Flatland
Flatland Staff
Stories by Flatland
Take 5 For Your Health
Guess Who Supports And Who Opposes Tax Increases On Cigarettes In Missouri For many Missouri health advocates, an increase in the state’s tobacco tax is long overdue. At 17 cents per cigarette pack, it’s the lowest in the country by far – a fraction of the tax in many states. And it hasn’t changed since…
Election Day Survival Guide
The election countdown has begun. In fewer than 48 hours, commercials will return to peddling prescription meds and social media feeds will return to pictures of what people are eating. In order to make it to this promised land, however, we first have to survive Nov. 8. To help you through, Flatland has put together…
Take 5 For Your Health
Missouri Takes Step To Hold Down Health Insurance Rates, But Will It Be Enough? When individual health insurance plans go on sale on healthcare.gov, many Missourians will probably be more than a little shocked to see some rate increases as high as 40 percent. Similar increases are popping up nationwide, but different states have different…
Take 5 For Your Health
Frustrated Jackson County Lawmakers Enact Their Own Prescription Drug Monitoring Plan Frustrated by the Missouri Legislature’s failure to enact a statewide prescription drug plan, Jackson County last week joined St. Louis and St. Louis County in enacting its own plan, hoping it will cut down on painkiller abuse and addiction. Missouri is the lone state…
Take 5 For Your Health
Need Disability Help In Kansas? Thousands Wait An Average Of Seven Years At his apartment in Olathe, Kansas, 42-year-old Nick Fugate catches up on washing dishes and remembers the 22 years he spent doing it at a local hotel, trying to stay on top of a never-ending-stream of plates, glasses and silverware. Nick recalls minor…
Take 5 For Your Health
For Some Ironman Triathletes, Kansas City Is Like Training In Hawaii For a handful of triathletes training in a pool at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, simply swimming laps is too easy. Instead, they’ve got their legs constricted so their arms do the work of dragging their bodies through the water. Kansas…
Take 5 For Your Health
Kansas Infant Mortality Rate Drops Kansas recorded its lowest-ever infant mortality rate in 2015, when 230 infants died before their first birthday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. That put the state’s infant mortality rate at 5.9 for every 1,000 live births — a 28 percent improvement since 1996. Nationwide, the infant…
Take 5 For Your Health
Mental Health Centers In Wyandotte, Shawnee Counties Try New Approaches To Schizophrenia Two community mental health centers in Kansas hope a new program will help young people recently diagnosed with schizophrenia avoid its possible complications — a higher risk of unemployment, homelessness and incarceration and lower life expectancy — and achieve goals for school, work and…
Take 5 For Your Health
KU Researchers Aim To Improve Health Of Kansans With Disabilities University of Kansas researchers plan to use a $1.5 million federal grant to help Kansans with disabilities catch up to their non-disabled peers in several health categories. Jean Hall, director of KU’s Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies, will lead a team of partners…
Watching Our Water | A Special Report
Watching Our Water is a five-part series in partnership with Harvest Public Media. Follow the entire series on Flatland through Friday, Sept. 23, and look for the half hour documentary that evening at 8 p.m. on KCPT. How does pristine water running off of snowpack high in the Rocky Mountains end up as a floating chemical…