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The future of a proposed downtown office tower is now in the hands of a new city council torn between fulfilling a 15-year-old contract and protecting taxpayer money. 

The 25-story tower would be the first multi-tenant, premium office building built downtown since 1991. It would be built on a speculative basis — meaning it has no tenants lined up — on the southwest corner of 13th and Main, above current retailers like Yard House. 

On Wednesday, 1st District councilwoman Heather Hall summed up what several councilmembers were feeling. 

This story was updated at 2:03 p.m. with a comment from the school district.

Another lawsuit has been filed against the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District alleging racial discrimination during the hiring of spokeswoman last year.

In the lawsuit, Danielle Nixon alleges she did not get the job because of her race. According to court documents, former Superintendent Dennis Carpenter “told the selection committee that he would never hire an African American female for that key role.”

Kansas City poet Jen Harris has 2,200 followers on Facebook, and she's open with them about her sexuality and her relationships. So they didn't hesitate to let her know when they saw her fiancée with someone else.

"People were messaging me on Facebook saying, 'Do you know your partner is at this bar with this person? Look.' It was pretty brutal," Harris says.

A Johnson County, Kansas, resident has filed a class action lawsuit claiming the country’s leading electronic cigarette maker, Juul Labs, fraudulently concealed the addictive nature of its vaping products and misrepresented their safety.

Isaac Gant says he began vaping as a senior in high school four years ago and now is addicted to nicotine, suffers from respiratory problems, bouts of anxiety, coughing fits and the need to take frequent breaks at work to satisfy his nicotine cravings.

FORT SCOTT, Kansas — On a hot June day, as the Good Ol’ Days Festival was in full swing, 7-year-old Kaidence Anderson sat in the shade with her family waiting for a medevac helicopter to land.

A crowd had gathered to see the display pre-arranged by staff at the town’s historic fort.

“It’s going to show us how it’s going to help other people because we don’t have the hospital anymore,” the redheaded girl explained.

Most Americans believe climate change is a serious problem, according to a CBS poll  released over the weekend. 

But few solutions seem to be coming from Washington, DC, or the statehouses in Topeka, Kansas, or Jefferson City, Missouri. So, local officials are trying to step up.

The results of global climate change are becoming readily apparent, and it’s affecting the younger generations inheriting a world of extreme weather.

The Roeland Park City Council is considering an ordinance that would prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using city resources for immigration enforcement.

The proposal was presented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas as part of their “Safe and Welcoming” campaign at a city council meeting earlier this month.

“What we are suggesting is that cities can actually write policy that says they will not be coordinating with ICE,” Kansas ACLU Policy Director Letitia Harmon said.

Whether you begin a meal with "buon appetite" or "tuck in," Central Standard's Food Critics can point you in the direction of a hearty dish personalized to your palette.

A month after a Missouri judge found Ricky Kidd innocent of a 1996 double murder and released him from prison after 23 years, Kidd's case has officially been dismissed.

Académie Lafayette is opening an International Baccalaureate high school in Midtown, accomplishing a goal the French-immersion charter school program established when it started 20 years ago.

“This is the fulfillment of a dream, our vision,” said M. Elimane Mbengue, head of the school, which currently has 1,146 students enrolled in grades K-8 at three campuses. “Every year, our parents had been challenged finding a quality high school.”

Over the last five years, almost 15,000 workers disappeared from the Kansas workforce.

During the same timeframe, the state is growing economically, with a recent monthly report showing 14,000 jobs created in the last year and unemployment at 3.3%. That’s below the national rate. 

Despite the good news, Kansas officials see a long-term challenge: having enough employees to fill the state’s jobs, especially in high-demand careers like nursing and accounting.

Antoni Porowski, the food guy on the Netflix series "Queer Eye," is back in Kansas City for the release of his book “Antoni in the Kitchen.”

Similar to the food gospel Porowski espouses on the TV show — teaching guests to cook dishes that are both manageable and delicious — his cookbook may seem high-brow at first glance, but it's definitely geared to the average cook.

This story was updated at 10 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2019, to reflect comments from the Bureau of Prisons.

The federal Bureau of Prisons will provide opioid addiction treatment for a prisoner at the Leavenworth penitentiary, according to a settlement reached Wednesday.

There's a serious teacher shortage in Kansas City and across the country, as fewer people pursue a career that often involves low pay, high stress and lack of community support.

Missouri’s teaching colleges are battling that trend, trying new strategies to attract students pursuing education degrees and to answer a vital need for quality instructors in every classroom.

The Kansas City Artists Coalition on Thursday opens its new location at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Gillham Road.

The Acme Building, boarded-up and vacant for nearly a decade, now incorporates office and gallery space on the first floor, as well as basement studios, for the Artists Coalition. The rest of the building includes 27 mostly one-bedroom apartments. 

"I'm really excited to be on that ground floor level where people can access the space just right from the sidewalk and not hidden away on an upper floor somewhere," said painter Laura Nugent, who was part of the search committee. 

Following a series of high-profile shootings this summer, many have called on Congress to respond to mounting public pressure and enact new gun regulations after returning from the summer recess.

This week, the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee will take a first step. The committee is scheduled to mark up several new gun control bills that were introduced earlier this year.

The three bills

Kansas City Symphony music director Michael Stern is leaving but not until 2023. 

"It's the right decision at the right time," said Stern. "And the way that we're doing it I think is, in my opinion, a model of how such things should happen."

On Monday, the Symphony announced renewing Stern's contract through the 2022-2023 season. But then, he'll step down and take on a new role as music director laureate. 

When snow falls, the steep slope at 57th and Brookside, known for decades as Suicide Hill, is a favorite place for metro area kids to go sledding, but one neighborhood resident wants to change the name.

Alyvia Elliott lives at the bottom of that hill. She lost her husband to suicide in April. 

It sounds like science fiction hype, but supporters believe ultrafast Hyperloop transportation could become reality within a decade, propelling passengers from Kansas City to St. Louis in a 30-minute trip.

“We’ve already completed a feasibility study, and now we’re on to the next steps with this. It’s happening quicker than even I would have guessed,” said KC Tech Council President Ryan Weber, who is working with numerous other Missouri officials on a project that he predicted could be implemented in about seven years.

Updated 11:15 a.m., September 7, 2019.

Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts says he will not run for re-election in 2020, opening the door to a parade of candidates announcing a run or considering jumping into the race to replace him. Multiple Republicans are eyeing the seat, and it could be the first time Democrats have a competitive U.S. Senate primary since the 1990s.

Here’s the rundown of who’s seeking the seat in Washington: