Fasten your seat belts.

You will go down as a total dirtbag.

Charming.

We connect the dots on the week's biggest local stories and newsmakers, all in less time than it takes to deliver a pizza.

Andrew Bailey is coming home when the government steps in and literally puts our thumb on the scale.

I don't have an answer, but somebody needs to figure this out because this is out of control.

Your week, reviewed next week in Review, is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marley's 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 Haynes, glad to have you with us again on our journey through the week's most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week, Kshb chief political reporter Charlie Keegan, former star reporter, now Mr.

Kansas City Star on Substack Dave Helling at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next page KC, Eric Wesson and KCUR's chief political analyst Brian Ellison.

First off, on a note of personal privilege, I want to call out the terrible timing of the United States Supreme Court.

Could the justices have been any more inconsiderate by making its big Missouri map ruling on Friday, just two hours before our broadcast last week?

Why did they have to wait until the last moment?

Was our production schedule not among the justices considerations?

Now, now that's out of my system.

This has to be the first program in literally months.

We don't have a huge legal ruling hanging over us as we take the program.

But wait.

Even the Kansas City Star seemed to be hedging its bet, saying the ruling likely signaled the death knell for the Republican map effort.

Likely.

Can we finally put this body in the ground, Brian?

Or could there be another ruling, perhaps from the Boone County District Court that could change this again?

It seems exceedingly unlikely.

How about that?

All right.

No.

I mean, who knows in this day and age.

But I think in reality, this election, at least we know which maps we're using.

I think that is almost certain.

But what we don't know is whether there might be other legal challenges, even after the election, that might call the results of the election into question based on the maps.

By the way, here is the response from the biggest winner, you could say, and the biggest loser of this map conflict.

That's Democratic Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and his Republican opponent, Rick Bratton.

I am at least a little more comforted in the fact that I know, absolutely, that this is the fifth district when the government steps in and literally puts our thumb on the scale and basically causes you to lose an election that's, totally different, than any campaign ever has had to deal with.

Well, huge relief, of course, for Emanuel Cleaver.

Will he now decide after all of this, Eric, that, he is not going to run again after this?

This is his long shot.

And my conversation with him, he's focused on getting to this election.

What happens after that happens?

But right now, he's focused on this election.

Now, by the way, I should point out that, isn't this back on the ballot in just a few weeks, Charlie, Missouri voters will decide in November whether to revive the new map through a statewide referendum, as all this fuss and protracted legal battle had an impact on this referendum vote.

Well, I would hope that people have been paying attention to some of this and realize that, yeah, now they get their chance to give their say on all of this.

But I think what I'm hear from a lot of voters is that they feel like this latest Supreme Court ruling is kind of the last say of it all.

And I think a lot of people will be surprised when they see proposition eight on their ballot, you know, in Missouri.

Yeah.

And I hadn't actually seen any political ads on this.

I haven't seen any political mailings.

Were the both sides waiting for this dust to settle and, and are now caught on the wrong foot at this point?

All right.

One of the challenges, of course, that we've talked about in court was whether or not a referendum is even constitutional, a congressional map.

That question appears to have been settled to everyone's satisfaction.

It will be on the ballot in November.

People are voting on it now.

I have seen a lot of social media about prop A and a lot of Republicans saying, hey, let's go with the new map.

Democrats saying, no, let's let's send a message to the legislature that they shouldn't be doing this.

But we've talked a little bit about the, prospective legal challenges.

If prop eight passes, if the new map is installed and Emanuel Cleaver is elected under the old map, that will be a confusing and potentially legalistic, challenge for the state of Missouri after November.

Talking about the legal battle around prop eight, I think, I'm sorry, the political battle, the advertising battle.

I actually think, the supporters of, of prop eight are the ones who are on the back foot.

It seems like they were entirely relying on sort of this, the constitutional approach, the idea that Denny Hoskins would keep it off the ballot.

And while the people, not politicians group was moving ahead, they have their ads in the can.

They're ready to go.

They've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them already.

I think what was emerging is that Denny Hoskins has cost the Missouri Republican Party in yet another way, which is to prevent them from being able to mobilize their political operation.

That might have been successful in getting the map approved.

Now, just very quickly, let's keep in mind that if voters turn down property and keep the old maps, the legislature can simply reinstall the new maps in January or February, and we'll go through this all over again.

