And I think by the end of the year, we will have something on the table that will be just as good, if not better than Kansas.

The Missouri governor in town on a rescue mission to save the sports stadiums is a new plan now on the way.

Matt Lucas back in the national spotlight as he takes a call from the president.

We lift up the hold on to mammoth development projects now underway on both sides of state line.

Out.

Is this really the deadliest year on the roads in Kansas City history?

Weekend review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, RSM Dave Vin, Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlise Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Myers and Bank of America, N.A.

Co Trustees at the restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haynes, and it is great to have you with us on our journey through the week's most impactful, curious and downright head scratching news stories of our week on the weekly review bus.

With us this week from KC.

While Radio news director Lisa Rodriguez and regional politics tracker Brian Ellison from our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, Casey, Eric Wesson and former Kansas City star newsman and political analyst Dave Helling.

Now, Missouri Governor Mike Parson began a rescue mission this week to save Kansas City sports stadiums.

The Republican governor was in town meeting with Mayor Quinton Lucas, Jackson County Executive Frank White and members of the Clay County Commission.

Parson says he's already met with representatives from both teams.

Is visit comes nearly three weeks after a vote in Kansas that dangled billions of dollars in front of the chiefs and royals to lure them across the state line.

But what did we learn from all this high level diplomacy?

Was there any progress made, Lisa?

A new plan hatched?

Or are we still back at square one?

I don't think we have any details about a plan.

This is still a rising story after all the headlines.

There's no firm plan.

But we do know a couple of key things.

One, that the governor intends to treat these teams as two separate entities, not package them together as as Jackson County taxpayers have been have been paying before for both of the teams together in the sports complex.

We also learned that not everyone is still fully on board with.

As we learned, there is still hesitation from Jackson County executive Frank White about getting a deal that benefits his taxpayer.

We learned that the governor is interested in pursuing options that maybe don't require legislative support.

So we're getting some details, but they were not close to having a plan.

Yes, that was interesting.

The governor said again that we can do this without getting any legislative support.

That seems an odd thing.

How would he actually do that, Brian?

I think that's a great mystery.

There's it's not really clear what money he's talking about.

I will say there is a huge state budget surplus at the moment in Missouri.

So there there are some funds there.

But perhaps he's talking about state economic development funds, which probably have the kind of the loosest the fewest parameters limiting their use.

But of course, that would depend on who the governor is if they're spent while Mike Parson is still governor, that's one thing.

But we already know that some of the Republican candidates to succeed him have said they won't spend a dollar of state money to keep professional sports teams in town.

So we're not sure how that's going to play out.

Rather than moving forward, did we take two or three steps back this week?

Dave, I did notice that the governor was meeting with members of the Clark County Commission, the mayor of North Kansas City.

It's been months since we heard they were part of the mix.

Are we going back to thinking about a stadium north of the river?

We should, in part because of this meeting, also because there are hints that the Merryman family, which was heavily involved in the Clark County site, is connected with Byrnes and Mack.

And there were some meetings at Byrnes and McDonnell involving the governor.

So we should definitely consider that a potential option.

And frankly, it might be more sellable in the legislature if you went to Clay County than maybe Jackson County, which is highly Democratic, as we know.

There are mechanisms that Governor Parson could use, including the Missouri Development Finance and Finance Board, that he could offer tax credits, sellable tax credits that could raise a lot of money.

But certainly not as much money as we're talking about for new stadiums for the Royals, a new stadium that he says we could match not only Kansas probably better than now.

And it's almost impossible, Nick, to see how that might be done without legislative approval.

I mean, that's just an enormous amount of money over many, many years.

And by the time the legislature takes it up, of course, Mike Parson will be an afterthought.

I had two takeaways.

One, his comment that they would have something together by the end of the year and Kansas was able to do it in a week.

But what I found probably the most interesting and disturbing was county executive Frank White and his statement about making sure that taxpayers were represented.

Yet he's sitting on $75 million that is going to go back to the federal government with the COVID relief money.

I don't see the connection where he connects his concern for the community and taxpayers with his actions.

Well, the lawmakers in the Jackson County legislature are still looking to bypassing putting a ballot measure on the ballot this November, at least a ballot measure for the chiefs.

And that's the the willingness to separate those and make it instead of that three eight cent sales tax that covers both teams of 316 cent tax for the Chiefs could really change the dynamic.

I feel like we're sort of at the kind of the middle school dating phase of this courtship.

