The road to the white House fina through.

Casey and I came out of nowhere.

The surprise site now being proposed for a new Royal S And how is it going to work?

Is Jackson County lawmakers vote this week to place a Chiefs only tax on the November ballot?

I think people are going to star to realize like, this is our last shot here for t Also, this half hour rising ange Break-Ins, the new battle over d And this is unexpected.

Get ready for the big street shu Weekend review is made possible through the generous support of and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable John H. Mize, and Bank of America Na Co 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 you could join us on our weekly journey through the most and sometimes just downright hea scratching news stories in Kansa And as we were hosting a special edition of the program with the police chief, the prose the Jackson County Sheriff, and League CEO, Gwen Grant, we're go to give you two weeks in review for the price of one this half h So talking twice as fast and with insights as KMBC primetime news anchor Chris Ketz and channel nine chie political analyst Micheal Mahone News Lisa Rodriguez, and from our Metro's newest newspaper, Next Page KC Eric Wes Now, this came out of nowhere.

A new site is now being consider for a downtown Royals ballpark, and.

This is Washington Square P a stretch of green space that sits directly between Union and Crown Center that is current to a large statue of George Wash and a Korean War memorial.

Could it also be the place that the royals will soon be pla Since the site was revealed, pub reaction has been to decidedly m from genius idea to what on earth are they thinki Lucas is excited about the idea, but for those of us still a little confused, what is supposed to be the big u of this site?

Chris, I think one of the big up might be is the view.

Looking back to the North, seeing the skyline of downtown beyond the outfield wall, that might be kind of one of tho that is, good for TV.

It, would put Kansas City, I thi in a in a slightly more pictures But the footprint of this site is the concern that people keep coming to, to me with, is i big enough to hold something lik Now, apparently the ballpark in Minneapolis is on a footprint that is slightly smaller than Wa Square Park.

But still, there are questions about traffi and congestion and getting in an the same sorts of things that have come with other downto So what's the downside of this s I think I think exactly that the And then there's worry about about traffic and congesti This is not a space where you can make a lot of chan to roadways or highway access th So there's some there's some confusion about, about exactly how you're going t as many people there.

Parking, although there are parking garag that area is another concern the Michael, it's interesting to me that we have still not heard from the Royals, though they haven't commented on it.

I mean, why why are we doing this if they can't even come forward this is something we're interest Because I think that, there is, you know, a real concern here that, the ballpark, the ballpark may actually leave, Kansas City, Missouri.

And, so the city fathers of Kans Missouri are doing their level best and coming up with every pl they can think of to, try and keep this team in Kansas Cit and in the, in the city limits.

Clearly, the the Royals, made it that they're they want, they want out of, Kauffman Stadi and they prefer a downtown ballp But, this is a lot like, the the debate last winter, where, y the cards were held very tight to the vest, and they ended up paying for it.

One of the things I thought abou where is your entertainment dist going to go?

Because that was one of the sell that they well, is isn't Crown C an entertainment district?

I wouldn't call it that.

I was thinking about clubs and r and that kind of thing.

And is it really downtown?

I'm thinking downtown, like grand and Main.

When I talk with the Downtown Co they say up to 31st Street, which is where we are at our stu is actually a technically downto But while we talk about this as being between Union Station and Crown Center, it's also betw Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which is going to be moving out that building, giving more space but also between, hallmark and which I've just been over th I've insight is there.

It has become a ghost town.

Chri There's hardly anybody working t Could this be an opportunity for hallmark to get rid of some of its space from its pa and some of its other buildings there to make room for a ball pa And maybe one of the advantages this site is you have fewer prop to have to buy to make this ball but there is automatic synergy, I think, with Crown Center, with Station, perhaps the crossroads That might be part of the appeal Now, as we've been talking about Washington Square Park as a poss that was just one of several bre developments in the ongoing stad Here are some others.

Mayor Lucas confirms that the ci is working to avoid another publ vote by working instead to cobbl tax incentives to help pay for i Missouri Governor Mike Parson just weighed in, exp frustration with the royals inde He says the team must decide on a path forward soon if he expects any financial help from the state and hold the fron Jackson County lawmakers are scheduled to vote on a quarter cent sales tax to fund just the Chiefs.

