Sculptor John Salvest used 105 cargo containers to send a message. The temporary installation rests directly across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The red, white and blue containers spell “IOU” on one side and “USA” on the other. The piece is supposed to provoke commentary about our monetary policy and current debt crisis and spark discussion about both our economy and the role the Federal Reserve plays in it. As you can imagine the Fed was none too pleased with the project and initially fought its installation. See it for yourself…now through October 16th.
What sort of message do you think the artist is trying to send?
It is more than two and a half years since Congress passed and the President signed the Affordable Care Act. And it has been a good three months now since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal healthcare law. This week, The Local Show goes on location at the Kauffman Foundation for a conversation with regional health leaders to get a status report on how Kansas and Missouri are implementing these reforms and how the law is impacting small business owners, the uninsured, college students and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
It’s complicated…head scratching stuff. Do you know what a state health insurance exchange is? It’s one of the basic questions we get to the bottom of in this program.
Also, a quick reality check on the Affordable Care Act. Did you Know that while many of its most controversial provisions don’t go into effect until 2014, you can keep your college age kids on your health insurance plan until their 26. That is in effect now. And insurers are no longer allowed to charge women more than men simply because of their gender. Plus, insurance companies can no longer charge or require a co-pay for over 60 preventative care services.
Currently, 48 million Americans don’t have health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is supposed to dramatically diminish that number by providing, finally in this country, an affordable option for most Americans through the creation of new insurance pools managed by the states where people could get coverage at a reasonable price.
States are to start enrolling patients starting next year so that by 2014 they would be covered by health insurance, but as of now, only 15 states have established those so called “state health exchanges” and Kansas and Missouri are not among them.
In Missouri, there’s a statewide issue on the ballot November 6th that, if approved by voters, would block the governor or any Missouri agency from creating a state health exchange without approval from voters or the legislature.
In Kansas, Governor Brownback has chosen not to work towards establishing an exchange until the results of the Presidential election are known.
The panelists for this discussion include:
Jay Anghoff, Regional Director
U.S. Health Department
Andrea Routh, Executive Director
Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance
Sheldon Weisgrau, Director
Health Reform Resource Project
Ryan Barker, Public Policy Director
Missouri Foundation for Health
Have you ever felt overwhelmed… and just really needed to talk? Sometimes a little conversation can go a long way. Sadly, many mentally ill people are all alone. For them, a local non-profit is ready to lend a friendly ear.
“The Compassionate Ear” is a peer-to-peer warm line that provides non-clinical, non-crisis support.
“The Ear” is staffed by volunteers who have lived through similar experiences. They are confidants who understand how devastating and isolating the experience of mental illness can be.
KCPT is committed this year to shedding a greater spotlight on issues surrounding mental health. Mental illnesses are not talked about a lot and the stigma associated with these illnesses mean many people struggle with their conditions in isolation. Just having someone who’s willing to listen can be huge.
“Compassionate Ear” is a 365 days-a-year phone line that is staffed by volunteers who themselves have suffered with mental health problems. They offer non-medical, non-crisis support for people looking for advice, tips, or just a reprieve from their loneliness. It’s a service of the Kansas City, Kansas based Mental Health America of the Heartland which is now fielding more than 300 calls a month.
The Compassionate Ear phone line service operates from 4 to 10 pm everyday including holidays. You can receive peer support through the Compassionate Ear by calling 1-866-WARM EAR.
Can you imagine an inner-city high school in Kansas City where most of the kids are black and hispanic, almost all come from impoverished backgrounds and qualify for free or reduced lunch and yet nearly everyone graduates and goes on to college? Well, there is such a school. It’s called Cristo Rey, a four-year Catholic college prep high school where students help pay for their education by working a job once a week.
As part of KCPT’s Difference Maker series, producer Cara Meyers profiles Cristo Rey, which you’ll find one block east of Broadway on Linwood boulevard in the heart of the city.
By the way, working one day helps pay for about 60 percent of the students’ education. The rest is picked up through generous scholarships. Most families pay between 10 and 30 dollars a month for their child to attend the school.
For more than twenty years, Dr. Sharon Lee has been providing medical care to the region’s poor and uninsured at her non-profit, safety net health clinic on Southwest Boulevard. Among the earliest treated at the clinic were HIV AIDS patients, when few in Kansas City knew anything about the disease. Today, it’s diabetes, high blood pressure and other health issues, all treated regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Remarkably, Dr. Lee pays herself the same salary as the clinic’s janitor and receptionist. That’s right: an MD who makes $14 an hour. Sean Holmes produced our story.
Our KCPT Difference Maker segment has been made possible by support from the insurance firm of Haas & Wilkerson.
Kansas City has never had a major children’s musuem like a lot of big cities although there have been plenty of people over the year’s who have advocated for one and still do.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t places you can go NOW in our metro where kids can experience the wonder of discovery. We take you to a converted elementary school in Shawnee, Kansas where they’ve been filling kids with “wonder” since 1989. They call it Wonderscope.
