Record breaking cold has to be the biggest story of the week, but we've got 26 minutes of the most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching stories to dissect with you.

Including massive federal layoffs in Kansas City.

People are going to get hurt.

These are real life human beings.

Your local news reviewed straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of 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, 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.

It has been a fire hose of news this week.

If you're struggling to keep up, we get it.

we're hitting the pause button for just a moment, though, to track what happened this week.

Why and what now?

With the star's chief political correspondent, Jonathan Shorman.

Brian Ellison, who tracks the region's top political stories for KCUR News from the prime time anchor desk at KMBC nine News Chris Ketz, and at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper, next Page KC Eric Wesson.

Well, now it's getting serious.

Kansas City no longer just talking about painful cuts.

Well, we were experiencing them.

Upwards of a thousand IRS workers in Kansas City fired this week.

As the Trump administration continues its quest to slim down the federal workforce, the IRS campus, next to Union Station employs more than 4000 workers in all.

As tax season is underway.

It's being done haphazardly.

There was no plan drawn up, and so people are going to get hurt.

These are real, live human beings.

Some people saying they actually were just emailed that they no longer had a job this week.

Jonathan.

Right.

we don't know exactly how many have been, laid off or fired yet, but the union said it could be upwards of 1000 probationary employees.

And this is really just, one part of, nationwide, calling, if you will, of these employees to, to kind of, get them off the job.

You know, the IRS workers have never been popular with Republicans anyway.

I never been popular with many members of the public of course, because they don't like actually spending any taxes.

But what does this really mean for Kansas City, Eric?

Two lunches downtown for, Kansas City.

Fewer people paying into the earnings tax in Kansas City, which pays for very basic services from snow removal to pothole repair.

Exactly.

And government jobs were the Segway into the black middle class.

You had IRS workers, you had VA workers, you had Bendix because they had government contracts.

So back in the day, that was a Segway that created a black middle class.

We created black wealth for their generational wealth and so it is going to be a blow in there.

And a lot of those employees that work, I think I saw something statistically that's in post office as well.

14% of all government workers are African Americans.

So when you look at that, it is going to have a substantial impact on black communities.

And I think this is true in cities across the country.

I think we are realizing what has been true for a long time, just what a large employer the federal government is all across the country.

And that's true in all developed countries.

That's how where a lot of taxes go is to pay for the people who run the country.

so I think what we're finding out now in Kansas City is that economic development, unemployment rates, and yes, as you say, the the local restaurants economy, too, is all going to be very deeply affected by this in ways that I think a lot of people who may have voted for the Trump administration were not contemplating as part of the immediate impact of doing so.

We forget that it is the largest employer.

Uncle Sam, I think it's 41,000 in the entire metropolitan area, affected workers.

And at a time when many of our bigger companies are no longer around you, Sprint's the consumers.

There's going to be an impact on a variety of levels.

And one thing that hasn't been talked about at the table, certainly how long it's going to take to turn refunds around and process returns and things like that, we don't know the answers to that question.

The fear is, though, that there has to be an impact.

Now in Kansas, they opened the FDA office, I believe it was.

And they had people move here from Washington to over and to Kansas City, Kansas to help establish that office.

And here they are three years later.

They probably won't have a job either.

And some of these jobs are people like USDA.

we got a bird flu epidemic going around.

Problems with with chicken eggs and chickens, themselves.

So it's like, what are we going to be eating safely?

You know, the IRS layoffs may be the most visible sign of change in Kansas City since Donald Trump became president just over four weeks ago.

But many agencies, especially nonprofits, are getting letters saying they're losing their federal money from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, which is now laying off staff to a farmers market that tries to put healthy food on the table of low income residents right here in the Ivanhoe neighborhood.

They were stripped of their funding this week.

This is not.

Some random luxury.

This is food.

This is food.

For people in the urban.

Core of our city.

Now, is that because they had the words die in their mission statements?

And as part of that proposal that that money was scrapped?

Well, in that case, they received a letter from the USDA basically saying, what you're doing no longer reflects our goals as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.

so that certainly gives the impression that, this was related to to their Dei efforts.

But remember, this is basically just about, farmers and access to fresh produce in the urban core.

you know, this is not, some, kind of, educational effort, if you will, related to, diversity goals or something like this.

This was basically just about, getting people fresh food.

