News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Obesity And Diabetes In KC Area Continue To Rise
While health trends in metropolitan Kansas City are generally headed in a positive direction, two exceptions are obesity and diabetes. Every county from 2004 to 2011 saw growth in the rates of those conditions. There’s a glimmer of good news, however. Measured across shorter time frames, 2004-2007 and 2008-2011, the rates for those conditions have…
Deaf Kansans Request Medicaid Changes
It’s common knowledge that a child’s first years are critical for language development. But what if that child is deaf and has parents who don’t know sign language? Chriz Dally, a board member of the Kansas Association of the Deaf, posed that scenario last month at a meeting of state officials and members of the…
Kansas Officials Cancel Limits On ATM Welfare Withdrawals
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration will not follow through on plans to limit welfare recipients to cash withdrawals of $25 per day. Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said Tuesday that federal officials objected to the limit, saying that it would prevent needy families from having “adequate access to their…
Many Americans are staying away from banks
LaJua Manning works 40 hours a week, and sometimes more than that. She’s a certified nursing assistant, working nights to take care of bedridden patients. Still, she struggles to make ends meet for her and for her two-year-old daughter. When the paychecks do come in, Manning doesn’t deposit them in a bank. In fact, she…
Official reports about the shooting of Ryan Stokes raise more questions than answers. Here’s why
In the early morning hours of July 28th, 2013, Ryan Lee Stokes, 24, died when Kansas City Police Officer William Thompson shot him in an asphalt parking lot near the Power & Light District. Stokes was unarmed. Last weekend, almost two years later, supporters at a candlelight vigil on the steps of City Hall demanded…