Coming up, is the Kansas City area congressman going to be the next transportation secretary as Team Trump begins filling out his cabinet?

Also this week, yet another effort to recall Frank White.

What's going on with our busses and why is it being slashed and in some cases eliminated on both sides of state line?

Plus, he's the first Kansas City cop convicted of killing a black man.

New Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe says his first act will be to bring him home.

And marking the 25th anniversary this week of the reopening of Union Station.

It was the first and last time voters in Kansas and Missouri jointly agreed on a tax to support an important project.

Could we recapture the magic again?

And if so, what would it be for?

We can 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, and it's great to have you with us on our weekly journey through the metro's top news stories.

Hopping on board the Week in Review bus.

This week, the Kansas City stars lead political correspondent Jonathan Shorman from our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC Eric Wesson from the prime time anchor desk at KMBC nine News, Chris Ketz, and tracking the region's top political stories from KCUR Brian Ellisonnow.

last week, it looked like President elect Donald Trump was going to stack his new cabinet with a growing basket of Kansas and Missouri politicians.

Now we have to ask ourselves, could the new Trump White House be a Kansas and Missouri free zone?

You remember last week when we told you Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt was being tapped to head the Justice Department?

So much for that story.

This week, he withdraws his name from consideration even though he was considered a close Trump ally.

Wouldn't this have been a massive political elevation for him?

What happened?

Why?

He turned down a massive promotion so you can be influential in the Senate.

And as you saw, Trump yesterday decided to go with a different choice with Gates kind of, you know, Eric Schmidt, Kris Kobach.

These guys are certainly MAGA folks, but they're not necessarily splashy in the way that a matt Gaetz is.

And I think in this case, Trump wanted to send a message with an unorthodox choice.

Eric Schmidt loved the camera, too, though, and he was he was at the rallies for many occasions, was a prime time.

Only one of the local people was a Republican National Convention primetime speaker.

Were you surprised he said he wanted to withdraw from that.

I wonder what the circumstances were of the withdrawal, if it was becoming clear he was not going to be the choice and he was given the opportunity to withdraw.

But I I will say I'm not surprised that he was not finally the choice.

The reality, especially when we know who the choice was in Matt Gaetz.

I think Eric Schmidt does love the camera, perhaps as many politicians do.

But at the same time, he has sort of tried to build a reputation and a credibility and a a portfolio of issues.

He cares about lawsuits, his legal career.

I think the what the president elect is looking for is someone who's going to run the Department of Justice in the way that he wants, which is going to involve a lot of political decisions that I don't know that Eric Schmidt was up for.

At least it's better, of course, to have been thought about a job than not to be asked at all.

After being tipped as a likely prospect to be Trump's new defense secretary.

Former Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo now found himself frozen out.

The president elect making it clear there is no space in his administration for Pompeo.

What did he do so terribly wrong, Chris?

Well, it's been interesting to watch all of these Cabinet choices because you really get a sense of, you know, there are there are Trump fans and then there are Trump fans.

And clearly, Mike Pompeo is in the latter, not the former.

It's interesting, though, he was the only Kansas name I saw on any short list.

But yet, you know, we have Kris Kobach, the Kansas attorney general.

If immigration was one of the top issues in this presidential campaign, wouldn't you think he'd be a shoo in?

We have to remember, Kris Kobach lost his run for governor back in 2018 after Trump very publicly supported him.

Trump is not a big fan of people who lose things.

Now, while sorry, and I think Pompeo was an independent thinker and I think he wants people that's just going to line up and do what he says in lockstep, because there were some other things that Pompeo did.

There was kind of a push back from what Trump wanted done, so that automatically disqualified him.

Right.

When when Pompeo was considering a presidential run himself, he was pretty openly critical of some of the aspects of the Trump administration.

And President elect Trump doesn't forget with regard to Kris Kobach.

Remember, he got a chance with the first Trump administration to head up the Voter ID Voting Integrity Commission and wasn't really able to find the evidence of voter fraud that President Trump was hoping for.

That may have factored in as well, that while there'll be no Mike Pompeo or Eric Schmidt in the new Trump administration, is it possible that Kansas City area Congressman Sam Graves could be picked to replace put on Judge as the next transportation secretary?

Graves, who represents the Missouri sixth District, has confirmed he has been approached by the Trump transition team about the job.

We rarely, though, see graves in the local and national news.

