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Perth Now
10-05-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
Early night could have killed heart attack victim
The setting sun piercing through his windscreen was making Chris Harrison's headache worse. The Melbourne council officer was driving home early from work after twice bursting into unexpected tears. He thought he needed to get to bed. In fact, he was having a heart attack. Had it not been for Mr Harrison's GP calling him that afternoon with the results of an angiogram to investigate heart irregularities and a query about how he was feeling, the man in his early 50s would have gone to bed early. Instead, he was ordered to hospital, where he underwent a quadruple bypass that saved his life. Each year in Australia, more than 18,000 people die and nearly 150,000 are hospitalised due to coronary heart disease, the Heart Foundation says. About 2.5 million adults are at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years. Mr Harrison's father died at 38 of arteriosclerosis and all but one of his uncles died of heart attacks. Mr Harrison smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day, drank and didn't pay attention to his diet or exercise. He had been diagnosed with peripheral vascular disease in his early 40s and had a couple of stents put in, but he wasn't shaking his bad habits. The heart attack saved his life, he told AAP. "Not to be flippant, but it's probably the best thing that could have happened. I'm supremely lucky," he said. Mr Harrison, now 55, has quit smoking and barely drinks since the heart attack three years ago. He watches what he eats and exercise has become a part of his life. He also married his partner of 20 years and the couple spend less time at work and more time together walking their dogs. "Suddenly ... we'd been given a second chance. We embraced that," Mr Harrison said. Even though he had been seeing a cardiologist, he didn't think his pre-heart attack symptoms were troubling. "I thought I was just tired ... without my GP, you know, I would be dead. "The cemeteries are filled with people who didn't get a call. My dad was one of them." The best way to prevent heart attacks and strokes is to take advantage of the 20-minute Medicare Heart Health Checks, the Heart Foundation says. They are available to people from the age of 45, or younger for those at high risk. GPs will check blood pressure, blood-sugar levels and cholesterol, and discuss family history, diet, exercise, sleep and stress to calculate the risk of heart problems over the next five years. Simple and non-invasive check-ups to prevent heart attacks were a lot better than the possible alternative, Sydney GP Raya Grishina-Gunn said. "Sometimes the first symptoms of heart attacks can be sudden death," she said, adding that her patients often weren't proactive enough about their health. "That's what we're trying to prevent ... it's much easier to prevent than to treat after." For Heart Week, which runs until Monday, the Heart Foundation is urging people to be less complacent and join the nearly one million Australians who have had a heart health check. "Heart disease remains the single leading cause of death in Australia and yet the majority of heart attacks experienced in this country are preventable," the foundation's Natalie Raffoul said.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Critics say Missouri GOP law fighting abortion is a ‘Let Politicians Lie Act'
Reality Check is a Star series holding those with power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at RealityCheck@ Have the latest Reality Checks delivered to your inbox with our free newsletter. When Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe campaigned for office last year, he declared, 'the pro-life community does not need quitters' if abortion returned to the state. At a closed-door ceremony inside his Capitol office last month, the Republican chief executive signed the first measure intended to help attack abortion access after voters in November overturned the state's ban on the procedure. The new law handed Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a staunch abortion opponent himself, a powerful new weapon. He immediately deployed it. Within an hour, Bailey's office appealed a temporary court decision in Jackson County that had allowed legal abortions to resume in Missouri for the first time since 2022 after voters enshrined a right to the procedure in the state constitution. Before Kehoe signed the new law, Bailey would have potentially had to wait months to appeal; now, he can challenge temporary orders right away. The new law marks the latest salvo in the ongoing fight over abortion access in Missouri. For the past five months, Republican lawmakers have weighed an onslaught of bills that would overturn the voter-approved abortion rights amendment, called Amendment 3. Their top priority, a proposed ballot question that would reenact an abortion ban, is one vote away from reaching the ballot. But the law signed by Kehoe represents a relatively new target for Republican lawmakers and officials: judges who rule against them. The immediate impact could imperil the February ruling that cleared a path for abortions to begin in the state. 'The attorney general being able to…intervene and appeal these injunctions that these leftist judges are placing on the laws that we put in place is a huge victory,' Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican who sponsored the bill, said in a video on social media. Bailey's office did not respond to a request to comment on this story. In the long term, another part of the law that takes effect in August restricts judges from rewriting misleading language on measures that voters see at the ballot box. If ballot language is challenged in court, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins will now get three opportunities to write his own before the courts can redraft the wording. Supporters argue that state officials should have more power to craft the wording that appears on the ballot. But critics, who have dubbed the new law the 'Let Politicians Lie Act,' argue that it will empower the secretary of state to manipulate voters through deceptive ballot language — an issue the previous secretary of state was recently sued for. 