A disturbing week of violence as a firefighter paramedic is stabbed to death while transporting a patient by ambulance.

The change is now underway at the Nelson.

Another week, another round of protests, this time over big data centers and speaking to big tech companies or Amazon drone deliveries.

Finally coming to Kansas City plus.

The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously approves the state's new minimum wage law, but not so fast in Jeff city lawmakers still working to kill off the measure and hold the front page.

Is it finally happening?

NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical left wing echo chambers.

As eliminating federal funding for public broadcasting moves from talk to action.

This week, our CEO joins us to connect the dots on what it all means for us right here at Kansas City.

PBS.

I'll spend all of my time.

Doing everything I can to ensure you guys never get another dollar of taxpayer funding.

This is complete garbage.

Weekend review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marley Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mines and Bank of America Na Co trustees.

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Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and we're glad to have you with us on our weekly journey through the week's most impactful, confusing, and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus this week from the anchor desk at KMBC nine news, Kris Ketz, former star reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling from our metro's newest newspaper, Next Page Casey Eric Wesson and tracking the region's top political stories for KC one News Brian Ellison.

Now, a lot of finger pointing this week over how a paramedic with the Kansas City Fire Department could be stabbed to death while transporting a patient by ambulance.

29 year old Graham Hoffman died of a knife wound to the heart, but a blame game is underway on how it could happen in the first place.

The patient Hoffman was transporting had just posted bond after assaulting a police officer just days before.

Eric, we keep hearing from the mayor and our newly elected prosecutor that there's a new get tough attitude about crime in the city.

If that's the case, what went wrong in this case?

Still trying to figure out how she was able to bond out.

Mental health issues appear to be unaddressed.

There was no bed space available.

I think that was one of the things that they talked about with this recent tax that they passed.

But what would you what would you do otherwise?

You know, we got mental health facilities around here.

Why wasn't she in one of them?

So there was a there's a lot of unanswered questions with this.

And a lot of implications.

And a lot of that was exposed this week on KMBC.

I thought you did a great job looking at a lot of different angles here that I never actually considered.

The experts are now saying we may need to have self defense classes for paramedics and ambulance drivers.

I think this tragedy has opened the eyes of a lot of people in town to the dangers that firefighter paramedics face every single day, and not just here, but everywhere.

I've had paramedics come up to me and say, we ought to have protective vests like police officers.

Now, I hope it begins a discussion about what to do to better protect these people, in what they do.

And, and and it happens all over the city.

It's not just one part of town.

It's all over.

This was the story that go all of the attention this week, and rightfully so.

But it was just the latest mood in what was a very deadly week.

Dave, we're now, the official homicide count as we sit here is 50.

That's 13% higher than last year.

So for all those press conferences, announcements, all of the talk of collaborations, we're not making progress.

No.

And we haven't made progress in many years.

the politician is a fool who says, hey, we can solve this.

It's going to take years and years of concentrated effort.

You recently were on the show talking about crime, and you said we were spending money and resources in the wrong direction, and that really irked our long time view, a dick who says, okay, it's easy to point the finger at that.

Where should that money be spent?

Where should those resources be spent?

If we try to fix this problem.

With viable programs, you keep giving the same people the same money, you keep getting the same results.

Here's one of the things that, one of my confidential informants from the police department telling me they're getting ready to get new uniforms, they're going to spend $1 million on uniforms.

This police department has the one of the largest budgets in the country, not just the state of Missouri in the country.

Where's all that money going?

Big changes.

now underway at Kansas City's largest museum, the Nelson, announcing the winner of its international design competition to rethink the entire space and make it more approachable to a new generation of visitors.

It's picked a New York architecture firm that's promising a massive new Westwood expansion, with spaces for events, performances and eating areas.

The last big expansion at the Nelson was 18 years ago when the block building opened.

Some called it a monstrosity that destroyed the museum's classic look.

How is this design being viewed, Brian?

Well, some people may have called that.

At the block building that.

At the time, that has not proven to be the long term judgment.

People now look at that building and think that that's an integral part.

Of the.

Just like they do with the shuttlecocks not owns the hate it also.

That's right.

And not only because it provided necessary space for for galleries, but because they like the way it looks.

It has contributed to the architectural scene in the community.

So I think, you know, there were six designs considered.

some were certainly viewed more favorably than others.

Julian Sargasso going to has spoken of that in the past week, saying we heard you, sort of nodding toward the fact that some of them were very unpopular.

But this design is seen as a little more symmetrical.

