From stories of loss to stories of hope, Kansas City residents open up about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their lives.
Wichita
Posted inEducation
College campuses in Kansas and Missouri are reopening, but many professors and staff can’t get a COVID-19 vaccine
The deaths of professors from COVID-19 highlight the delicate balance schools face in protecting staff while offering the fullest possible education to students.
Posted inEconomics
In the midst of a pandemic, tenants face the looming threat of eviction
The end of the Jackson County, Missouri, eviction moratorium in response to COVID-19 has highlighted issues around access to low-income housing in Kansas City, Missouri. Meanwhile, Kansans on the other side of the state line have more protections.
Posted inCivic Engagement
Wide-ranging policies give Kansas and Missouri cops discretion for violence
Policy solutions to stop police killings are gaining more traction in local governments. Launched in early June by the nonprofit police reform group Campaign Zero, a data-backed research platform called 8 Can’t Wait outlines eight specific use-of-force policies to reduce the number of police killings. But local adoption of these policies varies widely, an analysis by The Beacon found.
Posted inEducation
Kansas and Missouri colleges are scrambling to navigate higher ed in a COVID-19 world
With an increase in COVID-19 cases in Kansas and Missouri and less than two months before the semester begins, college administrators in and around Kansas City are still scrambling to figure out exactly what school will look like this fall in a coronavirus world — and if students are going to show up.
Posted inEnvironment
How invasive plants could overrun America’s largest remaining tallgrass prairie
America’s last stand of tallgrass prairie — primarily located in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas and extending to the north and south — is being overgrown by non-native plants.
Posted inHealth
As testing ramps up, local health officials seek to slow coronavirus so hospitals aren’t overrun
So far, Kansas and Missouri seem to have been relatively spared from coronavirus and the illness it causes, COVID-19.