Mike McGraw
Special Projects Reporter
Mike McGraw is the Hale Center for Journalism's special projects reporter, working on in-depth stories about various topics, including government accountability. He also works with NPR and KCUR's Harvest Public Media component on stories about Midwestern agriculture and agribusiness. He comes to KCPT after a 30-year career on The Kansas City Star's investigations team, where he and a colleague won a Pulitzer Prize for a series about the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has covered issues as diverse as the business of college sports, art forgery, the beef industry, workplace safety and wrongful convictions.
Stories by Mike McGraw
Hopes for new life, and new traffic, at KC barge terminal
The view from Kansas City’s old river barge terminal in the West Bottoms offers a panoramic sweep of the downtown skyline, and a glimpse of just about every mode of transportation. Planes fly in and out of Wheeler Downtown Airport just across the Missouri River, and trains and trucks haul freight over the Broadway and…
Official reports about the shooting of Ryan Stokes raise more questions than answers. Here’s why
In the early morning hours of July 28th, 2013, Ryan Lee Stokes, 24, died when Kansas City Police Officer William Thompson shot him in an asphalt parking lot near the Power & Light District. Stokes was unarmed. Last weekend, almost two years later, supporters at a candlelight vigil on the steps of City Hall demanded…
Regional group to look into the issue of police pursuits
A regional planning group says it will wade into the issue of conflicting police pursuit policies in the Kansas City area.
Injured bystanders of Missouri police pursuits face uphill battles in court
Even in cases where officers allegedly violated local policy, innocent victims of police pursuits in Missouri may still have a hard time proving their cases. For example, in a case that may be reviewed by the Missouri Supreme Court, there was expert testimony that a Kansas City officer violated the city’s pursuit policy in a…
Crashes continue as police pursuit policies clash
Seconds before impact, Emma Rothbrust cheered on the Grandview police officer — in hot pursuit far from his home turf — as he blew through a red light in Leawood. “Go get him,” said Rothbrust, 16, as she and a friend waited for him to clear the intersection. As soon as they pulled out, a…
Cancer in KC: Ellis Fischel and the History of Cancer Care in Missouri
In conjunction with “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” a three-part, six-hour major television event from filmmaker Ken Burns, KCPT is examining cancer’s impact in our city and Region. “Emperor” tells the story of this history of cancer. In the Midwest, a major part of cancer’s history is Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Missouri….
Update: Looking for the Mystery Man of Runway One
“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…
A beef over politics
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….
Update: Mystery Man under runway 1
The other shoe is about to drop. New test results on skeletal remains found under a runway at Wheeler Downtown Airport are due soon. The Jackson County Medical Examiner agreed to arrange for radiocarbon testing of the remains after the Hale Center for Journalism offered to cover the $685 cost. Those results should shed important…
Egg lawsuit costs Missouri
Airline flights and legal fees in California; rental cars and hotel rooms in Indiana; $19 at Yogurtland in Los Angeles and expert witness fees of $500 an hour, plus expenses. That’s just part of the $83,711.59 that Missouri taxpayers will pony up for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s brief — and failed — legal foray into…