On a warm October afternoon Veronica Jaramillo walks through rows of skinny apple trees on the orchard where she works as the sun sinks behind rolling Missouri hills. The 30 year-old migrant farmworker reaches into a tree on the Waverly, Mo., orchard, and in one fluid motion, picks a Golden Delicious apple. “I don’t like…
Some people’s lives are chronicled by professional writers in their biographies. Some people write their own memoirs. And then, some people hire The Story Scribe. This Kansas City memoir writing business, founded by Amy Butler, is part of the personal history industry. The Association of Personal Historians, the industry’s professional organization, has more than 600…
Kansas finds out it has a $1 billion problem this week. Newly released state revenue estimates show that Kansas will burn through $380 million in reserves and still need to cut $280 million to balance its current budget, which ends in June. The problem continues in 2016, when revenues are projected to run $436 million…
Growing up in a really small town in Wisconsin, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher found their fun at nearby thrift stores. “I remember we used to buy answering machines, eject the tapes and listen to people’s incoming and outgoing messages,” Prueher said. Everything changed for Pickett and Prueher when VHS tapes started showing up at…
Cerner Corp., the Kansas City-based health care information technology giant, broke ground Wednesday on its huge campus in south Kansas City, Mo., a project that’s eventually expected to house as many as 16,000 workers. Cerner officials, along with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Kansas City mayor Sly James, took part in the ceremony at the…
Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback were the big winners last Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas, but Mickey Mouse also appeared on ballots in the county. So did Beyoncé, Cookie Monster, Professor Dumbledore and President Obama. These familiar names, in addition to many others, were written in by Johnson County voters. The complete list…
Kansas hospitals are moving ahead with plans to put a Medicaid expansion plan before lawmakers despite election results that returned Gov. Sam Brownback to office and solidified conservatives’ control of the Legislature. Democrat Paul Davis favored expansion but came up short in his bid to upset Brownback, a Republican who thus far has opposed expansion.…
Kansas City’s National World War I Museum is currently celebrating the centennial of the duration of “the Great War,” so today’s Veterans Day took on special significance. Veterans Day was originally “Armistice Day” and celebrated the end of WWI. The WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial is hosting a whole day of activities, which began this…
Over the years, physicians at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics have developed substantial expertise in caring for patients before and after they receive heart transplants. But now the hospital can provide the full spectrum of care to these children, following approval last week for it to perform such transplants itself. The go-ahead came from the…
Donna Botts and Terri Guillott are used to waiting. The women have been a couple for 14 years, committed themselves to each other in 2007 and, now, minutes before making that commitment legal, they’re waiting for the photographer from their small town’s local paper to document the wedding. The couple stands in the lobby of…
After countless millions spent, dinners interrupted by robo-calls and every TV break filled with attack ads for the better part of a month, it’s finally over…so how do you explain what happened and what happens now? Dissecting the results are Garrett Haake, Political reporter with 41 Action News; Jim McLean of KHI News Service, Topeka and Former Kansas Statehouse Bureau Chief, Topeka Capital Journal; Barbara…
FBI agent Jack Davis fights for good in Kansas City from the Plaza to the KCK neighborhood of Argentine. Davis has investigated a mass murder, a serial killer hiding in plain sight and a shootout at a gun show. If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard about Davis or any of these crimes, it’s because…
Salina voters rejected an effort to remove fluoride from their drinking water Tuesday by a 2-to-1 margin, halting a growing anti-fluoride movement. The city’s dentists and doctors led the charge, and unofficial results showed 6,392 Salinans voting against the measure to remove fluoride and only 3,091 voting in favor. “We are very excited to see…
Several hundred people attended the Johnson County Republican Party’s free watch party at the Overland Park Marriott Tuesday night to watch election results. Through out the evening legislators from House District races, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer and U.S. Congressman Kevin Yoder gave victory speeches, while watching the results come in for the rest of…
