The president in Kansas.

This election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.

Just pretend the latest on Wyatt County's lawsuit against the new cheap stadium.

We are doing what's in the best interest aligned account.

What did you think of those new Royals ballpark renderings?

This is something that is a game changer, not just for the city, but for an entire region.

And last week we tackled the big statewide amendments on the ballot.

This week, we pick apart some of the contentious local issues, from renewing the combat tax in Jackson County to parks and health taxes in K.K.

Half of our clients do not have any insurance whatsoever.

Largely because we have so many people living in poverty.

Those stories are the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines.

Glad to have you with us again on our weekly journey through the Metro's most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week from Kshb.

41 news political reporter Charlie Keegan.

KCUR's, political analyst Brian Ellison at the helm of our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page KC, Eric Wesson and former star staffer, now Mr.

Kansas City.

Stack on Substack.

Dave Helling.

It's not often we get a visit from the president of the United States.

In fact, President Trump hasn't been to Kansas or Missouri in eight years.

That changed this week, as is.

But I'm here for a guy named Roger Marshall.

Yeah, I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible state, which, by the way, I don't want to brag.

I won all three times.

But even better, receiving more votes than any candidate in Kansas history.

So please pretend I'm on the ballot.

And I am.

Actually, if he's you know what he is.

They're paid protesters.

They're paid.

All righty.

What did we learn, if anything, Brian, from the president's rally just outside Wichita to support Kansas U.S.

Senator Roger Marshall.

I think we learned that if Senator Marshall was planning to put any distance between himself and the president, maybe offer some criticisms of tariffs or in some way create some space that's in the rearview mirror.

Now, Marshall is leading, leaning fully into his close association with the president.

And and with good reason.

I mean, that's an honest presentation of his record.

He has voted almost entirely, in in lockstep with the president's agenda.

And, the president said as much when he was visiting this week.

Now the voters have to decide if that's what they want for Kansas.

You were there, Charlie.

And I also saw that the star opinion writer, David, had no was there, and he was surprised by how many people were going to be there.

He was expecting a half filled arena.

That was not the case.

Thousands still waiting outside.

What he said was six football fields worth of snaking lines.

Were there more people than you anticipated?

Oh, yeah.

We got there to get to the arena around seven inches the morning for the 6:00 speech, which ended up being a 7 p.m.

speech, and there was a line of more than a half mile long of cars waiting to get into the parking lot.

So what I took away from this is that MAGA is alive and well here in Kansas, and there are people who are very excited by President Trump and the things that he does and supports candidates that he supports.

It's very clear from that appearance, and not only from the president, but from the other Republicans who were there that they are worried about turnout.

At the polls because each candidate said, in essence, we need you to vote.

And by the way, take ten people with you to vote.

So, but I don't think anyone doubts I think there was some surprise at the size of the crowd, but I don't think anyone doubts that there is a Maga, segment of the electorate in Kansas.

The question is, can that be expanded?

And can turnout be generated to protect a seat like Roger Marshalls?

And that remains an unanswered question.

It seems to me like it was in Adam Hamilton responded to the Trump visit by inviting Kansans who voted for President Trump to support him.

President Trump is here to campaign for my opponent, Roger Marshall.

That's politics.

And I get it.

But I want Kansans to know if you voted for the president.

You also have a place in my campaign, and I'm working hard to earn your vote.

Now, what on earth would if you were a Trump supporter, would you support Adam Hamilton over.

Roger Marshall?

What is he offering that Roger Marshall does not?

Well, he has a conversation about affordability.

You have a lot of farmers in that area in Kansas that are suffering.

You know, you got the beat, you got the beef prices, you have the diesel fuel, you have those things.

And I think that's what he's trying to appeal to the people's wallets versus their emotional attachment.

I think it might be something else as well.

You hear him talk a lot on the campaign trail in these last couple of weeks about instability and unpredictability and chaos.

I think he is appealing to folks who might have some regrets about their votes for Donald Trump, or even for Roger Marshall.

You also hear him talk a lot about his faith, which maybe is not so surprising.

He's a minister and that's what he's comfortable talking about.

But but I think when he talks about Jesus, when he talks about praying every day, I think that is going to resonate with some of those voters who might, in the quiet of the voting booth, say, this is a man who I admire and I'm going to cast a vote for him, even though I don't usually vote for Democrat.

You know, you don't have to look at the polls to know that Roger Marshall is in trouble.

