Politics
Nick’s Picks: A Peek at the Week in News
‘Kansas City Week in Review’ host Nick Haines outlines the news agenda in the Kansas City area.
Council Committee Wants Mayor to Appoint Panel to Study Local Police Control
By Kevin Collison The controversial issue of whether the Kansas City Police Department should be returned to local control got an hour-long hearing Wednesday at City Hall, but a recommendation was postponed until next week. The majority of the Council Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee appeared to support a resolution by Councilwoman Melissa Robinson…
Neighborhood Champion: Mark Morales
They do it for no pay and little fanfare. Who are they? They are the neighborhood leaders who fight to improve some of the most distressed neighborhoods on the East Side of Kansas City, Missouri. These are the men and women who advocate for better housing, less crime, and more economic opportunity. Through its coverage…
What Do You Want to Know About the Candidates for Mayor?
Each month, you will have a chance to send us questions about anything and everything. Then we’ll curate up to four questions that go head-to-head in a voting round. The race to replace Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Sly James is heating up, and we need your help covering the election. So we wondered: Is there…
Candidates to Replace Sly James Compete for Likes
The idea seemed far-fetched when it was first suggested in October to East High School teacher Katharine Perna. What if her multiculturalism and social justice class could persuade the nine leading mayoral candidates to answer questions, in person, crafted by the students themselves? On Wednesday night, before an audience of about 150 people in the…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Keep the Line Moving
It’s obvious the midterm elections are imminent, given all the discourse from talking heads, political ads and (apparently) completely unhinged Kanye West rants. West’s particular brand of political speech is not uncharted territory for artists and celebrities, who frequently wade into the local and national political conversation. But the breadth of the grassroots movements at…
Keeping the Pace After the Passion
Hailee Bland-Walsh has long been an activist in the LGBTQ community. Though she has shut down traffic marching in San Francisco, it was the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., in January that was one of the “most transformative” experiences she’s had. “It was so powerful, the density of human beings in one place,” said Bland-Walsh,…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Rebuke Box
“The times they are a-changin.’” That chorus from Bob Dylan’s 53-year-old protest hymn is undoubtedly a classic. Aided greatly by Dylan’s poignant and timeless songwriting, the track has enjoyed the decades-long effect of inspiring listeners, uniting otherwise dissonant parties, and challenging established ideas – feats typically necessary to effectuate any sort of change. Many local…
Common Grounds | Flip the Script: A Police Take on the Issues
One of the story lines of this election year has been alarm over law and order in cities and police shootings of unarmed black Americans. This week in our Common Grounds coffee conversation series, we head to Kansas City, Kansas, where we get a police take on that polarizing issue. We bring together five KCK…
Commentary | An Abusive Election Cycle Won’t Soon Be Forgiven
Recently on Facebook, a friend asked the question of what people thought about a woman’s mother maintaining a friendship with the woman’s emotionally abusive ex-husband. As you can imagine, the question elicited a range of opinions. But one of the overwhelming themes of the comments was that of loyalty and trust. The question of how…