americans is “perhaps the most glaring conflict in the American conscience and the greatest unsolved task for American democracy.” Myrdal’s examination of the so-called “Negro Problem” — and the ways that same problem affects race relations in America today — is the focus of “American Denial,” a new documentary that premieres tonight on KCPT at 9 p.m. At February’s Community Cinema screening, attendees got a sneak peek at the documentary, and community partners from the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, Communities Creating Opportunities and the Kansas City, Missouri, branch of the NAACP shared their reflections on the film. “The title is perfect,” Anita Russell, KCMO NAACP chapter president said. “America is in denial about race, really seriously. That's why we do have the problem.” The documentary uses historical footage as well as perspectives from modern researchers to examine how our implicit biases — the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner — conflict with the American creed of freedom and fairness. To see how implicit bias affects your day-to-day decisions and judgements, take the Implicit Association Test on Racial Bias here. And, as the film details, American life is not only affected by white people’s biases against people of color, but also by the internalized biases people of color may hold against themselves. “It was really painful to watch, especially the doll study,” said Gwen Grant, who is the CEO of the…...

Kansas City is no stranger to the art of the tease. Beginning in the '40s, KC had a vibrant burlesque scene, and some of that legacy lives on with a number of local artists. Sophie Sassafras teaches the craft to a new crop of aspiring performers at studios around the metro. She calls it Burlesque 101, and the Sassafras syllabus focuses mainly on the basics of strip tease and pin-up hair and makeup, as well as some female empowerment. This story appeared on the latest edition of KCPT's "Arts Upload" series. ...