Nick’s Picks | Roads, Bathrooms, Costco and More …

A new toll road slated to open Saturday aims to reduce congestion on a busy stretch of U.S. Highway 69 in Overland Park. The opening ends three years of disruptive construction. (Courtesy 69Express)

New Toll Road Opens Kansas City’s first toll road opens this week. Starting Saturday, you’ll pay up to $3.50 to travel the new express lanes on U.S. Highway 69 from 103rd to 151st streets in Overland Park. There are no toll booths — cameras scan your license plate, and a bill arrives by mail. KTAG…

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Vegan Ice Cream Pop-Up Offers Diverse Scoops

With a roller derby bout underway, Zoe Mays of Scream Queens vegan ice cream, a resident concession partner at the event, posed with the four special flavors she developed in partnership with the teams. The Kansas City Roller Warriors bout was at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas on Dec. 6, 2025. (Todd Feeback | Flatland)

After putting in a 24-hour shift at Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Station 5, Zoe Mays chills out by dreaming up flavors for Scream Queens, the gay-owned, vegan ice cream pop-up she started about 18 months ago.  The 31-year-old firefighter paramedic lives in Kansas City’s Hyde Park neighborhood, so the drive home is the perfect time…

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Gay Bishop Reflects Evolution of Evangelical Lutheran Church

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voting members, left to right, Orinda Hawkins-Brinkley, Diane Yeager. Marj Ellis and Steven Schnittke, along with other members of the ELCA, stop for a moment of prayer Friday morning Aug. 21, 2009 during their assembly at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis. More than 1,000 members debated and voted on whether to allow gay and lesbian clergy to serve while be in committed same-sex relationships. (AP Photo/Dawn VIllella)

Almost 20 years ago, I devoted a long column in The Kansas City Star to an interview with two local pastors, both in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a Mainline Protestant denomination. The ELCA was then debating whether to change its rules to allow the ordination of LGBTQIA+ people as clergy. The Rev. Donna…

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