It's a big deal.

2000 jobs.

This is insane.

A sad story.

Two very different views on our news this week.

Fasten your seatbelt as we take you through the most impactful, confusing, and downright head scratching local news stories straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley's Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize, and Bank of America Na Co trustees.

The Francis Family Foundation through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

When we began the week, I was concerned we weren't going to have anything to talk about on the show.

While how fast news changes now, my biggest worry is how do we fit it all in in 26 minutes to turbocharge our insights.

We're glad to have Charlie Keegan from 41 news with us.

The star's chief political correspondent Jonathan Shorman, and from Kcal News Lisa Rodriguez and Brian Ellison, who tracks the region's top political stories on both sides of our state line.

Now, Kansas City doubled its number of fortune 500 companies this week.

That wasn't hard.

We only had one.

Now we have two.

Now the cat is finally out of the bag.

Kansas has now named the Mystery Company, bringing 2000 jobs to the former sprint campus in Overland Park.

It's size of a Milwaukee based financial technology firm.

Chances are good you have never heard of them, but Pfizer is a fortune 500 company that it's and has its name on the NBA Arena in Milwaukee.

Extra points if you remember, that was also the site of last year's Republican National Convention.

It's a company fast expanding its national profile.

And in Overland Park, they're promising 2000 jobs by 2030, with an average salary of $102,000.

Of companies coming to Overland Park.

But this is by far the largest 2000 jobs is, at least in my 20 years.

Involved with the city is by far the biggest.

I said we already had one fortune 500 company quiz question for you.

What was that company?

Seaboard.

Oh.

All righty.

You get all the points, you get a Kansas City PBS mug to take home with you.

Brian, if your next question, Nick, is what the Seabourn do, I won't be able to answer that.

But yeah, they were.

I group business doing everything from pork processing to all manner of ocean transportation of food.

But what does Pfizer have do?

Most of us have never heard of them.

If I serve is in the the financial services payments technology business, I think the brand that some people might recognize that they're associated with is Clover, which you maybe you've tapped your credit card on a clover console at a, at a small business or something.

But but for the most part, they do things behind the scenes.

They move money around electronically.

It's a huge industry with a lot of technology involved, and it's that technology piece that they're hoping to emphasize.

In this Kansas, we see huge salaries and it sounds great.

The 2000 jobs, big deal, says the mayor of Overland Park.

but, I this has to be happening with a lot of money coming from the state of Kansas to get them here.

Right.

I think any time you, recruit a, company like this of the stature to a state that typically comes with incentives, this is also coming just a few years after the Panasonic, deal, which was worth millions and millions of dollars of incentives.

But the trade off is, Johnson County is really helping cement its reputation, is really an economic engine of the state of Kansas.

And some people now saying, boy, if they're going to bring 2000 people there, can there be any room for a new Royals ballpark there, Charlie?

Well, exactly.

We had heard that the Xperia Campus at 119th and Knoll might be a spot for a Johnson County Royals stadium, but the, management company told us that they were not even in talks with, the Royals.

And now, it looks like we've got to make room for these guys and, Absolutely.

Listen, one last thing on the incentives package.

We know about what the incentives packages from the state of Kansas, the city of Overland Park has yet to determine what there's, what the final number with them would be from them.

I will say something that differentiates them from incentives on the Missouri side is that they are carving out, schools and other services that would not be part of that tax exemption.

That doesn't happen on the Missouri side.

And we were also told, and I thought it was interesting from the mayor that this was the largest office relocation from a company outside of the metro coming here.

And again, a fortune 500 company, which is a big deal.

Jonathan.

Right, right.

And it's also happening in this moment of economic uncertainty where we don't know if there's going to be a recession or some kind of economic slowdown later in the year.

So to have this kind of major announcement at this point, which is obviously been in the works for for months, is still very significant.

Now, if you were hoping for a big refund check after a judge told Jackson County to roll back its property assessments, think again.

Frank White, the county executive, has vetoed a plan that would have done just that.

But he has agreed to cap the use this year's assessments to 15%.

We are a month and a half away from potentially sending out a whole new.

Batch of assessment.

Notices that will be, substantially unlawful.

That Sean Smith, one of a group of Jackson County lawmakers who wrote to the attorney general this week demanding he investigate Frank white for his refusal to comply with state law.

But in the meantime, where does this latest farce, drama and division leave Jackson County residents this week?

Although the residents are asking questions, they want to know what their property tax bills are going to look like in 2025.

They want to know if they're going to get any kind of refunds from 2023.

