Steve Vockrodt, Midwest Newsroom

Reporter

Steve Vockrodt, investigative editor with the Midwest Newsroom of NPR.

Stories by Steve Vockrodt, Midwest Newsroom

Independence City Hall

Marijuana, Utility Contracts: Records Show Continued FBI Interest in Independence Deals

The line of questioning in a sworn deposition provides fresh details into an FBI probe that’s transfixed state and local politics ever since news of it surfaced in 2019.

Photo illustration of former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski

FBI has Investigated Kansas City, Kansas, Police for Decades, but Prosecution of Bad Cops is Rare

As a federal grand jury investigates Roger Golubski, a former Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department detective, FBI documents dating back to the 1990s reported police beat Black people routinely, were said to be involved in the drug trade and ignored the crack cocaine problem.

Illustration of upside down people with coins

Upside Down-Land: Cerner's TIF Transplant

Neal Patterson personifies 21st-century Kansas City entrepreneurialism. He is his generation’s Henry Bloch or Joyce Hall, the head of a company he started from nothing — Cerner Corporation — and made KC’s most prosperous business. Cerner, a health-information technology firm, makes more than $3 billion a year. The company’s market capitalization — the value of…