We're just days into a new year and already so much change.

We get you up to speed with some of the stories you missed over the holiday track, the biggest comings and goings of the week, and get your pencil and paper handy as we mark off the biggest stories and events you can expect in Kansas City during this brand spanking New Year.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City RSL, Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley the Courtney s Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines and we are so flattered that you decided to add watching this show every week to your New Year's resolution list, trying to make you 3% smarter in just 26 minutes.

So this week's news review is keeping tabs on our state houses for KCUR new Brian Ellison is with us, as is the KCUR news director.

Lisa Rodriguez, the managing editor of the Call newspaper, Eric Wesson.

And tracking our local news from behind a microphone at KCMO Talk Radio.

Pete Mundo The numbers are in.

Despite the murder rate going down in many large cities across America, Kansas City just ended 2022 with the second highest number of homicides in the city's history, 169 killings.

In all this week, Matt Quinton Lucas repeated his pledge from his election four years ago when he promised he'd address the bloodshed by bringing down the body count to less than 100 homicides a year.

And I still do believe the city will get to below 100 homicides a year.

And just I don't know, I'm optimistic.

I just believe it.

But other than the hiring of a new police chief, Eric Wesson, what gives Mayor Lucas optimism that anything else has changed?

Well, he's got different programs going on now.

Partners for Peace, they they meet and they've brought all these different agencies together.

My only concern with that and I've been to several of their meetings, my only concern is most of the people at the table are after the fact.

Where are the prevention programs that have stopped the homicides in the first place?

I think that he's putting a lot on that.

They got federal funding for that and they've got money for that.

But I don't see anything changing any time soon.

How is the police chief doing, the new police chief?

All of this was happening while many of us were doing our final work holiday parties and things at the end of the year.

Pete is she still being given the benefit of the doubt, Stacy Graves or are some people now trying to have a move out the door already?

I think most people have checked out the last two weeks or so.

Next.

So I don't think you can greater good bad.

It's it's really indifferent at this point.

But the prevention angle is important.

A lot of people in law enforcement in this town will tell you that as long as you continue with what they consider to be a prosecutor, that is fairly soft with criminals, putting a lot of these people back out onto the streets.

I mean, you know, you want to get that number down.

How much can you get it down?

That's what they'll say.

They're just one part of this violent crime issue.

How are people holding back, Quinton Lucas, accountable for this?

One of them would have been that he would have had a major opponent running against him.

When we have an election coming up this April and yet he has only drawn token opposition from Clayton Chaistain Right there has not been a candidate that's emerged that would give the mayor a strong run for office.

But I think to what Pete was saying, I think cooperation between the prosecutor and the new police chief will be key here.

We know and we've talked on this show about how both departments have alledged they're not giving each other full information.

They have had a rocky relationship in the past.

That's going to be something to watch moving forward.

And another thing as far as the activist community, I've seen a shift in that rather than demanding or calling for a new police chief or calling for the ouster of the mayor, they're now deciding that's we've given up on those institutions and we're going to look inside our community for solutions.

And so I think we'll see a little more community solutions coming out, especially from active.

And I also saw that the mayor in his interview with the Kansas City Star this week saying also giving giving up on the Missouri legislature to do anything about this either.

Right.

Both Kansas City and Saint Louis got called out in the opening festivities of the legislative session this week for their high homicide rates, their high crime rates, and calling on cities without mentioning the names of the cities they were talking about to take these steps.

The problem, of course, is funding.

As we know, the voters of the state of Missouri have now mandated that Kansas City spend more money on its police department.

But city leaders in Kansas City have said we need to be spending more money on underserved communities, investing in education, investing in other factors that are more likely in the long run to diminish the crime rate.

So we'll have to see whether that translates into any legislative action.

Now, just as Kansas City hires a police chief, the Help wanted sign has gone up for someone to run the fire department.

This week, Donna Lake announced she will retire as fire chief after a 30 year career with the department, the last three as its leader.

I remember when I first started this job, who was leading the fire department was a massive story.

Is it still a big deal, Eric, or was this news met with a sort of collective shrug as to why should we care?

It was one of those shrugs.

Why should we care one of those situations?

Because, again, it happened during the transition from Christmas to New Year's and people aren't really paying a whole lot of attention to what's going on yet.

Now, if she had had done it next week, we probably would have gotten a lot more media coverage and a lot more questions asked about why all of a sudden she's retiring.

I do think it's the timing is interesting.

Donna Lake has not had a controversial tenure as chief, despite some controversy about the fire department.

