Coming up, the week's most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories hand delivered to you in less time than it takes to deliver a pizza week in review is straight ahead.

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Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines and we are thrilled to have you with us on our weekly journey through our metros top headlines and some of the intriguing stories you might have missed.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week to make sense of it all from Kshb.

41 news political reporter Charlie Keegan tracking the region's top political stories and the trends in the news.

From KCUR Brian Ellison at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next Page KC Eric Wesson and former star reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling.

Now, there's no shortage of stories about conflict, outrage and division.

Can we in the media focus on something positive?

Well, did you see that the Kansas City Police Department is out with new figures?

And guess what?

The Kcpd claims crime is down in pretty much every category.

Look at these burglary is down 17%, property damage down 36%.

Stealing 20% down.

Stolen autos not going up 33% down.

Robberies down.

Homicides down.

Nonfatal shootings down 32%.

So how does that gel with your experience and how does this news go down among the dozens of out of town visitors who saw their cars smashed in outside a Hampton Inn hotel this week.

Somebody came through and just ransacked like 25 or 30 cars.

Very frustrating and, nerve wracking because I got to stay here another night.

Witnesses say it was more than two dozen cars with their windows smashed out, and it was mostly out of state plates.

Irritating.

Mad at myself, I guess, because, like I said, the.

Reviews kind of said, don't park here.

But I did anyway.

I'm not sure they saw the latest figures.

Or what about those residents of Waldo who saw their splashy new road improvement project defaced by sideshows and a commissioned mural rendered unrecognizable?

What is people's lived experience the same as those statistics, Eric?

People's lived experiences are totally different, depending on what part of town that you go to and I think is metro wide, especially one of the things that they didn't show was domestic violence, which domestic violence is, is extremely high in this area as well.

The Kcpd wants to trumpet every one year change in statistics.

Those who want to criticize the KPD want to trumpet statistics that that go the other way.

One year of crime statistics tells us almost nothing.

That is too small a sample size to be meaningful.

We're going to need to look at long term trends.

Any solutions that have been offered for reducing crime in Kansas City?

whether that be changes to policing or crime prevention efforts, they all depend on many years of implementation.

So looking at a one year change in crime statistics, is it ends up being more misleading than helpful.

I would only add this.

I don't think I disagree a little bit with Brian.

I don't think a decline, any decline is meaningless.

I mean, I there is it is to at least some degree good news.

But I think most people in Kansas City focus on the murder rate as a reflection of how they believe crime is going up or not going down, and that remains stuck at a time.

Frankly, Nick, when virtually every other metropolitan area in America is, experiencing a significant decline in murder rates, that remains the biggest challenge.

you know, smashed windows and stolen cars notwithstanding.

And, it may be that the department would want to focus on that next year as well.

And by the way, next week we're going to do that, hold their feet to the fire episode where we're bringing in the mayor and the new Jackson County prosecutor on this program.

We will try to get to the bottom of it.

you know, Missourians wanting to block the state's newly drawn congressional map now have less than 30 days to collect 106,000 valid signatures to put the issue up for a public vote.

And the stakes are so high, one out of state group is now paying signature gatherers $5,000 to stay home.

Apparently, the unusual cash offer is having an impact.

There are reports of signature gatherers now quitting their jobs, causing major disruption for progressive groups trying to secure next year's referendum vote.

Brian, who is behind this latest effort?

It's a it's a conservative.

It's a Republican group from out of state.

it's a pack.

this is apparently legal and can be done, but it's certainly, represents, something about American politics right now that, the very prospect of, gathering signatures to put something to a public vote is something that can be, attacked by simply spending money.

And we should be clear that signature gatherers are often paid, in Missouri to begin with.

And so this is an idea that you pay them to.

Not not do it.

Not do it.

And, because there is a financial incentive and the business.

Nick, I reported on this back in my days at the start of the business of petition.

gathering across the country has become a huge business.

I mean, there's lots of money involved by the way, out of state money on both sides.

So this is just another escalation in the battle over self-government and, petition and initiative writing.

And I I'm glad you mentioned that because there's a lot of concerns.

Oh, this is this is dark money now paying for this.

But yet on the other side, there's concern.

Where is the money coming from for the referendum effort to begin with?

This is a wash and dark money in all issues, on the ballot and not on the ballot.

And by the way, the complaint that somehow it's coming from out of state has often been ludicrous because out of state money comes into politics in every state nowadays, there's not much of a border in terms of where cash goes for political issues.