'I can't tell you how many times I've heard my Republican colleagues use the term 'activist judges.' They constantly accuse the courts of overstepping,' said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat. 'So does it surprise me that the legislature has come in and done that to the courts? No, not at all.' The legislation quickly generated a lawsuit that argues the law violates the state constitution in several ways. But even if the law is struck down, the continued legislative debates and legal wrangling have instilled fear and confusion over where abortion access currently stands. 'It is confusing and I think that's by design,' said Sen. Patty Lewis, a Kansas City Democrat. 'But abortion is legal in the state of Missouri currently and we have to continue to share that message to folks.' The anti-abortion community's focus on the judicial branch — and the wording of ballot measures — is also likely by design. When a coalition of abortion rights groups first began the campaign to legalize the procedure in 2023, top Republican officials moved to render the effort politically toxic. Then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, for example, proposed incendiary language for the ballot question that would have asked voters to 'allow for dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions.' The courts struck down the effort and a Cole County judge rewrote the language that Ashcroft had crafted. An appeals court, which upheld the ruling, ruled that Ashcroft's ballot summaries were 'replete with politically partisan language.' Now, under the new law, courts will have less power to rewrite the language that will appear on ballot questions. If a court finds a ballot summary to be misleading or insufficient, the law will give the secretary of state three opportunities to submit new ones before it can be rewritten by a judge. Chuck Hatfield, a Jefferson City-based attorney who sued to strike down the new law, said in an interview that the legislation takes away any incentive for the secretary of state to draft fair and accurate language. 'It allows the secretary of state to submit their worst product first,' he said. 'Because you can just prepare something that is politically-charged, insufficient, unfair and see if you can get it to fly.' However, Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican, framed the legislation as a way to give statewide elected officials more of a say over the ballot language. 'It doesn't completely take away the power of the courts to rewrite ballot language,' he said. 'It just says if the court finds fault initially with the legislature's language, that we have other representatives of the people that have an opportunity to then weigh in and try to correct those mistakes.' As Republican state lawmakers weigh a series of proposals to weaken or overturn Amendment 3, large groups of abortion rights supporters have traveled to the state Capitol. Over the past few weeks, individuals from across the state have protested votes in the House, held rallies on the Capitol steps and shared harrowing stories about losing access to reproductive care in the Capitol rotunda. In front of the Missouri Supreme Court building last week, Gina Meyer from Lee's Summit was among the people who spoke against the measures. Meyer told a crowd of people that Missourians passed Amendment 3 to make their own health care decisions without government or religious restrictions. 'Please respect our vote and our constitutional right to religious freedom — whether you're religious or not,' Meyer said. While the changes to the ballot process won't take effect until August, the provision that allowed Bailey to challenge the abortion rights court ruling took immediate effect upon Kehoe's signature. Bailey appealed two preliminary injunctions, both issued by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang. Together, the rulings blocked a series of longstanding laws that have prevented abortion providers from offering the procedure, such as a 72-hour waiting period and licensing requirements. Those court rulings opened a pathway for abortion providers to partially resume care in the state. Another lawsuit, filed last week by Right By You, a reproductive health care nonprofit, seeks to overturn another Missouri law that requires minors to get parental approval before getting an abortion. Despite Bailey's appeal, access to procedural abortions is available at Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis. In February, the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Kansas City performed the first elective abortion in the state since the vote. In the months since, Planned Parenthood's midtown Kansas City clinic has offered abortion appointments 'every couple of weeks' and provided care as recently as last week, said Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. However, abortion providers are still fighting state officials to restore complete access and medication abortions remain inaccessible, causing 'frustration and confusion for patients,' Wales said. Even with abortions legal in Missouri, some Missourians have still decided to schedule appointments in neighboring Kansas, she said. When asked how the new law might impact access to care, Wales said that Bailey has fought to block both the passage and implementation of Amendment 3 'every step of the way.' Now lawmakers are 'helping him by rewriting the rules,' she said. 'It's clear this is a coordinated effort among our elected officials to undermine the will of the people, upend the legal process and ignore the state constitution,' Wales said. 'We will fight back — in every court, for every patient – to ensure access to the care they deserve.' The Star's Jonathan Shorman contributed reporting.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tenants live in squalor as historic KC building awaits city-backed renovation
