It's now official.

The Kansas City Council greenlighting a new reparations commission.

The clock's now ticking.

How should Kansas City make amends to black residents?

Airbnb now heading to a ballot box near you.

But should they be taxed the same way as hotels?

Missouri now at the center of a national dress code drama.

Do women lawmakers have the right to bear arms?

Those stories and the rest of the week's most impactful, confusing and befuddling local stories straight ahead.

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

Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Cortney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H Mize and Bank of America Co Trustees and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and thank you for joining us on our weekly journey through the News of our Week on the Week in Review Bus this week lifting up the hold on life in our state capitals from KCUR news.

Brian Allison tracking our latest local news trends on KCMO talk radio.

Pete Mundo Always on call from the Call newspaper Eric Wesson and from our own digital newsroom here at Kansas City, PBS Mary Sanchez.

Now, the clock is now ticking on reparations in Kansas City.

In a week in which we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

Kansas City is now moving forward with plans to compensate black residents for slavery, Jim Crow and decades of segregation.

We are not at the bottom because we're deficient.

We are behind because of the starting position forced upon us.

Kansas City will follow the city of Evanston, Illinois, which has already approved giving up to $25,000 to qualifying black households.

We had a documentary about it this week.

The city of Evanston has pledged to give reparations to black residents.

This is American history.

We want cash payments.

Give us what we're doing.

I don't know why they.

Would be giving more status than any other group of people.

It was a crime, but no one paid the price.

Now, that was the big payback we ran earlier this week here on PBS.

But let's focus back on Kansas City.

After a big vote last week.

The city has 90 days to form what is being officially called the Mayor's Commission on Reparations.

The 13 person panel has not yet been chosen.

There's a lot of chatter about this on social media, but what does this do and what doesn't it do?

Isn't it just a study, Eric?

Yes, it does.

It gives a they already have a summary report which talks about things like hormone ownership.

It talks about businesses and talks about crime and those things and several other health care is another thing that's on the agenda.

But what they'll do with that is they'll formula write something and then present it.

And in some cases maybe voters will be able to vote on it or the city council will be able to decide.

But Sanford, Cisco came up with a very large plan because they had decided that they wanted to give out the black residents.

They could identify with it.

$5 million.

So that's that's a very large threshold.

And it kind of oversees what they did in Evanston.

Who decides, Mary, though, if there are reparations and who actually gets them?

I was looking back on the Evanston one, it's $25,000.

It could only be used on things like home repairs and down payments on homes.

But also on that it has to be you have to have lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969.

That's a very restrictive period of time.

So people in there, you know, who are older than that or younger than that, rather, will not get a penny.

Yeah.

And that's that's going to be part of the conversation going forward.

Is that this is the very, very beginning of this.

We don't know if or what Kansas City will do at all.

So I think it's kind of ridiculous to kind of start arguing about what might happen or might not happen.

Kansas City has a lot of needs.

Some people say, well, where's the money going to come from?

In Evanston, Illinois, In that documentary, they said it was coming from their marijuana tax.

Pete We have a marijuana tax on the ballot in April.

Is this a good source for putting that money?

Well, the mayor has alluded to where the marijuana tax would go and reparations was not a part of it.

So seems unlikely that that would happen right now.

But who knows?

I mean, they could just come back and say, you know, an apology is appropriate.

We don't really know.

So it's all speculation.

But to Erick's point, San Francisco set that bar high, $5 million, a person wiping out all personal debt.

It's going to cost a lot.

Obviously, it's not going to happen, but it's going to cost $50 billion.

That's over three times San Francisco City's budget.

So we're talking about numbers that are in no way feasible and a great way to set race relations back decades.

Possibly.

There will be lawsuits.

And I'm wondering about what would happen at the state legislative level.

We heard this week that there was an effort, for instance, to block systemic racism from being taught in schools in the Missouri legislature this week.

Will there be an effort to say cities cannot provide reparations?

And a new law coming from Missouri on that?

Certainly the Missouri General Assembly has shown a willingness in the past to tell individual cities what they can and cannot do.

I think it is important to acknowledge the different context of the Illinois system where Evanston is or the San Francisco context.

The reality, I think, is that this will be settled not in the legislature, Nick, but in the courts.

I think there will certainly be legal challenges to whatever is implemented in Kansas City if it involves payments to some people and not others.

Hispanics, Asian-Americans have been discriminated against.

What if you mixed race marry?

Well, absolutely.