If approved, you'd vote on it this November.

But no Royals in that plan.

Eric, has Jackson County officially given up on the Royal You know, that's a great questio And if I could get one of the le to answer it directly, that would give us a lot of insi But I think it is.

They want it.

They've always wanted to separat since the the last taxpayer.

So this is an opportunity to sep them, let them go after their ow Lisa, I think on the Royals, where the Jackson County legisla this point is all right.

We're going to step out of leading these discussions.

If Kansas City has a plan that involves just Kansas City v and just that tax base, let them Let this let a site come up, and then we'll get in and see wh if anything, the county needs to, needs to co So they're stepping out of the l But in the meantime, if we can do anything, if there's a Hail Mary that we can do to get one team t at that Truman Sports complex, that's what they're going to do There may be a need to have a de a ten Hail Marys on this one.

Eric.

Not what I thought interested in And in the conversation, the pus might be that, you know, the may talking about doing it without v approval or without people havin I think you might be trying out Denny's with that.

And also, the governor saying, make up your mind what you want I think billionaires have option And I think maybe they're saying why didn't you step up to the pl when this first came?

Now all of a sudden you got an opinion about it?

I think people also look at this with a sort of 30,000ft view.

You have the you have the county trying somet you have the city trying somethi We don't know what the state of participation will.

This will be in all of this.

There doesn't seem to be coordin or cooperation.

Everybody's kind of going on the And I think people are very skep about how this is going to come To Lisa's point, the Jackson County Legislature a County government and in general seems like since the April vote.

Now, where is the parade and how do I get in front of it?

I mean, they're just not with it Well, we may not know what count will play in Kansas City when the World Cup comes to town but we finally know where the Wo Fan Fest will be.

The massive free music, food and event will take place on the South Lawn of the World W One museum.

We'll have an opportunity to stand together, to celebrate, to bring countries and cultures and more than anything, to show them that Kansas City isn't just the heart of America, but it's the heart of the world.

A fan fest is really an opportunity to show not only the hundreds of thousan who will be in our region during the World Cup, but millions, hundreds of millio around the world who we are.

I can think of no better place, the perfect place.

Isn't this almost the identical to what we experienced when the NFL draft came to town It is.

It is exactly the setup, but I w the World Cup is a completely di event, and there were lessons learned from that NFL draft that maybe can inform these these decisions.

So the NFL draft is 1 or 2 days where people are largely coming out of town, some from Kansas Ci and they're there.

And their only thing they're the is see the draft.

The World Cup is is a weeks long where people are in and out of Kansas City for sever you know, several days at a time They've got a chance to explore other parts of the city.

They're in and out of this exper So it is an event of a much diff and much larger scale.

We could have some big name peop coming into town to do concerts We can have international nibble as part of that, and libations from the different countries, but it's all going to be fenced the NFL draft with you have to h to go through security and check But wasn't that one of the compl of the NFL draft and local busin Because it was so enclosed, you couldn't get out of it that they didn't benefit from all of those fans coming in I think also, two, based on the experience of the N a lot of these businesses who are complaining about just that may approach a World C fan fest in a much different way and be more aggressive about selling their own business Right, because, well, the soccer association or a soccer league, well, they c The NFL controlled it when they had it here.

So who's going to control it?

The city, the soccer league.

Are we going to be right back at one now?

As we were hosting a robust town and the state of policing in Kan last week, another big crowd was gathering in Brookside over a spate of car that they say police are doing nothing to solv About 200 people showed up at a with representatives of local law enforcement.

Think, you know, we're kind of a our wit's end looking for soluti It's happening in the daytime, you know, it usually climbs into that cloak of darkness.

Imagine having your car stolen not once, not twice, but three t It just feels like an epidemic.

And it doesn't feel like the pol really care much about it.

Part of the problem is police nu Kcpd says it's lost roughly 25% of its force since 2 The other problem property crime are more difficult to solve.

That's not, you know, saying something negative about It's just, you know, there's a constitution, there's certain that we have to have in order to have a prosecution, a prosecutable case, which is why this panel recommen everyone invest in high resoluti cameras to capture crimes in act Okay, so we have to get the came You can't rely on the police to But they said they lost 25% of their officers.

