Kansas City Today

KCXL is a small AM radio station in Liberty, Missouri, that airs "Radio Sputnik" – programming created by American journalists in Washington, D.C. but funded by the Kremlin. Since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, many have asked the station to stop its broadcast of what many call Russian propaganda. But as Kavahn Mansouri reports for the NPR Midwest Newsroom, the owner of KCXL says the decision isn't so simple.

Black children are more likely than other kids in the Kansas foster care system to land in homes with parents of a different race. As Blaise Mesa of the Kansas News Service reports, some state agencies are working to increase the number of non-white parents that are licensed, but representation is still lacking.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

Opioid overdoses are killing more Americans than ever. But if you pick up the phone to report an overdose in Kansas, you could go to jail. Celia Llopis-Jepsen of the Kansas News Service reports that Kansas lags behind other states in laws that could prevent more people from dying from opioids.

Even though a person may be a gun owner, that doesn't mean their ideas on gun laws are set in stone. University of Kansas political science professor Don Haider-Markel researched how gun owners respond to threats, and whether responses were conditioned on who gun owners think should own firearms.

"[The study] just overall shows you that gun attitudes are not as rigid as some people tend to think, and that there's room for movement on gun regulation," Haider-Markel told Steve Kraske on KCUR's Up To Date. "The notion that we can't do anything about guns because attitudes are so rigid is just wrong."

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

The Missouri House of Representatives has narrowly passed two bills that school-choice advocates have been pushing for years. One would require public schools in Kansas City and St. Louis to transfer millions of dollars to charter schools. The other would allow students to transfer to a school district outside of the one in which they reside.

Such measures have been opposed by Democrats in the past but GOP bill sponsors were able to negotiate compromises to get both measures passed.

Tessa Weinberg of the Missouri independent tells us how this legislation might affect students in St. Louis and Kansas City Public Schools.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

Cotton growing only accounts for a small fraction of Kansas farm production. But as David Condos of the Kansas News Service reports, a combination of global warming, dwindling water and new infrastructure might set the stage for southwest Kansas to become cotton country.

Back in the 1990s, a group of queer Kansas City women were fed up with harassment and housing discrimination. So they transformed 12 city blocks in the Longfellow neighborhood into a radical enclave by and for women. Suzanne Hogan tells us more in this special episode of KCUR's podcast A People’s History of Kansas City.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

This week, the Johnson County District Attorney said a “ghost gun” was used in the shooting at Olathe East High School. Ghost guns are a relatively new phenomenon in the criminal world. They refer to homemade, untraceable weapons that lack serial numbers. They’re often assembled with parts bought online.

KCUR's Steve Kraske speaks with John Ham of the Kansas City Field Division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about the new problems these weapons present for law enforcement. And New York Times correspondent Glenn Thrush talks about how ghost guns are proliferating across the country.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

With free bus fares, a growing streetcar line and MAX bus lines, Kansas City’s public transportation system has taken huge strides in the past decade. But the system still doesn’t do a great job of moving passengers from east to west, or west to east. On Up to Date, KCUR’s Steve Kraske spoke to public transit researcher Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute on how else Kansas City could encourage more people to ride the bus.

And as images from a new war in Europe saturate news and social media feeds around the world, KCUR’s Luke Martin takes a look at another set of wartime photographs, housed at Kansas City’s National World War I Museum and Memorial.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

Ukrainians in the United States are watching from afar as Russian forces invade their home country. In the Missouri Ozarks, workers at one alterations shop hail from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus — three countries now directly involved in the conflict. But as Jennifer Moore reports, they say they're leaning leaning on the threads that bind them together.

Across much of the U.S., winter is not as cold as it used to be. In Missouri and Kansas, the average winter temperature is about 4 degrees warmer than it was in 1970. As St. Louis Public Radio’s Shahla Farzan reports, warmer winters are changing how some farmers grow their crops.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

When Missouri voters expanded eligibility for Medicaid to more low income adults, Jackson County was expected to see the largest enrollment in the state. But as KCUR’s Alex Smith reports, the state has been so slow to approve patients, some Kansas Citians say they've had to put off getting care.

Low enrollment numbers aren’t the only issue Missouri Medicaid is facing right now. Republican lawmakers are once again trying to remove funding for Medicaid expansion with a bill currently going through the state legislature. Sebastian Martinez Valdivia, the public health reporter at KBIA in Columbia, give us some background on Medicaid expansion in Missouri, and what could be next for the contentious program.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

When you think of cross-country skiing, Topeka may not immediately come to mind — even though it’s flat, it doesn’t have quite enough snow. But Topeka has given the world one of its best athletes in Paralympic cross-country skiing: Dan Cnossen, a former Navy SEAL who found the sport after losing both his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Cnossen will compete for the U.S. in the Winter Paralympics, beginning March 4, 2022, in Beijing. Greg Echlin reports for KCUR.

The Missouri Department of Social Services has drawn scrutiny over the years for long waits on its many phone lines for state services. Now, KBIA’s Sebastián Martínez Valdivia reports the department is facing a lawsuit alleging those delays are keeping eligible people from getting food benefits.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg & Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway on Wednesday issued a blistering, 162-page audit that documents numerous failings by the Clay County government. The problems range from not seeking bids for outside contracts to shielding key decisions from the public to offering generous raises, benefits and severance payments to certain employees.

As NPR Midwest Newsroom investigative editor Steve Vockrodt reports, more than 9,000 Clay County residents had signed petitions demanding an investigation into suspected dysfunction and waste by county leaders.

Lacking access to menstrual products is sometimes referred to as "period poverty." The Jackson County Health Department found that the issue, which often impacts people in developing nations, is happening right here in Kansas City-area districts. KCUR’s Jodi Fortino reports on how schools, nurses and organizations are trying to give students the supplies and confidence they need.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love with Trevor Grandin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate