News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
UMKC Downtown Arts Campus Receives Raves from Missouri Lawmakers
By Kevin Collison The planned UMKC Downtown Conservatory will offer students sweeping views of downtown Kansas City[/caption]After hitting a high note last month with overwhelming approval in the Missouri House, the proposed University of Missouri-Kansas City downtown arts campus is scheduled to debut next week before a tougher audience, the Missouri Senate. The $96 million…
Kemper Arena Redevelopment at Risk as Missouri Reviews Historic Tax Credit Program
By Kevin Collison The Missouri historic tax credit program, a development tool that’s revived scores of landmark buildings, is facing its most serious challenge in years, putting such major projects as the redevelopment of Kemper Arena in jeopardy. “After several years of raising alarms and nothing coming to pass, this year the tenor has really…
City Bitty Farm Has Big Plans for Microgreens
Greg Garbos of City Bitty Farm walks among tiny crops that will be harvested soon in the midst of winter in southeast Kansas City, Missouri. Standing approximately one to two inches tall, arugula, sugar pea, mizuna, red cabbage, red stem radish, mustard, celery, and cilantro are just a few of the microgreens grown and harvested…
Hoping To Hire Locally, Growing Kansas City STEM Companies Try Luring Students Into Science
In the next few years, many tech businesses in Kansas City expect to do a lot of hiring, with starting salaries that most recent college graduates can only dream of. But will these jobs go to native Kansas Citians or to people recruited from other places? Some business and civic leaders are trying to tip…
PBS NewsHour: McCaskill launches investigation of opioid drugmakers
This morning from PBS NewsHour, read how Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, is taking on manufacturers of top-selling opioids to find out whether these drugmakers are creating a cycle of addiction instead of preventing it. See Flatland’s coverage of opioid addiction in the area and read additional health coverage. McCaskill launches investigation of opioid drugmakers…
Corn Belt Farmers Wary As Leadership In Washington Shifts
As President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, goes in front of the Senate, it bucks a recent trend of Midwest leadership at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it is making many in the farm country of the Midwest and Great Plans a little leery. Coupled with the…
Why More Farmers Are Making The Switch To Grass-Fed Meat And Dairy
Advocates of grass-grazing cattle say it’s better for the environment and the animals. But there’s another upside: Grass-fed meat and dairy fetch a premium that can help small farms stay viable.
Plan Calls for Historic Kansas City Star Building to be Sold and Redeveloped
By Kevin Collison The owner of the Kansas City Star has a tentative agreement to sell the newspaper’s headquarters at 1729 Grand Blvd., a downtown landmark since 1913 where a young Ernest Hemingway once reported. McClatch Corp., the owner of The Star, has reached a “handshake agreement” with a developer who wants to convert the…
Local Action Drives Education Policy
Betsy DeVos has proven to be one of the most controversial players in President Trump’s new lineup, with her conservative ideology inflaming passions as she takes the helm of the Department of Education. But, are her critics taking their eyes off the ball? Perhaps so, argued University of Missouri Political Science Professor Peverill Squire. “The…
Listening With Respect: Discussion Tackles Century-Old Issues
This year’s 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation raises two questions, in local terms: What, after all this time, still divides Kansas City’s Protestants and Catholics? What common ground is marked by the Venn circles of beliefs and practices of these two huge branches of Christianity? Leaders of my own congregation, Second…