There's a new sheriff in town.

Jackson County picks its new leader.

Relief is coming.

Are you ready to ride the new streetcar extension now?

Just days from opening.

Are you flying out of Truman?

Kansas City moving forward with plans to rename its brand new terminal.

And we take a look at the rest of the week's big headlines.

From an embarrassing, hate filled leak that forces the Kansas Young Republicans to disband, to greenlighting a new Barbie theme park in Wyandotte County.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize, and Bank of America Na 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.

Glad to have you with us 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 Kshb.

41 news political reporter Charlie Keegan from our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next page KC Eric Wesson from the anchor desk at KMBC nine news Kris Ketz and former star reporter Dave Helling, who, believe it or not, is still writing many of the editorials you see in your Kansas City Star.

Glad to have you with us.

That didn't take long, by the way.

Just two weeks after voters ousted Jackson County Executive Frank white.

There's a new sheriff in town.

Or should I say a county new permanent leader?

His name is Phil.

The voter.

Today is about collaboration, not celebration.

We have important work ahead.

Restoring the trust, improving services, and ensuring our government works transparently and effectively for every person.

Filling the voter.

Now, many people will say, Phil, who?

we know he's an attorney and we know he was one of the leaders in that recall effort against Frank white.

But what else do we actually know about him, Charlie?

Well, we know he is a has some deep ties to the Democratic Party here in Jackson County, who led the Jackson County Democrat Party for a while.

His brother Paul served in the House of Representatives from Missouri.

So he comes from a family that has this kind of public service.

But yeah, we brought up the fact that he did represent the the citizens that get a date set for the election, and then all of a sudden he's taking over for the guy that was recalled.

He says he just wanted to make sure that people had a didn't have their chance to vote.

Eric, you said on a recent program that they would never find five votes to find a permanent replacement of Frank white.

It would be up to a judge to do that.

And yet they do it lickety split.

It seemed to happen on the first round.

Yes.

What happened?

Well, one, Darren Magee got out of the race.

Why did he get out of the race?

He got out of the race, of course, because they said that, whoever took the position couldn't run for the seat permanently, which I think is a discredit.

But what do I know as a lowly reporter?

But he got out of that position because.

And that was the swing vote, because really, it was mathematically set up behind the scenes as four votes apiece.

When he dropped out, he gave him that fifth vote because he wasn't going to get it.

There were some other things that came up as well.

Now, when he was applying for the job, Phil, the voter said, I'm only going to be here for this period of time until the next election, which is in November of next year.

But, you know, two months down the road, three months down the road.

Chris, will there be a headline we'll see on channel nine that says it's much more difficult than I thought.

I do need to run for this post for another four years.

I think this deal is set.

okay, let's talk around the courthouse that McGee and Lavona met last Thursday.

I don't think it was an accident that the next day, McGee issues a statement taking himself out of the interim temporary county executive race.

and so I think Phil is in until next year.

I think he would.

I would be surprised if Darren McGee did not run for a full term in, late next year.

We've seen Frank white, like him or not.

what about Phil, the voter?

How is he going to be different than Frank white in that leadership role?

Well, he's part of Nick the Eastern Jackson County political universe.

So I think, you will see an eastern Jackson County, approach to governance, which tends to be more conservative, almost Republican in some ways.

And I think, Phil, the voter has given some signals.

That's the way he feels.

He also said he was a major sports fan.

Does that mean a deal is now imminent with the sport?

Well, I don't know if it's imminent or not, but it will be on his plate if by November of, you know, the his replacement won't take office until 2027.

January 1st if the stadium situation remains unresolved by January 2027, there is a major failure somewhere that could jeopardize one or both teams.

One of his approaches to the stadium and the stadium problem is getting everybody in the room to talk together.

And I think that was a little bit different than Frank, although, I'm going to find it interesting to see he's got a divided board already, five four.

And I have never seen in Kansas City or Jackson County a board split like that.

They work together.

You got the school district, you got the city council.

Whenever you have a divided board, like that is always a lot of turmoil of people digging in.

They call the four.

They voted against him to Frank four.

That's their nickname.

So it's going to be interesting to see if he's able to persuade them to come over and support budget issues that are coming up, stadium issues that are coming up.

It's going to be interesting to see.

And now with Phil, the voter in charge, that means Kay Barnes, the former mayor of Kansas City, had to step aside.

