Well that's awkward.

Kehoe and Kelly picked the exact same day to deliver their state of the state addresses.

Did keyhole uses spotlight to take a jab at the Kansas governor for stealing the Chiefs, or was it the other way around?

Our beloved chiefs are coming home to Kansas.

Plus Emanuel Cleaver demanding answers as the Washington Post name checks.

Kansas City is the site of a new mass ice detention center.

And our panelists answer a slew of your questions this week.

From Zona Rosa to prairie fire to more pesky concerns about the new cheap steel and the still yet to be decided future of the Kansas City Royals.

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

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

The 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 and we are glad you could join us on our journey through the week's most impactful, confusing, and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Week in Review bus with us this week.

From the prime time anchor desk at KMBC nine News Kris Ketz tracking the region's top political stories for KC, while News Brian Ellison from Kshb 41 news political reporter Charlie Keegan and former star reporter, editorial writer now on Substack Dave Helling.

I'm a. Subscriber.

Brother.

Okay, just let.

The record reflect.

Yes.

So I've been promoting you.

We got questions about it, too, coming up.

So you'll hear that later in the show.

Now, we used to have an engineer, by the way, around here who would start snoring in my little earpiece anytime we showed a shot of the Kansas of Missouri state houses.

I'm not kidding.

I know some people yawn at state news, but it can have a huge impact on your life.

That Big Chief Stadium move, of course, is just the latest example.

Now time is running out for one of the most visible players in that deal.

This week, former Governor Laura Kelly delivered her final state of the state address.

Last big speech before voters pi Now, this is my first time standing before all of you since we announced some very exciting, historic, actually game changing news for our state.

Our beloved chiefs are coming home to Kansas.

All right, Brian, so how did that go down with Mickey?

How did he, respond?

In kind by jobbing at Kansas.

You know, if, if you were playing a drinking game, watching the state of the state speech in Missouri and you had stadium or Chiefs or Royals for that matter, on your card, you're still stone cold sober.

That was it did not come up.

And, I think the Missouri lawmakers may be ready to, to move on, except perhaps to take a few digs at Kansas City.

We may not be seeing much more in public life.

Dave, I mean, what was there anything significant that she said in her speech that she announced, for instance, she's changed her mind.

She's now running for the United States Senate.

To be honest, she did.

Senator in Kansas?

No, she's not apparently, in that race.

This is it.

And it was a bit of a victory lap is the last state of the state, always is to talk about things that she feels she has accomplished, not just in the last year, but over her entire, terms in office in Kansas.

He she knows that the upcoming legislative session will be all about the next governor and the fights that will accrue.

Because of that campaign, I. Was a little surprised that there wasn't more of a victory lap when it came to landing the Chiefs on the Kansas side, as the details of this deal have.

Almost throwing a boil.

Yeah.

Is something along those lines?

Yes.

And I think if the reaction had been different, you might have seen that.

Now, I can't remember the last time it happened, but Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe was actually, delivering his state of the state address on this very same day as Laura Kelly was.

And he made clear his number one priority, putting an amendment before voters in August to eliminate the state income tax.

We are serious about building a foundation for growth to compete rather than be complacent, then we must begin the work now to phase out and eliminate Missouri's individual income tax.

If you enjoy paying substantially higher taxes on just about everything you buy, then you'll love tax hike.

Mike's plan.

If it goes before voters in August and people a C on the ballot are you don't have to pay income taxes anymore.

Is anyone going to vote no tonight?

It'll be the easiest campaign ever because we'll probably, in all likelihood, not be any sort of well-funded opposition against this.

But the thing that that, that I was interested in last year, the Missouri income tax amounted to 65% of what was it, 13 or 14 billion in revenue came in 65%.

Well, and and the proposal that that the only alternative to that funding that was raised by the governor was sort of increasing sales taxes on, on a few digital platforms, e-books.

I, clearly not enough money to cover cutting 600 million from the state budget.

That's another saving that now.

To do that now, to carry over it.

Promised not to increase sales taxes on agriculture, on health care, on real estate.

It's really still unclear where this money will come from.

And he doesn't seem overly concerned about that at this stage.

Yeah.

The income tax in Missouri brings in about $9 billion a year into the general fund, the individual income tax.

So you have to theoretically replace most of that money.

$600 million in reductions won't get you there.

So I disagree with my friend Chris Katz a little bit.

I don't think this will be a slam dunk election.

I do think people will say that I don't want to pay another 4 or 5 or 6% at the grocery store, or the Walmart, or the furniture store, or the car dealership in exchange for a reduction in income taxes, which I don't really pay anyway.