I mean, and that's kind of like a broader conversation.

I think this is a real opportunity to really understand our own community and how it grew.

Is it going to cost more understanding the world, more division?

Well, it depends on how you play this.

I mean, it doesn't.

Education should never necessarily cause division.

Of course it's going to cause division.

The money doesn't grow off of trees.

It comes from the taxpayer.

The taxpayer paying potential reparations.

We're not talking about that yet.

Our taxpayers, that 90 plus percent of them had nothing to do with any of the things we're talking about.

Correct.

Their families may not have been here.

They may be mixed race.

They may be first generation Americans.

They're in no way.

That is money.

We don't even know that.

Divide in the country.

You benefited from racism.

You benefited from your first generation American.

And you came here from South America.

You know that.

You're not if you're not a first generation, that would be an exception to the rule.

But if you look at people, the Rockefellers, whatever that is, Nelson Museum and those places Art Gallery.

Would be paying for this.

Their ancestors would be the ones that benefit.

In Kansas, they have no idea I have encountered them.

But that's where the disconnect is, because people of the majority society will say, Well, we didn't have anything to do with it because we weren't there.

Okay, where you weren't, But you benefited from an education wise.

You went to schools where they had good books.

We used torn raggedy books in our schools.

So you benefited from it?

Indirectly, if not directly.

The devil has always been in the details, in reparations conversations.

It's always gets bogged down so much in who's going to get the money and how much they're going to get and what it's going to be used for.

That we never do anything.

The goal of this commission, it seems, is that is to try to find a way forward.

What do you do with white families whose whose families and ancestors may have fought to free slaves?

What do you do with families who may have fought for civil rights, who may have suffered some type of family tragedy over that?

Where do you draw the line on this?

And no one's got a good answer.

Well, they have 90 days to put the study together.

And unfortunately, we have a lot of other topics on this program, but we will revisit this.

Many of us love to go to other cities and oftentimes save money by renting an Airbnb.

But how would you feel if you live next door to one?

It's becoming such a huge irritant for many local residents.

Kansas City is now putting the issue on the ballot for you to decide.

Now.

You know it's a stranger every other weekend.

No longer should it be that people have to deal with issues relating to Airbnbs and get no.

Answer from City Hall.

Now, if you live in Kansas City this April, you will be asked to decide two ballot questions.

One would be to add a seven and a half cent tax on Airbnb stays the same tax hotel guests pay now, and you'll also be asked to approve a separate $3 a night occupancy fee.

Hotels will be required to pay that too.

That seems to be awfully strong focus.

You're on money.

Help us out here.

Is this really about addressing the concerns of people who live next door to one of these short term rentals?

Or is it about finding a new source of cash for City Hall?

Eric A new source of cash for City Hall to tell us that they're going to take the money and repair streets.

I am so sick of hearing that conversation about that's what they're going to do with the money.

And the streets are still a mess.

So it creates another avenue for them to get some more money.

But the mayor says this will be paid for by visitors who are staying at these Arab and bees and other short term rental companies.

So why should we care?

We won't have to be paying this fee if we're not staying in them in Kansas City because nobody.

The problem is enforcement and of the Airbnb parties that are happening.

Right.

So I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say anywhere, which is not that I agree with Eric, although I do.

We we've agreed before I agree with Councilman Eric Bunch, which I never thought I'd say.

He said, the money is great, but you got to enforce it.

And if you don't enforce it, great.

It's another dollar a night for someone coming down from Omaha.

That doesn't mean anything.

How are you bettering the neighborhoods that are being impacted by these short term rentals?

Absolutely.

I mean, that that was my number one point about all of this is that how are you going to possibly monitor this and really talk about what is the real problem?

I mean, there's the money grab because it's an opportunity.

There was a lot of missed tax revenue which was brought out by an auditor's report.

But will this really solve the problems that some of the Airbnbs have caused in communities?

Or are you going to also just create a bigger problem of, you know, little miss whoever tilde on the end of the block, always trying to say, well, that one I think is a you know, is really an Airbnb and you know who's going to monitor this.

Yeah, I think if you read the Facebook pages of different neighborhood associations in Kansas City, you will see that to them, this isn't about the money.

This is about the enforcement concerns that are being raised.

It's actually hard for opponents to make an argument that you shouldn't charge.

Airbnb is the same things that hotels and motels are already being charged, that that piece doesn't seem so controversial.

