The Kansas City DefenderOpinion

NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS: How a Small Kansas Town Became the Site of a Nuclear Experiment to Power AI

The first underground nuclear reactor in history is being drilled through the drinking water of Parsons, Kansas, to power AI ...
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Social Media Posts Reveal Captor and Possible “Serial Killer,” Timothy Haslett Jr., Was A White Supremacist Who Believed We Are In A “Race War”

In the latest updates from the horrific ongoing investigation into Timothy Haslett Jr., The Defender has uncovered disturbing social media posts made by the kidnapper and sexual predator. In the ...
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Independence Residents Fight a $6.6 Billion Data Center as Monday’s Tax Break Vote Looms

This article is the first release of Power Grab: A Kansas City Defender investigative series on data centers and the communities paying the price for the AI boom. The piece includes reporting ...
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Brandon Calloway

Brandon Calloway has heard more than three hundred pitches and helped move more than two million dollars into Black-owned businesses in Kansas City. Here, he opens the judges’ room and tells you ...
The Kansas City Defender

How to Win Funding: A Letter to Black-Owned Businesses From KC G.I.F.T.’s CEO

Brandon Calloway has heard more than three hundred pitches and helped move more than two million dollars into Black-owned ...
kansascitydefender

Ivanhoe Farmers Market Turns to Community as the U.S. Government Wages War on Black Farmers

The Ivanhoe Farmers Market has been a longstanding pillar for Black Farmers in Kansas City. (Alana Henry/The Defender) For Executive Director Alana Henry, the sudden cancellation of the Ivanhoe ...
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Independence Police Slaughter Mother & 2-Month Old Infant in Botched Domestic Dispute Call

Left: Independence police storm apartment building with handguns & rifles, Right: Mitchell, Maria & Baby Destiny smile in a photo **UPDATE** Independence Police Department has released edited, body ...
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Burning Books: Missouri GOP Candidate Channels the KKK and Nazi Tactics in Ominous Promise

In a move that reeks of the most horrific chapters of history, including the KKK’s racist bonfires and the Nazis’ mass burning of Jewish texts, Missouri State Senator (who is running for Governor), ...
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White Supremacist Mizzou Student: “If They Would Have Killed 4 More Nigg*rs We Would Have Had the Whole Week Off”

COLUMBIA, MO – Students at University of Missouri are demanding the expulsion of white student Meg Miller, after she posted a horrifically violent white supremacist threat, thinly veiled as a joke, ...
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INVESTIGATION: How Missouri Handed Prison Healthcare to a Corporation with a History of Violent Neglect & Death

They chain sick prisoners to benches for hours without treatment. They ignore pleas for help until it’s too late. They watch as people die. This investigation exposes how Centurion Health transforms ...
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Mass Uprising Erupts in Kansas City as Workers Fight to Save Public Transit

Hundreds of workers, transit riders, and union members erupted in mass protest against Kansas City’s devastating transit cuts. With IRIS drivers, Stand Up KC, ATU Local 1287, and Sunrise KC leading ...