Dan Verbeck

This year the landscape will change dramatically along the banks of the Missouri River just Northeast of Kansas City’s downtown. A hundred thousand square feet of greenhouses are planned for growing produce for a local supermarket chain.

The Missouri River swallowed up two people seen jumping from the Kit Bond Bridge at midday.

Traffic was stopped on the span that carries some 100,000 vehicles a day.

Police talked with at least one witness.

Visibility was obscured by snow squalls that whipped the river at the time.

KCUR’s Dan Verbeck gave a description from the site where the river search was launched and ended--“this is Riverfront Park, downstream from the Bond Bridge."   

Emergency workers reportedly began searching the Missouri River late Thursday morning after two or possibly three people were seen jumping from the Bond Bridge.

Update 1:32 p.m. KCUR's Dan Verbeck reports that the abandoned pickup found on the bridge has been towed. Rescue boats have been removed from the scene, and no rescue was performed. The focus for now will turn to identifying the truck's owners.

KCFD is changing its gas leaks policy, and a proposed one-cent sales tax to fund transportation advanced in the Missouri Senate.

JJ’s restaurant was leveled by an unintentional explosion that probably was ignited by pilot lights in the kitchen, thanks to the nick in the natural gas line outside the building, according to a report released by the Kansas City Fire Department on Wednesday.

The Kansas City Fire Department released a report on the explosion that happened at JJ's restaurant in February, and Missouri launched a new campaign to discourage meth "smurfing." These stories & more from KCUR.

Explosion Probe Incomplete

Missouri Senate Passes Tax Overhaul

Over objections from Gov. Jay Nixon, the Missouri Senate has passed a tax overhaul that would cut income taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars annually for residents and businesses. It would also boost sales taxes.

The legislation is promoted by supporters as the most dramatic change to Missouri’s tax policies in decades. It’s prompted by a desire to compete with sweeping income tax cuts in Kansas.

Kansas City Kansas Mayor and Unified Government CEO  Joe Reardon took the Google Fiber theme to an unexpected place as his annual State of Unified Government became  audience-interactive.

The amount of security has come into question surrounding a multiple shooting at a private dance Saturday night in Kansas City.

Some of the first aftermath data from two major and back-to-back winter snow storms is filtering out of Kansas City city hall.  Adding two agencies to the Emergency Operations Center was counted as a positive to the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee of the Council.

Those private or quasi-private operations served public transit and distribution of electrical power.

The Ops nerve center stayed open 24 hours in the storm of February 21, another 30 hours during  last week’s heavy, wet snow.  

The heavy snow last week caused several roof collapses around the Kansas City area. And several more buildings were evacuated for fear of a collapse, including a Macy’s in Overland Park.  KCUR’s Dan Verbeck sat down with Overland Park Code Administrator, Tim Ryan, to find out more about addressing and preventing roof collapses.

The Kansas Supreme Court today has put on hold a decision from a district court that ordered Kansas lawmakers to hike spending on public schools.

Acting on complaints that the operator of a center-city convenience store was paying residents for permission to get a liquor license, the Kansas City Council has banned the practice.

Macy’s store at Metcalf South Shopping Center will stay closed for repair after emergency evacuation today.