A Powerful Force, Sixty Years Later

clean-up crew

Charles Farris endured hurricanes and typhoons during his 28-year naval career. But even so, when the south Kansas City man hears reports of a funnel cloud, six decades melt away, and an instinct kicks in. “Every time I hear a tornado warning,” he said, “I go looking for a shovel to dig myself a hole.”…

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A Jolt to Electric Car Drivers?

Al Pugsley with his Tesla

Kansas City Power & Light could soon deliver sticker shock – along with the kilowatts – as it seeks to wring more cash from its network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The utility is pushing for an optional  “session fee” of up to $6 per hour for time spent at one of its charging…

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Keeping the Pace After the Passion

Hailee Bland-Walsh leads a workout

Hailee Bland-Walsh has long been an activist in the LGBTQ community. Though she has shut down traffic marching in San Francisco, it was the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., in January that was one of the “most transformative” experiences she’s had. “It was so powerful, the density of human beings in one place,” said Bland-Walsh,…

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Where Nature and Science Meet at the Farmhouse

Jamie with her dog

Eleven-year-old Jamie O’Connell Case hangs out with her classmates like any other schoolgirl, but her farm time is special, when she holds her baby goats, weaves fleece, and studies the heavens, along with many things below. Nestled along rolling hills just east of Interstate 49, at the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri, is her family’s…

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Bach and Beer

a portion of the pipes

Jan Kraybill’s got nothing against football. In fact, she’s come to love the Kansas City Chiefs. But you might say Kraybill fumbled the planning of her debut concert as principal organist at Community of Christ church in Independence, Missouri. [FLEX-CONTENT] It was not until about a month before the January 1999 concert, with promotions already…

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