What is controversial is how freely Airbnb is are going to continue to be allowed to operate.

And then you have police that have to respond to issues that go on at the Airbnbs.

So how much of the 7% goes to them for responding to Overland Park?

Of course, they had that.

They had a killing at an Airbnb.

It was all investigated.

City Hall said they were going to do a lot about it.

Not much has happened because it is a challenging issue like reparations in how you actually go about the devil is in the details.

Last week, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly was in the spotlight with her inauguration and her on again off again COVID diagnosis that prompted her to hit the pause button on her State of the State address.

This week, it was Missouri Governor Mike Parson's turn in the limelight as he delivered his State of the State address last week.

I asked if Missouri would use some of its $6 billion in leftover pandemic money to pave I-70 and gold and expand it from here to Saint Louis.

Guess what?

I think the governor watched our show.

And we must invest to improve I-70.

For those who say we can't afford it, I say we cannot afford not to.

So the governor is listening to the program.

Well, why wouldn't he be listening?

No, seriously, I think the Democrats said something very similar.

Crystal quoted, the House minority leader from Springfield said in response to the governor's address, We're so glad the governor's been listening to our priorities for all of these years and that he wrote them into his budget this year.

There's a lot for those who want to see some of that $6 billion surplus that the state is carrying for a lot for them to celebrate as the governor wants to spend it down.

Did Mike Parson steal all of Kelly's speech this week?

Pete Mandel I was just looking through some of the other things he said.

The Republican governor, A call for action on child care shortages, tax credits for businesses who provide child care benefits, money to expand pre-K, public education.

Did one of his aides accidentally give him Laura Kelly's speech by mistake?

Possibly.

It was.

You know, it was I don't want to say bland, and I do hope there's a Nick Haines stretch of the I-70 once it gets to three lanes.

But, you know, it was education, it was infrastructure.

It was Mike Parson, I think, kind of setting a tone for what's going to be a fairly ho hum legislative session if he has his way.

It was not a robust not a guy looking at maybe the next job like what you see from other governors.

But it was blasé.

Some people don't like state of the State speeches.

Was there a big surprise for you, Eric, in that speech?

No, I think that I 70 thing I was scratching my head about that I-70.

I drive it to go home every evening and it's always been a mess.

But I thought when they gave us remember when we voted down the sales tax on gasoline and they imposed it anyway, I thought some of that money was supposed to be going toward that.

So I don't I don't make the connection of using the surplus money to do it.

And they were talking about for a stretch.

And Blue Springs, well, buy the stadiums on I-70 is always a mess during rush hour.

Traffic is just well.

As the governor listened to last week's program, perhaps he's listening to this one, too, and he will fix that for you, Mary.

Well, there's an awful lot about I-70 that's just about transportation, and that really impacts the economy.

So there's another whole conversation about why you would want to improve, you know, for the big trucks, everything, all the goods that we need delivered that we depend upon.

So there's that.

I actually think, you know, maybe it's blasé.

I hear you on that, but it's actually someone who's speaking to real needs.

I mean, childcare is a huge issue for people not being able to be fully employed in the workforce, particularly single mothers.

So to hear the governor speak to that, I applaud it.

What was he saying that because of the abortion issue?

Well, I think he's saying that because he he he has in order to see these spending priorities advanced, he has to sell them to a Republican electorate and to the Republicans in the General Assembly.

So he is framing transportation in terms of the economy.

He's framing childcare in terms of support for the workforce.

He's also committing, you know, when you add together higher education and K-12 and child care and early childhood education, about $1,000,000,000 to education, which in a lot of years a Republican governor would not be suggesting to a Republican General Assembly.

But women's groups, children's advocates came out right after the speech cheering the governor.

I think we're going to see a very different kind of session.

Who could have predicted last week that gas stovetops would become the latest flashpoint in the nation's culture wars?

And who could have predicted that what your local lawmakers wear on the floor of the Missouri legislature would become the subject of a national dress code drama with everyone from The New York Times, CNN, Britain's Daily Mail and The View all spotlighting a state spat over whether women literally have the right to bear arms.

Tempers flared in the Missouri House of Representatives yesterday over a new dress code.

You would think that all you.

Would have to do is say dress professionally and women could handle it.

We are fighting again for women's right to choose something.

And this time is whether she how she covers herself.

The idea that we have to cover ourselves to be professional is an outdated idea.

I don't mean slinky spaghetti top.

Let me tell you something.