Reality Check is a Star series holding those with power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at RealityCheck@ Have the latest Reality Checks delivered to your inbox with our free newsletter. Jennifer has struggled for years to find a stable place to call home. Originally from central Illinois, she moved to Kansas City in her 20s – a little over 20 years ago – to reconnect with family. That was back when it was still possible to find a basic apartment for under $400 a month. These days, though, even a studio would be tough to come by for close to that price. Jennifer has lived in communal punk houses in the past, and in recent years, she's bounced from place to place in the wake of a divorce while searching for somewhere to live in the long term. The Star agreed to use only Jennifer's first name due to safety concerns she has as a survivor of violence. After years of working 60 hours a week in the food service industry, Jennifer's main source of income now is financial assistance she receives for people living with disabilities. A typical market-rate apartment could soak up all of her income, leaving nothing for bills or anything else. She's not alone — there's a gap of 64,000 affordable rental units for households with lower incomes in the KC region, according to data from the Mid-America Regional Council. The median gross rent in Kansas City is around $1,200 with utilities, according to the most recent census data. Eventually, last summer, Jennifer made it to the top of the waiting list for a unit at the Mayfair Apartments, 1224 E. Linwood Blvd. Tenants in the historic, eight-story building pay 30% of their income on rent and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) covers the rest, according to HUD records. Jennifer pays about $350 a month for her unit. She noticed some red flags with the building right from the start, but her priority was to get into her own apartment as soon as possible. 'I was so excited to just have a spot where I could just be and not have to be living out of my car with my 40-pound dog,' she said. 'So I signed it.' But Jennifer quickly realized she'd be dealing with ongoing infestations and numerous health and safety concerns in her new home, she told The Star. Records obtained by The Star show that several tenants, including Jennifer, placed 30 complaints to the city about the Mayfair Apartments in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The rest echo her issues with infestations, maintenance problems, appliances not working and other issues. After years of neglect and mismanagement that allowed the building to fall into disrepair, the Mayfair's new owner has invested or raised millions of dollars to make improvements in the building. The company has plans to rehabilitate it with overhauled units for residents. And a new management company stepped in earlier this year, which has led to an improvement in conditions. The city has also gotten involved — taking steps to enforce its health code and intervening this winter to suspend the building's rental permit before concerns were addressed. Those working to transform the building say investments to date have kept the building habitable, but deeper renovation work has run into funding difficulties. And in the meantime, those who live in the Mayfair have been left in unsanitary and unsafe conditions that have persisted for years. Tenants and local housing advocates say the building's challenges are symptoms of a broader difficulty in Kansas City — how hard it is to finding a safe and comfortable place to live when you're on the edge of homelessness, and how hard it is to make buildings that are falling apart more habitable for those who need them. Jennifer was with a friend when she went into her apartment for the first time. 'Both of us walked into the apartment, and we're just like, 'Oh …'' she said. The walls and windows were stained with tobacco. It smelled like decades of smoking with the windows shut. The fridge was smelly and disgusting before it was replaced about a week later. One bedroom window had tape over cracks, while the other was spray-painted over and sealed shut. The windows did not have screens. Jennifer had to spend days scrubbing the place down. That's when the roaches started appearing. Pest control would come in, but it didn't seem to be enough, and the problem persisted. She started finding roach skeletons and excrement littered around. 'It's just everywhere. It's so bad in there,' she said. 'During the day, when I'm prepping food, I'll have to shoo them away from my cutting board.' An apparent mouse infestation later appeared where she keeps the dog food. The common areas of the building have been filthy, too: trash all around the grounds and dirty stairwells. One time, it appeared that someone had diarrhea on the stairs. Another time, there was blood smeared on the wall from a fight. It was spray-painted over after a health department inspection, but the outline of the smear was still visible, Jennifer said. Jennifer first spoke with The Star about her experience living in the Mayfair in December and has provided regular updates as she continued reporting the conditions to the city. A Star reporter visited the building and her unit, seeing cockroaches, the broken windows, the dirty common areas and other issues. The elevator has also been broken on multiple occasions, she said, and the access to the building is not secure. There have been issues with break-ins, she said. Seattle-based firm LEDG Capital has owned the building since fall 2021. WinnResidential of Boston took over its day-to-day management in February from a Houston-based company that had been there since 2022. Tenants have reported issues under both current and prior ownership and management. Jennifer has been vigilant in reporting the issues with the building to both Mayfair management and Kansas City's Healthy Homes rental inspection program, which started in 2018 and sends out inspectors to investigate issues and help tenants who report unsanitary and unsafe conditions. The city inspectors give landlords timelines to fix problems and can issue re-inspections, fines, penalties or even loss of rental permits. Healthy Homes reports ask landlords to provide proof of repairs or face a $150 re-inspection. Jennifer remains stuck on the waiting lists for other income-assisted apartments, and would struggle to afford moving costs if one did open up. 