Frank Wiser says he's really trying to protect the, taxing jurisdictions who have collected this money and spent the money and need the money to get that.

They they have spent the money.

So it's going to be really hard to get that back.

Exactly.

Yeah.

If you thought that the dysfunction and conflict on the Jackson County legislature between the legislature and the executive couldn't get any worse this week, it did, in fact, get worse.

Not only did those those three legislators ask the attorney general to, actually investigate the county executive, they also signed on very publicly to the recall effort, which now apparently is moving forward with the, the gathering and submitting of the signatures that have been gathered.

the legislature in Jackson County has never been a an entirely peaceful and copacetic place, but but it is reaching new levels of conflict, and it's very difficult to see how they're going to work together to do the the daily work of the legislature.

You need 43,000 signatures, to trigger a recall election.

The organizers of that campaign, by the way, this week submitting those with 60,000 signatures.

But a lot of things can go wrong.

People may not even live in Jackson County when they sign those thing.

People put Mickey Mouse and fictitious names, don't they, Jonathan.

Right.

It's not uncommon for a lot of signatures to get stricken from these, recall or petition efforts.

But one thing I wanted to add about, Andrew Bailey inviting him in is this part of the significance of that is we've seen other instances where Andrew Bailey, the attorney general, has sought to remove officials, across the state in the most high profile instance being Kim Gardner, the prosecutor, and over in Saint Louis, and, other kind of local county sheriffs, involved in serious misconduct.

So the kind of the specter of having Andrew Bailey looming over, Frank white, that does kind of put that in the background, at least about whether there could be some kind of proceeding later, but.

That could take time, if this recall election is going to take two, two weeks, apparently, from the Jackson County Election Board to verify these signatures.

If that's the case, this could be on the ballot in August for voters to decide.

Potentially it could be as soon as that.

And it's interesting that this seems to be an effort that is finally, getting traction because we've seen recall efforts kind of slowly fizzle out in the past.

And I think that is because the county executive has done a good job kind of separating himself a little bit and just not being very high profile doesn't speak to media very much.

And perhaps it's been harder for people to really connect him with the tax assessment problem.

But truly, residents right now are in a state of limbo where it where it has it has to have the attention because these notices are going to go out soon.

And one thing I'll note is that the order, while it said that they have to base 2025 tax assessments based on corrected 2023 and 2024 values, it did not clarify at all or say anything about whether the county or how the county is obligated to refund or credit taxpayers for those, assessments.

So it has confused us when we started the program.

Charlie.

Essentially.

Right.

Yes.

And, and I guess I would just be prepared to remain confused for a little while longer as all this keeps playing out.

You know, it's important to remember, too, that when we're talking about tax assessments, we're not just talking about money into the the county budget, those property tax assessments in the county fund, lots of other things in the county, notably schools, other cities, budgets, libraries and and so going back, talking about refunds, or going forward, talking about reduced expectations for those budgets has a lot of trickle down effect on a lot of entities in the community, not just the county budget.

Now, Wednesday marks President Trump's first 100 days in office.

It's always a symbolic milestone to size up how a top elected leader is doing 100 days in Jonathan Shulman.

What's been the biggest impact on Kansas City from President Trump's first 100 days?

Well, we could talk about some of the the cut funding or the programs, but I really think it is kind of this culture of fear, that, many people, not all, certainly, but many people in this community feel now.

And, and one example is I was speaking to a woman yesterday, elderly lady, she came over to the, America as a Fulbright scholar back in the 70s.

Became a citizen in the 80s.

she's scheduled to take a trip abroad in the coming weeks.

she is fearful about, her ability to come back into the country.

That's extraordinary.

So, more than any anything about the funding, although that is important.

I think, just kind of the atmosphere right now is important.

What did you put out, Lisa?

I think I mean, I did kind of focus on the funding, but not these kind of big slashing, huge numbers that we see.

But these smaller cuts to to food programs, things that are in the 100 thousands and not in the millions.

when you think about cuts to the Ivanhoe neighborhoods ability to, have a farmer's market and provide accessible food, food deliveries to food banks here, even, cuts to health departments to improve, laboratory and testing.

These are all things that the, the poorest members of our society have to rely on.

And these are the populations that are most affected by these kind of smaller, incisive.

I like that you mentioned, because it is these are smaller things that don't always get the huge headlines that actually have a big impact on people's lives.

Could road diets actually be the latest victim of Trump's cuts now?

Not sure what I'm talking about.

Well, if you drive into Kansas City, you must have seen them.

Those plastic white barriers that narrow streets and block lanes.

