News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Shawnee Mission Superintendent Pans Legislative Efforts
The superintendent of the Shawnee Mission School District is taking umbrage at some of the financial inquiries coming from Kansas lawmakers and from an outside audit firm hired by the Legislature to study the efficiency of state government. Jim Hinson was particularly insulted that the Legislature’s Special Committee on K-12 Student Success, which is looking…
‘I Can’t Let It Go’ | Part II
EDITOR’S NOTE: This first-person account of one journalist’s attempts to shed light on potential problems in the U.S. justice system is part of a larger effort by KCPT and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to explore the meaning of justice in the context of the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that killed six…
Take 5 for Your Health
North-Central Kansas County Copes With Soaring Alzheimer’s Rate Almost every day, Jay Mellies leaves his home in Clay Center and drives about 20 miles north to visit his wife at a nursing home in neighboring Washington County. Some days when he comes in she tells staff, “I don’t know that guy.” Then she smiles. It’s a…
‘I Can’t Let It Go’ | Part I
EDITOR’S NOTE: This first-person account of one journalist’s attempts to shed light on potential problems in the U.S. justice system is part of a larger effort by KCPT and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to explore the meaning of justice in the context of the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that killed six…
Cops and Pastors
Police brutality has rocked communities from the East Coast to the Midwest, including here in Kansas City with the shooting death of Ryan Stokes, and a recent Gallup poll found that Americans’ trust in police is at its lowest point in more than two decades. The Kansas City Police Department and Council Member Jermaine Reed…