Kansas City Today

Kansas Democrats won new House seats in the state's most populated county last fall. Regardless of these wins, though, Republicans continued to dominate in the rural counties. The Kansas News Service's Dylan Lysen reports on the widening urban-rural divide in Kansas.

A new law that took effect this month seeks to change the way Missouri students are taught to read. St. Louis Public Radio's Kate Grumke reports on the science-backed methods that many hope will put Missouri on the map for reading improvement.

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 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

When the daughter of an American missionary returned from Japan in 1923, she brought along some of her cherished possessions. After 100 years, her collection has returned to the Japanese school where she grew up. KCUR’s Julie Denesha reports.

Prairie Village native Joyce DiDonato has won three Grammys so far, and the opera star has just been nominated for a fourth for her latest album, “Eden.” DiDonato says the album is a meditation on the natural world. 91.9 Classical KC’s Brooke Knoll spoke with the opera singer in April before a local performance of “Eden” with the Harriman-Jewell series.

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 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

With redistricting out of the way, politicians in Missouri's capital are hoping that this new legislative session will allow them to shine light on their own priorities. St. Louis Public Radio's Sarah Kellogg reports.

Recent elections in Kansas kept in place a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature. Despite that, Gov. Laura Kelly is confident she can find a way to get things done when the session begins on Jan. 9. Kansas News Service reporter Dylan Lysen spoke with editor Stephen Koranda about the state of Kansas politics.

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 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

For schools in Missouri and Kansas, 2022 was supposed to be a "return to normalcy" following the COVID-19 pandemic. But as we begin the first school week of 2023, it's clear that's not how things went.

KCUR's Brian Ellison spoke with Kyle Palmer of the Shawnee Mission Post and Jodi Fortino, education reporter for KCUR, about last year's biggest stories on the education beat and what they're looking out for in the year ahead.

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 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

This year saw Missouri Republicans further their hold on state government. Missouri voters also exercised their power by deciding to legalize recreational marijuana statewide and force Kansas City to spend more money on its police department.

KCUR's Brian Ellison spoke with Jason Hancock, editor in chief of the Missouri Independent, and Steve Vockrodt, investigative editor for NPR’s Midwest Newsroom, about 2022's biggest stories in Missouri politics.

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 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

In September, former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Roger Golubski was arrested and charged with sexual assault and kidnapping; he was later alleged to have accepted money from sex traffickers in exchange for protection.

The much-criticized search for KCPD's new police chief came to an end when 25-year police veteran Stacey Graves became the first woman to hold the position in the department's history.

KCUR'S Nomin Ujiyediin spoke with investigative reporter Peggy Lowe about the biggest criminal justice stories of the year, including her extensive coverage of Golubski.

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 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 lack of affordable housing is a problem across the country. In 2022, Kansas City employed many tactics to address the situation locally. KCUR's Nomin Ujiyediin spoke with Celisa Calacal and Carlos Moreno about the biggest housing stories from 2022 and what they expect to come in 2023.

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 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

Kansas City is one of the top five metropolitan areas expected to experience heat index temperatures above 125 degrees in the coming decades, according to a new heat risk model. That's just one of the extreme weather events Missouri residents experienced in 2022.

Meanwhile in Kansas, drought decimated crop harvests, fueled wildfires and killed livestock.

Kansas News Service reporter David Condos and Harvest Public Media's Eva Tesfaye discuss the biggest stories on the climate beat in 2022, and share what gives them hope in 2023.

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 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

This year saw an already exhausted medical workforce pushed even further with staffing shortages and a fall surge of RSV, the flu and COVID-19 filling up hospital beds across the country.

From the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade to the subsequent wave of abortion bans that swept the nation, some of 2022's biggest news stories have been centered around healthcare access.

KCUR's Nomin Ujiyediin sat down with the Kansas News Service's Rose Conlon and KCUR health reporter Noah Taborda to talk about what we learned from a year of health stories.

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 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

At one time, you had to know someone to get a loaf of povitica, the sweet bread Eastern Europeans brought to the United States. But as KCUR’s Laura Ziegler found, a bakery that started in the Croatian community of Strawberry Hill is sending the bread nationwide and trying to preserve Croatian culture.

Situated in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood, The Easy Inn is more than a cozy dive — it's the center of a community. The fact that it's decorated like "grandma's basement" is only a plus. KCUR’s Celisa Calacal and Allison Harris spent an evening at The Easy Inn, in the first installment of an occasional series about Kansas City's neighborhood hangs and the customers who bring them to life.

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 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