Kansas
Demonstrators gathered Saturday in downtown Kansas City over immigration orders

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Demonstrators lined Grand Boulevard Saturday night in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, chanting “immigrants are welcome here.”
Video by KSHB 41 crews showed demonstrators in front of the T-Mobile Center.
Demonstrators line Grand Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri
The section of Grand Boulevard is normally blocked off to vehicular traffic for safety of those enjoying the night at the Power and Light District.
The group says they arrived at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, and were there for at least four hours.
“We came out just to protest, so our voices can be heard for our parents,” said Anaxin Flores, one of the protest’s organizers. She says her parents are originally from Mexico.
KSHB
Anaxin says her family is scared, but putting “their faith in God.”
“So whatever happens, you know it’s for a reason,” Anaxin said. “We are doing this for our families, so they can be proud of us.”
Earlier Saturday, protesters gathered at Mill Creek Park off of Kansas City’s County Club Plaza in opposition to a proposed bill in Missourithat would incentivize residents to submit tips for people they believed were living in the country illegally or without permission.
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Kansas
Kansas Citians support relief as bipartisan bill would cap credit card interest rates at 10%

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City shoppers continue to search for financial relief ahead of Super Bowl Sunday.
“The credit card is just second nature for me,” explained David Grace, a Chiefs fan purchasing team merchandise at Union Station. “Rewards points are the reason I decided to use the credit card.”
Will Shaw/KSHB
Credit card debt in the United States reached $1.166 trillion, according to LendingTree. Forbes reports the average credit card interest rate is 28.6%.
In a bipartisan effort, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) is teaming up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), introducing a bill on Tuesday that would cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
KSHB 41
“Americans have more credit card debt than ever before in history,” Hawley told KSHB 41. “People are putting groceries on their credit cards. They’re putting gas on their credit cards because they can’t afford that stuff.”
Senators Hawley and Sanders don’t typically see eye-to-eye on policy. The two find themselves working together to change how America’s banking system operates.
Evan Vucci/AP
“When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking,” Sanders said. “We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people. This legislation will provide working families struggling to pay their bills with desperately needed financial relief.”
In a recent Fox Business report, it highlighted Hawley introduced a bill in the last Congress that would cap credit card interest rates at 18%. The bill died in committee.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“Here’s what our bill would do, cap it. Cap it at 10%. All credit card interest rates are capped for five years at 10%. It gives working people a chance to catch up,” Hawley said. “It’s exactly what Donald Trump endorsed on the trail, and I think it would be an enormous and important source of relief.”
In the Trump campaign’s race for the White House, it promised to lower credit card interest rates to 10%. Senate Bill 381 would give him the opportunity to do that.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
“President Trump has promised to cap interest rates at 10% to provide temporary and immediate relief for hardworking Americans who are struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford hefty interest payments on top of the skyrocketing costs of mortgages, rent, groceries and gas,” the Trump campaign said in a September press release.
Kansas City shoppers find themselves searching for ways to combat high interest rates to stay ahead.
“Better rates would help,” James Vertreese told KSHB 41. “The rates are — they’re ridiculous. Since the Fed rates went up, it’s made a big difference in the making monthly payments.”
Will Shaw/KSHB
KSHB 41 spoke with shoppers at Union Station celebrating the start of Super Bowl weekend.
Marilyn Simpson took her grandson shopping and to take pictures. She said she never watched her finances as closely until she retired.
“I am going to go back and start working like part-time,” Simpson said. “It’s concerning because there’s people that have less than I do. I’m not hurting financially, but when I go to get gas today and the grocery store, at those two places you can spend up to $100-$120.”
Will Shaw/KSHB
According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, in 2024, Kansas ranked #3 in the lowest average cost of living in the United States and Missouri ranked #6. Missourians say they’re yet to feel the relief.
“We all hurtin’. We go to work. Everything is up but my paycheck,” Cecilia Pulce, another shopper said. “We all need a little bit of help from somewhere.”
Will Shaw/KSHB
Other shoppers KSHB 41 spoke with say a major contributor to increased credit card debt is a society built around the swipe and tap.
“So many places in our life have gone cashless,” Grace added. “You look at the stadiums, they’re cashless. You pretty much have to pay with a card.”
Grace said capping credit card interest rates to 10% could create an economic boom and encourage consumers to buy more.