'I feel like I'm trapped there,' she said. 'I feel like I don't know what it's going to be like to have stable housing ever again.' But she said she won't give up. 'Instead of just swallowing that and being like, 'Well I guess this is my life,' I've decided to try and fight for better circumstances.' Ed Cafasso, a spokesperson for LEDG Capital, said that addressing the issues the residents face is exactly why the ownership group acquired the building and has invested $775,000 to fix safety issues, repair and upgrade heating and cooling systems, and repair badly damaged apartments in the past three years. 'The company understands and appreciates the concerns of Mayfair residents and works hard to be responsive to their needs,' Cafasso said. 'The community would be uninhabitable today had ownership not invested its own resources to address the urgent issues it inherited.' Another tenant, Michele Ellis, told The Star that she noticed roaches almost immediately when she moved into the building in 2019. She has lived in the Mayfair through multiple owners and property management companies. Like Jennifer, she remains on the waiting list for other income-assisted apartments that she can afford. Ellis stopped using her coffee pot and switched to instant because there would be roaches inside every time she went to clean it out, she said. She said the mice started showing up in 2020. Then, in 2021, the bedbugs arrived. 'They bite me every night,' Ellis said. She said she'd gone without heat and air conditioning for stretches. A four-day period without water service caused the nearby Family Dollar to run out of water after tenants bought it up. Ellis also has concerns about drug dealing and people who are not tenants coming in to use the stairway as a toilet. She uses a wheelchair and cannot get down the steps, and she's missed health appointments when the elevator is out of order. Ellis' case manager once came with a supervisor to speak to the building management about the elevator, she said, and it was fixed a few days later. But then it broke down again later the same day. Another time, Ellis returned to the building and could not get into her apartment for weeks because the elevator was down again. She had to stay with a cousin before the management offered her a hotel after she contacted the fire department. A different day, she was trapped in her apartment for 20 minutes while firefighters contained a fire on another floor, she said. Like Jennifer, Ellis feels that building management has been largely unresponsive to her complaints over the years. 'They'll fix something, and then you ask them to fix it again, and they won't do anything,' Ellis said. Like Jennifer, she has contacted Healthy Homes multiple times, and said that's the only time something is done. Jennifer said city health department inspectors with Healthy Homes have shown up quickly and documented the problems. She said they've been responsive and thorough while offering regular updates, but little to no maintenance work was actually done at times, and it seemed like the city's hands might have been tied to enforce actual change. 'It's disappointing, what they have the power to do when it comes to a place where I have to live, store, cook and eat my food,' Jennifer said. 'If it was a restaurant, it would be condemned.' The health department investigated and resolved over 2,500 health and safety complaints under Healthy Homes in 2024, according to city data. There have been over 10,000 inspections since the program began in 2018. The city issued 327 re-inspection fees last year to property owners for not complying with life and safety standards required under Healthy Homes, according to city data, while eight property owners had their licenses suspended for failing to meet the standards. Behind the scenes of Jennifer's nightmare living conditions, developers have been advancing plans to fix the aging building, which is roughly a century old. Those plans could be costly. Jennifer provided The Star with a copy of a letter from August 2024 detailing the owners' plans to apply for a state housing grant and tax credits to rehabilitate the Mayfair, improve the property and keep the units affordable. If the project were to move forward, the letter says, Jennifer would not be displaced and would be provided with temporary housing, with moving costs reimbursed. Once the project is finished, Jennifer will be able to 'lease and occupy a suitable, decent, safe and sanitary apartment' in the building 'under reasonable terms and conditions,' the letter says. State records show that an application was approved for 2025: about $1.5 million in tax credits and $2 million in federal grant funds administered by the state to help cover the costs of the renovation project. The Mayfair has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of January, which could unlock access to grants and tax incentives for rehab and development. The project snagged Kansas City Council approval for another $600,000 in September from the city's Housing Trust Fund for the rehab project. The application for the city funds makes clear that problems in the building were not a secret to the group behind the rehab project, and tenants could be left without a home if they don't get fixed. 