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2 days ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Meg Cunningham
For years, Missouri has sought to address a growing mental and behavioral health crisis that touches every corner of the state. In 2024, Missouri was ranked 38th nationwide when it came to prevalence of mental illness and overall access to treatment. So the state made multimillion-dollar investments to improve responses when Missourians are in moments of crisis. For decades, calling 911 or going to the emergency room was the norm if a person was experiencing a mental health crisis.
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1 week ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Meg Cunningham
As Crystal Lyon was preparing to give birth last spring, she took steps to ensure her daughter was enrolled in Medicaid as soon as she was born. Her daughter’s father had been born with retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer. That type of cancer is caused by a genetic mutation, and soon after their daughter Ari was born they started to suspect she may also have the mutation.
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1 week ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Celisa Calacal
This story was originally published on KCUR 89.3.Thousands of protesters gathered in Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, Lee’s Summit, Topeka and other cities to protest the actions of the Trump administration. Hundreds of those gathered in Kansas City marched down West 47th Street, around the Plaza and then north up Broadway Boulevard.
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2 weeks ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Maria Benevento
This story is part of a seriesHenry Dunbar’s parents say he has a gift for learning by doing — making a fantastic omelet, helping his dad in the garage or driving any vehicle that a third grader is allowed to pilot. He works hard and is motivated to make them happy. So they were at first baffled when Henry, their middle child of five and their oldest boy, didn’t take to academics.
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2 weeks ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Meg Cunningham
Deaths caused by drugs, alcohol and suicide dropped in Missouri and Kansas in 2023, thanks in part to investment in mental health services and data tracking from government agencies, a new report found. The data analysis from Trust for America’s Health found that Missouri and Kansas tracked nationwide trends when it comes to deaths induced by alcohol, drug overdose or suicide.
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4 weeks ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Blaise Mesa
Kansas is the only state or local government to pass a plan to fund a Kansas City Chiefs or Royals stadium project. Dysfunction in the Missouri General Assembly might also mean the Show Me State has nothing to offer. A last-minute plan by Gov. Mike Kehoe to help finance stadium projects for the Royals and Chiefs wasn’t even debated in the Senate. Missouri lawmakers return June 2 for a special session to, among other things, pass a stadium proposal.
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1 month ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Meg Cunningham
After years of exponential growth, opioid overdose deaths in Missouri are dropping. While health care workers, community groups and other officials say many factors may contribute to the drop in opioid overdose deaths, they agree that access to overdose-reversing drugs like naloxone, often provided under the brand name Narcan, is saving lives. “I do think that Narcan is the reason for those trends statistically dropping,” said Cooper County Ambulance Chief Brandon Hicks.
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1 month ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Blaise Mesa
Sen. Tory Marie Blew, a Great Bend Republican, signed up for a child care waiting list in 2020. Blew wasn’t even pregnant at the time. But she knew how hard it was to find child care. Four years later, the child care spot finally came open. Thankfully for Blew, it took her longer to have a child than she suspected. But not every family can linger four years on a waitlist.
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1 month ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Blaise Mesa
Sen. Kenny Titus believes the Kansas Legislature recently expanded police surveillance without doing enough to protect Kansans from unreasonable searches. He is eyeing potential changes to state law to rein that power back in. Titus’ concerns come from a new state law that protects utility companies from lawsuits if they allow police to put surveillance equipment on utility poles. The law did not expand law enforcement’s ability to add the cameras, but it shielded pole owners from lawsuits.
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1 month ago | 
thebeaconnews.org | Maria Benevento
Tuesday Willaredt knew her older daughter, Vivienne, struggled to read. She tentatively accepted teachers’ reassurances and the obvious explanations: Remote learning during the COVID pandemic was disruptive. Returning to school was chaotic. All students were behind. Annie Watson was concerned about her son Henry’s performance in kindergarten and first grade. But his teachers weren’t. There was a pandemic, they said. He was a boy. Henry wasn’t really lagging behind his classmates.