News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Hospital Leader Challenges Brownback On Innovation, Medicaid Comments
The head of the Kansas Hospital Association is taking issue with comments made by Gov. Sam Brownback at a recent news conference. Asked about his continuing opposition to Medicaid expansion, Brownback downplayed the importance of the issue, telling reporters that innovation is more important to hospital finances than the billions of additional federal dollars that expansion would…
Missouri Convenience Stores Do U-Turn On Tobacco Tax
After opposing efforts to hike the state’s cigarette tax for more than a decade, Missouri convenience stores are now pushing two tobacco-increase plans, either of which they said would add $800 million to state coffers within a decade of their enactment.
Kansas City CARE Clinic Receives Federal Designation
A nonprofit health care opened in the 1970s by a group of concerned Kansas Citians has received federal recognition. The Kansas City CARE Clinic was designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center, or FQHC, on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The clinic will receive federal funding of $650,000 annually, and KC CARE…
Who says no one gets a free lunch? USDA program brings exactly that to KC kids.
On a recent scorching July afternoon in front of the De Soto Aquatic Center, a young boy is shouting out his lunch choice, as his parents look on in amusement. “I want the jammy sammy!” Of course he is choosing the PB&J over the more sophisticated fruit and cheese plates also on offer at this…
A roundup of water issues facing Kansans — now and in the future
Editor’s note: Throughout this week, Flatland has published a series of stories from our partner, the Kansas Health Initiative, exploring how people access water, the economics of water and the challenges of drinking it. To find these stories, freelance journalist Sarah Green interviewed more than 50 Kansans in person, over the phone and by email over the course of seven months. For additional reporting and images in…