News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Nature’s Own Opens In River Market; Owners Want to be Full-Service Grocer for Growing Downtown Neighborhood
By Kevin Collison It didn’t take long for Jeff Henkle to know he found the right spot to reincarnate Nature’s Own. Residents in the River Market were so eager to shop at his new full-service grocery store at 310 E. Fifth St. he opened several days earlier than anticipated on June 18. “So many people…
Eyes on the Eagle
On the median separating Ward Parkway near 67th Street stands a giant eagle bronze statue. Stephanie Hamil, of Leawood, Kansas, had heard a rumor in high school and asked curiousKC: Who’s responsible for the eagle, and did it really once have ruby eyes? We contacted The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department, which handles the…
How Your Sandwich Changed The World
What if you could go back in time and follow your food from the farm to your plate? What if you could see each step of your meal’s journey — every ingredient that went into its creation, and every footprint it left behind? Back in February, The Salt reported on English researchers who did just…
Can The Buzz Of Bees Predict Success For Farmers?
See a bee; hear a buzz. That is what researchers studying the declining bee population are banking on. A new technique based on recording buzzing bees hopes to show farmers just how much pollinating the native bee population is doing in their fields. Vegetable and fruit growers depend on pollinators to do a lot of…
Tech N9ne to Kickoff New Indoor Concert Venue in Crossroads this September; First Foray Outside Nashville for Operators
By Kevin Collison A couple of veterans of the Nashville concert scene are opening a new indoor venue in the Crossroads called The Truman, and have chosen a local music icon to kick off their series, Tech N9ne. Chris Cobb and his partner, Josh Billue, have a good feeling about opening their first venture outside…
Downtown Kansas City Convention Hotel Project Gets New Investor and Operator; Groundbreaking Expected Oct. 1
By Kevin Collison The long-planned Kansas City downtown convention hotel has a new flag and welcome infusion of cash from Loews Hotels, a New York-based luxury hotel operator. Attorney Mike Burke, principal at KC Hotel Developers LLC, says Loews has agreed to invest a “substantial” amount of equity in the 800-room project and operate the…
New Spokes Peddles Beers, Bikes and Bites in Downtown Kansas City
By Kevin Collison Downtown Kansas City is on a roll, and one of its latest new businesses is spinning a blend of bicycles, beers and good food, a combination that’s proved popular in other cities including Denver and Minneapolis. The new Spokes opened five weeks ago at 1200 Washington St., one of the first retailers…
Could Drones Help Save People In Cardiac Arrest?
AED-carrying drones beat ambulance times to the sites of previous cardiac arrest cases in a rural area of Sweden, a study finds. But this has yet to be tried in real emergencies.
Urban Core Group Offers Inside Look at New Pickwick Plaza Apartment Project in Downtown KC
The Urban Core Group is holding its monthly get together June 28 at East9, aka the historic Pickwick Plaza apartment project. The new development transformed what was once a hotel, bus station and office complex into apartments geared toward millennials. Maybe you can take a spin on the huge turntable that once spunned buses around?
Using An Old Custom To Lure New Parishioners
For the last half century, membership numbers in Mainline U.S. Protestant churches have gone mostly in one direction — down. Protestants once constituted a large majority of the American population. And Mainline churches — the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the Christian…