The movie "BlacKkKlansman," a satire about race in America, is up for six Academy Awards — including one for Kansas filmmaker Kevin Willmott, who is among the nominees for best adapted screenplay.

It's based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, who infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Kux Klan in the 1970s. So viewers might be surprised to learn that one of the most poignant scenes is actually a true story from Willmott's childhood growing up in Junction City, Kansas.

The day in 2012 that a gunman killed 27 people and then himself in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, he didn't just use a semi-automatic rifle. The shooter had an array of handguns, shotguns and rifles, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting shocked the nation, spurring new conversations about banning so-called assault weapons and magazines that could hold dozens of rounds.

Tara Raghuveer wants to raise the alarm.

"The national housing crisis has not skipped over Kansas City," she says. "Half the people in this city are tenants and many of them have issues with their housing."

Raghuveer is the woman behind the Kansas City Eviction Project, which has analyzed 18 years of eviction filings in Jackson County.

It feels like it hasn’t stopped snowing since Thanksgiving weekend, and school’s being called off frequently. That may have parents wondering exactly how many days their kids will have to make up.

The answer: It depends.

Kansas City Public Schools are currently scheduled to end May 31 — already a week later than originally planned. If another school day is cancelled, kids will be in classrooms in June.

Former KSHB-TV Channel 41 reporter Lisa Benson says her race discrimination and retaliation case against the station where she’d worked for 14 years was a trial in more ways than one.

“In opening statements, they described me as an angry black, violent woman and that was very hurtful, considering those would be the same people who would have sent flowers to the maternity ward when I gave birth,” says Benson, a mother of two boys. “So … I learned a lot going through this process.”

This story has been updated to include statements from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Rep. Sam Graves.

For the most part, the reactions of Kansas' and Missouri's congressional delegation to President Donald Trump's emergency declaration Friday fell along party lines.

Before Laura Kelly took over as governor, the Kansas Department for Children and Families overhauled which private companies would manage its child welfare system, and how the department would oversee their work.

Kelly put the brakes on that whole plan in December.

On Thursday, she announced she’d be rolling back major parts of the changes. She canceled grants with two companies and said the state would renegotiate grants with three companies.

This story was updated to include Sen. Jim Denning's comments.

The Kansas City Star came out swinging Friday in response to a defamation lawsuit filed last month by Kansas Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning.

The newspaper asked a Johnson County court judge to strike the lawsuit and penalize Denning, his attorney and the attorney’s law firm for violating the Kansas Public Speech Protection Act.

The push to enroll more students in classes that will prepare them for college and careers could create new opportunities for young people with special needs.

Jackson Barber has an intellectual disability. He started working at Antioch Urban Growers while enrolled in the work experience program through North Kansas City Schools.