KCUR

3 Killed As Violent Tornadoes Cause 'Devastation' In Missouri

Updated 7:30 a.m. ET A devastating series of storms late Wednesday spawned multiple tornadoes that caused extensive damage to several buildings and led to three deaths in Missouri. "There was a lot of devastation throughout the state," Gov. Mike Parson told reporters at a morning press briefing. "We were very fortunate last night that we didn't have more injuries than what we had, and we didn't have more fatalities across the state." He added: "But three is too many." A woman surveys tornado...

Carolina Hidalgo / St. Louis Public Radio

A Major Missouri GOP Donor Tells The Governor To Veto New Abortion Restrictions

Andrea Allen / Wikimedia Commons, bit.ly/2M4AQBz

Wichita Clinic Fights To Expand Abortion Access Despite Lack Of Willing, Local Doctors

Kansas Is Already Soggy And It's About To Get Drenched, Maybe Dangerously So

By Jim McLean • 1 hour ago

Overflowing rivers and reservoirs across Kansas are already producing significant flooding, particularly in the southeast corner of the state.

But, forecasters say, things could get much worse over the next several days as slow-moving thunderstorms develop over central and northeast Kansas.

“We’re going to see repeated bouts of thunderstorms over the next several days and those storms are going to move repeatedly over the same areas,” said Chad Omitt, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Missouri Lawmakers Set Later Start Date For Schools

By Ryan Delaney • 6 hours ago

Back to school will be a little later in Missouri next year if lawmakers get their way.

The Missouri General Assembly passed a law pushing school start dates back about a week over the opposition of school administrators. It’s part of an effort to encourage families to fit one more weekend of trips to amusement parks and lakeside cabins around the state.

Missouri Corrections Department To Counties: The Check's In The Mail For Housing Inmates, Eventually

By Samuel King • 15 hours ago

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Counties across Missouri hoped this was the year that the Department of Corrections would make headway on the $20-$30 million they’re owed for housing inmates who eventually go to state prisons.

But legislators allocated only $1.75 million more to address the backlog. Missouri's practice of reimbursing counties in this way is unique in the United States, and local sheriffs and county leaders say it’s time for a better solution.

Amtrak Answers Senators But Leaves The Future Of Kansas Passenger Rail In Question

By Corinne Boyer • 22 hours ago

Passenger trains will keep rolling through rural communities in Kansas, for now. But Amtrak still hasn’t committed to operating the long-distance routes that connect small towns to larger cities long-term.

Earlier this year, Congress agreed to an additional $50 million to keep the Southwest Chief, which travels from Chicago to Los Angeles with stops in several small Kansas cities, running through September.

Racial Tensions Continue To Roil Lee's Summit School Board

By Elle Moxley • 23 hours ago

The Lee’s Summit school board remains deeply divided over issues of race and equity, a week after voting down a plan to bring in consultants for diversity training.

At a tense work session Wednesday night, newly elected board member Mike Allen accused the district’s first black superintendent, Dennis Carpenter, of only caring about black students.

Carpenter responded, “I will not let you do this. Tell me when I said I was here for the black kids only.”

Navigating Downtown Kansas City's Ring Of Highways Is Throwing Pedestrians For A Loop

By Anne Kniggendorf • May 22, 2019

Matt Staub considers himself to be a forward-thinking guy.

And lately, he's been wondering whether, if he'd been a city leader in the 1950s, would he have wanted to build the downtown loop — those four highway arteries that form a boundary around Kansas City, Missouri's central business district.

Methodists Gather At Leawood Megachurch To Find A Way Forward After Dispute Over LGBTQ Inclusion

By Laura Ziegler • May 21, 2019

Courtesy of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

Updated, 10:30 a.m. Thursday: The meeting this week ended with a commitment to resist the plan approved in February at the General Conference; the church leaders present are not yet calling for a split. Some churches will continue to marry and ordain LGBTQ members.

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The United Methodist Church is in crisis.

In February, the General Conference of the church held a special session in St. Louis, Missouri, to decide whether to allow marriage and ordination for its LGBTQ members.

The 2019 Missouri Legislative Session Recap: GOP Wins Big On Abortion, Economic Development

By Brian Ellison, Samuel King, Jason Rosenbaum & Rachel Lippmann • May 21, 2019

In this very special episode of KCUR’s Statehouse Blend Missouri podcast, we joined forces with St. Louis Public Radio’s Politically Speaking podcast to round up the 2019 session of the Missouri General Assembly.

Some Black Kansas City Residents Say Renaming Paseo Has Erased 'Our Ward Parkway'

By Michelle Tyrene Johnson • May 21, 2019

Updated, 11:15 a.m. Thursday: On Wednesday, the Kansas City council's finance and governance committee recommended that the the street name restoration measure, which would restore the Paseo name, be placed on the November 5 ballot. The full city council is expected to vote on the measure in two weeks.

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Micheal Logan remembers a time when blacks in Kansas City, Missouri, weren’t allowed to go south of 27th Street.

Kansas Paid Outside Law Firms $899,000 In Losing Effort To Defund Planned Parenthood

By Dan Margolies • May 21, 2019

A day after Kansas notified Planned Parenthood in May 2016 that it would cut off its participation in Medicaid, the nonprofit group sued to block the move.

So Kansas hired three high-powered East Coast law firms to defend it in a case that would slog on for nearly three years before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration agreed to drop the termination effort in April.

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