News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
The Learning Curve: Ervin Early Learning Center
The Hickman Mills School District had a problem: Low-income kindergartners were arriving without the basics they needed to start school on the right foot. Solution? Revamp a dilapidated middle school building and provide high-quality, full day pre-K programming to every child in the district, free of charge. The first of four phases kicked off in February of…
Cancer in KC: ‘Beauty of survival, strength, courage, humor’
Krista Graham asked photographer Angie Jennings to document her breast cancer treatment. Jennings complied the photos into a book. They share their story as part of KCPT and Flatland’s Cancer in KC. Ken Burns’ “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies”
‘The Big C’ Is Big Business in KC area
The 40-mile stretch of highway between Olathe, Kan., and Liberty, Mo., is a key artery in the region’s health care system, bookended by community hospitals and passing a few more medical centers along the way. Yet this part of Interstate 35 is quickly becoming something more: a cancer corridor, dotted with expanding oncology programs and…
Cancer in KC: Dr. Jennifer Laurence
This story is a part of KCPT’s Cancer in KC series, produced in conjunction with the PBS documentary Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, a three-part, six-hour major television event from filmmaker Ken Burns, airing March 30-April 1. The series examines cancer’s impact in the metro with medical experts, cancer researchers and survivors. We want to learn more about how cancer…
Cancer in KC: ‘Overcoming physical, social, economic, emotional hurdles’
Kansas Citians affected by cancer — patients, survivors, health care professionals, family members — have been sharing their stories with KCPT through the PIN (Public Insight Network). Below is one example of the many stories that have been collected. You can read all the stories here. Robin Miller-Gioia of Kansas City, Missouri, is a survivor…
PBS, KCPT explore ‘Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies’
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” tells the comprehensive story of cancer, from its first description in an ancient Egyptian scroll to the gleaming laboratories of modern research institutions. The six-hour film interweaves a sweeping historical narrative with intimate stories about contemporary patients and an investigation into the latest…
A call for doctors to make concussions safer
Dr. Joseph Waeckerle says he’s always been interested in sports medicine because athletes are usually highly motivated to get better and get back on the field. Put simply, they’re better patients. But now doctors know more about concussions than they did when Waeckerle, a longtime Kansas City physician, studied sports medicine in the 1970s. “In…
Former Employee Of The Kansas Department Of Children And Families Files Whistleblower Lawsuit
A former child protection supervisor with the Kansas Department for Children and Families office in Winfield has filed a “whistleblower” lawsuit, accusing the agency of firing her for calling her supervisor’s attention to false reports filed by a social worker.
The Learning Curve: Career Tech Education
In 2013, the PBS Newshour added Paseo Academy to its national roster of schools participating in the Student Reporting Labs project. Designed to increase teens’ understanding of today’s media landscape, the partnership also helps journalism students develop content which can be utilized for broadcast as part of the Kansas City Missouri School District’s Career Tech Education program….
Southeast Kansas counties still rank low for health
A cluster of counties in southeast Kansas are among the least healthy in the state, according to new rankings released Wednesday. Four of the five state’s unhealthiest counties — Woodson, Cherokee, Greenwood and Labette — are in southeast Kansas. Several other counties in the region rank among the bottom 10. But the director of an initiative launched…