I was with the CEO earlier this week of a senior agency here in Kansas City who doesn't want to go public because they're so nervous about what the ramifications would be for doing so.

But they lost some of their program funding this week, which was a caregiver support program.

All of that money stripped by the federal government, again, because they have the words die in their mission statement.

But I did see also this week that might kill the new governor of Missouri.

also, issuing an executive order mirroring Donald Trump to say we will no longer fund anybody who is state agencies or other organizations using state money that use diversity.

equity and inclusion programs.

Well, and as is the case with many executive orders, we don't know yet the full impact of that brief order on on the millions and millions of dollars in state funding that are at stake for state agencies and for the grants and programs they support.

But, what we do know is that there will be 90 days to review all of those policies.

It's difficult to separate in this moment what is, reflective of state government's priorities and what are simply following the cues that are coming from Washington that say everything must go?

Yeah.

Yeah, we're going to spend, we're going to spend.

I think much of this year, hearing stories like what has happened in the Ivanhoe neighborhood of nonprofits in Kansas City, suddenly, feeling like they've had, the carpet, pulled out from under them.

But even on a on a broader scale, right now in Jefferson City, Republican lawmakers are trying to put together a state budget.

It's a 51, $52 billion spending plan.

Half of it is coming from the federal government.

And these Republican lawmakers have no idea what's coming or if it is coming.

So you run the risk of possibly writing a budget that maybe at the end of the of the day, the state won't be able to afford.

Yeah, there are a lot of things that could still be happening that we haven't put connected the dots on yet.

For instance, it doesn't always have to be about diversity.

Johnson County now worrying they won't get the federal cash.

They were expecting to run a new 18 hour a day bus service to the airport during the World Cup.

On what basis would that be?

Flag?

Jonathan?

Well, you could say it's part of a clean energy effort.

Okay.

the Trump administration has been all about, promoting traditional forms, fossil fuels and, and the like.

we've already seen in Kansas City a number of, grants for electric vehicle charging stations, other forms of kind of EV promotion, get cut.

Now, Sunday.

Also, by the way, is your last chance to weigh in on the South Loop project.

Kansas City's ambitious plan to put a lid over the top of the major highway, crisscrossing downtown and turning it into a destination park and gathering space.

City leaders say they want to finalize the design by April and begin construction in August.

But given everything we've just been talking about, Eric, is this wishful thinking?

They're relying on a hefty chunk of federal cash to make it happen.

How is Tim Trump going to view turning a highway into an urban park in Kansas City?

I would not take it to the bank yet or finalize any, drafts that they have or engineering designs.

I think that it, is going to be questionable.

A lot of it is private money that's going into it, but I don't think it's enough private money that's going into it to help build it.

So I think they better kind of pump their brakes and see what, the feds are going to do about giving money to those type.

They still seem to be so adamant about opening at least a part of this by the World Cup.

Well, and you could have you could have inserted any number of projects that involve some measure of federal funding into that question.

And the answer would be more or less the same.

We just don't know.

And I think that might be the question might be to what extent is that the purpose of these policies is the goal to, to create some uncertainty, to create less dependance on on federal funding for projects like this?

Because city leaders, state leaders, in many cases, are just throwing up their hands and saying, we don't know what the future holds.

And we should recognize, of course, many of you at home watching right now are going to be gleeful about all of this, thinking the federal government is too big as it is.

But certainly these organizations feeling a lot of internal anxiety is as we know it right now.

And the one thing that bothered me about Ivanhoe and talking to people that live in the neighborhood, number one, is a diverse community, is not predominantly black like most people think, but it helps small farmers, the people that were growing vegetables in their backyard that were getting help from Ivanhoe and doing that, it affected them because now that funding is cut out and the Missouri attorney general files a lawsuit against Starbucks, I guess enough white guys couldn't get hired to pass out coffee.

So now it's falling into that category.

d I and it's just ridiculous.

Lots of other things happening in Kansas City this week.

More than three months after Missouri voters approved amendment three, the first legal abortions in the state are now taking place.

Planned Parenthood says it's preparing to open three abortion clinics in the state by the end of the week.

On Saturday, the women's health provider performed the first abortion at its Kansas City clinic since 2018.

It's been that long since a legal abortion took place here, Jonathan.

Well, even longer.

I was actually inside the clinic on Saturday morning when this happened.

It was a very, whatever you think.

