Kansas City Today

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority plans to cut nearly half its bus routes, drastically reduce weekend service, and lay off 171 workers, according to documents obtained by KCUR. What will this mean for the Kansas Citians who rely on public transit to get around?

To maintain the current status quo for its Kansas City operations — which already struggles with long wait times and the fewest bus routes in decades — KCATA needs about $117 million. But the city only plans to give the agency $71 million in its next budget.

Without any more funding, KCATA will cut 13 of its 29 routes in Kansas City, Missouri. Those cuts would affect more than 6,500 people, or about 18% of the city’s total weekday ridership. KCUR's Savannah Hawley-Bates shares how these drastic changes will affect KCATA service and the Kansas Citians who depend on it.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Olivia Hewitt and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Gabe Rosenberg.

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

For the hundreds of meteorology students at the University of Missouri, working for the National Weather Service was the dream, until the Trump administration's federal job cuts hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week. Plus: Firings at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have impacted research facilities across the Midwest.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, fired 800 employees last month. Experts are warning that cuts to the agency could have serious impacts on weather forecasts and climate research. As Harshawn Ratanpal reports, University of Missouri students are grappling with what cuts to the agency mean for their careers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also sharply cut its workforce. Although the agency has not said just how many employees it’s laid off, employees and researchers across the Midwest have lost their jobs, including in Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas.

Among the impacted facilities is the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois. Commonly called the Ag Lab, it’s where government scientists discovered the process to mass produce penicillin. And as Harvest Public Media contributor Collin Schopp reports, current and former employees say the layoffs will cripple research efforts that help farmers.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez, Emily Younker and Gabe Rosenberg.

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

Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence saw dozens of its employees laid off under the Trump administration's mass cuts. That includes their women's basketball coach, Adam Strom, who's kept coaching as a volunteer to lead the team to the NAIA tournament.

Strom spoke with Steve Kraske on KCUR's Up To Date about what the team means to him and why staying with them was an obvious choice.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Emily Younker and C.J. Janovy.

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

Kansas City Manager Brian Platt was suspended with pay last week, a day after a jury ordered Kansas City to pay more than $900,000 to its former communications director. Hear the allegations against Platt by city officials and the response from Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Nomin Ujiyediin sat down with KCUR's Savanah Hawley-Bates to learn why former communications director Chris Hernandez alleges he was forced out of his job for resisting Platt's suggestion that it was acceptable to lie to the media.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Luke Martin and C.J. Janovy.

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

A retired Kansas City fire captain is on a yearslong mission to honor every firefighter in the department's 157-year history who has died in the line of duty. Plus: A Kansas cemetery holds the stories of Black "Exodusters" who moved north after the Civil War.

The Kansas City Fire Department has responded to all kinds of emergencies since 1868. Unfortunately, some of the people who died doing this dangerous work were forgotten. KCUR’s Julie Denesha reports on one man who is making sure those who died in the line are remembered.

Sometimes the little places you pass every day are much more significant than you realize. In Stafford County, Kansas, a small cemetery holds the history of some of Kansas’s Black pioneers. The so-called Exodusters left the South in the years after the Civil War and settled in the Midwest. KMUW's Beccy Tanner takes us to the cemetery and peels back some of its history.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Madeline Fox.

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

President Donald Trump came into office promising to deport immigrants without legal documentation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have already arrested people in the Kansas City area, and rumors of raids have spread online across Missouri, leaving many in Hispanic communities afraid.

As KBIA’s Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval and Cristal Sanchez of the Missouri Business Alert report, these fake rumors have real consequences for businesses and the people they rely on.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Madeline Fox.

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

Jackson County legislator Sean Smith says it's essential for the county to "straighten out the property tax debacles" if it wants to keep the Chiefs and Royals local. Smith was one of two county lawmakers to meet with Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe last week for closed-door discussions over the matter.

Nearly one year ago, Jackson County voters rejected a sales tax that would have helped fund a new ballpark for the Kansas City Royals and Arrowhead renovations for the Kansas City Chiefs. Whether the two teams will stay in Jackson County, or even in Missouri, has been up in the air since. But last week, Kansas City-area politicians began a series of talks around the future of the teams.

Smith talked with KCUR's Steve Kraske about what Jackson County needs to do to keep the teams.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Olivia Hewitt and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Gabe Rosenberg.

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

Kansas City’s bus service is slow and rapidly declining. Advocates want the region to step up its funding. But in the meantime, more routes may get cut, and Kansas City could miss out on major economic growth. What will it take to fix the bus system? Also, Missouri content creators breathed a sigh of relief when President Donald Trump paused the federal ban on TikTok, but people who make their livelihoods off the video sharing app aren’t sure its future is secure.

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority has struggled for years to provide fast and frequent service to the metro. Kansas City and its suburbs have cut funding, which means fewer routes. As KCUR’s Savannah Hawley-Bates reports, money is the solution, but that will be a long and contentious battle.

TikTok is available to download on app stores again, about a month after President Donald Trump paused the legislation that banned it in January. But content creators and digital marketing strategists are still adjusting to the uncertain future of an app that 170 million Americans use every day — and that helps thousands of people earn a living. Katelynn McIlwain has more about how Missourians whose careers depend, at least somewhat, on TikTok’s survival are making do.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Madeline Fox.

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

More than a month into its session, the Kansas legislature has passed a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth and been unable to reach an agreement on tax reform. We'll have a mid-session update on what’s happening in Topeka.

Kansas homeowners are complaining about skyrocketing property-tax bills. But will lawmakers actually do anything about it this year? And what will come of an effort to change how Supreme Court justices? Plus, Kansas Republicans are trying to match President Trump's push towards a more efficient government by eliminating money for some state jobs. Kansas News Service reporters Zane Irwin and Daniel Caudill catch up with Steve Kraske on KCUR's Up To Date.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Gabe Rosenberg.

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

Kansas City’s fencing scene boasts elite coaches and athletes from around the world — a community that traces back to school desegregation efforts. Plus, how a Wichita book collector is keeping the state’s ‘firsthand history’ alive.

The sport of fencing is surging in popularity in the United States. Kansas City’s fencing scene has drawn high-profile coaches from around the world and athletes showcasing top-tier swordsmanship. As KCUR’s Noah Taborda reports, that excellence dates back to a world-renowned coach at a local high school.

The rarest books can sometimes command hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. Still, collecting and selling rare books isn’t exactly a stable business, and the vast spread of the internet hasn’t helped. But Philip McComish of Wichita, Kansas, is determined to keep the lost art of rare book collecting alive. For 40 years, the owner of Watermark West Rare Books has adapted his business to a changing market. For “The Range” at member station KMUW in Wichita, Celia Hack reports.

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

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Gabe Rosenberg.

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