The Kansas City area is rolling out the red carpet for Taylor Swift. North Kansas City has temporarily named a road after her, and Swift's likeness was carved into a corn field in Ray County.

This weekend will see thousands of fans from around the Midwest piling into Arrowhead Stadium. Up To Date's Steve Kraske spoke with Alexis Greenberg, president of the University of Kansas Swift Society, and Wild Way Coffee's Christine Clutton about their love for Taylor Swift.

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

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

Pilgrims flocking to see the well-preserved remains of an exhumed nun north of Kansas City say her “incorrupt” body signals sainthood. Another sign has to do with the racism Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster overcame as a Black nun in the 20th century. KCUR's Frank Morris reports.

Congress expanded work requirements for food assistance during the debt ceiling negotiations, a move that would normally happen through the Farm Bill. Shortly before that, the state of Kansas made similar changes. Harvest Public Media's Eva Tesfaye reports.

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

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

Hospitals in the United States have recruited nurses from around the world to combat U.S. labor shortages. But Samantha Horton of the Kansas News Service reports that problems in the complex system are slowing the flow of nurses that Kansas badly needs.

For the past two years, the federal government has offered states the option to extend postpartum care benefits for those on Medicaid from 60 days to one year. Research shows that women who receive extended postpartum care greatly benefit from it. The vast majority of states have approved this extension, including Kansas and Missouri. But not Iowa. Iowa Public Radio’s Natalie Krebs reports for the Midwest Newsroom.

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

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

Schools are allowed to physically restrain students or put them in a separate room if they are putting themselves or others at risk. In Missouri, it’s hard to tell how often that’s happening — or if schools are following the rules. As KCUR’s Jodi Fortino reports, a Belton mom whose son was repeatedly secluded and restrained says schools are using those methods in inappropriate ways.

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

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

Honeybees may not be native to North America, but they have made themselves crucial to the larger ecosystem thanks to their pollinating prowess. KCUR's Julie Denesha reports on who gets called when bees make their homes in interesting places.

$1.5 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act will go toward urban canopies over the next nine years. Harvest Public Media's Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco reports how this could help communities adapt to the changing climate.

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

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

The structure of tax laws set for sports betting in Kansas lets casinos write off significant promotional expenses, including their "free" wagers.

Host Nomin Ujiyediin sat down with Wichita Beacon reporter Marco Schaden to learn more about the laws that sports betting lobbyists help to pass, how much money the state is collecting and where that money is going.

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 Paris Norvell, Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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

Should 16-year-olds have a say in how their cities and schools are run? Kansas City teenager DJ Yearwood is the campaign director of Vote16MO, an initiative to lower the voting age in municipal and school board elections in Missouri. He says these kinds of local, nonpartisan elections give young people a unique opportunity to make change before they are asked to vote in national races dominated by the two major political parties. The group wants to get a measure on the ballot by November 2024.

KCUR's Steve Kraske spoke with Yearwood on Up To Date to learn more about what he hopes to accomplish.

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

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 Paris Norvell, Byron Love, and KCUR Studios, and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, more than a dozen states have made it illegal to provide abortions in most cases. But none, so far, punish women for obtaining abortions. As Rose Conlon of the Kansas News Service reports, a small but determined faction within the anti-abortion movement wants to change that.

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

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

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has made a splash in the first six months since his appointment by Republican Gov. Mike Parson. It’s still more than a year before he hopes to win election for a full four-year term.

Host Brain Ellison spoke with Chuck Hatfield, who worked in the attorney general’s office under Democrat Jay Nixon for a decade, about how the role has changed and what the future may hold.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Brian Ellison. It is produced by Paris Norvell, Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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

Willie Carlisle has built a fan base in Kansas City. The Ozark-based singer is attracting international attention for his "peculiar" take on folk music. KCUR's Bill Brownlee caught up with Carlisle to talk about his monumental rise.

The pallid sturgeon has been around since before the dinosaurs and thrived in what would become the Missouri River. Having made it through multiple mass extinctions, the sturgeon populations have plummeted in the last 90 years. Harvest Public Media’s Elizabeth Rembert reports on the larger problems heralded by the sturgeon's decline.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Luke X. Martin. It is produced by Trevor Grandin, Byron Love, and KCUR Studios, and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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