The overall burden in Missouri is one of the lowest in the nation.

And as I said on my Substack the other day, if you get Social Security, for example, you don't pay any taxes on that.

Now, what the governor is proposing is an elimination of income taxes, which you don't pay, but higher sales taxes.

Okay.

So that was the big priority.

That was got all of the oxygen this week.

But I did see, Charlie, that lawmakers did move to punish the chiefs for moving by stripping the team of its designation as Missouri's official football team, not only would now be bestowed on the Battle Hawks, the Saint Louis based team which plays in the XFL, is this the equivalent of the Chiefs being stripped of one of their Super Bowl rings?

Charlie.

Well, I'm probably not even that significant.

This is just a petty right.

At a certain point, this is just a, lawmakers feel like they have to do something to punish the chiefs for leaving.

You know, Nick, let's give the Battle Hawks their due.

They really rolled right over the San Antonio Brahmas and the Houston Gamblers this year.

They did fall a bit short in the conference final against the DC defenders.

So.

But, you know, I think they could really use the state support.

All right.

Well, Kansas lawmakers headed back to work this week, one week later than Missouri legislators.

The lawmakers there are borrowing from Missouri's playbook, though, pushing to ban D-I programs outlawing cell phones in classrooms.

They're also imposing new restrictions on electric scooters.

And perhaps the biggest issue of all, they want you to decide at the ballot box.

In August, a new constitutional amendment to cap home assessment increases to 3% a year.

How many of you seniors can afford more property taxes?

When I. Originally bought this place.

I didn't think the value would actually double in.

What, eight.

Years?

All.

Dave, now, you said that it may not be a slam dunk in Missouri with income tax if it's on the ballot, but if you have the opportunity to vote in August, you're already incensed by how much you're paying on property taxes.

And you see a measure here that, well, only restricted to 3%.

Why wouldn't you vote?

Yes, assessments would go up 3%, but not taxes necessarily.

And what every subdivision could do and would likely do is just raise their mill levy higher to cover the shortfall in assessment adjustments.

So it won't mean a tax break for most Kansans.

They may be able to see that and vote accordingly.

Here's the other thing.

You raise the possibility of real inequity.

Yeah.

So taxes are distributed if if this piece of property goes up 20% in value, and this one only 3%, do we really believe that this person who has now far more assets should still only pay the same amount of increase as this person who is struggling to get by, and.

Who suffers most from that new home buyers, new home construction, younger families trying to get into the housing market.

So it is not as simple as just saying we're going to cap, assessment increases at 3% over ten years.

That's 30% when a home typically doubles in that time, it's much, much more difficult and complicated than people know.

I think it's one of those things that looks good on paper, maybe a little bit like the Chiefs deal in Kansas.

But once you start peeling away the layers and studying the details, you maybe come away with a different take.

Well, five years ago we were punishing people for not wearing masks.

Now we're punishing people for wearing them.

The head of the Jackson County Legislature pushing a new ordinance this week that would ban Ice agents and law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings while on duty.

Not seeing police officers in Independence or Blue Springs who are covering their badges or covering their faces.

The goal is accountability.

It's the first move of Marty Abarca, who has just been voted in this week, is the chair of the Jackson County legislature.

But does Jackson County have any authority, Charlie, to tell local law enforcement what they can wear?

Or, more significantly, can they tell federal agents what to do?

Well, especially when it comes to federal agents.

The even the county councilors told the legislators that, no, they don't think that the county law would apply to these federal agents and they're not sold on this.

A proposal that's coming through.

And Sheriff Derek Forte, Darryl Forte here has pushed back to saying that he doesn't want to follow this law, even for his deputies in the county.

They could certainly suggest for Jackson County sheriff's deputies whether they can or not.

But that doesn't extend to individual police departments.

It certainly doesn't extend to the to the federal.

So can you refresh our memories, Chris, as to why there is an effort, though, to cover your face as a as an agent?

Yeah, federal agents are they're worried about, being identified.

They're worrying about being dox, especially in this digital age where information flows so fast on on social media.

So there, there isn't that that's their argument there.

But, I think whether it's the city of Denver or the state of California and they'll, there will be other states and municipalities.

Considering this, this is just the first of what I think will be, something that a lot of municipalities will be doing this year.

The other side of this, of course, is are they now going to be just having lots of lawsuits over this, costing Jackson County taxpayers plenty of money for moving on this issue that they may not have control over?

I think that certainly is a risk.

Jackson County Legislature has has been down this road before, and I was especially interested in the way that it set up a tension right out of the gate.

The very first week in office for Manny Abarca as legislature president with the sheriff, Darryl Forte.

