Kansas City Today

Kansas City's PrideFest kicks off this weekend. But as the festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, organizers say that anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has cost the group $200,000 in sponsorships.

Bayer's herbicide Roundup has been subject to tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging the product causes cancer. A Missouri bill to shield Bayer from some of those lawsuits didn't pass during the spring legislative session, but it could be reintroduced in the future.

Kansas City officials say they have filled potholes and cracks on 25% of the city's streets as part of an ambitious road repair project...but experts and residents have concerns.

Patricia Prewitt spent decades imprisoned in Missouri for a murder she says she didn't commit. She was granted clemency in December and compiled a book of letters detailing her experience.

The Missouri General Assembly is beginning a special session today, with the primary mission of passing an incentive package for the two Kansas City teams. But after years of drama over new stadiums, and a looming deadline on the Kansas side, the stakes are high.

The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council has faced several challenges in recent years, but the community it serves is coming together to find trust and hope for the future in each other. Learn how Ivanhoe is inspiring the next generation. Plus: how dairy workers and owners are navigating the second Trump presidency.

The Missouri Supreme Court ordered a Jackson County judge to lift her rulings that allowed abortions to resume in the state. Why did the court decide to put the ban back into effect for now?

President Donald Trump has said his mass deportation campaign prioritizes immigrants who have committed violent crimes. But the family of a crime victim in Kansas City, Kansas, said authorities detained him, even though he was about to receive immigration protections.

Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Republican representing Lee's Summit, says that next year's vote on whether to ban abortion again might not be the end of efforts around how the state regulates the procedure.

In the 1970s, a Kansas City woman helped create Naiad Press, the largest lesbian publishing company in the world. Her goal was to tell more positive stories about queer love. Plus: Hundreds of people attend the weekly bingo night at the American Legion in Olathe, and they come to win.

Buying a new trumpet or trombone could get a lot more expensive, as Kansas City music store owners are getting hit hard by President Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs. Plus: A prominent Kansas abortion clinic has a new leader with plans to expand access.

Nearly 20,000 people are released from Missouri prisons each year. Going home is an adjustment — and a relief. Hear from one man who returned home after 37 years. Plus: Get caught up on news from around the metro.

Midwesterners typically head to the woods to find morels because the mushrooms have a lifecycle that's hard to replicate at farms, but that could change. Plus: Why it's so hard for the farming industry in Kansas to switch crops.

The Kansas City Council has found its next city manager. Get to know Mario Vasquez, the first Latino to permanently hold one of most powerful positions in the city. Plus: Stay up to date with the latest political headlines from around the region.

Abortion is heading back to the ballot, after Missouri Republican lawmakers fell back on a little-used rule to shut down a Democratic filibuster and push through a ballot amendment to ban abortion again. They used the same maneuver to repeal a paid sick leave law — just months after Missouri voters approved both.

The concept of diversity, equity and inclusion has been thrust into the political spotlight as President Donald Trump targets programs on college campuses that try to support historically underrepresented groups. But Kansas experts say that DEI is being misrepresented.

For the last few months, transgender service members have had to wrestle with the reality that they've been deemed unqualified to serve in the U.S. military. Hear more from an officer stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who is directly affected. Also, The Natural Resources Conservation Service turns 90 this year. But the agency, which sprung out of the Dust Bowl, has lost employees and could see major funding cuts.

Bruce R. Watkins Drive took three decades to build, and resulted in the destruction of 2,000 homes and the displacement of thousands of Black residents. Kansas City officials and longtime residents hope a new federal grant can reconnect the neighborhoods torn apart by Highway 71, but mending old wounds won't be easy.

Sen. Josh Hawley spent his first time in office building up his reputation as an arch-conservative — and in the Jan. 6 insurrection linked himself to President Trump and the MAGA movement. But in several ways, the Missouri senator is also positioning himself as a champion of the working class.

A Roeland Park man legally protected under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was not allowed to reenter the United States after visiting a family grave in Mexico. He's now back on U.S. soil, after he sued the Trump administration. Hear what Evenezer Cortez Martinez has to say about his experience.

