Lenexa

Low-barrier homeless shelters open for the winter months starting Sunday, Dec. 1. With thousands of unhoused people in the Kansas City area and only a few hundred beds, many individuals will still be left out in the cold.

It’s back to the drawing board for Johnson County and its plans to build a shelter in Lenexa for the county’s growing homeless population. How did the project — a major priority of Johnson County Commission Chair Mike Kelly, and the product of more than a year of planning and organizing — fall apart?

This week, the Lenexa City Council rejected a proposal to build a homeless services center, a blow to homeless advocates in Johnson County. What went wrong, and what's the next step for tackling the county's homelessness crisis?

After a more than six-hour council meeting that stretched past midnight, a majority of Lenexa City Council rejected the plan to buy a former La Quinta Inn and turn it into a homeless services center. Advocates said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to address the county's homelessness crisis.

While Lenexa planning commissioners agreed that more homeless support is needed in Johnson County, they faulted the project at the former La Quinta Inn for being a bad fit for the surrounding neighborhood. But the Lenexa City Council will get the final say.

The Lenexa City Council approved a pilot program that will provide $100,000 in property tax relief for older homeowners in the area.

People in Gaza are faced with a mounting humanitarian crisis. Heart to Heart International, a Lenexa-based nonprofit, is sending aid packages to the region, but it's difficult to get relief to those in need because of bureaucratic hurdles and safety risks.

Holy Trinity Catholic Parish announced earlier this month that Father John Pilcher had been appointed as its senior associate pastor. Pilcher was accused of sexual assault of a minor while working in Topeka, but the Kansas Bureau of Investigation could not substantiate the claims and no charges were filed.

More than a dozen law enforcement agencies — from Overland Park to Prairie Village — will be encrypting their primary channels so listeners can't hear what police and dispatchers are saying over the air.

The founder of Operation 1020 says the 30 beds the shelter is currently allowed by the city of Lenexa are simply not enough to meet the growing demand they are facing each day. She hopes a permanent shelter will eventually become a reality.

Parents across the region are shocked after federal charges allege a Johnson County pediatric neurologist tried to produce explicit content including children. Dr. Brian Aalbers is charged with attempting to produce and possessing child sexual abuse images.

Tomorrow is Election Day, and Kansas cities and counties have some big decisions to make. We’ll find out what and who’s on the ballot and how voters will be shaping the futures of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties.