News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Reveal | Trial By Fire
Listen to the podcast here: This podcast is from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which co-produces the “Reveal” radio show and podcast with PRX. “Reveal” features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. For “Trial by Fire,” CIR relied on decades of reporting…
Why You’ll Be Seeing More GMOs At The Grocery Store
Genetically engineered crops are nothing new. But new technology that allows scientists to alter plants more precisely and more cheaply is taking genetically engineered plants from the field to the kitchen. The first version of the Arctic Apple, a genetically modified Golden Delicious, is headed for test markets in the Midwest in February, according to…
The Importance of Engaging Beyond Your Usual Circle
When Kansas City Oasis, a nonreligious fellowship, first partnered with a religious organization to serve meals to the needy, some Oasis members expressed concern that their secular group could become fractured. Would the separate factions find shared connections? Would they breach one another’s beliefs or boundaries? These days that concern is hard to remember. The religious group –…
Don’t Like Doctor Visits? Medical Giant Offers Patients DIY Health Tools
When Amanda January was growing up in Gardner, Kansas, regular doctor’s visits weren’t a regular thing at all. “When I was a kid we almost never went to the doctor,” January says. “I was rarely sick. My siblings were rarely sick. We just didn’t go.” She’s now a dancer and Pilates teacher who works hard…
Tireless Activist Battling Back After Being Hit By Car
The day that a car shattered Steve Israelite’s body in September, he was in a crosswalk on 63rd Street heading to the Panera Bread in Brookside. While there, he planned to check his e-mail because he was early for a meeting with our mutual friend Julie Warm, co-director of the UMKC Service-Learning Program. Steve’s injuries…