You know that as he is he looking over here?

I think he's interested.

Maybe I shouldn't get too interested.

You know, the governor's very sort of offhand remark that he's not too worried about Kansas at this point.

I think he might protest too much.

We've spent 6 minutes talking about this.

And so actually, there's no news to report, Dave.

We will talk about it again, because I do think there was word this week, Nick, that there might be another election, not in November, but maybe next year.

The split of the royals and the Chiefs is very interesting because there seems to be far less interest in providing subsidies for the royals than for the football team.

That's true in Kansas and Missouri.

It seems as if the royals are a bit of an afterthought, which is interesting in part because the Royals are a much bigger generator of revenue than the Chiefs.

The chiefs play ten times a year.

The Royals play 80.

So that that those dynamics remain in place.

Well, lost in all the coverage of Parson's visit this week was the fact that he was actually here to sign into law new tax incentives that will double the size of Kansas City's nuclear weapons facility in south Kansas City.

The plant, operated by Honeywell, makes 80% of the components used in the country's nuclear weapons arsenal, though they're quick to say they are the non-nuclear bits.

The plant is about to add another 2000 workers.

That's on top of the 7000 people who are already there.

Outside of the occasional arrests of peaceful protests, incentives would incense, by the way, by Kansas City's role in nuclear weapons production.

We know very little about the plant.

Does that seem odd, given they now have to be one of the largest employers in Kansas City?

I think it is odd, although it's the kind of work.

This is a company that has one client, right?

It's the U.S. government.

So they're not establishing brand recognition.

But you're right, they are an important financial piece of financial stability for the region.

That probably is outsized for the amount of attention they get.

You know, I think a lot of folks wonder why there wasn't opposition to these these tax incentives.

And I think the reality is that there was no one to oppose them.

Democrats who dominate the Kansas City delegation are are, of course, in favor of something that benefits the Kansas City area.

Republicans are loathed to oppose corporate tax incentives.

And so this was this was kind of a no brainer for the legislature this time around.

And, of course, Governor Parson signed it.

Now, getting more attention is another big plant that's getting huge incentives in our metro.

Before Kansas was throwing billions of dollars at Kansas City sports team, the state was throwing $1,000,000,000 at Panasonic to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Johnson County.

Now, believe it or not, it's getting close to opening.

This is roughly a 5 million square foot facility.

Right.

It will be the largest battery factory in the world once it's operational, the largest battery plant in the world Cannot be right.

Lisa, only until the next largest battery plant in the world opens up.

I think I think with this development, unlike the last one, the Honeywell one that we talked about, where federal jobs are much more stable, you can kind of count on those a little more.

This one, we've got a lot of numbers being thrown out, 4000 jobs, 4000 jobs.

We've got hourly rates between 20 and $30.

This is all I will believe it when I see it scenario.

None of this was was written down and agreed upon prior to the incentives being granted.

And so, like any big economic plan that has all these large numbers to throw out, you take it all with a grain of salt.

This one, I think, is a much bigger risk.

And yes, there is development happening.

You can see a massive shell of a building happening.

And if and when those jobs come through will be a huge economic impact in DeSoto.

But I hold out any any sort of determination yet until I see the jobs, particularly when we think about what's just happened with Cerner on the Missouri side with all of the tax incentives went into that, all the promises of jobs and growth, and now they're just sort of disappearing slowly and slowly.

What would stop that happening with the Panasonic, with changing the economy, changing the nature of electric vehicle technology?

I agree in your in my head, because I thought immediately about Cerner and all the pie in the sky things that they offered.

Now it's got a different owner.

A couple of things related to this development that are important for Kansas City to keep an eye on.

One is energy consumption.

The energy needs of this plant are going to be humongous.

The other thing to keep an eye on, I think NEC about the Panasonic plant in particular is waste disposal contamination.

I mean, making batteries is is not an extraordinarily clean procedure.

And I think the state and for that matter of Johnson County will have to keep a very close eye on waste disposal at that.

Can we go back to Cerner for a second?

I remember I remember when that idea was being pitched to people and they got the support for it.

It was going to be economic development around, there was going to be housing.

And if you look at it right now, they got a Taco Bell, a hotel and a bank and you still got all that undeveloped area.

So that was a big bust.

And people aren't really talking about it.

But that was some people need to answer for that.

