Take 5 For Your Health
Kansas Nursing Homes Struggle To Cope With Medicaid Processing Backlogs Judy Kregar is not a member of the Rotary Club in nearby Greensburg, but she decided to go when she heard Gov. Sam Brownback would be at the club’s recent meeting. Kregar, the administrator of a small nursing home in nearby Bucklin, wanted to tell…
Recruiting to Fight Social Injustices
Michael Brooks recalls witnessing racism in Kansas City at a young age. Growing up at 37th and Benton Boulevard, a wealthy neighborhood “filled with doctors and lawyers,” the former councilman and senior pastor of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church said he started kindergarten in 1967 at then-affluent Sanford B. Ladd Elementary. Then, he said, it…
Fountain City Frequency | Charlie Mylie’s Big Inhale
Kansas City is a lot bigger than we tend to realize. The majority of the population is concentrated into just 58 square miles that make up less than a fifth of the city’s overall size. That leaves a lot of mileage to discover. Here’s a story by Esther Honig, from audio producers Fountain City Frequency, about one Kansas…
The Struggle for Security
In the small, rural city of Liberal, Kansas, a neighborhood of old trailer homes sits just off the main street. The small trailer at the end of the block, with faded yellow paint and creaky front steps, is the place 17-year-old Diego now calls home. Late at night, Diego sits on his bed, thumbing through…
That’s the Spirit
Benay Shannon hops down from a forklift, her bright pink galoshes padding across the concrete floor of the Restless Spirits Distillery. She maneuvers clear plastic tubing to the open hole in the top of a 10-gallon oak barrel. It’s Tuesday afternoon and Kansas City’s only female head distiller is making whiskey. “This is about making…
3 Reasons To See ‘Reflecting Class’ at The Nelson
A new show at the Nelson-Atkins,“Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer,” runs from February 24 – May 29. The exhibit explores social and economic relations in 17th-century Holland through the work of the era’s best artists. Flatland has three good reasons why you should go. It’s the Nelson, for goodness sake Far…
The Weekend Starts Today
Another unseasonably warm, dry weekend is on the way. While you’re waiting for some badly needed rain, you might as well get out and enjoy our city’s fine nightlife. And, for that matter, its daylife. First Fridays are back. Actually, of course, they never went away. You just might have forgotten about them while the…
There’s A Plague Of Locusts In Argentina. Could We See The Bugs Here?
The normally dry northern region of Argentina has a problem of biblical proportions. Farmers there are struggling with a massive outbreak of locusts. Dark clouds of the green-brown bugs cast shadows when they fly overhead and when they land, they cover the ground. “It is really, really, amazing when you see the locusts because you…
Take 5 For Your Health
Doctors Warn Of (Another) Early, Intense Spring Allergy Season In Kansas City The early spring weather Kansas City is expected to enjoy this weekend can be a mixed blessing for allergy sufferers. Doctors at Children Mercy Hospital in Kansas City report surges in pollen and mold have accompanied the blips of early warm weather the…
Hashtags For The Month Of FEBRUARY
At the end of each month we share four hashtags that trended locally, nationally, or simply caught our eye. February was full of announcements, conversations, and events on social media and it was hard to decide which to include. But there can only be four and here they are! What four would you pick? Let…
The Younger Games
When Lee’s Summit West High School’s archery team broke the Missouri state record for highest team score on January 30th, head coach David Winslow looked over to his staff. High-fiving and hugging each other, his assistant coaches reveled in the moment. It was the accumulation of work that had been years in the making. Nearby,…
A Familiar Space Becomes A Beer Place
Heavy trucks, laden with construction materials, thud down Genessee Street in the West Bottoms. The trucks roll past storefronts covered in butcher paper and the old site of the Golden Ox, which is now set to be reborn in two stages with two businesses. First up is the Stockyards Brewing Company (1600 Genessee Street, Suite…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Five Things I Learned at FAI
I should come clean. This was the third year of the Folk Alliance International Conference’s residency in Kansas City and it was my first time attending. I know, I know. I’m awful. Stain on me. I have to admit I didn’t know what I was missing. Looking back, last weekend was a whirlwind, complete with…
Divided Board Approves KC Schools Plan
Over continued citizen opposition, a divided Kansas City school board Wednesday night approved a master plan that shifts students and staff from Wendell Phillips Elementary School to nearby Crispus Attucks Elementary. Under the plan, approved on a 7-2 vote, the district will convert Wendell Phillips, 1619 E. 24th Terrace, into the Kansas City Neighborhood Academy,…
Commentary | Let Common Sense Prevail In Battle Over Religious Liberty
The very day in late February that five Republican candidates for president participated in a smash-mouth debate in Texas with much moaning and gnashing of teeth about the erosion of religious freedom in the United States, these things also happened: I gathered with Episcopalians, Catholics, and mainline Protestants for a Bible study I help to…