What special skill or talent does Team Trump see in him when there must be hundreds of qualified people who could serve as our nation's top transportation leader?

Jonathan?

Well, I think Graves would be a pick that would certainly not outshine Trump in terms of media attention.

But he also has a very deep reservoir of knowledge and experience as it relates to transportation.

Currently, the chair of the House Transportation Committee in Congress since 2001, so clearly has the relationships that kind of helped shape and guide transportation funding, which would be key for the Kansas City area ahead of the World Cup.

Yeah, I was thinking about that.

I mean, there must be a benefit to Kansas City.

One of the big problems is transportation.

Will we be see like a thousand gold plated busses coming into Kansas City for that courtesy of Uncle Sam.

If he gets this note, I don't know that we'll see that.

But I do think in the context of the World Cup, I don't know that Sam Graves would necessarily be a rubber stamp for whatever request that might come his way, assuming he becomes secretary of transportation.

But I think if you're the World Cup Committee, you want to deal with somebody that you know rather than somebody that you don't bribe.

Of course, by the time this program airs that Trump could have picked somebody already.

And it's not Sam Graves, but if that were to happen, how much benefit would we get if if somebody like Sam Graves was the transportation secretary?

Do they get to throw cash at a city as a result of that?

Yeah, they don't print money.

Okay.

And in some ways, the chair of the transportation Committee in the House is is a pretty good way to get some money to your to your district.

So so it might be at least as beneficial to the area for him to stay where he is.

Eric, and his work well with Congressman Cleaver and Miss Davis as well.

They've done transportation things.

He's gotten money earmarked for cattle.

Along with Congressman Congressman Cleaver, he seems to work well, bipartisan.

Even when the senator was here for a blunt was here, he seemed to work well with him as well and getting money into Kansas City for the Prospect corridor to choose Max.

And those areas, if he were to become a transport taxation secretary, could he actually fix the entire bus system, period?

I don't think I ever remember a time when we've seen so many negative busts, worries, and how local cities are cutting or completely abandoning service.

Here are some quick headlines from just the past few weeks.

Independent suspends all Bus Service Six lines Eliminated Grandview sends Bus Service to Kansas City.

Wyandotte County cuts to bus lines to save money.

Kansas City considers ending its zero bus service program.

What's happening, Eric The zero bus fare has been a disaster.

People have complained about homeless people riding the busses back and forth, up and down.

Troost in prospect drive from one end, get out, get back on a ride to the other.

And it's minutes of safety issues and concerns as well.

Some of the pharmacy stores on the bus lines have also kind of closed based upon homeless people running and stealing and then getting on the bus.

So some fresh on prospect has always also been a victim.

They had to move the bus stops away from the shopping center to keep the thefts down.

All of these cities in the broader metropolitan area saying it's because COVID money, the pandemic money ran out.

Is there more to it than that?

Well, I do think that's a true factor.

In fact, that's true of a lot of programs where federal money came into both state and local budgets, and it was spent freely without necessarily being sure what would happen three, four or five years down the road.

And so we're seeing the consequences of that now.

Just a week after Election Day, we're now getting a clearer picture of what New Missouri Governor Mike Kyle plans to do after unpacking the boxes in the governor's mansion this week.

He says one of his first acts will be to bring Eric Dvorkin home to his family, the balcony or as the first Kansas City police officer to be convicted of killing a black man.

I believe we need to have Eric's back.

And I've been very vocal about saying, should I succeed in running for governor, Erica Balkan Bauchner will be home with his family.

How would that decision go down in Kansas City?

Chris Depends on who you ask, that's for sure.

I do think that this is one of those things that I still think there's a healthy chance that outgoing Governor Parson makes that call before Mike Kehoe takes office.

And I see Eric with his hand up and Mike Parson still has until like January 16.

So there's still time to be had that.

What difference would it make, do you think it would be a disaster?

Whoever makes it, they need to change the narrative.

The narrative is that Cameron LAMB was a bad guy.

This cop was doing his job.

He he stopped all of these things from happening.

But yeah, and still, it wasn't like that.

Cameron LAMB was in his property.

There was no reason for the police officers to be there.

It's been through the Court of Appeals has been to federal courts.

All the courts have upheld the conviction.

So what does the governor see that nobody else does Remember Now, Andrew Bailey also wrote an appeal on his behalf.

I think this is a really rough start for Mike Kehoe and his governorship and his relationship with the cities of the state.

