Data show Mission is the KC area’s traffic ticket capital

An analysis by The Star finds that Mission is the Kansas City area’s king of traffic enforcement, issuing more citations in a year than many suburbs three times its size. Officials say the reason for the high number is safety, not a policy to generate revenue.

National leader urges on KC effort to improve child literacy

The goal of Turn the Page KC is to get all children reading at grade level by the third grade. Ralph Smith, the managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and a senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, hopes the local campaign will find things that work and inspire greater effort on a national level.

KC man gets 12-year sentence for stabbing at Penn Valley campus

Casey Brezik thought he was lunging at Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon when he stabbed Al Dimmitt, a dean at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, in the neck and wounded another administrator in 2010. On Monday, a Jackson County judge sentenced Brezik to 12 years in prison.

Overland Park man drowns in rip current off the Alabama coast

John Hogue, 51, was one of three swimmers pulled under Sunday by dangerous rip currents in the Gulf of Mexico off the Fort Morgan Peninsula near Gulf Shores, Ala. The body of a man from Bossier, La., was also recovered. A Kentucky man is still missing.

Jackson County taxpayers get more time to appeal assessments

Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders has extended by a month the deadline for all taxpayers to appeal assessment notices sent out in May, not just those who got notices saying their properties were being re-evaluated. Those 18,000-plus corrected notices will go out next week.

Festival of Fountains overflows with fun

At Sunday's Festival of Fountains at Union Station, Kansas Citians took a day to appreciate the city's fountains on Sunday and to contemplate the millions of dollars needed to keep the decorative waters flowing.

Drowning at Lakewood Lakes stills a talented young voice

Emmanuel “Manny” Palmer, a 16-year-old who just finished his sophomore year at Raytown High School, died in a swimming accident over the weekend. The 16-year-old who’d just wrapped up his sophomore year at Raytown High School failed to cross a cove with friends at private Lakewood Lakes on Saturday.

Twenty years after the Great Flood, we dread the next deluge

Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars over two decades to reduce the potential damage from another massive flood like the one that ravaged Missouri and eight other states in 1993. The people behind that spending say it has worked — we’re much safer today, they say, than in 1993. But should another monumental rainy season repeat the performance of two decades ago, the region could once again find itself drowning.

LP’s world: What the documents reveal

A year ago this month, Kansas Citians read about a severely malnourished 10-year-old girl rescued from a locked closet. Readers then learned that the state agency charged with protecting Missouri’s children was refusing to release records in the girl’s case and others. The Star battled for months for the documents. The state finally handed over the file, revealing troubling lapses and questionable judgments that set the stage for tragedy.

Dragon boats take over Brush Creek

Part science, part teamwork, part fun — teams fought to find the right formula in dragon boat races Saturday near the Country Club Plaza. The races were part of the ninth annual Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival sponsored by the Society for Friendship With China and the Kansas City-Xi’an Sister City Committee.

Hometown kid, Street League Skateboarding roll into Kansas City

Leavenworth’s Sean Malto rides into town with Street League Skateboarding as Kansas City serves as the third stop on the league’s world tour. Malto, currently in second place, craves a good outing to remain in contention for the league’s $2 million prize.

Warrensburg murder defendant posts bond, but judge won’t let him out of jail

Ziyad Abid, a Saudi national who had been attending the University of Central Missouri, is charged with paying a former bouncer to kill a Warrensburg bar owner. Johnson County, Mo., Circuit Judge Michael Wagner has acknowledged he may be violating the Missouri Constitution, but he said in court that he is bothered that the government of Saudi Arabia provided Abid’s bond money — $2 million in cash.

Public gets first input as KCI study panel meets

At the group’s first public meeting Thursday, the panel said its goal will be to recommend the best airport to serve the region now and for future generations. But already the initiative has been embroiled in a minor controversy. Two people were excluded from the meeting at Union Station.

Recession slowed Schlitterbahn water park’s big splash

As the new season opens, Schlitterbahn water park is drawing plenty of customers in swimsuits, but grander plans for the northeast corner of Interstate 435 and State Avenue in Wyandotte County ran into the buzz saw of the recession.