We have covered stories of widespread racial discrimination in the department.

The department faced a massive lawsuit with the crash of one of its fire trucks that killed people in West Port and into after a 30 year career to announce a retirement that takes effect at the end of the month.

I think there are some questions still to be asked about that timing and about what's what's going on.

By the way, what does a former fire chief in Kansas City do with their lives now?

I see that she's now becoming the new assistant manager in the city of Lee's Summit.

So there's well, and it certainly is a healthy retirement package.

One has to think that the reality, I think, is that Eric's absolutely right.

It was a collective shrug, but it shouldn't be.

The Kansas City Fire Department is a $237 million annual budget.

It's an enormous responsibility, whoever is in charge of that.

So not only is the retirement a significant issue, so is the search for the next fire, but doesn't get the same attention as the police do?

No, no, it doesn't.

It never will.

It's not as sexy, obviously, as that position, but it's great you jump from one bureaucracy to another and you keep cashing the checks.

But anyway, to your point, when you look at this, there's a reason it's like a Friday news dump.

If you want people to celebrate you, you don't announce your retirement on a multidecade career a couple of days before Christmas.

You just don't do it.

So that's somebody to me that wasn't looking for attention on the retirement, which may open up some questions beyond that.

Now, while much of the nation's news attention has been fixated on the horror stories of Southwest Airlines passengers and the stunning onfield collapse of an NFL athlete, we've had our own dramatic horror story playing out here at home with most of us distracted with other things over the holiday.

One of our longest serving theater leaders was accused of sexual abuse and not just by one, but multiple actors.

And then just days after the story breaks in The Pitch newspaper, the artistic director of the Coterie Theater, Jeff Church, is found dead in his Brookside home.

Lisa Rodriguez, you heard that story.

His attorney says it's a suicide after his client had become, quote, the victim of what he called a digital witch hunt.

Now, all this was playing out while the children's theater was presenting a Charlie Brown Christmas.

But unlike this week's headline grabbing NFL game, there was to be no pause to consider the damage the show went on.

So what's going to happen now to the theater in Crown Center?

Is it business as usual?

I think I want to acknowledge first that this was a very fast moving and very tragic story.

Playing on Christmas Day weekend.

Yes, Christmas Day.

And a lot of people will have very emotional responses to us and it'll take weeks to process and get answers.

As far as being an audience member enjoying shows at the coterie, I think that you will see that the show will go on, that there, despite leadership being different, there are some changes that they have planned for and that you'll continue to enjoy shows there.

What I think we'll be looking out for now is what what is going to happen behind the scenes?

What are people doing to take a look at the culture, at the coterie and at the theater writ large?

This is a working community that has relationships that are different than any other type of working community, where people are physically and emotionally much closer than you are in another office environment.

So it's time to take a hard look at that, a hard look at the allegations, but still allow process time to process and grieve what's happened.

What what's been remarkable about this story for me is how fast it happened and how quickly I think things took place.

And we will remember some of these allegations were decades old.

These were playing out on social media sites.

This is not happening in a court of law anywhere.

How did it lead to the unraveling so quickly?

I think part of that is, is the nature of social media where when one person posts something, it can trigger a windfall of other or give someone else permission to share something that they weren't quite sure what what happened there.

So I think that's the nature of social media.

I think it is unfortunate that that we don't have time that doesn't allow us or myself as a leader of a news organization to fully investigate and get to the bottom and ask these important questions of all sides.

But it's just it's a lot people are still reeling from this and will continue to.

And Jeff Church, a very prominent member of the artistic community here in Kansas City, he was indeed.

And I think we should acknowledge that the board of the Coterie Theater, even before the tragic news of of church's death by suicide, had had already taken action to say, we're taking these reports seriously, we're going to investigate.

And even after his death, they have said we're going to continue to investigate and try to get to the bottom of what happened.

There may be other factors besides church himself that allowed those stories to go untold or uninvestigated for years or even decades.

It was a big week for political goodbyes, hellos, departures and bereavements.

Former Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan died this week.

He was the longest serving AG in Kansas history, and this Friday is the last day on the job for the head of Johnson County Government Ed Eilert, who's been in one elected office or another for the past 45 years.

If it weren't for Ed Eilers, I don't believe we would have a renovated Union Station today in Kansas City.

It's never about an Ed Eilert It's always about how can we advance this good cause Eilert's successor Mi Kelly, will be officially sworn in as the new head of Johnson County government on Monday on the Missouri side of state line, Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the swearing in of Eric Schmitt as he takes his place in the U.S. Senate for the first time.

