I. It was a week of disruption where sports and politics collided.

A stadium is not a priority right now.

It was also the final week of campaigning before next Tuesday's election.

We have a status report on the big races, and look at some of the most overlooked contests on your ballot, those stories, and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marlise Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week from the Johnson County Post.

Kyle Palmer at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next Page Casey Eric Wesson from the prime time anchor desk at KMBC nine news Chris Katz and former staff staffer, now Mr.

Kansas City stack on Substack.

Dave Helling.

Now, it has been an incredibly newsy week with some big surprises along the way.

Did you see this coming?

Kansas City Police Chief Stacy Graves stepping down so quickly?

I should been there like five minutes.

Well, actually three and a half years.

But do we know why she's stepping down?

Eric Wesson?

I have no idea.

And I don't think a lot of people do, but it is rumored that she might have an opportunity to be a chief of police in Florida.

But isn't her husband the brand new police chief at Umkc right down the road here?

Yes.

But Florida, you and Casey, I think I'd rather walk along the beach than, shovel snow.

So I think that that one might be a good opportunity.

Three years ago, when she was announced as the first permanent woman police chief in Kansas City history, she was only 48 years old.

This is a very young person.

This seems to be a short tenure.

I was looking at, Rick Smith, her predecessor, five years.

Darrel Forte, more than that.

Before that, we had Jim Corwin, seven years as police chief.

This seems like a short period.

Think about those names for a minute, though, and I don't know if it's worth asking the question or at least running it up the flagpole.

Is this an opportunity?

And I don't know how much of an appetite there is in the city, but to go outside the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department for a successor.

The last time I think this department went outside was like James was McNamara back in the 70s, was it not coming from San Jose, California, I believe?

I didn't know there was going to be a test today.

This is actually what we do on this phone.

This is this is a department that has been famous for promoting from within.

And, again, I don't know if there's an appetite out there to want to change that or not.

Yeah, there's an appetite for promoting from within because the rank and file almost always demanded they don't like people from other departments to come in and tell them, how to operate.

The fire department is the same way in Kansas City.

You have had out-of-towners come in to run the fire service.

It's not pop.

It's not a popular thing.

The next chief in Kansas City.

Nick will have to.

I think the biggest criticism you would have of Stacy Graves is the, payments for police brutality cases.

And the next chief will really have to break that.

Approach in the police department going.

She she is trumpeting though some positives, including a 27% reduction in homicides this year.

No small feat.

But to me, police chiefs have almost become like superintendents of schools.

They retire and then all of a sudden they they pop up somewhere else.

And I was reading in the Johnson County post how the Lenexa police chief last fall decides she's going to retire.

And then, lo and behold, she becomes the the new police chief in Breckenridge, Colorado.

I even the city announcement use the word retire.

And you think, okay, she's going off and going to sit on a beach somewhere, but she went to the mountains instead.

But yeah, she's still a police chief in Colorado now.

But these are high profile.

Often stressful jobs.

You mentioned three and a half years.

I don't know what that is in dog years, but probably a lot more.

And so, yeah, but they often still well-compensated and so rarely does a chief leave with total equanimity.

There's always some sort of.

And there's a thing with Don Layman in Lenexa.

There have been some, some things with working with Ice and with, council member.

And so she kind of left under a cloud but still got a new job.

And so we'll see where Stacy Gray could we see an announcement next week, Dave Helling to say, she's running for mayor.

That happens to on we saw Tyron Garner in Wayne County playing a law enforcement background as we're seeing across the country now to take into political office becoming the mayor and Daryl Forte of course, the former chief ran for the sheriff's office in Jackson County.

And one, I don't think Stacy Graves is going to run for mayor.

I could be wrong.

But I don't think it's likely that she retired for that reason.

But she's leaving on a high note.

Crime in Kansas City is down for a number of reasons.

I think her big is issue that I saw was that she wasn't visible enough during times when you had mass shootings in the city.

