Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing Dr. George Tiller in Wichita two months ago may enter a plea in court today. KCUR's Frank Morris reports.

Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country who provided abortions in the last months of pregnancy, and a long-time target of abortion foes.

Kansas City, MO – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, for a town hall-style meeting. The discussion airs in three parts beginning Monday on PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Inside the Federal Reserve bank of Kansas City, Bernanke sat down to chat with Lehrer, and some local residents that his show had chosen. Bernanke was asked about Rep. Ron Paul's (R-TX) bill to require the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review Fed monetary policy.

Kansas City, MO – Food, Inc., a documentary film about the modern agricultural industry, is a hit with big-city movie reviewers, small-scale organic farmers and vegetarians. Full of disturbing scenes depicting chickens, hogs and cattle being crowded into confined areas, the movie argues that large-scale agriculture produces inexpensive meat and vegetables at a high cost to the environment - as well as Americans' health.

Kansas City – Administrator Lisa Jackson's trip to Kansas City is mainly promotional, meant to encourage citizens to take more individual responsibility for cleaning up the environment. But, there the agency is taking a close look at the Kansas City area both as a place with problems to be solved, and as one that could stand as a national model.

Kansas City, MO – The original VORTEX experiment in the mid-1990s inspired the movie "Twister," in which scientists pursued tornadoes past flying tractors and right through an intact, rolling, farm house. KCUR's Frank Morris reports that the actual roving experiment hasn't been QUITE that kind of a white knuckle ride, but, a lot more important. Because cracking some of the basic mysteries about the wildest storms on earth will save lives.

Kansas City, MO – This summer, federal stimulus money will likely fund tens of thousands of projects across the country. Most of them will have very little to do with each other.

But Kansas City, Mo., is trying hard to coordinate its stimulus spending by targeting a particularly violent and blighted part of its urban core -- the part it has dubbed the "Green Impact Zone of Missouri."

View From A Porch

Kansas City, MO – This summer, federal stimulus money will likely fund tens of thousands of projects across the country. Most of them will have very little to do with each other.

But Kansas City, Mo., is trying hard to coordinate its stimulus spending by targeting a particularly violent and blighted part of its urban core -- the part it has dubbed the "Green Impact Zone of Missouri."

View From A Porch

Kansas City, MO – This summer, federal stimulus money will likely fund tens of thousands of projects across the country. Most of them will have very little to do with each other.

But Kansas City, Mo., is trying hard to coordinate its stimulus spending by targeting a particularly violent and blighted part of its urban core -- the part it has dubbed the "Green Impact Zone of Missouri."

View From A Porch

Whiteman AFB, MO – Biden spoke in huge hanger, right in front of a B-2 bomber, one of the most expensive weapons systems ever developed about the need take care of the day to day needs of military personnel.

Biden: The only sacred commitment a nation has, is to prepare those we send, equip them with all they need, and care for whatever their needs are when they come home.

Kansas City, MO – Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, who represents much of Kansas City, Missouri in the US Congress, says a zone in the middle of the city will become the model for spending federal stimulus money. The "Green Impact Zone" is broadened by Troost Avenue from 39th to 51st streets, and stretches as far east as Swope Parkway. Cleaver calls it "the most innovative and significant development in modern Kansas City history".

Kansas City, MO – It seems logical that banks caught stuck with billions of dollars in worthless assets got into that mess by mistake.

But, that's not how UMKC law and economics professor Bill Black sees it. Black says an administration hostile to regulation allowed mortgage bankers to write "liars loans," and allowed rating agencies and investment bankers to cash in on the charade. Now, he says the Obama appointees are obscuring a giant mess...one riddled on all levels by a single element: fraud.

Kansas City, MO – If there's one thing you don't want to get sloppy with, it's nuclear weapons. But recent mishaps in handling US nukes have set off alarms. In response, the U.S. Air Force is "standing up" a new command to oversee all its ICBMs and nuclear-capable bombers. Six communities from Cheyenne to Shreveport, to Knob Noster, Missouri had been clamoring for that mission until yesterday. KCUR'S Frank Morris reports.

Wichita, KS – Nothing says money and power like a business jet. But the industry that makes them is in a tail spin. Small airplane manufacturing is dominated by American firms, many located one mid-sized Midwestern city. KCUR's Frank Morris went there, by car, and brought back this report.