By Linda Sher

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Missouri Health Department has launched a new initiative to curb asthma attacks among kids. Last year, the health problem accounted for more than 3,000 childhood hospitalizations in the city.

Nationwide, about one in ten kids have asthma.

George Guidall has narrated more than 900 audio books, from old classics to the latest fiction. "I've often described myself as a literary hermit crab," he says. "I scuttle around the currents of literature and find a home in someone else's imagined truth."

By Lynn Neary/NPR

Growing up, George Guidall wasn't much of a reader. "I hear my mother keep telling me, even now, 'George you never pick up a book. You just don't read,'" he says.

Depending on where you live, you may know these bronze-shelled little nuts by a number of names. And their uses are just as varied. From the nation's hazelnut capital, Oregon, come recipes for nut-studded salad, pasta and more.

By Laura McCandlish/NPR

Get recipes for Sweet And Spicy Roasted Hazelnuts With Rosemary, Oregon Bounty Salad, Dukkah and Pappardelle With Hazelnut Cream below.

By Stephen Koranda, KPR

Topkea, KS – The Kansas Health Policy Authority is continuing to chip away at a backlog of applications for the Medicaid program.

Last month there were more than 17,000 applications that had been waiting at least 45 days. That's down by about 2,000 applications from the month before.

Overall, however, the system is still pretty jammed. New and old applications combined, the backlog reached a peak of about 33,000 in October.

By Maria Carter

Kansas City, MO – The Department of Homeland Security says a report saying risks associated with a federal research laboratory planned at Kansas State University have been understated will not derail the project.

The Kansas City Missouri Health Department has launched a new initiative to curb asthma attacks among kids.

A Missouri House committee is gathering information on Medicaid spending, in preparation for next year's legislative session.

In her memoir, The Dirty Life, former Manhattan travel writer Kristin Kimball recounts her move from the big city to a muddy farm -- with a love story along the way.

By NPR

In a way, Kristin Kimball was lucky. She'd never farmed before, so when she moved to a farm in upstate New York, she had no idea what she was getting into. Her husband, Mark, did know ? but then, Kimball tells NPR's Melissa Block, "he's crazier than I am."

By Steve Bell

Kansas City, MO –

Kansas City, Missouri – A report released today from a committee of the National Academy of Sciences is sharply critical of the Department of Homeland Security and its plans for a biosecurity lab in Manhattan , Kansas.

The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, or NBAF, is a flagship project in the effort to make the region between Manhattan, Kansas City, and Columbia, Missouri a hub for animal science and food safety.

Jefferson City, MO – Some Missouri lawmakers are questioning the way Medicaid benefits are doled out.

Currently, three state agencies -- The departments of Social Services, Health and Senior Services, and Mental Health -- disperse the bulk of Medicaid payments to clients.

Ryan Silvey of Gladstone, the incoming House Budget Committee chair, says that may have to change.