Scientists Check Corn Belt Waters For Effects Of Ag Runoff
Midwest waterways are getting lots of attention this summer. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency have immersed themselves in the ecology of 100 streams from Ohio to Nebraska. It’s a first-of-its kind effort to understand how agricultural runoff is not just changing the water, but affecting the critters that live there.
Closing Of Halls' Plaza Location Stirs Up Discussion On Future Of Shopping Districts
Earlier this month, the high-end department store Halls, which is run by Hallmark, announced it was closing its location on the Plaza, and expanding in a new 60,000 foot location on the third floor of Crown Center. The department store is one of the anchors on the Plaza, and has been there for more than 50 years. KC Currents spoke with shoppers, as well as Autumn MorningSky, who reports on retail for the Kansas City Business Journal.
Kansas City Wiccans Head Out To Observe Solstice
For Wiccans, the summer solstice is more than a day to get out and enjoy the sun. The longest day of the year is a holy one in Wicca, and local worshippers took to area parks over the past week to mark the occasion. There are several covens (the Wiccan equivalent of a church or synagogue) in the Kansas City area; we tagged along with Lushede Grove in Independence.
Trading Flint Hills For Fort Riley, Concert-goers Dive Into Military History
After seven years of calling the Kansas tallgrass prairie home, the music of the Kansas City Symphony echoed from a different venue this summer. Fort Riley, the northeastern Kansas Army base where Civil War figure George Custer once lived, hosted this year’s Symphony in the Flint Hills. The annual performance brings one of city’s premiere arts organizations to the middle of Kansas. This year’s showing, reminiscent of years past, added cavalry demonstrations, tours of Fort Riley's homes and grounds and costumed volunteers guiding concert-goers through military history.
Bloodstone Still Making Music Forty Years Later
40 years ago, an R&B group from Kansas City hit the big time. In 1973, the song Natural High hit number 10 on the pop charts (number 4 on R&B) and went on to become a gold record. About 10 years before that, the group that came to be known as Bloodstone was started by a group of classmates an Central High in Kansas City, MO.
