My Farm Roots: Learning the ropes
Kendra Lawson doesn’t have the typical schedule of a nine–year-old. With just a week of summer left, she spent her days working with her dad and mom on the farm and preparing her pigs to show at the state fair. Here in central Missouri, the Lawson family raises cattle and pigs with a lot of…
Ask for it three-way or five-way, just don't ask for ketchup
Sometimes it is about the size of the dog. Back in March, Ronnie McGowan – a Tulsa native that has lived in the Kansas City area for the past two decades – looked around the local landscape and saw something missing from the hot dog spectrum. Kansas City had cocktail weenies and foot-long dogs, but…
Swimming Pool Parasite Sickens Three In Johnson County
A disease caused by swimming pool parasites has been diagnosed in some Johnson County, Kansas residents and led to the temporary closure of a pool in Overland Park. Cryptosporidiosus, or crypto, is spread by contact with waste, contaminated food or water,or infected people. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and vomiting. “At this time,…
First Day: Kindergarten in KC
Every year with the start of school, something huge happens for the kids in our communities: They start school, many of them for the first time. With funding issues, budget cuts, provisional accreditation, and superintendent changes in the news, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that big thing right in our midst: the wondrous,…
KC’s plan to ‘bank the unbanked’
In the Kansas City metro, about 12 percent of households are “unbanked,” which means they aren’t using traditional financial services like banks or credit unions. About 300 people gathered Wednesday at the Plaza Library to discuss how to solve this problem. The meeting was a gathering of the Alliance for Economic Inclusion, an initiative of…
Hopes for new life, and new traffic, at KC barge terminal
The view from Kansas City’s old river barge terminal in the West Bottoms offers a panoramic sweep of the downtown skyline, and a glimpse of just about every mode of transportation. Planes fly in and out of Wheeler Downtown Airport just across the Missouri River, and trains and trucks haul freight over the Broadway and…
Hospital Leader Challenges Brownback On Innovation, Medicaid Comments
The head of the Kansas Hospital Association is taking issue with comments made by Gov. Sam Brownback at a recent news conference. Asked about his continuing opposition to Medicaid expansion, Brownback downplayed the importance of the issue, telling reporters that innovation is more important to hospital finances than the billions of additional federal dollars that expansion would…
Missouri Convenience Stores Do U-Turn On Tobacco Tax
After opposing efforts to hike the state’s cigarette tax for more than a decade, Missouri convenience stores are now pushing two tobacco-increase plans, either of which they said would add $800 million to state coffers within a decade of their enactment.
Kansas City CARE Clinic Receives Federal Designation
A nonprofit health care opened in the 1970s by a group of concerned Kansas Citians has received federal recognition. The Kansas City CARE Clinic was designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center, or FQHC, on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The clinic will receive federal funding of $650,000 annually, and KC CARE…
My Farm Roots: Farm Kid Without a Farm
In the Midwest, agriculture can be such a strong lure that there are some farm kids without farms. Ally Babcock lives with her family in a modern subdivision in Ames, Iowa. Tucked under the home’s back deck is a tiny barn space, enough room for her sheep and rabbits. “It’s a little difficult [not living…