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KCUR - Kansas City news and NPR •

A Missouri woman may be deported to a country she’s never been, away from her husband

Alisa Ramdial Shahib sketches roses, hearts, butterflies and golf clubs to send to her family. This is the first time she has been away from her 8-year-old son. She is also separated from her daughter, who is attending college, and her husband, Secah Shahib. Ramdial Shahib has been in immigration custody in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, since March — with no criminal charges.Ramdial Shahib mails every drawing to her husband, who lives 140 miles away in Independence, Missouri. He carefully places eac...
WPR •

A Wisconsin YouTube channel makes big money from police body cam videos. Is it educational?

A 33-year-old man speeds through an Onalaska neighborhood on his motorcycle as a police officer follows him. “Pull over,” the officer shouts through an open window. Instead, the rider accelerates to 100 mph. 

At the two-minute mark of the 2021 video, the motorcyclist hits an SUV waiting to turn. Paramedics pronounced him dead on scene. The body is blurred out in the video clip. With more than 21 million views, it is the most-seen video on one of the nation’s most popular YouTube channels for po...
WPR •

Thousands of Wisconsin voters conversed with an AI chatbot before the Supreme Court election

In a lopsided Supreme Court race, Wisconsinites overwhelmingly chose liberal Justice-elect Chris Taylor to join the state’s highest court for a decade-long stint. Her win will give liberals a 5-2 majority.

But before election night, a newcomer had entered the race: a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence that was texting voters, offering to answer their questions about the election, with an eye toward helping Taylor.

“Got any questions about (Chris Taylor’s) record and why it ma...
WPR •

Advocates, family call for mother's release from ICE detention in Kentucky

Natalie Chavez’s mother always helped her with her panic attacks. Now, the 12-year-old said, she has to rely on herself. 

That’s because immigration officers handcuffed and shackled her mom, Elvira Benitez-Suarez, 51, of Sheboygan Falls, during a routine immigration check-in last week. She was taken to Chicago, then Indiana and now resides at the Campbell County Detention Center in Kentucky.

“My mom is not a criminal,” said Natalie through tears at a Thursday press conference. “She does a lot...
WPR •

Merger of cultural, resource centers at UW-Milwaukee leaves some students, faculty concerned

When Mackenzie Nickeas, a first generation biology student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, first came to campus, the First-Generation+ Student Center helped her with financial aid by setting up a tuition payment plan. 

So Nickeas said she was “baffled” this week when she and other students received an email announcing the center would close at the end of the spring semester. The closing is part of a move from the university to consolidate several student cultural and resource centers...
WPR •

'We're just a couple of cats who play music': The Hissy Kits perform for their Milwaukee litter

At a Hissy Kits show, it’s all about the crowd’s — and cats’ — meows. 

Dozens of people came to watch the cat duo perform on a wintery Friday night in November 2025.

The Hissy Kits are a unique pair of instrumentalists. Whiskey wears a tuxedo cat suit, and Scotch dons an orange cat suit. Both wear dark sunglasses, becoming one with their furry personas. 
“When we play, there will be times when you intuitively will know it’s a good time to meow,” one of the Kits told “Wisconsin Life” at the sta...
WPR •

Wisconsin high school band to perform at 2026 Rose Parade

When freshman flutist Ethan Bowe saw auditions were open for a solo in the marching band show, he thought, “Why not?”

He got the part. And now Bowe will be one of more than 200 students marching in the 137th annual Rose Parade with the Greendale High School marching band. The ensemble will also perform its field show during a separate competition known as Bandfest at Pasadena City College’s stadium. 

Nearly 900 students attend the high school south of Milwaukee. Almost a quarter are in the mar...
WPR •

Wisconsinites who rely on food assistance scramble as SNAP benefits run out

Latricia Williams relies on food stamps from FoodShare each month to feed her 4-month-old baby formula.

He drinks five bottles a day — and cans of his formula cost Williams $75.

“All my benefits go to his milk. I stock up on that,” said Williams, a Milwaukee resident. “And I can’t next month. … He drinks really fast, so I’m going to have to be going to pantries as well.”
Williams is one of the more than 700,000 Wisconsinites who will lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit...

A public school in crisis

Since the 1970s, enrollment at Flint Public Schools has decreased drastically from more than 45,000 to fewer than 2,700 students. The water crisis has had a significant effect on the city’s once flourishing public school system. A 2022 study by the National Institutes of Health found that a substantial number of adolescents in Flint had clinically significant behavioral issues.
‍
Students at Southwestern Classical Academy — the last remaining public high school in the city — who were 5, 6 and 7 during the height of the crisis, have been prone to behavioral and learning issues. With scarce resources, parents and teachers in the community are looking for someone to step up and help at Southwestern Academy. Reporter Steph Conquest-Ware visited Flint with a cohort of Northeastern University students to investigate how the city is still suffering from the crisis that began over 10 years ago. Listen to the podcast for more on the story.
GBH •

The Genius Next Door: Artist Tony Cokes uses mixed-media videos to re-contextualize history

Each year, the MacArthur Foundation announces its MacArthur Fellows or “Geniuses,” a class of researchers, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs and more who are changing the world through their endless creativity and groundbreaking contributions. And each year, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley highlights New England recipients of the award through its ongoing series “The Genius Next Door.” This is the final installment highlighting the Class of 2024.Tony Cokes, a professor of modern culture an...
GBH •

Black Catholics create connection between ancient Christian practice and today’s Black culture

Of the 50 million Catholics in America,
only about 3 million are African American
. The history of Black Catholics in the United States spans from colonization and enslavement to Black parishes founded by the church during the Jim Crow era.“Black Catholics have been in what we know as the United States since 1565. So that’s a very long time,” M. Shawn Copeland, a retired Black theologian, told GBH’s Under the Radar. “We think about 1565 at St. Augustine in Florida. There were en...
GBH •

Unbound Pages: Will Massachusetts be the next state to pass ‘freedom to read’ legislation?

