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  • Kids around the metro are returning to class after the holiday break — but the new semester has some familiar issues kicking around. Staffing issues in schools, fights over curriculums and controversial mascots were some of the top stories in 2022, and those continued debates are setting the tone for the year ahead.
  • The program provides free musical instruments and lessons to children living in Kansas City's Historic Northeast neighborhood. Some of the program's graduates are now headed to music school.
  • Lost between the years of playground kid and independent high schooler are the transitional years of middle school. Author Phyllis Fagell shares resources to help parents and adolescents communicate and cope through the years when kids are impressionable and trying to fit in.
  • A former teacher is trying to make a difference for the Park Hill School District, but not from the classroom. Plus, how Missouri sex-workers are organizing to help protect their community's access to abortions.
  • Dozens of rare and historic Civil War battle flags stored at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka are falling apart and in desperate need of restoration. Learn more about the museum’s preservation efforts. Plus: The Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers will face off on the football field this weekend for the first time since 2011.
  • Have you ever wondered how much life a tiny patch of land can hold? Nebraska scientist Chris Helzer photographed one square meter of prairie from every angle for two years, getting to know the creatures that call it home. By blending art and science, he hopes to open people's eyes to this underappreciated ecosystem on the Great Plains that is shrinking more and more every year.
  • Long hours, dangerous conditions and low pay are causing staffing shortages at Kansas prisons, which have led to inmates being locked in their cells for long stretches. Plus, Mayor Quinton Lucas discusses Kansas City's plan to keep the unhoused population safe over the winter.
  • After spending 43 years in prison for a crime that prosecutors say he didn't commit, Kevin Strickland now has a shot at exoneration — based partly on the hairstyle in his booking photo. Plus, two Missouri lawmakers want to make sure that incarcerated mothers can still care for their newborns behind bars.
  • Transgender inmates say they're put in danger by the Kansas prison system. Multiple inmates said they were targets of harassment and discrimination by fellow inmates, medical staff and corrections officers.
  • Sociology professor and author Alex Vitale, who is set to speak at the UMKC Cockefair Lecture on Tuesday, is calling for the end of policing as we know it. He contends that instead of directly addressing problems like gun violence and drug addiction with effective policy, the U.S. relies on police to "manage" the results.
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