It preserves the great Lawn of the museum.

and folks think it's going to be a place if you went into the museum right now, it might take you a month to get to see everything.

I mean, it really is that absolutely humongous.

I mean, how did they why did they need more space to do some of these things?

Listen, I think I think Kansas City is one of Kansas City's crown jewels.

Just got bigger and better.

And I think one of the more important things about this particular story is we're not talking about public money.

Yes, that is interesting because at a time when everybody wants money for big projects, they're going to fund this entirely by private donate.

There, there, there is money available for the arts in Kansas City.

Always have has been.

I think one of the problems with the original Hall installation, which is the lenses, if you will, on that were built 18 years ago, is that the artist's conceptions turned out to be very different from what eventually happened there.

The lenses, as you know, the artist conceived them, were very rounded and had no seams.

And and they turned out to be a little different from that.

And I think particularly because they're so attractive at night that Brian is right.

The opinion is changed.

This addition will balance that campus.

it's a beautiful part of Kansas City, that area and the use that people make of it just to come out and throw a blanket down and have a picnic is, profound and important.

And I think by putting more of their collection on display, Nick, you will invite people to go in for an hour and look at something and then come back and maybe go back the next Sunday or the next weekend, or maybe spend an evening at the Nelson rather than think, gosh, I have to see everything in this building because I'm going down once a year and that may be involved here as well.

You know, I.

Live just a couple blocks from the Nelson Nick.

And, I am amazed at the number of events, weekend after weekend after weekend that are just packing that place.

Kirkwood Hall is full of people for Chinese New Year, for, day of the dead celebrations.

And and the museum offers all of that space free of charge.

Maintains the grass, the lawn free of charge for for the use of the community.

I think this is actually worth worth celebrating.

And, it does require the community to say maybe we have to adapt to some change from time to time, but but that can be an okay thing.

Now, if only private companies could expand without asking for taxpayer help.

Plans to build a new mega data center in Kansas City are getting a thumbs down from environmental activists.

This week, protesters disrupted a Port Casey meeting just as the agency is set to vote on giving Google a 25 year tax break and $10 billion in bonds to construct a data center campus in north Kansas City.

We're gonna tell them that this ain't right.

Northland teacher Sky Mart says he's concerned data centers don't pay sales tax in Missouri, and therefore schools miss out on the revenue that comes from $10 billion worth of equipment.

The whole.

Tax situation as a whole makes me feel.

Very upset.

You know, Chris, I have to acknowledge that I have actually been amazed that the lack of public pushback about these data centers in Kansas City, when you pick up a newspaper or in any other city where they're happening, everybody is tearing their hair out about them.

Was this the most visible public disruption, public concerns expressed about these data.

In quite a while, I think, quite frankly.

And and there's the larger question, certainly of our taxpayers getting their money's worth, giving all of these companies and concerns, the kind of breaks that they're getting.

This has been a discussion that's been going on at this table for an awfully long time.

This is the latest edition.

There's some valid questions being asked.

And they hire very, very few people.

They're huge, but they have structured.

Jobs but not permanent jobs.

There.

But I did see that Governor Laura Kelly this week, signed into law these new huge tax breaks also for big mega data centers to come over to the Kansas side from a governor who's already complaining about shortages of water in Kansas.

And I'm.

Don't these facilities guzzle electricity or water?

Amazingly so.

you know, the companies involved are all preparing for artificial intelligence, which requires to work enormous racks of computers that need enormous amounts of power not only to run the computers and servers, but to cool the buildings.

I mean, they get so hot because they're, involved in calculations to such a large degree, so I don't but, you know, I think there is always in these situations, Nick, a fear of being left behind, that somehow if Kansas City says no, you know, they'll go somewhere else.

And then where?

Where are you?

Where were you?

I think Kansas has some of that as well.

I think the poster child in in Missouri got to be Cerner.

we spent a lot of money.

They got a lot of tax breaks.

They were supposed to develop that area.

And the only thing that you have now is, you know, you might have 2 or 3 things out there, but what was what were we led to believe?

But that but that was the promise of more jobs than this would ever provide, because they may only require about 20 people to run the whole joint.

I think that is a distinction.

Some clawbacks yes.

Okay.

Proposal that don't exist in these others that, you know, the other thing to keep in mind, Nick, is, the Port Authority's role in all of this.

And, and I've written for years about how the port Authority can write very large checks with very little public input, kind of like the police board, in a way.

Right.

Eric, where do you get all this money?

And yet you don't have to answer to taxpayers or voters at any level.

And this is another example of that.