Experts say they help alleviate crashes.

Many drivers find them infuriating, but are they about to be outlawed by the Trump administration as Kansas City tries to win federal cash for infrastructure projects, officials have been told that any request for money that includes projects aimed at reducing lane capacity won't be viewed favorably.

So is that now the end of road diets in Kansas City, and why does the Trump administration even care?

Charlie?

Well, I think there's a kind of a growing like they feel like this is a war on cars.

You know, diets are kind of taking the freedom of Americans away.

We are Americans who don't want to take the bus places we want to get in our big trucks and SUVs and drive with one person in the car to exactly where we want to go as fast as we want to go down the roads we're used to going down, and these road diets are getting in the way and they're stopping us from living our free lives.

Yeah, a lot of people get infuriated.

I hear a lot about it, but is there any evidence they actually work, though?

Well, there actually is evidence that they reduce speeds and they reduce accidents.

And there's studies that show that I, I am not personally a big fan of road diets myself, but I can't.

But if you want, you can travel five miles an hour because of them.

That might explain why there aren't as many.

I mean, that is exactly right and you're making a choice.

That's how it is with all traffic laws and regulations.

You're choosing efficiency versus safety.

But this is a move that is proven to make for safer streets.

A 19 year old Kansas City College student appeared in federal court this week charged with firebombing the Tesla dealership on State Line Road, oh, when McIntyre allegedly lit a molotov cocktail made from an apple cider vinegar bottle and threw it at a Cybertruck, the fire destroyed two vehicles and two electric charging stations.

McIntyre was apprehended in Boston, where he's a student at the University of Massachusetts.

He was home for spring break at the time of the attack.

McIntyre could be sentenced for up to 20 years in prison.

But could we ever have predicted Charlie, that this Tesla dealership in an unassuming strip mall on state line would become ground zero in the resistance to Donald Trump?

Well, when you put, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, on stage with a chainsaw coming after things that people hold near and dear, then that kind of puts a target on your back.

But to see this happen to this extreme is a significant in a 19 year old person.

that seems, you know, like, an eye opener for.

And they found them.

You had the lady who provided the surveillance footage.

Didn't show it to that neighborhood and found a woman who had a kind of, you know, ring doorbell type of, surveillance camera that saw Owen McIntyre, who we believe to be on McIntyre, pull up.

And essentially, it looked like a build the Molotov cocktail and put on a kind of hat and coat and prepare to go over across the street to the Tesla dealership and throw it.

And it's not just that there seems to be reports that all the time, you know, there's always seems to be protesters out there constantly at this point in time.

But there was going to be a potentially now you might be voting on this at the ballot box.

There is an effort to put this on the ballot in Missouri, and you get to vote on whether we should be closing, Tesla showrooms because, they want to have a law in place that you can only buy directly from a dealer.

Right?

Then the laws like this are on the books in many states already, including in Kansas, where car manufacturers cannot sell cars directly to consumers, they house where we don't see one in Overland Park or in Leawood.

That's correct.

They have to go through franchised dealerships.

There actually was a law in Missouri proposed back in 2014, supported by then state Senator Mike Kehoe, to to support a law to create a similar situation in Missouri where it is that he's not as big a fan of this proposal.

Now, even though we voted for it before.

Okay.

Is office says that, he's supports the current law and doesn't agree with the political motivations of the current ballot measure.

Now, like Donald Trump, by the way, Cheo is now marking his first 100 days in office.

What's been his biggest accomplishment?

So far?

I think perhaps the the biggest single thing that he's done is, is, take state control over of the Saint Louis Police Department.

I know that's across the state, but certainly has implications for Kansas City, who for years has been trying and not getting very far to regain control of our own police department from a state board.

But more than that, the legislature in Missouri has been incredibly productive.

This year.

He signed a few bills into law, and as he continues to sign those into law, I think that overall, he will be able to claim a big victory of this first session.

I think for Kansas City, what we're still watching is what hasn't happened, which is, major stadium financing legislation or, you know, efforts to to put, some kind of abortion, petition amendment back on the ballot.

Time is ticking, though, on that legislation.

I mean, how much longer are Missouri lawmakers going to be in Jefferson City?

They're only in until, I think, the second week of May.

So, less than a month.

Okay.

And if that's the case, is there no opportunity for funding a improvements at Arrowhead Stadium or a new ballpark for the Royals if they're out of session in that time?

I think generally the thought is, the, the piece of legislation that has the best chances, this Clay County bill that would let Clay County establish a sports complex authority kind of similar to the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority.

but wouldn't they still need state money, though?