That is the issue.

Is that a cop out or a legitimat That's a concern.

But why have you lost and and why aren't you able to repla They threw money at it.

They've given people raises.

They've up the salaries.

Why.

And and the key part of it is you don't have good relations.

Ship with your community and you've not done or address t You've not acknowledged that we think everything is okay Hunky dory, peachy, creamy, but nothing has been done to fix the relationship between the com and the police department.

And it tells in every and every that you talk to people about the police department.

I did see on your channel.

No, Chris, they did catch two ju who connected with many of those crimes that w spotlighted that 15, in fact.

And there may be more.

Now, what are the issues that we though, from the folks there at that forum, was that ev if people are arrested, nobody seems to go to jail in, Jackson County.

As one Brookside resident put it Kansas City is known for footbal and for no prosecution.

I think one of the complications is that we do have two juveniles at least, that have been charged in these And and at least anecdotally, I've heard that it's groups of young people who who are committing these crimes.

Now, when we get into juveniles, just a lot that the public can't Even in these charges.

We know charges have been filed.

We don't know what those charges and we're never going to know the names of those juveniles.

Everything is handled a little differently.

And the way that we punish juveniles is different as well.

We're not necessarily sending them to jail.

There's much more of a restorati approach to this kind of stuff.

Maybe this is the wake up, wake The people need to, you know, so get behind getting the Kent City force up to full staff.

And about just a few weeks ago, we had all the Jackson County pr candidates on this program.

And it was interesting to me how they fell over themselves to how much they were going to conc on property crimes.

We're going to do more on that.

Absolutely.

They all vowed that they would t a different approach than Jane Peters Baker did once they get into the offic But here's the key thing that nobody wants to talk about.

The issue is that Kansas City doesn't have a jail.

There's no deterrent for bad guy because what are you going to do write me a ticket and then let m If not, you're going to send me 87 miles away to another jail.

And that's not a deterrent.

If there's not a jail, there's no deterrent for people that want to do the right thing.

And I have to say, it's in fairn Well, just to follow up, why is not getting shipped out of town to Clinton C or wherever else they store them Why that?

No.

Why is that not a deterrent?

I mean, not not only are they in they're in the can, you know, a considerable distance away because it's too far away.

And unless it's something that's a major crime, they're not going to drive you way down there and drive you because they don't have the manp that.

I will say, in fairness to Jackson County Prosecutor Jea because she said at that forum that she is prosecuting 80% of the cases that come her w including property crimes.

Take that for what you will.

The uproar of a property taxes i Jackson County could soon be hitting the ballot Jackson County lawmakers have ju to add a question to the Novembe ballot, asking voters should the county elect its property as Currently, that position is hire or held rather by Gayle McCann Beatty, who is appointed County Executive Frank white.

But what difference would this m if that position were elected?

Lisa.

Well, I think with with anyone who has to campaign for a job, they do need to be a little more with how they're going to approa So voters could potentially elec a candidate who they think is go handle the process more fairly o that they see as favorable to th The downside there is that any t there's a campaign or an electio there is the possibility of of c You know, when you're accepting where is the obligation there to to either hand out favors or not Which is why the county went to an appointed position to begi But at this point, trust has bee trust has been lost.

So perhaps, perhaps it is an option to explo Absolutely.

They need to do it.

I think the county executive's p is where you could hire somebody that's not qualified to and then you'd have that situati come up.

But, most people of that that I've listened to talk about we need to elect that person so that there is some accountabi to the community about what if people think that just punishing Gail McCann, but she's not going to lose her anytime soon because it wouldn't even be up for election until 20 Yeah.

And I could envision in the not too distant future, somebody running for county asse taking the Grover Norquist, tax saying I will not raise the rate at all under any circumstances.

And that that puts, Jackson Coun in another pickle because because they would have that sor pledge which they would be diffi to, fulfill.

But, it's, you know, it's sort of a bad idea.

I have to say, if you live in Jackson County, you may want to be taking, Election Day off this year becau have so many decisions to make.

We got the stadiums, we got this.

This.

There's a pos And tax debate.