And let's hope that the mayor and council sort of look at it and say, hey, maybe this is a decision for the council elected council, and not for appointed members of the, Now, speaking of, big tech companies or Amazon drone deliveries finally coming to Kansas City, the City Planning Commission has just approved an expansion of Amazon same day distribution center in South Kansas City to allow up to four launchpads for the commercial drones.

We would be the biggest city in America to get them.

They're currently being used in a couple of smaller towns in Arizona and Texas.

If you were an Amazon Prime member, you can get same day shipping on many items.

Now, Chris, would you pay an extra 9.99 for delivery in an hour?

Is is that worth the convenience?

You know, I'm one of those.

I there's there's so much about this technology that I don't know and don't quite understand.

Yeah.

It's being used in College Station, Texas.

Yeah.

It's being used in the Phoenix area.

I do know this.

If you can fly a drone and we're not talking about the drones that you buy your kid that at Walmart to play with.

These are heavy vehicles.

These are 7,080 pound vehicles flying around carrying packages.

If you can fly a drone, if you've gone through the training and gone through the certification, that's a that's a six figure job, whether it's Amazon, Walmart or whomever.

You know.

You know, last night I was thinking I would like some raspberry jam on my toast with this night I went on Amazon.

I thought I would have to wait until a 4 to 8 a.m..

Delivery window, but I thought, God forbid, what if I.

Want my toast at 3 a.m.?

I should.

It's too bad we don't have drone delivery.

And so so now I. I'm glad that.

We'll have that resolved.

You know, we can we can.

I just, you know, people stealing packages off the porch is a major problem across the country.

Is there any better signal that you have a package on your front porch and a huge drone buzzing overhead?

That's like.

A sign.

Want to put out a sign?

Yeah.

Come get a package.

It's.

Oh, yeah.

Right on the.

Front.

They are also known to crash.

And I was looking at some of the news clippings from those towns that already have them in Texas and Arizona, and one of them really caught my eye about the noise complaints, and they were liking the sound to a group of flying chainsaws overhead.

Right.

And one of the ones that I saw was, about the wind shifted and packages being delivered at the next door neighbor's house and in the front yard instead of the porch, because the haven't been redesigned okay, since they did the Google Maps with it.

So the package was out in the people's front yard instead of on their boards.

That could lead to what they was saying about people stealing it.

But this technology we have, we got to watch it.

And I will say, though, you know, they could be eclipsed by Wal-Mart, which is actually also trying to get into this community to do that in a big way.

So there is competition for the first time ever.

By the way, Missouri workers are now guaranteed paid sick leave.

It's the second part of a November ballot measure that also increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but it's unclear how long the new benefit will last.

Missouri lawmakers are trying to kill the voter pass law, citing business groups concerns that it will shut down smaller employers.

But time is running out on this year's legislative session.

Lawmakers will adjourn on May 16th.

That's not far away.

Have lawmakers left it too late to stop it?

Brian, it's not too late.

But it is.

it is getting close.

a lot depends on, first of all, whether there's any disagreement among the Republicans who hold the majority in both House and the Senate.

But but also to what extent Democrats are willing to expend political capital.

Will they filibuster this in the in the Missouri Senate?

They have in the past, filibustered efforts to undo the will of voters, which is what this represents.

however, it's not clear where they will spend their political chits.

And it is worth while noting that the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously upheld this particular measure that was being challenged by business groups saying you couldn't put two issues on the same ballot at the same time.

They said, does that take the wind out of the sails into lawmakers?

No, no.

I mean, first of all, they don't care what voters say or the Supreme Court is.

They're going to do what they're going to do.

but I do think that the fact that it has gone into effect, Nick, does change the political calculus in some ways, because you would, in essence, be taking away something that people have, not something that people are going to have.

Yeah.

And that changes a few things, I think.

Well, four years after construction began on the streetcar expansion down Main Street to the plaza, the disruption has become too much for at least one store.

F ING candles announced this week that closing a sales dip more than 70%.

We went from, booming online and in-person sales to absolute crickets.

Bertie Hansen and her husband are moving out.

They're taking f ING candle company to a new location after seeing business.

Shake 72.

Percent during the past two years, Hansen.

Says the candle company.

Couldn't afford to pay its employees any more, and trouble outside is to blame.

Other cities have done long term construction projects and they had small businesses in mind.

So it's very disappointing to be a resident, a small business owner and to see other cities take care of their small businesses.

And Kansas City just push us away.

Chris but isn't the streetcar line about to open?

Can they just hang on for a few more months?

First of all, I love the name of this company.

yes.

