Regional News

Whataburger sets fall 2021 opening for KC area locations

The first of four Whataburger locations will be opening this fall in the Kansas City area. The burger chain announced they will be opening the four different locations and hiring 700 positions locally. New locations include one in Lee’s Summit,… more

Employees at Atchison mining equipment company on strike

Bradken Foundry employees with United Steel Workers Local 6943 continue their strike against the company after a meeting on Monday evening left contract negotiations with company officials unresolved. The strike began at 5 p.m. Monday, March 22. Union members said… more

Missouri establishes Show Me Strong task force for businesses

This week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed Executive Order 21-06 establishing the Show Me Strong Recovery Task Force.  The purpose of the Show Me Strong Task Force is to study and develop recommendations on ways to support small businesses, including… more

Coping with COVID: Weekly death toll recedes

Data from Worldometer notes that this week on Tuesday, March 23 was the first time since Nov. 5, 2020 that the nation’s seven-day rolling average for new daily deaths fell below 1,000. According to data tracked since mid-March of 2020,… more

Q&A with Todd Winnerman

We had a pretty good winter until the middle of last month—how has weather this season affected progress on your progress, given the national scope of this freeze? During the extreme weather in February, we lost about two weeks of… more

Kansas small businesses receive $57M in grants

Roughly $57 million in aid has reached around 3,000 small businesses in Kansas in Small Business Working Capital (SBWC) grants. Funding for the grants was drawn out from the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), which sent monetary aid to businesses… more

KC area shows total nonfarm job loss of 46,500 in one year

The Kansas City metropolitan area is down more than 46,000 jobs in one year, according to a recent report from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. Kansas City counted 1.06 million nonfarm jobs in February, off from 1.11 million… more

New order establishes Kansas workforce improvement council

On Monday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed Executive Order 21-08, establishing the Advantage Kansas Coordinating Council (AKCC). The council was created to improve Kansas’s workforce and is comprised of education and business leaders across the state. The AKCC will align… more

Leawood-based AMC opens 98 percent of U.S. locations

About a year ago, COVID-19 forced Leawood-based AMC Theaters to close all its locations nationwide. As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, operations began to kick up again and patrons return. On Friday, March 19, 98 percent of AMC locations… more

Kansas City Southern to be acquired in $29B deal

For over 130 years, Kansas City Southern stood a strong symbol among Kansas City businesses, growing and expanding through the decades since its start in 1887. Over the years, the Kansas City-based railway made a number of investments and acquisitions.… more