News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Making Principles of Peace Part of the Curriculum in Raytown
For nearly two decades, Queen Mother Maxine McFarlane closed Raytown’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration with the hymn, “Pass It On.” Though she recently moved to Florida, the legacy she created to honor the slain civil rights leader remains alive and well in the city — and its schools. For the past five years, Raytown…
Agriculture Secretary Lone Trump Cabinet Post Without A Nominee
And then there was Agriculture. Agriculture Secretary is the only post in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet without a nominee, mystifying many in rural America and spurring worries that agriculture and rural issues will land near the end of the line among the new president’s priorities. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, who served for all 8 years…
‘Homefront’ Increases Mental Health Resources for Area Veterans, Families
Valetta Tsangaris met her husband, a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Marines, when she worked as an aviation machinist during Operation Desert Storm. His tour continued after she returned home, but when he finally joined her, he was frequently angry, verbally abusive and struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. They eventually divorced. Tsangaris now works with…
Multi-Billion-Dollar Cabela’s Merger Puts A Rural Nebraska City At An Economic Crossroads
Cabela’s is known for big stores filled with museum-grade taxidermy and shelves piled with hunting and fishing gear. The Cabela’s store in Sidney, Nebraska, sits along Interstate 80 with a giant bull-elk sculpture facing the freeway. Next door is the sprawling company headquarters, complete with a forest-green Cabela’s water tower. The “World’s Foremost Outfitter,” as…
New Guidelines Tell Parents When To Introduce Babies To Peanut Products
The recommendations by a panel sponsored by the National Institutes of Health suggest introducing foods containing peanuts into the diets of children as young as 4 to 6 months.
Defendant in Firefighters’ Tragedy Gets a Re-Sentencing Hearing
For the first time in nearly 20 years, details of one of the city’s most enduring tragedies are about to play out once again in a Kansas City courtroom. Bryan Sheppard, one of five defendants convicted in the 1988 arson deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, will be asking a federal judge next month for…
Child Care Scarcity Has Very Real Consequences For Working Families
One of the most stressful questions a new parent confronts is, “Who’s going to take care of my baby when I go back to work?” Figuring out the answer to that question is often not easy. When NPR, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, surveyed…
The Weekend Starts Today
This week, we find ourselves deep in a New Year’s lull. Maybe the folks who plan shows figure that we’ll all be tired from the holiday festivities. Or, for that matter, maybe they figure that we’ll all be too broke to buy tickets. Whatever the reason, there’s just not that much scheduled at the bigger…
On Tap | Boulevard Veteran Neil Witte Takes Beer Quality on a Field Trip
There are two kinds of beer-nerd palates: yours and Neil Witte’s. Witte oversaw field quality and training at Boulevard Brewing and Duvel Moortgat USA for most of the past 20 years. He is one of the 11 people on the planet to have passed the Master Cicerone exam. And he has an unsparing assessment to…
Marijuana Activist Loses KS Court Case
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by a Garden City, Kansas, mother who lost custody of her son over her use of cannabis oil in an incident that drew national attention. In a brief four-page order Dec. 27, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten dismissed the action, finding that Shona Banda had…