'While Mayfair has maintained steady occupancy, it is dated and has a multitude of deferred maintenance issues that threaten housing stability for current tenants if issues are not addressed,' the Housing Trust Fund application says. It also says that the property is at risk of losing its contract to provide low-income housing if the conditions are not improved. That's because HUD requires a level of habitability in the buildings it subsidizes. Under the proposed project, all units will be upgraded with new cabinets, flooring, light fixtures, plumbing, fresh paint, new tubs/showers and toilets, doors and hardware. A larger elevator that hasn't been used for years will be brought back online. The outside will be upgraded with a key fob system for entrance, and there will be new security cameras placed throughout the building. The estimated cost to rehabilitate the Mayfair will be $8.5 million. The owners hope to be able to start by the end of the year. In mid-January, according to a letter provided to The Star, the previous property managers gave notice that HUD would be conducting an inspection on Jan. 30. That's when Jennifer said there was a 'sudden scramble' to perform maintenance work: painting the stairs, scheduling pest control, fixing empty apartments and coming by to fix the broken windows. Days before the HUD inspection, Jennifer said the city health department came and posted signs showing that the property is not in compliance while telling management that they would not be allowed to bring in any new tenants. According to information provided by the city, the notice was posted after the owner was slow to address violations. After the city's notice, the owner brought out a regional manager and extra maintenance staff to speed repairs. Property owners receive notices of noncompliance under the Healthy Homes ordinance when they allow their property to fall into a state of disrepair that is not conducive to healthy living conditions or basic safety standards for rental properties, Kansas City Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz told The Star. 'This prevents property owners from renting out uninhabitable units to new tenants until the units are in compliance with the basic life safety concerns covered by the Healthy Homes ordinance,' Kozakiewicz said in February. 'At this time, the property owner has addressed the unsafe and/or unsanitary conditions causing resident complaints at the Mayfair Apartments.' There were two open cases for pest control and windows in mid-February ahead of a planned inspection at the request of property management, who believed they had fixed the outstanding issues, the city said. Shortly before the scheduled HUD inspection, Jennifer said she received a call from the former property management company telling her that they dropped the ball and that things should've never gotten this far. Jennifer said the executive promised imminent changes, including building-wide pest control, and told her that they would be hiring another management group to take over the building and that the renovations have been approved, but wouldn't go forward for at least six months. Jennifer said the rapid repairs after the city's notice and ahead of the HUD inspection showed the improvements could have been made all along. She has troubled trusting that the changes will be maintained. 'When I moved here, I was on my first-ever, in my whole life, serious upswing in my mental health of getting better and starting to be able to manage my mental health better and take care of myself better,' she said. 'And since I moved here, it has only gotten worse.' The Mayfair's owners say they are working hard to respond to the needs of residents and that the building would be uninhabitable today without the work they've done to date. 'By the end of 2025, the group hopes to be in position to begin a multimillion-dollar renovation that will modernize all apartments and common areas, address much-needed exterior capital improvements, and preserve the community as affordable housing for at least the next 30 years,' Cafasso of LEDG Capital said in a statement. The company hoped to start the renovations sooner, he said, but scarcity of funding following the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the improvements. The HVAC systems and elevators were currently working properly, he said in February, and the city had lifted restrictions on daily operations. The management team is working with residents to keep the building as clean and sanitary as possible, and professional pest control is happening on a weekly basis, Cafasso said. 'We appreciate the patience residents have shown and look forward to beginning the effort to significantly improve their quality of life later this year,' Cafasso said. Gina Chiala, executive director and staff attorney for the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, a Kansas City-based workers and tenants' rights organization, said state law requires landlords to address significant threats to livability and safety, such as pest infestations and plumbing issues — but that law is rarely enforced. That's on top of local rules for rental properties, including the city's Healthy Homes ordinance. Many low-income tenants live in unsafe and uninhabitable conditions, Chiala said, and up to 50% of the eviction cases that the group handles in court on a weekly basis involve such issues. 'I think what has happened is that there's been so little enforcement with regard to these laws that it has become a norm that low-income tenants will live with mice, roaches, sometimes bedbugs,' she said. 'They will live with mold and moisture and plumbing problems and electrical problems.' She has worked with tenants who wake up with pests in their ears or children's beds, or sleep in shifts at night to keep them away. 