And I the interesting part about it was they were on a roll and getting some money.

I think they had already exceeded the number of signatures.

And then you got the court challenges on whether or not they started gathering the signatures too early and this and that, but it's going to be interesting.

And there are people still out.

Okay.

Can you refresh our memories, Charlie, as to what happens and when would that actually be on the ballot?

So these are the folks who are gathering the petitions have until December 11th to get as many petitions as they need to put this question on the ballot in November of 2026.

Okay.

Thank you.

But quickly, it suspends the map.

If there are enough valid questions of signatures, that's the more important fact.

Not really.

When the election would come, it would suspend the new map.

And so Emanuel Cleaver, for example, might be more likely to be elected if the petition signature effort succeeds.

No, we know in the last few weeks, of course, in Kansas, they, decided not to have a special session to rejig the maps there because they couldn't get enough signatures.

But I did see this week that the Kansas Republican leaders, demoted, a lot of Republicans who refused to sign on to that strip them of their chairmanships.

Does that make it more likely then that they would that would send a warning in January when they come back, that you better get on board with this.

my guess is the opposite would be the case that, whatever map the legislature comes up with next year would face a certain veto from Laura Kelly.

And so you need a veto proof majority, and you're now as a Republican leadership, going to have to go to the very people you sanctioned back in November and say, no, but we need your vote now.

And I do get the sense that the no votes on a special session were, prompted in part by principal people, Republicans, saying, no, look, redistricting is not proper in this, way in the mid to decade.

And so I think it's going to be an uphill battle next year to redistrict.

I think I think Dave is right.

And I think I think that has been true in the Missouri conversation as well.

This week we saw some of the first courtroom arguments about whether this is legal in Missouri.

And, we saw that the hashing out of what is sometimes been called Missouri's earbud.

Rule.

of course, referring to the famous, movie scene where the referee says there ain't no rule that says dogs can't play basketball.

The argument was whether the fact that the Missouri Constitution doesn't have a rule against mid-term redistricting, meant that it couldn't be done or that it could be done.

and that's the argument I we've always thought this is going to be settled in the courts ultimately.

And I think that's still the case.

One of the, representatives from Kansas, I had an interesting conversation with a couple of days ago and he said, regardless of what we do with redistricting, Sharice Davids is still winning.

And she's really popular, even among Republicans and Democrats, to try to draw her out of the district.

The longest government shutdown in American history is now over.

There are a thousand places you can learn about what happened and why.

But what does it mean around here?

Are there thousands of Kansas Indians were cut off from food aid, Charlie, and they're now getting their benefits cards reloaded.

Yeah.

So that's that's become one of the biggest immediate impacts we'll see is they have snap benefits will be back.

And in the pockets of these folks who benefit from that.

There'll be workers getting their salaries back.

Because that happen this week.

I think it happens partially this week.

And then it might take, another couple of couple paychecks for folks to be made whole.

And, but actually, Brian, you are our globe trotting, guest on the and seems to be at the airport every five minutes.

I mean, does that mean we no longer have disruptions at cases airport?

Well, the reports have said that it's going to take a little bit of time to get back to normal.

That certainly is seems to be the experience whenever there's a significant travel disruption.

but it does mean, hopefully that the air traffic controllers, for example, who have gone without pay but have been required by law to work anyway, will will start getting paid again.

But again, as Charlie said, it does appear that's going to take a little while.

And remember, this doesn't even address the situation that contractors for the government, who are not necessarily guaranteed pay for these days, they missed.

There may be some long term impact on our community that goes beyond just those employees who were furloughed.

And for the first time in, almost two months, the Truman Library here will be back open.

Yes, in Kansas City already.

I was interested in how the vote played out on this.

The shutdown is over because a group of centrist Democrats in the House and Senate voted to buck their own party to reopen the government, but Emanuel Cleaver was a no.

And Sharice Davids, too, is some thought she would vote yes.

She is carefully positioned herself as a pragmatic centrist.

So what explains her vote, Dave?

And could it backfire politically on her?

I don't think it's likely that it will backfire, in part because of what Eric talked about.

She is pretty popular in her district.

The other thing to keep in mind is the third district.

Johnson County is increasingly Democratic.

I mean, if you go back and look at the results in November on the local level in Overland Park and Prairie Village and other communities, the moderates, the Democratic leaning folks, the Johnson County Community College Board, all of those elections seem to favor a moderate Democratic approach.

And I think, Sharice Davids has done a brilliant job of following that.

There were only six Democrats who voted for this resolution.

