Anyone who is not engaged in essential activities or working for essential businesses needs to stay home.

Marking three years since the first lockdown order in Kansas City.

Many local laws have now been changed.

So could it ever happen again?

Missouri follows Kansas in advancing new bans on transgender athletes and medical surgeries for trans youth.

They're using kids as political pawns, and that burns me up.

The mayor warns It'll drive people and major events out of the city.

The largest school voucher program in Kansas history heading to the governor's desk.

I do not believe in vouchers.

You know, I believe that public dollars.

Ought to go to public schools.

And stop the presses.

Are the royals now rethinking a downtown ballpark?

Week in Review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City RSM.

Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley.

The Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust.

John H Mize and Bank of America.

NA co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haynes.

Thrilled to be back with you as we connect the dots on our metro's most impactful, confusing and befuddling local news stories.

And back by popular demand is former Kansas City star reporter Dave Helling.

Are you relaxed, rejuvenated and Rusty?

I ask everyone's indulgence if I seem a little rusty.

Well, we really are.

I if I go to Costco, Home Depot, Target, your name comes up.

And we appreciate you coming back to be with us on the program.

Still fresh from 4 hours on the air, talking about the news on KCMO Talk radio.

Pete Mundo is with us from our own Kansas City, PBS digital NEWSROOM, Flatland, Mary Sanchez and the news director of our NPR affiliate KCUR Lisa Rodriguez.

It's going to be a busy weekend in Kansas City as thousands of out-of-town visitors converge on downtown for some big March Madness games at T-Mobile Center.

But three years ago today, we were experiencing a very different scene.

It was the day Kansas City went silent.

Anyone who was not engaged in essential activities or working for essential businesses needs to stay home.

Does it seem like it's been three years since we were told not to leave our homes except for essential activities?

It would immediately unleash a contentious debate over what the word essential means, where liquor stores and barbershops essential.

What about churches?

I believe that every business is essential.

I haven't been able to pay my employees.

I haven't been able to pay myself.

I haven't been able to provide for my children.

So that is to me that is scarier than this virus.

Frankly, I think that we have a tremendous overreaction to this situation compared to the reality in real time.

And it doesn't even seem like three years ago that we had that first lockdown or that couldn't have happened the same way again, do you think?

I don't I don't see how.

It could ever happen, at least.

Not in our two states.

I mean, we talk about public health, but we have still not defined what public health is.

We define public health by not getting COVID.

We didn't look at it from the standpoint of kids mental health learning, you know, of children, what it does to lower income folks more so than those people with white collar jobs who got hit.

Harder during COVID.

That but I think we do have to say a lot of people died.

I knew people who died.

And I think sometimes as we're three years on and we are having those more nuanced conversations that need to happen, you can't forget that.

And every other week I get a guest canceling me because they get COVID.

It's still a real thing, of course.

But what were the most visible signs of COVID today when you see that even the hospitals and medical centers and doctor's offices are now saying you don't even have to wear masks anymore?

Right.

I think and this may not be the most visible, but I think it's how we learned to live our lives while we were in lockdown.

And I think the way that we work now and so many different offices moving to hybrid work scenarios, and before we locked down, we saw a lot of public investment in an office towers for people to move in.

And we found that we don't necessarily need those anymore.

Zoom three years ago was something no one had heard of, and that's how I'm conducting most of my meetings during the day.

Well, yeah.

Just quickly, if we go through this again, it's going to be a nightmare because we don't completely understand and what we did right and what we did wrong last time.

Now that the new airport terminal is open, the Kansas City Star is surveying Kansas citizens this week on what they want to name the new look.

KC Our daily paper of record wants the city to begin a public conversation on the issue.

Could it be Buck O'Neil or Walt Disney International?

Some have suggested Harry Truman International, others Charlie Parker.

Airport is a name change on the way, Pete.

No, I don't think so, Nick.

I mean, I think that there's probably a couple of names we could all come around.

They'd have to be non-politicians.

I mean, you know, Do you go with Mahomes?

Maybe it's a little early for that, but why not?

He the one guy that we universally love here in Kansas City.

So that makes as much sense as anything we have the city of Liverpool in England has the John John Lennon International Airport.

We have the Reagan International Airport.

Is there is there a value in changing the name to have something a little bit more grandiose and local attached to it?

You're not necessarily.

They're coming in the former airport, Kansas City International, Mid-Continent International, whatever, however you want to refer to it, never had it was never named for a a public figure in Kansas City.

