We headed to the East Crossroads, an area known for its small businesses, and asked people on the street what they thought about a new stadium in the area. The Kansas City Royals have set their sights on the Star Press Pavilion in the Crossroads as their new home. It’s not unheard of. Lots of large cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas and St. Louis have inner-city stadiums, but should Kansas City follow suit? What do citizens really think about the new plans for their city?  Does a ballpark belong in the East Crossroads? Well, that depends on who you ask. Christian Shawnee Photogra ..read more

In mid-February, the Royals owners threw the East Crossroads a ninth inning curveball, announcing their desire to build a new ballpark in the footprint of the former Kansas City Star building rather than any of the previous locales that had been kicked around. The reaction from the community at large has been swift and mixed. It’s not only an extremely expensive proposal, estimated to cost more than $2 billion-plus, but also one that some say would change the character of a unique Kansas City arts and entertainment-focused neighborhood.  The masterminds behind the Crossroads proposal see ..read more

Anyone who tears down a pride flag or rips up an LGBTQ poster in Kansas City thinking it’s just a prank is in for a rude awakening. That same prankster could now go to jail and pay a hefty fine. “We see a lot of violence which can escalate from a situation like that,” Kansas City 4th District-at-Large Councilmember Crispin Rea says.  A tougher city hate crime ordinance, with additional sentencing and fines, is now on the books, with language that specifically applies to the LGBTQ community (citing gender identity as a protected class) or any other group or person victimized by words or ac ..read more

This could be the last fall harvest for the farmland at 135th Street and Stateline Road in Leawood. After years of debate over the merits of a massive development project known as East Leawood Village, the City Council finally approved the first several phases of the $300 million development project that will see homes, shops, parks, trails and, eventually, an amphitheater replace acres of farmland. It hasn’t been easy for Rick Oddo, president of Lenexa-based Oddo Development, who is spearheading the project. The last few years have been contentious, with Oddo, residents and city planners ofte ..read more

Filmed in east Missouri, the major motion picture Gone Girl brought close to $7.9 million into Cape Girardeau’s local economy in a matter of weeks.  Not long after the film’s 2014 release, tourists from across the country looking to go on the “Gone Girl driving tour” poured into the approximately forty thousand-person town, says Steph Shannon, Kansas City Film Office director. “That could be any town in Missouri.” Armed with information like this, Shannon and others had been lobbying state legislators and Missouri Governor Mike Parson to renew a film tax credit program that had gone dorma ..read more

Lawmakers are hoping a new bill giving tax credits to companies that hire college interns will stop Missouri’s brain drain.  There is no lack of qualified individuals in the state, says Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc., a nonprofit composed of businesses and civic organizations created to spur economic development. “Missouri colleges and universities build a strong pipeline for undergraduate talent,” Hall says. “But our team found that we are exporting twenty thousand of those college graduates to other states, and that is unacceptable.” Earlier this year, Governor Mike Parson si ..read more

Mark Alford, the former co-host of Fox 4’s morning show, will run for Congress. Alford, who has voiced complaints about being “a conservative Christian who supports small business” in Kansas City media will run for U.S. Congress in Missouri’s sprawling fourth Congressional district, which currently runs from Raymore in the west all the way to Columbia and includes northern parts of the Ozarks. Alford will run as a Republican and announced his run on the local talk radio station that airs Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin. Alford already has his campaign website live, complete w ..read more

Elisa and Marjain Breitenbach “hate politics.” The owners of Doughboys Donuts in Raytown wake up at 1 am to start their day so they can be stocked with Bismarks and red velvet cake doughnuts when they open before dawn. Making doughnuts, they say, is enough to keep them busy on most days. “This doughnut business has been our life,” Marjain says. “We eat, sleep, drink this doughnut business. Everyone knows we’re conservative.” The Breitenbachs have been known to hang a political sign or two in their window, including one in August that said, “Stop importing COVID from Mexico, unmask truth.” “We ..read more

Across the country, police departments are struggling to retain and hire officers. Kansas City is no stranger to the struggle. Of almost two hundred police departments surveyed nationwide by the Police Executive Research Forum in May of 2021, there was a forty-five percent increase in the retirement rate, an eighteen percent increase in the resignation rate and a five percent decrease in the hiring rate. And according to the police chief of Kansas City, Missouri, numbers here are also on the decline. Chief Richard Smith wrote a blog post about his declining workforce and lack of new officers ..read more

Sitting near the exact center of the country, Kansas City seems isolated from the extreme weather plaguing the coasts during this time of climate change. There are no shrinking shorelines to worry about nor forest fires due to the area’s humidity. That doesn’t mean Kansas City is immune. “Although the extreme isn’t right here in our backyard, is it going to affect us in some other way?” asks Doug Kluck, the Central Region climate service director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Often the case is yes.” Some risks are simply side effects from greater outside calamities ..read more