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HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JOHN HANNA.

A streetcar runs along Main Street near the 18th and Vine district Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Different needs but similar fears arise in communities on both ends of Missouri’s redistricting

November 14, 2025

The rush to redraw America’s congressional maps has put a historically Black neighborhood in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and a mostly white farming community 100 miles away in the same district. The 18th and Vine area in Kansas City is known for a museum telling the story of segregated professional baseball. To the east, Boonville wants federal help rebuilding an old railroad bridge to improve a popular biking trail. Republican lawmakers redrew districts this summer to meet President Donald Trump’s call for states to help the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The redrawing could mean a significant shift in priorities by its representatives.

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The Wyandotte County Detention Center is photographed on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. (AP Photo/Heather Hollingsworth)

Kansas deputy charged with murder in the death of a man in custody

September 19, 2025

A Kansas sheriff’s deputy has been charged with murder in the death of an inmate who sustained broken ribs after his back was kneeled on after he was wheeled from the infirmary to his cell. A prosecutor said Thursday that deputy Richard Fatherley has been charged with second-degree murder and an alternative count of involuntary manslaughter in the July 5 death of 50-year-old Charles Adair. Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree provided no details. However, the autopsy said one officer knelt on Adair’s back during an altercation. Fatherley’s attorney says the second-degree murder charge requires the state to prove that the defendant showed an extreme indifference to life, but that this case did not meet that element.

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A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible deportation in a shuttered facility that the private prison operator now calls the Midwest Regional Reception Center, in Leavenworth, Kan., pictured Monday, March 3, 2025, unless it can get a permit from frustrated city officials. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)

Takeaways from AP’s reporting on shuttered prisons, mass deportation push and no-bid contracts

June 16, 2025

Private prison operators are marketing their shuttered lockups to federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump pushes for mass deportations, with some facilities nabbing lucrative no-bid contracts. When the Republican took office, politically connected private-prison giants CoreCivic Inc., of Tennessee, and The Geo Group Inc., of Florida, had around 20 idle facilities. CoreCivic says it hasn’t seen such demand for its services in its 42-year history. But the push to reopen facilities has encountered resistance in unexpected places like Leavenworth, Kansas, whose name evokes a short hand for serving hard time. The Leavenworth facility was mothballed in 2021 after Democratic President Joe Biden called on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons.

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