Otherwise you would not have the president come in and you would not agree to a debate.

No incumbent typically agrees to debate unless he or she thinks that, there are votes to be had out there that are necessary.

So, I think the, the, the, the import of the president's visit was not in the hall, but it was the broadcast, the coverage appealing to Trump, white voters who may have supported the president but are available and they're trying to get him to come home.

Now, while Trump was here for Roger Marshall, Missouri U.S.

Senator Eric Schmidt seemed to get just as many call outs from President Trump.

A lot of people on social media seem to be puzzled by why Schmidt was even there, but doesn't make Quinton Lucas frequently travel over to Kansas to campaign for Democrats in Sanford, Washington.

Does anybody say anything about that?

Absolutely.

And people do say, okay about that.

So he doesn't get a free pass with that, but he does, go over there with their, state representative as well as their United States Congress person.

What stood out to me, though, as someone who is there in the crowd, Eric Schmidt never got on stage.

He never said anything, never vouched for his, fellow senator there, Roger Marshall, to get voters excited about, getting him reelected.

So it really struck me as kind of odd that he was traveling with the president halfway across the country for this to not say anything.

And many people pointing out the Missouri senator, Eric Schmidt, again, was there, but notably missing Kansas City, Kansas.

Other Republican Senator Jerry Moran did Trump's visit coincide?

Brian with Moran six months dental visit.

Apparently he was in Alaska, visiting a military base.

I do wonder if maybe that trip to Alaska could have been scheduled at a different time.

You know, I think this is really telling.

And if this election does not go well for Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran will be very glad.

There's not a lot of pictures of him standing next to Donald Trump on a stage in Wichita.

Now, also getting FaceTime with President Trump's rally in Kansas was Republican candidate for governor Tim Masterson.

All I know is he was doing good.

But then I endorsed him and he went and he became a rocket ship.

Right.

I think if you lost, it would be the single biggest upset in the United States, maybe, maybe in the history of our country.

So is that why we're hearing so little about the governor's race, Dave, that than we are in the Senate race, that it isn't that close?

Well, it's not apparently, again, based on very sporadic, polling, it is not necessarily as close as the Senate race.

And the Senate race is a surprise.

You know, Kansas has elected a Republican senator for 94 years.

And so the idea that this might go to a Democrat attracts a lot of attention, national attention that would not be there otherwise.

A masterson I think remains the favorite on the on the governor's side.

But the other thing that will be interesting to see, and we won't know until after the election, is whether there are Republicans and independents in Kansas who might see themselves voting for Adam Hamilton for the Senate for the first time, maybe, but then say, wait, I can't go full Democrat.

I'm going to have a problem with Cindy Holsinger in the governor's race.

That's a real dynamic.

I'm sure the whole sure, people are watching that to make sure that that maybe there's, they can minimize the damage from people's time to split their tickets on November 3rd.

Now, the campaign ads aren't going away, but the face to face confrontations are almost over.

Senator Roger Marshall and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton met this week for their second and final debate in that closely watched Senate race, tackling everything from gas prices to immigration.

With all of those undocumented children that you delivered, did you also call Ice and ask them to be taken away?

What did you do with these people?

You had compassion for them in delivering these children, but then you support quotas.

All this discussion starts with the secure borders, and that's what Republicans will always give you secure borders.

It was just two years ago that millions of people were coming across this country, and we're still suffering from them.

Well, this was one of the last opportunities for these two candidates to challenge each other's claims that perhaps deliver a knockout line before voters get the final say.

Charlie, did we hear anything that could change the trajectory of this race?

I'm not sure we did.

I think it was.

Pretty much everybody stayed on brand a little bit and nobody really messed up, so to speak, in their answers and in the way they handled themselves.

But I didn't hear anything that really was going to convince someone, maybe, who's undecided or who was leaning one way to change their votes.

Did you feel the same way, Brian?

Yeah, I think I don't think there were any major gaffes or something that would become the the reason the race shifts.

At the other hand, I do think we noticed a little trend, both of the candidates shifting their rhetoric a little bit to the right of where they have been in this campaign.

Marshall again leaning into the president.

And Hamilton, he talked, for example, about, he's opposed to, transgender kids playing in girls sports, some things that I don't think he would have brought up a couple of months ago that maybe in these closing days, he is maybe trying to peel off just another percentage point or two that might get him across the finish line.