I don't have a problem because I wouldn't show my bare arms if they water tortured me.

But already, sometimes these stories come out quickly.

Go, Pete.

And we never hear about them again.

The story about a federal government banning gas stoves, for instance, seem to disappear as fast as it became a trending social media topic.

What about this issue?

I want you to book me shirtless on The View, and that's what I want you to do.

But anyway, to your question, to your point, this was a great, brilliantly played strategy by the Missouri Democrats.

They got perfect PR promotion out of this.

You know, if you look at this came from Republican women.

This was not like, you know, Republican.

Then tell them Democrat women what to do.

It was put forth by Republican women.

It was a massive political miscalculation, mistake, blunder.

Democrats played it perfectly.

I didn't get one call supporting Republicans on this on my show all week.

It just and they played it beautifully on social media and got a lot of national attention out of it.

Brian, did anything actually change as a result of this?

Did they walk it back?

Are women now wearing different clothing than they did before, or was this just more of the proverbial mountain out of a molehill?

Well, the rules changes did pass.

That clarification was approved in the new rules package.

Here's something I don't say very often, Nick.

I agree with Pete Mundo about this.

The the this this topic is not really so much about the sartorial sagacity of female lawmakers in the Missouri General Assembly.

This is really about whether a caucus is politically savvy or politically tone deaf.

And this one got out of control for the Republicans.

The real the downside for them is that even though women proposed those changes, it's 2 to 1 men.

And so you have the spectacle of men debating what women should marry.

I want you to make it clear, I do expect men to wear jackets on this program, but I have no such rules with regarding women.

You can be better armed if you want to.

I didn't put any requirements on you, did.

I know you did not, but I actually wore this to make the point that this was part of what was discussed.

I mean, this technically is a sweater, but it's not really a.

Now, they had to change the rule to make that okay.

I thought Missouri just took the big hit in the national just frenzy of.

Well, we have forgotten about this in a week a week from now, a month.

It's ridiculous.

So many female politicians have been posting photos of themselves in lovely dresses that perhaps was a three quarter or R, but they looked fine.

They were appropriate.

They were professional.

Of all the issues in Missouri.

Yeah, we are regulated to national exposure and debate about what somebody wears.

But isn't that a fault of the media?

Because we love these types of disputes, don't we?

It kind of was kind of like a ridic harmless thing, and it kind of highlighted the fact of how out of touch our elected officials are with the needs of the people that they're elected to represent.

And not for the first time.

Nick, last year, the Senate booted one of its members off the floor because he wore overalls on the floor.

The Missouri General Assembly does sometimes have some trouble focusing on the issues that matter.

The deadline to throw your hat into the ring for the mayor of Kansas City is officially ended.

Now we know who Quinton Lucas will face when he goes before voters in April and asks for four more years in office.

It's this man, remember maverick transit activist Clay Chastain?

Well, he's back and he will be Lucas's only opponent, the only man not to win reelection in modern times is Mark Funkhouser.

Sly James won reelection with 87% of the vote.

Is there any reason to suggest Quinton Lucas won't walk away in April with a similar margin of victory?

No.

Next.

Yeah, right.

Are you going to agree with Pete?

Because we have a lot of agreement on this show this week.

Agree with Pete?

Yeah.

Yeah.

This would be a landslide at least.

Would Quintin Lucas be responding differently to issues if he had a more bigger name opponent, Mary?

Probably.

Absolutely.

I mean, he's on the cusp of being mayor while Kansas City goes through a huge international spotlight.

National and international.

You want to be the mayor for these years going forward for the next four years.

He's probably more concerned, though, about what kind of city council is going to get to work with who those folks are.

Who's running off of them are going to change because of term limits.

They're going to be forced out of the door there.

Think about.

This.

To look at the last two and a half years or so.

If you were to tell me 18 months ago that nobody would step up legitimately to challenge him, I would have said no chance COVID the summer of 2020.

And he held them off.

And he does deserve political credit for that.

Here's how confident he is.

He supported putting two additional taxes on the same ballot as the ballot where he's being reelected as mayor.

I think Mayor Lucas has has been fairly consistent about his two term plan for his service, and I think he's going to get that.

Now, for geographic equity, I should also point out that a big change is under way in Johnson County.

Last week, former Roland Park Mayor Mike Kelly was officially sworn in as the new head of Johnson County government and he's already ruffling some feathers.

You may remember that Kelly's opponent had made transparency the biggest issue in the campaign against him.

