Trees and power lines fall as storm blows into Kansas City

The feared tornadoes didn’t come Sunday evening. But the heavy winds, which split trees and downed power lines on both sides of the state line, sure did. West of Kansas City, a tornado touched down in rural Lyon County, Kan., causing structural damage to homes (pictured).

U.S. suburbs have more poor than the cities do, study finds

The number of impoverished people in America’s suburbs surged 64 percent in the past decade, creating for the first time a landscape in which the suburban poor outnumber the urban poor, a new report shows. Around Kansas City, patterns of poverty have been quietly shifting for some time.

First Kauffman Scholars prepare to graduate

Now in their senior years of college, more than half of the 125 in the first class have fallen out of college or are not on pace to graduate within five years. From the moment the foundation launched its first class as seventh-graders in 2003, it knew the critical measure of its investment would come now, 10 years later.

In Kansas, it’s lawmakers versus the courts

The 2013 session of the Kansas Legislature nears an end with the chief justice of the state Supreme Court accusing a leading senator with political coercion. Meantime, efforts are picking up steam to force appellate judges into retirement and to build separate civil and criminal appeals courts.

Two $1 million Powerball tickets sold in Missouri

The Powerball ticket now worth an estimated $590.5 million wasn’t sold in Missouri. But two Missouri Powerball players were so close to picking all the winning numbers that that their tickets are worth $1 million each.

Shadows of dishonor cast on the U.S. military

The military, ranked as America's most trusted institution by its citizens but strained by 11 years of war, faces a troubling confluence: acts of mayhem, a growing sexual abuse scandal, a flurry of other misconduct cases. “We’re seeing a strain on an institution,” one expert says.

Party bus was operating illegally at time of fatal fall

The owners of the party bus didn't get the required U.S. Department of Transportation number. That registration would have required inspection and repairs on the bus on which the “door ajar” warning system wasn't working. When the bus hit a bump, the doors popped open and a woman tumbled to her death on Interstate 35.

Slain UMKC vocalist is honored at commencement

Aaron Markarian was killed this spring before he got a chance to walk with his graduating class at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. On Saturday, the school named a scholarship in his honor.

Hearts broken over girl killed in Cass County wreck

One day after Savannah Nash celebrated her 16th birthday on May 8, she picked up her Missouri driver’s license. One week later, she died in a traffic accident. The Harrisonville High School freshman, an honor roll student and Future Farmers of America competitor, was driving alone on Thursday afternoon, only 100 yards from her house.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is busy behind the scenes

Jay Nixon is a hands-off governor. That’s the word in the statehouse. He’s out of sight, disconnected, a distant presence rather than a dominating force, Republicans and more than a few Democrats say. But six hours spent with the two-term governor just two days before final adjournment revealed a chief executive anything but disengaged.

The Kansas death penalty has cobwebs

It may be weeks before Kansans know if prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Kyle Flack, accused of killing four people in Franklin County this spring. It will take far longer — 10 years or more — before anyone in the state is actually put to death for a crime. And that time gap, advocates on both sides of the death penalty debate say, suggests the state remains deeply uneasy about the punishment — an ambivalence that muddies its value.

Many reports about priest preceded boy’s suicide, parents say

The motion, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, is packed with excerpts from depositions of dozens of witnesses — including priests and nuns — and an affidavit from a former school board member at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, who said she complained about Monsignor Thomas O’Brien’s alleged inappropriate behavior to a former bishop, then resigned and pulled her son from the school in the 1980s because nothing was done about it.

Group launches petition drive opposing KCI overhaul

Opponents of a new terminal at KCI Airport are launching an initiative petition drive to press their cause. They hope to place a measure on a city ballot saying that the city can’t build a new airport terminal without a public vote.

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