News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Cerner details $4.3 billion Three Trails expansion
Cerner officially announced its Three Trails development today, which will eventually cover 237 acres and employ up to 15,000 people; the first phase of expansion, which will be constructed over 30 months, will employ around 1,500. Governor Jay Nixon, Mayor Sly James and Cerner executives gathered with legislators and press at Cerner’s Innovation Campus to…
Making KC Hate-Free: "Not In Our Town" Producer Shares Lessons on Stopping Hate Crimes and Bullying
KCPT has aired several documentaries since 1995 from the landmark series Not In Our Town, which looks at communities standing together against hate and bullying. Filmmaker, journalist and executive producer of the series Patrice O’Neill has dedicated her career to creating media that empowers communities to become inclusive and hate-free. The series’ website, NIOT.org, features…
Senior Center Development Plans Rankle Some Neighbors
Mike Sherry – The Hale Center for Journalism David and Beverly Lewis used to trek occasionally to the neighboring Nazarene church with a collection of balls that had flown into their backyard from the playing field just beyond their privacy fence. It was no big deal, and anyway, Beverly liked watching the younger kids play…
Enrollment Down in Federal Nutrition Program
Mike Sherry – The Hale Center for Journalism For officials in Johnson County, and across the country, it’s plain to see that enrollment is down in a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and their children. Less clear, however, is why. “That seems to be the question that no one has the answer for,”…
Dollhouse Provides Window to Victorian Life in Kansas City
Lindsey Foat – The Hale Center for Journalism If you’ve ever moved, you know what a headache packing and unpacking a home can be. Now imagine if you had over one hundred homes full of priceless antiques to pack and transport. Well, starting Monday, Jan. 6, 2014 the curators at the Toy and Miniature Museum…
Undocumented and Uninsured – A Health Care Challenge
Tammy Worth – Special Correspondent – The Hale Center for Journalism The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is expected to make health insurance newly available to nearly 32 million Americans. The law has already expanded coverage for children and young adults. Beginning in January, it will broaden its reach as some states expand Medicaid…
Reflecting on Christmases Past: The Aluminum Tree at the Johnson County Museum
Lindsey Foat – The Hale Center for Journalism Walking into the 1950s All-Electric House is a sensory experience somewhere between visiting your grandparents’ house and a virtual time warp. Around the holidays, that nostalgia factor goes into over-drive when the Johnson County Museum staff erects a six-foot aluminum Christmas tree – complete with a rotating…
With GED Changes Missouri and Kansas Choose Different Paths
Lindsey Foat – The Hale Center for Journalism For the past 70 years, the G.E.D. test has given over 18 million people a second chance at a high school diploma. The test students take to gain their high school equivalency will be determined by the state in which they live beginning in January. While Kansas…
Missouri Innovation Campus Looked to as National Model for Higher Ed
Kansas City, Mo. – Assistant Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education James Shelton said that higher education suffers from two major issues, lagging outcomes and increasing costs, in his keynote speech at the first National Convening on Higher Education Innovation. “Here in this room, we have heard descriptions of not only kids completing…
Local Principal has Dedicated 48 Years and Counting to KCMO School District
Kansas City, Mo. – When Jessie Kirksey started teaching first grade at Longfellow Elementary School in 1966, she couldn’t imagine she would spend the rest of her career in education, and she was bowled over by those who spent more than 10 years teaching. Now in her forty-eighth year as an educator, Dr. Kirksey is…