On Friday, John Bolton stood in a federal courtroom in Greenbelt, Maryland, and made a statement he had long insisted he wouldn’t have to. When Judge Theodore Chuang asked the 77-year-old former national security adviser if he was guilty, he simply replied, “I did, Your Honor.” Then he apologized. To be honest, it’s an odd image. This man built his entire public persona around never giving up on a fight, whether it was with North Korea, Iran, or ultimately his own former boss. He spent decades projecting certainty. It feels like a tiny fissure in something that has always appeared…
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.
Near the town of Rivière-Beaudette, just east of the Ontario border, there is a specific stretch of pavement where Highway 401 simply ceases to be Ontario’s problem and becomes Quebec’s. There isn’t any fanfare or a sign that says “welcome to something bigger.” It simply becomes Autoroute 20 after that, and depending on which stretch you’re counting, it doesn’t really let up for an additional 585 kilometers. As a result, it is the province’s longest autoroute. Additionally, it is one of only two actual thoroughfares that connect Quebec City and Montreal; the other is the A-40. Regular drivers of both…
Almost every law school orientation includes a specific moment when the dean informs incoming students that the degree they will be earning for three years and about $217,000 is not actually an academic credential at all. After passing the bar exam, it’s a license to practice. It sounds like a technical distinction. It isn’t. It influences everything, including a graduate’s eligibility for federal loans and how their resume is reviewed. In general, a professional degree is designed to immediately place a person in a regulated field, such as law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, or architecture. Instead of emphasizing inquiry, the curriculum…
A certain type of policy change doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Most people are unaware of it until someone close to them unexpectedly runs out of tuition money by $100,000. It slips into a federal definition, buried in loan regulations. In November of last year, graduate nursing programs were discreetly removed from the U.S. Department of Education’s list of “professional degrees.” Semantics is what it sounds like. Really, it isn’t. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a comprehensive piece of legislation passed by Congress that sets a cap on the amount of federal loans that graduate students…
These days, there’s a good chance that someone on the project team has those three letters printed beneath their email signature if you walk into practically any mid-sized engineering firm in Karachi or Lahore. It has evolved into something of a quiet badge, the kind of qualification that doesn’t garner much attention but nevertheless appears in job advertisements. For those who wish to manage projects instead of just work within them, it seems like it’s no longer an option. The Project Management Institute is the source of the certification, which has been around long enough to become standard rather than…
On opinion days, a certain silence descends upon the Supreme Court chamber. Reporters bend forward. Along the side walls, clerks move in their seats. Even before a word is read, everyone is roughly familiar with the script. Thursday was peculiar because of this. The script broke down for a few awkward moments.Justice Samuel Alito had just completed one of three opinions he had written that day, summarizing his decision in a case involving asylum seekers at the southern border. He doesn’t spend much time thinking about his summaries. His typical register is “quick, dry, get to the point.” Thus, the…
A palace with 775 rooms that is largely deserted at night seems almost fitting. According to royal accounts released this week, King Charles and Queen Camilla will not reside at Buckingham Palace after its ten-year, £369 million renovation is completed next spring. Rather, the King and Queen will continue to live at Clarence House, a smaller, peaceful home surrounded by ivy that is only a short stroll from St. James’s Palace. Although it’s not as dramatic as it might seem, this decision is nonetheless historic. A reigning monarch hasn’t chosen to live somewhere else since Queen Victoria spent extended periods…
A $200,000 Lego collection becoming the focus of a civil RICO-adjacent lawsuit, restraining orders, and misdemeanor stalking charges is almost ridiculous. However, that is about the current status of the conflict between Ben Schneider, the YouTuber known to his followers as Reckless Ben, and Bricks and Minifigs, a Utah-based Lego resale business. This is how the fundamentals work. The Mansells, a family from Oregon, claim that their father Eric put together a unique Star Wars Lego collection over many years. They consigned it to a nearby Bricks and Minifigs franchise, which allowed the store to sell items for a commission…
As these things frequently do, it began with something utterly unremarkable. After a long shift, a woman goes to get dinner. In Broken Bow, Oklahoma, she passes a small-town Arby’s, picks up an order for her family and herself, and drives home. There was nothing about that late March evening that indicated it would be featured in court documents and make headlines across the country months later. Jennica Church filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Amanda Hendricks, 38, was the manager who prepared her order that night. According to the complaint, Hendricks was actively managing an oral herpes outbreak, complete…
Curtis Ervin lived out of a maroon pickup truck close to a fast-food lot in Long Beach for nearly two years. This is the kind of detail that doesn’t appear in a federal report but provides a close-up view of what veteran homelessness looks like. For a considerable amount of time, no one was able to persuade the 87-year-old Navy man who had previously worked on a nuclear-powered destroyer to enter. This year, he was finally placed in housing after an outreach worker fed him warm meals through a truck window for more than a year, week after week. The…