Springfield

Despite all the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric across the country, Chappell Roan — who grew up in the small, religious town of Willard, Missouri — is sharing her spotlight with local drag queens in every city she plays on tour.

Missouri state Rep. Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat who serves as the House minority leader, announced her gubernatorial candidacy earlier this week. She says her primary issues are childcare and health care access, and defending public education.

Residents in Springfield, Missouri, had no idea that their drinking water might be contaminated with toxic chemicals, disposed of improperly by a defense contractor, until 2019. In the years since, the community is still looking for answers to how this happened.

People living near a company that did work for the Navy had no idea that a toxic solvent, disposed of improperly, had made its way into their drinking water – until a public apology from the state in 2019.

As the Springfield photographer prepares to fill a Kansas City gallery with her work, collectors on both coasts are identifying with what's universal about southwestern Missouri.

Workers in a small Missouri alterations shop watch from afar as a humanitarian crisis unfolds in Ukraine, even though their home countries are on opposing sides of the conflict.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt requested that Springfield Public Schools provide records of where it incorporated elements of critical race theory in its training and class work. The district says Schmitt is using the courts “to attack public education."

Missouri state officials failed to meet the Springfield region’s needs as the more-contagious delta variant caused a record number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

In the 1960s, Chinese American chef David Leong invented his own version of American fried chicken and gravy. But what started as one man's savvy business decision became a hit dish for hundreds of restaurants around Springfield, Missouri.

Missouri claims the creation of two iconic, innovative Chinese dishes — but Springfield cashew chicken and the St. Paul sandwich in St. Louis are more than local curiosities. Each dish tells a story of immigrants who arrived in Missouri and “cooked to survive.”

Younger children, who cannot yet be vaccinated, are among those who may be more susceptible to the more-contagious variant.

Vaccinations have increased in Missouri's hardest-hit areas but remain far below levels needed to stop COVID-19 from spreading.