AltWeeklies Wire
Reckoningnew
As regulators put a price tag — $1.32 billion — on what Scott Tucker's payday-lending enterprises have squeezed out of poor people, a grand jury convenes.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver shows up to back a bold taxpayer ask: $18 million for 18th & Vine.new
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II stands in an elevator on the first floor of Kansas City, Missouri's City Hall on a dreary Wednesday afternoon. Cleaver, flanked by a security guard, is heading to the 26th floor, where the City Council is about to meet and discuss the prospect of an $18 million infusion to the historic 18th & Vine Jazz District...
The Pitch |
Steve Vockrodt |
01-14-2016 |
Policy Issues
Stuck With Secretsnew
As questions linger about Missouri's shadowy lethal-injection protocol, the state is days away from killing another inmate.
The Pitch |
Steve Vockrodt |
01-26-2014 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: death penalty
Inside Westboronew
At Westboro Baptist Church, Steve Drain found religion but lost a daughter.
Tags: Westboro Baptist Church
'Anchor Babies' Are a Mythnew
This soon-to-be-deported family proves that "anchor babies" are a myth.
The Pitch |
Nadia Pflaum |
01-26-2011 |
Immigration
No Thank-You Card?new
Seven women say a Hallmark contractor fired them for cheap labor.
The Pitch |
David Martin |
06-09-2010 |
Business & Labor
Tags: Hallmark
When You Get in Bed With the CDC-KC, You Get Screwednew
At its peak, City-Wide Auto Repair had eight employees on its payroll and kept three bays busy with repairs. "We used to do more inspections than anybody in the state of Missouri," boasts Steve Frisbee. Now his business has become a dumping ground.
The Pitch |
Carolyn Szczepanski |
03-02-2010 |
Business & Labor
Kansas Lawmakers' Paranoid Rush to Ban Synthetic Marijuananew
One officer says the first thing his department did upon hearing about K2 was search YouTube for clips. Another says he heard about a blog telling of a teen who went into a coma for 12 hours after smoking K2. A woman says she fears for teachers if a student goes into a violent frenzy.
The Daddy Finders: DNA Testing at a Strip Mall for Peace of Mindnew
Paternity testing makes up 10 to 15 percent of David and Prudence Rexroats' business. They cultivate it. MedExpress Labs, the couple's company, markets a "peace of mind" test to men who suspect that a wife or girlfriend has been unfaithful.
Allegations of Racism Spark a Power Struggle at the Mutual Musicians Foundationnew
In December, the Mutual Musicians Foundation's 100-odd members installed a new board of directors. Many were new to the cause. In the weeks leading up to the election, a local singer suggested that the old board had allowed the foundation's legacy to be "pimped."
The Pitch |
David Martin |
02-09-2010 |
Race & Class
What Happens When an Undocumented Immigrant Teen Needs a New Heart?new
Eduardo Loredo's eyes are ringed with dark shadows. He blinks slowly through a deep fatigue that resists the bright room at Children's Mercy Hospital. The 14-year-old is dying. Slowly.
The Pitch |
Carolyn Szczepanski |
01-26-2010 |
Immigration
With Nowhere Left to Run, Refugees are Still Waiting to Make This Homenew
When Foibe Nibitanga got a ticket to a new life in the United States, she didn't expect the fear and hunger of the refugee camp to follow her to Kansas City. The Burundi native leans forward, trying to speak over the cries of toddlers who, in the absence of toys, play with couch cushions and a set of keys.
The Pitch |
Carolyn Szczepanski |
01-12-2010 |
Immigration
Tracking Homicides, We Learned a Few Things About Kansas City's Psychenew
Andre D. Jones, 33, was the victim of one of the metro's most disturbing murders of 2009: a quadruple homicide in Raytown whose other victims were his 21-year-old girlfriend, Precious Triplett, and her nephews, 10-year-old Amir Clemons and 7-year-old Gerard Clemons.
The Pitch |
Justin Kendall |
01-05-2010 |
Crime & Justice
A Massive Free Clinic Takes the Pulse of Health Care in Americanew
Familiar rhetoric: "We have the best health care in the world!" Anyone who has actually said that in the last year is probably not at Bartle Hall December 10. The weather hasn't kept away a couple of thousand people who need help. It has just made it harder for some to get here.
As Honeywell Closes a Kansas City Plant, Workers are Dealing with the Fatal Aftereffectsnew
The U.S. Department of Labor maintains a list of 785 toxic substances verified as having been used at the site, which will soon be abandoned. But people have been abandoned, too: former workers who live with chronic pain, who struggle to breathe or who have died.
The Pitch |
Nadia Pflaum |
11-24-2009 |
Business & Labor