But I will, but I will.

Be punished for it.

But I did see I tried to look up on a Twitter page, on her Facebook page to see what a view was.

There was no mention whatsoever.

So she's not advertising her vote on this.

She sent us a press release about this.

I was one on Twitter today.

A statement that she had made saying, hey, look, I can't, you know, the medical, problem continues to be a concern for her.

So I think this is like a win win scenario for Sharice Davids.

She gets to stand up for health care and look like a good Democrat.

And then the government opens anyway, because her vote didn't really matter when the Republicans control.

So it all works out.

In the ongoing story that we never seem to ever get any resolution on.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe is making headlines as he floats the idea of a new fabric roof over Arrowhead Stadium as the Chiefs draw up plans for a dome stadium in Kansas.

The Missouri governor says the Chiefs could stay in their current location with a new all weather covering.

He points to Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank Park, where the chiefs played the Dolphins in 2023, which has a flexible, translucent roof supported by cables that can be opened or closed depending on the weather.

Now I looked it up for you.

The roof cost e20 million, which is American money is $23 million.

Isn't that a price tag that many fans would say is worth it?

To keep the Chiefs where they are, and to keep out the worst of the winter weather?

next question.

No.

Yeah, it would be.

That would be a small price to pay.

But this thing with these stadiums, it's just back and forth.

They're getting, bids for new design for a stadium in Kansas the day.

Then you got the governor for Missouri.

And people in Jackson County still are now warm and fuzzy about it.

Both of those teams need to make a decision, stick with that decision and let people know what's going on.

This wasn't one of those breakthrough headlines this week, Charlie.

Oh, I think Governor Kehoe even had to kind of backtrack a little bit and say, hey, I actually just kind of said this off the cuff.

I didn't actually talk to the Chiefs about it.

but he has been meeting with the Chiefs.

He's also said that.

So I wonder if it's really completely out of the blue.

I mean, what it does seem to do is it continues to keep the conversation in Missouri's court where a lot of our attention has been shifted in recent weeks to what Kansas is doing.

And I think, the governor does not want to be the governor who loses the chiefs.

He wants to keep attention focused back on this side of the state.

But who we don't hear from are the Chiefs.

We don't hear from Clark Hunt.

We know they're far too busy with the games that they have playing right now.

John Sherman had a news conference this week and said, hey, we're still trying to figure out, what we want to do as the Royals.

let me just say that we're approaching, in April of next year, the two year anniversary of the defeat of the sales tax measure for both teams.

You'll recall at the time, some of us who were critical said, hey, look, this seems a little rushed.

You don't we don't know for sure where you want to go.

And the teams both said, oh, no, no, this is it.

This is what we'll write.

We'll keep us in Missouri.

And now we know two years, almost two years later, that the decision on where to go is very complicated and that voters were probably wise to put a, stop button in place in April of 24.

So there are all these questions.

At least we know this week, though, that the Royals are going to move to Overland Park because we heard all the stories about the Capital Grille coming out there in the old house, and those restaurants were a signal of that.

Actually, Charlie, when I saw that more than thinking that was the Royals going, that I was thinking, boy, what does that do to the Plaza?

Could they have two Capitol grills of the Capitol Grill going to move from the Plaza to Overland Park?

Nordstrom to stay.

All right.

As we got no resolution on this issue, we are going to move on.

Who will place Gayle McCann?

Betty.

After the Jackson County Executive fires the long time county appraiser?

One hiccup is that the man thought to be perhaps the best choice is a bit of a problem.

Preston Smith was one of the Trump supporters who breached the police perimeter around the Capitol on January 6th.

Does that disqualify Preston Smith from becoming the next Jackson County assessor?

Eric, pretty much.

He would be a hard sell for the, Democratic part of the Jackson County legislature, which controls it.

So he would be a hard sell for them to go along with that appointment.

Is there an imminent decision to be made here?

Either they leave that office open for months now.

I think that I think the plan is to get someone in there within the next month or so, maybe two months.

But, yeah, I don't think he's the one that's gone.

Knowing my luck on this program, though, Charlie, they probably announce it right after we taped this.

Yeah, I mean, that's what usually.

Happens to fill the vote of the executive last week.

And he said he's going to take this, give me the kind of political speech taken under consideration.

Really do my due diligence.

I will say there's been some people hanging around a lot of watch parties, a lot of, events leading up to the recall that would be candidates and I think are trying to keep their presence known.

a week after Election Day, Kansas enacts a new election law.