But boy, was that the shortest tenure of any major in history.

Well, see that ten minutes.

She was going to be in there eight days, I think.

Okay, so it's all done.

But Fred Urban has done it for six days before Frank white took over.

So that temporary accounting.

Kay Barnes building a resume again, you know, that's hard on the people.

But she ran for Congress before she had Sam.

Grace and got beat, bro.

Substantial.

She's not running now for Congress.

Remember one thing, Nick.

The stadiums are very, popular in eastern Jackson County.

the Truman Sports Complex, you know, because you just have to commute.

If you live in Lee's Summit or Grandview, the commute is much shorter than if you put Kauffman Stadium downtown or move the Chiefs over to Kansas.

So my guess is he'll he'll be heavily involved in the discussions, late this year and early next over what the steps are.

Next week, we're hosting the Wyandotte County mayoral candidates on this program, which means we're going to miss the biggest news story of the week, the opening of the new streetcar extension line down to the Country Club Plaza and Umkc.

After years of pain and distract, it's disruption.

The streetcars are ready to roll next Friday.

It's been almost a decade since we opened the existing streetcar route.

If you've written those cars, how is this going to be different, Charlie, if at all?

Well, I got a chance to actually ride the Main Street extension this week.

On Wednesday, they took us out for a media ride.

And I'll tell you, it does get a little faster.

goes at a higher speed than the one downtown feels.

Why is that?

Because it's on designated.

Yes, it's transit only exclusive lanes.

And I feel like the platforms are a little farther apart so you can gain a little bit more speed, between each stop, as opposed to downtown.

And, yeah, you'll notice the stops platforms also look a little bit bigger there, you know, anticipating more demand and use.

So yeah, it's a little beefed up a little bit.

You know, there's some other little interesting tidbits that came out this week.

Two relating to the opening.

And that is the Max bus service is now they're going to remove that from that Main Street line.

How is that going down.

And secondly Umkc I saw is now ditching free parking on the weekends.

That's going to become a prime spot.

Now they're going to be starting to charge it.

Will we see charged parking now elsewhere in the city including on the country club pass it Remains to be seen.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit.

What strikes me as interesting about this particular development is how the RTA is trying now to frame.

This is not something that necessarily the streetcar line caters to visitors from out of town, but that this is part of a sort of regional transportation plans.

First time they've actually, talked about the streetcar line in that way.

We're bringing back bus fares in Kansas City after offering them for free for so long.

Yeah.

There is a concern that we should, for equity purposes now, start charging for the streetcar.

Did that plan go anywhere?

Eric.

I think is still on the table, is still in a discussion behind the scenes.

They need to do something to generate revenue for that department.

So I wouldn't be surprised if they figured out a way to do it.

I know the business owners along those routes will be glad that that's happening, because maybe to lower their taxes a little bit.

So we'll see what happens with that.

Charlie, we can expect details about the streetcar, but you did have an interesting story this week to actually say it is on time and actually under budget.

Yeah, the city was definitely excited about that and patting itself on the back saying it's got a, project team that was able to get this done on time and under budget.

Still, though, I mean, the budget's $350 million.

It's a big check, too, right?

And, so they saved some money.

less than 10% under budget, you know, but.

Still want it, like $7 million.

Yeah, that's is that $7 million Chris Katz they can now give to City Hall.

Did you see this week that effective today there's now a hiring freeze as they worry that cash is finally running out and the city is facing a $100 million budget deficit.

What went so terribly wrong?

I'll try.

Yeah, give that to Dave.

There are, all city governments and not just, Kansas City, Missouri are facing higher prices for goods.

You know, things they used just to buy at the store to, to, and pencils and toilet paper and all the things that cities buy.

So those prices are going up in part because of inflation, tariffs, other related subjects.

Wages are going up to a certain degree.

And then in Kansas City, there is a mandated expenditure for the police department that gobbles up a huge part of the general fund.

And when you put that all together, and then there's a even a slight economic downturn and revenues don't come in quite as quickly.

That's a recipe for the same kind of problem, Nick, that I covered for 30 years at City Hall, which is we're out of money.

We need to do something.

There's you got millions of dollars in lawsuits that you're paying out of that as well.

You know, a lot of these programs that they fund that there's no accountability for those kind of things, and that'll wind up with the deficit.

