News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
5 Questions with Re:Dream’s Christopher Cook
Are you living the dream? And what does that dream look like? One national project, Re:Dream, is exploring what opportunity — and our definition of success — look like in the 21st Century. The project is both video-based, with 40 micro documentaries rolling out from the end of February, and events-based, with ongoing community engagement activities across the US. We asked series producer…
Take 5 For Your Health
Budgets Reflect Kansas Legislators’ Attention To State Hospitals The Kansas House and Senate both passed budgets last week that shift money from several sources to shore up an underwater state general fund. But even in lean budget times, the lawmakers found a few million dollars in the general fund to provide additional money for the…
Commentary | ‘But The Questions Sure Do Linger.’
Editor’s Note: This commentary, from Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman, is part of a larger effort by KCPT and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to explore the meaning of justice in the context of the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that killed six Kansas City firefighters. The effort, called StoryWorks KC, includes a stage production about…
Back to the Drawing Board for Kansas City Public Schools
Kansas City Public Schools administrators entered Wednesday evening hoping they were only a couple weeks away from finalizing a master plan after more than two years of work. But after a three-hour school board meeting, dominated by discussions about the future of Wendell Phillips Elementary School and of the African-Centered College Preparatory Academy, it appeared…
Missouri Settles Tobacco Case
Missouri has settled a dispute over the terms of a multibillion settlement with the big tobacco companies that has cost it tens of millions of dollars over the last dozen or so years. Attorney General Chris Koster announced the settlement Monday, saying it will allow the state to recoup $50 million it lost in arbitration…
Take 5 For Your Health
Marketplace Enrollment Climbs In Kansas, Missouri The enrollment period for the federal health insurance marketplace closed last week, with higher enrollment than last year in Kansas and Missouri. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 101,555 Kansans enrolled before the deadline. That’s about 5,000 more than the 96,197 Kansans who enrolled before last…
The end of a drought for KCMO ‘food desert’?
Residents living just south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, might get a grocery store after all. Truman Medical Centers disappointed people in and around the Beacon Hill and Longfellow neighborhoods when, in mid-2015, it nixed plans to build a supermarket on the northeast corner of 27th Street and Troost Avenue. The project had been in the…
KCK Mental Health Facility Recognized For ‘Excellence In Collaboration’
A Kansas City organization that serves area nonprofits has conferred its “excellence in collaboration” award on the Rainbow Mental Health Facility in Kansas City, Kansas, for its work with the KCK police department. Nonprofit Connect said Thursday that the Rainbow facility will be one of nine honorees at its 32nd annual Philanthropy Awards Luncheon, scheduled for…
Life, Prison, Then Life Again
The prison population is growing, and growing fast. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the number of incarcerated felons grew by 408 percent between the years of 1978 and 2014. Even more eye-opening: The number of incarcerated women in the United States ballooned 646 percent between the years of 1980 and 2010, according to a study from The Sentencing Project, a…
Take 5 For Your Health
Nonprofit Groups Launch Open Kansas Government Initiative Several nonprofit organizations that advocate for children, minorities and low-income Kansans are concerned about what they see as a trend toward less open government in Kansas. So, they’ve joined forces to launch what they’re calling the Open Kansas initiative and to ask legislators to sign a “transparency pledge”…