Candidates battling for insurance post differ on big issues
The top-of-the-ticket races may be commanding the most attention in this year’s Kansas election, but significant issues also are in play in some of the down-ballot contests. The insurance commissioner’s race is one example. Like the higher-profile races, it features candidates with very different perspectives on key issues. But unlike those races, the contestants remain…
Royals take it to the limit
The Kansas City Royals have stretched the World Series to the limit, forcing a seventh game by erupting Tuesday night for seven runs in the second inning of a 10-0 rout of the San Francisco Giants.
‘All you fear is here’: Get terrified at Haunt
Pulsing rock music pounds in your ears. Something brushes your shoulder, and you flinch. A bloody, demented-looking teen in a bathrobe creeps in front of you, making unblinking eye contact. Lights flash, momentarily skewing your vision. A pigtailed girl next to you sobs openly. The hooded Underlord raises from the roof of a building, his voice…
Solving the puzzling mental illness of Bhutanese refugees
Making the rounds at a public housing complex in Kansas City, Kan., community health worker Rinzin Wangmo is greeted by cheery voices and faces. As she enters a home, the heavy aroma of chopped onions stings her nose, and she hurries up a short flight of stairs to escape the burn. After gently knocking on…
Architexture creates wearable art for KC
John and Christina Moncke have been married almost 17 years, and they successfully work together— you might say seamlessly. Architexture is the womenswear line they’ve created to bring what they call wearable art to Kansas City. John McGrath, a videographer and producer for KCPT’s “Arts Upload,” recently sat down with the husband and wife duo…
Kansas City conferees tackle language of health care
As reformers work on making the U.S. health care system more efficient, they’re also looking to improve communication with consumers – whether it’s ensuring they understand the nuances of insurance or grasping instructions from a doctor. The concept is known as “health literacy,” and the notion extends beyond the written or spoken word, Dan Reus,…
Kansas City Week in Review: Eilert, Lightner, Kobach & Chastain
Who Should lead Johnson County? We debate the issues in Johnson County with Ed Eilert, Johnson County Chair and his opponent, former state lawmaker Patricia Lightner. Also on this edition: Light rail on the ballot and a debate that took place earlier this week between the incumbent Secretary of State for Kansas, Kris Kobach, and his challenger, Jean Kurtis Schodorf.
The business side of blogging: food bloggers gather at Chopped Con
On World Food Day, bloggers, dietitians and food writers gathered at the River Market Event Place for Chopped Con — the first food blogger conference to be held in Kansas City. Participants learned about social media, advertising strategies and best practices for food writing, all while networking and chatting with the women (and a few men)…
100 years of history at Union Station
“All of my life I had lived in very small farming communities. Coming into Union Station was entering a shocking, different world. I still remember the great, big doors, the very tall, tall ceilings, and lots of people. I had never seen so many people, enormous numbers of people. And all that huge, large hall…
Egg lawsuit costs Missouri
Airline flights and legal fees in California; rental cars and hotel rooms in Indiana; $19 at Yogurtland in Los Angeles and expert witness fees of $500 an hour, plus expenses. That’s just part of the $83,711.59 that Missouri taxpayers will pony up for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s brief — and failed — legal foray into…
On-time vaccination rate for Kansas kids tumbles
TOPEKA — The percentage of Kansas students entering kindergarten in 2012 who had been immunized on the medically recommended schedule tumbled to 61 percent from about 72 percent the previous year. The drop, highlighted in KIDS COUNT data released Tuesday by Topeka nonprofit Kansas Action for Children, puts on-time immunization rates at their lowest in at least five…
National Latina advocate returns home, encourages KCK community to vote
A packed meeting room buzzed with excitement Tuesday morning at the South Branch library in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. Families and friends huddled together, chatting animatedly. Students from El Centro’s Academy for Children squirmed in their seats. As soon as Irene Caudillo, president and CEO of El Centro, stepped up to the podium,…
Video: First World Series tailgate at Kauffman in 29 years
Kansas City Royals fans gathered at Kauffman Stadium to celebrate game one of the World Series versus the San Francisco Giants. Here are some sights and sounds from the first World Series tailgate at the K in 29 years. Video produced with assistance from Bridgit Bowden.
Lenexa man’s exercise obsession underscores eating disorders’ gender neutrality
At one point when he was in college at Kansas State University, Jon Smith would jog as many as 20 miles a day. “If I wasn’t in the library and not in class,” he said, “I was running.” But Smith was far from healthy. His over-the-top regimen was a manifestation of an eating disorder known…
Blue Cross picket highlights insurance conundrum with eating disorders
The business day was ticking away as Sarah Wilcher waited on the phone. She was an hour into a desperate protest of an insurance decision about her seriously ill daughter, Piper. By around 5:10 p.m., she realized everybody was gone. “They just left me on hold,” Wilcher recalled recently of that day four years ago….