Yes.

Okay.

so that's the catch there.

But I think there's not a lot of legislators that feel optimistic about the the public financing proposal.

Getting to the end of the process this year.

Is that Brian?

my key keyholes, biggest miscue or failure to not resolve that issue?

Or would you put something else down?

Well, I don't know if it's a miscue or failure, but it certainly is work that's not yet finished.

I think, as as Lisa said, the governor's relationship with the legislature has been much more positive and much more productive even than, than than Mike Parson's tenure.

But but I think what we haven't seen yet are the changes that Mike Kehoe called for with regard to education.

the amount that he has that he originally proposed in the budget was, was does not appear to have support in the, in the Senate to the degree that he identified that as a priority in his state of the state address when he first took office.

and those things haven't happened yet.

I think that's work that's left to be done.

I think I echo what Brian said, and I think this, this uncertainty over the stadium, Bill, which was largely something that people were maybe the most interested to see after Kansas, put forward their incentive package, which will expire soon as well, unless action is taken on that side.

I think the lack of any action on there, any traction, any discussion, even in this session, is probably the biggest miscue.

Well, Charlie, you were reporting this week on a story we've been hearing a lot about from our viewers.

And it centers on Prairie Village, which grabbed the headlines when they had a bruising battle over housing and a plan to ban a apartments.

But now a new political fight is brewing, this time over building a new city hall.

Some residents are angry that the council is trying to greenlight the $30 million project without going to a public vote.

Exactly like we've got hundreds or thousands of people walking in and out of there.

You know, maybe there's 3 or 4 cars in the parking lot.

I said, why do we need a brand new city hall that's going to cost $30 million already?

But Charlie, does every city have to put every single issue on the ballot just because you're building a new building?

Does that have to go before voters?

And that's why we have elected representatives.

And no, it does not have to go, but okay.

Voters, privilege actually passed an ordinance in 2016 to kind of exempt itself from putting every little bond issue before voters.

The people in privilege both say that this isn't a little issue.

This is $30 million.

This is our money that would pay for this.

And we want to be able to have a say in this.

And it's just because the city doesn't have to put it on the ballot, doesn't mean it can't.

And it technically can.

Yeah, they wanted to do it.

We heard from Carla this week who said this was really at the center of a lack of transparency and the role that voters and citizens have in politics and to circumvent, voters by going, you know, trying to pass this without going to them is a huge mistake.

Certainly, I think we're in an era where citizens demand transparency.

officials promise it.

They don't always deliver it.

but you see that on both sides of the state line in Missouri, for instance, the Missouri Ethics Commission doesn't even have a quorum right now.

We can't, meet and take action.

so this is certainly an issue, transparency, open and openness in government that kind of, we see on both sides of the state line.

And as we saw recently in Platte County, Brian, even when you actually pass something at the ballot box does mean even elected officials will will do it, like the children's tax and Platte County.

That's right.

And I think that what this speaks of in Prairie Village, and probably in other places around the metro as well, is about trust between communities and their elected officials.

in Prairie Village, we know over the past couple of years, there's been some significant controversy around changes to zoning, regulations there.

And and that distrust, I think, and those contested elections that happened for the city council, over that controversy probably are connected to why now you're hearing some displeasure about this decision.

We don't trust the city council as much as we used to.

Some of those voters are saying.

And so for all of those, I think I the five emails about this topic, we have discussed it on the program now for months after former Kansas City police officer Eric Falconio was released from prison and his sentence commuted by the governor, the Kcpd this week agreed to pay over $4 million to the family of the man he killed, Cameron Lamb.

Whose lawsuit settlement of $4.1 million joins a number of other kcpd payouts, reviewed Kansas City's own settlement payouts, excluding the police departments.

Those totaled more than $19 million over four years from 2021 to 2024.

That's more than $14,000 the day those dollars come from the taxpayers.

It makes me angry.

Our tax money can be going in so many different places, you know, actually to help, to raise communities up.

Jonathan, I'm actually a little confused on this because the police department has always stood by Eric and they had the governor released him from prison.

So why settle at all?

Well, there was a key decision, a few months ago, where a judge found that he was not entitled to qualified immunity in this federal civil lawsuit and qualified immunity without getting to technical.

Is basically access a giant legal shield for for police officers accused of misconduct.

If he doesn't enjoy the benefits that shield it, it makes it a lot easier for the plaintiffs to win their case.