I think troubling to anyone who's for all the reasons that Eric has said, is the possibility that it would be declared ahead of time, that he's going to issue the pardon before before the process is even played out.

But I think there's another problem here, which is that he has spoken very openly of his friendship with the the the officer's wife and his Mike Kehoe and his wife's friendship with them.

And I think that is complicating this even further.

And certainly is agitating Cameron Lamb's family and his supporters.

There shouldn't be a big surprise, though.

For months on the campaign trail, he had hitched his wagon to law enforcement.

That was his big issue, wasn't it?

Right.

So it is it's not surprising that he's coming out with this, but it will complicate his plans to focus on crime and public safety, where he will want those relationships with people like Quentin Lucas, like city council members, who I think would be open to some of the things he wants to do related to public safety with increasing funding and getting more officers into the department.

But it's just going to put the relationship off to a stressful start.

And in no time has the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, the governor's office, said anything to Cameron Lance family, even if it was just, you know, we're sorry this happened are just some form of compassion that is never happened.

In the five years that this has been taking place, voters may have said yes last week to raising Missouri's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Now, a coalition of business groups, including the Missouri Restaurant Association, is working to try and repeal the measure.

Now, unlike the abortion and sports betting questions that were constitutional amendments, the minimum wage and paid leave ballot question was actually a proposition, which means lawmakers could vote to completely undo it as soon as they come back in January.

Any evidence they would actually do that, though, Brian?

Well, they've done it before with other measures.

It is certainly possible and some of them are talking openly about it.

I will say I do think there might be some higher hurdles this time for them to actually take that step.

One is that it passed with 57% support.

It wasn't just a squeaker.

That means that a whole lot of people who voted for Donald Trump and Mike Kehoe and for those Republican lawmakers also voted for this.

I don't think it's so likely that they'll undo it completely, although they might try to mess with it.

They might try to delay the onset or lower the amount.

But unlike last time when they raised the minimum wage, this has the extra wrinkle in it.

It has paid sick leave, too, for employees, which puts an additional burden on businesses, which is why they may push back even more on this.

But this possibility is something that our friend and colleague, Michael Mahoney and I were talking about election night and not just this particular issue.

I do.

And I'm with Brian on this.

I do think the legislature will take a look at it.

I think they'll try and maybe dangle their toes in the water on this, but we'll see what happens.

Yeah, it's like the people vote one way, but then lawmakers and the same lawmakers that they voted for come back and vote another way or push it another way in a legislature that possesses a supermajority.

Right, right, right.

It's like, why waste time voting on it if you're going to come back and undo it?

While more difficult to undo?

We know there is an effort afoot in the legislature to put another constitutional amendment on the ballot to dilute last week's voter approved abortion measure as well.

And in another interesting move, a group of lawmakers are now trying to block incoming House Speaker Jean Patterson from taking over his new job.

Pattison from the summit would be the first legislator from Jackson County to ever be elected House speaker, but is seen apparently is that he has said, quote, We should abide by the voters wishes when it comes to abortion.

Jonathan, is that enough to deprive you of a leadership job in Jefferson City these days?

Well, I haven't seen enough evidence that this would be successful, but there's a difference between being successful and being disruptive.

This can still be incredibly disruptive on the process.

And even if Patterson does ultimately secure the speakership, he's going to know that he has a certain faction of his caucus that is really bent on advancing some kind of proposition to overturn the abortion amendment.

And isn't this another illustration of the fact that even the Republicans in Jefferson City are not always on the same page and haven't gotten along in recent history?

Then, however, to his advantage is that he's in the House and not the Senate.

So we've watched that dysfunction basically paralyze the Senate.

In the House, if he gets the speakership, he's going to have almost untrammeled power to advance the agenda.

He wants to win a few votes against him isn't going to stop him.

Ryan, just a few seconds ago said, you know, it'll be fizzle out.

The effort to walk back the minimum wage effort.

What about on abortion, though?

Yes, we see plenty of articles everywhere about there may be an effort to put another constitutional amendment on the ballot, but is that a slam dunk?

It's not a slam dunk, but I do think it is going to be something that Republicans are going be very vocal about.

And there's going to be a lot of pressure to pass legislation, at least through the House, even if they know it's not going to ultimately get on the ballot or it's going to get fouled up in the Senate.

They need to demonstrate to their antiabortion voters that they are doing something.

