News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Nick’s Picks | The Pope, Fountains, Trees, and More …
Remembering Pope Francis It’s going to be a week of mourning as Catholics around the world mark today’s passing of Pope Francis. The Argentinian-born pontiff was 88 years old. Francis’s death triggers a series of rituals and procedures. His papal ring will be destroyed, and his rooms will be sealed. He will lie in state…
Nick’s Picks | Taxes, Highways, Holidays, and More …
A Taxing Time Dig out your W2s. It’s Tax Day on Tuesday. You have until midnight tomorrow to submit your returns to the IRS. It may be news to many of us. One in four Americans have yet to file. According to a new Turbo Tax survey, more than half of 18-24-year-olds don’t even know…
Man deported after visiting family grave in Mexico is back in Kansas City
This story was originally published by The Beacon, an online news outlet focused on local, in-depth journalism in the public interest. Evenezer Cortez Martinez is back on U.S. soil, landing in Kansas City Tuesday afternoon after being deported. The DACA recipient and Kansas father of three feared that he wouldn’t be able to return from…
An open letter to the City of Kansas City, Missouri, from its local journalists
On behalf of the editorial leadership within the Kansas City Media Collective, alongside The Kansas City Star, we are sharing an open letter addressed to Mayor Quinton Lucas and the city council of Kansas City in response to the recent termination of City Manager Brian Platt and the ongoing process of appointing new leadership for this…
Nick’s Picks | Ballots, Soccer, Music and More …
Local Election Day is Tuesday Tuesday is local Election Day, and there are a lot of issues on the Missouri side of the state line. Voters are being asked to approve a new Kansas City jail. And Kansas City Public Schools wants voters to say yes to more than $400 million in building and classroom…
Feeding Tubes and Defibrillators
Let’s begin with two stories about the growing and important field of bioethics. The first is from Ryan Pferdehirt, the newly named Flanigan Chair in Bioethics at the Kansas City-based Center for Practical Bioethics. A hospital once asked him to consult on a bioethics case in which a son thought his desperately ill, hospitalized mother…
Cracking Egg-flation
Whether ordering an omelet, French toast, chicken n’ biscuits, chilaquiles, corned beef hash or eggs Benedict, eggs play a starring role at The Farmhouse. “When you’re a brunch and breakfast place, eggs are everything,” said Vince Paredes, executive chef and co-owner of the award-winning farm-to-table brunch venue in the River Market. “We bake with eggs….
Nick’s Picks | Opening Day, Early Voting, Riverfront Groundbreaking, and More …
Opening Day at the K Baseball is back… Thursday is Opening Day at the K. Is it too early to think World Series? The Royals take on the Cleveland Guardians at 3.10 p.m. Let the Voting Begin Early in-person voting begins Tuesday, ahead of April local elections across the metro. In Kansas City, voters are…
Specialized Staff Serving Influx of Homeless Library Patrons
People experiencing homelessness in Kansas City often find refuge in public libraries when shelter options are limited during the day. However, metro-area library systems also provide assistance that goes beyond temporary protection from the weather. In fact, the Kansas City Public Library has built an entire department around helping the city’s unhoused, providing a range…
Kansas City is voting on a sales tax to fund a new jail. Here’s what to know about Question 1
Kansas City voters will decide on April 8 whether to renew the city’s public safety sales tax, as part of its efforts to fund and build a new municipal jail. Supporters of the tax renewal say the city is long overdue for its own detention and rehabilitation center — for a decade the city has not had…