And I don't think the walls came crumbling down.

I do think in all that conversation, the one thing that was forgotten is how important the people of Kansas City were in that project.

They voted for it.

So my idea is People's International Airport, because I think would pay tribute.

To the I see even Wichita is now called the Wichita Dwight Eisenhower National Airport.

And I see that Springfield, Branson National Airport just changed his name to honor Roy Blunt.

I have a hard and fast rule, and I've written this before when I was still with the start multiple times.

Never, never, never name anything that is a large public entity after someone who is still living.

I don't care how grandiose they seem right now.

Let some time pass.

Page Arena at Mizzou.

It's not called that anymore, and.

Neither is the Carlson Center at Johnson County Community College after the former president left.

Absolutely.

And I think there's there's good reasons to think about those things before you do that.

And we have other issues with the airport there.

We're still trying to manage.

Let's talk about those, because perhaps Kansas City has more things to worry about.

In addition to frustratingly long pickup lines at the new terminal, city leaders of this week expressing dismay, dismay, rather, about another problem, scuffed up floors that they say simply can't be cleaned off.

Now they're wondering whether there's a problem with the finish and they're getting in touch with the manufacturer.

The issue has the attention of Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

In a tweet, the mayor called the scuffing a great source of aggravation.

Airport manager Pat Kline said normal cleaning procedures aren't working in certain parts of the terminal.

I will.

Tell you.

If scuffing on.

The floors is the biggest complaint we got, we're doing really, really good people.

BE right, Lisa.

I mean, I think I think Councilman Fowler has a good point.

I mean, if it's scuffing on the ground, if that is the biggest problem we have than most of the operational things, which is the reason that we built a new airport to make it a more positive traveling experience is probably working.

That said, we just spent $1.5 billion on this airport and when you buy something new, you don't want to see it get tarnished, get dirty early on.

So as long as the airport's working with the manufacturer to make sure there is not an issue here, I don't think it's the end of the world.

But that might be an awful lot of flaws that change out what the councilman just did.

It's like you get into an argument with your spouse and they pick the one thing that might be ridiculous in your list of complaints that you had.

You know, there's the cleaning issues, the floor scuffling.

We just spent a billion and a half dollars.

We're three weeks in and the floors aren't clean.

Nic Yeah, that's a problem.

And it shouldn't be a hard one to fix.

Actually, Mary, you had another problem you identified this week in an interesting article on our Flatland website, and that was about how Hispanic leaders were kind of surprised that given all that we want to do in Kansas City, bring in the World Cup.

And yet not one sign at the airport is in Spanish.

Absolutely.

That was said numerous times when I was writing on the lack of Latino voices on City Council.

For years it's been almost 30 years, and there's some hope that that might change with this upcoming election.

But yes, I mean, it's having a voice at the table.

They felt like there perhaps wasn't enough enough vendors there.

You know, there's a whole lot of ways that a lot of people made a lot of money off 1.5 billion.

And the Latino community feels like perhaps they did not get their fair share.

Yeah, I'll say it.

My my dad was at the tour of the preview of the airport.

That was the first thing he called me to say with Lisa.

There's no signs in Spanish here.

Okay, My dad's watching.

He called.

I thought was an interesting observation, which I certainly wasn't focusing on.

It's worthwhile pointing out We've been getting quite a few emails in our virtual mail bag over the last few days and the most frequent topic.

Why the radio silence of the new Downtown ballpark?

Louis in Kansas City says it's been two months since the Royals announced their last listening tour session.

Have they finished listening?

Well, the Royals new website meant to update the public on the project hasn't been updated since mid-January.

But in the last few days, the Royals leadership team has acknowledged North Kansas City is now one of the five shortlisted sites for the new ballpark.

30 big league baseball teams, 27 markets and Clay County might be one of them.

It's exciting.

David Slater with the county's Economic Development Council is rooting for the move north of the river to hear near 18th and Fayette, a closed, boarded up bowling alley surrounded by parking lots.

It's beautiful to say North Kansas City's got it going on.

It's a new, safer crossroads.

Why wouldn't you want to come there?

We've got to make some improvements to the infrastructure, but it's very doable.

All righty.

He says it's doable.

How much credence should we put into this?

What would be the attraction for the royals to move north of the river, Pete?

Well, it's like County may be a more willing partner for them potentially.

If they look north of the river.

We know that they can't fund this thing on their own.

They got a $2 billion project.