He used some very strong language, even said, well, maybe we needed a new sheriff.

Then the other thing is enforcement.

They're assuming this passes.

What are the sheriff's deputies going to go to the Ice officers and issue them tickets to arrest them?

I mean, so, that that's a challenge or would be a challenge.

This is highly performative.

It is not unusual for politics in 2026 for, people to take a stance based on what they say rather than what they would actually do.

Now, it was a big week of news relating to anything to do with the federal immigration agency.

Cold ice.

Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver is demanding answers after the Washington Post namechecks Kansas City as the site of a new mass detention center, according to the report.

We are one of seven cities that would house thousands of detainees in a renovated industrial warehouse.

Is this just all talk?

Charlie and media speculation, or is a site being picked for this?

Well, our reporters covering this are hearing about addresses and locations that could be in consideration in Kansas City.

So I think there might be some substance and, details.

As we are recording this program right now.

Ice officials apparently are looking at a warehouse, a warehouse site in South Kansas City.

Now, if that happens, expect some blowback from people like Mayor Lucas, from people on the city council, certainly from Congressman Cleaver.

Taking it a step further, whether that will change things, I think is a open question.

Ever since President Trump was inaugurated, the second term, there has been talk of Leavenworth being this major facility.

There have been fights over it.

Nothing has happened.

So why would this be any different, Brian?

Well, in that case, core civic, which operates private prisons, has been in this sort of long standing, essentially zoning dispute with the city of Leavenworth.

They had some leverage because they have responsibility for zoning regulations in this case, it could be that the federal government has gotten into this warehouse before the, before the city could, could take action to stop that from happening.

The only thing and the thing about CoreCivic, too, is the courts.

Civic has applied for a special use permit to the city of Leavenworth.

That's a process that takes about three months, and then it will be up to the city commission to make that final call.

I want us to think about what we're seeing, for example, in Minneapolis right now and the level of community outrage over the actions of Ice in that space, the protests, the activism, the the blowing of whistles, the the the confrontations with Ice agents.

It is not out of the question that you would start to see those things right here in the city limits of Kansas City.

If a detention center opens.

And as Emanuel Cleaver referenced, during the World Cup.

And, I also note that, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe providing more money this week to deploy Missouri National Guard troops, when the World Cup comes to town as well, in June.

Yes.

I mean, that was the other major focus of his state of the state address, or one of the few focuses was crime and safety.

And the deployment of National Guard troops during World Cup.

Didn't necessarily land on, on appreciative ears in Kansas City.

Now, you may have noticed that some members of the public are now ringing the alarm bells on anything with hints of the word ice.

This week, there were reports of dozens of Ice vehicles being spotted in a parking lot near Worlds of Fun.

But as it turns out, it wasn't an enforcement action at all.

But the vehicles were getting, decals put on them by an automotive company.

Was that the.

That's what we heard from a city councilman.

Jonathan Duncan told us that.

Yeah, a local decal, graphics company was just the one had working on a contract to put the wraps on all these SUVs for the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, one thing I love about this program is that every week we are inundated with emails and social media messages from you.

And as much as we try to do as much as we try to do on this program, you always still have questions we didn't quite answer for you.

Well, we're going to take care of that this week, starting with Mark, who wants to know why do we have to wait three years to learn the inner workings of the new Chief Steel in Kansas?

Wyandotte County says there's a confidentiality agreement in place until 2029.

It sounds fishy to me, he says.

That was a channel nine.

Story KMBC nine.

Matt Fleener did some strong reporting on this particular piece, as usual.

And we were just looking for.

Routine.

Communications with the principals involved when it came to the chief's deal with the unified government.

Now, did we know that there was a state law that keeps these communications secret for three years?

I'm not sure we did.

We know now, and everybody else knows now.

And here's the thing to Mark and everybody else, and we all know this at this table when it comes to transparency, when it comes to government transparency, the state of Kansas is not going to be winning any sort of a medal for that any time soon.

Getting even the most pedestrian information out of the state can be very, very difficult.

Kansas isn't unique in that, but until many, many more people like Mark raise up, ask questions, make a stink about it, this is never going to change, Andy writes.

While Alaska leaders have been working in secret to land the new chief's headquarters, there's reporting the Wyandotte County wasn't even told about the deal until shortly before it was announced.

Is that really true?

Well, I think that's the claim from some Wyandotte County officials that Crystal Watson was sort of called and said, hey, come on down to Topeka.

We're going to make the big announcement.

Even though it's going to be right there in the heart of her county.

Yeah.

You know, I think, there is justifiable outrage at Kansas secrecy on this deal.

