News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
A New Approach To Behavioral Problems In School
One of the first graders in Lori Williams’ classroom is clearly restless during the students’ morning community circle. As the children discuss their weekly goals, how to be a good citizen and what integrity means, the young girl is distracted. She wriggles and shifts, pulls both arms through a shirt sleeve and eventually checks out,…
Sounding Smarter
According to an extensive story at Foreign Policy, India is building a top secret facility to produce nuclear weapons. Which means, at the very least, India is going to need a new definition of the phrase “top secret”. In other apocalyptic weapons news, the U.S. is “considering a response” to an Iranian ballistic missile test. Apparently, we’re going…
Watch Your Words
A recent investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into the watch and timepiece industry’s use of the marketing slogan “Made In USA” focused extensively on local Kansas City watch company Niall Luxury, and Founder and CEO Mike Wilson isn’t thrilled about it. The investigation by the FTC launched after Nicholas Manousos, vice president of…
Take 5 for Your Health
Amid Financial Troubles, Company Closes Two Kansas Ethanol Plants Financial problems at one of the world’s leading biofuels companies are causing ripples in the Kansas economy. The Spanish company, Abengoa Bioenergy, opened a state-of-the-art ethanol plant in October 2014 near Hugoton. Gov. Sam Brownback greeted the grand opening as a shot in the arm for the…
Interfaith Group Seeks to Welcome, Not Shun, Syrian Refugees
Responding to calls for a halt to the settlement of Syrian refugees in the United States, an ad hoc group of Kansas City faith groups, organized under the name “People of Faith for Peace,” held a rally Sunday at the Liberty Memorial. About 100 people braved the afternoon’s rainy weather and answered the organizers’ call…
Does a New Apartment Project Mean New Life in Argentine?
Two historic buildings in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, are getting new life – and community members there are seeing the revitalization project as a symbol of a community comeback. “It’s a really big deal,” Graciela Duarte said, an Argentine resident who was serving as a tour guide recently for the Simmons Villas…
Climate Change: Why Pope Francis Considers It a Crisis
As the United Nations climate change summit wraps up this weekend in Paris, three local groups sponsored a gathering at Queen of the Holy Rosary Church in Overland Park to discuss Pope Francis’s call for action on the environment (Laudato Sí), and to learn what action they can take locally to combat global warming. The Kanza…
Sounding Smarter
At the Climate Summit in Paris, Leonardo DiCaprio delivered a powerful speech about the dangers of global warming. Afterwards, Leo got into a private jet, flew to one of his several mansions and spent some time chilling on a giant yacht. Coca-Cola said on Friday that it may have to close some bottling plants in India if the government…
Shawnee Mission Superintendent Pans Legislative Efforts
The superintendent of the Shawnee Mission School District is taking umbrage at some of the financial inquiries coming from Kansas lawmakers and from an outside audit firm hired by the Legislature to study the efficiency of state government. Jim Hinson was particularly insulted that the Legislature’s Special Committee on K-12 Student Success, which is looking…
‘I Can’t Let It Go’ | Part II
EDITOR’S NOTE: This first-person account of one journalist’s attempts to shed light on potential problems in the U.S. justice system 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…