It was a very weighty moment, to to understand the the votes and the all the money and the courtroom arguments that went into that.

But yes, it's been, since 2018, since the last medication abortion, in Kansas City.

But even, Planned Parenthood thinks it's been at least 15 years since they did a procedural abortion in the city.

And that's what took place on Saturday.

I watched several news reports about this this week.

Brian and I was interested to see that even the providers here in Kansas City, even though they've opened the clinic, are still nervous that they could be shut down tomorrow, this weekend, next week, in the months ahead, while this nervousness when we've now passed amendment three and they're open, well, I think that's a realistic possibility.

There's a lot of different fronts on which opponents of abortion rights are trying to stop what has begun now in Kansas City.

There's the legal front, where it seems almost certain that Attorney General Andrew Bailey will be appealing this judge's ruling to the to the appeals courts.

It seems that the legislature is trying to find ways to pass laws that might restrict, in one way or another, the relatively unfettered abortion rights access that was granted by amendment three.

and, of course, there's also a concerted effort, both by legislators and by a citizens group, to put something back on the ballot to, limit abortion rights.

and, and repeat or undo the vote that was taken on amendment three just last November.

Well, in other news, Kansas has now become just the second state to allow sworn officers to work with Ice agents to enforce the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says he has signed an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security that will allow KBI agents to be trained by Ice and authorize them to arrest illegal aliens.

We've been planning for this, from the day that Donald Trump got elected.

If there is a situation that arises where we encounter illegal aliens, say, during a drug bust that CVI is involved in, then they'll be able to put on their ice at that moment.

Okay.

So they essentially get to have the same powers as Ice agents.

Jonathan.

more or less.

But the thing that keep in mind here is that we're talking about the KBI.

This is not the Highway patrol.

You know, KBI is an investigatory agency.

they're typically not just going to be on the streets, patrolling like, like a state trooper might be.

So I think the effect here might ultimately be, somewhat limited.

But the big difference is the KBI is is run under the the auspices of the attorney general, Kris Kobach, as opposed to the highway Patrol, which is, essentially overseen by the governor, a Democratic governor.

While you may say it may be limited, but it's been interesting what effect this is having.

I saw several news accounts this week on television, Eric, of, people living in our area who are now self deporting, they're so nervous that this leaving of their own accord.

And we now even have some evidence of local businesses just firing, laying off people within their own, restaurants and other places of work because they're so nervous that they may get a raid.

Yeah, absolutely.

the embarrassment of it.

You had a little 11 year old down in Texas.

That was, teased by her classmates.

She wound up committing suicide.

So I think people are just so afraid of the impact of, being stopped by ISIS officers that they're just doing whatever, and they're self, reporting now to keep from being embarrassed or go to that humiliation.

And let's remember that, that.

Well, the KBI, officials have said that this would only be applied in cases where there is illegal activity happening.

They're not changing their investigative priorities to focus on people who are simply here illegally, but rather they say it's only for those who are presenting a real danger or who have committed crimes.

It's important to remember that the statistics say immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes.

on the contrary, immigrants are more likely to be victims of crimes in the Kansas City metro and across the country.

But but during the election cycle, when they were promoting this idea, they promoted them all as being dangerous felons.

And we had to get them off the street because they were raping, killing people.

And a lot of the ones that they're they're picking up are people that might have a traffic ticket or no violation at all.

So we're not really clear what they're targeting, other than people that don't, look or sound the way that they want them to look or sound.

We're going to continue with Kansas for a moment.

They've now made it law.

No longer will minors be allowed to receive gender transition surgeries.

That's after the legislature overturns a veto this week by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly.

So what happens now?

Does this automatically take effect, Jonathan, starting today, or is it an issue that's going to be fought over for months upon months in the courts?

Well, there will be litigation.

There's been litigation.

And I think virtually every state that's passed a similar law, probably the U.S. Supreme Court is going to resolve this issue on a nationwide scale at some point here in the next year or so.

but it will be something that has an impact for, trans kids in the Kansas City community, because, remember, Missouri already has a very similar, law on the books.

So the their options are somewhat limited.

You know, Jonathan mentions that Missouri has a similar law already in effect.

But, this week they're trying to ratchet up restrictions even further as they push to ban transgender women from using female bathrooms and locker rooms.

