A little version of some big art: The ‘Mini Vinnie Bini’

Since 1895, Italy has been the only host of one of the art world’s biggest events: the Venice Biennale. But this year – thanks to the artist collaborative Blanket Undercover – a little bit of the Biennale is coming to Kansas City. The Mini Vinnie Bini, open through Jan. 1, 2016, is a small-scale reproduction of…

Cargill Executive Says Climate Change Threatens Food Production

Climate change is real and must be addressed head-on to prevent future food shortages. That’s the message Cargill Executive Director Greg Page delivered Monday night to an audience at Kansas State University in Manhattan. “Climate change is not a particularly popular subject in much of the heartland,” he said. “But at Cargill, we have come to believe…

When racing for a cure is personal

One was just your typical college kid, the other an infant not even a year old. But then came Leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system, that would turn their world upside down for them and their families. It is the most common form of cancer in…

Sounding Smarter

Russian jets continued to strike in support of Syrian ground troops. The Russians may also be backing an Iranian-led offensive forming in the northern province of Aleppo in support of the Syrian regime. Hey, weren’t they supposed to be fighting ISIS? Speaking of Iran, this week its state-run media broadcast pictures of a huge underground tunnel filled with ballistic…

The potential of a bean, of a business

You could call the space at 645 E 59th Street a business percolator. It’s here, a few doors down from Chai Shai, in the low-slung Brookside strip center with echoes of a Swiss chalet, that Pirate’s Bone Coffee and Café Noble, a pair of fledgling businesses, are looking to find their sea legs. On a…

NASCAR at Kansas Speedway

The Weekender

Let’s get this out of the way quickly. Game 1 of the ALCS is Friday night. Game 2 is Saturday afternoon. Game 3 is Monday night. There’s your weekend. If you absolutely insist on doing something between all the nail-biting baseball, however, we – forgive the horrible pun – have all your bases covered. STRUMMING When you get a chance to…

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster

New KC Mental Health Center Will Get $20M From Hospital Sales

The sale of two Kansas City-area hospitals will generate $20 million in the next decade to help operate a new mental health crisis center on the city’s East Side, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Wednesday. Koster made the announcement while standing outside the state office building at the corner of 12th Street and Prospect…

Sympathetic Vibrations | Album Review

Chvrches’ “Every Open Eye” Sophomore efforts from commercially successful indie bands tend to be bountiful fodder for music critics. Faced with typically unexpected success, young bands writing follow-up albums often cripple themselves with an all-to-common identity crisis: Keep with the formula that got us on the radio and will please the fan base that we…

Musings on Baseball, Luck and Quantum Physics: Making the Case for Magic Socks

Ask any sports fan about superstitions. We’ll likely give you an earful. We love to wear our lucky socks, hats and jerseys. We sit in a favorite chair for the game or only listen to the radio. We fidget, knock wood, rub totems and visualize. Bud Light had a fun, popular series of commercials a…

90 Seconds with ShotTracker

From propelling the game’s emergence in the early 1900s, to honing hall of fame players like Wilt Chamberlin at the University of Kansas, the Sunflower State is rich in basketball history. So it makes sense that a Kansas company, ShotTracker, hopes to write the sport’s next chapter with its wearable technology for basketball players and coaches….

Take 5 for your health

Telemedicine Expands, Though Financial Prospects Still Uncertain Say you’re a Midwestern farmer in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery or a major illness. It’s time for the nurse’s check-in, but there’s no knock on the door. At Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, a camera attached to the wall over the foot of the bed whirls around, as a…

Tom Nichol at J. Rieger & Co. working on the new batch of gin.

Interview: Master Distiller Tom Nichol on His Drink of Choice

It’s a story that made headlines: Retired master distiller for Diageo, owner of Tanqueray gin and other spirits, gets back in the game for one more batch. The special distillery ? Kansas City’s history-rich J. Rieger & Co. The distiller? Tom Nichol. The liquor? Gin, of course.  But his gin, his way. Finally, the much-discussed gin has arrived, and Nichol…

Today’s Special | Pork Tenderloin Sliders

It’s not the size of a sandwich that makes it great. There are two-handers and hoagies and superheroes and sammitches with far more meat and heft than The Rieger’s pork tenderloin sliders. There are pork tenderloins that hang precariously over the bun and others that appear to have come from pigs of prehistoric stature. But…

‘Legends’ is still the new kid on the block. Here’s why that might be great for KCK.

Nine years after its opening, Legends Outlets Kansas City continues to surpass expectations — despite a public perception that the stores are struggling. “I believe the song is, ‘The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, and we’re gonna shake, shake, shake it off,” says Mark Holland, mayor of Kansas City, Kansas. Borrowing his words from musician Taylor Swift, who recently…

The 1908 painting, Water Lilies, by French Impressionist Claude Monet, will be auctioned by Sotheby's for the William I. Koch collection. (Credit: Sotheby's via AP)

Picasso, Monet from William Koch collection to be auctioned

NEW YORK (AP) — An erotic painting of a cabaret singer by Pablo Picasso with a second picture on the reverse side could bring over $60 million at auction. Picasso’s “The Night Club Singer” from his Blue Period was created in 1901. A bawdy picture of his dealer, Pere Manach, is on the back. Sotheby’s…