Take 5 for your health

Actor David Dastmalchian spoke Friday outside the Statehouse at a rally highlighting mental health and addiction treatment options in Kansas. (Photo: Susie Fagan | Heartland Health Monitor)

From Heroin To Hollywood: Kansas Native Shares Story Of Addiction And Recovery Los Angeles-based actor David Dastmalchian returned to Kansas with a message he said should transcend politics: We can’t give up on people who struggle with substance abuse and mental illness. Dastmalchian is now a budding Hollywood star, with roles in blockbusters like 2008’s…

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Rockers record 'Love Song' for the third rock from the sun

In this file photo, Jon Bon Jovi attends the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards in New York. Bon Jovi has joined forces with Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Fergie and others to record "“Love Song to the Earth," about climate change. (Photo: AP, File)

Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and Fergie have joined forces to record a song about climate change. Sean Paul, Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat also appear on “Love Song to the Earth,” which was released Friday on iTunes and Apple Music via Connect. Proceeds from the track will benefit the United Nations Foundation…

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Upside Down-Land: Cerner's TIF Transplant

Illustration of upside down people with coins

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…

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Monsanto, world’s largest seed company, sets off a corporate ‘feeding frenzy’

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is attempting to swallow up the chemical operations of Syngenta, the world’s largest producer of pesticides and other farm inputs. The proposed deal signals a change in focus for the agricultural giant, and could have ripple effects across farm country. By its own admission, Monsanto lags behind in chemistry…

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When it rains, it pours – how storms are affecting this year’s crops

Driving down a two-lane highway in rural Missouri, Matt Plenge squinted at a patch of gray clouds hanging low over his farm fields in the distance. “Does it look hazy up there?” he asked. “We only had a 20 percent chance today. We shouldn’t get any rain.” Plenge, like most farmers, always keeps one eye…

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