And there was a Senate hearing in Jefferson City this week on a measure criminalizing drag performances in the state.

Just because it's proposed by and it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

they seem to talk about it a lot.

But will drag shows be outlawed this year?

I don't know, it's closer this year than it has been in the past.

The House has passed a bill the last couple of years that would, in one way or another, restrict drag shows.

Never got out of the Senate, never actually got a hearing in the Senate.

So as you mentioned, it's already gotten further this time in the Senate than it has in the past.

The bill has a lot of questions about it, including from some Republicans.

And the Senate.

Has even the committee in the Senate has not yet acted on it.

Some of those questions involve free speech concerns.

How is it that you determine, whether a performance is, prurient to use the language in the legislation, prurient enough to be prohibited under the statute?

And I think there's going to have to be a lot of, refinement.

It's certainly going to end up in courts, if it were to become law in opponent testimony in both Kansas and Missouri to these restrictions, that it's always claimed that, individuals will leave, businesses will leave Kansas and Missouri, if these are possible, they have been passed.

Is there any evidence that has happened?

I suppose it's possible.

I'm not sure anyone has done a formal study on it.

I think that would have to be something that someone more rigorous than me would have to, determine that.

Elections have consequences.

The override in Kansas passed by, what, one vote essentially in the House and a couple in the Senate.

So think about that the next time you go into the polls.

Yeah, I think I think anecdotally at least, there is evidence that some families are feeling like they have to leave the area.

there has certainly been some events or conferences that have looked other directions besides Kansas and Missouri, as these laws have been considered and are now coming to fruition.

So I don't know that we we know exactly what the economic impact I think we're getting a sense of what the personal impact will be.

And remember, in the debate on the floor of the Kansas House on the override, there was conversation about the reality that, trans kids are already at the highest risk for suicide, and that there are studies that show states that have laws that debate legislation targeting, trans kids.

Those suicide rates go up.

The Kansas City Royals have escaped the bone chilling cold for shorts and t shirt weather.

In surprise, Arizona.

The team took on the Texas Rangers today, and their first spring training game.

Apparently, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas was at the game.

The mayor's press office says he would be meeting with Royals leadership while he's there.

Could this be where a deal Chris Katz is finally struck on a new baseball stadium?

Who knows.

Okay, that's why we brought you on the show.

Okay.

Who knows?

certainly.

There have been discussions going on, as we have talked about at this table for, what, weeks or months?

a year.

You do I do get a sense.

And maybe it's just me, that we may be a little bit closer to some clarity when it comes to the royals.

And maybe that Washington Square Park site, near Crown Center.

this is just a hunch on my part.

people still want it on the 18th and by jazz district, by the Negro Leagues Museum, where they're building a new museum while people are waiting to go into a game, they can go.

There is not land locked.

It's a lot of area over there where a baseball stadium could be and parking.

And it has park and it has everything.

Listen to these words though, by the way, from Royals owner John Sherman this week.

He says they've already buttoned up a deal.

They're just waiting to reveal it.

Take a listen.

You know, we got a deal that's buttoned up and we're ready to talk about or looking forward to being able to do this.

Okay, Jonathan, if that is true of Kansas lawmakers, are they now waiving the surrender flag saying, okay, let's not spend any more time on getting a Royals or Chiefs stadium.

in on the Kansas side?

Well, not exactly, but I would say the next big thing to look for is in June, the Star bonds legislation that they passed, the Kansas legislature passed last year that expires, this coming June.

Unless, a group of lawmakers, top lawmakers vote to extend it.

So that's going to be kind of a test.

Are they going to to vote and say, hey, we're still having discussions, or certainly if they let that bill, lapse, that's going to be a sign that Kansas.

Yeah.

By the way, while we get, you know, we our eyes glaze over when we hear things like star bonds and things that could get kind of complicated.

But I did see that had real world implications, that concern about continuing them.

Because the American royal has now halted construction, at least temporarily, on their brand new facility and near the legends in KC as a result of that.

Right.

These are basically these supercharged bonds which, essentially financed stadiums or projects today using sales tax revenue tomorrow.

A lot of economists question whether these sales tax, figures are enough to, to pay off the debt.

I would only say, let's wait and see what John Sherman means by when he says buttoned up.

Okay.

Okay.

I don't know if that means that a handshake, something is signed on paper.

I don't think we really know yet.

Because voters can unbutton that deal.

