News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Fate of Medical Research tax decided today
Todd Feeback | KCPT News The fate of the 20-year, 1/2 cent sales that is on the ballot in Jackson County, Missouri, to fund translational medical research will be decided today. Proceeds of the tax would go to UMKC, St. Luke’s and Children’s Mercy hospitals with a small percentage going to the Metropolitan Community Colleges….
Local high school athletes may be at greater risk than college players
High school athletes may have a higher risk of getting a concussion than college players. That’s the conclusion of a joint report released today by The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. A panel of medical experts found that concussion rates were higher in high school-aged athletes who played football, baseball, men’s soccer…
Ninjas of the Drill: STEM Outreach Stokes Girls' Interest in Engineering and Orthopedics
Kansas City, Mo. – When Dr. Jenni Buckley demonstrates how to fix a broken femur bone with an external fixator and power tools for a group of high school girls, she tells them that they too can be a ninja of the drill. “Sometimes girls are really at a disadvantage in terms of how much…
Suicide Rate Climbs by 30 Percent in Kansas as Government Slashes Mental Health Budgets
by Nick Haines | KCPT News October 23, 2013 Kansas City, MO – The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States this week picks up the story of an alarming increase in the Kansas suicide rate. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently released a startling report showing a…
Alternative High School in Urban Core Celebrates $8 Million Expansion
Kansas City, Mo. – The DeLaSalle Education Center, which serves about 300 alternative students in Kansas City’s urban core, celebrated an 18,000 sq. ft expansion Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. “We’re celebrating the realization of a vision,” said Mark Williamson, Executive Director of DeLaSalle, to attendees at the ribbon cutting. “It is the building that our…
Teva Neuroscience move complete, from Missouri to Kansas
Teva Neuroscience held a ribbon-cutting Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 for its new headquarters located at the corner of College Boulevard and Nall Avenue in Overland Park, Kan. The company moved across the state line from a location near I-435 and Holmes Road. This location is used by Teva’s Specialty Medicines Pharmaceutical businesses. Their main products…
Gov. Jay Nixon stops plans for execution
Todd Feeback | KCPT News On Friday, Oct. 11, the planned execution of Alan Nicklasson, was stopped by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. Nicklasson was scheduled to be injected with a lethal dose of the drug propofol. This was the first time drug was to be used in an execution. Ordinarily, it is used as an…
KCPT Partners With KCTV5 to Investigate High School Football and Brain Injury
This week, the PBS investigative series Frontline took you inside the closed world of the NFL in a two-hour expose, League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis. “What did the NFL know, and when did they know it?” asks Mark Fainaru-Wada, whose new book on the correlation between football and brain trauma is the basis…
Concerning Concussions: Diagnosing Athletes in KC
Kansas City, Mo. – Emerging research suggests that the repeated hits football players endure during games and practice can cause permanent brain damage. “I think parents should be concerned,” said Dr. Randy Goldstein, the director of Youth Sports Medicine at The University of Kansas Hospital. “We are learning just in the last couple of years…
“If 10% of mothers begin to see this as a dangerous sport, this is the end of football in America."
This provocative quote comes from this week’s PBS Frontline expose League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis. Would you let your children play football? Connie and Ron Stile’s of Spring Hill, KS didn’t give it a second thought. But on October 28th, 2010, their son Nathan, a six foot, 175 pound senior and the…