People in Kansas City have to be casting a cautious eye toward China and the fire that raced through a poultry plant Monday in northeastern China, killing at least 119 people. Kansas Citians would be particularly concerned after the recent announcement that China’s biggest pork producer, Shuanghui International plans to buy Smithfield in the United States, which includes Farmland Foods in Kansas City.
With the whirl of tornadoes and terrible rain hitting the area, it’s no hard sell for most people to now accept a new report showing that millions of people worldwide in 2012 were displaced by climate- and weather-related events.
“Education plays a large role” in leveling any playing field, says Stephen Green, superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools. Green’s job is to help get students past the hurdles of poverty, crime and violence so they don’t fall short of their own and Martin Luther King’s dreams.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has talked about the problems of Congress before, but from what he described Thursday night the political discord appears to have gotten worse. Political infighting and a lack of civility in Congress are hurting the country, he said.
In the last three months of 2012 U.S. households recovered $14.7 billion, The Associated Press reports. But the average Joe and Josephine Sixpack didn’t much feel it because nearly two-thirds of the wealth recovery since 2009 was caused by stock market gains, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
In weather like Friday in Kansas City, the cars of the future will have to have duck or fish app on the dashboard to enable the vehicle to get people to where they want to go despite the heavy downpours.
The trend of women being the biggest breadwinner in the family has been growing for decades as more women have entered the work force in increasing numbers. It benefits household incomes but stresses relationships in families with children as people struggle over which adult gets what non-employment duties.
McDonald’s is struggling to get more customers to buy salads. But ask yourself: When was the last time you went to a McDonald’s, known for its fast and filling hamburgers, tasty and addictive french fries and calorie laden drinks just so you could order a salad?
Most of the nation is probably rejoicing, although Rep. Michele Bachmann’s decision not to seek a fifth term undoubtably has the late night comedians in tears. Where will they get camera-ready material for their stand-up routines? How will they get audiences to laugh out loud any more at congressional and tea party antics?
Kansas City is stepping into the future with plans add solar panels and equipment to 80 city buildings. Perhaps soon, more homeowners and businesses also will put up solar panels to turn the sun’s rays into electric power.
You’ve got to love the American legal system. It often gets the whole justice thing right. That was the case in a federal court judge ruling Friday that the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office — as people long suspected — went too far in singling out Latinos during the department’s immigration patrols.
Black youths must realize that, just as in Martin Luther King’s era, they must excel in education. Anita L. Russell, the president of the Kansas City branch of the NAACP, says African-Americans’ history has to be preserved so that young people will feel the same responsibility to continue to advance.
Being closed for the Memorial Day holiday, has to make people at the Internal Revenue Service feel like a beat up prize fighter as the bell rings saving them from going down.
If Gov. Sam Brownback signs the bill into law, he will make all of the new businesses and people he is trying to attract to Kansas a lot happier because neither the newcomers nor longtime residents will have to go to Missouri as much for enjoyment.
Adding more red-light cameras or changing the locations could make city streets even safer. But officials first need to decide what should occur at dozens of intersections where stoplights last year were replaced with stop signs.
Rebuilding Moore, Okla., , where a two-mile wide, EF-5 tornado on Monday ripped up the town, will start soon with help from the federal government and relief agencies. This is a time for Moore residents and city officials to plan to rebuild the city green.
Gordon Parks Elementary School is seeking a second chance to prove it has the educational firepower to benefit the low-income children. It now has to show it has the juice to make the turnaround a reality.
By shopping in Kansas, Missourians and people in other neighboring states could help supplement Kansas revenues until Kansas grabs enough businesses from surrounding states lured by Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts.
Violence in Iraq continues to claim more lives as sectarian tensions worsen. The instability after the U.S. military pull-out in 2011 doesn’t bode well for Afghanistan when U.S. fighting forces are set to leave next year.
The Obama administration seems intent on being the villain in its second term while making Fox News and conservatives out to be heroic victims. That appears to be the outcome of the growing scandals that surround President Barack Obama and the White House.
North Korea seems to feel a need to constantly seek the world’s attention. When leaders in that destitute communist nation don’t get it, they blow something up to get heads to turn toward them.
Priority should be given to a bill Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced Friday that would kill bonuses for members of the Senior Executive Service at a time when sequestration is cutting pay for most federal workers and hurting everyday citizens.
Julia Hill, a civil rights pioneer and a former president of the Kansas City school board, cautions that people have to turn away from texting, social media and cellphones and talk with others. It is the only way problems will be identified and solved. Civil rights advances in the next 50 years will only occur if everyone is involved.
President Barack Obama is right to insist that the U.S. military end the sexual abuse problem that has plagued the armed forces. But this isn’t just an armed forces problem. This is a major concern for all aspects of American society.
Gordon Parks Elementary School at 3715 Wyoming St. served many underprivileged children — 94 percent qualify for free or reduced lunches and 16 percent are special education students. But the school struggled unsuccessfully throughout its 13-year history to raise students’ academic performance.
