Shawnee Mission Health breaks ground on new B.E. Smith Family Center. Two years after Doug and Nan Smith committed a lead gift on the project, Shawnee Mission Health and the Foundation for the Shawnee Mission Medical Center officially broke ground on the new B.E. Smith Family Center, which will provide a modern facility for programs to serve infants and children with developmental disabilities. Currently, the center holds programming for those patients, who have conditions including Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, autism spectrum disorders and more, in outdated building. The new facility, which will have 67,950 square feet of space, and will cost just under $25 million.
Holscher amendment on legalizing marijuana fails. Rep. Cindy Holscher mounted an effort to get the Kansas House to consider legislation to legalize medical marijuana, but couldn’t find the votes to get the language added to a bill. Holscher introduced the measure on the floor Monday saying that committee leaders had refused to give the issue a hearing for years. The bill failed on a 54-69 vote, which was closer than many had expected. [‘Don’t make us lawbreakers’: Effort to legalize medical marijuana fails in Kansas House — Topeka Capital-Jouarnal]
Merriam’s Seaboard Foods names new president, CEO. Seaboard Foods, the massive international food systems company based in Merriam, named Darwin Sand, a pork-industry veteran who has been with the company since 1996, as its new president and chief executive officer. [Seaboard Foods hires president, CEO — World Grain]
Organ donation from SM East student Alex Carney saves life of family friend. The Star’s Eric Adler and Aaron Randle have the story of how an organ donation by Alex Carney, the SM East student fatally injured in a car accident on Cherokee Drive in February, saved the life of his family’s pastor’s brother. [In death, Shawnee Mission East teen saves life of his pastor’s brother — The Kansas City Star]