They say they'll do the billion dollars for the ballpark village, but they still got $1,000,000,000 stadium.

They've got to figure out how to fund a few, extrapolate that Jackson County 3% sales tax out.

They still have to split that with the chiefs.

It's not enough money based on what they need.

So they may say, hey, if Clay County helps us out, if the state kicks in a little bit, there's our ballpark in North Kansas City.

Can you see that?

Dave So it's 388 2% sales tax at the split then with Jackson County currently with the Chiefs in Clay County, they're talking about potentially a half cent sales tax.

That could be better for them.

Well, except the Royals have said we don't want any additional tax burden beyond what we now impose.

So if they go to Clay County, Clay County Inns would be paying more taxes for stadiums than they do now and they would not raise if they did.

The three eight cent would not raise as much in Clay County as they do in Jackson County.

That's just the math of the situation.

So it's a long shot.

I mean, I think there is some effort to try and compete with downtown Kansas City to give Jackson County Inns a little bit of all.

But let me just say this, Nick.

I do still get phone calls about this issue from people because there's great interest in it.

I would pay attention.

I think there's a good amount of understanding now that the Chiefs are Andrew, go to all of this, that it can't be just the royals.

You've got to address both problems.

I would pay attention around the time of the NFL draft coming to Kansas City.

Which is only in a few weeks, which.

Is in a few weeks.

And you might I have no reporting to to verify this, but it's just a guess that that would be an opportune time for the chiefs to step forward and say, this is what we want.

The baseball season will be a couple of weeks old.

The royals could say this is what we think, because if you want to go on the ballot in August of this year, you have to make that decision by May 30th.

Made.

That's two months.

So the timetable is accelerating if you want to go that early.

And I think if there's a chance for everyone to come together, I would look to mid-April, April for that to happen.

How would the public feel about having a royals stadium in North Kansas City?

Mary, you.

Would feel some pushback.

It's still Kansas City Royals, even though North Kansas City, I mean, we're one big metro region.

When you think about the NFL teams in New York City all play in New Jersey.

So it's a certainly something that happens in plenty of other parts of the country.

Keep an eye, too, on Kansas and the chiefs and whether the chiefs might use that as an option to keep the burden on Jackson County lower.

And finally, they keep an eye on the state legislature because they'll be asking the Missouri legislature, one assumes, to commit millions of dollars for this project.

And they may have to authorize votes or taxes in certain local jurisdictions.

You haven't been on the show in three months and now you're giving us a lot of homework.

We have to keep following all of these folks and let.

Me know how it goes, because I will be paying attention.

All right.

Now, just days after vetoing a transgender sports ban, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is about to get another contentious measure landing on her desk, the largest school voucher program in Kansas history.

The bill gives qualifying families about $5,000 to use towards the cost of private school tuition or homeschooling.

I do not believe in vouchers.

You know, I believe that public.

Dollars ought to go to public schools.

Supporters reject the idea of calling it a voucher program.

In fact, they call it a scholarship program, which they say will mainly benefit low income students in underperforming districts.

Every Johnson County school superintendent has come out against the plan.

What are they worried about, Lisa?

I think I think they're worried about the public funding not going to public schools and public institutions.

And I think when you when you look at this bill and when you look at which school districts around the state maybe struggling where where parents may be looking to move their kids elsewhere, they're not in the population centers of the state.

They're not in Johnson County.

They're not in Sedgwick County, in Wichita.

They're in they're in more rural parts of the town or exurban parts.

And those are the places that simply don't have other options, other private school options to go to.

So I think I think where urban school districts are worried about a lack of funding, they're not currently funded to begin with, particularly when it comes to special education, which is another one of the governor's priorities.

And so it's just a further disinvestment in public schools at a time when public schools politically have been under attack for all sorts of things, from curriculum to funding to special.

Education to make us think this is necessary, then.

Pete Well, they're trying to bust the monopoly that exists in public.

Education.

Which is, you know, admirable goal, because what this is really about is about making sure that kids are slightly above the poverty line, have access to other forms of education if their parents and the family so choose to use it.

That's what it's really about.

A lot of people in Johns County wouldn't qualify for it out of the gates based on their income levels.

So it's about looking at, yes, for all parts of the state.

And there aren't a lot of other options there.

So if we're not worried about that, if there aren't a lot of other options there, then that money will go right back into those public schools anyway, if that's what the families well, they could homeschool.

Of course, they could hope they could use them for homeschool programs as well.

