In a small town, there are times when everything changes. Grief tends to move quietly, not dramatically or with fanfare. One such instance was the fire that destroyed a house on Warden Street in Ulladulla on the evening of August 13. A woman was gone by the time Fire and Rescue NSW managed to contain the fire, and the community was left standing in that specific silence that follows tragedy. Erin Key was her name. Words like “bright” and “loving” were used by people who knew her; these are the kinds of words that come from genuinely knowing someone, not…
Author: Sierra Foster
Sierra Foster
Born in Kansas City, Sierra Foster writes about politics and serves as Senior Editor at kbsd6.com. She was raised paying attention to this city, not just living in it. Sierra has a strong, deep connection to Kansas City, from the neighborhoods east of Troost to the discussions that take place in the city hall halls. Sierra, who is presently enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Political Science, applies the rigor of academic study to her journalism. She writes about politics in Missouri and Kansas as someone who genuinely cares about what happens to the people in these communities—the policies that impact them, the leaders who represent them, and the civic forces influencing their futures—rather than as an outsider watching from a distance. Her editorial coverage encompasses state-level policy, local government, and the national political currents that permeate bi-state regional life. Whether it's a city council vote or a Senate race, she has a special gift for turning complex policy language into writing that feels urgent, relatable, and worthwhile. Sierra seldom sits still off the page. She claims that playing soccer on a regular basis has sharpened her instincts for political reporting because of the sport's teamwork, strategy, and requirement to read a changing game in real time. She's probably somewhere in Kansas City with her friends when she's not writing or on the pitch, discovering new reasons to adore a city she already knows so well.
Someone often tells this story, most likely because it shows something true about the man. Hayden Panettiere met Wladimir Klitschko at a party in Los Angeles for the launch of her book. She really looked up at him and told him, “You’re huge.” That’s what he said: “You’re tiny.” That short, almost funny conversation gives you a good idea of what it was like to be in the same room as Wladimir Klitschko. Kletschko is 1.98 meters tall, or 6 feet 6 inches, and can reach 81 inches. Those numbers are very important in heavyweight boxing. Klitschko was different, though,…
Once upon a time, it was almost comforting to see an Absa ATM on the corner of a South African street. It’s becoming more difficult to maintain that certainty. Absa closed about 79 traditional branches and eliminated over 100 ATMs from its network in the first half of 2026 alone. The bank is not hiding the reason behind the machines’ disappearance. It was made clear in Absa’s interim results for the six months that ended in June 2026. The bank is adapting its physical presence in response to the decline in branch cash transaction volumes and the shift of customers…
When people study cancer, the term “personalized medicine” is used a lot. For years, it sounded like a way to go, not a place to end up. Researchers were working toward something that would never really mean anything until a few more tests were done. Then Merck and Moderna made their Phase 3 data on intismeran autogene public, and that phrase began to mean something. The study, which was called INTerpath-001, included 1,137 people with high-risk, fully removed stage IIB to IV melanoma. These people have already had surgery to get rid of the tumor. It’s over with the cancer,…
The steps are more important than most prospective students realize, and the window is limited. Applications are now being accepted for the 2027 academic year at Unisa. The deadline for undergraduate degrees is August 17–October 9, 2026. It might seem like enough time. Generally speaking, it isn’t, particularly for those who think the procedure is simple until they are three steps in and find a missing document. Distance education is known for its adaptability, and Unisa, the University of South Africa, should be commended for making higher education available to those unable to attend a traditional campus. However, flexibility in…
There’s something very unsettling about taking out what you thought was a simple, refreshing fruit bar from the freezer on a hot afternoon and finding something that shouldn’t be there. That’s exactly what Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc. is going through right now, and it’s not a small matter. Outshine Fruit Bars are being recalled across the whole country because of reports of glass getting inside them. People started telling Dreyer’s that they had found glass in their fruit bars, so the company issued the recall. The business moved quickly and said it did so out of an abundance of…
Some tennis players sneak up on you. Not the ones that have a lot of advertising behind them or that were announced with a lot of fuss. Marie Bouzková is the other type. She’s the type that makes you look up one afternoon and realize you missed seeing her get really, really good. She got going early. The racket found her before she could really choose it herself because her family played tennis. She was already on the court when other kids her age in Prague were still trying to figure out what sport they liked. That head start showed…
There was a short time when it looked like something might happen. Iga Swiatek was broken by Diane Parry in the first game of their round of 16 match at the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday. The crowd at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason seemed to lean forward for a short time. The first set was won by a ranked 66th-ranked Frenchwoman who is 21 years old. She played the best player on tour. For a short time, it felt like the start of a story. It wasn’t. Following Swiatek’s break, the script was mostly hers to write from…
Dior’s Instagram account responded to the news of Mathilde Favier’s passing on Tuesday morning in a prompt and remarkably intimate manner. She was described as “an exceptional woman whose communicative joy, talent and loyalty were exemplary” by the fashion house, a company that usually uses precise, measured language. That kind of warmth in a public statement says something for a company that protects its reputation as hard as any institution in the world. On Monday, August 17, a car accident in the western French department of Deux-Sèvres claimed the lives of Favier, 57, and her partner, film producer Nicolas Altmayer,…
Some types of grief are made public before the family is prepared. The two adult children of Mathilde Favier, Carlo and Héloïse Agostinelli, experienced their grief early on August 18, 2026, the day after their mother and her companion, film producer Nicolas Altmayer, perished in a traffic accident in the Deux-Sèvres region of France. The news spread quickly, as it always does when a well-known and beloved person passes away unexpectedly. Mathilde Favier was fifty-seven. Directrice des relations publiques de Dior Couture, a woman who had dressed Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, and Anya Taylor-Joy, had spent decades establishing…