What's next for the Kansas City Chiefs after the team’s worst season since 2012? We’ll hear what could be in store for Mahomes, Kelce, and more in this excerpt from SportsBeat KC, a Kansas City sports podcast from The Star and KCUR Studios.

Missouri lawmakers arrived this week in Jefferson City for the start of the 2026 legislative session, which runs until mid-May. Gov. Mike Kehoe is pushing to eliminate the state income tax, but a smaller budget will likely force spending cuts.

The state of Kansas is luring the Kansas City Chiefs across the state line with funding from STAR Bonds, a unique kind of tax incentive. The team plans to build a $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County and a practice facility worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Olathe.

A new exhibit at the Nerman Museum in Overland Park packs a punch with ceramic lipsticks, guns, and colorful pastel flowers. Over her five-decade career, Kansas City clay artist Linda Lighton created sculptures that speak to some of the thorniest issues of our time.

Missouri lawmakers have passed historically expensive budgets in recent years, but next year will likely be different, according to Missouri state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City. The state's revenue has flatlined when adjusted for inflation, and there is no more surplus of federal money. Nurrenbern said that math means Missouri won't be able to fund all the services it has in prior years.

Native freshwater mussels do important work filtering the water in Midwest rivers. These animals are in trouble, but Kansas has a plan to help them. Plus: We'll hear from farmers around the central U.S. about what made this such a tough year, and what may come in 2026.

The Kansas City Chiefs' planned move across the state line marked an unusually bipartisan success for Kansas elected leaders. In most other ways, state politics in 2025 were marked by Republican wins and Democratic frustrations.

The year 2025 marked the start of a new governor's term in Missouri, and the deepening of Republican control of the General Assembly. As the year ended, the blame and sorrow over the state losing the Kansas City Chiefs were just beginning.

As 2025 nears its end, we’re catching up on the biggest stories we reported this year. It was a hard year for federal workers in Kansas City, who weathered mass layoffs and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Hear how that impacted workers' jobs and mental health.

2025 brought a lot of grief for governments in Kansas City, Missouri, and Jackson County: the expensive departure of the city's highest-paid official, a property tax scandal that left the county's top lawmaker rebuked, and the Chiefs' planned move to Kansas. But there's something to look forward to, too: the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A Kansas City cookbook author gives us a glimpse of her warm kitchen this winter season. Plus, while many people go online or to the mall to shop for presents, some rural towns go all out to try and attract holiday shoppers.

A major tax incentive package approved by Kansas lawmakers will help the Chiefs build a new $3 billion domed stadium in Wyandotte County. Plus: A Classical KC contributor shares memories from Christmases past.

Kansas will end all access to hormone treatments and other gender-affirming care for transgender minors in January. To keep getting care for their children, some families are opting to leave the state entirely.

Black student enrollment declined almost 34% at the University of Missouri between 2013-2023 — and Black students there have much to say about why.

This year saw the formation of the Kansas City area's first Women’s Pinball League. At 403 Club, in Kansas City, Kansas, beginners and pros of all ages and walks of life gather each Thursday for slap-saves, snacks and sisterhood.

For the first time in 11 years, the Kansas City Chiefs will not be playing in the NFL playoffs. The bad news doesn’t stop there: superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes sustained a season-ending injury in last weekend's loss to the San Diego Chargers. The situation has some fans wondering if this is the end of the dynasty, or just a fluke of a season.

Next year, Kansas City’s only drinking water treatment plant will celebrate its 100th birthday. It’s a milestone worth applauding, for sure, but it’s also a reminder that the city has only one place where it makes clean water.

In Missouri and Kansas, the secretary of state is the top election official, a partisan position chosen by voters. But to the frustration of some, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has used his authority to push certain Republican priorities, especially when it comes to ballot issues on redistricting and abortion.

In Kansas City, singles looking for love have a new way to find possible matches: live, in-person and with an audience. Can a local reimagining of “The Dating Game” lead to love in a loveless city? Plus: A disease caused by ticks is on the rise in Missouri, meaning more people are looking for alpha-gal safe ways to eat out.

This week, petitioners challenging Missouri's gerrymandered new congressional map submitted 305,000 signatures seeking to halt the law and put it up for a statewide vote. That's more than twice as many as needed. But a whole tangle of legal challenges lay ahead.