It's been more than a week since the Unified Government made a gutsy move to sue the state of Kansas over the proposed $3 billion Kansas City Chiefs Stadium in Wyandotte County.

When it comes to the expenses, this is money well spent knowing that we are doing what's in the best interest of Wyandotte County.

If there was something to learn from this, for anyone who is watching, no matter where you live in the United States, local participation matters.

Well, since then we've heard little have they kissed and made up behind the scenes.

Charlie.

No, I don't think they have.

I was just looking up the court case.

Yesterday, and that's still very much going.

And new lawyers are coming on board and all that and all those things.

So I expect, some more paperwork to be filed here.

The mayor says this is not about stopping the stadium from being built in Wyandotte County.

So if it's not about that, what is it about, Dave?

Well, I do think two things.

First of all, I think, the role of the Board of Public Utilities is an important thing to consider here.

And I think there is concern that the BPU might be shut out of whatever the Chiefs decide to do, and BPU is not happy about that.

And that's one sort of specific reason.

The other is and the mayor has talked about this, the Wyandotte County was basically bullied into this agreement from the beginning.

And, you know, the announcement was made, they weren't part of the negotiating team.

And then, you know, I was I think I wrote the first story about how the mayor was going to be left off the stadium authority.

That was changed, but then changed so that Wind County had to contribute to the project in order for her or her representative to be on the authority, while the chiefs have somebody there, the landlord and the tenant at the same time.

So, I wrote about, I think it took real courage to do this.

I mean, the ball is rolling in Kansas and for Wyandotte County of all institutions, to stand up and say, let's slow down a little bit.

Let's make sure we know what we're doing, that, that that's more courage than, Quinton Lucas.

Sure.

Well, what does that courage actually mean, though, in practice?

I mean, does it mean that we push back the, the start date for construction on the Chiefs Stadium?

Does it mean that we have to go back to square one in the legislature to fix that legislation?

What does it mean?

I'd be exceedingly surprised if that happened in this case.

Nick, I think what this whole situation reveals is something that has played out again and again in Kansas and Missouri.

This conflict between lawmakers who generally pay lip service to the idea of local control of home, rule of the authority of local government.

But in the end of the day, local governments are units of state government, and the state exerts its power and its, its financial tools.

Often at the expense of the municipalities like Wyandotte.

Money can also grease the wheels.

Could we see some more money going to Wyandotte County from the Chiefs?

I see, for instance, in Johnson County and DeSoto, the developer of a big data center that is now offering $1,000 to every resident in the city over a ten year period to try and offset their concerns when it comes to things like noise.

How about something like that for Wyandotte County?

Start cutting some checks to residents from the Chiefs.

They probably are definitely going to have to do that, especially when it comes to property taxes.

But I think Dave's point is correct.

I think it through all of this, the mayor wanted to make sure that Wyandotte County had a seat at the table and not on the outside, looking over people's shoulders.

I think that's the key to it.

And again, where are you going to build that over in Kansas?

Who's going to pay for it?

And how are you going to pay for it?

Because if you use the star bars and that means that there's tax money that they won't have for road repairs, extra exits on the freeway, police coverage of that area as well.

So I think those are the key points that she wants to make sure gets addressed.

We're not in a situation where the chiefs say, oh, this is now become too difficult.

We're just going to stay in Missouri.

Charlie.

Yes, sir.

I don't know if I see that coming quite yet.

No, I think they're the Ownership's really excited about that new stadium to two quick things to add.

There's an important deadline coming up on the Chiefs Stadium deal on October 31st.

The definitive documentation is supposed to be finished by then.

That's about ten days away.

Now there is a way to extend the deadline, but they've been working for months on trying to get a real framework for how this is going to be maintained and built, and who's going to run the stadium going forward.

The other thing is, Wyandotte County is concerned that because the entire county is basically in the in the Star Bar district, that they won't be able to use star bonds for anything else forever or for at least 30 years.

And that is an interest they need to protect.

You know, it precludes other development in places like the Fairfax District or grocery stores or something else that might attract enough tourists to qualify for star bonds, and they want to make sure that they're protected.

Well, we can review viewer watcher Andy, who lives in the analytics, asks, can we sue the state over this massive Chiefs tax district?

Why is KCK, Lenexa, Shawnee and Olathe having to pick up the tab for paying for the new Chiefs facilities, but not richer parts of the county like Linwood and Overland Park?

Do we have an answer to that?

Well, and I've heard that conversation from people that live in Wyandotte County, especially in the areas around fifth and sixth.