So what are we to make, Pete, of the first decision he's made as the county's top leader?

And that's to stop livestreaming public comments at the start of the county's meetings.

His critics say the move is tantamount to gagging the public.

He was on your program last week.

How did he respond to that?

Well, it was certainly and he seemed to admit as much that this was a clunky way for him to begin his tenure.

He stands by his decision, but sending out an email with a unilateral decision on a Friday night at 830 as the new guy in town was a bad idea, he admitted as much.

He's standing by his decision.

And what his point was is if you have commentary on issues that we are discussing that day, you will get your chance to say that when we get to that issue.

But the free ranging commentary beforehand is what he wanted to stop.

Right or wrong doesn't matter.

He's standing by.

It.

You know, optics matter in politics.

What message was he sending by making that his first decision, Mary?

I think it was a poor message because it was one that lacked not so much the transparency, but just not that it appeared like he wasn't going to value everyone's opinion.

The problem was, is that what really needs to be talked about is what he was trying to fix.

It was a poor fix for the problem of horrible discourse, incivility and frankly, people who stand up and just say things that are completely factual.

I think anyone who watches the livestreams of meetings and also who reads comments on social media knows that there is a high level of unhinged in this in in our public discourse.

And a lot of us are sympathetic with with with his concerns.

It's just a matter of whether this was the right way to go about it.

Now, when you put a program like this together every week, we can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

Sports dominating much of the headlines and talk around the water cooler this week.

And it's not just Chiefs fever.

K-State stands Q was it wins the Sunflower showdown.

The Royals officially kill off FanFest now a new event planned the first Saturday in February at the Cape.

Lenexa now looking for a new leader as its mayor retires after 20 years.

If you were skeptical about plans in Independence to start a four day school week, it seems to be working for them.

Teacher applications skyrocket for hundred and 56% since last month's vote.

Lawrence now also considering a four day week, but also planning to shutter three schools in a push to find cash to boost teacher pay.

Cleanup underway at Blue Valley High School after swastikas and racial epithets are discovered on Martin Luther King Day.

And it's now less than 100 days till the NFL draft comes to town.

It's being called the biggest sporting event in city history.

We renovated all of our bathrooms.

To close to one.

Point $5 million.

So all the bathrooms are new.

Last year, over.

50 million people watched that television show and now they'll be watching Kansas City.

All righty.

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

Something different, Nick.

This Tuesday, the new treasurer of the state of Missouri was sworn in.

Vivek Malik.

He is the first person of color ever to hold statewide office in Missouri.

Also significant should be pointed out that his swearing in marked a complete Republican sweep of every statewide office, including both senators.

The first time in memory that he came from India.

Right.

He's he is of Indian descent and lives in the Saint Louis area Now.

Mary.

I chose something else, but it's more just to give a little bit of a shout out to Esther George, who retired this week, as you know, after long term service as ahead of Kansas City Federal Reserve.

And just for her example of rising to the top of female literacy in finances.

Eric Chris Jones will have a phenomenal Saturday afternoon when the Kansas City Chiefs face the Jacksonville Jaguars.

I actually thought you were going to pick the bathrooms.

You stationed there?

How you want me to go there this weekend?

Because he was so happy that they replaced him.

All right.

He tie it all together.

Another Ticketmaster debacle this week with this potential AFC championship game neutral site game, which is an absolute joke in Atlanta, posing small businesses potentially in Kansas City.

Ticketmaster fails the people.

The NFL fails the people.

But on a good note, your favorite musician, Little John, is performing at halftime of the AFC divisional round matchup at Arrowhead.

I've seen that Spotify playlist.

All right.

Not we will say our week has been reviewed thanks to the Colts.

Eric Weston and KC was Brian Ellison from Flatland, our Kansas City PBS Digital NEWSROOM.

Mary Sanchez.

And 6 to 10 weekdays on KC about talk radio Pete Monday.

And before we leave you we have an event you might be interested in.

This doesn't happen often.

Next Thursday night, we're heading to the Kansas City Plaza Library as we join forces with the Citizens Association to bring you the full measures.

Yes, we're bringing the old gang back together again.

Sly James Kay Bonds, Emanuel Cleaver and Mark Funkhouser.

Lift up the hood on city hall and we have a seat waiting for you.

We'll be taping the event for later broadcast.

You can be there in person.

It's next Thursday at 6 p.m..

I look forward to seeing you from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well.

Keep calm and carry on.