Nick, the day that the LCC voted on this deal, they closed the meeting.

You couldn't even get the briefing in public just before the vote.

That is breathtakingly bad.

Having said that, if Wyandotte County has to make a decision on whether to participate or not, there will be some public disclosure of what they're being asked to do and what they're going to vote on.

And so I think we'll know those details.

What I think Chris and Charlie and Brian are worried about, and rightly so, is the entire government communication behind the scenes to see what was talked about and what wasn't.

But that was was that really much that different with the Panasonic plant that, you know, for a long time that was just known as the mystery plant, even though they were spending $1 billion in state tax dollars.

That's a good point.

We have for a long time, it was just out of this project and this economic development projects.

Trust us, guys, it's going to be good.

We're going to roll this out.

You got to spend money to make money.

And we have to point out on both projects, these were bipartisan affairs, and it was these, major Republican leaders who now running for governor, who are also, behind those deals.

The only thing that I would add to what Dave is talking about is maybe there wasn't a formal notification to Crystal Watson in the US, but once the hunt family apparently signed off on this deal on that Friday before, I mean, it was the worst kept secret in Topeka.

So I find it hard to believe that they didn't think it wasn't coming.

But again, maybe in terms of a formal notification, maybe that's what we're.

Likely to ask.

And all of us are right to ask what was communicated beforehand and what commitments were or were made, if any.

The public has a right to know that.

And I blame Laura Kelley for 99% of this.

She likes to do business in secret, and this is another example.

Well, viewer John writes, Dave Helling said last week that the stadium deal can still happen, even if Wyandotte County says no to giving up some of its local sales taxes to help fund it.

So why would any city voluntarily give up its local sales tax revenue if the project is going to happen anyway?

What's the benefit?

Well, there could be potentially benefits in Wyandotte County and including, of course, having the chiefs in your community.

You could write language, Nick, that would say the jobs have to be offered to Wyandotte County.

And first, there are all kinds of provisions that could be made.

We talked a little bit about the Wyandotte County ticket to provision.

That might be a part of it.

But by and large, you're right.

It's not completely clear if the benefits to Wyandotte County or Johnson County exceed the cost that they'll have to pay if they're full participants in this deal.

Well, Carol writes, Platte County just washed its hands of Zona Rosa and said they'll no longer be involved in funding shopping centers.

Meanwhile, Prairie Fire is defaulting on its bonds again after missing its sales tax projections.

Is there a lesson here for Kansas leaders as they weigh up this latest chief's deal?

Charlie, I. Hope there is.

You know, prairie fire.

Is this a development down there?

835th and all that has defaulted on Star bonds and now defaulted on a community Improvement district bond, both using sales tax money to pay those bonds if they're going to rely on a very same set up for a stadium that's a lot smaller than.

But I always read those stories, and I think this is really interesting and then you always see working down further down.

Well, the taxpayers are really not on the hook so well, but it depends what you mean by on the hook when you when you guarantee loans, when you when you shortchange other, potential recipients of tax revenues, is, is the local entity on the hook?

And if the same thing happened in Zona Rosa with the the bond defaults there, you know, I think it's very likely, Nick, that the impact on not only Kansas leaders, but all local leaders in the future is they just need to pay more attention to the details and to what degree the municipalities are on the hook.

They're going to keep offering those incentives, though there's no question that that's part of local governance and.

A good way to understand the Chiefs deal, Nick, is to look at prairie fire and say they're defaulting on bonds.

But if you took their star bond district and exploded it through all of Johnson County, they would have all the money in the world to pay those bonds.

Well, that's precisely what they're doing with the Chiefs is saying your impact goes beyond just the neighborhood you're in to the entire.

Mary asks, could there be anti ice protests to the Country Club Plaza, as we saw this week, if the city gives the shopping center approval to privatize its sidewalks, right.

That's something that's going through the process right now.

And, the Plaza says that it wants to leave the sidewalks open 24 seven.

Make it visible.

Make it, you know, people to leisurely, shop along the plaza, but they would have the right to refuse people to come on.

There's their private property.

Long as it was a peaceful demonstration.

I find it hard.

Just the optics of that, that something like that wouldn't be allowed.

Well, Dan picks up on Dave Helen's new Substack column this week that claims Kansas City residents can still force a public vote on a Royals ballpark by collecting signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

Dave, I read anybody now doing that.

Yeah.

We're not aware of anyone doing it.

We're not aware of any city council member stepping forward.

The deadline is January 27th for the April ballot.

That's far too quickly for anything to be voted on then.

And what I tried to write about is what happened with the airport, which is there were disgruntled people then worried about the airport, and so they got together petition signatures and forced the council to adopt a vote on a vote.