So I would imagine that, that probably prompted, some folks to maybe come to the table, a little bit more aggressively.

and certainly you probably, maybe have insurance companies involved who are kind of weighing the benefits of, the potential payout at trial versus, the cost of settling right now in settling without any admission of wrongdoing.

But as we just saw from that channel 41 report, Charlie, these settlements are racking up.

And it's not just this one.

I mean, it's becoming serious money, right?

And $14,000 a day, right?

That's going to cause a lot of anger for Kansas, Missouri taxpayers who ultimately are on the hook for a lot of this, for settlements that the city makes, maybe outside of the police department that just comes from, like taxpayer funds.

The city doesn't have insurance for a lot of that stuff.

So it's right out of the general fund.

And when the police department says it doesn't have enough money to do its basic functions of trying to catch criminals, is this one of those reasons?

Absolutely or fully fund.

It's 911 call taking center.

and when that happens again, asks the city for more money to fund it.

So it is ultimately on the back of taxpayers.

This is a tricky issue, though, because because you don't want to cap the ability for people who are truly wronged to get the money they deserve.

But on the other hand, you know, the the mayor, mayors from across from cities across the country will say that plaintiffs lawsuits like this, anytime someone gets fired, anytime anything happens, immediate instant lawsuit, they always want to settle before it gets to court because they don't want headlines.

And we've seen what that what consequences that can have lately.

And so it is a major burden on city budgets Brian.

Yeah I think and and folks sometimes ask well, well isn't there insurance is insurance involved in these settlements.

Maybe it is.

But but you got to think that insurance bill for any city that is in this situation is only going to get higher and higher.

It's going to affect taxpayers down the line.

the bottom line in this case is that, the pursuit of this judgment for the family of Kameron Lamb is not just about money.

It's about a sense of justice.

It's about a sense of, even as the governor commuted Eric Falconer sentence, let him go back to his home where he was able to celebrate Christmas.

The family has some court and some ruling and even the city in coming to the settlement, achieving something that they can look at as, recognition of the pain and the suffering and the injustice that they suffered.

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

What was the big local story we missed?

AQ alum wins the Boston Marathon.

Eric Schmidt wants to give you another day off.

The Missouri senator proposing a new federal holiday for Easter Monday.

And this was disturbing.

A Kansas City funeral home shuts down after a family discovers their loved ones body inside, weeks after they thought they'd buried her.

These bodies were in there with trash.

Trash all around them.

This is insane.

My main concern is I really don't know if she's really in that casket.

That really was disturbing.

Lisa, was that the story you picked on?

Something different?

I pick something different.

And this may feel a little navel gazing for for those of us at this table.

But the City council this week also, debated, and a potential audit of the city communications department that is a direct result of an open letter that that many of us at this table are working.

To continue.

To a calling for more transparency from the city.

something we don't talk about here very often is that over the last several years, it has been increasingly difficult to get information, basic information and interviews with department heads.

And so I hope that this is the beginning of a more open and transparent, and publicly available information, relationship with Jonathan.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is signing a bill to create an office of early childhood that's been, that was a bipartisan piece of legislation this year.

That's been a, something she's wanted for several years.

There is some criticism of a bill that it potentially eases some vaccination requirements related to, to daycares.

Obviously, a big topic right now, with the measles outbreak in southwest Kansas.

Charlie.

I'm gonna say the death of Pope Francis this week, having a here in Kansas City with the faithful, with the Catholics here and yes, making that, some of them surely making the pilgrimage to the Vatican.

Actually, the producer who is talks in my ear, did that say to me, God, I can't imagine you doing the show this week and not mentioning Pope Francis.

And I said, well, that's an international story.

I mean, I jealously guarding Kansas City, but absolutely huge implications here too.

Brian.

Nick, I, we didn't overlook it entirely because Jonathan mentioned it a moment ago, but I want to say another word about it, which is that the Missouri Ethics Commission only has two of its six members appointed currently, and therefore does not have enough members to conduct business.

That means it can't receive complaints about campaign finance violations.

It has already dismissed 16 complaints that were filed because the time limit for acting on them has expired, and it's awaiting those appointments.

But the Missouri Ethics Commission is like the Maytag Repair Man hotline.

When nobody calls, there's dust on the phones because everybody is so happy, with Maytag appliances as they are, there's no ethics problems in Missouri.

There is an executive director.

she's not commenting on this.

Okay, but it's not clear what she's able to do.

All right.

On that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey Wiles, Lisa Rodriguez, and Channel 40 One's Charlie Keegan from Your Kansas City star, Jonathan Shulman, and from Kcrw, Brian Allison.

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

Be Well, Keep Calm and carry on.