A fee of $3 or $4 shows up on the screen when you use an ATM that is not in your network. Most people don’t think twice about it. You click “Accept,” take the money, and leave. It seems small. Everyday. But over millions of transactions and more than a decade of court cases, those small fees added up to something that federal courts thought was important to take seriously. In fact, Visa and Mastercard just agreed to pay $197.5 million to settle antitrust claims that have been going on since 2011. Even though the legal battle was hard, the…
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.
There’s a glossy promotional reel version of the FIFA World Cup that shows full stadiums, emotional winners, and flags from every country waving next to each other. This summer, federal courts all over the United States are hearing this version of the story. It looks a lot messier on that one. As of the start of the 2026 tournament in the United States, FIFA has been sued by fans, artists, patent holders, and even a pardoned Iranian political scientist who wants a billion dollars because a goal was not allowed. It’s a lot, even for a group that has had…
It takes a moment to fully grasp the irony that’s hidden in Kristin Cavallari’s divorce story. Her jewelry and skin care line, Uncommon James, gave her the courage to leave her marriage, but it was also something she had to give up in part when she left. Something like that will stick with you. Cavallari told it like it was on the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast last week. Jay Cutler, her ex-husband, did not give her money. They agreed that as part of their divorce settlement, she had to pay him “half the value” of Uncommon James in cash…
The street no longer feels like a street at some point, usually in the middle of the afternoon. The cones go up, the music changes from background noise to something that makes people want to move, and the folding chairs that someone just three hours ago smell like smoke from six grills. That’s when it takes place. People stop acting like they are just walking by and start acting like they live somewhere important to them. For years, Kansas City’s oldest block party tradition has been slowly building up to that feeling: carefree, not rushed, and a little loud. The…
From the window of a moving car, the rolling terrain of western Jasper County, Missouri, has stretches of land that don’t look like much: old fence lines, overgrown fields, and the occasional weathered farmhouse. It’s simple to drive by and not notice anything odd. History, on the other hand, tends to show that this is not true. Most well-known Civil War books don’t talk about the fight at Rader’s farm on May 18, 1863. There isn’t as much to it as there was at Gettysburg or Vicksburg. But what happened that afternoon, when about 70 guerrillas led by Confederate commander…
There’s something a little off about seeing a band set up on a bridge that hasn’t been used in fifty years. There are no trains. No cars. Not many people. There was only steel, rust, and the slow, brown pull of the Kansas River below. For about fifty years, that was the Rock Island Bridge. Then, in June, Kansas City’s sixth annual Make Music Day turned it into something else: a stage, a place for people to gather, and a spot where the city seemed to remember what it could do. Make Music Day is an idea that has been…
Someone does a certain kind of work that never makes the evening news. There was no cutting of the ribbon, no viral video, and no politician standing in front of a banner. At 7 p.m., a caseworker is on the phone with a family to help them figure out whether they need to pay the rent or the electricity bill this month. These are the times that Missouri’s nonprofit sector lives in, and these are the people that the state’s Nonprofit Relief and Recovery Grant program was made to help. The Missouri Department of Economic Development ran the program, which…
The scenery changes quickly once you’re an hour from St. Louis in almost any direction. Strip malls make way for farms. Urgent care centers are going away. You might have to drive a long way to get to the nearest hospital with a specialist if something goes wrong, like chest pain, a brain bleed, or a pulmonary embolism. This is the medical reality in rural Missouri. It’s not new or easy. Large parts of the state haven’t had enough medical care for decades because of a lack of doctors, hospitals closing, and lack of money. But there is a slow…
There is a certain kind of anger that builds up over time. Not the sudden kind, like a flat tire or a car accident, but the kind that happens every day. The kind you get when you’re stuck in traffic on the same stretch of road for days on end and don’t know if anything has moved since last Tuesday. That anger has a place in Kansas City: the Northland, off of 64th Street near Interstate 29 and the GoKC Bond Project. For many who live and work nearby, it feels like it will stay that way. Troy Oliphant remembers…
Some crimes stay with a community long after the police have stopped looking into them. One of those cases is the disappearance of Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzie Streeter, and Suzie’s friend Stacy McCall. They are now known as the Springfield Three. It began in Springfield, Missouri, on the night of June 6, 1992, at the end of a night that should have been filled with happiness. It was Suzie and Stacy’s last day of high school at Kickapoo. Party, pictures, and a new king-sized waterbed that Suzie couldn’t wait to show off. The two girls drove back to Sherrill’s…