Baseball-sized hail ripped through Paola and Osawatomie in Miami County, Kansas, which is just across the state line from Missouri, on the evening of April 15. Before the storm cells had completely passed, roofs were destroyed, car windshields collapsed, and an emergency was declared. Images from that night quickly went viral on the local news: fist-sized hailstones on driveways, siding stripped off of homes, and the unique kind of neighborhood silence that follows disastrous weather when people are still inside evaluating what they’ve lost. It was the beginning of a routine procedure for insurance adjusters. It was just another line…
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.
On the evening of December 27, 2011, Betsy Faria was stabbed more than fifty-five times at a home on Sumac Drive in Troy, Missouri, a small Lincoln County town an hour northwest of St. Louis. She had been receiving chemotherapy for her terminal breast cancer all day. There was a kitchen knife with a serrated edge in her neck. After calling 911 at 9:40 p.m., her husband Russ was imprisoned for almost four years for her murder before his conviction was completely overturned in a second trial. Pamela Marie Hupp, the woman who allegedly drove Betsy home that night, received…
For many years, frequent travelers who had firsthand experience with Kansas City International Airport used it as the subject of a particular type of joke. A shuttle bus and the common humiliation of having to re-enter security if you needed to switch airlines were the only connections between the three distinct terminals from 1972, each essentially its own isolated building. There weren’t many food options. The lines of security were dispersed. The entire experience conveyed, through its subdued architectural style, that Kansas City was not a destination worth visiting but rather a city you passed through. That all changed in…
Republican leaders unveiled a revised version of their income tax elimination plan at 11:30 p.m. on a Wednesday inside the Missouri Senate chamber in Jefferson City. Missouri was mostly asleep. There was silence in the gallery. The vote was completed by 18 to 11 at 1:15 in the morning, bringing the state one step closer to trying something that no state in contemporary American history has attempted on this scale: substituting an expanded sales tax for nearly two-thirds of its general revenue. Missouri’s personal income tax, which is currently set at a top rate of 4.7 percent on income over…
There is still something genuinely pleasant about Kauffman Stadium when you walk in on a warm April evening. Photographs never fully capture the final hour of daylight captured by the fountains beyond the outfield wall. Even before you get to your seat, you can smell hot dogs. It’s a huge scoreboard. The lower sections are first occupied by families with young children, and the regulars who have been here since the Whitey Herzog era take their places with the cozy authority of those who possess something they do not. It’s a decent approximation. A fair estimate. Additionally, it is currently…
A quick, rhythmic buzz on the thigh, a phantom notification that sends a jolt of anticipation—or dread—up the spine, is a distinct, ghostly sensation that most of us have experienced but almost ever talk about. You expect to see a like on Instagram or a text from your boss as you reach into your pocket, but instead you see a black screen. No phone call. Not a message. Just a false positive from your own neurological system. Known as “Phantom Vibration Syndrome,” this phenomena is arguably the most prevalent sign of our cyborg existence. There is a problem with the…
Watching a flamingo sleep causes a brief period of cognitive dissonance. A ball of pink feathers perched on a single, twig-like stilt, it appears dangerous, defying gravity and common sense. The same question has been posed for decades by both zoo visitors and scientists: Why? Is that a position from yoga? A means of drying off? A peculiarity of evolution? It turns out that the solution is a bio-engineering masterclass. It is about being lazy in the most effective way possible, not about balancing in the active sense. Standing on one leg is actually less exhausting than standing on two,…
The sight of a house centipede evokes a certain, primordial fear. A blur of thirty legs ripples across the wall like a fallen eyelash that has suddenly learned to sprint, and it moves with a seamless, scary pace. Most people have the instinct to stop the invader with severe prejudice by grabbing a shoe, a rolled-up magazine, or a vacuum cleaner. However, you should be aware that you are going to use the most potent, non-toxic pesticide in your house before you attack. The enemy of your adversaries is the house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata). It is a nocturnal, ravenous predator…
The heyday of transactional intimacy is upon us. You may hire a companion to accompany you around Manhattan’s Strand bookstore if you have $40 per hour and a PayPal account. A professional “cuddler” can hold you in a non-sexual embrace while you discuss your day if you have $80 per hour. Additionally, you may buy a social robot—a wide-eyed desktop buddy or a mechanical seal—that is designed to mimic emotional attunement without the complexity of a true relationship if human interaction seems too unpredictable. This is known as the “Loneliness Economy,” a rapidly expanding market that has hurried to fill…
The first bite of a chicken nugget that has never had a heartbeat causes a deep cognitive discomfort. The bargain of carnivory has been brutally straightforward for generations: something dies so that humans can eat it. This past Wednesday, the US Department of Agriculture granted Upside Foods and Good Meat final approval to sell chicken raised in steel vats rather than coops, permanently changing that contract. The idea of “lab-grown meat” is being brought from the world of science fiction into the controlled reality of the American food system by this decision. This approximation is not based on plants. This…