News & Issues

Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.

One of the three concepts for the South Loop Link project calls for keeping the downtown street grid intact, the others would close either Baltimore or Walnut.

South Loop Link Plan On Course for Lining Up $115M in Funding

(Editor’s note: the full City Council approved the $10 million in funding Thursday) By Kevin Collison The city is poised to contribute $10 million to the proposed South Loop Link project, an amount backers hope will leverage the total raised for the four-block park to more than $115 million by year’s end. A City Council…

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Rendering shows the four blocks of the downtown freeway loop that would be covered with a deck that would create a public space.

South Loop Link Plan On Course to Line Up $115M in Funding

Kansas City is poised to contribute $10 million to the South Loop Link project. Backers hope to raise more $115 million for the four-block park by year’s end.

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Nicole Noblet (at center in purple) with Missouri's People First Chapter at Disability Rights Legislative Day at the Capitol. (Contributed)

Young Adults with Disabilities Want Independence. Guardianship Is a Hurdle.

Students with disabilities are too often faced with hurdles when entering young adulthood. One lesser-known issue: the school-to-guardianship pipeline.

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A man in a gray shirt and black pants bends over a row of short bean plants situated at the base of a trellis. With his hand he demonstrates the size of the beans yielded by the plants to address food security.

A Lawrence Farmer’s Innovative Approach to Food Security 

LAWRENCE, Kansas — Pantaleon Florez III looks at food security as an issue to be solved.   He asks those working in local food systems (and himself) what they would do if their community didn’t have a hunger issue.   “That’s my new narrative: ‘What would you do if you didn’t have to do this work?’”…

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A sign on the side of a building reads "Life is Fine in Humboldt."

Politicians Battle Rural Population Declines in Kansas, But Drop-off Continues

Rural parts of Kansas continue to see significant population declines. Some local and state officials are trying to staunch the seemingly endless bleeding.

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Proposed Greenline Trail Price Tag $80M, Plan to Seek Federal Funding

(Editor’s note: This article originally was posted July 12, 2022) By Kevin Collison The proposed Greenline recreational trail loop around downtown now has an estimated $80 million price tag, according to backers who plan to eventually seek federal funding for the project. The Greenline was initially pitched almost three years ago by developer Vince Bryant,…

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Police car lights.

Black Drivers in Missouri More Likely to be Ticketed, Arrested

Black drivers stopped by Missouri law enforcement are much more likely to end up with a citation or in a jail cell than whites, according to a new report.

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Omaha Postcard: Big Downtown Park Overhaul Shows How to Attract People

(Editor’s note: This article originally was posted Sept. 21, 2022) By Kevin Collison We have one restless, striving neighbor to our north. In July, Omaha finished the first phase of a $325 million overhaul of its downtown and riverfront parks, and what’s occurring 200 miles upriver offers an important lesson for Kansas City. First a…

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Nick Haines

Nick’s Picks | Hail to the Chiefs, and Other News

The Kansas City Chiefs will be at the White House today to celebrate the team’s latest Super Bowl title. But Chiefs matriarch Norma Hunt died over the weekend.

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Big Waldo Apartment Project Proposed, Revives Streetcar Extension Idea

(Editor’s note: This article originally was published Sept. 15, 2022. The project remains active and is in the preliminary development phase.) By Kevin Collison A 300-unit apartment project that would transform the scale and nature of the Waldo entertainment area received preliminary support from a transit-oriented development agency Wednesday. EPC Real Estate Group is cooperating…

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