Top Star Opinion stories: Tipping culture, backlash and reading gaps. What you missed
The Kansas City Star’s opinion section tackled a strange but fascinating mixture of stories this week about tipping culture, unemployment, local politics and education. Here’s a digest of the top opinion stories readers are talking about.
• Pay us back: Kansas overpays jobless checks for years and now wants the cash back. Really? Yvette Walker and Mará Rose Williams debate whether Kansas should ask for repayment of unemployment benefits overpaid since as early as 2019.
• Modern tipping quandaries: Columnist David Hudnall spoke with KU marketing professor Rob Waiser about why tipping has spread into unlikely corners of the economy. Waiser argues tips should be based on distinctiveness, visibility and proportionality — not social pressure or guilt from a flipped iPad screen.
• A KC coffee shop’s no-tipping experiment: Take Care in the Crossroads abandoned its no-tipping policy after 18 months, owner Christopher Oppenhuis told Hudnall. Customers pushed back wanting to decide tips themselves, and staff could earn more elsewhere with tips included.
• Backlash over Willett endorsement: Columnist Toriano Porter criticized Kansas City Councilman Nathan Willett for accepting an endorsement from Eric DeValkenaere, the former KCPD detective convicted of killing Cameron Lamb. Porter calls the move disrespectful to Lamb’s family and an affront to social justice.
• Reading gaps aren’t about race: Mará Rose Williams writes that SchoolSmart KC data showing 23% of Black students reading proficiently versus 61% of white students reflects environmental and structural issues, not biological ones. Only 27% of all KC students read at proficient levels, compared with 45% statewide.
• Clyburn’s KC visit: Williams recapped a visit by U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn to the historic Paseo YMCA, where the South Carolina Democrat discussed his new book “The First Eight,” about Black congressmen who served before him. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver introduced him as operating “above the snake line.”
• Hawley and Big Labor: Guest columnist Mark Mix questions why Sen. Josh Hawley has shifted away from right-to-work positions as former leaders of the KC-based International Brotherhood of Boilermakers face federal trial over an alleged $20 million embezzlement scheme.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
