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TOPEKA — Kansas schools will require two new vaccines come August, including one against a virus that’s hospitalized 13,000 people and killed 200 across the country since 2016.

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said the Kansas City-based Veterans Community Project is “deeply impressive” during a campaign visit Wednesday morning. The nonprofit offers a range of veteran services, including temporary housing assistance.

“I’m going to be sharing this story everywhere I go,” he said after touring the VCP Village, where homeless veterans can live temporarily in a “tiny house.”

Thousands of kids in Missouri's foster care system are likely to benefit from a first-of-its-kind legal settlement under which state officials have agreed to strict limits on how and when kids can be given psychotropic drugs.

The settlement resolves a class action lawsuit charging that Missouri foster care officials failed to safeguard the conditions under which the powerful medications are dispensed. U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey gave preliminary approval to the agreement on Monday. 

Every woman who gives birth has the possibility of developing postpartum depression. That includes nearly one in seven mothers in Missouri, which ranks 11th in the nation for those who experience the condition, according to the the United Health Foundation.

Monday evening, three years after the killing of Southwest high school senior Daizsa Bausby, a Jackson County jury found her father guilty of her murder. 

In March 2016, Daizsa, 18, was found dead in a South Kansas City motel room. Her body also had multiple scrapes to the forehead, neck, lips and nose, and was "improperly dressed" as though she someone else had put clothes on the body, according to the medical examiner. That medical examiner also performed a sexual assault forensic exam, or "rape kit."

Children are more likely to die of firearm-related injuries in states with looser gun laws, according to a study published by The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday.

Firearm injuries are one of the leading causes of death among children in the United States.

David Jungerman, an 81-year-old Raytown man accused of killing a Kansas City lawyer in broad daylight, says he should be released from jail while he waits for his trial because he “has never killed anyone” and is not a flight risk.

In a rambling, hand-printed motion, Jungerman also appears to incriminate himself, admitting that it was his voice on a digital recorder police recovered, saying “it’s a shame I don’t have a .17 from a distance we could take ‘em out.”

Kansas City Mayor Sly James doesn’t officially hand over the keys to his office until the end of July, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying a victory lap of sorts Sunday afternoon.

Speaking at an event dubbed “Sly’s Farewell Cookout,” the outgoing mayor told supporters that Kansas City “used to be the city that always wanted to be like Denver or St. Louis, or someplace else.” 

“Those cities now want to be like us,” James said. “Take it to the bank.”

Vegetarians have their reasons for not eating meat. But "I am an optimist" doesn't have a regular spot on lists more typically focused on health and environmental benefits.

Optimism was, however, the Englishman Henry Clubb's rationale more than 100 years ago, when he enticed dozens of people to move to the radical territory of Kansas to start a vegetarian settlement in what is now Allen County.

It didn't go well.

Summer is the time to enjoy food and drinks outside on the patio for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

When it comes to eating outdoors, Kansas City area restaurants have a different atmosphere than traditional sidewalk cafes in Europe, says Jenny Vergara of Feast Magazine.

“We have much more of a patio party thing happening in Kansas City,” Vergara says. 

Kansas City area restaurants have their own atmospheres when it comes to patios. Some boast views of downtown, others have rooftop games and some are suitable for the kids. 

After her underwire bra set off the metal detector at the Jackson County Detention Center one morning, jail employee Charlotte Hardin removed it and sent it through the X-ray machine. Four weeks ago, she was put on leave after being told she wasn’t allowed to place undergarments in the X-ray machine.

The veteran employee of the jail has not been given a return date.

TOPEKA — They’re here in Kansas. CBD products with a bit of that oh-so-taboo THC in them. To vape, to put under your tongue.

Some retailers argue those products became legal on July 1 because of tweaks to state regulation of cannabis-related substances in a bill supporting the state’s fledgling industrial hemp program.

Beyoncé tickets. Pricey steak dinners. Royals games. 

Lobbyists used to be able to spend thousands in an effort to influence Missouri lawmakers. Voters approved a $5 dollar limit on gifts for lawmakers in November. A KCUR analysis of data released this month by the Missouri Ethics Commission shows there’s been a 94% decrease in spending from the 2019 to 2018 legislative session. 

In this year’s session, lobbyists spent less than $17,000 on lawmakers. That’s a significant drop from the about $300,000 spent in the 2018 session. 

Two Johnson County chiropractors accused by the federal government of defrauding Medicare have settled the case for $350,000.

The payment ends a civil lawsuit alleging that Ryan Schell and Tyler Schell, who are brothers, billed Medicare for peripheral neuropathy treatments not covered by the program or for treatments they did not provide at all.

Little Caesars pizza is returning quietly to the Kansas City area less than a year after the market’s longtime franchisee closed his last store and declared, “We’re done.”

Previous franchise owner Alan Knox of Utah had uttered that two-word epitaph after operating Little Caesars stores for 30 years. He had bought 16 Kansas City area stores nine years ago and owned 21 at one point.

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Many people figure vaping spares their health because it lets them inhale nicotine in aerosols instead of sucking in smoke from burning cigarettes.

New research from the University of Kansas casts doubt on that, raising the specter that vaping nicotine may cause some of the same respiratory problems that plague and even kill smokers today.

“Vaping is just considered not harmful, even though there are no data to support that statement,” researcher Matthias Salathe said. “There are more and more data to actually oppose that statement.”

In a move that caught the Jackson County Board of Equalization (BOE) off guard, one member proposed Monday that the entire reassessment should be tossed out.

“It’s essentially a do-over,” said Preston Smith who represents Blue Springs schools on the BOE.

Under Smith's plan any property whose market value increased by more than 200 percent would see a hike in valuation of 14 percent.

If the property jumped 100 percent to 200 percent, the valuation would increase 13 percent.

(This story was updated at 2:15 p.m.)

LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — Republican former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach announced Monday that he’s running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Pat Roberts.

Kobach beat then-Gov. Jeff Colyer in the primary election last year — helped partly by a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump — but ultimately lost the governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly.

In baseball circles, the St. Louis Cardinals organization is known for its so-called “The Cardinal Way,” a manual of sorts that players and managers adhere to in the quest for consistency. 

Since August 2018, Missouri state government has been teaching “The Missouri Way,” a leadership training program that’s already indoctrinated more than 1,000 employees from the 16 executive departments. Statewide-elected officials like the secretary of state, auditor and attorney general are not required to take the training, and neither is their staff. 

Supporters from across the state gathered Sunday for events aimed at gathering signatures to halt Missouri’s law banning abortion after eight weeks of gestation. 

The law, which makes no exceptions for rape or incest, is set to take effect on Aug. 28.

In Kansas City, the event at Sidekicks Saloon, which was sponsored by the ACLU-Missouri, drew dozens of supporters and organizers. Community organizer Al Cousineau said the goal was to gather 100,000 signatures statewide.

Daryl Howard turns 65 in October. He has a Glock .45-caliber handgun stored in his desk at home, but hopes never to use it.

“It’s not something that’s taken lightly,” Howard says on a weekday afternoon, in his second-floor Dallas apartment. “For me, there was no second option. It was something I felt was really necessary for me to be safe.”

Howard, who says he owns his gun for protection, is in good health. Getting a handgun license 15 years ago did not raise much of a fuss for his children, or son-in-law, Justin Allen.

A 17-year-old Lee's Summit artist is among those in the Kansas City area who now have something in common with Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath and Lena Dunham: a national medal from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

The list of past winners indicates the caliber of work a student must produce to win, and the possibility of winners' future influence on high and pop culture.