Laura Ziegler

It’s not often that a press release comes out under the name of an entire Congressional delegation, even one as ideologically joined at the hip as this group from Kansas.

But that’s exactly what happened last month.

The St. Mary's community is reeling from what they feel was the abrupt and insensitive way the diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph closed their 160-year-old school.  Many of the families in the Independence,  Sugar Creek and Blue Springs areas are alums and have children and grandchildren there.

But the diocese says closing the 160-year-old school was strictly a business decision; the diocese couldn't pay the bills to keep the school open. The reason, they say, is the tumbling enrollment.  Only seven students enrolled for the 2013-2014 freshman class.

Tuesday evening’s tragic explosion and fire on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City may have some asking basic questions about gas leaks.

Here’s a brief primer:

How do I know if I have a gas leak?

• If it’s a natural gas leak, you will smell it.

It’s an unpleasant smell, like rotten eggs.

Natural gas goes through a lot of processing before it can be used as fuel.

After all the other chemicals are taken out, what’s left is methane.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts said in an interview Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security will announce on Thursday its plans to release funds to get the stalled National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility started. 

The so-called NBAF has had difficulty getting off the ground. Senator Roberts chairs an NBAF steering committee and is the project's guiding light in Congress. The new funding is expected to enable the start of construction on a central electric plant -- a requirement for the billion dollar lab.

$90 million in federal funds are available for the NBAF.

A limited survey of members of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association has found little support for building the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan.

The Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, Joe Reardon, announced today he would not seek reelection for a third term this spring. In a letter from his office, Reardon said he made the decision based on personal reasons.

“I have a family at home that I love very much. It is important to me that I spend more time with them. My two sons are growing up much too quickly,” he said in his letter, which is posted in full on his Facebook page.

Drivers in and around Kansas City will continue to see some of the lowest gas prices in the country this year.  That’s due to a surplus of crude oil in the area.

Iconic funk and soul singer Marva Whitney will be buried Saturday in Kansas City. She died two weeks ago at the age of 68, just six years after the passing of James Brown, who catapulted her to national stardom.

The Department of Homeland Security officially took ownership of 46 acres in Manhattan, Kansas this week for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

The Kansas City region has been recovering from the recession at a slightly faster clip than many other places across the country.

We return now to a story we’ve been covering on an ongoing basis: The debate over the billion-dollar  animal disease lab under construction – maybe – in Manhattan, Kansas.

Funeral services for Marva Whitney are pending, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the followers of the Kansas City woman known as Soul Sister No. 1.