Whether that happens with the Royals or not is not clear.

I was trying to point out when the mayor says, well, we don't have to vote on this.

That's not exactly the case.

I view it, Janice really listens to the show because she said when Dave Helling said in his big story missed answer last week, he claimed there's an effort behind the scenes to run train tracks to the new Chiefs Stadium so you can connect directly to Kansas City.

She asks why would that work when efforts to connect KCI by rail and to run it an east west streetcar line to the Truman Sports Complex, both went nowhere well.

And it's likely that the idea of building rail to the new Chief Stadium will also go nowhere, because it's so expensive and difficult and the feds have stopped paying for it.

But there's been talk of East-West rail transit in Kansas City for years, long before the Chiefs ever thought about going out there, in part because there are jobs at the legends that it's very difficult for Kansas City is to get to and light rail.

My last estimate, I saw a light rail line between KCI and downtown, which of course has been talked about for years.

You're talking 10 or $11 billion.

And Dave's right.

The feds aren't getting involved in that.

This would be like half the distance though was going to KCI.

So that makes it a lot more doable.

And you've got two states involved.

And you would help Wyandotte County.

And again we talked a little bit about what Wyandotte County gets out of this.

Maybe that discussion can pick up a little bit in terms of mass transit.

That would help the county.

And you said that last week.

What I did think about was, you know, the whole issue of the busses, that's an ongoing issue.

Who's funding the busses, is that an ask that could take place, that we are having a link to the new stadium and funding bus service across our metropolitan area.

Could that be a bi state tax?

The first one we've had since the renovation of Union Station.

Perhaps?

I don't know, I think we're a very car centric place.

But that would be on playing again, playing against this backdrop of the breakdown of the truce in the Border War.

It would require intrastate interstate cooperation.

It just seems unlikely.

I'm just trying to be uplifting on the show.

You know, I'm all right now.

There were lots of stories we didn't get to this week, including the Royals spending nearly $5 million to move its outfield wall about ten feet, they said, could earn them about 30 more home runs a season.

Another week, another data center, this time plans for a $6 billion artificial intelligence campus in independence.

It's official bus fares are coming back in Kansas City for the first time since the pandemic.

$2 single fares start in June, and after ten years, Boulevard is no more.

The old Boulevard Dia, should I say there's no more?

The official reason, though, given for ending the decade old music and the festival wasn't given.

But do you pick one of those stories?

Chris was something completely different.

The Boulevard, a story he ran, touched a nerve with me, and what they said was that last year is going to be the last year that there hadn't been plans for a 26.

Maybe it was one of those events that ran its course.

These are these are expensive events to carry out.

They're very labor intensive.

I think the the risk that comes with these events is far greater than it used to be.

Maybe it was a combination of.

All of that.

And they thought, as they do it in the summer, there's nobody going to be coming to town.

There's nobody can be one of the staff.

Yeah, right.

Well, kept going on.

Why would anybody care?

Dave, what is this boulevardier thing?

I don't know what that is.

Kris Kobach filed for attorney general reelection as attorney general in Kansas.

That puts the end to the speculation that I was involved in, and others that he might run for governor in Kansas.

He's long coveted that job, but apparently not.

He's out of the field.

Charlie, I kind of a sadder note that was, Chris Wells was murdered in the Northland of Kansas City on Monday, and we've been digging through this and finding out that he's had the the suspect, the defendant in this case has had a long list of complaints and 301 calls and police, no contact orders and things placed on him.

So we're digging a little bit more on what could have happened to maybe prevent a homicide like this.

And, Brian, a different data center got my attention this week.

Casey, our Savannah Holly Bates reported on the data center that now occupies the Kansas City Star's old printing press building and how they're one of the first recipients of a $100 million clean energy loan that draws attention to the massive amount of energy and water resources that data centers can consume.

It also has raised interest in the Kansas City Council about whether there needs to be more attention to zoning and regulation.

One other breaking news story as we are taping this, Chris Good, the owner of Ruby Jeans Juicery, officially announced his candidacy for the Kansas City Council third district At-Large seat.

That's one currently held by Melissa Paterson.

Hazel.

He sometimes has been a critic of city leaders, so it will be interesting to see how that campaign plays.

Free smoothies for all.

If you vote for me, I'm assuming will be one of the taglines.

Thank you for that little mix.

All right, all right.

Okay.

Perhaps not.

I'm just trying to be uplifting.

All righty.

And on that we will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of Kshb.

Charlie Keegan and CNBC's Chris Katz from Casey Wall, Brian Ellison and news icon Dave Helling.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.