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A 15-year-old’s suicide while in Kansas foster care came amid a shortfall in mental health care
Takeaways: A 15-year-old took his own life in October while in the care of a private Kansas foster care agency. That agency, KVC Kansas, fell short of court-mandated benchmarks for getting mental health treatment for children in its care. Yet KVC actually comes closer to hitting the mark than other agencies hired by the state…
Kansas regulators give Evergy a smaller electrical rate hike than it asked for
Takeaways: Kansas regulators dialed back electric rate hikes that Evergy wanted to impose on its customers. Electric rates will now go up slightly for former Westar customers in the central part of Kansas and tick down for customers who used to get their kilowatts from Kansas City Power & Light. Evergy says, on average, its…
How much can local government tax weed? Legal fights brew over Missouri cannabis rules
Takeaways: A little sales tax on the buds or gummies you buy at the neighborhood cannabis dispensary is one thing. But another tax? And another? Various state and local sales taxes lumped onto your recreational marijuana purchase can add upwards of 20% to the cost of legalized Missouri weed. The state cannabis trade association, which…
Suburbs braced to use the legislature to block a south Kansas City landfill
Takeaways: Subdivisions, restaurants and retail shops pop up around Lee’s Summit and Raymore amid rising property values as single-family homes spread across what was farmland just a few years ago. But residents say a proposed 430-acre landfill could threaten that growth. And they’ve rallied together to block it — raising money and deploying lobbyists to…
Red tape and income limits have booted 82,000 Kansans off Medicaid since May. How can they get back on?
Robyn Adams struggled to support her husband and teenage daughter on $16,000 a year during the pandemic. Then the pandemic ended and her family lost its Medicaid coverage. “We went into panic,” she said. The family relied on a temporary expansion of coverage authorized by the federal government during the pandemic to weather the bills…
Missouri uses power of the pocketbook to prevent divestment in Israel
All but the smallest companies have to agree not to participate in any movement that aims to boycott, divest from or sanction companies in Israel.
Missouri counties want to freeze seniors’ property assessments, but aren’t sure they can
The freezing of property tax assessments for Missourians 62 and older looks, at best, fuzzy. The state adopted a law this year that lets counties give that property tax assessment freeze when homeowners become eligible for Social Security. And it allowed counties to throw in a yearly tax credit to give older residents even more…
People in Missouri prisons say food went from bad to worse when contractor took over
Missouri volunteer prison labor tends gardens that yield about 100 tons of fresh produce a year. For the most part, that food goes to local charities. The prisoners who grow it complain they get little fresh food. Instead, they get a lot of bologna. They say they’re served portions they consider too small and unappetizing.…
In Missouri, 66% of suicides come with a gun. So groups want firearms a little farther out of reach
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Even in Missouri — where politicians risk their careers talking about rules around guns — people will listen to your thoughts about firearm safety. In a place where two-thirds of the rising number of…
Kansas Supreme Court to decide if Wichita’s ‘noisy conduct’ ban violates First Amendment
It’s not what Gabrielle Griffie said, but how she said it, the city of Wichita argued before the Kansas Supreme Court Sept. 12. More specifically, how many people she said it with, and their reasons for saying it. Griffie was convicted of a misdemeanor — unlawful assembly — after leading a protest against police brutality…
The pandemic put Missouri mothers at greater violence risk, even homicide — especially if they were Black
Social isolation during the pandemic put Missouri’s Black moms in greater danger that their partner would kill them. A report from the state’s maternal mortality review board found that from 2018 to 2020, homicide was the third-leading cause of death for Missouri moms. Black women made up 75% of those deaths. Among those homicides, guns…
Missouri groups look for the strongest abortion rights that voters would back
Update (Nov. 22, 2023): After two losses in lower state courts, the Missouri Supreme Court on Nov. 20 denied hearing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s appeal, effectively ending the court battles over language for a set of initiative petitions aimed at restoring access to abortion in Missouri. The fight over the Missouri abortion ban begins…
Data dive: What spending more money on elections means for Kansas voter turnout
A county-by-county examination by The Beacon showed counties that spent more per voter got some payoff on turnout — with limits. Counties that spent less than $20 per registered voter tended to see turnout of about 40%. Those that spent more than $30 per voter could generally expect turnout north of 50%.
Kansas taxpayers — not casinos — are underwriting ‘free’ sports bets that entice gamblers
Kansas taxpayers subsidize the millions of dollars nationwide sports gambling apps hand out to bettors for their initial wagers that get them in the habit of gambling. The new sports betting industry also makes hardly any revenue for the state, amounting to a small drop in the bucket of the state’s multi-billion dollar operating budget.…
Kansans can lose big on sports betting with a single click. Experts want more protections
Online sports betting poses a heightened danger of addiction to Kansans. The new industry makes it legal and easier to place bets on things ranging from the outcome of games to the coin toss during the Super Bowl.
Missouri’s secretary of state reins in environmentally minded investing
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft says his rule is the first of its kind, placing Missouri on the cutting edge of how some states might think about regulating ESG, or “environmental, social and governance,” investing. The practice takes into account social concerns and personal beliefs.
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