And number two, I'm a little surprised that there haven't been more small businesses along that route in a similar situation who have said, listen, traffic has gone to nothing.

We can't make it.

We're moving out.

And there have been a number.

Of restaurants that have been pretty adversely affected.

But but I do think this is part of the the city would say this is part of the cost of growth.

This is this is part of how it works.

And, I do think that will become very valuable property here in a few months.

I'm going to be surprised if another company doesn't move.

Right in and.

Make a significant.

And then we have the same complaints about, businesses in the city market when the original streetcar was being built and businesses were closing.

And I do think if you ask, business owners in the city market now, they think the streetcar is kind of a plus for foot traffic this.

Once it open.

But do we know when it's going to open?

I've never seen an actual definitive deadline to say we are now going to open it on blank date.

No, I haven't seen one.

Yeah I heard fall of this year.

Okay.

At one point it was late summer, early fall.

I think it's been pushed back slightly into this hopefully before the World Cup comes and the reason for that, according to the Transportation Authority, is it's because of the testing that is required.

the a lot of the.

Tracks are ready to go, but there's a significant amount of federal and state testing that has to occur.

But it seems like it's taken forever to do that.

And, he said, for instance.

I'm surprised that a lot of those businesses have been able to hang in there.

Yeah, because it's taken forever.

It seems like to do that.

Why isn't Eric, City Hall showering this candle store with cash like they all the Sun Fresh grocery store on prospect.

Did you see that story?

Amid concerns that they may be forced to close soon, the city is providing nearly $1 million in taxpayer money to keep the doors open.

this ordinance is to keep it afloat after this last week, shoppers went to the store and they were greeted by empty shelves.

I didn't notice how the businesses are also now saying, hey, where's our bailout?

we're facing the same pain.

Where's our money?

Right.

And they probably should say that.

But in this particular case, the city has been negligent with a lot of different things.

There are some things in the contract that they had to do safety around the shopping center.

We went through there and August with the mayor for his photo op, and we pointed to holes in the fences in the area today and April.

Those holes are still there.

So I think there's a difference.

When the city put money into it, invested into it, it should be successful and they have done very little.

But can you see why other businesses, though, might be irked by this, that it seems like the city is picking winners and losers, and they're going to bail out certain companies and not others.

And other grocery stores.

Although you can make a case that, retail establishments at that corner are particularly challenging, because of just the income level in the neighborhood.

And, and the need for those services in all parts of Kansas City.

No one denies that.

But anyone who suggests that Kansas City has not been supportive of 31st and prospect Linwood in Prospect over the 25 or 30 years that I've been a reporter here, isn't paying attention.

They have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to make that corner work, and it doesn't work.

And when it doesn't work, they come back and say, we need tens of millions of dollars.

But the city just couldn't say, okay, if you don't make it work, let's just pull the plug.

But then you got a food desert there, and you have all those elderly people that can't get to other grocery stores.

And one of the reasons why you had it, there was a food desert.

Now we spend 15 to 17 million a year on the barren light district.

nobody raises any sand about that.

The spring, I mean, the elbow.

You know, they get money.

So it's like, where do we stop?

All right, all right.

Well, it's not just the Catholic Church that's picking a new leader this week.

Kansas City is getting ready to pick a new city manager after ousting Brian Platt.

The city council hosted public interviews this week with the three finalists for the $208,000 a year job.

In addition to acting City Manager Kimiko Gilmore, the other finalist or assistant City Manager Mario Vasquez and Pat Klein, the recently retired head of the aviation department.

Was it just me, or was anybody else surprised that Pat Klein threw his hat in the ring for this?

Does anybody retire any more?

Dave I retire, yes.

that Klein is an interesting choice.

I mean, I think that his reputation during the, problems with the airport early on was not good, but, it was completed on time, on budget.

he has experience in the city manager's office, so it's not quite the surprise.

It is.

I don't think he's the flip.

But I will say, though, we also saying we are an international community.

We are an international city.

And yet, we do a search with our only internal candidates where we're all these outsiders who could have come in to try and transform Kansas City.

Well, I think, I think the hiring of Brian Plant probably.

Had a lot to do with that.

That was a much.

Heralded, nationwide search brought in outside candidates.

A lot of people ended up very unhappy with the result.

they also needed, immediate interim leadership, which is how Kimiko Gilmore is currently the acting, city manager.

I think there's going to be, a lot of consideration about this after the fact, but I think they're looking to fill the position quickly.

And that leans toward you had an inside source in the police department.

What's your inside source at City Hall telling you about this?