Or if amendment six passes, which, as you know, severely restricts the legislature's ability to overturn the will of the people in a referendum or petition, if that passes, then redoing prop eight becomes much more problematic.

And we're right back in court.

I just say we heard from Leann, one of our longtime viewers this week, who wrote to us to say, was all this turmoil really worth it for just one House seat, Charlie?

Now, Republicans would say yes, right?

Well, they would say yes.

They wanted to do this, but they didn't even get their way.

So I wonder if now they're second guessing themselves and wondering if this was the best approach or the best use of all their, time come November, though, with the balance of power in Congress is just one one vote, this would have made the difference.

This would definitely make the difference.

And it's just interesting to see the response from the Republican congressmen that are going up for reelection now versus when the their map was being used, is a totally different, mindset and atmosphere, but it still has to be a situation.

Where will they see Congressman Cleaver if he wins?

That?

Will the Secretary of State even certify the election?

That's a issue that might come up here after November the 3rd.

Well, that didn't last long.

Barely a year after resigning as Missouri attorney general to join the Trump administration, Andrew Bailey announced this week he's leaving his post as the FBI's second in command to spend more time with his family in Missouri.

How many times do people actually spend more time with their family when they make those public announcements?

Or is this something, Brian?

Is there something more to this?

I don't know.

I mean, clearly, one thing that has been widely reported is that Andrew Bailey did not seem to connect well with FBI Director Kash Patel.

There seems to be, and and the same might also be true of the co deputy director.

It was kind of an odd position in the first place, a newly created position.

So he wasn't feeling the opportunity for advancement.

He didn't have a connection, perhaps to the president that he hoped he would.

There's other things going on, but I don't know that that necessarily suggests he is getting ready to run for office in Missouri, as many have speculated.

He's not going to be running against Mike key for governor in 2028.

Charlie, I haven't heard anyone say that definitively.

You know, he's, Bailey is someone who has spent a lot of time here in Missouri in different roles, and I could see him knocking on some doors.

There will almost certainly next year, be an effort in the Missouri legislature to, propose a constitutional amendment that would elect Supreme Court judges in the state of Missouri, just like we just had in Kansas, only doing it in Missouri.

The anger among Republicans at the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling in the Map case is just palpable.

So they'll propose something like that if voters agree to elect Supreme Court justices, and Andrew Bailey might well be a candidate for that going forward.

Well, as much as Andrew Bailey's departure was getting lots of national news attention, his predecessor as Missouri attorney general was getting even more headlines go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024.

I definitely did not go to a Hawks game.

I'm okay with that.

But let me tell you something.

You're the villain.

You will go down as a total dirtbag.

I think that people should have their facts straight, but we had four rules.

Someone of being a dirt bag and not get the team.

I stand by that statement.

I know this got a lot of attention and may end up as a Saturday Night Live skit, but why was it such a big deal that Missouri U.S.

Senator Eric Schmidt mixed up the Hawks and Hawkeyes in his effort to trip up former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith on Capitol Hill this week?

Did it really warrant that much media attention?

Well, I think it does say something very interesting about where Senator Schmidt is at right now.

It came out the same day as, as an article that was clearly trying to promote the idea that he could be a vice presidential nominee, with JD Vance.

It it came out as he was trying to to make a name for himself that day.

And the consequence was that he actually, fouled up the plan of of national Republicans to turn that hearing into some big political points.

He took away all the headlines.

So I think this is actually going to cost him maybe more than it first appears, not because Missouri voters are going to punish him, but because he his standing as a Republican national figure.

But, Eric, you know, unless you're really following every twist and turn of Capitol Hill on a daily basis, wasn't this a rather remarkably complicated story?

Many people wouldn't even know who Jack Smith was.

Never mind which NBA team versus NCAA team.

Wasn't it a little bit too complicated to follow?

It was.

And on a scale of 1 to 10, it's probably not on people's radar.

We talking about something there?

Going back with elections there, going back with an indictment that was done.

And people are paying $6 a gallon for gas.

But the interesting thing was that he was it seemed like he was trying to win favor with the president.

He plays golf with him.

They're buddies and he wants people to do that.

So it looked like he wanted that.

A boy pat on the back or star or or, gold star cookie or something.

And that didn't turn out to be.

So Dave, does it pass the sort of week in review Nick Haines why should we care test?

Well, first of all, he's a United States senator.

