Update: Looking for the Mystery Man of Runway One
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” —Edgar Allan Poe, “The Premature Burial” In an effort to shed more light on what may be Kansas City’s oldest cold case, KCPT’s Hale Center for Journalism arranged for more…
Immigration is tough. Got a question?
In December of 2014, the Your Fellow Americans team talked with a Mexican-American family in the Kansas City area about their thoughts on race, immigration, and the American Dream. We joined the family around the dinner table of Mac and Velia Salazar, a husband and wife who were both born in Kansas on February 28th, 1925. Irene, one of their nine children, is married to Ryan Caudillo, a third-generation Mexican-American who was also raised in the Kansas City metro area.
Following the Beef Dollar
On Sunday, KCPT’s Flatland, along with the Kansas City Star, published this Harvest Public Media story and video about the “checkoff cowboys” – ranchers and independent farmers who have a problem with the federal “beef checkoff” program that mandates that ranchers pay $1 for every head of cattle sold. Peggy Lowe and Mike McGraw reported…
Creating a high-tech vending machine, to dispense local art
Chips, Cheetos and peanuts are all things you might expect to find in an airport vending machine. Local art … not so much. But in one vending machine in the Kansas City Airport, you can expect to find locally made art, jewelry, T-shirts and the like. You swipe your credit card and out comes an…
#RockChalkBarack: online reactions to President Obama’s KU visit
President Obama spoke at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, today. He was the first sitting president to do so in over 100 years, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in her introductory remarks. She added: “I think the wait has been worth it.” The Storify below captures some reactions from the day: lots of…
Obama speaks at University of Kansas
Following Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama spoke at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas today.
Poet Nikki Giovanni talks space travel, hip-hop and ‘Selma’
Nikki Giovanni — famed and acclaimed poet — doesn’t buy the old adage that great art comes from great suffering. “I think great art comes from great joy,” she said. She pointed to “Selma,” a film about the 1965 march for civil rights from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, headed by Martin Luther King Jr.,…
How the grain glut could hurt rural economies
American farmers grew more corn and soybeans in 2014 than ever before, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest crop production report. The glut has pushed grain prices to a five-year low, forcing some farmers in Midwestern states to operate on much tighter profit margins than in recent history. Some will even sell their crop for less than it cost to grow.
Reflections from Selma
Tex Sample had no intention of being part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery. In March of 1965, Sample was working in Boston with the Massachusetts Council of Churches, a coalition of clergy that lobbied for civil rights legislation. Although he was organizing flight reservations for…
A beef over politics
NEMAHA COUNTY, Kan. – From their small farms set in the rolling hills of northeast Kansas, two ranchers are raising a few cattle, and a lot of Cain. David Pfrang and Jim Dobbins turned themselves into activists, launched a shadow corporation, got hauled into federal court and had to hire a lawyer. All over $1….