Our picks highlight the best of 2024, and the importance of fighting for justice in KC | Opinion

Editor’s note: This week, you can find no end of 2024 recaps, from what happened in the news to the best of entertainment. But The Star’s Opinion department is different, because our columns and editorials come from the heart as well as from the mind. I asked the members of The Kansas City Star Editorial Board and our contributors to pick their favorite articles of the year. Board members picked the following, plus two guest columns on a basis of importance in the Kansas City community. I also asked our national opinion editor to pick his favorites.

— Yvette Walker, Opinion editor

The execution of Marcellus Williams

The editorial board has written on the case of Marcellus Williams, who was on death row in Missouri for years. Earlier this year, when Gov. Mike Parson denied him clemency, we blasted that decision. But on the day of the execution, Toriano Porter asked the one question a lot of people were thinking.

Excerpt: “What if we got it wrong? On Tuesday, Missouri executed Marcellus ‘Khaliifah’ Williams by lethal injection. Minutes before Williams was executed, I happened to stop at a protest held for him near Troost Avenue and 39th Street in Kansas City. A sign held by someone in attendance caught my attention. It read: ‘What if we got it wrong?’ After reading that, I felt compelled to pull over and park a half block away. As I walked to the scene, I could sense the overwhelming amount of sadness surrounding this gathering. For about an half hour, I stood in solidarity with those who were there.”

Eric DeValkenaere’s release from prison

As our editorial stated, this story wasn’t an if but a when. Incoming Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe promised that if elected, he would give clemency to this ex-police officer, convicted of killing an unarmed man. But current Gov. Mike Parson did it for him. Our justice system did the right and difficult thing.

Excerpt: “It brings us no pleasure to say it, but we knew this was going to happen. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has commuted the sentence of former Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere. And this political act of cowardice, Kansas City, is precisely why so many people have no faith that the criminal justice system is a level playing field. By commuting the sentence while he’s a lame duck, Parson has taken the pressure off his lieutenant, Mike Kehoe. But DeValkenaere knew he would be heading home soon anyway, as the governor-elect campaigned on an explicit promise to free the ex-officer, whom he counts as a personal friend.”

Allegations against Bishop Miege president

Melinda Henneberger broke a lot of news this year, and held power to account in several different spheres — despite her 18-day hospital stay in Colorado Springs after a fall while visiting a friend there in late August. Several of her best-read pieces involved local Catholic schools, such as this one, and this:

Excerpt: Bishop Miege High School President Phil Baniewicz, “who is known as an able fundraiser, has always said that he was wrongly accused all those years ago, and since the sexual assault allegation never went to court, that may be right. But he also says that he was exonerated, which is certainly not the case in any legal sense. And even if Baniewicz did not assault Billy Cesolini at St. Timothy, that would not clear him of all wrongdoing. He’d have to have been living with his eyes closed to have failed to notice what was going on around him in Arizona, in the environment that he did bring kids into.”

Billy Dupree plea deal

Each of Henneberger’s four columns on the Wyandotte County DA’s nephew, repeat sex offender Billy Dupree, challenged the long line of Kansas officials who failed to hold him to account. A full decade after strangling 16-year-old Deleisha Kelley, he was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Excerpt: “While Deleisha Kelley’s tearful and torn-up family addressed her killer, Billy Dupree, in court at his Friday sentencing hearing, he did not pretend to either listen or care. Instead, he chatted up his lawyer even as Kelley’s mother wept and said she’d never celebrate another Christmas, or any other holiday. … Before the hearing started, he regaled his defense attorney with a story about something that had just happened to him in custody. ‘And I said, Do you know who I am?’ Yes, Billy, we all know who you are, and know, too, that the fact that this is your third violation as a registered sex offender somehow didn’t override whatever political considerations kept you from going to trial.”

Inmate who died in Missouri jail denied care

We all hope that Henneberger’s reporting on the jail where Kansas City sends its male inmates, and should be sending none, leads to some serious change in the new year.

Excerpt: “If Black inmates annoy the guards in any way, ‘they put them in with some Vernon County boys and let them tune them up. They do a lot to the Kansas City guys.’ One such man, whose name Boyd gave me, was attacked by someone on staff, whose name he also gave me. ‘They roughed him up pretty good — tased him, slammed his face up against the wall and left him locked down for eight days. And when they let him back out, they let a couple of the Vernon County boys tee off on him, and that’s a fact.’ I could not find this man, but I did find his case, and learned that he was in custody after being arrested for shoplifting.”