I was thinking when I saw this, you know, is Barstow and Pembroke Hill and Sin Theresa's Academy, who's going to be licking their lips thinking they're going to get all these students?

And when I looked at the bill, it says it has to be in Kansas.

But what are the options if you're in Johnson County or Wyandotte County, where are you going to get a private education?

Well, either the Catholic schools.

The Catholic schools, bishop my age, which does serve a population that isn't quite as wealthy as some of our other public school and private schools in the Kansas City region.

But they do tend to be on the Missouri side of the state line.

And to his point, you know, you'd have to ask these legislators then, why are you doing this if it's really not going to help the students who you claim it's going to help because they don't have private schools in those areas, Why would you still do it?

When we started, though, this program, we talked a little bit about the pandemic.

Don't you think that's also a driving force behind this, too, that when people felt aggravated, that their kids had to wear masks or they had to be there to stay home during that period of time?

And didn't that accelerate this move towards school choice?

Absolutely.

There's no doubt about it.

And, you know, when it comes to these school choice options, Laura Kelly's children went to private school.

Good for them.

Good for her, good for her family.

School choice exists if you have the money to afford it.

This gives a little more of an opportunity, potentially, if families want to take advantage of it, to provide school choice for other people who typically could not afford it.

Theoretically.

But here's the thing.

If your child, though, ends up needing special education, the private schools don't have to give it to them.

So they.

Don't have.

To.

So you wouldn't put them in.

Well, so they're it's it's as simple as that.

When you speak about it.

But if you're reinvesting in public schools, let's really reinvest in public schools.

And in this package, lots of money for special education teacher pay in this two big priorities of Governor Laura Kelly.

Yeah, because of that school choice, she wants to veto this measure.

Yes, she will, in part because this is part of a nationwide effort to shift public money away from public institutions like schools, primarily, I must say that going to Catholic schools, that's been an issue for 25, 30 years in our neck of the woods.

And this is part of that, as well.

As school choice consumes the work of Kansas lawmakers this week.

You may be surprised to learn that another big issue is now completely dropped off the to do list in Topeka.

I'm talking about marijuana, which we're now told is dead for the year.

Even legalizing medical pot has been vehemently opposed by a number of state law enforcement groups, including Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

If there is one thing that I would think we would all agree on, it would be that we don't want to facilitate access by our kids to something that is going to adversely impact their mental health.

Now, when lawmakers are seeing Missouri setting records for pot sales, what has been the main objection to letting Kansans have a small slice of that action?

Pete There is zero appetite for it.

And I think that they are looking at some of what's happened.

They'll say in places like Colorado where they've seen crime increases and they'll point to this.

I think that, frankly, if you just put this to a vote of the people in Kansas, they would go against the legislature on this issue, certainly with medical.

But there is I've talked to them in the last week or two about this.

There is zero appetite for it and the zero opportunity for voters because they don't have the same petition effort as you do in the state of Missouri.

Right.

That's exactly what you saw in Missouri was it wasn't it wasn't advancing on the legislative side.

So it took a vote of the people to legalize medical and then recreational.

It is interesting, isn't it, that people make a moral argument in Kansas against marijuana when sports gambling is going.

Oh, they're completely.

Different.

They're completely different.

Of course.

So I think people.

Right.

There's very little appetite for even medical marijuana in Kansas.

And the medical marijuana patients who have pushed for it and other states haven't made enough ruckus to get it through.

Now, let's head back to Kansas City before we leave this program, where Mayor Quinton Lucas says he's worried the city could start losing retired.

It's out of some major events that after Missouri lawmakers advance a ban on transgender athletes in women's sports.

A similar bill in Kansas was just vetoed by the governor, but Missouri lawmakers went further than their Kansas counterparts by also banning doctors from performing most gender transition procedures on children.

They're using kids as political pawns.

And that burns me up.

You know, there's a reason that we have boys sports and girl sports, and I just want to make sure that we stick to those and that girls have a fair shot.

Mayor Lucas says it'll drive people in major gatherings away.

He said that on KC one news this week, but is there any group now saying they won't come here?

And where do people go when there are now 25 states actually that have imposed some form of restriction on trans surgeries, trans athletes or access to restrooms, for instance?

I don't know that we've heard any groups come out yet and say if Missouri passes this, we're taking all our events out of here.

I think right now people are staying out of the fray.

But certainly when we saw bills proposed, these bathroom bans proposed in years past, there has been pushback for it.