One other thing that I read that was really interesting was a report, and it gave Kansas City a D grade out of 75 cities, the same way they made a lot of money off of the, NFL draft, but it's now been no money.

Come in since then.

Okay.

But they still have money for lots of things.

I saw Starlight Theater getting $3 million this week for improvements there.

Kansas City as also has money for the World Cup.

In fact, they roll out a new program this week that will offer up to $10,000 in cash and pay 80% of your rent if you take over a vacant storefront in the city, particularly ones in the areas international visitors may pass on their way to and from World Cup games.

400 businesses have already applied.

So this is popular.

Charlie.

Yeah, this is something that I guess the city sees as kind of two birds with one stone.

It gets, it makes us look really good for the World Cup.

And we have all these visitors coming, and we see all these active open businesses.

And then it also puts businesses into storefronts that that normal Kansas City fans can go spend their money at and, and support free rent.

you've got, $10,000 in cash.

What's not to like?

Oh, sure.

It's popular.

obviously with 400, interested parties looking for a piece of that pie.

Probably, what, 10% of those will probably, realize any sort of benefit out of this.

Remember one other thing that you're spending money on at City Hall, and that's $22 million, apparently, for a temporary city jail before they can build, new one.

So the cries of poverty should always be taken with a grain of salt.

but we are in a new era in city governments and county governments, across the region, which is the revenue isn't coming in the way it once did during Covid, and expenses have gone up.

Now, are you flying out of Truman?

You could be sued.

Months after the idea was first proposed, the Kansas City Council is moving forward with plans to rebrand Kansas City's new airport terminal after president Harry Truman.

They also want to spend $150,000 on a new statue of Truman inside the terminal.

I think it's great.

For Truman's legacy, something that Truman deserves given his stature as one of our country's great leaders.

I feel very strongly that, the world needs, President Truman's, example.

Now, what.

Would be the biggest upside of doing this?

I think it's just a continued celebration of Harry Truman and all this independence in Kansas City.

it doesn't change the name of Kansas City International.

So you will be flying into Casey.

I will be.

Casey.

It'll just be the Harry Truman terminal.

So it's like that airport.

It's like going to ge a field at our head.

Stadium bit.

Is there a downside?

Eric?

Probably if you're talking about laying people off, spending $150,000 on a statue, that might be a downside because that could be three employees that you're paying.

There's irony, of course.

Harry Truman took the train and, you know, he didn't fly a lot.

He went into Union Station.

but as I've talked about on other programs, Nick, I think the idea of naming the terminal after Truman reflects some ambivalence about the future of the Truman Sports Complex, because of one team or the other leaves, then you don't really have a complex.

You've got a stadium, you've got Arrowhead or whatever it is.

So I think they're sort of planning for that potential development.

It could be the Truman Sports Complex at the Superior campus.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Couldn't it be that well, I don't think Harry ever went out to Overland Park.

I could be like.

Aren't there other statues of him in independence?

Couldn't that be moved to the airport and maybe save $150,000?

I don't know.

They may want to take you on as a consultant.

Eric.

in many ways, crime is never out of the news in Kansas City.

But there are a couple of new developments worth noting.

This week, the Kansas City Police Department makes a big announcement that they're trading in patrol cars for these glorified golf carts in some parts of the city.

Eric, if you bent on causing trouble, could you easily outrun one of these?

You can never outrun a radio.

You probably could get away from them, but you probably they would probably be able to cut you off at some point in time.

What's just interesting?

What's the value of these, Charlie?

Well, I actually saw one drive driving through downtown, earlier this week.

I think it's just a value of making the police more visible, making it more accessible, making it look like they're out and about, giving them the ability to go down alleyways, maybe a little bit more than walking or driving a patrol car.

And other departments across the country have done this.

This isn't anything necessarily new, and I think the reviews have been rather mixed if you go.

But I'm amazed, though, how much how much attention this got from the news media.

Yeah, it did well and a lot of it.

A lot of that too, had to do with, a recent, incident of crime at a in a parking lot downtown, too.

I see the timing of that.

I'm not sure that was an accident or not.

Well, more seriously, though, as Kansas City hits 122 homicides, new statistics show how many of these murders are acts of domestic violence.

Now on track to be the highest in a decade.

19 women's lives lost so far this year from being pummeled by fist strangulation and getting on the wrong side of their partners and the wrong side of their gun and the explanation offered as to why domestic violence has hit a decade high.

