The Kansas City Star daily briefing — Wednesday, June 16, 2021

The top headlines from The Kansas City Star on Wednesday, June 16th, 2021, including Democrat Tim Shepard hopes to be Missouri’s first gay senator, the Kansas City metro reports lowest daily average for new COVID-19 cases in more than a year, Kansas’s COVID-19 state of emergency ended Tuesday after Republicans called off a meeting to consider an extension, and a judge ruled Tuesday the owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch will remain in jail pending trial on charges that they abused students at their Christian boarding school.