And former Kansas City News anchor Mark Alford officially started his job as the newest member of our congressional delegation in our area.

But can he actually be called a congressman, Pete?

Know, I didn't think they they are officially being sworn in yet because they can't choose a speaker.

Well, not a not as of this conversation.

Nick is not technically a congressman from Missouri.

So this is great for us.

I mean, people are digging out of the new year and they're slowly getting back into the news cycle.

And we've got this drama not just in D.C., but both sides of our state line.

So it's fascinating the turnover in Johnson County to me is really interesting with Mike Kelly and his tenure as Roland Park mayor kind of made that race more red and blue and more political in many respects than it traditionally has been.

So there's a lot going on that we're excited about here in the new year.

And people like Sharice Davids on the Kansas side, experience is something she's never had to experience before.

Being in the minority party.

That's right.

It's big change.

Emanuel Cleaver on the Missouri side, a longtime member of the majority party, making the move to the minority as well.

Sharice Davids made us issued a statement noting that there's real problems with the difficulty the Republicans have had in electing speaker.

And we don't we don't this during this lengthy period of transition, there is no oversight happening of the executive branch.

There's there's not even a way to convene if there were a need for national security briefings.

So there are some actual consequences besides the political theater of this confusing moment.

On Monday, Kris Kobach will be officially sworn in as the next Kansas attorney general.

But getting less attention is this man.

We're going to continue to push back against President Biden's illicit federal overreach, and we're going to look for.

New opportunities to do that in the coming.

Days.

Already.

Do you know him?

This is Andrew Bailey, the man Governor Mike Parson has picked to be the new Missouri attorney general as Eric Schmidt starts his new gig in Washington.

And those were pretty big fighting words for someone who's just been sworn into office without getting even one vote from the public.

If you ask most people who is Andrew Bailey, I'm pretty confident most people would say they've never heard of him.

But could he be the next governor of Missouri when Mike Parson leaves office next year?

Brian I suppose he could be.

Attorney generals have a record in Missouri of going on to higher office, but I wouldn't get ahead of ourselves.

As you said, he has not yet won a single vote, and most of those prior attorney generals have have had to win an election to something first before they've gone on to higher office.

I do think Bailey is certainly acting as though he intends to run for the Office of Attorney General again.

He they've not only the speeches like we've heard, but also mentioning his biography as a veteran, as a family man.

They are they do seem to be setting him up to be a future Republican elected leader in the state.

But you have Josh Hawley, Eric Schmidt, Jay Nixon, Jack Danforth, John Ashcroft, all former Missouri attorney generals who all went on to big office right afterwards.

Yeah, this is unique.

I mean, Bailey was on Mike Parson staff.

He had that obviously going for him.

And from what I've gathered in talking to people about Andrew Bailey, he's really not a guy who wants to spend his night and Jeff City work in the room politically schmoozing, raising money.

That's just not who he is, for better or for worse, depending on who you ask.

So I'm not I'm not certain he's the next rock star Republican politician coming out of the show me state just based on what I gather his personality to be.

Now, as Congress returns with lots of drama over who will be the next House speaker.

Closer to home now, state lawmakers head back to work.

Let's start in Missouri.

Complete this sentence for us, Lisa.

The biggest issue facing Missouri lawmakers this session is blank.

Oh word.

Where do I begin?

Sports gambling.

Sports education?

Actually, I think I think I think I will amend that to education.

I think there's a lot of elements under this topic that lawmakers will be tackling.

Some of it will be these these wedge issues we've seen before on how people teach race in schools, LGBTQ issues like whether to allow trans athletes to compete in sports that match their gender.

I also think teacher pay is going to be a huge one.

Missouri has long been among the lowest and worst paid teachers in.

Which is why we have even local school districts like Independence going to four days a week now to right.

And so I think I think there too, I think education is going to be a big theme this session.

I think that teacher pay connects to the budget.

There's there's a lot to be done this session.

I remember on previous shows you were critical of Missouri on the sports betting issue.

They couldn't get their act together.

Is this going to be the year they finally make that happen?

I think it is, Nick.

I think it is.

They've now got five states surrounding them that have it.

Obviously, the two states that border their biggest cities, Kansas and Illinois.

And on top of that, you may not recall, Nick, but before the season when Kansas passed it, I gave you two locks of the season in Kansas over two and a half wins for football.

K State over six and a half.

You know, if Missourians had listened, if they could bet, they would have made a lot of money.

They would have had a great holiday season, but they can't.