Is a carryover from Covid.

I talked to the, Jackson County prosecutor this morning, Melissa Johnson, about the same thing carry over from Covid.

We've never really stabilized about that.

But one of the things I found interesting was housing, the lack of housing.

So people stay in abusive relationships because there's no place for them to move to.

So the shelters are most of the time filled.

And there it's a lot of things to get into those.

But I think housing is a key issue as well as people just frustrated, about the way conditions are.

And the problem with domestic violence.

Nick can be, a serious reason for the city to accelerate its jail construction because some of the inmates at the city jail, are put there for domestic violence violations.

And that, unlike murders and other more serious felonies, the misdemeanor domestic violence, problems can escalate.

So the need for a city jail for that, clientele is pretty obvious.

And, Eric mentioned the prosecutor, but she is now insisting that these domestic violence cases don't go before municipal court, where the charges may only be up to six months in jail, Max, that they be sent to her where there could be greater penalties.

Is that happening?

Yeah, as far as I know, that's happening.

Yeah.

She in Melissa Johnson has launched a new dashboard this week where you can kind of track how many domestic violence cases are coming in and what how many result in prosecution and convictions.

But as you mentioned on a recent show, to the new Jackson County Jail may not even have a room for them because that is also already now overbooked.

Yeah, it's already at capacity before it even opens up.

And so what are you going to have to do, house people in a city jail?

Well, you don't have one of those, so maybe this will have a speed or a faster process.

And getting the new city jail online.

Well, Lisa Johnson's office says there's been a 57% increase in the filing of DV cases because they're now state cases that carry a higher, punishment.

and there's also been a 13%, which I think is interesting, decline in the number of cases that were filed but weren't followed through because the victim decided to not to press charges.

There were three political stories of local interest that caught my eye this week.

Kansas legislative leaders approved $460,000 to fund a special session, tentatively scheduled to start on November 7th.

That's just three weeks from now.

We can review watch a cabinet later, right?

So why not just wait until January when everyone's back?

What's the hurry?

Couldn't they still redraw the maps in January?

I think there's a, a calculation here that if they do it in November, perhaps there will be legal challenges?

Most certainly.

And I think the thinking is maybe that this will give the court system a little bit more time and more of an opportunity to come to some sort of of decision.

There are there going to be cases that are going to challenge this new map, that it's a violation of the Kansas Constitution.

So it's going to take some time for this, I think, to go through the legal system.

I'm almost positive that's where it's added.

An update, by the way, on the map issue in Missouri this week, the national news site Politico says it looks like there won't be as much national help after all to push a referendum to block Missouri's newly redrawn congressional map, according to the influential Washington political site.

The money, attention and the party's big political stars are focused on bigger efforts.

More specifically, the major campaign to redraw California's map.

Is Missouri not considered important enough, Charlie?

Well, I suppose not.

it maybe it's just the one seat that it's flipping where California's more focused on a larger number of seats.

But also, I feel like the grassroots effort in Missouri are strong enough.

Well, maybe they don't need the national money.

We already know that group gathering signatures to force a voter referendum on the redistricting map had more than 100,000 signatures.

But the new Missouri attorney general this week, Katherine Hannah Way, filing suit to say that the referendum is unconstitutional.

Right.

And, so the courts will be the place, as, Chris suggests, in Missouri, to fight some of this out.

you know, we should make it clear that if there is a successful petition drive absent a court order, this might suspend the new map and allow Emanuel Cleaver to run again in 2026, which he apparently wants to do.

So this story is still being told and will be told, by the way, next, winter in the, both legislatures.

This is a story, by the way, that also deserved a few more facts than it got.

And it's making news again this week.

And that was the firing of the head of the Eisenhower Museum, because apparently in the report, he refused to hand over a sword that the Trump administration wanted a gift to King Charles.

Well, while our Republican senators are being blasted for not standing up for the museum chief in Kansas, why no comment from leading Kansas Democrats?

No comments from Sharice Davis, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly refusing to comment on it.

So is there more to this story?

Charlie?

I think there's more to every story.

Yeah, there's always more to his story.

Sharice Davids says, well, the the the, library is not in my district, so I'm not going to comment on something outside of now.

And my I'm not you know, we're in this a 24 seven news cycle after all this time, there's still not one more word about that.

