The show for April 15, 2012. Click "Listen" to hear the entire show; see below for individual stories.
New Mystery Series Based In KC Area
A new series of police crime novels launches next week, starring the tough but sensitive Skeet Bannion. She's a KCPD homicide detective who wants to get away by becoming the police chief on a small-town college campus. Skeet is the creation of local author Linda Rodriguez, who won a national competition with this first novel, entitled Every Last Secret, coming out this month on St. Martin's Press.
City's Health Care Tax Under Review
Residents of Kansas City have long financed public health, ambulance and indigent health services through a property tax which last year, brought in nearly $50 million. Part of the tax is temporary, and a new mayor-appointed commission is taking a hard look at whether it should continue.
De Barker: KC's Queen Of The Line Dance And the Two-Step
When it comes to line dancing, most people think of Country and Western dances like the Boot Scootin’ Boogie. In African American communities all over the country, “soul” line dancing is everywhere—at wedding and retirement receptions, nightclubs and parties. Here in KC, the Kansas City Two Step, a couples dance, is also wildly popular. We have our own line and step-dancing guru. De Barker is a software engineer by day, and, in the evening, teaches line dancing and two- step at the Southeast Community Center.
KCMO Elects A New School Board
Kansas City Missouri's school board chair won re-election yesterday by a few hundred write-in votes. Then Airick Leonard West and three newly elected board members immediately got down to business at their first meeting on Wednesday night. The agenda included a plan to overhaul the structure of the board itself.
KC Fountains Turned On After Annual Ceremony
City fountains were turned on Tuesday, following the annual Fountain Day celebration.
David Henry Hwang Honored At 2012 Inge Festival
The four-day William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas includes dozens of plays, readings and workshops. And it always concludes with a salute to a particular playwright or composer. Past honorees have included Arthur Miller, Edward Albee and Stephen Sondheim. Joining that list this year will be David Henry Hwang, whose body of work has been informed by his Asian-American heritage.
