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KC Week in Review
May 17, 2013
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THIS WEEK: Friday, May 17, 2013 @ 7:30 pm
(Rebroadcast Sunday @ 11 am )
Photo Credit: Gawker.Com
TERMINAL MAKEOVERS: You’ve been listening for months now to the debate over whether Kansas City should change the design of KCI airport from a three terminal to a one-terminal design. Well what’s been the experience in other cities that have splashed out lots of money on new airport makeovers? This week the Kansas City Star examined that issue and in every comparable city they examined, passenger traffic is down and so are aircraft departures.
CURFEW STALLED: Have plans for a 9pm year-round teen curfew in Kansas City fizzled out? A vote on the measure was delayed yet again at City Hall this week.
KCMO SCHOOL TAKEOVER: Missouri lawmakers this week drop on to the Governor’s desk legislation allowing an immediate takeover of the Kansas City, MO district. Will Governor Nixon sign the measure in to law? And what impact will it have on the beleaguered district?
GORDON PARKS: The parents of more than 200 elementary school children at a Kansas City charter school are forced to a find a new place to educate their kids this week. The Missouri State Department of Education is shutting down Gordon Parks Elementary School after 13 years due to low test scores.
LOCKED IN BASEMENT: The Jackson County Prosecutor’s office this week charge a local couple with keeping their 9-year-old girl locked in the basement for months because she lacked bladder control. Authorities say the 9 year old was sleeping on a mostly deflated air mattress near an exposed sewage pipe. An interior door leading to the basement was secured by a lock and chain and had been outfitted with an alarm that sounded when the door was opened.
AMTRAK: Is Kansas City about to lose its Amtrak rail service to St. Louis? The twice-a-day train is in jeopardy according to a story this week in the Kansas City Star. The issue taxpayers spend $1.5 billion a year to subsidize passenger train travel, and the federal government — weary of a four-decade effort to keep the company afloat — wants to move more of Amtrak’s costs onto states and riders. At a cost of $9,600 per ride to operate the train, Missouri taxpayers would be on the hook for $8.5 million a year.
LIBERTY HOSPITAL LAYS OFF 129 EMPLOYEES, BLAMES OBAMACARE: 129 workers at Liberty Hospital are getting their pink slips. They are being eliminated this week as part of an effort to reduce expenses by $20 million. Devastated employees including nurses and some senior managers left the hospital in tears after being told to collect their belongings.
GOOGLE EVERYWHERE: Gladstone, Grandview, Raytown, Shawnee, Olathe. Plus, Austin, TX and Provo, UT. The list keeps growing by the week. Are leaders in KCK and KCMO feeling they’ve lost their specialness now that the internet giant is inking “special” deals with all these other cities?
THIS WEEK’S NEWS REVIEWERS:
Lynn Horsley
Kansas City Star
Sam Zeff
KCPT Special Correspondent
Mary Sanchez
Kansas City Star
Dave Helling
Kansas City Star
KC Week in Review
May 10, 2013
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THIS WEEK: Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 7:30 pm
(Rebroadcast Sunday @ 11 am )
Photo Credit: KansasCity.Com
CLEVELAND ABDUCTION TO KC CLOSET: The Cleveland abduction case in which three women were locked away for a decade before being finally liberated this week brings with it questions about how this can happen, for so long, without anyone noticing? But they happen more often than we care to acknowledge. Just this past week, the files on a 10 year-old Kansas City girl locked in a closet for years are finally released by the state. The files reveal how a whole community including neighbors, school and social service workers missed repeated opportunities to rescue the girl who was forced to live in her own urine and feces. The 10 year-old known as LP weighed just 26 pounds, the size many babies reach at 18 months.
OTTAWA HOMICIDES: Sometimes citizens aren’t willing to take no for an answer and are willing to press forward with their gut feelings. In Ottawa, KS this week, it took the relentless pursuit of friends and not the police to uncover what ultimately turned out to be a triple homicide. This ongoing crime story has brought with it a number of bigger public policy questions including controversy over when law enforcement should trigger an Amber Alert.
MISSOURI PASSES FIRST INCOME TAX REDUCTIONS IN 90 YEARS: Big cuts in corporate and personal income tax rates are sent to the Governor’s desk. Missouri lawmakers also approve a new 50% deduction in business income reported on individual tax returns. The tax cut could reduce state revenue by an estimated $700 million a year. Is the move simply a game of catch-up with Kansas? And will the Governor sign the cuts into law?
SHOULD TEACHERS BE GRADED ON A YEARLY BASIS AND THOSE THAT FAIL BE FIRED? Wealthy St. Louis businessman Rex Sinquefield is actively pushing a statewide measure that would do just that after an effort in the Missouri legislature to impose yearly evaluations on teachers narrowly fails. The bill would have assigned teachers one of four ratings: highly effective, effective, minimally effective or ineffective. At least 33% of the evaluation would be based on the academic achievement and growth of students.