And when Daryl was like, why are we having to pay for this?

Well, let's be clear.

Wyandotte County ins are being asked to, put their local sales tax increment into the Star Bonds package on top of what the state gets.

And Olathe, has been asked to do the same thing, and I think they've indicated they will.

Lenexa I reached out to the mayor of Lenexa, where I happen to live, and ask her if Lenexa had been asked to give their local component.

And she said, the answer is no.

I, I, you know, there's a little you know, it's state tax revenue generally from these places in the district.

And so the fact that they're leaving out, Leawood and Overland Park is important only in the sense that those cities can use star bonds in the future, where the other cities might not be able to, just like Wyandotte County now.

Yeah.

Well, we were hosting our on the ballot special last week.

The Royals unveiled with great ceremony their latest design plans for its new downtown ballpark.

Imagine every summer night, 25,000 more people downtown, 25,000 more people in our museums, at our restaurants, at our shops.

This is something that is a game changer, not just for the city, but for an entire region, but with these latest design renderings.

Eric, really that much different than we'd already seen?

Was it worthy of that much press attention?

I think the limestone part being built out of limestone, that was the only remarkable thing that I heard or saw out of the renderings that I saw.

Your Mayor Lucas's statements, I think, are stretching it and creating more, people saying, here we go with the smoke and mirrors again, because you just know, where are you going to get 25,000 people at all the Royals games?

This is just it's just like blowing smoke.

Yeah, not only that, but I invite anyone to go watch a Cardinals game in Saint Louis and see how many people actually spill out of the stadium and go drinking or eating after the game.

And the answer is virtually none, particularly on weeknights, Wednesday night, people go home.

If the game's over, I'm going to go home.

The idea that somehow there's going to be this enormous explosion of tourist activity in downtown is probably a little over, but but John Sherman, the owner of the Royal, said when built, this will be, quote, the best neighborhood ballpark in America and the best pedestrian experience in Major League Baseball.

Will it be Charlie?

Well, I think he's got some lofty dreams, but I think he's in.

And you picked a good location for that.

If he wants to achieve that, he's right up against the Longfellow neighborhood.

The streetcar lines a block or two away.

There's a lot working in that direction.

We'll have to see, though, if they capitalize on that, for sure.

That is compared to the current pedestrian situation, which is the worst in the entire major leagues.

It is a vast improvement.

I also think it's probably not fair to compare it completely to Saint Louis.

Remember, Ballpark Village in Saint Louis is kind of downtown in Saint Louis, is not doing any sort of, it's not doing well in anything like the way the power and light district in that area around the new stadium would be.

So I think there's more potential for crossover benefit to other businesses in Kansas City than in some other places where this has been tried.

Whether it's 25,000 and night is a different question, but is it really downtown?

We look at downtown is where the power and light district is.

The Downtown Council says it goes to 31st Street, where this station is, you know.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yes.

The Ballpark Village in Saint Louis.

I think is a core development, just like, right in light District and was an, in fact, modeled on the power and light district, which has been, you know, a great addition to downtown but doesn't pay for itself.

Not even close.

The city has to write a check every year and will for the next 30 years or so.

So again, you just have to, I think, make sure we look at all of these claims with some skepticism going forward.

Well, last week we tackled the six statewide amendments on the ballot in Kansas and Missouri.

But there were also some pretty substantial local issues awaiting your verdict.

In Jackson County, voters will be deciding whether to renew the combat anti-drug tax.

Combat is the biggest part of dedicated violence prevention funding that we have in our entire metropolitan area certainly brings in a lot of cash, but since the last time voters approved it, an audit from former prosecutor Jean Peters Baker found county leaders have been using combat money outside its intended purpose.

You know, it's just a lot of money and taxpayers deserve to have money going, you know, as they directed it to, okay, that audit was in 2019.

Have those problems been fixed now, Charlie, as far as I understand that, yeah, that audit did raise some concerns.

And the leaders have made some changes and are working to make take good care of your money and, and give you that, reassurance that things are going where they need to go.

I've been to a couple of forums that they were participating in, and it seems like they've closed the loopholes that allow money to be used outside of that.

But the what's the alternative?

If you take that money away, what are you going to do to make up for it for treatment?

Now the police I agree, they get a little bit too much money out of that pot, considering all the other money that they get out of those things.

But I think for law enforcement, they could bring that down and put more money in treatment.

And we should add, since we showed Jean Peters Baker there, she now says that those problems have been solved.