Starting now, the state is ending the three day grace period for mail in ballots.

Currently, Kansas election officials count late arriving votes as long as they're postmarked by Election Day, starting now.

If a mail in ballot comes in after Election Day, it will no longer be counted.

Day.

What difference will that law make?

Or on Mail-In ballots, too insignificant these days to be concerned?

No ballot is insignificant, which, by the way, include military ballots often difficult to get in.

So, but I don't think it's an earthquake in Kansas politics.

It's just another effort to try and control the electorate, which, by the way, the president has talked a lot about getting rid of voting machines, voting only on Election Day, absentee outcomes.

You know, it's not that the Postal Service is, getting your mail delivery faster today, right?

Right.

And and what is the principle that this, that this new law upholds?

if the value of being able to call the election on election night and not wait three days is greater than the value of letting more people to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

I'm not sure where that idea is coming from.

And Dave is right.

Military and military.

If you're overseas, the FOB Philly post office, it might take you a week and a half or two weeks to get just a regular piece of mail and much less, a voting ballot as well.

Well, the news comes in the same week, by the way, as the Kansas attorney general files election fraud charges against a Kansas mayor who wasn't even an American citizen.

In fact, it's become a national news story.

The mayor of a small town in rural Kansas is facing criminal charges for allegedly voting as a non-citizen.

State elections officials are trying to figure out how a man who they say is not qualified to vote in U.S.

elections, was elected mayor of a small southwest Kansas town twice.

Every time a non-citizen votes, it effectively.

Cancels out.

The vote of a U.S.

citizen.

Attorney general, be prepared to be busy every.

go through.

These and.

Find out potential positives of.

People who.

Are non U.S.

citizens that have voted.

Now, I saw some people blasted the attorney General's action as petty this week.

But does this case, Brian, illustrate that there may be a wider problem of election fraud that many have chosen to believe?

No, it does not prove that there is not a wider problem of election fraud.

And what it shows is that there was one person who was voting illegally.

But even that is not really election fraud in the sense that it affected the outcome of elections, or was some part of some effort to get a broader group of people to be able to vote who shouldn't be?

This is a solitary case.

And, you know, Kansas Secretary, they said there's more to come.

Well, the Secretary of State, Scott Schwab, has who who we saw there, has consistently said there is not an election fraud problem in Kansas.

He has said that over and over.

So this was an interesting so he is running he is running for governor of Kansas, I had forgotten, yes, they.

Have, but a lot of these things, situations like that, I think it leads to disenfranchisement of people wanting to vote because they're thinking that something's going on.

Kansas mayoral, Kansas City, Kansas mayoral race 15,000 people out of 95,000 registered voters, only 15,000 people voted.

I think people are kind of getting discouraged or not engaged in the process, and that's bad for America.

Well, speaking of elections, now that the election has settled down, the New York Times picked four mayors to give advice to the lightning rod, new mayor of New York City.

And guess who was picked for the story?

Quinton Lucas, what was his advice?

Charlie?

He said, when it comes to free busses, find a funding source to make sure that busses can stay free for a while.

Maybe don't rely on Covid money.

That Kansas City kind of used a lot for that.

And then avoid social media.

Maybe have a family get off social media.

Yes, I know that was interesting.

Eric.

He said his mother was having fights on Facebook and he regretted all that with you.

Oh.

Yeah.

Now, are you picking on.

The mayor's mother again?

I'm on it right now.

We we have a love hate relationship.

We both went to the same school, but, yeah, that's one of the things that he has to be aware of.

Even though the mayor stays on there a lot, you very rarely see his wife on there or his sisters.

Yeah, well, last week we mentioned a business journal story that asked, where will they sleep?

They were referencing the 650,000 out-of-town visitors expected to arrive in Kansas City for the World Cup.

When there, there are only 65,000 hotel rooms in the 100 mile radius, and Airbnb is projecting just 11,000 home stays.

Well, perhaps City Hall was listening.

Now the city has announced it's throwing out all the hefty fees, rules and regulations it's put in place over the last several years and letting Kansas City Inns register and list their homes for short term rental.

Doing the World Cup for just $50, Tracy viewer writes.

They're making alcohol available 24 over seven during the World Cup, and now we're going to have drunken and angry loser soccer fans in all our neighborhoods.

What could possibly go wrong?

Are we asking for trouble, Charlie?

Maybe.

And I think independence, though I think opted out of 24 seven liquor, options.

So that's not.

Not everywhere.

And everywhere.

And I think people are going to get their houses out no matter what, you know.