I think the NCAA didn't want to threaten to move stuff out of Kansas City for that.

And I do think the mayor does have a point when we're and maybe not on a big organizational level, but when I'm talking about residents and people considering Missouri or Kansas as a place to live and a place to bring up children, I've had we've had conversations with families, including one that aired this week on an up to date after the mayor's interview where families of of kids that are nonbinary, that are trans, that are queer, or who have friends that are worried about whether they can live here, whether they should move and the and the emotional and physical toll that this that these debates and this rhetoric is having on families has been immense.

Is this going to hurt Missouri, Pete?

No, just because I'm not convinced that it's happened necessarily anywhere else, we know that there's been some events that Lisa noted with the NCAA, you know, the famous all star game was moved from Major League Baseball in Atlanta a couple of years back over the voting legislation.

But I think a lot of that's calmed down.

I think a lot of corporate America and sports organizations have realized they're fighting a battle that they can't win.

The states are going to do what they're going to do, and all they're going to do is cause division amongst fans, consumers.

There is nothing in it for them necessarily.

At least that's what we're seeing right now when it comes to other events in other states.

I would agree with Pete, but I think part of the reason is and part of what we need to understand, there are very few children that are trying to be on a sports team and it's just such small numbers.

This is a problem.

You know, they're looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

We talked about this on the program last week with the Kansas one, and I got barraged by emails from people saying how unfair the conversation was.

And so what about the women who were testifying?

What athletes who feel this is unfair to them?

Well, I think many do.

But you throw it open into this broad conversation nation that they're saving children.

It's kind of ridiculous.

And I just wonder if ten, 20 years from now, when we know even more the science around this, that's a lot of people.

Society's going to look stupid.

I agree they will look stupid.

When there was actually people that advocated for men competing against women, I totally agree with that assessment.

Well, I.

Think one thing, too, and to underscore all of this, all of this is I mean, we were just talking in the last segment about about the will of the people.

This is if you take a survey, a statewide survey, and you say of all of these issues, what are the most important to you?

I mean, recent surveys have shown trans athletes banding gender affirming care is not at the top of the list.

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?

Is it March Madness or March Sadness As college hoops biggest event continues, K-State already winning the prize for the local team that lasted the longest.

Cities across the metro banning gay conversion therapy, but not in Jackson County.

What a big vote on the issue surprisingly fails this week.

There is nothing controversial about this.

What it is saying is you cannot torture a child.

Guess who's back?

Hamilton makes its big return.

So do the seven football bunnies on the Plaza.

Never let anyone say you too old Kansas City jazz singer Marilyn Maye making her Carnegie Hall debut this weekend.

Just shy of her 95th birthday and hover age Overland Park actor Jason Sudeikis at the White House talking mental health with the president.

All righty.

Lisa, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I picked something different there.

There was a lot of action in the Missouri legislature this week.

One relates to a potential landfill in South Kansas City.

That has been the topic of much controversy among surrounding cities.

The Missouri House voted this week advance legislation that would increase the boundary that that a potential landfill could be two neighboring cities, which would effectively, if passed by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, dampened any plans to put that landfill here.

Dave.

I'm tempted to say the police department in Kansas City wants even more money than 25% of the general fund, but I won't go there today.

Instead, the university Bluejays are in the Sweet 16.

I'm an alum, so we're cheering for them.

And there's this airs on Friday night.

They'll play in about half an hour.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

I'm going to go for tasting, Mary, I guess the state of Kansas right now, the in the Senate today had some hearings and it looks like they may actually pass something that has been fought for and needed forever, and that is getting rid of the statute of limitations on when a person can file for sex abuse.

So, see.

Lawmakers do do good work.

Absolutely beat our roll with Kansas State great athletic year won the big 12 and football they're in the sweet 16 as well kudos to them.

And Kansas City ranked 16th by the Sports Business Journal for best sports business city in the country.

And final sports analogy, Dave Helling has not lost his fastball.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Mary Sanchez from the Kansas City PBS newsroom and former star reporter Dave Helling.

From KCUR is Lisa Rodriguez.

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

Buckle your seat belts.

Clay Chastain will be one of our guests.

He's incensed Quinton Lucas won't debate him in this upcoming mayoral election.

I will kind of try and get them both together.

The mayor says he simply can't find the time.

Just to be fair, we want to give Clay a shot at explaining what he would do differently to fix Kansas City.

See and hear for yourself next week.

It's sure to be lively.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.