Never mind the abortion issue.

S betting.

It's going to be a pretty crowde ballot, Eric.

It is, it is.

And I would encourage people to early ballot just to look look t Some issues in the presidential The road to the white House finally cut through Kansas City Republican vice presidential can JD Vance was in Johnson County this Thursday.

He was headlining a fundraising at a private home in Mission Hil so the public didn't get a chanc to say, hi, Chris.

Well, of course, as long as they if they're able to write a check for what, between 5000 and maybe you can do that.

You can be there.

So why weren't there any public Did the Trump campaign believe that there's no advantag in trying to get out the vote in Kansas, of Missouri?

Because that's pretty much locke up.

Exactly.

That that's the reason for it.

When they come in and shake the tree, they are here to do just that and not work for, for I haven't been to a big dog fund that was open to reporters in de Is this going to be the only cha we can actually see, though?

A member of one of the big presidential tickets be in Kansa before Election Day?

I'm not sure on that.

I could envision JD Vance or Tim coming back to the Kansas City a and in particular, and not so much because they thi the Democrats could flip Missouri or flip, Kansas.

But, to, to come here and, basically to shore up, you know, Republicans case the super majority in the, Kansas Legislature and Democrats would come in to try and, break the supermajority in the M legislature and, campaign and to try to gin up, the vote turnout for the abortion questio Now, many of our top elected leaders were in Chicago for most of the week at the Democratic National Conve You can see some familiar faces, by the way, mugging for the came in the traditional roll call of As the first ever black chair in I am proud to cast our 39 vote for the first woman president, Kamala Harris.

We're home to Super Bowl champion Kansas City Proudly cast two votes present and 68 votes for Kamala Harris and our Midwestern friend Tim Walz.

Other than seeing Quinton Lucas and Emanuel Cleaver excite cheering during the roll call of states, Kansas and Missouri have any rol in this week's convention?

No primetime address from Quinto or Governor Laura Kelly.

Not this time, not this time.

Besides, besides wearing red and making their big and wearing the jerseys, I think that was probab the biggest splash they'll make.

But again, we knew all the deleg on the on the Democratic side.

We're going to go, toward toward Kamala Harris and Kansas and Missouri, like we've about, are pretty locked up.

You know, you could make the cas that, Laura Kelly could have earned a speake by virtue of the fact that she r Tim Walz as the head of the Demo Governors Association, and she could have got up and given a testimonial from that standpoint.

But, you know, she's not that she's not the most dynamic Well, Laura Kelly, though, did a with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the ac formerly of Seinfeld, in a in a women's governors, Q&A.

I don't think it was in primetim but got some attention there.

There was an 15 minutes of fame It was more like 15 seconds.

All righty, all righty.

Well, while most of the politica again was centered on the Democratic National Conve the battle of the debates became one of the most headline grabbing political stories went It was like a WWE wrestling stor As the Missouri State Fair, as U Senator Josh Hawley tracked down his Democratic opponent to deman that he debate him right there, then, between the funnel cakes and the pork belly pig racing.

Let's go find Lucas Coons.

I haven't seen him.

Have you guys seen him?

Lucas.

G We got a debate today.

I don't want to debate today.

I don't know if we got a debate You don't know?

I just think it's sad that this that he is unwilling to debate.

He's been in his basement for tw The ridiculous thing here is tha we have a guy who can't agree to televised debates because he doe want to answer to his record.

All right.

For all the attention this video has there been agreement now on a televised debate?

Lisa, the hasn't been agreement yet.

After all that debate that I kno I mean, this was just a show of blustering masculinity and machi that really is maybe entertaining to watch, but really give us any sort of infor on what makes these candidates, electable, what their platforms What we saw is just two big pers which I think we might be tired Does it matter, though, Eric?

I certainly my keyhole just won the Republican nominati for governor in Missouri without ever debating any of his opponents.

Right.

It that could do it.

They don't really have to, I don't know if either one of th has a platform that they really people to know about.

Does anybody care, though, about anymore?

Well, I, I may be the only one at this but I think this was a lost oppo by both campaigns.