So regardless, it'll take up an awful lot of next year's legislative session.

It's definitely going to be a topic of conversation Now on Election Day, we heard from a number of viewers who saw a lot of yard signs outside their polling station saying, Recall Frank White lead wants to know all these old signs or is there a new campaign underway to oust the Jackson County executive?

Well, Liane, we can confirm there is a new effort to use the recall process to turf White out of his job.

But how many efforts of we already have that have absolutely gone nowhere on this before?

Well, in Frank's case, in this particular case, it is the taxes and that's the and then the underlying aspect of it is the covert money, the $70 million that is probably going to be sent back if they don't figure out a way to spend it.

And right now, it looks like he and the legislature on two different roads go in opposite directions.

But I think their biggest thing is they sent out 110 text messages.

They got quite a few signatures on Election Day.

And I think the signatures coming out at the same time the emails came out telling you that your property tax went up yet again is probably the nail in his coffin to be something to watch.

Is it okay?

Yeah.

I do think that there is potential here for this particular effort to have some legs and go somewhere.

I think it's a little early yet.

It's still Frank White.

We're all aware of his legendary popularity in Kansas City, but this is something worth watching.

How long will we want to stay in this job anyway, even without this recall effort?

I mean, what is he going to say?

I don't need all of this aggravation.

I can do something else with my life.

I mean, he's going to be in office.

Will he be running again in 2026?

Is there a chance that he'll just say, you know, I'm not running for reelection, hopefully just to save face?

If I was him, I'd say, you know what, I can have this because even the head is still with all this.

You still got the royals in the Chiefs situation over hanging over his head as well.

And a lot of people blamed him for that as well.

Now, while many of our viewers just want to turn the page on the election, the Topeka based news site the Kansas Reflector, is dragging us into the next one.

The headline this week, The Kansas governor's race starts now.

Who will replace Kelly as governor there?

Ask after Democrats take a licking And Republicans claim big victories in last week's elections.

Perhaps the worst kept secret in Kansas politics, they report, is that it looks to be a matchup between Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and Kelly's lieutenant governor, Dave Toland.

But first of all, does anyone really care this far out?

And is it audacious to make such a clear prediction when we are still two years from that election?

Please don't make me talk about this.

I don't know.

I'll just say I think often the early names that are thrown out immediately after a prior election don't always end up being the person who ends up so on the 20 meaningless.

Yeah.

So I would take all of the speculation with a grain of salt, you know, certainly those are names that I think people who hang out in Topeka have heard.

But remember, back in 2017, 2018, when Laura Kelly was elected governor, I think she was a relatively late entrant into the race as well.

And then kind of she was obviously very successful.

So that would just be my note of caution is to to don't overinterpret this early speculation.

If you are a Costco member, perhaps you want to get a Costco sized amount assault on this one, not just a pinch of salt.

You know, I think the the reality, Lieutenant governor, is not usually a stepping stone to a governor in Kansas, at least not recently.

A Senate president, Tim Masterson, is well, well understood to want to continue to be active in Kansas politics.

So these are terribly surprising names.

But I agree.

I think it's way too early to draw any conclusion.

All righty.

Well, 25 years ago this week, we were celebrating the long awaited reopening of Union Station.

The historic building had fallen into disrepair and there had been talk of even demolishing the former train station.

That is, until voters on both sides of state line agree to an historic buy state tax to save the building.

Now, it seems hard to believe, though, that was the first and last time voters in Kansas and Missouri could jointly agree on a tax to support an important project.

Maybe the only time that we're going, you know, there's a generation of Kansas City fans who have who have no idea that Union Station was literally on the brink of disaster, on the brink of being essentially demolished.

And I think one of the things that that I think really played into the fact that the bi state effort worked and worked back then was that you had people across Kansas City, in Wyandotte Johnson, Clay Platte, all of the counties.

There was a general, I think, warm feeling about wanting to preserve Union Station.

And I don't know that that sort of feeling translates to a bi state answer when it comes to a Royals or Chiefs stadium or anything like that.

Union Station was it was a it was a different thing.

Okay, Could we ignite that magic formula again or simply in the last 25 years, our politics in the region have changed so dramatically.

There's no way Kansas and Missouri voters would come together on anything.

I don't know.

I mean, I think there has sometimes been some cooperation just within the metro across the state line.

But I also have to think, you know, when the Union Station renovation happened, think about how little other development there was.

It was downtown was desolate at that time.