They had 40 applicants.

Okay.

I think one of the things is it's only a two and a half year job because the next, council will come in and.

if you want any more evidence that Quinton Lucas is a lame duck, this, imbroglio is proof of it because he's not dictating who the next city manager will be.

The council is making its own decisions.

He was unable to protect Brian Platt, who was his choice.

when Lucas is, his term is coming to an end.

Chris and Eric.

Brian and Dave, we love you.

We love that you're here.

But we are now hitting the eject buttons on your seats.

Okay, okay.

because we're skipping our big story miss segment this week, I know you're going to be horrified so we can make a move for our president, not Trump, but Cliff, kill our CEO who wants to address how the white House is now turning words into action and instructing Congress to zero out funding for us and all of public broadcasting.

NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical left wing echo chambers for a narrow audience.

I don't even recognize the station anymore.

I'll spend all of my time doing everything I can to ensure you guys never get another dollar of taxpayer funding.

This is complete garbage, cliff kill.

I like to think that this is a quality show, but the rest of what we do around here complete garbage?

I don't think so, Nick.

I don't think I would.

I would disagree with that.

Ever since I've been here and that's been more than 20 years, there has been worry over public funding and whether it's going to go away.

It never has.

Why is this different in your mind?

It feels.

More serious.

It feels the threat, I think, is very real.

And, we've been able to sort of beat back these threats in the past, and I'm hoping we can do that again.

For us, it's about $1.5 million, which when we look at the entire budget, it's about 13%.

What would be the most visible difference that viewers would see if that were to be wiped out?

We would certainly have to do a little bit less, and it would probably be just across the board.

Does that mean a little bit less local programing, a few, fewer documentary partnerships?

Let's cut to the chase, Cliff.

Will I still have a job?

Does this become Kansas City Pension Review?

Well, we feel like an annual.

You know what it.

I'm you all synopsis of what happened in Kansas.

With your show is beloved.

Of course it will always be here.

You know, I think we would do everything we can.

I mean, I think the goal would be to limit the impact on our friends and our viewers and our supporters.

But we have corporate supporters, which we see in our underwriting messages.

We have foundations that support us, and our big power source of course, viewers like you, which we say on every program and that really is important.

But couldn't we just make up that money just as everybody else is tightening their belts?

But I don't think there's a lot of room to go to those folks and say, hey, we need to put back a million and a half dollars.

So we, you know, we would have to really think through that.

It would be tough.

And I will add, if you look at smaller market stations, right, we're fortunate here that we have remedies.

They would be challenged by the fact that their federal funding might be 40 or 50% of their budget.

You said that about Warrensburg.

You might be in western Kansas.

That might be more than half the budget comes from that federal funding.

They don't have big corporate or foundation support.

They may end up closing.

If that money were to go away.

I would hate to see that because we all contribute back into, the funds that help create the national programs.

And so that's another challenge in this when you look at it, Nick and say, well, Kansas City would find a way to power through this, but what happens to smaller stations and also what happens to the funding that goes to help them make those national programs.

So fire stations means that there may be less money for a Ken Burns, and he decides to take his documentaries out of PBS to go to Netflix.

Or they might not be a NewsHour any longer, because we're also funding that program.

Heaven forbid.

But yes, those are the kind of concerns you would have.

folks might say, yeah, just tighten your belt in Kansas City.

Well, the problem is, I think about $100 million goes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting every year to PBS to help build that national schedule.

So, again, we can we can sort of gear up here locally and battle this cut if it happened.

But again, I think there are some other things that would happen on the national level that where we wouldn't really be able to help overcome that.

We have right now for fundraisers a year on the air.

Some people complain about those, but that helps make our work possible, including this show.

Do we go from 4 to 8 fundraising, sessions every year on on our air?

Ideally not.

Nick, I guess.

Never say never.

But, the goal would be to not do that.

We try to find other remedies.

our major gift fundraising, maybe foundations.

We certainly look at all of our friends in the community and hope to have them help us with that, with that challenge.

And, that coupled with, I hate to say it, but probably a little bit of belt tightening.

Yes.

President and CEO of Kansas City PBS, Cliff Kiel, wrapping up our week's news this week.

By the way, I had a viewer send me this, which, you know, this part of my sign off, it says keep calm and carry on.

Do we need to change the sign off too quick, hit the panic button.

Oh, can we still do our keep calm and carry on.

Let's stick with keep calm and carry on.

I love that Nick.

You do an amazing job.

I'm honored to be able to be here and speak with you and thank you for the time.

Well, thank you very much.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.