“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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
Following Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama spoke at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas today.
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.,…
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.
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…
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.…
A coalition of health organizations is supporting Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s call for a big increase in the state’s cigarette tax. Brownback is proposing to raise the tax by $1.50 per pack, increasing it from 79 cents to $2.29. The governor wants to use the approximately $81 million in additional revenue to close a gaping hole in the fiscal 2016 budget.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration outlined a sweeping budget plan Friday that includes changes to Medicaid and increases in the state’s tobacco and alcohol taxes.
Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said closing a $650 million budget gap will require new tax revenue and slowed expenses in the state’s “three major cost drivers”: public schools, public employee pensions and Medicaid.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback delivered his state of the state address Thursday night in advance of the State of the Union address Tuesday night. News reviewers Mary Sanchez, Eric Wesson, Steve Vockrodt and Dave Helling dissect Brownback’s proposed changes for the state of Kansas. Also this week: Senator Claire McCaskill’s announcement she will not run for governor in Missouri in 2016; the fuss surrounding Kansas Congressman Kevin Yoder and his successful amendment to a congressional bill; remembering minister and civil rights activist Nelson “Fuzzy” Thompson; and the absence of women in statewide office in Kansas.
Pastor Alan Shelby has lived in the Kansas City area his entire life, and he says the KC he has experienced is different from other cities. “Kansas City is kind of a unique community,” he said. “If you go to another large city like Dallas, you have a rich part, you have a poor part.…
When school let out in Johnson County on Thursday, fifth grade teacher Barbara Casey hopped in the car with a fellow teacher and two parents to drive to Topeka, Kansas for Gov. Brownback’s State of the State address. “The main reason I came up there was not for myself,” Casey said. “It was really for…