Any mistake like this, yes, we should care about more than that.

Nick.

Eric Schmidt accused Jack Smith of perjury.

Yeah, that isn't a like you're a dirtbag that's actually accusing someone of a crime.

If you're going to do that, you better be right.

You know, and I. I say that as an old reporter, if you start pointing your finger at someone, you better have your facts straight.

He did not that my friend will linger for Eric Schmidt in this state.

The Democrats now are saving every clip, every headline, every tweet to use against him when he runs again.

And in that sense, it yes, it matters a lot.

How many of you trust what you see in political ads?

Kansas U.S.

Senator Roger Marshall says one from Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton crosses the line and is defamation.

His lawyers have sent a cease and desist letter over the new ad that features a former Marshall patient who claims she was handcuffed while pregnant after falling behind or falling behind, rather, on her medical device.

One evening, I see lights.

I open the door and it's a police officer.

They arrested me because I didn't make a $50 payment to Roger Marshall.

Now, Marshall's attorney says the whole ad is a lie.

And Zimmerman wasn't arrested for a missed payment, but for failing to appear in court that a medical debt wasn't 50 bucks but more than 3000.

And a judge ordered her to appear because she'd failed to appear in court 16 times in a three year period for nonpayment of multiple businesses in multiple counties.

So, Dave Helling, you were known for your campaign Truth Watch segment when you were the Metro's top political reporter.

What grade does this?

What grade does this ad get?

Well, I think in the particulars there is, a great dispute over some of the details.

Was it a $50 payment?

Did she or more.

And that dispute continues.

But in a general sense, the idea that Roger Marshall, as an obstetrician pursued debts from patients who couldn't pay and use the legal system, lawyers and others to pursue those debts is generally true.

He has said, hey, I run a business.

I have to collect the money I'm owed.

Some voters may agree with that.

They might say yes, that it's by any measure, it's fair to collect bad debts.

Others would say no.

This was a who are we holding, Senator Marshall, to a higher standard than we do to other physicians, other hospitals.

In fact, we saw reporting from the beacon here in Kansas City this week about how it's increasing.

The hospitals all across our metro are taking people to court over these very same things.

Well, a lot of those people aren't running for public office.

That's the the tax dollars that represent you and make decisions about what to do with, with, issues that impact your life.

I think a lot of people kind of understand that these political ads are full of half truths.

You know, there's some truth to it, and there's maybe some bending of the truth.

But the FCC or whomever is given political, candidates a lot of leeway on these ads.

So I think this just kind of falls in line.

Right.

I think the political analysis of what's happened with this ad is, is as important as those those facts.

I think there is something misleading about the ad that is for sure.

True.

But it is also true that in opposing it so loudly and in threatening to sue for defamation that Roger Marshall is saying that I think he's missing the point that this overarching narrative exists of him as a rich, wealthy doctor, going after poor patients and seeking law enforcement on them.

And he has to figure out a better response to that than saying, I'm going to sue you for defamation on the other side on that one.

On the other hand, you know, on the other hand, just quickly, I wrote about this to Adam Hamilton is running a campaign in which he's talked about comedy and getting along with all sides.

And I'm a pastor and I'm a nice guy.

This ad is very, very aggressive.

It reminded me of the Crying Farmer ad from 1986 with the Harriet Woods and and, Kit bond, and that backfired on her because people thought it was too aggressive and unfair.

And you wonder if Hamilton is really making a gamble with this kind of ad and, and I like the part that you talked about, about Hamilton and civility in Congress and especially in the Senate, especially given Eric Schmidt call and, the investigator a dirt bag.

And I think Congress has gotten really out of hand with that.

But on the other side of the coin, his commercial, Roger Marshall's commercials are kind of, out there, too.

Hey, he pocketed $3 million worth of, Well, Tom millionaire, he's doing this.

Oh, those who attack the A6 complaint.

That doesn't mean that he was found guilty by the Ethics Commission.

So I and Roger Marshall was sending out his lawyers a cease and desist letter.

If that were successful, wouldn't most political ads be forced off the air?

Oh, my gosh, we wouldn't have any.

Okay, okay.

That wouldn't be a bad idea for me in my bathroom.

Of all the cease and desist letters that have been written in political campaigns over the decades.

Sometimes they never work.

Sometimes against reporters.

Yes.

Next week, by the way, we will be showing footage from David Hemings bathrooms.