'It's a very serious problem, and it's contributing not only to the physical decline of low-income tenants, but also to the mental decline,' Chiala said. She said Healthy Homes responds quickly and reliably when they receive complaints, and that inspections can put pressure on the landlord who could receive fines or lose their rental license. Speaking generally, she said tenants may face hostility from landlords after making a report, and Healthy Homes should do more when following up with tenants to discuss their rights. 'To operate a building like that, no matter who you are, if you can't afford to make it a safe and sanitary environment for humans to live in, then you don't get to do it,' Jennifer said. Like Chiala, she said there should be stronger enforcement at the city level to induce owners to fix conditions. 'I don't know what the answer is, but I know that what's happening is not fine,' Jennifer said. 'Human beings are suffering in conditions that they don't have the power to get out of and that are physically and emotionally unhealthy.' The Beacon reported earlier this year that City Council members have been meeting with health officials to discuss making the Healthy Homes ordinance stronger, which could include requiring building-wide inspections when several complaints come in from a single property, using random inspections instead of relying only on resident complaints, and increasing staffing. In any condition, Kansas City doesn't have nearly enough apartments available to rent that are affordable to lower-income households, according to the city's own data. In its 2022 report about ending homelessness, Kansas City cites the scarcity of affordable places to live as one of the two biggest barriers to eradicating homelessness in the city, According to the city's analysis, the metro area is nearly 28,000 housing units short of what it needs for residents in households that are at or below 30% of the area median income, which in 2024 in Kansas City was $21,700 for a single adult or $30,950 for a family of four. While waiting on the promised renovations, Jennifer is working with a social worker, trying to fight against her living conditions and still looking for alternatives. Shortly after the HUD inspection in January, the building's hallways were littered with trash again, Jennifer said: broken glass, sticky liquids, a huge bag of smelly trash in the lobby. She said she didn't get a chance to speak to someone from HUD during the inspection and hadn't heard back from the people at HUD she called. 'It looks like we're going right back to business as usual,' Jennifer said then. The results of the 2025 inspection are not clear. According to HUD documents, the Mayfair received a good inspection score in 2015, a substandard score in 2019 and a good score in 2022, while noting serious issues that needed to be addressed. HUD could break its contract with properties that can't correct failing conditions and move residents to other housing, according to the HUD website. Later, new building management in February under WinnResidential out of Boston promised 'exciting' change, according to a letter to tenants. 'Our goal is to continue to deliver great service to you and your family while adding some convenient enhancements to make your life a little easier!' the letter said. John Ursino, WinnResidential divisional vice president, told The Star that the company is, along with ownership, committed to making meaningful improvements to enhance the living experience for all Mayfair residents. Short-term priorities include professional pest control to conduct comprehensive treatments and put long-term prevention strategies in place; prioritizing outstanding maintenance requests with a focus on apartment repairs and critical systems; and having responsive communication with residents about improvements and maintenance requests. 'While we recognize that there is more work to be done, we want residents to know that real progress is underway,' Ursino said. 'We share ownership's goal of creating a safer, cleaner and more comfortable living environment for everyone in the community.' Issues remained well into March, according to Jennifer: no word on pest control, dirty conditions or building security. She captured footage of an unknown man passed out on the stairwell one night and made another complaint to Healthy Homes over pest control and poorly sealed baseboards. She saw a continued lack of communication and accountability from the powers that be and a disappointing reality in the powers of officials and advocacy groups. 'This fight has completely wrecked me,' Jennifer said in March. But by April, she said, the new management company showed a promising shift in its approach to maintenance and cleanliness. Jennifer even made cookies and started growing a succulent for the company's office to show her appreciation. Staff turnover still makes the situation unclear, however, she said. A new pest control company came in and fumigated her apartment, and new rat bait seems to be working, but issues with roaches have remained. While common space cleaning seems to have improved, Jennifer reports there is still a stream of non-tenants coming into the building and leaving trash and waste that remains over weekends. After months living in the Mayfair, she has begun meeting with friends with a new idea: starting a housing co-operative. The idea is to get some kind of structure on a piece of land that would serve as stable, affordable housing for as many people who can fit. 'We want to build something that will allow us to stay safe, housed, healthy and fed, whatever may be coming' she said.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The KC Star moves to intervene in Kansas abortion lawsuit over hidden court records
