Double Shift Brewing Co. beers.

Platte County Fair & Other Weekend Possibilities

It’s fair season. Now, let’s go ahead and see how much fried food we can eat. The Platte County Fair (15730 Fairgrounds Road, Tracy, Missouri) is open through Saturday. You can try your hand at milking a wooden cow, watch a tractor pull or visit the Overflow Saloon — opt for the Tallgrass Pub Ale. Tickets…

McCaskill listening

New Law Provides Funds For Missouri Localities To Set Up Drug Monitoring Systems

New federal legislation aimed at combating the nation’s opioid addiction crisis has a provision tailored specifically for Missouri, which is the only state without a database designed to prevent pill shopping among multiple dispensers. The language, inserted by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, makes counties and municipalities eligible for federal funds that help…

a woman with the text "processing"

Commentary | The Sky is Not Falling

The sky is not falling. It just seems that it is because we have an image and a video of a falling sky that shows up on our mobile devices. And on our favorite cable stations. Maybe our friends and family are even texting us, warning about the falling sky. Then there’s an abundance of…

Until recently, there was no vaccine available in the US to help protect against meningococcal group B, one of the most prevalent types of meningococcal meningitis in the US. Leslie Meigs, meningococcal meningitis survivor and vaccination advocate, joins her brother Andrew (18) as he receives vaccination with Bexsero®, a meningococcal group B vaccine approved by the FDA for ages 10-25 in January. Bexsero is administered in two doses to help protect against the devastating disease, however is not expected to cover all group B strains. Bexsero is approved in more than 36 countries. For more information visit www.Bexsero-US.com. (Jack Plunkett/AP Images for Novartis Vaccines)

Add It to the List: Missouri Schools Now Require New Vaccine for 8th- and 12th-Graders

Summer vacation is almost over, and Missouri parents will want to put those back-to-school vaccinations on the radar, especially with a new requirement for thousands of students around the state. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is now requiring incoming eighth- and 12th-graders to be protected against four strains of meningococcal disease, which…

Flags in various positions

Half-Staff Confusion

Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy seems to have overwhelmed the men and women who raise and lower Old Glory in all the places she flies across Kansas City. Indeed, the killings have been coming so fast and furious, coordination has become a problem. Yesterday, for example, the U.S. flag was at half-staff at the Federal…

Band Duran Duran

The Weekend Starts Today

In just a few weeks, those dismal dog days of August will be upon us, and our will to live sorely tested. But not quite yet. In fact, this is a weekend chock full of life-affirming options. Chief among them, the return of Fringe. That’s the annual KC Fringe Festival, which kicks off Thursday. Twelve…

two reuben sandwiches

Food Fight | The Reuben Rumble

[FLEX-CONTENT] — Food Fight is a new series that pits two locally-available eats and drinks against each other. Anything you’d like to see in the ‘ring’? Drop us a note below or on Twitter @FlatlandKC.

Police And Black Lives Matter Hold A Cookout, And Praise Rolls In

Members of the Wichita, Kan., police department spent Sunday afternoon eating and talking with people from the community, at a cookout that was planned with the local Black Lives Matter group. The event was called the First Steps Community Cookout — a reference to its goal of bridging the gap between police and the community…

Baseball players and gatorade

How The Royals Can Get Right

The Royals finished the first half of the season right around .500. At times, like last night against Cleveland, the club has looked like the world-beaters they were last year. At times, they’ve looked exactly as average as that record would suggest. There are a few very obvious things the club can do to get…

vegtable aisle

Take 5 For Your Health

Price Chopper Closing In KCK Surprises City Officials, Sets Back Healthy Food Efforts A decades-old grocery store in northeast Kansas City, Kansas, is closing, delivering a blow to a part of town that’s already short on healthy food options. The Price Chopper at 43rd and State Avenue, which has operated under different names for more…

Pouring tea with sweet bread.

Shang Tea Transforms Into 1+1 Dim Sum Tea House

Shang Tea has turned over a new leaf. The tea house and retail shop has sold and served fine loose-leaf tea from its serene first-floor shop in Crown Center (2450 Grand Boulevard) for nine years. Now known under its new identity as 1+1 Dim Sum Tea House, the shop has been serving four housemade dim sum…

Ferment Nation | Wine is Bugs

Like science? Like wine? Join master of wine and master sommelier Doug Frost — only one of four people in the world to hold both distinctions simultaneously — in “Ferment Nation” as he breaks down the science of fermentation, explores the culture of Midwest wine, and cuts out the pretension. What do bugs have to do with…

A child reading.

Early Bedtime For Preschoolers Might Help Reduce Obesity Risk Later

Little kids who hit the sack early may be less likely to get overtired and fussy in a way that messes with their sleep cycle, researchers say.

A man feeds a bison.

To Bring Bison Back To The Plains, Ranchers Say We Must Eat Them

Massive bison herds used to be a staple of the Great Plains. That is until we almost hunted them out of existence. Now, with a new designation as the United States’ national mammal, bison ranchers argue that to conserve the species we have to eat them. It’s an idea called “market-based conservation,” and it contends…

Two men stand behind their coffee cart.

The Pick-Me-Up Gets a Lift

Hail! Coffee Co. is doing a nitro brew differently than anyone else in the Kansas City area — on a bicycle. Co-owners Chance Byrd and Caleb Roye flash brew their coffee, put it in a keg, put that keg on their aqua-colored bike and infuse it with nitrogen before serving. And that keg weighs about…