In 1988, the Johnson County Commissioners established a task force to study programs and activities available for children and their families in the local community. The study concluded that there was a shortage of hands-on, interactive programs of interest to entire families. In response to that unmet community need, Wonderscope Children’s Museum was founded in 1989, offering exhibits and programs in a former elementary school in Shawnee, Kansas.
Also in 1989, Children’s Museum of Kansas City opened to its first group tours in the Carriage House of the Kansas State School for the Visually Handicapped. Marty Porter, the museum’s founder and executive director, had started conversations about a children’s museum in Kansas City, Kansas in 1984. In 1990, CMKC moved into the Indian Springs Shopping Center, offering exhibits, programming at the museum and through outreach, and the Recycled Materials Center.
In 2003, Beyond the Book incorporated to serve children and families with a unique hands-on approach to teaching children about the arts and sciences through literature. Beyond the Book was also committed to creating a leading-edge children’s museum experience in Kansas City.
In spring of 2006, the respective boards of Wonderscope and Beyond the Book agreed that it would be in the best interests of both organizations and the community to explore the potential for a collaborative approach to achieving the common vision for a large-scale children’s museum. In May 2007, Beyond the Book merged into Wonderscope, creating one combined entity, with a combined board, combined leadership and integrated programming. The merged organization began conversations with Children’s Museum of Kansas City. In May of 2008, Children’s Museum of Kansas City merged into Wonderscope Children’s Museum to become Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Kansas City, operating out of Wonderscope’s site in Shawnee. This merger effectively brought all of the children’s museum interests in the metropolitan area together to achieve the vision of developing a world-class children’s museum for Kansas City.
Picture steam rising from a sewer grate on a rain-slicked street. The sound of footsteps come closer and closer behind you as you walk down a dark, downtown Kansas City alley. If this scenario entices you, then you just might enjoy Kansas City Noir, a new anthology of short stories that takes readers on a journey through Kansas City’s seedy underbelly. The book’s editor is Steve Paul from the Kansas City Star who writes in the introduction that this is a city that’s home to its share of serial killers and moral turpitude. He sat down with Randy Mason to share that gritty side of our town.
The book includes short stories from some of the region’s best authors including J. Malcolm Garcia, Grace Suh, Daniel Woodrell, Kevin Prufer, Matthew Eck, Philip Stephens, Catherine Browder, John Lutz, Nancy Pickard, Linda Rodriguez, Andrés Rodríguez, Mitch Brian, Nadia Pflaum, and Phong Nguyen.
Steve Paul and contributors Catherine Browder, Nancy Pickard, and Linda Rodriguez will be presenting readings from the book on Saturday, November 3 at 11 a.m. at Mysteryscape which is located at 7309 W. 80th St. in Overland Park.
The beginning of May is when the new Legoland Discovery Center is set to open at Crown Center. The company has been hiring for Kansas City’s latest attraction.
They decided to have applicants compete against each other for the full-time job of master model builder. The winner of this golden ticket will be responsible for building cool models on site, doing the upkeep on the Miniland which will involve scale down lego versions of Kansas city landmarks and working with kids.
Around 200 people squared off in what the company called the Brick Factor Competition, but it’s a Kansas City Missouri school teacher and Renaissance Festival Performer who’s going to get the full=time gig and coveted title of king of lego…or perhaps the more professional title “lego master model builder.”
And the winner is…Jeremiah Boehr. We leave you this week with a look at the highly competitive world of lego model building.
The Fifth Annual Art of the Car Concours® will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 26 on the Kansas City Art Institute campus. The show will feature more than 180 vintage, classic and special-interest vehicles, including cars, trucks, racing cars and vintage motorcycles belonging to collectors from eight states. Vehicles from Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina and Oklahoma will be on view.
This event, a benefit for the KCAI scholarship fund, is growing in popularity and stature among vintage and classic collectors. The Concours is unique for its size and scale in having no formal judging and no classes of vehicles. The intention is to provide a wide range of very high-quality, original, vintage vehicles in an eclectic, informal setting, without the pressure of traditional Concours events. This year’s event is presented by the Mercedes-Benz Dealers of Kansas City and Aristocrat Motors.
You probably don’t realize how much time is spent trying to figure out how to pay for education in Kansas and Missouri.
Did you know for instance, that in Kansas last year, 62 percent of the entire budget went to fund schools and universities? It’s so important that even the courts have got involved setting up one of the most contentious fights in this legislative session.
But should judges be telling lawmakers how much they should be spending in the classroom? As Sam Zeff reports, its an issue you could soon be deciding at the ballot box as the clash over education funding turns into a battle over how the state picks its judges.
Lead funding of KCPT’S reporting of education issues is funded in part by a generous grant from the Kauffman Foundation and additional civic funders.
Production support provided by:
Majestic Rhinos, LLC
film & digital moving pictures www.MajesticRhinos.com
