The Star hires two breaking news reporters focused on public safety, inequality
The Kansas City Star has hired two reporters, adding strength to its coverage of breaking news and increasing its focus on issues of race, class and inequality.
Both reporters have joined the breaking news team.
Cortlynn Stark joined the team earlier this year, contributing to regular breaking news coverage while building a beat around the fault lines that divide our city. Anna Spoerre started Monday, boosting our coverage of public safety, criminal justice issues and profiling victims of violence in the Kansas City area.
Both have experience covering breaking news at previous posts around the country.
“Cortlynn and Anna are talented, thoughtful and dedicated reporters,” said Greg Farmer, The Star’s managing editor. “We’re fortunate to have them working on behalf of our readers and our great community.”
Stark, 22, is from Lawrence and finished an internship last summer at The Washington Post, where she covered crime, outbreaks of violence and city government.
She had previously been at The Star as an intern in the summer of 2018 and contributed to coverage of the Branson duck boat tragedy.
Since joining full-time, she has reported on racial discrimination complaints at city hall and at a local hospital, and covered the response of student leaders at Kansas State University to a campus group accused of white nationalist links.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she reported the story of a Kansas City, North, couple who found themselves unemployed and homeless as one of the pair tested positive for the coronavirus.
“I grew up in Lawrence, so I’m incredibly excited to be back in the area, serving the community and covering issues close to home,” Stark said.
“As I cover race and class issues across the metro, I’m looking forward to covering underrepresented communities and holding systems of power accountable.”
Spoerre, a 23-year-old native of southern Illinois, comes to The Star from the Des Moines Register, where she covered breaking news and courts.
In Des Moines, Spoerre told the story of a youth basketball coach accused of abusing boys for decades. And she reported the legal saga of a man acquitted of murder at trial, but held responsible in a civil suit, for his mother’s death.
She has covered floods and tornadoes around the region, including in Kansas.
“It’s cliche, but true: when journalists approach a breaking news scene they’re often encountering people living through some of the worst moments of their lives. The task of telling the stories of communities affected by crime shouldn’t be taken lightly; it requires empathy and attention to detail,” Spoerre said. “It’s a reporter’s job to continue asking why and how, even after the crime scene tape is long gone.”
Previously, as an intern at the Chicago Tribune, Spoerre covered crime and criminal justice with a special focus on gun violence. At the Oregonian, in Portland, Oregon, she reported on wildfires and protests and pulled back the curtain on the city’s underground street racing scene.
“One of the best ways The Star can serve the community is investing in its newsroom,” said Mike Fannin, The Star’s president and editor. “We’re thrilled to be adding resources at a time when Kansas City needs us more than ever.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.