Elana Gordon

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and Republican challenger Todd Akin sparred about budgets, Medicare and other big issues in their first face-to-face debate earlier today.

Prosecutors in Kansas have dropped all remaining criminal charges against Planned Parenthood.

Area health officials are cautioning that whooping cough, which notably broke out in Johnson County this past spring, continues to be a problem throughout the Kansas City region. 

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the federal health law, we’ll be hearing a lot more about one of its key aspects: Medicaid. 

Health officials in Kansas City, Mo. are bracing for the annual back-to-school “rush” of parents and children coming in for needed immunizations before school begins.

Parks, streets and sewers projects in Kansas City just got a major funding boost, as voters approved both city ballot measures yesterday.

Kansas health officials have been touring the state this week, holding public education sessions on a plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.

The fate of Kansas City's downtown streetcar taxing district now rests in fewer than 500 votes. Candidates face off in debates as primary season hits its final stretch. It’s a daily roundup of news from KCUR.

Missouri’s Supreme Court has effectively overturned state caps on non-economic damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice cases.  Read more about about the decision here.

Between July 22 and 27, thousands of people from around the world convened in Washington D.C. to study the global HIV/AIDS crisis.  But in the Kansas City region, more than 6,000 people are living with HIV. That includes Bester Seemani, who says an AIDS diagnosis twelve years ago completely changed her life and her journey back home. Seemani, joined by her daughter Sue, recently told KCUR’s Elana Gordon that one of the biggest struggles, and paths to healing, has been dealing with the stigma of the disease in the U.S and in Africa.

Hospital food doesn't tend to conjure images of gourmet cuisine or down-home victuals. In fact, most people tend to turn up their nose at the very thought of the bland meals that hospitals are known for serving.

Resistance to a possible sale of North Kansas City hospital has entered the legal arena.  The hospital’s board of trustees filed a lawsuit yesterday, in an effort to stop the city from selling the place.