The only I think, outside of the chief's parade shooting, I never saw her in a mass shooting situation.

I have to say though, anything we ever asked her to do big town halls with angry members of the public, she said, yes, whatever you need, Nick.

So I was always grateful for that.

You know, that was just one of the stories we had this week.

There's another surprise when the new royals ballpark plan got its first public airing this week.

But how much did people actually get to hear?

The presentations from Crown Center and Royals leaders got derailed by protesters who shut the meeting down.

We want to hear what's important to you.

Oh, everyone was offered a card.

We're allowed to ask questions for this story.

This is of.

I'd appreciate y'all allowing us to get to the questions that were asked by the audience tonight.

Thank you for coming out.

Thank you all for coming out.

A stadium is not a priority right now.

All righty Chris.

Cats.

What are they so angry about?

Wasn't this just a perfunctory meeting for rezoning?

This wasn't about a vote on the ball park itself, right?

Correct.

But what a mess.

The questions that were asked and answered were prescreened in advance.

And you had a group of people there.

Actually, I think a couple of groups of people there who were calling for this whole thing to be, put before the public in a vote.

And of course, we've talked about that at this table in the past.

But, suffice it to say, this meeting was, again, a mess.

Well, what happened actually, though, to that petition effort, I mean, is it on life support dead, or is it to move forward that no one could actually be voting on the ball?

The council has to make up its mind by the end of August.

That's too late to go on the November ballot.

If they take all of the time, they're entitled to, in that case, they have to either in that enact the petition ordinance or put it on the ballot, probably in April of next year.

My guess is, and it's just a guess, that there are discussions underway to try and massage the desires of the petitioners committee with the royals and the city, and we'll see how that turns out.

We have a number of our viewers went to that meeting.

These are independent people.

They wanted to hear about it and said they heard absolutely nothing would infuriated and told us, you know, this is how not to hold a meeting.

For the first hour, there were presentations going rambling on.

They didn't even get to questions until over an hour later.

And as Chris points out, they were very not hardball questions at all.

It was like, you know, will it be fireworks?

You know what the statement that got a lot of people are frustrated.

But did we learn anything new?

I was expecting things like, are they going to demolish this building or are they going to build this one?

Do we hear anything like that?

I don't think they even got to that point in the conversation, a discussion.

I think it was kind of set up as a procedure that they have to go through.

They have to check the box that they did have, that how the outcome of it goes is a whole nother, conversation.

I did hear, though, that they did say were talking would not be an issue.

There's enough talking around the facility.

How did that go down?

They, they've done that in city council meetings as well.

To say that there's enough park and parking is not an issue.

I think David identified like 25, 30,000 parking spaces around the area.

Then you got the streetcar that runs through there as well.

So given all these scenes we saw at that meeting this week, people in Overland Park relieved that it's not now coming to the Sprint Center.

Of course, that was the talk for so long in our metropolitan area.

Now you don't have to deal with that.

Or do they feel like they've dodged a bullet or they missed it?

Sigh of relief is the more aggressive release option.

Absolutely.

I think we saw scenes.

Maybe not.

This was their first play out in HOA meetings and city councils and Leawood and Overland Park at this time or late last year, a lot of homeowners upset about the idea of a Royals ballpark landing at a speed in their backyard.

Of course, the team purchased a mortgage at a speed there was never a formal plan put forward.

No elected official really publicly, publicly got behind it.

But I think it was really seriously under discussion by the team.

Yeah.

Just quickly, Nick, you understand this perhaps more than anyone in Kansas City, that town halls like this have become very raucous places.

You know, you, the royals are particularly bad at it, by the way, in the chamber.

But generally speaking, when the when the Chiefs plan came up to the Wyandotte County, commission, there were people in the audience who were waving placards and disrupting the process to some degree, congressional town halls are a mess.

People really do feel like somehow their voices aren't being heard.

And this is a way to get it done.