SHOCKINGLY LARGE PROPERTY APPRAISALS DROP INTO MAILBOXES: In Jackson County, some of those home appraisals were 5 times as high as last year’s. The Kansas City Star reported on one resident who saw her 3-bedroom home on the rolls at $48,000 last year be appraised at $229,000 this year. Roughly 70,000 Jackson County residents are getting the new appraisals delivered through their mailboxes this week.
THIS WEEK’S NEWS REVIEWERS:
Stacey Cameron
KCTV5
Mary Sanchez
Kansas City Star
Scott Parks
KMBZ 98.1 FM
Dave Helling
Kansas City Star
KC Week in Review
May 3, 2013
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THIS WEEK: Friday, May 3, 2013 @ 7:30 pm
(Rebroadcast Sunday @ 11 am )
Photo Credit: KansasCity.Com
ZOO DIRECTOR: It’s great weather for penguins. So who better to join us this week that the man who’s bringing us penguins, Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff. The KC Zoo makes news this week as more than 2000 visitors wait in line for hours in the cold to get a sneak peek at a totally empty and still unfinished penguin exhibit.
HISTORY AT THE REP: The Kansas City Repertory Theater is nominated for a Tony award. It’s a first for the 49 year old theater company. We’re joined by the theater’s producing director Jerry Genochio.
HCA BUYS ST. JOE & ST. MARY’S: For profit hospital chain HCA expands its footprint in Kansas City this week by buying two longtime Catholic hospitals in the metro.
NORTH KC HOSPITAL: A bill preventing the hospital from being sold without a public vote lands on Governor Jay Nixon’s Desk. Also this week, the city’s new mayor and a majority of the council say they are opposed to the sale of the hospital. Is this the end of this long-running and divisive saga?
HOMESCHOOLING: It’s the fastest growing segment of American education. But remarkably, there is very little regulation of homeschooling in Kansas or Missouri. KCPT’s special correspondent Sam Zeff took a closer look at the trend on this week’s The Local Show and responds to more questions from Nick Haines.
THIS WEEK’S GUESTS:
Randy Wisthoff
KC Zoo Director
Jerry Genochio
KC Rep Theater, Producing Director
Sam Zeff
KCPT Special Correspondent
KC Week in Review
April 26, 2013
THIS WEEK: Friday, April 26, 2013 @ 7:30 pm
(Rebroadcast Sunday @ 11 am )
YEAR-ROUND CURFEW: Is one solution to the problem of teens causing disturbances on the Country Club Plaza to extend a 9pm summer curfew ordinance year-round? A proposal at City Hall to do just that, led to a blunt discussion about race this week. One city councilman points out that all 34 curfew violation tickets have been served on black teenagers.
A TERMINAL PETITION: This week, a group of Kansas City residents filed paperwork with the city clerk’s office in Kansas City to start a formal challenge to the planning for a new terminal at KCI Airport. The group of five petitioners is seeking a referendum on what they say is an unnecessary and wasteful $1.2 billion expenditure. The city insists the effort is totally invalid.
BROWNBACK: Why is the Kansas Governor on a campaign to preserve what some see as an unpopular tax? This week, Governor Brownback goes on a tour of university campuses trying to prevent them from losing millions of dollars in cuts from the state legislature. Lawmakers are refusing to renew a one-percent state sales tax imposed during the administration of Governor Brownback’s predecessor, Democrat Mark Parkinson. But Brownback says if the tax is not renewed, it would mean a 4 percent cut to universities and that would be a “momentum killer” for the state.
GUNS: The Jackson County Sheriff’s office is extending its administrative office hours to keep up with the number of people coming in seeking a concealed weapons permit. Sheriff Mike Sharp says concealed firearm permits are already up 53% on last year. In Clay County, they’re up 50 percent. Why?
MEDICAID EXPANSION: Republican Senators made it clear this week there will be no Medicaid expansion in Missouri this session. The Republican-led Senate voted down a Democratic attempt to insert $890 million of federal funds into Missouri’s budget to expand Medicaid eligibility to an estimated 260,000 lower-income adults.
HOLLAND SWORN IN: New Wyandotte County Mayor Mark Holland was finally sworn into office this week. But there was a noticeable absence at the standing room only affair in the commission chambers.
DRIVERS LICENSES: If you trying to get a new drivers license in Missouri, you might have a hard time. As punishment for the Department of Revenue’s decision to share private concealed weapon permit information to federal authorities, the Missouri Senate this week voted to defund the entire budget of the Missouri Drivers License Bureau. What does it mean to you?
This week’s news reviewers:
Eric Wesson
The Call
Stacey Cameron
KCTV5
Steve Kraske
KC Star/KCUR
Dave Helling
Kansas City Star
