Mike McGraw
Stories by Mike McGraw
Giving Away the (Wind) Farm
Mark Buck can see some of the 314 turbines in Kansas’ largest wind farm from his office window in Medicine Lodge, where he is superintendent of the Barber County North School District. The nearly $1 billion Flat Ridge project, built in two phases and owned in part by British Petroleum, spans 70,000 acres near the…
Federal Prosecutors in KCK Under Fire For Power Plays in Pursuit of Justice
Two recent cases involving prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas, point to a problem that some criminal defense lawyers say has been building for a long time: For years, they say, a small group of federal prosecutors in KCK has run roughshod over the rights of criminal defendants. A joint investigation…
Kansas City’s Vietnam Era
Finding Kansas City-area Vietnam veteran John Musgrave for the upcoming PBS documentary “The Vietnam War” was “the most fortuitous thing,” filmmaker Ken Burns said last week while in Kansas City. Musgrave, long known to Kansas Citians as an eloquent and thoughtful commentator and critic on the war, has been referred to as the Shelby Foote of…
A Ledger of Names, Mine Among Them, Tell Our Vietnam Stories
All 30 of the boys listed on the Vietnam-era Selective Service ledger were born in the spring of 1948, during America’s most prolific era of mass procreation, the end of World War II. At 18 years old, the thing first and foremost on our minds was to find a way to commit the same act…
The Great American Immigration Debate — Minus A Century
FLAT RIVER, Mo. — This old mining town in the southeast Missouri Ozarks once straddled the richest lead deposits in the world. But it no longer exists and the name is all but forgotten — much like the riots here that shocked the nation a century ago this week. As America’s never-ending debate over immigration rages…
Son of Fallen KC Firefighter Speaks Publicly About Doubts Over Trial
All James and Tracy Kilventon want is for justice to finally be done. After almost 30 years of investigations, a trial, guilty verdicts, unsuccessful appeals and continuing questions, they say, justice still eludes them. But the recent release of one of the defendants convicted in the 1988 death of James Kilventon’s father and five other…
No Public Inspections for Our Rail Bridges
The old Broadway Bridge, built in 1956 when Dwight Eisenhower was president, is “structurally deficient,” according to publicly available reports, and needs critical repairs. But right next to it stands a much older bridge for which detailed public records are not available. The rusty, century-old Second Hannibal Bridge, finished in 1917 when Woodrow Wilson was…
Suspended In Time
Suspended In Time A Box of KC Mafia Documents Makes Its Way to Special Collections Story by: Jonathan Bender, Jesse Howe and Mike McGraw Anthony “Tony” Gizzo mug shot. (Kansas City Public Library) “That’s quite a pair of shoes that Tony Gizzo has on…do you remember him?” Flatland Special Projects Reporter Mike McGraw asks, looking at…
The State of Our Metro Bridges? May Not Want to Shut Your Eyes
When it comes to the sorry state of Kansas City bridges, City Manager Troy Schulte says the one that keeps him up at night is the old Broadway Bridge over the Missouri River. But a Flatland analysis of bridge inspection data reveals that there are enough problem bridges in the metropolitan area to keep Schulte…
Coming to the Tipping Point
As a reporter for The Star, Mike McGraw examined the federal prosecution of the 1988 explosion that killed six firefighters in numerous articles. He retired from The Star in 2014 and is now a special projects reporter for Flatland. What finally pried the cell door open last week for Bryan Sheppard, one of the defendants…