So it's time to get on board.

All right.

Who did you put down?

Was we completed the sentence of the biggest issue in the Missouri legislature this year?

Bryan, I think, Nick, the the biggest the way that sentence is always completed is how to spend money for whatever other controversial issues come up.

They come and they go.

But the state budget is always the biggest item on the General Assembly's agenda.

And they have lots of money.

They have lots of money and unprecedented surplus this year.

Part of that because of federal COVID relief funds, partly because of various economic initiatives being successful.

But for whatever reason, that creates lots of opportunities to fight over how that money is spent.

Some of it are the issues that Lisa and Pete mentioned.

Education teacher pay, but there will be lots of other agendas being driven.

Nick That may not be the thing that is the most important or the longest lasting impact of this General Assembly session, though it might be the effort of legislators to make it harder for citizens to get initiatives on the ballot.

Significant issues have been coming before the voters, including legalization of marijuana, including Medicaid expansion over the last few years.

The Republicans who control the General Assembly have not been happy with the outcome of some of those votes.

They're going to make it harder.

They want to make it harder for voters to control the agenda that way.

And that's going to be very important, Pete, because there is a push to have an abortion amendment in Missouri to make sure that there is a constitutional right for women in Missouri to have an abortion.

Is this an effort to block that?

I think that is part of it.

But I think that Brian's right.

That's really an understated part of this entire session, along with education.

And then getting that sports betting done, which should be the ultimate easy layup for them.

Eric.

I said education and gun control.

I think in the Democratic controlled cities in Saint Louis and Kansas City, there's going to be a push to do something about gun control.

But but as I mentioned, Quinn Lucas has already given up on that.

But he might give up on it.

But that doesn't mean that the state elected officials do.

And I think that's more of a priority when you talk to state senators here than it is sports betting.

And I think that's one of the things that they're going to be pushing.

A lot of.

Agree.

But I think Quinton Lucas is in is in the bad and not the good graces bad graces of a lot of people in Jeff City with how the whole police thing went down.

He ticked off a lot of the wrong people and no one's looking to do him any favors.

Well, as we talk about Crime and punishment this week, Missouri became the first state to execute an openly transgender woman.

In fact, it's the only execution of the year anywhere in the United States so far.

And it comes just a few weeks after two other traditionally Republican states, Tennessee and Alabama, announced they're hitting the pause button on the death penalty.

Any evidence a change to the death penalty is on the way to Missouri in 2023?

Lisa.

No evidence that I have seen and in fact, the state is scheduled to execute another inmate on death row next month.

In fact, there's only four states in the entire country.

I believe this year will have scheduled executions.

Missouri being one of them.

There's also only four states in the entire country that have executed more people since the death penalty was reintroduced in the U.S. Then the state of Missouri.

I agree with Lisa.

I don't think there's any appetite at all among elected leaders in Jefferson City to change either the legality or the frequency with which the state carries out execution.

Our next South Carolina broader issue before their Supreme Court asking to go back to the gas chamber, the electric chair and firing squads because they said they couldn't get the medication or the drugs were that's used to do executions.

So they're going back to the firing squad.

Let's move to Kansas, where we know one thing has already happened.

Starting this week, your grocery bill will get a tad bit smaller as a 2% cut in the sales tax on food kicks in.

But panelists complete this sentence for us.

The biggest issue facing Kansas lawmakers this session is blank.

Pete, I want to see how Governor kelly as a lame duck works with her republican legislature.

It was one thing to do it last year in an election year.

Now as a lame duck, she's already talked a good game about getting rid of the grocery sales tax.

I wouldn't shop in January 1st at Hy-Vee.

It was great, but I want to see what she actually does and how these these two factions work together.

Lisa.

I think abortion I think after the the referendum where voters voted to keep the right to abortion in the Kansas Constitution, Republican lawmakers who are in the majority will look for ways, other ways to restrict the procedure in Kansas.

And I think that will continue to dominate.

The way I see the two proposals already.

One is to change the way we elect Supreme Court judges, which would be one way of doing that, too.

And then secondly, I think about funding crisis pregnancy centers, which would give women another way of being able to look after children other than in aborting a child.

And I see that's going to be an issue coming up in the legislature, too.

Brian, what did you put down?

Interestingly, it's the same answers I gave for Missouri how to spend money.

I think we'll just cut and put the answer for the other question in that slot for some time.

Okay.

No, I actually think around education and that's always where state budgets end up with the most conversation.

But Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is very interested in funding special education.

