“There Was No Warning”: Nobody Wants to Call the Storm That Hit Wyandotte County a Tornado
Climate · Housing · Investigation · Kansas City “There Was No Warning”: Nobody Wants to Call the Storm That Hit Wyandotte County a Tornado A radar estimate decided 60 miles per hour, so no phones rang. The sky decided otherwise. Three nights later, thousands in Wyandotte County were still in the dark, waiting on a […]
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Latest Stories
The People Said Let Us Vote. The Council Gave a Billionaire $600 Million Instead
Two days after city officials violently arrested a community leader, I sat in a chamber swarmed with police and watched eleven council members give a billionaire one of the biggest public deals this city has ever seen, without letting a single resident speak.
“I Can’t Breathe!” Black Community Leader Violently Attacked & Arrested For Resisting KC Billioniare Stadium
A Royals stadium worker was violently attacked and pinned to the ground at City Hall as Kansas City advanced the billionaire ballpark with no public vote.
‘All They Got to Do is Stop Talking Honky’: How Argentina’s Racist Display at the World Cup Mirrors the MAGA Backlash in the US
A month after the World Cup ended, the spectacle is gone. The racial and political tensions it exposed are not, as Argentina’s President Javier Milei, much like Trump, stokes racial tensions to cover for a sick economy and its savage inequalities.
Missouri Begins the Medical Torture of Trans People in Its Prisons. The People It Caged Are Fighting Back
Da’Shae Breeze learned to write at Maya Angelou’s desk. Now she writes to The Defender from a solitary confinement cell as Missouri strips away her medical care. She spoke to us from inside state prison, alongside Jessica Hicklin, who spent 26 years in maximum security and won the federal ruling the state just defied.
Kansas City Killed the Data Center. The Tax Scheme It Was Feeding Is Still Alive
A Miami fund bought a 126-year-old downtown building, quietly signed away the right to demolish it, then asked Kansas City for permission to demolish it anyway and build a 20-story data center. A leading legal scholar reviewed the paperwork The Defender obtained and called it by its name. This week, Kansas City said no.
If We Must Die: A Black August Tribute from the Heart of the Country
Born behind prison walls, carried across the diaspora, Black August is the month we count our martyrs and sharpen ourselves. McKay gave us the vow. Missouri and Kansas gave us the battleground.
Put Some Respek on Bizzy’s Name: The Plaza, White Media, and the “Inaugural” Theft of 816 Day
Black entrepreneur and widely beloved Promoter Brian “Bizzy” Benton founded 816 Day in 2017. Now in 2026 KCTV5 calls the event “inaugural.” Black Kansas City has a lot to say.
📰 America’s Most Important Election? The People’s Ballot Is Here.
The Defender’s 2026 election guide covers every amendment, every race, and every dollar, in plain language, before Tuesday.