She no longer is concerned about the spending.

Having said that, I think the other problem is that, if this doesn't pass, the money cuts off immediately.

It's not phased out.

A whole bunch of programs would be an instant trouble.

And the central contradiction of the combat tax, Nick, is it was, put into place to fight drugs.

Here we are, 30 years later, apparently still fighting drugs, which suggest it hasn't worked, or at least not worked in the way that it was originally sold to the public.

But I will say this it's so embedded now in local law enforcement that it's going to pass easily.

By the way, speaking of crime, I saw this week that Kansas City's temporary jail planned to open during the World Cup is still not open.

In fact, now we're told it won't open until next year.

What's what's gone so terribly wrong?

Eric?

They can't staff it, okay?

There's not enough people to work there.

The World Cup, they had two arrests out of that.

So that was just a total waste of taxpayers money.

Okay, now back to the local issues on the ballot.

Wyandotte County has two big sales taxes.

They're asking voters to approve a sales tax hike to pay for homeless services and another to fund parks and pools.

We have been the unhealthiest county in the state of Kansas, probably 30 plus years, largely because we have so many people living in poverty.

Half of our clients do not have any insurance whatsoever.

For me, that is just unacceptable.

How is the uncertainty over the Chiefs Stadium deal playing into public views on increasing taxes for parks, health and the homeless, especially in a county that already has some of the highest taxes in the state?

Charlie, literally every person I talked to one county is concerned about how the stadium will impact their property taxes and why not County already has a pretty high rate on their property taxes.

This would be a sales tax issue, but I wonder if just the word tax is enough to scare voters away from something.

But don't sales taxes also hurt the very people that they're trying to help with this?

Which, by the way, is an argument on the combat tax, which, you know, people facing drug problems are paying a sales tax, which is regressive.

And so I think it might have an impact on one county.

Having said that, health problems, particularly in Wyandotte County, have been an issue for 35, 40 years, as long as I've been in Kansas City.

And this may be some attempt to address that concern.

Now, 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?

How have we dealt with that?

A horrifying scene in Wichita, Kansas.

Mother drives her pickup truck onto a youth soccer field, killing two people, including a six year old boy, and injuring ten others.

A Kansas man is arrested after allegedly mapping rooftops near Trump's Kansas speech site.

Federal officials say 24 year old Jayden Reed had made social media threats that he was going to shoot the president.

Excelsior Springs becomes the latest metro city to shut down flock cameras.

Children's Mercy Hospital getting some rare public pushback after it drops.

Thousands of families using insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Hospital leaders insist the insurer has made that decision, not them.

And as early voting continues on both sides of state line, Johnson County officials say they're already experiencing presidential election level turnout already.

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

I went a little bit different and maybe a little bend the rules here a little bit.

I think President Trump missed a big opportunity to lay out a new nickname for Adam Hamilton.

You know, he has all these nicknames.

That's for all these Senate candidates to make fun of them.

But he didn't give us a good nickname for Adam Hamilton, so I was disappointed.

Brian really sorry about that.

I actually went a different direction as well.

I think we need to pay attention to what's happening at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where its director, Stacy Priest, resigned this week.

Maybe was forced out.

She's not been a fan of Governor Cuomo's attempts to institute a new, grading system on Missouri schools.

There's a lot of talk about Cindy O'Laughlin, the Senate majority leader, becoming the new, administrator over that department.

We're probably not going to hear a lot more until after the election about this, but it could mean big changes for how education is overseen in Missouri.

Eric.

ACA removing, children's mercy from the network.

That's going to put an overwhelming bearing on Truman, Swope Health and maybe even Samuel Rogers to treat children now that are coming in with those emergency medical needs.

It's hard enough to navigate health care without another big change like this.

Dave Long time viewers of this program will recognize the name Francis Similar.

Francis Similar was appointed by Mark Funkhouser to the Parks Board in 2007, and it touched off a massive controversy because she had belonged to the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, which was involved in immigration and, certain communities in Kansas City were angry at her appointment.

It became a national story on the national news, a huge deal in New York Times, the whole bit.

Francis Himmler passed away at the end of August.

And so I wanted to recognize her at the age of 92, by the way, recognize her involvement in Kansas City politics.

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

Charlie Keegan and Eric Wesson of Next Page KC from KCUR news, Brian Ellison and news icon and mister Kansas City stack on Substack.

Dave Helling and I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.