News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Take 5 For Your Health
Missouri Takes Step To Hold Down Health Insurance Rates, But Will It Be Enough? When individual health insurance plans go on sale on healthcare.gov, many Missourians will probably be more than a little shocked to see some rate increases as high as 40 percent. Similar increases are popping up nationwide, but different states have different…
New KC Mental Health Center Hailed As National Model
Supporters of a new mental health crisis center in Kansas City hailed the facility as a model for the rest of the state — and beyond — during its ceremonial opening this afternoon. “Other communities in Missouri are going to have their eyes on this project because they want to emulate it,” said Mike Nietzel,…
Five Years Later, Families of Blast Victims Still in the Dark
ATCHISON, Kan. — Five years later, the hurt is still raw for the families of six men killed when a grain elevator blew up on the banks of the Missouri River here. For them, it could have happened yesterday. “You wake up in the morning, and then you realize it’s not a bad dream —…
Food Program Gap Can Put Entire Families At Risk
Chantelle DosRemedios was pregnant with her second child when she and her husband both lost their jobs in Rhode Island. Like millions of others, she depended on a federal program designed to aid in early childhood development to keep her children fed. Moms and kids who qualify can participate in a federal program called Women,…
On Tap | From Drexel With Lavender
Turkeys meander beside a burbling creek, and blackberry bushes flourish outside a former woodshop. Life is a little different at the region’s latest brewery — in Drexel, Missouri. “We’re like a farm winery, just with beer,” says Will Reece, who co-owns the Miami Creek Brewing Company (14226 Northwest County Road 14001, Drexel) with his wife,…
Take 5 For Your Health
Frustrated Jackson County Lawmakers Enact Their Own Prescription Drug Monitoring Plan Frustrated by the Missouri Legislature’s failure to enact a statewide prescription drug plan, Jackson County last week joined St. Louis and St. Louis County in enacting its own plan, hoping it will cut down on painkiller abuse and addiction. Missouri is the lone state…
Playing Catch-Up with Missouri Mental Health
When Missouri’s second mental hospital opened in the late 19th century, State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 in St. Joseph was designed to provide lots of natural light and fresh air. Yet as war and economic calamity frayed the nation’s psyche, over-crowding swamped the hospital’s lofty goals. The census of the St. Joseph facility peaked at…
Save The Ruby Slippers: Smithsonian Seeks Funds To Preserve Dorothy’s Shoes
Dorothy’s ruby slippers could use a little more magic these days — or at least some conservationist TLC. The famous shoes from The Wizard of Oz are among the most popular items on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. But they’re showing their age, and the museum is asking the public to…
A Force for Refugees
It was during daily walks from her lecture hall to hospital rotations that Sophia Khan first experienced poverty. Born to a wealthy family in Karachi, Pakistan, Khan was a second-year medical student in her homeland when she discovered that the unsheltered groups waiting outside the hospital were poor people wanting to be near their loved…
Commentary |Creating A Hub For Religious Fluency
Imagine a day when: Any Christian fifth-grader in Kansas City who meets a Muslim fifth-grader immediately says to the Islamic child, “salaam alaikum,” the traditional Muslim greeting that means “peace to you.” Any Buddhist adult here who encounters a Jew after sundown on Friday routinely greets the Jew with these words, “Shabbat Shalom,” meaning a…