‘First of all, I’m an American’
Ryan and Irene Caudillo have three children – Julian, Sophia, and Olivia – all of whom identify as Mexican-American, even though they don’t speak Spanish and don’t have firm roots to the Latino culture. While the children understand that Ryan and Irene focused on teaching them English in order to provide them the best opportunities possible, they wish that they had stronger ties to their Mexican-American heritage. The family talks with KCPT’s Your Fellow Americans team about the importance of maintaining their Latino culture, the impact that learning Spanish has on maintaining that cultural identity, and the fact that the kids don’t feel as connected to the Latino culture as they would like.
When is genomic sequencing worth the cost?
In a Children’s Mercy Hospital lab, what look like hotel minibars with keyboards attached line the walls. These are the latest generation of genome sequencing machines, light years ahead of the first sequencing technology. In 2003, after 13 years, scientists finished mapping the first human genome – that’s more than 3 billion pairs of DNA letters – at a cost of $3 billion. It was one of the great scientific triumphs of modern times. Now, with these newest machines, it’s possible to map a person’s genome in days for thousands of dollars – although what’s often actually examined is a small fraction of the genome called the exome. But sequencing is still more expensive than the standard initial tests for someone with a neurological disorder, and those tests remain the standard practice.
Do ride apps decrease drunk driving?
The ride-hailing service Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) released a report today claiming that app-based car services like Uber decrease the number of auto crashes from drunken driving. The study was based on interviews conducted online, not on crash or arrest data. But, four out of five people who responded to the survey…
KC safety-net clinics get computer links, thanks to health care foundation
The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City will help three Kansas City safety net clinics share patient data electronically with providers throughout Missouri. The foundation said in a news release Monday that it’s paying $375,000 to hook up Swope Health System, Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center and KC CARE Clinic to Missouri Health Connection (MHC).
A deep breath – created by the Corn Belt?
Scientists have noticed a change in the atmosphere. Plants are taking in more carbon dioxide during the growing season and giving off more carbon in the fall and winter. Recent research shows the massive corn crop in the Corn Belt may be contributing to that deeper breath.
Local producer focuses on child sex trafficking in KC
Documentary producer Susan Cook was working on a film to educate girls in India about health and sex trafficking when friends in Kansas City told her that she should turn her focus to injustice in her own backyard. Since 2009, Cook has been interviewing, filming, researching and fundraising for “Hope Road,” a forthcoming documentary that…
Helping women dream bigger
Sara Davidson is no stranger to KC’s entrepreneurship community. But after a stint in the marketing industry, a transition to the startup world, and two burnouts — all before the age of 30 — she knew she wanted to do something different. She started Hello Fearless, a company with the goal of “creating a world…
Pace is slow, but enrollment is up for ACA in Kansas and Missouri
Thousands of Kansans and Missourians signed up for insurance on the federal exchange last week, though the pace has slowed since the first several robust weeks of the second Affordable Care Act open enrollment period.
Why Missouri Medicaid expansion for veterans gets mixed reviews
The Veteran’s Family Healthcare Act, which would provide Medicaid coverage for veterans, their spouses and dependent children with incomes between 19 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
Update: Looking for the Mystery Man of Runway One
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” —Edgar Allan Poe, “The Premature Burial” In an effort to shed more light on what may be Kansas City’s oldest cold case, KCPT’s Hale Center for Journalism arranged for more…
Immigration is tough. Got a question?
In December of 2014, the Your Fellow Americans team talked with a Mexican-American family in the Kansas City area about their thoughts on race, immigration, and the American Dream. We joined the family around the dinner table of Mac and Velia Salazar, a husband and wife who were both born in Kansas on February 28th, 1925. Irene, one of their nine children, is married to Ryan Caudillo, a third-generation Mexican-American who was also raised in the Kansas City metro area.
Following the Beef Dollar
On Sunday, KCPT’s Flatland, along with the Kansas City Star, published this Harvest Public Media story and video about the “checkoff cowboys” – ranchers and independent farmers who have a problem with the federal “beef checkoff” program that mandates that ranchers pay $1 for every head of cattle sold. Peggy Lowe and Mike McGraw reported…
Creating a high-tech vending machine, to dispense local art
Chips, Cheetos and peanuts are all things you might expect to find in an airport vending machine. Local art … not so much. But in one vending machine in the Kansas City Airport, you can expect to find locally made art, jewelry, T-shirts and the like. You swipe your credit card and out comes an…
#RockChalkBarack: online reactions to President Obama’s KU visit
President Obama spoke at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, today. He was the first sitting president to do so in over 100 years, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in her introductory remarks. She added: “I think the wait has been worth it.” The Storify below captures some reactions from the day: lots of…
Obama speaks at University of Kansas
Following Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama spoke at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas today.