Frank Morris

A former congressman from Michigan, Mark Siljander, has been sentenced in Kansas City for accepting stolen money to do work for a charity with alleged ties to terrorism.  

The Food and Drug Administration is clamping down on the off-label use of certain antibiotics in food-producing animals. 

In an order published today, the FDA said meat producers can no longer use the class known as cephalosporins in ways not approved by the agency. While curbing use won’t change much in the meat industry, the order signals a bigger concern about antibiotics regulation, some farmers say.

There aren't many people on the broad Kansas prairie, but there is industry.

At G.L. Huyett, boxy machines jammed into a big metal building grind steel into heavy transmission parts.

"We're a supplier of last resort," says Tim O'Keeffe, who owns the company. If you have disruptions in the supply chain and someone can't meet a shipping time, he says, G.L. Huyett can step in.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to be in Osawatomie Kansas Tuesday, and the speech he’ll give there could mark a tougher approach to his ongoing fight with congressional Republicans.

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, Mo. – The president is coming to Osawatomie because Teddy Roosevelt delivered an important speech there 101 years ago. That one called for a "New Nationalism", and defended the government's role in regulating the economy, defending human welfare and property rights. Whitehouse deputy press secretary Josh Earnest says Obama will channel Teddy Roosevelt in Osawatomie tomorrow.

By Frank Morris/KCUR

JOPLIN, Mo. – When the tornado ripped through Joplin six months ago, Carry Cook and her two young sons, with their dark hair, full cheeks and soft features, were in the way. They escaped their apartment just before the twister obliterated it and most everything inside.

Cook stood recently on a construction site, recalling her losses -- heirlooms, kid art, a ring Cook's parents gave her as a girl.

By Frank Morris

By Frank Morris

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, Mo. – The budget for the Kansas City Zoo is about to get a whole lot bigger. Voters in both Jackson and Clay Counties have approved a one-eighth-cent sales tax to support the Zoo. The tax will generate about $14 million a year. With their new millions, Zoo officials plan to expand, offer new exhibits (penguins maybe) and attract almost twice as many visitors, about a million a year.

By Frank Morris

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – Freight traffic is up smartly, from three years ago. The recession then triggered a horrible bloodletting in the trucking industry. Now it's struggling to bounce back to meet resurgent demand. Noel Perry, an analyst with FTR Consulting, says trucking companies are short about 125,000 drivers, workers they could, in theory, draw from the ranks of the hard-core unemployed.

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – Thomas Hoenig has always been candid. A couple of years ago he wrote a paper called, "Too Big Has Failed," a critique of propping up big banks. He's also bucked the Fed's easy money, low interest rate policy for years. Speaking to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, he said that keeping interest rates artificially low has actually enabled the real problem.

By Frank Morris, KCUR/Harvest Public Media

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – The Joplin tornado killed 160 people and sent thousands to area hospitals. Now most of the victim's physical injuries are healed, but the mental wounds are, in some cases, as fresh as they were the day after the storm. Children will likely suffer the most long-term repercussions, which traumatized many of them directly, and also laid a foundation for future trouble.

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – The heat wave gripping Kansas City can be deadly for the elderly, and people who overextend themselves in it. Health officials suspect that as many as 14 people have died here, at least in part because of the heat. But, you couldn't really call it "oppressive," since most people are carrying on, or even enjoying the weather. KCUR's Frank Morris reports.