Okay.

Oh, I gotta go to the voters with a better deal.

If we're going to the voters in which we're going to continue to believe.

Probably the Chiefs.

No, but I believe the Royals are going to have to.

We'll see.

I do think it's significant.

That's the most we've heard from John Sherman about this in quite in quite a while.

it does.

I also have not done any reporting on this myself, but it does seem that there's a growing sense that the Kansas plan is the backup.

If something downtown in Kansas City, Missouri, can't be figured out.

Let's stay with Kansas just one more time here.

Kansas lawmakers are renewing a push this week to finally close the casino smoking loophole if you want to, where casinos are one of the last places in Kansas where you can still light up indoors, proponents say the outdated exemption puts gaming workers and the health of customers at risk.

But there is concern the ban would simply chase gamblers over to casinos on the Missouri side of state line, where no smoking was.

Restrictions exist.

Is that then what ultimately sinks the idea that nobody wants to see all those gamblers go over to Missouri?

this has been a perennial build up for several years.

I guess I'm going to wait and see on this.

What I liked about the story, though, is I think most people would think, fine, you can still do that after all of these years of where you do have the assumption you can't smoke anywhere.

Brian, why is that?

Is that because lobbyists for these casinos are so influential, giving money to Kansas and Missouri lawmakers, lobbyists for casinos are indeed influential in both Kansas and Missouri.

And there has been talk about banning smoking in Missouri casinos as well.

So, I but I agree with Jonathan.

I think I will believe it when I see it.

I think there is a sense that, casinos occupy a different space in the minds of the Metro citizen, where it is.

Okay to gamble and it is okay to drink, and it is okay to smoke.

And that's part of the culture.

While we've brought up all these important stories in Kansas City this week, it was record breaking cold.

That has to be the most talked about topic in town, right?

It's also fueled at least a dozen different storylines from parents scrambling as schools shut down yet again, to postponing global soccer superstar Lionel Messi's big game at Children's Mercy Park.

And how was our response to this latest Arctic storm?

Or Eric, did you unfathomably pick something else?

Is the biggest story we missed this week?

I picked something else that was really a story, though.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, I thought that's all we cared about.

A soccer game.

And my story is that the Negro League Baseball Museum has an, Black History Month program.

People can come in.

The Royals paid for it to come for free.

for free.

But because of the weather being so bad, the numbers have to be down because it's been pretty successful the last few years that they've done it.

But now since, people are staying in the house, they're warm.

Are they going out to the free exhibit?

They need to extend it from March and pay a little extra for that.

Just like the Plaza owners did with the Plaza lights keeping it open until Valentine's Day.

What did you put down, Chris?

Point of personal preference on this one major League baseball spring training.

The Royals on the field.

Major League Baseball is going to once again experiment with an automated balls and strikes kind of system.

they tried it in the minor leagues.

Apparently something in the neighborhood of 51% of those calls were reversed.

So, we've seen it in, in professional football, and obviously Major League Baseball is probably not too far behind.

Brian, I think I am going to have to acknowledge the death this week of Andrew Lester.

Yes.

He was the man who had just last week, changed his plea to plead guilty to the killing, to the shooting, not the killing.

The shooting of 16 year old Ralph Earl, the black boy who came to his front porch, by mistake, a few years ago up in Clay County, Lester, according to the press release from the Clay County prosecutor, by by changing his plea to guilty, had accepted guilt and had accepted, responsibility for his crime.

It still marks, I think, a very, tragic and complicated, moment of meaning for the whole Kansas City metro area where a white man shooting at a black man, again, will not actually end up suffering punishment for having done so.

I will say that was a story that actually got global news, two years ago, Eric.

Absolutely.

Justice delayed, justice denied.

And so now what does the hero family do?

Because they had a, closing statement that they wanted to make victim impact, that they wanted to make, they never get to make.

And the family maintains that Lester, not once ever apologized to the family for what happened.

Exactly.

And, Jonathan, we haven't forgotten about you.

I'm watching a bill in the Missouri legislature that continues to advance.

That would, over essentially overturn Kansas City's anti-discrimination ordinance as it relates to, rental income and source of income for housing.

that continues to kind of March along the process.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of the stars Jonathan Shulman and Channel Nine's Chris Katz from next page, Casey, Eric Wesson and Casey was Brian Ellison, and I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.