Will Shaw/KSHB
“Sometimes people have debt they don’t foresee, medical bills, car repairs, so a capped interest rate a low interest rate to protect them is a great idea,” Grace explained. “I think you would potentially see retail spending increase if people knew their interest rate was lower and it could fit into their budget.”
Senate Bill 381 was introduced on Tuesday and must pass both chambers of the House before it reaches the president’s desk.
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KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
Kansas
Kansas reckons with large tuberculosis outbreak as health officials hamstrung

Kansas is experiencing one of the largest tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks ever recorded in the US, as public health powers at the state and federal level have been greatly curtailed.
Outbreaks like these may become more common and dangerous as officials’ efforts are hamstrung and their communications are limited, experts say.
“You can think of TB outbreaks like a canary in the coalmine of our public health infrastructure,” said David Dowdy, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“What causes them to happen is a weakening of our public health infrastructure.”
Since January 2024, there have been 67 active cases of tuberculosis identified in two counties in Kansas – more than the usual case count for the entire state in a year, despite the counties together representing less than 3% of the state’s population, according to US Census data from 2023.
“It’s definitely more than just a little blip,” said Dowdy. “It’s one of the largest outbreaks of tuberculosis that we’ve seen in the country in the past 30, 40, 50 years.”
The state has also detected at least 79 latent cases of TB, in which patients do not display active symptoms but may develop and spread active disease later.
The state is currently monitoring 384 people who are undergoing testing and treatment, officials in Kansas said.
Public health officials in Kansas and from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are “working together to mitigate the risk of TB in the community and ensure the safety of all individuals”, Jill Bronaugh, communications director for the Kansas department of health and environment, said in a statement.
But the risk to the general public remains low, she said.
“We are also working with schools and businesses to help prevent the spread of TB by supporting efforts to monitor symptoms and provide education,” Bronaugh said.
It is an uphill battle in a state that has seen public health powers sharply reduced in the wake of the pandemic.
The Kansas governor was banned from closing down businesses during public health emergencies in 2021. And the legislature forbade state and county public health officials from mandating tests, isolation and closures due to infectious disease in 2023.
Tuberculosis tends to spread when people spend a lot of time in crowded conditions such as prisons, jails and homeless shelters. These are also places where people frequently lack access to adequate healthcare, which can make infections more likely.
Other factors such as malnutrition, HIV/Aids and other immune-suppressing conditions put people at greater risk of getting sick.
But what really causes TB outbreaks is the inability for public health professionals to respond, Dowdy said.
“It’s not that we don’t know how to do it,” Dowdy said of treating TB patients and keeping the bacteria from spreading. “It’s about the conditions underlying this that enable these outbreaks to unfold.”
When there is a way to detect the first cases, and there are enough health workers to trace and test contacts and to support patients who test positive, outbreaks can be stopped before they even start.
But when the systems are incomplete or dismantled and there are not enough health workers or resources to go around, “it’s easier for these sorts of things to go undetected for a longer period of time”, Dowdy said.
“The people in Kansas are doing a good job with this. They just don’t have the resources they need,” he said.
At the national level, the Trump administration limited what the CDC and other federal health agencies can do by instituting a communications blackout in its first weeks.
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The ban on external communications includes withholding the release of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a highly regarded epidemiological digest that updates the public and medical practitioners on emerging and continuing outbreaks, among other crises.
On Friday, hundreds of pages were also removed from health agency websites to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order to remove references to race, gender, sexual identity and disability, among other identities. Some of those pages have now been restored, sometimes with edits and omissions because of the order.
Outbreaks such as the one in Kansas speak to the importance of coordination between states and national entities like the CDC, Dowdy said.
“One can only see these sorts of events when you can look from a big-picture perspective, and that’s what our national agencies are there for, but we can only respond to them at a local level, which is what our state and local health agencies are there for,” he said.
“The importance of being able to coordinate between those and maintaining strength at both the national and the state and local levels really can’t be overstated,” Dowdy added. “Disruptions to those systems certainly increase the risk of outbreaks like this occurring.”
Internationally, the in effect dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) means global outbreaks of preventable illnesses such as TB could increase.
John Green, the author, YouTube star and TB advocate, said he had worked for months on a partnership with private donors, the Philippines and USAid on an $85m project to end TB in two regions of the Philippines.
“It could provide a blueprint for eliminating TB worldwide – except it’s … not happening,” he wrote in a post on Bluesky.
Global outbreaks are the major driver for TB cases in the US.
Although the Kansas outbreak is large, it accounted for less than 1% of all TB cases in the US last year. About two-thirds of cases are detected among people who were born outside of the US, pointing to greater transmission outside of the country.
The current outbreak in Kansas is happening in the same place as a different outbreak detected in 2021-22. Troublingly, the disease strain in that outbreak showed resistance to several TB treatments, known as multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, which can make outbreaks more challenging to contain.
There is no sign that this cluster of cases shows resistance to treatments – but if MDR-TB were to spread, it might be more difficult to ascertain now.
MDR-TB outbreaks are often detected through notable spikes in CDC monitoring reports, which may be affected by the gag order on US health agencies.
The report on the 2021-22 outbreak in Kansas, for instance, was published in the now quiet MMWR.
Kansas
Kansas City Royals Star Bobby Witt Jr. Projected to Join Barry Bonds in Awesome History

