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Kansas City suffers from severe urban heat. Research underway may help leaders address it
KANSAS CITY — The strain excessive heat was putting on the streets of Kansas City was obvious during a streak of days earlier this month when peak temperatures stayed above 90 degrees for days in a row. In and around downtown, volunteers with the Salvation Army handed out water bottles just after noon, hoping to […]
Ruling could come soon after final arguments in lawsuit challenging Missouri CAFO law
A lawsuit seeking to block a state law restricting local governments’ ability to rein in industrial hog farms has expanded to challenge a wide-ranging bill passed this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, attorneys for Cooper County argued that House Bill 271, passed this year to restrict local government’s ability to issue […]
Biden mandates nursing homes require COVID vaccine or lose Medicare, Medicaid funds
WASHINGTON — Nursing homes will be required to ensure their staffers are vaccinated against COVID-19, or risk losing federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars, the Biden administration announced Wednesday in a major move on vaccinations as the Delta variant sweeps many states. Under the new nursing home policy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services […]
Missouri, Kansas lost thousands of clean energy jobs last year, report says
After several years of continual gains, Kansas and Missouri lost more than 7,200 combined clean energy jobs last year — primarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report published last week by E2 and the Clean Energy Trust found that the Midwest, home to nearly one-quarter of the nation’s clean energy jobs, lost about 9% of […]
AARP calls for vaccine mandates as COVID re-enters Missouri nursing homes
With cases on the rise among both residents and staff, the nation’s leading advocacy group for the retirees is calling on nursing homes to mandate COVID-19 vaccines. The number of COVID-19 cases reported each week in Kansas and Missouri nursing homes is rising again for the first time in months. Missouri, where weekly cases averaged […]
Cost of winter cold snap nears $1B for Kansans. Missouri tally remains unclear
KANSAS CITY — The total cost from a more than week-long cold snap that brought the Midwest power supply to the brink of collapse is nearly $1 billion — and growing. The greatest breakdown during the storm, which forced controlled electrical blackouts in Kansas and Missouri, industry groups have said, was natural gas, which was […]
Less than half of Missouri nursing home staff vaccinated, reviving fear of lockdowns
Many of the staff and residents in Shunda Whitfield’s St. Louis County nursing home were sick before they even realized what was going on. It was April 2020, and masks weren’t yet standard practice. Little was known about COVID before it swept through nursing homes, and as a certified nursing assistant, Whitfield said she “didn’t […]
Just before Parson vetoed emissions bill, staffer’s spouse hired by testing company
Three weeks before Missouri Gov. Mike Parson vetoed legislation that would have undermined a federally-mandated vehicle emissions testing program, the spouse of his policy director registered as a lobbyist for the lone state contractor providing those tests. Last month, Parson vetoed House Bill 661. The bill would have removed Jefferson, Franklin and St. Charles counties from […]
Spire claims ‘fatal consequences’ if feds allow St. Louis pipeline to be shut down
The largest natural gas utility in Missouri claims its customers could face “potentially fatal consequences” if it is not allowed to continue operating a pipeline in St. Louis while a federal commission reconsiders its earlier approval. The Spire STL Pipeline, an affiliate of Spire Missouri, petitioned energy regulators earlier this week for a temporary emergency […]
Fuel shortages drove February blackouts, Southwest Power Pool investigators find
KANSAS CITY — Rolling outages that left thousands without power in February were driven overwhelmingly by fuel shortages — especially in natural gas, executives with the Southwest Power Pool said Monday. This winter, sustained frigid temperatures across the Midwest and South forced huge demand for energy while the weather made generators struggle to keep up. The […]
Missouri DNR calls allegations it committed civil rights violations ‘unsubstantiated’
Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources called claims that it violated residents’ civil rights “unsubstantiated and conclusory” even as it quietly addressed several findings from an ongoing Environmental Protection Agency investigation. The EPA has been investigating whether DNR, Missouri’s environmental regulator, violated residents’ civil rights when it issued an air pollution control permit for a fuel […]
Report: Residents in Missouri, Kansas get drinking water from lead pipes at high rates
People in Missouri and Kansas risk lead exposure from drinking water at greater rates than almost any other state, a new report found. The Natural Resources Defense Council released findings Thursday that as many as 12 million Americans may be receiving drinking water through lead pipes without realizing their water is contaminated. “There is no […]