And nobody.

You know.

Strike.

Well, let's be clear.

Nick, if you commented every day on the, outrageous decisions of the Trump administration, we'd all drop over from exhaustion.

I mean, it's an hourly occasion.

And and, you know, Kansas enjoys the Eisenhower Museum, but it doesn't really have a stake in it other than it's here in Abilene.

So I'm not sure that, I think there is more to the story, but it's a story that's more national, really, than local.

Now we need the same thing.

If if the Eisenhower Museum were in Pennsylvania, you know, and they asked for the sword, I think we'd pay attention that way.

Now, when you put a program like this together where you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines, what was the big local story we missed?

What a difference a week makes.

The Chiefs defy the critics, and Mahomes makes history as the fastest quarterback to make 300 touchdown passes.

The death penalty back in the news as Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe presides over his first execution land, Shockley dies by lethal injection 20 years after he was arrested in the killing of a State Patrol trooper.

The Kansas Young Republicans disbanded after a leak of hateful, racist messages.

Attorney General Kris Kobach fires his communications aide in what is now a national scandal.

Child safety tops the local headlines as a nine year old is killed while riding a bike to school at a Leawood fourth grader in critical condition after being hit by a truck while riding his scooter.

The Truman Museum closed for a third week as the government shutdown continues, thousands of local federal workers are furloughed without pay.

And don't worry, Bobby is still on the way.

Bonus Springs signing off on a development agreement that will bring a Mattel theme park to Wyandotte County.

It will feature a Hot Wheels roller coaster, full size Barbie Land and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Attractions.

All righty, Eric, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Barbie.

Right?

Hot Wheels I'm a Hot Wheels person.

yeah, I just the the government shut down.

And federal employees here that's in this area.

That's not work.

And they're just caught in the middle of a political battle.

that's really not a battle.

You negotiate.

Everybody come in a room, hash it out, get it worked out, get the government open and give people paychecks.

We're all in again.

Chris gets.

the Rashi rice return, to the Chiefs is an interesting one to me.

Certainly, Chiefs fans are excited because he's back and he's another offensive weapon.

But but this is a guy who was involved in a pretty serious situation, a high speed chase on a busy freeway in a big city.

that could have been a whole lot worse than it turned out to be.

Not that it wasn't bad, but it sure could have been worse.

Charlie, I went to the Blue Valley School District, where they fired a teacher this week who had touched a student and kind of a restraining but consoling manner and just kind of highlights how, some of the rules maybe aren't as black and white as they're written down in the policy handbook.

The teacher had tons of of parents in her corner supporting her and trying to convince them.

What I found interesting about that.

And at a time when it's hard to get people to go to anything, a lot of parents going to a school board meeting.

Yeah.

The engagement is always, amazing to me.

Absolutely.

Dave, teachers are not paid enough, by the way, just so that in today, as we take the show, October 16th is the 25th anniversary of the crash of Mel Carnahan's plane.

he was running for the Senate against John Ashcroft.

It was a tragedy.

Of course.

It was the most intense week I've spent in covering politics in 45 years.

but it's also now we understand an inflection point in Missouri politics where really the Democratic Party in Missouri, began to fade into a definite minority status with the Carnahan, disaster.

And so we should think about that and think about how politics has changed in Missouri since that that, great story back in 20, 2000 year or 2000, if.

You remember, we hosted the last debate, the debate between Mel Carnahan, the governor of Missouri, and John Ashcroft.

And he would go on the plane right afterwards.

Yeah.

I think one of the last interviews he ever did was with us.

And of course, he was part of that debate, which, the eyes of the state were tuned upon.

Fox two News in Saint Louis has done a half hour documentary on the Carnahan crash.

I was happy to participate, and I invite viewers to go look at it and remember what a time it was in Missouri politics and.

Watch kids on bikes.

There's two kids this way.

yes.

And a 70 by going to school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Watch these kids on bikes, please.

And on that, we will say a week has been reviewed courtesy of channel 40 One's Charlie Keegan and Channel Nine's Chris Katz from next page Casey, Eric Wesson and news icon Dave Helling.

A reminder next week, the two candidates who want to succeed Tyrone Garner as the mayor of Wyandotte County in Kansas City, Kansas, will be with us.

The future of the Dot, the highest issue on the ballot locally coming up in November.

We have those candidates coming your way, next week on this program.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.