In the News

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday hailed the massive Panasonic battery plant planned for De Soto as part of a wave of industrial production centered on electric vehicles that is spurring an "American renaissance" in manufacturing.

Buttigieg was among a host of officials who descended upon the old Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in western Johnson County to survey the vast field of dirt where the $4 billion plant that is expected to employ 4,000 people will one day stand. In the distance, excavators and heavy equipment were already at work.

Leaders from Missouri and Kansas gathered Monday to celebrate the opening of the new single-terminal Kansas City International Airport with federal officials during a ceremony and ribbon-cutting.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Kansas Lt. Gov. David Toland, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri and Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas joined other leaders at the ceremony in at the new terminal, which will officially open on Tuesday.

.S. Rep. Sharice Davids admits she's negotiating a steep learning curve as one of the newest members of the House Agriculture Committee.

Davids was appointed to the committee last summer at a time that practically coincided with new boundary lines drawn in her district – Kansas' 3rd District of the U.S. House of Representatives. The new district split Wyandotte County along Interstate 70 and still included Johnson County in its entirety, but also added Miami, Franklin and Anderson counties to the mix, making it decidedly more rural.

After developing Type 2 diabetes a few years ago, Julia Cogley of Overland Park couldn't pay $700 a month for insulin on top of two other monthly medications.

Cogley said anxiety hangs overhead knowing her monthly medication costs stack up to $2,100. She doesn't travel or go out to eat because she spends much of her disposable income on medicine.

She's resorted to cutting cable, one of the last places she can make a change to pad her budget, to save $100 a month.

State and city leaders broke ground Thursday on a much anticipated change in Overland Park.

Overland Park approved a plan to add toll lanes to U.S. 69 Highway in 2021. Road crews will spend the next two years building express lanes along the highway from 103rd Street to 151st Street.

Next week, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids is bringing Overland Park resident Jessica Kidd, a recent graduate of Johnson County Community College's commercial driver's license program, to the U.S. Capitol as her guest for the State of the Union address.

Davids, a fellow JCCC alum, selected Kidd as her guest to Washington, D.C. to highlight her participation as a woman in trucking, who is making a viable career in an industry stunted by a shortage of drivers.

The President's State of the Union address takes place Feb. 7.

In her return to Congress after re-election in November, Sharice Davids will serve as a voice for Kansas on three major drivers of the state's economy, particularly in the newly-redrawn Kansas Third district, the congresswoman's office said Tuesday.

Late Monday night, U.S. Rep. Davids, D-Kansas, was granted a waiver to again serve on the House Small Business Committee — this time, within a Congress where Republicans hold a narrow majority and leadership positions on committees.

For the fifth year in a row, Kansas 3rd District representative Sharice Davids will be collecting and distributing Valentine's Day cards for veterans and their caregivers.

Residents can mail cards to Davids' office in Kansas City or email a message to KS03valentinesforvets@gmail.com from now through Monday, Feb. 13. She will deliver the cards and messages to Kansas veterans and caregivers at the Lenexa VA.