Reality Check is a Star series holding those with power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at RealityCheck@ Have the latest Reality Checks delivered to your inbox with our free newsletter. The Kansas City Star has intervened in a lawsuit over access to records in a civil dispute between Planned Parenthood and the state of Kansas regarding abortion. In its filing, The Star asked a Johnson County District Court judge to unseal all exhibits filed under seal as a result of an agreement between lawyers representing Attorney General Kris Kobach and abortion providers, while allowing appropriate redactions to exclude patients' names and personal information. The suit, filed in 2023, challenges strict state requirements mandating that providers survey patients seeking an abortion, share medically inaccurate or unproven information with people considering the procedure, and require them to wait at least 24 hours before receiving an abortion. Enforcement of the new restrictions adopted by the Legislature has been halted while the suit works its way through the courts. 'The public has a right to know what is happening in judicial proceedings,' Star Executive Editor Greg Farmer said. 'The efforts in this case to hide records from public view are an attack on long-established democratic principles. 'Our goal with this motion is to fight for our readers and all Kansans and to ensure and advocate for transparency on their behalf,' Farmer said. Lawyers representing the state filed their own motion seeking for certain records to be unsealed after attorneys for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Hodes and Nauser Women's Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights designated them as 'confidential' or 'attorneys' eyes only.' Among those records are two videos that are shown to patients at Planned Parenthood who are considering an abortion. Plaintiffs said in their response that 'patients can only watch the videos in the office.' 'When Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit, they issued a press release which quoted Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, as saying that 'people deserve facts and honest conversations' about a woman's right to an abortion,' The Star's attorney, Bernie Rhodes, wrote in the motion. Plaintiffs are asking the court to block the enforcement of the full policy, which requires physicians to obtain detailed information from patients about their pregnancy 24 hours before the procedure. The law also requires physicians to listen to the fetus' heartbeat 30 minutes prior to an abortion. It would also require providers to, without evidence, post information in their clinics and websites that abortions could increase their risk of breast cancer and premature birth in future pregnancies. The law would also mandate abortion providers survey women, asking them to choose the most important reason for getting an abortion. Included as options as part of the survey are the following potential reasons: financial stress, rape, fetal disabilities, or the health of the mother.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
This is how Missouri Republicans plan to overturn abortion rights vote
Reality Check is a Star series holding those with power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at RealityCheck@ Have the latest Reality Checks delivered to your inbox with our free newsletter. Five months after Missouri voters legalized abortion by enshrining reproductive freedom in the state constitution, Republican lawmakers say they've landed on a plan to overturn the historic vote. They're going to try to force another one. After weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling and disagreements over which legislation to pursue, a House committee on Wednesday advanced what Republicans argue is their best shot at overhauling the recently approved abortion rights amendment, called Amendment 3. The proposed constitutional amendment would effectively ban nearly all abortions with limited exceptions for medical emergencies, fetal anomaly and rape or incest prior to 12-weeks gestation. The renewed energy among Republicans marks a critical moment for both abortion supporters and opponents in Missouri. Both are gearing up for what's expected to be the first major retaliatory response from Republican lawmakers after 51.6% of voters overturned the state's near-total abortion ban in November. 'The Republican majority is a pro-life majority,' said House Majority Leader Alex Riley, a Springfield Republican. 'We wanted to work together with our House colleagues, with our Senate colleagues, to come up with another question to put in front of the voters.' But the measure will face intense pushback from abortion rights advocates. Whether Republicans can successfully ban abortions again is far from a certainty. Despite little notice from lawmakers, more than 70 people traveled to the Missouri Capitol on Wednesday to protest the legislation. After the committee limited public comments and kicked supporters out of the hearing room, individuals shared roughly two hours of fiery testimony in the Capitol rotunda. 'We're going to keep talking,' Jaeda Roth, a 20-year-old from Kansas City, told The Star at the Capitol. 'It doesn't matter if they don't listen to us because we're going to make it known who shut down our voices.' The proposal still needs to win approval from the full House and Senate at a time when abortion opponents are at odds over how far they want to go to limit access. If the measure clears both chambers, it would go on the ballot in November 2026 or an earlier election called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe. The effort marks a continuation of Republican attempts to curtail direct democracy in Missouri as voters have used the ballot box to pass several policies seen as progressive, such as a minimum wage increase, Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization. 'They're elected by Missourians to go and represent the people's interests,' said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. 'And still, they blatantly refuse to implement or follow what the people have asked for.' After Wednesday's hearing, House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, told reporters that the decision to kick out individuals who traveled to testify against the legislation was 'unprecedented, unwarranted and, frankly, it was undemocratic.' 