As the ongoing teacher shortage persists, school districts like Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools are using virtual teachers to get by. The number of students learning from remote, on-screen instructors has more than doubled, despite the move being intended as a stopgap.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office in Kansas City is dealing with federal government cuts. How will vital community resources be impacted?

President Trump signed an executive order that aims to end federal funding for NPR and PBS. What does this mean for your local public media outlets? Hear KCUR's general manager describe what this means for our station.

Missouri lawmakers are still wrestling with abortion rights, paid sick leave, tax cuts and the state budget. What's ahead for the General Assembly in the last two weeks of this legislative session?

After Duncan Jenkins saw "Star Wars" for the first time, he embarked on a lifelong obsession. The Kansas City man has now amassed nearly 200,000 pieces of memorabilia — the second most complete collection in the world — stored in a museum next to his house.

Free school lunch is a life-changing resource for kids in Kansas City. But for many families, potential federal budget cuts threaten to take the vital service away.

Backyard chickens are really popular this year, in part due to the high cost of eggs. Some people are even renting chickens.

Black people are reported missing in higher numbers than white people relative to their population, according to recent data. Some families believe the newly reinstated Missing Persons Unit of the Kansas City Police Department isn't doing enough to address that. Plus: How the University of Missouri is handling reports of immigration enforcement authorities picking up college students.

Five international college students in Missouri filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security's termination of their visas. And although the Trump Administration backed off the terminations on Friday, the students' battle — and their uncertainty about their future legal status in the U.S. — continues.

Every year, 2 million seedlings from the George O. White State Forest tree nursery make their way to front yards and fields all over the region. We'll hear from the staff growing and cultivating trees at the 100-acre site in Licking, Missouri.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, students around Kansas City still struggle with their mental health. A group of students at Guadalupe Centers High School share what they learned when they interviewed each other.

A private prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, could reopen to hold detainees for federal immigration authorities. Plus: Farmers fear the trade war could cause another farm crisis.

In a 5-4 vote last year, Jackson County legislators approved a budget that was later vetoed by County Executive Frank White. Now more than three months into 2025, Jackson County has yet to pass a spending plan. Hear why the gridlock has led to a lawsuit and why some county services aren't being funded.

The Trump administration canceled more than $12 billion in public health grants last month. Local public health departments are worried about what that will mean for Kansas Citians.

More than 100 years ago, Swedish-born artist Birger Sandzén helped shape the way Americans picture the Kansas landscape. Today, the largest collection of his paintings, prints, and drawings is in the small central Kansas town where he immigrated, lived and worked.

The number of students heading to college is projected to decline after this fall. The financial impact is putting some Missouri institutions at risk of significant cuts — or closure. Plus: Some kindergarten classes in Kansas are rediscovering what young children can learn through old-fashioned free play.

A bill moving through Missouri's legislature seeks to prohibit police statewide from enforcing federal gun laws — despite federal courts ruling an earlier version of the law was unconstitutional. How could this bill impact Missouri law enforcement and residents?

The Kansas Legislature had a noticeably short session this year. With Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in what lawmakers dubbed her "veto era," how did Republicans override her decisions?

Missouri and Kansas lawmakers are trying to eliminate junk food purchases from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. But food accessadvocates worry that restricting SNAP will make it harder for recipients.

Father Emil Kapaun served as an Army chaplain in the Korean war, and was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. In February, Pope Francis named him "venerable," bringing him one step closer to canonization as a saint. But interest in his life — and traffic to his hometown of Pilsen, Kansas — is already picking up.

Sandra Hemme was freed from prison after 43 years for a murder she didn't commit, and her case illustrates how difficult it is to correct errors in the criminal justice system. That's especially true in Missouri, where the attorney general's office aggressively opposes innocence claims regardless of the evidence.

Kansas City voted Tuesday to approve the first Kansas City Public Schools bond question in six decades, as well as a public safety sales tax that would fund a new jail. Plus: Funding cuts by the Trump administration mean Kansans will have a lot fewer health navigators to help people enroll in Medicaid and insurance.