News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Children’s services tax on table for Jackson, Clay Counties
Jackson and Clay counties are hoping to join a handful of Missouri municipalities that have enacted a local tax to fund services for at-risk
Agreeability trumps algebra, Kansans tell state education officials
Kansas residents, educators and business leaders agree that academic know-how takes a backseat to “soft” skills.
Take 5 for your health
High Teen Birth Rates In Rural Kansas Pose Obstacles To Economic Advancement Nineteen-year-old Claudia Rivera shares a single-story tract home in Liberal, Kansas, with her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jesùs Varela. Last month, Varela’s mother moved in so she could watch Rivera’s baby boy, Fabian, while Rivera works at the Dollar General store and Valera pulls down a shift at…
What’s in a name?
Next year marks the centennial for the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, which for most of its history has been an anchor along Independence Avenue. That continuity, however, has not extended to the name of the institution, which began downtown as the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery. The college became the…
High water changes Platte River landscape
Wet spring and summer rains soaked much of the High Plains this year. The Platte River, which runs through Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska before emptying into the Missouri River, saw historic flooding. Standing on the bank of the Platte River at Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, Neb., conservation director Andrew Pierson points upstream to where…
Awaiting an oasis, in KCK’s food dessert
It’s a challenge for Shawn Owens to find fresh food in his neighborhood. He walks or uses the bus for transportation, and quality fresh produce and meats are scarce within a reasonable distance from his home. The life-long Wyandotte County resident does most of his grocery shopping at convenience stores and Aldi, but those places…
Ch-ch-ch-changes, for KCK shopping plaza
The Board of Commissioners of the Wyandotte County Unified Government meeting report
Sounding Smart
INTERNATIONAL Russia moved forcefully into Syria. Many of the targets seem to be non-IS opponents of Russia’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. So that’s not terribly helpful. India announced a new plan to lower its rate of greenhouse gas emissions. The plan includes an aggressive adoption of renewable energies, such as wind and solar, but the nation nevertheless remains highly…
Day in the life: A Kansas City public defender
Exploring the challenges of the Public Defender’s office as told through documenting the footsteps of a public defender in a day.
5 questions with ‘Stray Dog’
Ron “Stray Dog” Hall got his big screen debut as Thump in the Academy-Award nominated film “Winter’s Bone.” Director Debra Granik recruited Hall for the part of the ruthless crime boss after seeing him at a biker church in southern Missouri. But while Hall physically fits the part, a new documentary from Granik reveals that in real…