'I've never seen anything like that in my time here,' Aune said. The committee approved the legislation without making a copy of it available online for the public to see. The full version of the bill was added online the next day. The explosive hearing this week was months in the making. In both the lead-up to and the months after the November election, abortion opponents repeatedly signaled that they would push for another competing ballot measure in the future. However, Republicans have been split over strategy. Some pieces of legislation would reinstate a complete ban with no exceptions for rape and incest. Others seek to offer more modest gestures at abortion access. The priorities have changed by the day, confusing even the most dialed-in politicos in the state Capitol. Kehoe, who highlighted his staunch opposition to abortion in his bid for governor, did not specify which version he would support in an interview with The Star, saying only that he would vote in favor of a measure that was 'designed to protect innocent life.' 'Hopefully we can get something through that's reasonable that Missourians would support, and they'll put it on the ballot,' he said. Both abortion rights supporters and opponents told The Star this week that legislation, which will be carried by Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican, is likely to be the vehicle through which Republicans try to ban the procedure. 'We put emphasis on protecting women,' Seitz told The Star. 'It also allows for the rape and incest if the woman decides to do something about that up till 12 weeks. And I think that's what most of the people voted for when they voted for Amendment 3.' Seitz repeatedly deflected questions about at what point in a pregnancy his proposed amendment would ban abortion, saying, 'we're going to get this before the people.' Both Seitz and Riley rejected framing the legislation as an 'abortion ban,' saying that it would allow for exceptions. The proposal, if approved by both chambers, would ask Missourians to strike down Amendment 3, which legalized abortion in the state. The measure would allow abortions in medical emergencies and cases of fetal anomalies, such as birth defects. It would also allow the procedure in exceptionally rare cases of rape or incest within 12 weeks of gestational age. While the language of the amendment is silent on when exactly abortion would be banned, it completely strikes down the language of Amendment 3. Therefore, it's unclear whether the amendment is intended to allow the state's previous abortion ban to take effect or give lawmakers the ability to pass legislation to restrict access. In addition to the abortion ban, the constitutional amendment would ban gender-affirming care for transgender residents under the age of 18. Those procedures, which include hormone therapy, are already banned under state law but became a rallying cry among abortion opponents who falsely claimed that Amendment 3 opened the door to legalizing them. While the wording of the measure is subject to change, abortion supporters have also sharply criticized the proposed ballot language that lawmakers want voters to see. The question does not mention an abortion ban and instead says it would guarantee 'access to care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages' among other lines. The language also purports to 'ensure women's safety during abortions.' 'The proposed ballot summary is incredibly deceptive,' said Maggie Olivia, the policy director for Abortion Action Missouri, an abortion rights advocacy group. 'Because the politicians behind these bans know that if they tell the truth about their goal to ban abortion, that they won't have the support.' Roth, who traveled to Jefferson City from Kansas City before being kicked out of Wednesday's hearing, said it's a scary time to be a woman in Missouri. She volunteered to help collect signatures to put Amendment 3 on the November ballot and make a difference in her community. Lawmakers, she said, are spending time trying to override what their constituents just approved. 'They don't want to listen,' she said. 'We voted on it, we made a choice. And they are going against that choice that their own constituents made. So it's really just a slap in the face to democracy.' The vote to legalize abortion in conservative Missouri was historic, offering a sharp rebuke of Republican lawmakers who had spent decades restricting access. The constitutional amendment overturned a near-total ban that was enacted in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. In the wake of the vote, opponents have consistently argued that Missourians didn't understand what they were voting on when they approved the measure. They have claimed Amendment 3 would lead to unrestricted and unregulated abortions. But months after the vote, abortion providers are still fighting state officials in court to restore complete access. In February, the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Kansas City performed the first elective abortion in the state since the vote. It also marked the first abortion at its Kansas City clinic since 2018. While access to procedural abortions is available in Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City, Columbia, and St. Louis, medication abortions are still inaccessible. For Wales, with Planned Parenthood, the dueling efforts by state officials and lawmakers to fight restored abortion access through the courts and legislature have caused confusion among Missourians. At this moment, Missourians don't understand what care is available, she said. 'They don't realize that procedural care has been restored in three different cities in the state,' she said. 'And they definitely don't understand why an issue that they thought was resolved last fall is already up for debate once again, because the legislature is not willing to listen to the people.'