Well, speaking of stadiums, while we were hosting our on the ballot special last week, the Chiefs were releasing renderings of that new stadium in Wyandotte County.

One sports radio host said the new arrowhead should be called the Pringle, as its roof resembles the iconic thin, curved potato chip.

The translucent roof will apparently let the outside in while keeping rain, snow, ice and our merciless summer heat out.

But wait, could this be right?

Seven months after the Chiefs announced its move to Kansas, is the actual site still not decided?

That's okay.

McChrystal.

Watson's claim this week no, there's nothing definite.

When we hear, you'll hear.

So the final site is still not picked and the sales district that will actually pay for it.

Also those boundaries are not decided.

Yeah, that seems amazing.

At seven months after it is a decision.

I think we know enough to know that the, the ultimate site for the Chiefs Stadium will be somewhere between 118th and 126 State Avenue to parallel.

That's kind of the rough area that we're talking about.

But all of that is correct.

We're seven months down the road, seven months down the road, and we still don't know precisely where it's going to be.

Is there anything that actually stopped that stadium now?

Well, I would suggest that the Chiefs in the state to pick up the pace a little bit, because there is a possibility that the next governor of Kansas might be Cindy Holzer, who's one of the Democratic candidates.

She's been pretty aggressive in suggesting that, this deal is probably not the best deal for taxpayers.

And as governor, she could, thro You know, depending on how far it is down the road.

So I don't think it's stoppable, Nick, but it is deliverable and, arguable and debatable and that if, certain things happened in November could very well get this.

This is this has all the potential for being one holy hell of a course of moving forward.

It is not popular in Kansas.

You know, but outside of Cindy Hole show, you know, we got an election coming up next Tuesday.

Outside of that race, are there any other candidates who have made this a big deal or is it a non-issue at this point?

I mean, on the Republican side, Masterson was one of the architects of this deal and both of the other Democratic candidates, supporter Ethan Corson playing Laura Kelly's playbook particularly.

So.

We'll see.

As far as how this impacts Johnson County, the Olathe site where the training facility is going to be, I think, much more secure, as opposed to the as opposed to the maybe sort of mixed signals.

We're seeing that, okay, there's a lot more official unanimity in Olathe about wanting to have that $300 million facility at that site just off of K ten from the City Council, Chamber of Commerce, even the school district.

We see a lot of officials, pushing for that to go for they want to have that site there, and they want that to be a tourist, and they seem to be a little bit more connected to the process in Olathe, as opposed to what's happening with the unified that could be telling, for sure.

But if you listen to, Donovan, they've got plans or they're making bids on the Super Bowl, they're trying to get to NCAA tournament.

There.

It's like this is a done deal, and they don't even know where it's going to be the only thing.

And you're absolutely right.

The one thing that I would add in this discussion is in order to bid for, for a final four, you're going to need funding commitments right up front.

And I think this is a particularly difficult time to be asking the states of Kansas and Missouri for perhaps, you know, a lot of money, millions, many millions of dollars off the bills from the.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It's a I think it's a heavy ask.

It may be it changes in the years to come.

I don't know, but right now it's not good.

Well, we're in the final days of campaigning ahead of Tuesday's primary election last week we looked at all the issue questions on the ballot on both sides of state line.

You can check it out on our YouTube channel if you missed it.

But there are so many other races awaiting your verdict.

On Election Day in Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly is heading out the door.

The question is who should replace her?

Three Johnson County Democrats want the job.

Overland Park Mayor Kit Skoog and two state senators from our area, Cindy Holsinger and Ethan Clawson.

Now Clawson has Kelley's endorsement.

So if you like Kelly, is he the person most likely to maintain her approach to governing?

And how would wholesale and school be different?

Kyle.

Well, yeah, you're right.

I mean, of course, in is playing of Laura Kelly's playbook touting her endorsement as well as that from Kathleen Sebelius, Planned Parenthood, labor unions, touting himself as the centrist, competent, experienced both in the Senate as well as in the Obama administration.