After winning a Gold Glove Award and a Silver Slugger Award in 2024, Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. is primed to make baseball history in 2025.
Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:
Bobby Witt Jr. is projected for 31 HR & 36 SB, per Steamer
that’d be his third consecutive 30-30 season
only player to record at least 3 consecutive 30-30 seasons: Barry Bonds (1995-97)
Bobby Witt Jr. is projected for 31 HR & 36 SB, per Steamer
that’d be his third consecutive 30-30 season
only player to record at least 3 consecutive 30-30 seasons: Barry Bonds (1995-97)
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) February 5, 2025
Witt hit .332 to win the American League batting title last year, also belting 32 homers, netting 109 RBI and 45 doubles. He led the majors in hits with 211, adding 31 stolen bases and finishing second in the American League MVP race. He finished ahead of Juan Soto and behind Aaron Judge.
He also made his first All-Star Game, helping lead the Royals to a trip to the American League Division Series. They were beaten by the New York Yankees, who went onto the World Series. Led by Witt, Salvador Perez, Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans and Vinnie Pasquantino, the Royals figure to be a problem again in the American League.
With regards to Bonds, he has one of the most impressive resumes in baseball history, having been named MVP an astonishing seven times. He was also a 14-time All-Star, an eight-time Gold Glover and a winner of two batting titles. Being compared to him is/would be a great accomplishment for Witt.
Bonds was a standout for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants.
The Royals will report to spring training next week. The regular season begins on March 27.
EVEN MVPs CHANGE: Jose Altuve, a former MVP for the Houston Astros, is reportedly learning how to play left field. CLICK HERE:
NEXT CHAPTER: Former Boston Red Sox World Champion JD Martinez isn’t looking to be done playing yet, but his next move is already decided. Here’s what he’ll be doing. CLICK HERE:
MOREL TO THE OF: Christopher Morel, acquired by the Tampa Bay Rays last July, will be the team’s starting left fielder in 2025. CLICK HERE:
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