Free speech versus Independence schools

Toriano Porter long has covered the story of people being banned from Independence schools because the superintendent disagrees with criticism. This year, a man previously banned took the school district to court for violating his free speech. And he won.

Excerpt: “Jason Vollmecke of Independence is $2 richer. But no dollar amount could underscore what this former candidate for Independence School District Board of Education has endured. In October, a federal civil rights lawsuit Vollmecke filed last year against Superintendent Dale Herl and the Independence school board was settled. In addition to compensatory damages — $1 for each of two claims he won — Vollmecke was also awarded $77,000 to cover legal costs, according to court documents. “It was never about the money,” Vollmecke said this week. Vollmecke is a longtime critic of district leadership.”

Kansas’ economy and mass deportations

Regular opinion correspondent Joel Mathis frequently writes from the Kansas side. This year he reported on Donald Trump’s promise to deport undocumented immigrants and how that will affect the meat industry in Western Kansas.

Excerpt: “Trump will send National Guard troops into communities and neighborhoods around the country to rip undocumented migrants from their families and away from their employers. And that will be devastating for Kansas. And listen: There is no doubt that our broken federal immigration system often seems overwhelmed by the surge of poor and desperate people coming across the border. Beyond the scaremongering, though, it’s also true that undocumented migrants — and migrants more generally — are already entwined in Kansas communities and help sustain the state’s economy.”

National opinion stories

National opinion columnist and The Point editor David Mastio frequently writes about politics, and there was no bigger political story than the 2024 presidential election. Yes, he wrote about Trump, but he points out these two stories as two of his most important of the year:

Biden should have bowed out earlier

Mastio said he saw President Joe Biden’s age becoming the only issue out of his disastrous debate:

Excerpt: “For Biden the stakes are much higher. He’s prone to the typical political falsehoods of every politician. If he commits too many, he risks putting himself on the same plane as his dissembling opponent. Biden also risks exposing himself as too old for the job. People who intend to vote for him have to face the fact that he is not the man he was even a decade ago. … If Biden exposes himself as unable to be president, he’s done.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign

Mastio said he saw the crackup of the Kamala Harris campaign coming before it even got off the ground.

Excerpt: “Moreover, Harris may not be politically adept enough to defeat a demagogue like Trump. Harris fumbled her 2020 run for president, eventually dropping out before a single vote was cast. She made many enemies among Biden loyalists by attacking the former vice-president’s 1970’s era views on busing despite the fact she herself struggled to articulate a position much different than his. Harris has sometimes taken extreme views and then backed away in a flurry of flip-flops. If Democrats are going to take advantage of the opportunity that Biden’s noble sacrifice has given them, they have to consider other options.”

From our community writers

Deputy Opinion Editor Derek Donovan works with readers like you, who supply guest commentaries.

Missouri dad died a MAGA

No. 1 this year with a bullet was one he solicited from Jess Piper about her rural Missouri dad dying a diehard Trump supporter, and his last words being apologies for how that hurt his family:

Excerpt: “Daddy died in August of 2017. It was a terrible and painful death and he was only 61 years old. His last words to me were absolutely unfathomable and embarrassing: He begged for forgiveness for his behavior and his Facebook posts since 2015. The MAGA mentality he had displayed since Donald Trump came down that escalator. I know many of us lost parents and siblings and grandparents and friends to Trumpism. It’s a sad state of affairs and we may as well talk about it, because even though Trump has been out of office for three years, he’s never gone away. We still suffer the loss of our relationships.”

Christian community disagree

Donovan reports that we received great readership from multiple commentaries pointing out that Christian nationalism is antithetical to Christian teachings.

Excerpt: “I am writing as a Christian pastor — a Baptist, no less — serving churches for the past 52 years. Of course, I favor Christianity. And in my ministry, I invite persons to consider faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, it may seem surprising that I am a leader of an effort in Kansas City during this election year to resist White Christian nationalism. White Christian nationalism does not invite people into faith, but rather seeks to dominate, control and coerce not only individuals, but society. White Christian nationalism is built upon a fundamental lie: that America was founded by Christians for Christians.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 5:06 AM.