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Recent Articles

  • With deadline looming, Affordable Care Act enrollment is down in Missouri, Kansas

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you haven’t gotten enrolled for your health care plan through the Affordable Care Act, you aren’t the only one. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 170,000 people in Kansas and Missouri haven’t — and the deadline is Saturday. Also, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the last-minute enrollment rush is down about 12 percent from this time last year. Insurance advisor Marcus Hood has spent more than 15 years in the insurance business, and […]

  • Family and friends gather to remember Derrick Harris

    HARRISONVILLE, Mo — It has been 60 days since Kansas City’s 61st homicide.  Derrick Harris died after someone shot him in the back at 16th and Lister in July.  His family is still looking for any clues that could solve his homicide. “We’re just trying to keep his memory, keep his name alive,” said Cynthia Hopkins.  She looked over the more than 20 people wearing white shirts with her son’s face screen printed on them. Attached to the park shelter poles […]

  • No Prop A means a happier Labor Day for unions in Missouri

    KANSAS CITY, Mo — This Labor Day weekend, some laborers are feeling extra celebratory. While most Americans are celebrating a three day weekend, Missouri union members are still celebrating of the defeat of the that Right to Work Bill, Prop A. Those union members say Prop A would’ve weakened unions in the Show-Me State. “This was a citizen veto of what the government did in Missouri,” said the president of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, ‘“and it’s huge.” Pat Dujakovich continued, […]

  • Kansas Gov. Colyer says focus for the rest of term is attracting more businesses to state 

    KANSAS CITY — The Kansas unemployment rate, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, hovers right around 3.4 percent. Governor Jeff Colyer says he can take a lot of credit for the unemployment numbers, though it’s two-tenths of a percent lower than a year ago, 3.6 percent. Gov. Colyer took office this spring and credits the strong economy to strong exports.  Agriculture is the top driver of the Kansas export business. The top trade partners for Kansas are Mexico, […]

  • Man killed by driver fleeing from police had gone out to get ice cream for girlfriend’s kids

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thomas Colatrella’s Saturday night began at his girlfriend’s house in the Old Northeast part of Kansas City. “The kids were a little fussy,” said April Mercer, mother of four, “so Thomas offered to go get them ice cream spur of the moment.” Thomas Colatrella’s Saturday night- and his life – ended just three blocks away, at the intersection of Smart and Monroe. Kansas City police were pursuing a Toyota truck believed to be part of an […]

  • Kansas City police teach kids bike safety as Blue Hills community bands together

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 65103 ZIP code of Kansas City, the Blue Hills neighborhood, is known for its crime. Saturday, a handful of people tried to make it known for something more: community. The St. James United Methodist Church parking lot at 55th andThe Paseo was full of orange cones and 20 bikes of various colors. Sure, to most adults, it’s just a bike. But to a kid, as Kenneth Thomas remembered, “it was freedom. You could do what […]

  • Shots fired at police lead to hours long standoff

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  Much of KCPD’s attention Sunday morning focused on the area near 59th and Swope — a stand off that lasted well past sunrise.  One person is hospitalized. “We heard pow, pow, pow, pow,” said Janice Nunnelly, “and there was no question that it was gunshots.” Within minutes, police arrived at a gray house on 59th street near Swope Parkway.  That’s when police say the bullets were aimed at them.  One officer shot back. “And before we knew […]

  • Jackson Co. Sheriff’s Office teaches first-time drivers about safety, what to do during a traffic stop

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With school starting this month, a lot of teenagers will be back on the roads. That`s why the Jackson County Sheriff`s Office offered first-time drivers a course on what to do if (or when) they`re pulled over. No one wants to see flashing lights in their rear-view mirror. Nor see a sheriff’s deputy walk up and say, “I’m Deputy Vestal with the Sheriff’s Department; you got your license handy? May I see it please?” Yet, that’s […]

  • Woman arrested, facing murder charge after divers recover 5-year-old’s body from Kansas River

    LAWRENCE, Kan. — Investigators are still trying to determine why the driver of a car plunged into the Kansas River on Friday afternoon, but police have arrested a woman after divers pulled a 5-year-old girl from the river on Saturday morning. Scharron Renea Dingledine, 26, is under arrest pending first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges. Police say Dingledine’s daughter was the child pulled from the river, and her 1-year-old son remains hospitalized. The area of investigation is near the […]

  • Mother of four children killed in KCMO

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Saturday morning, Deandrea Vine became Kansas City’s 67th homicide victim of 2018, and less than nine hours after Kansas City’s Cease Fire Weekend began. She was 27 years old, and a mother of four children. The front lawn is freshly mowed in front of Deandrea Vine`s home near 92nd street and Wallace in Kansas City.  It is the same front yard her family found her laying in around 4:00 Saturday morning. “My grandson came in,” explained […]

  • Families struggle with final expenses after tragic deaths

    Higginsville, Mo. — It`s a cost no one expected when planning their Branson trip: funeral expenses.  Caskets, cremation, and transporting bodies back home –  it all costs. The Bright family in Higginsville has been struggling to figure out how pay the bills  to get Bill and Jan back home. You can see Bill and Jan Bright are all around the Higginsville home.  They`re in the frames on the wall, usually photographed with some of their 16 (soon to be 17) […]

  • Welcome home to the ‘Dirty 30’: Kansas guardsmen return home from Afghanistan

    Paola, Kan. — The “Dirty 30” are back in Paola, Kansas. For the last 11 months, 30 Kansas National Guardsmen in the 130th Battalion were deployed overseas in Afghanistan as part of the New War on Terror. Paola is a town of roughly 5,500 people. For almost a year, it’s been missing 28 of them. That changed this week. Most of the Dirty 30 arrived home Thursday afternoon. And on Saturday, more than 11 months after they were deployed, they […]