News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Celebrating SevenDays | Love
This story is part of our coverage of Kansas City’s SevenDays project, which aims to bring people together to conquer hate and celebrate diversity. The project is led by Mindy Corporon, who lost two family members in the April 2014 shootings at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. For each of the seven…
From Maestros to Medicine: A ‘Healthy’ Dose of Computer Animation at UMKC
The University of Missouri-Kansas City is a diverse, urban institution with approximately 1,200 full- and part-time faculty dispersed across dozens of academic areas. As multifaceted as it is, academicians from the disparate fields of fine arts and medicine have managed to find their way to Associate Professor Greg King in the School of Computing and…
Election Voices
After a year of campaigning by city officials to keep the 1 percent earnings tax afloat for the next five years, Kansas City voters will ultimately make that decision today in KCMO’s school board and special election. Generating around $230 million dollars annually, the earnings tax is the biggest source of revenue for the city…
Take 5 For Your Health
New Kansas City Radio Show Spreads The Gospel Of Diabetes Care For Jim Nunnelly, being diagnosed with diabetes two-and-a-half years ago was a shock, but almost as shocking was the amount of health information he was suddenly expected to absorb. “A person like me, getting up in years, got drowned in all that information. I…
New KCMO Schools Chief Looking to Stay
The average tenure of a superintendent in an urban school district is about three years, and that trend has pretty much held true in Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) for decades. But in introducing himself to the community this morning, the school district’s newest superintendent, Mark T. Bedell, 41, said in that sense he is…
Grocery Store Could Be on Horizon for 27th and Troost
A Kansas City developer with experience around Beacon Hill is talking with the city about a project that could bring a grocery store to a community that has long sought easy access to healthy food options. City Development Specialist Shawn Hughes said Thursday that UC-B Properties has submitted a concept for a mixed-use development on…
More Charter School Real Estate News
Another Kansas City, Missouri, charter school has secured classroom space. Citizens of the World Kansas City (CWCKC) said Thursday that it’s a week or two away from finalizing a lease agreement on a building on the northeast corner of Broadway and Armour boulevards. That news followed Wednesday’s announcement by Academy for Integrated Arts that it…
KC Charter School Purchases Former Bowling Alley
A Kansas City, Missouri, charter school that teaches core content through the arts plans to make a former bowling alley its new home. The Academy for Integrated Arts (AFIA) said Tuesday that it has purchased a roughly 40,000-square foot building at 7910 Troost Ave., built in 1955 to house King Louie East. AFIA is an…
Johnson County Establishes Healthy Foods Advisory Panel
Johnson County has created a panel to advise the county commission on food issues. One of the Food Policy Council’s goals will be to increase county residents’ access to healthy foods, according to a news release from the county. But the council might also touch on other areas, such as economic development, agriculture and food…
And the State of the City Is …
Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James delivered his annual State of the City address today to a lively, packed audience that nearly filled Midtown’s Uptown Theater. Here are five takeaways, and some interesting tweets, from the mayor’s speech. 1. Since Mayor Sly James has taken office in 2011, the city is doing a whole lot better,…