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Lead pipes are a 'time bomb' for Missouri and Kansas

The Biden administration plans to spend $250 million dollars in Missouri and $164 million dollars in Kansas to remove lead pipes — if they can find them. Plus, what Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has to say about gun laws after a threat of a mass shooting closed 10 local school districts.

The Environmental Protection Agency outlawed new lead pipes in 1986. More than 30 years later, the Biden Administration will spend billions removing the pipes. Missouri is expected to get $250 million, while Kansas is expected to get $164 million.

The problem is, some water utilities don’t know where they all are — and the Midwest has a lot of them. The Missouri Independent’s Allison Kite reports for the Midwest Newsroom.

Last Wednesday, 10 Kansas City school districts cancelled their scheduled summer school activities after the Blue Springs Police Department was alerted to a threat of an "unspecific mass shooting." A 19-year-old Blue Springs, Missouri, man was charged with making the threat, but many parents in the metro are still left uneasy.

The incident also follows a spate of mass shooting incidents, including one in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Up To Date producer and guest host Danie Alexander spoke with Mayor Quinton Lucas about what's being done in Kansas City.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR onTwitter andFacebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love, Trevor Grandin, and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
Trevor Grandin is a contributing producer for KCUR Studios.
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