A devastating tornado Sunday flattened large areas of Joplin — perhaps most of the southwest Missouri city — leaving behind at least 24 people dead. “I would say 75 percent of the town is virtually gone,” Kathy Dennis of the American Red Cross told CNN.

The Kansas City Star is producing a book and a special Web presentation this summer to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the skywalks’ collapse at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on July 17, 1981. Proceeds from the book will benefit efforts to build a permanent memorial to the victims of the collapse. We would like to …

In the six-county metro area, an estimated 100,000 children live in homes where cupboards too often are bare, where the parents may not know where the next meal is coming from. And it’s worse here than in most parts of the country.

He was known on the street as “Cokey Joe,” “Crazy Joe,” or “Shotgun Joe,” a low-profile mob associate who ran Joe’s Liquors at 19th and Vine. But new evidence points to Joe Centimano as an important link in the 40-year-old murder of black political leader Leon Jordan.

Kate Quigley — known widely as “the dog lady” and “Miss Kate” — works six days a week, driving into high-poverty neighborhoods to look for animal abuse and neglect. Knocking on doors, talking to owners, leaving supplies.