See for yourself.

Now, now, speaking of Marshall, another round of ice raids, including one in the Johnson County city of DeSoto, is putting pressure on candidates to respond.

And Roger Marshall is now saying he's concerned and that Ice needs to be working in coordination with local authorities.

While some say this is about softening his tone as he seeks reelection.

But as any Democrat going to say thank you, Doctor Marshall, I've changed my mind about you, and I'm now going to pick you over Adam Hamilton.

Eric.

No, I don't think that's going make a difference.

I think the long term policy will be what makes a difference, bringing these facts out.

Because now Roger Marshall and everybody else says, oh, we got to do something about Ice and the policy and the way that they do things.

I don't think this is going to make that much of a difference.

That was a defining difference, though, between Kamala Harris and President Trump.

President Trump got more votes, so why would he want to be softening his position on this, which was clearly popular with the public at that time?

Well, I think maybe he's not softening his position to win over Democrats, but maybe more independent voters, the kind of people who might vote for a Laura Kelly, a Democrat governor, but a Roger Marshall, Republican senator.

I think the issue is not the immigration.

I think the enforcement of it.

That's where people have problems with the that you got.

I think this week they had some two and three year old kids in court, trying to explain why they should stay in the country.

And they didn't have parents there.

They didn't have lawyers there.

I think I see enforcement that people have a real problem with.

Right.

And the and the public opinion around enforcement has shifted.

So to your point, Nick, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump feels like about a century ago in terms of the political ideas around this issue now just as much as the big headlines.

I'm interested in the stories you think would get a huge amount of attention, but don't.

Case in point Kansas City hit a grim milestone this week a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a Casey's gas station in Waldo.

Help mark the city's 100th homicide of the year.

City leaders note that the number remains sharply lower than last year's pace.

In fact, it's down 15%.

But when did 100 homicides stop being a major news event?

Eric.

It's not.

It's still too many for a population of 450,000 people, 100 homicides is still too high.

And, the rationale behind it is coming down.

Yes, coming down 15%, but we're coming off a record years, record numbered years.

So I don't know if we should be taking a victory lap because it is down.

I'm sure parents that are burying their loved ones don't care whether it's 100 or 1000 or ten.

They're still burying their loved ones.

And it was made.

Quinton Lucas, who set that barometer when he was first ran for office as mayor and said, we want to get homicides down by, by triple digits below triple digits.

And yet it's been 2014 since the last time we were below.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

Yeah.

And it certainly hasn't happened under Mayor Quinton Lucas.

His watch.

And so, yeah, I wonder if there is maybe, some put some feet to the fire work that we could do as a journalist here to really make that clear with Quinton Lucas, with a new mayor's race coming up, and Matt Lucas will be out of office by this time next year.

Will another candidate be reluctant now to put that, getting it below 100 homicides?

Because that was such a tricky metric to actually accomplish in Kansas City?

Yeah.

I mean, I think I think they will be maybe more cautious about about giving the number, and maybe they should be more cautious.

I'm not sure that that the number of homicides in one particular year is a statistically meaningful measure of safety.

Across the metro, I just briefly had, on the other hand, crime, violent crime is collapsing all over the country.

It isn't just, you know, 15% down in Kansas City.

Virtually every city is showing a reduction in violent crime.

Every state.

Kris Kobach is making that a big part of his campaign for attorney general in Kansas, for example.

That's what disturbs you about Kansas City is whatever decline we've had, maybe just part of this national trend and not the result of any local efforts or local policing or local policy decisions, which means that it could pop right back up again next year.

And Kansas City spends a lot of money fighting violent crime.

And it's the same scenario regardless of where you go, same people, same approach.

And, you know, I just don't think is being effective.

I did see when Kansas City hit 100 homicides last year, the mayor held a press conference with lots of other major stakeholders, including the police chief this year.

Man, Lucas wasn't even around.

He's out of the country, racking up the air.

Miles, he has been in Mexico City.

I in Rome this week.

And in Vatican, city was.

It was a meeting with the Pope.

Charlie.

No, I don't think he had, attendance with the Pope.

An audience with the Pope this week, but, on on all sorts of international campaigns with different regional groups in the North America area.

And then with an I like an international mayors, organization in Rome.

I think we have to understand that.

No, Nick, the Pope is clearly consumed right now with a 24 over seven prayer vigil for the Chicago White Sox.

