News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Coalition launches to fight stigma of mental illness
Organizers on Wednesday unveiled a new partnership that builds on a mental health initiative started in the local Jewish community. The aim of the effort, known as the Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition, is to broaden to other parts of the metropolitan area the message from the Jewish community that it’s all right to…
Hall foundation gift propels KU Med Center building project
A $25 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation has generated the funds needed by the University of Kansas to move forward with a critical building project on its medical center campus. The gift, announced Tuesday at the KU Med Center, gives the university most of the $75 million needed to construct a new medical…
KC Week in Review: KC "ride share" feud heads to Federal Court….
Kansas City’s feud with Lyft heads to federal court. City officials are trying to put the breaks on the new ride sharing service. They claim Lyft and its pink mustached vehicles are operating illegally in the city. Its drivers, they argue, are bypassing the normal screening and certification process and have not paid the required…
Curator’s Choice: National Archives at Kansas City
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, case, which stated that segregated schools are unconstitutional. The historic decision was handed down May 17, 1954. Just a few years earlier, the District of Kansas upheld a state law that required black and…
Plans advance for mental health crisis center in KC
Representatives from a broad spectrum of agencies and organizations, including hospitals and courts, are crystallizing plans they hope will help solve a health problem in Kansas City, Mo. The issue is that people who are high, drunk or in psychiatric crisis clog emergency rooms and tie up first-responders with needs more suited to mental health…