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On this week's episode of Statehouse Blend, Missouri Rep. Judy Morgan (D-Kansas City) talks about transportation funding, Right To Work legislation, and this year's gubernatorial election. Guests: Rep. Judy Morgan, (D-Kansas City), Missouri House of RepresentativesMaria Carter, News Director, KCUR

Composer, artist, software designer ... whatever you want to call him, R. Luke DuBois is a thinker. He's done a portrait of every president using only words from their State of the Union addresses, and employed a real gun and blank bullets to visualize every shooting in New Orleans, all with the aim of helping people better understand the world around them. R. Luke DuBois is a presenter at Kansas City's independently organized TED event, TEDxKC, which starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 19, at

If you feel like your smartphone has a mind of it's own, it's not just you. After years of stacking new systems on top of generations of old technology, things have become so complicated no one really understands it. Guest: Scientist and author Samuel Arbesman is the author of Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension.

Why is it the person we were head over heels for just a few months ago now seems a bit ... boring? Clinician and researcher Stan Tatkin says our brains are wired to kick into auto-pilot after a while, but it doesn't have to mean the end of the relationship. Stan Tatkin is a presenter at Kansas City's independently organized TED event, TEDxKC, which starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 19, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The live and simulcast venues are sold out, but watch party

Everyone hates stale potato chips, but that little annoyance was the inspiration that got Mark Shaw thinking about how to reseal the bag. Since then, Shaw's been a prolific inventor and innovator whose nanotechnology work has revolutionized several industries. He says the key to unlocking the inventor's mindset is constantly looking for ways to create doors where there once were only walls. Mark Shaw is a presenter at Kansas City's independently organized TED event, TEDxKC, which starts at 6 p.m

It’s been a week since the Olympic flame was lit in Rio de Janeiro, and so far these Games have gone more or less as expected — for better and for worse. Amid all the storylines and golden moments, "A Fan’s Notes" commentator Victor Wishna muses on a larger, urgent meaning for all of us watching back home. Ach. The Olympics — they’re such a letdown, amiright? I mean they come along every two to four years, promising to unify the nations of the globe, leaving world peace in their wake. But

Advocates for tighter gun laws might feel a little like believers in a lost cause, but researcher Daniel Webster holds out hope. The director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research says some proposals do have support from a majority of gun owners.

Before public officials in Platte County, Missouri, make a plan for spending tax dollars, they know it'll have to pass the muster of Ivan Foley, editor and publisher of The Landmark. That's why he was awarded the 2016 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism.

Any hopes Gov. Jay Nixon may have about patching things up with Missouri’s top public defender will have to be put on hold for a while longer. Budget tensions came to a head last week when Michael Barrett, director of the state’s public defender’s office, assigned the governor to defend an assault case in Cole County, Missouri. In response, Nixon questioned Barrett’s authority to do such a thing, and told reporters on Monday that the public defender’s office has more money now than when he

The head of Missouri's public defender system appointed Gov. Jay Nixon to handle a case in protest of withheld funding. So, just how dire is the situation for Missouri's public defenders? Guests: Michael Barrett is the director of Missouri's Public Defender System. Ruth Petsch heads the Jackson County Public Defender's office. Sean O’Brien is a UMKC law professor and has been director of various criminal defense clinics at the UMKC School of Law since 1983. He served as the chief public defender