News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Can Restoring Parks Lead To Better Health In Wyandotte County?
Editor’s note: A male in Wyandotte County can expect to live about seven fewer years than a male in Johnson County. A female in WyCo can expect to live nearly six fewer years than her JoCo counterpart. About 21 percent of residents of WyCo consider themselves to be in poor or fair health; fewer than…
Focus on ‘Spotlight’ Film Recalls Local Church Crisis
On Dec. 10, 2004, a few months before Robert W. Finn became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, I interviewed him for The Kansas City Star about the challenges he might face when he replaced the much-loved Bishop Raymond Boland. Finn was coadjutor bishop at the time. Neither Finn nor I, of…
Johnson County Has More Binge Drinking But Wyandotte County Has The Bigger Problem
Editor’s note: A male in Wyandotte County can expect to live about seven fewer years than a male in Johnson County. A female in WyCo can expect to live nearly six fewer years than her JoCo counterpart. About 21 percent of residents of WyCo consider themselves to be in poor or fair health; fewer than…
Kansas’ Infant Mortality Problem Pushes Experts To Rethink Their Approach
Editor’s note: A male in Wyandotte County can expect to live about seven fewer years than a male in Johnson County. A female in WyCo can expect to live nearly six fewer years than her JoCo counterpart. About 21 percent of residents of WyCo consider themselves to be in poor or fair health; fewer than…
KCPS Names Superintendent Finalists
Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) on Tuesday announced the two men in the running to replace former superintendent Stephen Green, who left last year to lead the DeKalb County School District in Georgia. The two finalists are Ronald Gerald Taylor, superintendent of Willingboro Township Public Schools in Willingboro, New Jersey, and Mark T. Bedell, assistant superintendent for…
A Growing Gap Between Wyandotte And Johnson Counties: Primary Care Physicians
Crossing to Health A male in Wyandotte County can expect to live about seven fewer years than a male in Johnson County. A female in WyCo can expect to live nearly six fewer years than her JoCo counterpart. About 21 percent of residents of WyCo consider themselves to be in fair or poor health; fewer…
A Healthy (Re)Start for Raytown
Technically, it was a ribbon-cutting for a new health facility, but the christening of a new gym and community center in Raytown was more like removing bandages from an old wound. That’s because the facility, at 10301 E. 350 Highway, is housed in a refurbished building that the YMCA of Greater Kansas City closed three…
Worlds Apart: When it comes to health, side-by-side Kansas counties are starkly different
At her home studio in Westwood, Kansas, yoga instructor Marilyn Pace leads a class of 5-to-8-year olds. With the help of songs, games and other kid-friendly teaching methods, she guides her small students through poses like the cobra, the triangle and the downward-facing dog. Tatjana Alvegard takes her daughter, Kaya, to Pace’s classes regularly. “I…
Dietary Guidelines Deliver Win for Midwest Meat Industry
New federal guidelines for healthy eating announced Thursday do not urge Americans to eat less meat, delivering a big win to Midwest meat farmers and ranchers. Initial recommendations by scientific advisors suggested Americans could be more environmentally friendly by cutting back on meat. Although the final version of the dietary guidelines issued every five years by the U.S. Departments…
Sounding Smarter
North Korea claimed this week that it successfully exploded a hydrogen bomb, a test which came in the run-up to President Kim Jong Un’s 33rd birthday. It’s a story about nuclear weapons where the names “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” are actually referring to a head of state. Jihadi Abu Rumaysah is suspected of being the…