And with all the other changes that have happened, I'm I'm not sure there's the felt need to invest in the way there was back then but say there could be another by state tax.

What could that project be?

Eric The stadiums the stadiums stadiums.

I think the stadiums would draw a bi state tax.

And where would those stadiums be in what you think would be a winning formula then that would attract Kansas and Missouri voters?

You'd have to have something on the Kansas side and one on the Missouri side, which which is the rub?

Which would it be?

A put the parking lot on the Kansas side.

The state of Missouri side was upon us.

Here we come right this week.

We see a lot of idle chatter once again about the royals now wanting to be in Johnson County, possibly where the former Sprint campus was there, too.

But the royals are not confirming that the mayor of Overland Park has refused to say anything about it.

Quinton Lucas, I see this week, says he's had 20 meetings with the royals, very successful meetings with the Royals since the failed vote and that it's still going to be downtown.

Well, I would I would note that the first time I actually heard this site floated publicly was by Mayor Lucas.

So consider the fact that it's been it was put out there to some degree by someone on the Missouri side.

Let's remember, though, Chris, that the head of the royals, John Sherman, did say he wanted downtown baseball.

This is not even downtown Overland Park.

But they said, no, it's not.

I still think I still think John Sherman, the royals want something downtown.

What that would be specifically in not sure.

But I also think they will go for any place where they don't have to necessarily go to a vote of the people.

Remember, Mayor Lucas will be out of office whenever this is decided because his term will be up.

Let's move on.

Right.

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?

We can talk a lot about politics, but, you know, the Chiefs will continue to be the most talked about story around here.

Can their perfect season continue this weekend after missing the playoffs last season?

The KC Current is now on a roll.

The team plays in the semifinals of the National Women's Soccer League championship Sunday afternoon against the Orlando Pride, one of Kansas City's last drive in movie theaters shuts its doors this week after nearly 60 years in business.

The Twin Drive-In in Independence permanently closes Sunday during their heyday in the fifties, Kansas City Inns had their pick of nearly 30 drive in movie theaters.

Now, only one remains the Boulevard Drive-In in Kansas City, Kansas, nearly a decade after being demolished as KC K finally found a new life for the old Indian Springs mall, a hotel conference center, shops and apartments now approved for the beleaguered site, which lost its last anchor store in 2001.

That was fast.

Starlite already putting up that new roof that will cover the outdoor theater and move over beyond.

And Taylor Swift, the Lyric Opera is nipping at your heels.

A Grammy nomination this week for their unique operatic version of Stephen King's The Shining already.

Chris Ketch Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Now we covered the story about the Lyric Opera being up for a Grammy and the great Joyce DiDonato, also from Kansas City in that same conversation, rooting very hard for both of those efforts.

Sir Eric I picked the Chiefs, you know, they're squeaking by the last second.

They have you on the head edge of your seat.

If they get by Buffalo Sunday, I believe they can go undefeated.

However you got to watch them because they'll lose to somebody like Denver or Jacksonville.

Are are the Carolina Panthers.

So at that point, you know, they've all got home field by then.

And I did see the Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce did realize that fame and fortune doesn't insulate you this week from the same problems everyone else seems to be having in Kansas City, a crime both of their houses burglarized.

Absolutely.

$20,000 in cash taken from Travis's house.

Jonathan.

I'll mention now we're starting to look at conversations in Kansas related to what lawmakers want to do on property taxes.

That was a big issue in a lot of Republican campaigns.

Now that the Republicans have bolstered their super majority, they're going to be under a lot of pressure to deliver something on property taxes.

Ryan, a note to potential burglars.

I will not have $20,000 in cash available at my house.

The story.

But but speaking of crime in Kansas City, there was reporting this week over from my colleagues at KC.

You are about the the effort that the leaders of Kansas City are making to connect with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and also the Jackson County Sheriff's office about the possibility of deputizing or using those troopers or those deputies to patrol Kansas City streets as the city continues to have difficulty adequately staffing the police department, the city expressing a willingness even to pay for some of that itself over and above the budget of the Kansas City Police Department.

If the state board of police commissioners won't go along.

And actually our home was burglarized and they caused $20,000 in improvements, Brian will cry on that.

We will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of Eric Wesson from next page.

Casey and Casey was Brian Allison, the star's lead political correspondent Jonathan Shulman, and from the anchor desk of Channel nine, Chris Katz.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.