News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Brownback signs law expanding autism coverage
By Dave Ranney KHI News Service Bryan Thompson Kansas Public Radio OVERLAND PARK — Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law Wednesday a measure that is expected to make insurance coverage for autism services available to about 750 children over the next two to three years. House Bill 2744 was a compromise measure that gained eventual support from…
Read and share messages of support for the victims of hate in Kansas City
The hateful acts of one person have taken the lives of three of our community members, and wounded many more. So far we’ve collected several messages of support and we’ll continue to add more as they are submitted. Read what others from across the country have written and add your message below. “An evil act….
JCC to host interfaith service of unity, hope
An interfaith unity service to honor the victims of Sunday’s shootings will be held 10 a.m. Thursday at the Jewish Community Campus’ White Theatre. Clergy from different faith communities across the metro will lead the 45-minute service. Three community members were killed Sunday afternoon in shootings at two locations: Overland Park’s Jewish Community Center…
NIH director talks about one and done at KU — for flu shots
That annual flu vaccine could be a thing of the past by the end of the decade, the director of the National Institutes of Health said during a Monday visit to the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Francis Collins said that NIH-funded researchers are perhaps five years away from developing a universal flu vaccine,…
Working together for safe, inclusive communities
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to victimize entire communities. The shootings at two Jewish centers in Overland…
Q&A with robotics competition co-founder Dr. Woodie Flowers
Lindsey Foat – The Hale Center for Journalism Instead of seeing 58 robots competing, Dr. Woodie Flowers sees 58 solutions to a problem he created. Flowers is a Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, original host of the PBS series “Scientific American Frontiers” and the co-founder and creator of the…
KC Week in Review: Will she come back to Kansas? Sebelius resigns. Plus, analysis of this week’s local elections…
It’s not often someone from our area gets to hold a national cabinet level post. But that’s coming to an end for the embattled former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who resigns this week as our nation’s Health Secretary. Not since former Missouri Governor John Ashcroft was picked by President George W. Bush to be…
Students Solve Old Problem with New Ketchup Cap
Video: John McGrath — The Hale Center for Journalism High school seniors Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson have spent a lot of time thinking about ketchup. As students in the Project Lead the Way program at North Liberty High School, Richards and Thompson have researched and developed a bottle cap that prevents that first squirt…
Kansas educators take battle over school finance bill to Twitter
For the last 35 years school librarian Nancy McFarlin has been connecting Kansas students with information, but the veteran educator said she didn’t personally realize the informative power of Twitter until last weekend. “I thought it was just one more thing to learn to do, (but now I find it) informative and current,” McFarlin, who…
Kansas Citians speak at Middle of the Map Fest Forum: live blog
[View the story “Middle of the Map Fest FORUM live blog” on Storify]