News & Issues

Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.

ast revelers participate in Kansas City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Beautiful weather blessed the 2025 edition. (Facebook | Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parade)

Nick’s Picks | St. Pat’s Parade, Transit Woes, Planet Comicon, and More …

Kansas City Turns Green We didn’t get to have a Super Bowl parade this year, but it looked like we were heading for a massive St. Patrick’s Day Parade. With most kids out of school for Spring Break and temperatures in the 70s, organizers were expecting a larger-than-usual crowd for today’s Kansas City St. Patrick’s…

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Candidates for the Kansas City Public Schools board will be on the ballot April 8. Top row from left: Brittany Foley, Tricia McGhee, Kelly Thompson and Rita Cortes. Bottom row from left: Bruce Beatty, Tanesha Ford and Joseph Nelson. (Provided photos)

Meet the Kansas City Public Schools board candidates for the April 2025 election

This story was originally published by The Beacon, an online news outlet focused on local, in-depth journalism in the public interest. Meet the Kansas City Public Schools board candidates for the April 2025 election All seven candidates running for the Kansas City Public Schools board support the $474 million bond issue that’s also on the…

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Deanna Munoz and Ivan Ramirez speak at a rally in support of the immigrant and LGBTQ communities on Feb. 23 in Kansas City. CoreCivic, a publicly traded operator of private prisons, wants to open a facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, to assist President Donald Trump's mass deportation plan. (Mary Sanchez/The Beacon)

Leavenworth considers prison cells for Trump’s mass deportation plan

This story was originally published by The Beacon, an online news outlet focused on local, in-depth journalism in the public interest. The immigrant detainee, a client of Rekha Sharma-Crawford, would have to be moved. Chase County Detention Center was full. Located in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, it’s the largest detainee holding center in the region contracting…

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The Main entrance to the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City.

Nick’s Picks | Temperatures Rise, Crash Memorialized, Ramadan Begins and More …

Spring Has Arrived Early? It’s a bad news, good news week… The Bad News: For the first time in weeks, our kids will have to spend all five days in the classroom. The Good News: We get to bask in spring-like temperatures. The National Weather Service is forecasting 60-degree weather today and Tuesday. And we’re…

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Veteran investigative journalist James Grimaldi is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sharpening Teeth of Acclaimed KC-Based Catholic Watchdog

A national (and international) Kansas City company has a new leader who grew up here but doesn’t live here now and may never call Kansas City home again. James Grimaldi began a few months ago as the new executive editor of The National Catholic Reporter, an award-winning, progressive newspaper voice for Catholicism. Given Grimaldi’s long…

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Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. (7) is congratulated after scoring a run against the Cleveland Guardians during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, April 7, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nick’s Picks | Spring Training, Abortions, Casinos, and More …

Winter Forever? Say it isn’t so… Another major snowstorm is on the way that could cause a big disruption to your commute and force school closures again. And brace yourself for Arctic-like temperatures. The National Weather Service says wind chills will be below zero from Monday night through Thursday morning. As for the snow…our TV…

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People walk outside the Wyandotte County Public Health Department in Kansas City, Kansas. (Zane Irwin | Kansas News Service

After Tuberculosis Outbreak, Wyandotte County Parts Ways with Health Director

The director of the Wyandotte County Public Health Department is no longer with the agency, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. It comes after turmoil during the handling of the major tuberculosis outbreak, shown by emails obtained by the Kansas News Service. Elisha Caldwell had been head of the local health department while an outbreak of TB grew…

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Members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Border Enforcement Security Task Force in Kansas City confer. (Ron Rogers | U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Nick’s Picks | Super Letdown, ICE Raids, Trump Effects and More …

Super Sick Monday So, there’ll be no victory parade after all. No “Three-Peat” after the Chiefs fall to the Eagles on football’s biggest stage. That was tough to watch, wasn’t it? And the questions have already begun: Was that Kelce’s final game for the Chiefs? You might be experiencing a record level of absences at…

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor answered a series of questions posed by The Coterie Theatre's Managing Director Jonathan Thomas. Sotomayor had just watched the world premiere of a play based on her children's book "Just Ask!" (Paul Andrews)

SCOTUS Justice Applauds KC Stage Adaption of Her Book

As the first Latina, and the third woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor is noted for reasoned questioning and, at times, searing dissents. But legal opinions, despite obvious historical weight, aren’t the writings that Sotomayor referred to as her life’s work during her recent visit to Kansas City. The messaging within her…

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Patrick Mahomes takes part in the Kansas City Chiefs' victory celebration and parade in Kansas City, Missouri, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, following the Chiefs' win over the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday in the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game.

Nick’s Picks | Super Bowl, Aviation Disaster, Black History, and More …

Super Bowl Week If you haven’t heard by now, the Kansas City Chiefs are just days away from making history. Could the Chiefs be the first team to win three back-to-back Super Bowls? The NFL’s biggest game is Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in New Orleans. I just did an online search for tickets, and you…

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