Holzer, a much more proudly progressive left leaning, taking positions much more to the left, of course, and we ought to mention her position on the Chiefs deal.

She's also backtracked on her support for data centers, now calls for a moratorium $15 an hour minimum wage.

Kurt School might be the most interesting one.

He literally filed hours before the deadline in June, kind of came out of left field.

But he has explicitly cast himself as the electability candidate, he has said in media reports, including in The Kansas Reflector, that he thought that Corson wasn't pulling away from her enough and that he doesn't think Holsinger can win in the general election.

So he.

That's why he said he felt compelled to get in the race for those reasons.

Many people today, voters in particular on the Democratic side, have become far more mercenary.

They just look for the person who can beat the Republican looking at that race, who is the most likely to win that race against the Republicans?

I think Tim Masterson, who was in that primary, Democratic primary.

I think that holster is the favorite.

As we enter into the final, it suggests that polls have suggested that it doesn't at the present neck of Laura Kelly at this 11th hour in ads and news conferences and interviews, suggests that they've seen polling that will make this very close.

Let me just mention quickly about Kurt Skoog.

He was one of the votes to get rid of neighborhood pools in Overland Park.

When they came up on the agenda a couple of weeks ago.

That will anger some Overland Park voters in the primary.

And if he doesn't carry Overland Park by a substantial margin, he is completely a non-entity in this race.

So I think he is the favorite with a week to go.

Well, there is a gazillion Republicans running for this job, but if you watch TV, state Senate President Tim Masterson seems to be winning the ad wars as he in every commercial break.

Masterson has already won the endorsement of President Trump.

I'm really honored to have the endorsement I stand with him on.

I just, you know, I think I believe he wakes up every morning trying to figure out how to put more money in our pockets and keep our streets safe.

But on all the front runners claiming to support the Trump agenda or some positioning themselves as the non Trump Republicans.

Kyle.

Well, I think even more so than the Democrats, there are some real policy dividing lines among this crowded Republican field, particularly on property taxes.

That is the kind of issue DeJoy has been for the last few cycles.

But particularly for conservative older voters.

So we see each of these candidates coming up with their own plan, the one that's kind of risen to the top, maybe because of its cheeky title is The Bold Plan from Scott Schwab.

I can't remember what the letters stand for.

To me, that might be a problem for him, but.

But it is supposed to address property taxes, but also data centers.

This is an issue that has rocketed to the top of the agenda for many races.

And anybody laughing at that, by the way, that will get us a lot of people with who I had challenged who are going to be calling in to complain.

Yes.

Three people at this.

Very.

Yeah.

I wasn't going to say anything.

Okay.

But as far as data centers go, that issue has rocketed to the top of the agenda for a lot of, for a lot of races.

It's not just governor, and there are some very clear dividing lines in the Republican field.

In time, Masterson is going to have to answer for the fact that he supported a 2025 law that put, tax incentives towards data center development.

He's getting hammered from some of his primary opponents, and that would likely be an issue in the in the general election as well.

Now, Kansas Republican U.S.

Senator Roger Marshall is up for reelection as well.

And there are a whopping 11 candidates trying to win his seat in Washington.

Some people say Adam Hamilton, the Linwood megachurch pastor, is the prohibitive favorite.

He's outspent it by everyone and and seems to have most of the TV advertising.

But with that many people on the ballot, is that assessment a mistake?

Dave?

No.

You know, in a crowded primary field of name recognition and money is always important.

And I think Adam Adam Hamilton has both to some degree.

On the other hand, as we've talked about a lot, he is probably not as well known in Wichita or Great Bend or Garden City or Emporia or Salina as he might be in Overland Park or Lenexa.

So, I think it'll be a and I can tell you that I think the Hamilton people are not taking the nomination for granted.

They're still working the phone, still buying time, still making appearances.

So, he's not a shoo in.

