Frank Morris

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – As final preparations are made for funeral services for Coretta Scott-King in Atlanta, police there are bracing for some unwelcome guests from Topeka.

Fred Phelps, and his Westboro Baptist Church has long exploited such public events for their virulent, anti-gay demonstrations. Law makers in more than a dozen state capitols are taking steps to neutralize the protests, but the controversial preacher argues that would take away his First Amendment rights. KCUR'S Frank Morris reports.

Hundreds of victims of the Robert Courtney drug-tampering scheme and their family members watched as the former pharmacist was sentenced to 30 years on Thursday. The sentence drew mixed responses from those watching the proceedings.

Robert Courtney, the former Kansas City pharmacist who has admitted to diluting prescriptions given to thousands of patients, faced sentencing on Thursday.

Under a plea agreement, U.S. District Judge Ortri Smith can give Courtney from 17 1/2 to 30 years in prison.

Hundreds of victims and family members are expected at the courthouse. Among them will be Marge Vermillion, whose husband died soon after taking cancer treatments mixed at Courtney's pharmacy. 

A 97-year-old woman is the oldest working Kansan. Martha Smith of Vinland, Kan. has been tending the Cole Creek Library for most of the last 67 years. Her great uncle helped found the library in 1859.

A Gallup poll reveals 40 percent of Americans expressed some fear of a terrorist attack, and minorities were almost three times as likely to be very worried about an attack.

But now, KCUR's Frank Morris found - from the conservative white farming area to almost exclusively minority neighborhoods - people are now largely unafraid of terrorism, though for largely different reasons.