I know I jealously guard the time we spend on this program looking strictly at local issues, but sometimes the biggest national stories collide with what's happening here.

This week, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas took a call from President Biden.

Has he just been offered a new job in D.C.?

Not quite.

He was asked to join big city mayors in a Zoom call with the president, who is still desperate to reassure leading Democrats that he's up to the job.

While there were around 200 man on the call, published reports say Lucas was one of only three.

To ask a question, though it was nothing probing, Lucas wanted to know how he could help the president's campaign and frankly, for a conversation that took place between eight and 8:30 p.m., he was vigorous.

He was engaged.

He was waiting.

He was putting.

It was everything you'd expect.

Wow.

Glowing reports from the mayor.

Lucas, is that the equivalent of the student giving the teacher a shiny red apple?

Lisa Maybe you could see it that way.

I think the, you know, rumors have been circulated that for a long time that that Mayor Lucas is angling for a job in the Biden administration.

So certainly he has something to to gain by continuing to be on Biden's side and and outwardly express support for him.

Now, if Joe Biden were to withdraw from the race, as we do this program right now, he says he's still in, However, anything can happen as we know it can in politics.

Would Quinton Lucas be one of the biggest local losers if Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in to run for president?

They know each other.

They're familiar with each other.

He could probably still be on the list.

Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to think that that that Mayor Lucas would not accept a position in the Harris administration, the Buddha judge administration, the Whitmer administration, the Newsom administration.

I think that's that's fair to assume.

How about the Dave Helling administration?

Again, if you if elected, I will not serve.

But let me just say quickly, shoot.

The bigger problem for Quentin Lucas isn't the Buddha judge administration, it's the Trump administration.

And if he left his job now in Kansas City to join Biden in any capacity, that might be a 90 or a 120 day job before he would be removed in favor of the Republicans who potentially could take over the White House.

So I'm sure that's part of his calculus.

I do think it's important, though, you've highlighted the fact that Quinton Lucas asked that question on the call, but I think any of 100 different mayors would have asked the same question.

The fact is that the mostly Democratic mayors of America's big cities are all going to support whoever the current nominee is, and they're going to do that outwardly and visibly and be part of the campaign.

And Mayor Lucas is not unique.

Can I just say one other quick thing?

I have covered City Hall since the mid 1980s.

Every mayor, everywhere except Mark Funkhouser, has been rumored to want a place in the federal administration.

Kay Barnes.

Emanuel Cleaver was going to leave eight or nine times.

Sly James was going to leave.

Dick Burkley was rumored to be a favorite of George W Bush, George H.W.

Bush.

So this is a common, common thing.

But if Mayor Lucas were to go, he still has to have Senate approval and that approval has to come from his own senators.

And I just don't see Josh Hawley and Eric's mitt giving him a thumbs up to come in to be a part of the administration.

One of the interesting things to me about this current Biden doom loop that we seem to be in currently is this concern that it's going to hurt House, as we're told, and Senate Democrats going down the ballot.

And that's going to be the big pain point here.

But is there any suggestion that Emanuel Cleaver or Sharice Davids are in jeopardy as a result of concerns or.

My own analysis is that Sharice Davids, for example, in the third district in Kansas, is in office in large part because of Donald Trump, because the people of the third District, Johnson County voters in particular, are not fond of the former president.

And if he's at the top of the Republican ticket, I don't think she's in any danger at all.

And I think the same argument argument could be made for Emanuel Cleaver.

What's the big event that happens on Monday?

Yes, the Republican National Convention gets underway in Milwaukee.

And guess what?

It could have been us.

Cast your mind.

Back three years ago, Kansas City leaders were announcing plans to bid on the 2024 GOP convention, and Mayor Luke has said it would be the ideal event to showcase Kansas City's new airport and the city's growing attractions.

So it's the sort of thing that major cities do.

We make sure that we're the types of folks that can help host major events.

And I think Kansas City will be able to do it well within weeks of saying the city is all in, Lucas pulls out.

Remember why we said no to that after just weeks of getting in?

Yeah.

The mayor and others said, We've got other things to worry about.

The World Cup and the NFL draft, the NFL draft and other things.

I think the real answer, Nick, is twofold.

First, it's Donald Trump and the idea of bringing him to Kansas City, I think concerned a lot of local leaders, not just the mayor.

But second, conventions are disrupt is expensive.

They are not as lucrative as people think they are.

It's not like businesses, Restaurants make a killing when conventions come to town.

