Mold Remediation in Blue Springs, MO

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. —

Residents of Blue Springs are celebrating a major shift in city policy after the City Council voted to allow backyard hens, a decision years in the making.

The council approved the ordinance with a 5-2 vote, marking a significant victory for advocates who had pushed for change for nearly two years.

“We have met some elderly people in this community who actually started crying because they remember when chickens were legal,” said Jen Cline, a member of Citizens of Blue Springs for Backyard Hens. “Freedom. This stopped being about backyard hens a long time ago, and it started being about 'We the People.'”

The ordinance allows single residential properties to have up to six total female chickens and/or female ducks; both female chickens and female ducks can be called hens.

The hens must be for residential purposes only. They must be in an enclosure or fenced area at all times. The hens must be cared for adequately, with food and clean water at all times, and the owner should take action to keep rodents or predators away.

Backyard hen owners must obtain a permit before having the hens on their property.

[Click here to read the full ordinance]

The grassroots campaign for backyard hens began more than 22 months ago. Cline noted that the process dragged on far longer than in neighboring communities, Pleasant Hill, for example, passed a similar ordinance in just four months.

“That’s kind of when we decided we might need to just make changes to the council to get it done,” she said, referencing council language added about seven years ago that specifically blocked hens from being kept as pets.

Cline, a Blue Springs resident, said the election cycle played a role.

“Do I think we made a difference in the outcome of those elections? I do,” she said.

Despite some pushback, the movement gained wide community support.

“From what I know, there's five or six really loud people that have been fighting it this whole time,” Cline said.

Advocates collected 4,000 signatures and spent months educating residents and city leaders on responsible hen ownership.

Now, the city has until Sept. 16 to finalize the permit process, though that could happen sooner.

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. —

A well-known coffee and restaurant chain is opening its first location in the Kansas City area this month, and more locations are already in the works.

Tim Hortons, which is based in Canada and known around North America for its coffee, doughnuts and other breakfast and baked goods, will host its grand opening in Blue Springs, Missouri, on June 21.

The Blue Springs location of Tim Hortons, also known as Tims or Timmies by its fans, was announced a little more than a year ago. Now, the wait is almost over, and guests who celebrate the grand opening at the restaurant will receive some perks.

"We’re so proud to be opening our first restaurant in Kansas City soon, and we wanted to thank the community for the warm welcome we’ve already received by offering them a free coffee on us every day for a month," said Tim Hortons U.S. President Katerina Glyptis in a press release.

To receive the free coffee for a month offer, guests will have to download the Tim Hortons app and sign up for rewards. Guests must be 18 or older to be eligible for the offer.

Along with that, there will be a few grand opening specials: hot or iced coffee for 99 cents or a 10-pack of Timbits, Tim Hortons' version of doughnut holes, for $1.

The Blue Springs Tim Hortons will be located at 1900 NW Highway 7.

But Blue Springs won't be the only place to enjoy Tims.

Crown Center announced that another Tim Hortons is coming to its shops. Crown Center said that construction will soon begin on its own Tim Hortons, with an opening planned for late 2025.

The Crown Center location will be on the first level of the shopping center.

"We are proud to welcome this respected brand to Crown Center," said Stacey Paine, president of Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, in a press release. "We believe the unique tastes of Tim Hortons will appeal to customers from our nearby offices and hotels, as well as visitors to our shops and attractions."

Hossam Shahin, the franchise owner for these Tim Hortons, is excited to bring the famous coffee spot to the area.

"We can’t wait to introduce Tim Hortons to Kansas City, and Crown Center will be a great spot in Kansas City to reach both locals and visitors," Shahin said in a press release. "In addition to these first two stores, we have signed leases for two more locations in the metro that we plan to open by end of 2025 or early 2026."

The decision is based on a lack of evidence, not the constitutionality of bathroom bans

In a 5-2 ruling Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected a transgender student’s claim that he faced sex discrimination when the Blue Springs School District denied him access to single-sex locker rooms and bathrooms.

The case did not seek a ruling on the constitutionality of school districts barring transgender students from sex-designated spaces. Instead, it centered around whether evidence presented in Jackson County Circuit Court was sufficient to rule on the student’s claims of sex discrimination.

In 2021, a Jackson County jury sided with the student, identified by his initials R.M.A. in court proceedings, and awarded him over $4 million in damages. But Circuit Judge Cory Atkins threw out the verdict in a move that is reserved for “a complete absence of probative fact to support the jury’s conclusion.”

The court’s decision, written by Judge Kelly Broniec, affirmed Atkins’s decision. R.M.A. had not proven that he was discriminated against on the basis of male sex but instead shown discrimination based on female genitalia, Broniec wrote.

“Although R.M.A. argues the school district’s consideration of genitalia is inherently sex-related, the only evidence adduced at trial was that the school district’s decisions were based on the fact that R.M.A. had female genitalia,” she wrote in the court’s decision.

R.M.A. amended his birth certificate during his time as a student, and his physician testified in circuit court that he is a male. The only evidence of female genitalia in the case is the original birth certificate the district received when R.M.A. enrolled.

Dissenting opinions from Judges Paul Wilson and Brent Powell say there was too much evidence to allow a judge to overturn a jury’s verdict.

“There was more than enough other evidence from which the jury could find R.M.A.’s male sex was a contributing factor in the district’s discriminatory conduct,” Wilson wrote.

Powell opined that the jury had the “role of deciding what evidence to believe.”

Another piece discussed during the case’s oral arguments in February was whether discrimination based on genitalia constitutes “sex stereotyping.”

“It’s very clear that the plaintiff’s sex was the reason for this discrimination,” R.M.A.’s attorney Alexander Edelman said in February. “In that he was a male who was assigned female at birth and so he differed from other males.”

The majority opinion rejected the argument, arguing that genitalia is intrinsic to biological sex.

“A person’s biological sex… is not a stereotype,” it says.

Wilson rebuts that biological sex is more complicated.

“What the dictionary does not say, what no witness testified to or treatise in evidence states, and what no statute or judicial decision provides, is that a person’s sex is always and only determined by that person’s genitalia,” he wrote.

R.M.A.’s case is not the only Missouri lawsuit addressing transgender students’ use of school bathrooms. In 2023, a Platte County School District student filed a lawsuit, alleging the district’s policy is discriminatory, and the case is ongoing.

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