We'll see what happens on that primary day.

You know, if you look at the ads, by the way, Noah Taylor also has tons of TV ads.

He's a military veteran and lots of political groups you've never heard of before are running pretty slick ads for him.

Is there something we need to know about behind the scenes about why groups like the 1861 initiative are supporting his candidacy?

Do they just like his platform, or are they trying to muddy the waters to make help, trying to help someone else?

Well, I think it's interesting.

I think something similar played out in a Montana, Senate race as well, where, a low polling candidate got a lot of financial support from a veterans group.

But there's so much money awash in politics that I don't know if any of this makes any waves with voters.

And just quickly, Noah Taylor is getting some blowback because one of his campaign lines is no corporate PAC money.

And then he's taking on this or not taking, but at least is the beneficiary of this third party dark money, which seems a bit, concerning to some voters.

So we'll see.

But he if he if, if Hamilton is to be really challenged, it seems like Noah Taylor will be the person to do it.

He's from the Wichita area.

The Sedgwick County area has some support from labor down there.

Again, we'll see what happens with so many candidates.

So many races is hard to do justice, of course, to all of them.

But but complete the sentence, the race.

I can't believe isn't getting more attention during this election is blank.

Kyle.

Well, I think it's been getting attention from Johnson County Post readers, but if you're not going to ask about it, I'll say the Johnson County Commission chair race.

That is the only, race on the ballot in Johnson County that all Johnson County voters can vote on.

Besides the constitutional amendment, because all the other the others are Partizan primaries.

This is technically a nonpartisan three person contest.

The top two vote getters move on.

This is my Kelly, who's the existing county chair who leads Johnson County.

He's got two opponents.

What did they think?

He's done so terribly wrong that they can do something better down to one issue.

It's property tax.

Okay, so Kelly defends his record saying that he hasn't rolled back taxes as much as maybe his critics want in order to preserve the quality of of services in Johnson County, also cites diminishing state and federal funds.

His two opponents, Karen Markovich and Jean Senate SAC, both, proudly conservative, Republican Party identifiers.

They want to more aggressively roll back taxes.

Cernovich, in fact, has pledged that she would advocate for a roll back to the revenue neutral rate if she's elected and also spending cuts.

And so that's the real issue in that race.

Again, top two vote getters move on to November.

Eric, the race I can't believe isn't getting more attention during this election is blank.

Fourth Congressional District Mark Offutt.

Yes.

Is, defending his seat against some Democrats.

And I think Mark offered has said some things that are pretty far fetched.

Some of the things he says needs to be challenged or he needs to be in a debate.

I'm assuming he's feeling pretty solid that why he hasn't done those things, though, Dave?

Yeah, but he's coming into Kansas City now.

I think he's going to have to stand on some of the things he's saying.

I do think that district does include the the, Ward Parkway corridor, which tends to be not only very liberal, but they turn out and vote, which I think Harford is paying attention to.

Interesting to me in the fourth district are two of the candidates are media personalities, Randy Miller, the old radio guys running right, and of course, Hartzell Gray as well.

Just quickly, my, not talked about race is, Senate aide in Missouri, which is John Patterson, the outgoing speaker, the Republican likely nominee against Kerry Angle, who is a very smart, on on political matters in the district.

That will be one to watch in November.

Chris, you know that I keep coming back to the Jackson County executive race.

Yeah.

And for maybe, some other reasons, you know, you had Phil, a voter who was out and in and out to Ron McGee, who was in then out, Manny Abarca, who was in and now has stepped away since he suspended his campaign.

But he hasn't taken his name as the ballot.

So he's you can still vote for his name is Will will be on the ballot on Tuesday.

Yes, I did that with no notes, by the way.

And as soon as yard signs are still up.

Right.

What's interesting about that race, unlike some of the others we've talked about, whether it be governor, all these congressional races, you still have another shot at this in November in the Jackson County executive's race, which has been dominated by Democrats.

