News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
‘Housing first’ model creates a place to stay
In the post-institutionalization era of mental health treatment in America, the usual model of support for people with mental illness is temporary hospitalization and treatment following a psychotic episode, then a temporary stay in “transitional housing” before patients are expected to obtain and secure housing on their own in the private market. But some advocates think that creates dangerous instability for some people with severe and persistent mental illness. The antidote, they say, is an open-ended place to stay that allows people with a mental illness to get comfortable with their surroundings and fall into a routine that makes them better able to manage their conditions.
He saw his son lying dead, shot by sovereign citizens
SPRINGFIELD, MO. Although nearly five years have passed, telling the story hasn’t gotten any easier for Bob Paudert. But here was the former police chief of West Memphis, Ark., standing before dozens of law enforcement officers to describe the day that turned his life upside-down and to hopefully prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring…
Kansas Representative Melissa Rooker talks school finance
The most recent controversy in Kansas education involves the dumping of the school finance formula and the implementation of a block grant system. Representative Melissa Rooker (R) of Fairway, Kansas, sat down with Mike Shanin to talk about her views on the issue on a recent edition of KCPT’s “Ruckus.” What follows is an edited…
KC rallies for low-wage workers
Chants of “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! These poverty wages have got to go!” could be heard across several blocks as hundreds of people marched from Theis Park near the Plaza to the UMKC campus Wednesday afternoon.
Putting A Price Tag On The Chase For Cancer-Fighting Excellence
Over a span of a dozen years, the University of Kansas Cancer Center estimates that philanthropists, taxpayers and other funders will plow about $1.3 billion into its effort to become one of the nation’s most elite cancer-fighting institutions.