Missouri News

More passengers will be going through St. Louis Lambert International Airport for holiday travel, but overall numbers are still expected to fall short of last year's because of the pandemic.

“We’re anticipating that we'll see about 50% of the levels of 2019 or about a 5-to-10% increase in what we've been seeing in the last few weeks,” said Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, the airport’s director.

Registered nurse Pascaline Muhindura has spent the last eight months treating COVID-19 patients at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

But when she returns home to her small town of Spring Hill, Kansas, she's often stunned by what she sees, like on a recent stop for carryout.

Robert “Bobby” Rocha died Saturday morning after contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty, according to the Kansas City Fire Department. He was 60 years old.

“I am sad to report that KCFD Fire Captain Robert “Bobby” Rocha lost his battle with COVID-19 early this morning,” Fire Chief Donna Lake said in a statement released Saturday. “His passing represents a personal loss to all of us who knew him.”

Updated at 11:50 a.m. Nov. 22 with comments from Reed

St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed officially announced he is running for mayor of St. Louis.

Reed made the announcement late Saturday night, just days after Mayor Lyda Krewson announced she won’t seek reelection.

“I have heard you loud and clear,” Reed said in a tweet. “I am excited and honored to file for office on Monday as your next mayor.”

The city of St. Louis hopes a partnership between job training agencies and the electrical workers union will get more residents employed in the solar power industry.

Activists and artists in St. Louis have found a different way to advocate change.

Eight billboards in St. Louis and St. Louis County feature messages urging people to stay involved in the fight for change.

The billboards are part of a public arts initiative by the Luminary and STLMade: "I watch for good news. I work with folks to create good news.” They feature illustrations, photographs and graphic design encouraging St. Louisans to stay engaged and help create a stronger region.

Stuart Carden started as the new artistic director at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre in September 2019. So he was just a few months into his new role when performances got underway of the annual production of "A Christmas Carol."

He greeted audiences each night, and it served as an introduction.

"Experiencing the tradition that is a 'Christmas Carol' at KC Rep and experiencing for the first time what this story and tradition means to our community," he says, "was really powerful."

In Kansas counties that adopted mask rules last summer, the spread of COVID-19 slowed, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The study by federal and state epidemiologists suggests that if more counties follow suit, it could help stem a disastrous groundswell that has hospitals in Kansas and across the Midwest reeling.

Updated at 6:20 p.m. Nov. 20 with comments from hospital officials

St. Louis Children’s Hospital is now treating adult patients with the coronavirus.

The hospital began admitting adult patients over a week ago in an attempt to relieve doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a hospital spokesperson confirmed Friday afternoon. Intensive care units at Barnes-Jewish and other area hospitals are nearing capacity. Children’s Hospital is treating adults in both its emergency room and ICU.

The companies involved in the construction of now-demolished student housing near the UMKC campus have agreed to pay $3 million to settle the University of Missouri’s lawsuit against them.

Diana Morrison remembers celebrating her father’s 85th birthday with the entire family in February. They gathered in a conference room at Bethesda Southgate, a nursing facility in south St. Louis County, with food and drinks, eager to celebrate.

It was the family's last gathering before the coronavirus pandemic with her father, who has lived at Bethesda Southgate for nearly three years.

St. Louis hospitals are seeing record numbers of daily coronavirus admissions, but some local health systems are holding off on canceling elective procedures as they did in the spring.

In March, the region’s four largest hospital systems canceled colonoscopies, mammograms and nonessential surgeries to make room for coronavirus patients and preserve personal protective equipment.

But another freeze on those procedures could be financially destructive for hospitals during a time when they need more staff than ever before, hospital officials said.

The possibility of the first public charter school opening in north St. Louis County, within the struggling Normandy school district’s borders, is being met with opposition from some local government leaders.

If approved by the Missouri State Board of Education, the Leadership School will launch in fall 2021 as the first charter school to open outside of either St. Louis or Kansas City in the two decades of the program's existence.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Nursing will expand and renovate its Nursing Learning Resource and Simulation Center to help meet the growing demand for nurses.

The $7 million renovation project will add updated nursing equipment and new technology to the center. It will include a 5,000-square-foot expansion of simulation rooms and renovated skills labs.

New coronavirus restrictions start Friday for Kansas City residents.

This will affect how many people you can have at get-togethers indoors, your experience eating out at a restaurant and whether you can still plan large events like a wedding.

Metro counties including Wyandotte, Jackson, Clay and Platte have also announced health orders similar to Kansas City’s, although there are some minor differences related to the implementation date. Johnson County, Kansas’ health order has already taken effect, but it’s less stringent.

Usually, a castmate would be there to help Rai Turner with their makeup before going on stage, but not this year.

Grandview High School’s production of Qui Nguyen’s “She Kills Monsters” is totally contactless. Nearly all of the scenes were filmed in students’ homes, including the majority of Rai’s.

Missouri’s public health director said Thursday that an individual’s chance of catching COVID-19 is the highest it’s been since the start of the pandemic.

“Even though, here on November 19, we have more resources and more things in the pipeline that give us great hope, at this very moment in time your risk of getting COVID-19 is at the highest it’s been because of community transmission and cold weather, and to some extent, COVID-19 fatigue,” Dr. Randall Williams said at Gov. Mike Parson’s weekly press briefing.

As COVID-19 cases and deaths surge in the region, many faith groups will continue to offer virtual services.

On Tuesday, St. Louis County’s new restrictions took effect, including a 25% occupancy limit on religious organizations. That’s down from 50%.

Starting Friday, new restrictions in Kansas City, Missouri, limit indoor gatherings to 10 people. So arts organizations are canceling performances — again.

In the spring, arts groups moved concerts, theater and dance performances to online productions, and in the summer and the fall to outdoor performances — in parks and green spaces at the Liberty Memorial, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Union Cemetery.

A Leawood man who held himself out as a pathologist but has no medical degree was indicted Wednesday on 10 counts of federal wire fraud.

The indictment accuses Shawn Lynn Parcells, 41, of misleading clients into believing they would receive autopsy reports prepared by a pathologist when no pathologist was involved.

Despite a year of extraordinary change, a substantial improvement in race relations in Kansas City may not be among them.

That's the lesson author and activist Garrett Griffin takes from this year so far.

"We're kind of on step one or two of, you know, 10,000," Griffin says, careful not to overstate things.

Griffin, who is white and lives in Kansas City's suburbs, seeks to help his white friends and family understand they have a role to play, whether it's posting on social media, protesting or civil disobedience.