Book bans have been on the rise across the country in recent years prompting lawmakers to pass legislation to protect libraries and librarians. “Freedom to read” legislation that aims to safeguard access to diverse materials in public and school libraries has been adopted in four states: Illinois, Maryland, California and New Jersey. Some lawmakers are hoping to add Massachusetts to that list.New Jersey state Sen. Andrew Zwicker said he naively did not think his state had a book-banning issue un...
GBH •

Poet Tiana Clark pairs gut-wrenching imagery with accessible language in ‘Scorched Earth’

Boston-based poet Tiana Clark hopes to show her courage and confidence with her award-winning poems. In her new book, “Scorched Earth,” Clark, who is also a professor at Smith College in Northampton, blends history, race, gender and grief within her collection of intimate poems.“I always say my poems are bolder than I am, they’re more courageous than I am,” Clark told Under the Radar host Callie Crossley. “And I think for me, I wanted to inhabit that confidence that I didn’t feel in the world.”C...
GBH •

From the pitch to the scrum, women’s pro sports are in high demand

From packed arenas to record-breaking viewership, women’s professional sports are on the rise across the country. The most recent
National Women’s Soccer League
and
Women’s National Basketball Association
championships drew nearly 4 million total fans.The popularity of women’s sports has also prompted the creation of new professional leagues. Kitt Wagner Ruiz is the head coach of the Boston Banshees, one of six teams part of the inaugural season of Women’s Eli...
GBH •

Looking for a new read? Try one of these frequently banned books

The number of book bans and challenges has drastically increased across the United States in recent years.
PEN America
tracked nearly 16,000 bans in public schools since 2021. While the American Library Association reports fewer censorship attempts in 2024 than the prior year, it said level remain high and some libraries have taken preemptive actions, like placing books in restricted areas, out of
fear of challenges.
A book ban is when someone’s objection to a b...
GBH •

Big flavors and small wine lists are two of this year's culinary trends

With inventive sauces, global spices and new apple varieties, the hottest culinary trend of 2025 may be bold flavors.Amy Traverso, senior food editor at Yankee Magazine, said she’s a fan of two buzzy international flavors making waves this year.“Black lime is just a wonderful kind of combination of citrus and salt and a little bit of bitterness and it’s a bit fermented. It’s a complex flavor,” Traverso said on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. “You get the citrus, but you’re adding deeper no...
GBH •

Despite threats, ‘That Librarian’ Amanda Jones continues the fight against book bans

Two and a half years ago, librarian Amanda Jones spoke at a local public library board meeting to express her concerns about censorship in her small town of Livingston, Louisiana. Days later she woke up to alarming messages from her neighbors and community members criticizing her short speech.“A man had taken a picture of me and made a meme saying that I advocate the teaching of anal sex to children, to 11-year-olds, ” Jones told GBH’s Under the Radar host Callie Crossley. “And another man made...
BostonGlobe.com •

Man rescued by Nantucket fishermen after being stranded on capsized boat for nearly an hour - The Boston Globe

Joe Tormay and Nick Whitbeck said they were fishing for striped bass and looking into the distance when what they thought was a dead whale caught their eye.Two anglers rescued a man off the Nantucket coast Saturday afternoon after he was stranded for nearly an hour.These videos captured by fishermen Joe Tormay and Nick Whitbeck show their dramatic rescue of a man who was stranded on a capsized boat Saturday afternoon. pic.twitter.com/sjxMoPRZvi“When we looked at it a little closer, I noticed a g...
BostonGlobe.com •

As the world mourns late musician Liam Payne, Boston fans set up their own memorial in Boston Common - The Boston Globe

Some traveled for the memorial. Carrington Davis, 25, said she took an over hour-long train from Gloucester.One Direction music and the crowd’s tears could be heard from a tall tree near Brewer Fountain and Tadpole Playground.Over 70 people, mostly girls in their twenties, took to Boston Common Saturday afternoon to mourn Liam Payne— a celebrity many of them feel they grew up with.“It’s hard to put into words. I can’t believe it to be honest,” Davis said. “I always thought they would come back t...
BostonGlobe.com •

At Maine brewfest, Beard and Mustache Contest is the mane event - The Boston Globe

The finalists — who sported everything from handlebars a cowboy would be proud of to long, braided beards that might befit denizens of Middle Earth, or at least their fans — were then lined up “like cattle,” according to Mike Miclon, the competition’s host, the news outlet reported. The judges deliberated about 15 minutes before announcing a deadlock.The 15th annual brewfest, one of Gardiner’s largest annual events, drew a dozen hirsute competitors to the eighth annual Beard and Mustache Contest...
BostonGlobe.com •

New England’s viral treasure hunt isn’t over yet: $87,600 is hidden in the woods - The Boston Globe

Project Skydrop, an online treasure hunt, grabbed headlines in September when it announced it had hid a gold trophy worth $26,000 in the New England woods. The trophy also included a code to a Bitcoin wallet that’s value increased as more people paid the contest’s entry fee, which allowed them to participate in the event.Thousands of treasure hunters who swarmed New England’s woods over the past couple of weeks have a second chance to find a hidden bounty: There is a $87,600 jar of gold coins co...
BostonGlobe.com •

West Nile virus detected in Boston mosquito samples - The Boston Globe

Mosquito samples taken from several city neighborhoods have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.The samples were taken in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury, and West Roxbury, the commission said in a statement issued Friday. The samples mark the first time the virus has been detected in mosquitoes in Boston this summer, it said.But they are not the first mosquitoes to test positive for the virus this season in Massachusetts. Last week, the City...
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