And yet yet the local organizing committee has to raise tens of millions of dollars to provide security and a lot of things free of charge.

By the way, to the Republicans or the Democrats, for that matter.

This is a bipartisan deal.

It's a real hassle.

And I think the people in Kansas City decided, nope, we don't want to.

At the time, though, I remember that they'd said we would be open to doing this in 2028, which would be a very different political landscape.

It's possible, but I think some of the same arguments apply.

They are financially lucrative only for a very limited segment of the local economy, the hotel rooms they sell.

But much like the NFL draft, a lot of the revenue is focused confined to a particular area, much like major sporting events.

I will say, though, the other problem is that there just isn't that strong a Republican infrastructure in the Kansas City metro area.

The Jackson County Republicans have been in disarray for for quite some time.

You know, the state party obviously has some infrastructure and would step in.

But but I think this is a heavy lift for Republican convention.

This party can't even elect a slate of delegates to its convention this year.

Right.

Imagine the mess that would go forward if they tried to bring the full.

I'd add the difference in 2028 is that at that point, the World Cup will have already come and gone from Kansas City.

And I do think that in hindsight, not going after the Republican National Convention is probably the right choice because all of the city and the region's efforts need to be poured into World Cup planning, which will be an absolutely massive event.

And frankly, at this point, I'm I want more details about what is happening on that planning front because I pulling it off will be a massive challenge by then will be bidding on the Olympics.

I mean, I think that, you know, these conventions used to be we would see a lot of our local figures on these big primetime slots during the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Will we see Josh Hawley or Roger Marshall in Kansas or Michael Foot, our new Missouri congressman in primetime tonight?

It's going to be Newsweek reporting.

But I think Josh Hawley is not going to be a part of this of primetime exposure at the Republican convention.

Nick, I covered 14 of them.

They're not anywhere near what they used to be in terms of viewer interest or or importance to the party, really absent either disruption is which are always possible or in the case of Joe Biden backing out.

Yeah, that could be a hell of a convention to cover.

But if that doesn't happen, I think they're much more about the TV show and the fact that Emanuel Cleaver or Josh Hawley will be or not be on the stage is probably relatively irrelevant.

While a relentless wave of homicides continues to get headlines in Kansas City, are we about to break the record for the deadliest year in history on our roads?

Police say excessive speeds, lack of seatbelts and an increase in impaired drivers are to blame for a massive rise in traffic fatalities.

But could less traffic enforcement be to blame?

The Kansas City Star has been digging through the numbers and finds that in 2014, Kansas City police issued more than 220,000 traffic citations last year under 50,000.

Is that really the reason or is there something more to it, Eric?

Cell phones.

You had cell phones back in 2014.

Yeah, but we weren't as engaged in them as we were as we are now.

You are.

You eat, sleep and drink.

What's in your cell phones?

A lot of people do.

Not everybody, but I think cell phones, the fact that they don't have enough police officers, that was the other part of that report.

This is the CP says the lack of tickets is the staffing issue in 2020.

That was 73 officers Lisa assigned to the department's traffic division.

Today there are 52 and many of those officers have been asked to work.

Homicide investigations and other duties Is the police department just got more pressing concerns?

I think that's part of it, and I think enforcement is part of this overall issue.

But I also think since the pandemic, we have seen a rise in reckless driving, all of the things we said before, impaired driving, speeding.

And I think that's something that needs more study.

What happened in in drivers brains during the pandemic that when we returned to the roads, we did so more recklessly?

Yeah, I think there's another factor at play as well, Nick, and there's been some reporting on that this week from the Kansas City Beacon, which showed that a huge percentage of the accidents causing fatalities in Kansas City occurred on the same ten streets in the city and that some of this may come down to the simply the design of the roads in Kansas City.

And so that brings about turning to solutions, some of which we've talked about on this program before a return of red light cameras, possibly introducing more roundabouts, which are part of the Northland right now, but but less common in the rest of the city and, of course, more of the infamous road diets that people don't really love.

But reducing those four lane roads to two lane roads with a turn lane and slowing down traffic.

There are cynics who would suggest that one of the reasons, Nick, for fewer tickets is that the police department is not interested in raising revenue for the city of Kansas City and that this in essence is a bit of blue flu where they write fewer tickets, pull people off of patrol, providing less money for the general fund to as a way to express displeasure for the attempt from Quinton Lucas and others to cut the budget a couple of years.

