News & Issues

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

Beer and Valentine's Day photo illustration.

Tap List | Beer Is For Lovers

While many Kansas City area breweries were hoping to host watch parties for another Chiefs Super Bowl victory, they’ll instead be celebrating Valentine’s Day.

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An interventionist works on reading skills with a small group of students Feb. 1 at Faxon Elementary School in Kansas City. Kansas City Public Schools has used federal COVID relief dollars to hire more staff in an effort to give students focused attention and help them catch up from pandemic-related learning loss.

Deadline Looms for Missouri Schools to get $1.95 Billion in COVID Money

Missouri legislators face a March 24 deadline to release most of the funding before it returns to the federal government.

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EverWild Florals Welcomes First Valentine’s Day Downtown

By Kevin Collison Sarah Jaeger wanted a central location to open her first retail flower shop last summer and is delighted to welcome her first Valentine’s Day in space adjoining the lobby of the art deco 909 Walnut apartment tower. “I looked all over for a year and I knew I wanted to be in…

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Nick Haines

Nick’s Picks | A Dozen Stories to Watch This Week in KC

Here’s your look at the week before it happens. From politics to pop culture, from the Symphony to sports. Here are 12 stories to keep an eye on this week.

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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced on Thursday that she has vetoed legislation to redraw congressional boundaries.

Kansas Governor Vetoes GOP Congressional Map, Calls for Bipartisan Compromise

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a GOP-drawn congressional map that would divide the Kansas City metro and place Lawrence into a rural district that stretches to the Colorado border.

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Regional Skate Park, Artworks, Could ‘Enhance’ New Buck O’Neil Bridge

By Kevin Collison Creating a regional skate park beneath the approach ramps to the new Buck O’Neil Bridge is among the ideas in a report prepared by a group tasked to enliven what’s now a bland infrastructure project. Work is well underway on the $220 million replacement span that will carry US 169 traffic over…

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Sign on a mirror reads: hemp engineered manufactured products

‘Highway to Hemp’: Building, Making and Dreaming Big with Hemp Fiber

Manufacturers are finding new ways to make sustainable products using hemp fiber.

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River Bluff Brewing Opening Soon at Second and Main

(Editor’s note: River Bluff Brewing will officially open March 5) By Kevin Collison River Bluff Brewing, the latest addition to the greater downtown microbrewery scene, expects to open in mid-February on a cozy street near the Town of Kansas Bridge at the foot of Main. “We feel like with Second Street, we’re in the heart…

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Fran Marion is a leader in the Fight for $15 movement

Feeling the Effects of a Widening Wealth Gap

A recent study from WalletHub ranked 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of wealth gaps by ethnicity. When you add it all up, Black families are still getting the short end of the stick nationwide.

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The long-vacant historic City Workhouse Castle opened in 1897 to incarcerate petty criminals and vagrants.

Boutique Hotel Proposed for Historic Workhouse Castle on Vine

By Kevin Collison The ruined former City Workhouse Castle built in 1897 to incarcerate petty criminals and vagrants would accommodate a far more upscale clientele as a boutique hotel in a new redevelopment proposal. The massive limestone curiosity at 2001 Vine St. near the 18th & Vine Jazz District and 23 acres of nearby property…

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