News & Issues

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

A black and white framed photo of a young man.

This Man Paved The Way For Lee’s Summit

This resource has been removed permanently. There are two sorts of people in the world — those who are blissfully uninterested in the origin of street names, and those who are helplessly intrigued by the history behind this most basic feature of public life.When it comes to Todd George Parkway in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Sam…

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KC Pinoy Serves a Taste of the Philippines in the West Bottoms

By Kevin Collison Chrissy Nucum helped her mother, aunt and grandmother prepare meals growing up in Manila, but it took persistence to wrangle the recipes for her new West Bottoms restaurant, KC Pinoy. “My grandmother was the cook in the house and keeper of the recipes,” she said. “In 2013, she visited the States and…

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Former President Donald Trump

Here’s What Trump Missed About Violent Crime in Kansas City

It was a week of political intrigue in Kansas City. President Donald Trump arrived Friday, flanked by an entourage of Republican favorites. Kellyanne Conway took a bow at Trump’s insistence. Jared Kushner stood in the wings behind newly elected U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, as Trump rightly claimed credit for helping the Missouri attorney general unseat…

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Troost Developers Deserve Support, Not Criticism

GUEST COMMENTARY By John Hoffman, principal and co-founder of UC-B Properties The recent editorial in The Kansas City Star entitled “Stop the Denverization of Kansas City. Troost doesn’t need to be hipster-friendly” sparked an interest worth responding to by someone who has been developing along Troost for the last 10 years. Whoever was responsible for…

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Kansas City mayoral candidates in the auditorium at East High School

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…

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Downtown Dazzle Urban Homes Tour This Saturday

By Kevin Collison The Downtown Dazzle Urban Homes Tour returns Saturday and this year current and prospective downtown residents should find a robust, competitive market. “Right now, things are running well, but you can see there are a lot of incentives,” said Christina Boveri of Boveri Realty Group. “We have a lot of great product…

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Shared E-Bikes Rolling Into Downtown Soon, KC Among Nation’s First

By Kevin Collison E-bikes are scheduled to begin rolling into greater downtown by Christmas, making Kansas City one of only a handful of North American communities to adopt the latest in “first and last mile” shared transportation technology. “E-bikes are really new, especially for shared use, and Kansas City is in the forefront of this,”…

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Friction Beer Getting Hoppy in East Crossroads This Spring

By Kevin Collison The East Crossroads “neigh-brew-hood” will be even hoppier late next spring with the opening of Friction Beer Co. at 1701 McGee. Partners Brent Anderson and Nathan Ryerson hatched their microbrewery plan two years ago while watching soccer in Ryerson’s basement and sharing one of their favorite beers, a hazy IPA from The Brew…

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two young women at work, one on computer, one with a pencil

Grading the Soft Skills

It’s the time-honored question from students: when are we going to use this in real life? But as we have seen in this season of Take Note, schools are increasingly focused on the “soft” skills that are relevant for the workplace, such as critical thinking and team work. That brings up another question for the…

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Hyatt House Hotel Wins Incentive Approval, Work to Begin This Spring

By Kevin Collison Construction of a 13-story Hyatt House hotel on a parking lot at Ninth and Broadway is expected to begin this spring after its Colorado developer was approved for incentives last week–but not before a two-hour debate by the development agency involved. Boulder-based Pedersen Development won approval for a 15-year property tax break,…

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