There's also the concern over racism and whether just giving out tickets on random smaller offenses could be viewed negatively by the black community, and that would cause more problems.

So it's all of those things together.

But I would just suggest that focusing on enforcement misses the bigger picture, which I think Lisa talked about, and that is that you can't put a police officer on every corner or every street or every stoplight or every stop sign.

And until people slow down and pay attention to what they're doing, reckless driving will be a part of our community.

And she's exactly right.

I wrote about this in the paper after COVID people came out to their cars and thought, Well, hell, we don't have to follow the speed limit anymore.

There's been COVID so we can drive 90 miles an hour down the road.

And that continues.

And until that attitude change, the changes, other enforcement measures may not be quite as successful.

Now, I hope you still got all your fingers and toes after lighting fireworks over the 4th of July holiday.

Believe it or not, some people find even more hazardous ways to celebrate, like shooting their guns in the air over Independence Day.

Kansas City police tracked 280 rounds of gunfire across the city.

Two houses were struck by bullets.

Now, Missouri Governor Mike Parson has signed into law a new ban on what is known as celebratory gunfire called Blair's law.

It's named in honor of Blair Shanahan Lane, the 11 year old who was killed by a stray bullet in his Kansas City during a 4th of July celebration in 2011.

Now, I know this law has been a long time coming, but will it really change human behavior?

I don't believe so.

It's been illegal to fire off a gun in the city limits anyway.

So to Blair's law, it's only effective if they catch you.

If they don't catch you, then it's just another law that's on the books.

Now, just having a ban in place actually change anything.

Is it just increased penalties if you are caught?

I think that is the question.

I mean, there are some pretty strict penalties in place if the law is enforced.

But I agree with Eric.

I think that's the question.

We just had the 4th of July.

There's a ban on fireworks in Kansas City, Missouri.

And if you live in Kansas City, you know that that law isn't enforced at all.

I think will will police track down those gunshots?

I think that remains to be seen.

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?

Remember all the outrage over property assessments in Jackson County?

The issue is back in court this week as a judge decides whether Jackson County officials acted illegally.

A verdict isn't expected until August.

This is big.

Baseball's All-Star Game is next weekend for Kansas City Royals.

Players have made the cut.

The game is Tuesday in Texas.

Lots of winter coats, gloves and scarves spotted in Independence this week as filming officially gets underway on the new Chiefs Christmas movie.

The Hallmark Channel says holiday touchdown will air in December.

Kansas City losing its power to stop evictions.

The governor signing a ban on eviction moratoriums.

It's one of the few remaining powers local governments have left to respond to during public health emergencies.

So was there no ballot box crime?

After all?

The Johnson County sheriff calling off his long running election fraud investigation.

And a year after its opening Travel and Leisure magazine ranking cases, the sixth best airport in the nation, by the way, Minneapolis taking the number one spot.

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

You know, I had something different.

But but you've reminded me that Jackson County tax assessment lawsuit is huge.

The tax assessment for years has been kind of this slow moving disaster or with all of these appeals, a record number of appeals this last time around.

If the county has to do some reassessing, if they are found to have to have mess to have conducted this incorrectly, then it's a huge amount of work to redo and it affects people across the city.

Brian, I'm going to go with baseball neck, I think for all stars and not just that the royals had four all stars and Bobby Witt Junior in the Home Run derby even.

But but the fact that they are contending.

If the season were to end today, they would be in the postseason and a wild card spot.

This is a political story as well as a sports story because I'm long on record that part of the problem the royals faced with this stadium proposal was that the fans didn't believe that their heart was really in it, that they were putting an on field product that was worthy of their trust.

And I think this is not inconsequential that the team is doing so much better and of course, we're all pulling for it.

Eric, I said the airport being the sixth best in the nation.

To talk a lot about the property tax mess in Jackson County.

But property taxes are a concern everywhere, particularly in Wyandotte County where there are very high in the government over there just said, look, we're not going to raise the mill levy or the tax levy for most homeowners at all, because a lot of homeowners complained about where my youngest son works for the unified government in Wyandotte County.

And now they're looking at budget cuts as a result of that order to keep taxes down because residential property taxes are still very high in that county.

And all that we will say all week has been revealed courtesy of Casey Wells, Lisa Rodriguez and Eric Weston of next page.

Casey Casey was Brian Allison and former star news man Dave Helling.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.