This would have been an opportun to see these two in a much more and a much more, relatable, context setting than the traditional deb which I think a lot of people, too many people sort of gloss on I'd like to know what was the co about, coats going to take away Lucas Coats did say the American magazine in 2021.

We need to ditch all fossil fuel for the sake of national securit He didn't mention pickup trucks, but that was the reference that he was trying to pick up th Right.

Josh Hawley's campaign is going that around his neck like a dead Well, in a half hour show, it's tough to do justice to all the stories that are happening in Kansas Cit And there's been a lot of interesting things going on politically and cultura For instance, if the Chiefs can in places like Germany, why not?

Our symphony, the Kansas City Sy beginning its first European tou this week, playing famed concert halls in Berlin, Amsterdam and H the mayor of privilege breathing a huge sigh of relief, a recall to oust him from office fails to get enough signatures.

Kansas citizens can now resume one of their favorite pastimes Taylor Swift spotting now that the pop phenom has wrap a European tour, she's apparently hanging out in City for the next couple of mont as main squeeze Travis Kelce sta the new Chiefs season and heads guess who's going to be here nex Dolly Parton she's not going to be singing, but announcing the expansion of a free children's book program in Missouri.

She will appear with governor Mi at the downtown event on Tuesday and the street corner marks a bi milestone this week as the first car rolls on to the Main Street car extension down Main Street down to the Plaza.

It's part of a test run to be pr for some major disruption ahead.

Street leaders say the entire sy is going to have to shut down for three weeks starting next month.

Now, that little gem, Chris, was buried at the bottom of a news release, but that seem an awful lot of massive disrupti Why?

Well, because Main Street has been a mess for for far too long because of the cons of the extension of this line.

Apparently it's still on track for next, no pun intended for next year, b nobody's committing to a date ye I mean, at this point, the shutdown is for testing, making sure that that that the s car works, that it can traverse the land and different, you know, hills and such.

But at this point, shutting down the street car for three weeks when Main Street has been a disa for however many years, I don't know that it will feel as impactful as as we think now.

Those were the big stories that I thought we missed.

What was the big story you thought we missed?

I'll go back to Taylor Swift and of, the, the, the concert trail, as it were.

There have already been, some significant discussions goi between Taylor Swift's security people and Leawood Police in particular, about how to hand how long she's going to be in to make sure that everything We could see her at the local gr store, your local Costco, perhaps in the next few weeks, maybe the Trader Joe's on 119.

Alrighty, Eric, I had to.

I've always that's my my tradema Joanne Collins.

They had a room named after her in City Hall.

She was former city council memb former city council, the first mayor pro tem and blac elected to the city council.

And they had a blunder earlier where they said it was random pa But it was actually, Joanne Coll And number two, the city is deciding to put a me on the ballot in April for, safety sales tax extension at the same time that the school is going to put a bond issue before voters to to have both of on the ballot at the same time, I think it's going to be a probl for one of those two.

Lisa, I think the failure of pet to get enough signatures to recall the Prairie Village mayor to force a vote on that is the end of a chapter in recent p history, maybe not the end of th but this is the group that has b very opposed to any sort of solu to get more affordable housing into Prairie Village.

And I think as, as mayor Michels you know, it is time to kind of turn the page on this.

This is the latest of several failed attempts to change the go to oust the mayor, to prevent any type of zoning ch And so I think that is significa Michael, Eric, traditionally, as you said, has two years to ha to go through at the end.

Just just one.

Okay.

Which is why.

And it's that story necessarily that we missed, but it's a developing story that, Kansas City should keep th on, especially if they live in t City, Missouri school district.

And that is the fact that they're going to, as Eric mentioned up, put a, general obligation bond, questio April ballot.

The Kansas City, Missouri school district has not passed the Geo Bond like this, since th It's a story to watch, and we will be watching.

And on that, we will say our week has been re courtesy of Channel Nine's Michael Mahoney.

And at the helm of next page, Ca Eric Wesson from KC one, who's Lisa Rodriguez and from the anch at KMBC, Chris Katz.

We are heading into our membership drive next w so you won't see us in this spot As truckers like to say.

We'll see you.

On the flip side, I'm Nick Haine from all of us here at Kansas Ci Be well, keep calm and carry on.