The state is not living up to what even state statute requires to be spent toward special education.

There's actually some bipartisan agreement.

The Republicans agree that something needs to be done, although some of them, rather than increasing the funding, would like to change the statute that requires that level of funding.

What did you put down?

Put down Chris Kolb, The attorney general and the governor getting along.

I think they're on two different mindsets and I know at first they were, okay, let's try to get along, but I don't see that happening.

So I think the biggest issue they're going to have is getting legislation passed with a Republican controlled House and Senate with a Democratic governor.

None of you mentioned the issue of marijuana.

Kansas is just one of three states that has done absolutely nothing in that area.

Is this the year that finally happens, Pete?

No, not even medical marijuana.

But I maybe I mean, that would be fine with I'm going to say maybe there doesn't seem to be a lot of appetite for it if it does happen, it's going to be for the same reason sports betting is going to happen in Missouri.

The pressure from across the state line, the potential for revenues might move some legislators, at least in Kansas, to take some steps in that direction.

I'm missing something with this sports betting.

I don't think it's that big of an issue because people in Missouri can still drive a to state line and bet.

So I don't know.

I live in Kansas City.

They can you know, the folks in Columbia would say it's a little more trouble now as it's our first show of the year, rather than do our usual closing segment where we look at the big local story we missed, we thought it might be more interesting to look forward to the stories ahead.

What's the biggest local story or trend we should be paying attention to in 2023?

Is it the 100th anniversary of the Country Club Plaza to mark the occasion that keeping the holiday lights on for another six weeks, that means for the first time ever, you'll be able to see the plaza lights through Valentine's Day in February, Missouri's first marijuana dispensaries will open for business, and in March, it's the long awaited opening of the new Look KC Airport in April.

Up to 500,000 visitors will be heading to Kansas City for the NFL draft.

In that same month, Clay Chastain will take on Quinton Lucas in the Kansas City May all round election.

May is the deadline for the city to place a downtown ballpark on the August ballot.

And after she broke Ticketmaster, Taylor Swift takes over Kansas City in July as she performs two shows at Arrowhead and in September.

Get ready for another major addition to our entertainment landscape as the Kansas City Zoo officially opens its new $75 million shark infested aquarium.

It's the largest project in the zoo's history already.

Some of these are bigger than others.

What story are you most fixated on?

At least what deserves more attention than it's getting?

I think I well, I'm not sure it deserves more attention that it's getting.

But I do think the downtown ballpark getting details about what that plan is, what exactly impact would be to taxpayers will be a huge story in the coming year.

I think that especially that taxpayer question and what the chiefs will do if if that gets put on the ballot and ultimately passed by voters where the money's going to go next.

So May is that deadline to get it on the August ballot, which we've seen in the newspapers.

What was the push?

But do you see that happening by then?

I think I think it will likely be on the ballot in April.

I think the question will be what information will voters have at that point?

Eric.

I said opening the airport in the midst of Southwest, who will probably be one of the biggest franchises there at the airport of opening the bugs that Southwest has to work out and the airport being a new airport.

And I also said at.

A time of great staffing shortages, too, are they going to be able to stop that properly?

Exactly.

And I think we're doing job fairs in the next couple of weeks.

But in addition to that, 40 people have filed to run for city council offices.

And I think that's an unprecedented .

A number of people coming and trying to be an elected official in Kansas City.

Pete Taylor Swift.

Really that Taylor Swift you I thought you were a Swifty too I'll be at the Springsteen show February 19.

That's a big that's my seventh.

Anyway.

Okay.

I agree with Lisa.

It's downtown baseball.

Great mixture of local politics, state politics, sports all wrapped into one.

They had a clunky rollout, I thought, with that first listening session in December.

I think there's still a lot of mistrust right now between the public and ownership.

And it is going to be a fascinating situation to watch play out this year.

Brian, I agree with Eric that the city council elections are very significant, not only the number of candidates, but the fact that several incumbents are being challenged.

Some longtime members of the council are rotating off.

I think we're going to be looking at a very different tone and substance of what happens with the city council going forward.

I'm also going to say, both on the Kansas and Missouri side, this actually is a very important legislative session, significant budget decisions, new directions, and some new leadership on both sides of the aisle that could really change the tone of things.

We'll see if maybe this is the year they become productive legislative bodies.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed thanks to the Calls, Eric Wesson and from KCUR Brian Allison and his colleague KCUR's news director Lisa Rodriguez.

And 6 to 10 weekdays on KCMO Talk radio, Pete Mundo.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.