So maybe if if the city can get $50 from them, they'll take it.

But it's just to me.

Are they hitting the panic button at City Hall about all of these people don't coming in.

Well, first of all, Tracy has a very low view of soccer fans.

Okay.

All right.

It's questionable, but okay.

I do think the city is concerned.

I do think that, as you pointed out last week and again this week, the number of units available does not seem to match the promised numbers.

I think there are a lot of folks who are just now clicking into this issue who are just now saying, you know, I could make thousands of dollars by renting out my house.

So I, I don't think that they've waited that long.

I don't think this represents a panic.

I think this is just when people are starting to tune in.

Well, in in another World Cup related story, the influential sports news site The Athletic says FIFA's next World Cup cash cow is, quote, exorbitant parking prices.

It says FIFA is selling parking spots around Arrowhead Stadium for between $75 and $175 per spot on World Cup game days.

I what I find interesting about this, Eric, is that all the money for the parking is going to FIFA.

We don't get any of.

It, we don't get any of it.

And we have to provide security.

We'll have to clean up the parking lot.

We'll have to do a lot of that.

I think they'll pay the county for doing some of that, some of those things.

But yeah, I thought that was interesting too.

But $175 for parking.

And it could have been worse.

Dave.

Yeah, it could be better, too.

I mean, that's a lot of money to pay to park your car.

I think part of the idea is to encourage people to take mass transit, rather than to shell out that kind of money.

Now, whether a mass transit will be ready and available, I think remains an open issue.

And we'll see as we get closer whether that can be fulfilled.

When you put a program like this together every week, we can't get to every story grabbing the local headlines.

What was the big local story?

We missed?

Could there finally be a resolution for Kansas City's most famous hole in the ground?

The Michigan Gateway Project headed to court this week.

It's been it's been an empty lot in a prime location for a long, long time.

I think we've wanted it to be redeveloped for so long because it just is ugly and it looks terrible.

The judge's decision could finally free the city of Michigan to redevelop the site nearly 20 years after the Mission Mall was torn down.

How many chances should a drunk driver get a man with four DUIs charged with killing a 20 year old Ku student in a hit and run?

Marion County pays out $3 million.

After that police raid on a small Kansas newspaper.

Kansas City settles with City Manager Brian Platt for an undisclosed cost.

About eight months after his firing, the Kansas City Karen season comes to a painful end, and Kansas City Holocaust survivor Big Sonia turns 100 this week.

It takes people who've.

Been through something to reach people who.

Were going through something.

Something, something.

Alrighty, Brian, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I did pick one of those and we can have an update on a story here.

Nick.

The settlement with former City manager Brian Platt.

Casey, you are reported this week through a Sunshine Law request that, the amount of that settlement, at least part of that settlement, was $192,000.

It said there was a lawsuit, a a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit filed by Brian Platt.

it came with a non disparagement agreement and with an agreement to give a neutral job reference, although I don't know how many people are checking Brian Plant's job references with Kansas City at this point.

it did also acknowledge there is some other confidential severance agreement.

And it doesn't say whether there was additional money as part of that.

So if it was just that much money, I would think they got away cheaply.

I thought this was going to be $1 million or something, maybe just a portion of his salary.

Absolutely.

We know about Eric.

I said the same thing.

It was I learned that it was, not more than half $1 million, but more than $400,000.

So somewhere in there, I had my popcorn and and Pepsis ready because I wanted to see.

It was roughly what you take to go to see the World Cup on on a parking spot.

It was a reasonable it was reasonable.

Dave.

Can I just point out I used to park at Municipal Stadium for a buck?

You know, the price of parking is going up just a. Little bit for us.

But when we did, Kansas City didn't enter a bid for the World Cup of 20 1920.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

So.

I didn't even know they had the right baseball.

That's right.

Charlie, I want to.

Go back to the stadiums.

The Royals this week closed their fan survey, where they asked folks for information and feedback on three stadium sites.

So maybe we're inching closer to them, using that information to.

Move forward with an hours.

We'll finally have the location.

Our.

All righty.

Can I thank people that brought donations by the newspapers viewers that watched the show came by.

I had quite a few of them that came by and dropped off donations.

I'm really pleased to hear that.

I was too.

I guess people know that somebody is watching.

Absolutely out on that more.

All righty on that.

We will say a week has been reviewed courtesy of channel 40 One's Charlie Keegan and Eric Wesson of Next Page, Casey from Kcal News Brian Ellison and news icon Dave Helling.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.