Whoever wins this race Tuesday is going to be the next.

Basically, the Jackson County Executive.

Yes, absolutely.

And again, it's gotten a they've had a lot of forums.

So I don't know if I agree that it hasn't gotten a lot of maybe not a lot of media attention.

I think Bill beard has some commercials running on TV, but the and water summit.

Yes.

Yeah.

And you're absolutely right.

But in terms of issues.

Right.

They have been overshadowed by the, the political aspects of, of the candidates and property tax.

Yes.

Okay.

We understand that, but I like to hear another platform other than fixing the property tax, don't you think, economic development, some other things that are going on.

What are you going to do with the stadiums.

What are you going to do with the jail?

What are you going to do about that?

You're going to do with the sports complex site?

Yeah, but I will say this.

Kyle is pointing out something very important on both sides of the state line.

Property taxes are a huge asset.

Appraisals are a huge concern.

And almost every race from the governor's race on the way that well, 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?

Nasty heat feels like 105 plus.

It was the week in which Kansas City turned into an oven and a shooting upended the family of Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

His wife shot at the couple's home, his son arrested and charged Kansas City, finally imposing new restrictions on electric scooters and e-bikes, age and speed limits on the way and a teen helmet requirement plans to turn the big town Costco into a business center, moving one step closer to city hall approval.

But with a big concession negotiations now underway to keep the pharmacy and Salvador Perez overtakes Royals legend George Brett to become Kansas City's King of homeruns.

With the team on the road, a public celebration of the K planned for Tuesday before the Royals take on the twins.

All righty.

Did you pick one of those stories, Kyle?

Or something completely different.

Something completely different.

This is a deep cut Johnson County slice of life.

So the city of Roland Park earlier this month unveiled a new playground structure shaped like a giant 1960s era kids bike, complete with like a front basket, long handlebars, banana seat that your kids could climb on, I think meant to evoke the freedom of that era long before there were such things as helicopter parents.

The irony.

What makes this an interesting story is that when they installed it last year, they discovered that it was dangerous for kids to climb on because they could get their limbs are there, even their heads stuck between the bars.

So they had to spend several months assessing that, fixing those issues.

Finally, though, the city did a ribbon cutting early this month and both kids and adults were seen climbing on what's called the Mighty Bike at our park.

Eric Wesson I would love to see the city of Kansas City make this state of Missouri go to trial with the NBA, WB, lawsuit.

This is the minority and women owned businesses contract and exactly the city has.

And now the attorney general of Missouri has filed suit to say that's illegal.

And it's saying that white males in in Kansas City are discriminated against.

But they get 88% of contracts, construction contracts.

I don't know how that's discrimination.

I think Kyle Palmer Palmer winds with his.

But the Costco story is interesting to me.

The the move to change it from a traditional warehouse to a business center.

Now, apparently there are, talks, going on at City Hall with Costco about perhaps preserving the pharmacy part of this store, which would be, if it happens, a big, sigh of relief for an awful lot of people.

And some people, of course, thinking, why on earth is a Costco store gets so much attention in Kansas City?

All right, I'm Dave, can I just say quickly?

I actually rode a banana bike in Roland Park growing.

Yeah, actually did I yeah, no question about it.

But up a row with Park.

So, over on 47th terrace.

So yeah, I'm going to have to take the grandkids there.

But I do think we should pay attention again to this, issue I mentioned earlier in Overland Park about swimming pools.

In this sense, Nick, swimming pools are one of the most interesting issues in local politics because no one uses them except two months out of the year.

But in those two months, they are really damn important.

And there will be some blowback from that decision in that city.

And on that we will say.

A week has been reviewed courtesy of Kyle Palmer of the Johnson County Post and from the anchor desk at KMBC nine news, Chris Katz from next page, Casey, Eric Wesson and news icon and Mr.

Kansas City stack on Substack.

Dave Helling and I'm Nick Haines from all of us at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.