And so I don't see any way that he could be meeting with mayors.

All right.

Now, the world's largest barbecue competition is back this weekend.

But for the first time, it's taking place at the American royal's newly opened headquarters campus in Kansas City, Kansas.

What's been striking about this story is how few headlines the new location has gotten.

Has Kansas City simply stopped paying attention to the American royal?

Dave?

What also has not gone reported, but should be, is the new location in K was built largely with tax increment financing.

Huge star bond planned.

Very similar to what the Chiefs are doing.

He didn't get that much attention.

Well, it was stalled for some time because they needed more money.

And, it was a very, challenging environment.

And it's not done yet.

They're still working on the facility out there.

It shows you how much star bonds have become an integral part of these kinds of things.

In Kansas.

Of course, the Chiefs being the top of that mountain.

Have we lost interest in the American royal?

Maybe to some degree, but for for Kansas City, you know, our our mantra, our whole being is about barbecue.

And of course, the American royal has the World Series of barbecue.

So I feel like there should be some interest.

And the world and the American world has worked hard in recent years to make it more family like, more family fun, where you can actually eat the food and not just be a competitor in Kansas.

It's not in Kansas City, Missouri, but this year, members of the public can't even go because of all the construction at the site.

And I just I remember a time when the American royal was a huge part of the fall in Kansas City, Missouri, when the Future Farmers of America held their convention here.

Thousands of kids in blue coats the American Royal Parade, where they, you know, livestock and other things were marched down the street.

So Kansas City's commitment to this event has faded rather dramatically over the years.

Its presence now in Kansas City, Kansas, should not be a surprise.

All righty.

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 the midtown Costco now officially closed for five months.

It'll reopen as a Costco business center in the spring, but as one door closes, another opens.

The new Costco warehouse in Lee's Summit, now greeting customers for the first time this weekend, a wage dispute shutters Cool Crest.

Staff at the longtime independence attraction say they hadn't been paid in weeks.

They're closing neighborhood pools, but Overland Park, finding $250 million in incentives for a new headquarters building for Black and Veatch.

The downtown Ferris wheel keeps spinning, but the rest of the pen Waypoint entertainment district now in doubt.

New owners now want to demolish the buildings that would have been home to a cluster of bars, restaurants and a neon sign museum.

And Kansas City's haunted houses are finally open in what may be the latest start to scare season in modern memory.

Blame the weather.

The owners of the Beast and Edge of Hell say September's 90 degree temperatures would have baked customers and performers in, what, a century old buildings that lack air conditioning.

What you might not know about was, is that Eric Wesson actually is the guy with the chainsaw that chases you at the edge of hell.

I wish.

Okay, Eric, which one did you point out with this week?

The new skating rink.

This opened on 21st in prospect, and I want to remind, you know, viewers that that's not the jazz district.

I think the media reported it as being a part of the jazz district.

The city didn't promoted as that.

Nobody else did.

The jazz district stops on Brooklyn.

The we're on prospect.

So that is something that you probably want to do some research about.

But a significant added attraction in a part of the city that doesn't get a lot of that.

Oh, absolutely.

A $1.7 million investment on prospect to go along with the prospect development is going on.

That's an added plus, right?

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a bill this week that would significantly regulate flock cameras.

These have been obviously very controversial in our area and really in municipalities around the country.

What's interesting to me about the story, Nick, is that he partnered with the ACLU and the Institute for justice civil liberties organizations.

Earlier, we've seen Josh Hawley partner with, organized labor.

We he does that at the same time as he stands alongside anti-abortion groups and embraces Christian nationalism.

He's a really interesting political figure in this moment, and I think we need to keep paying attention.

And yet he still says he's not running for president.

Yes, Charlie, I went to Leavenworth, where a student brought a gun to the one of the schools up there.

And then there was a lot of outrage from parents who thought that they didn't get notified enough.

And it just kind of reminds us that there's this, you know, still this kind of real fear that parents have about school safety and the importance to communicate with your parents.

Okay.

Voters in Kansas are looking to see if there are many differences between Cindy Holsinger and Ty Masterson for governor.

One clear difference between the two is their views on capital punishment.

Ty Masterson supports the death penalty.

Cindy Holzer co-sponsored a bill in 2024 that would have abolished the death penalty in Kansas, at least going forward.

It wouldn't have affected those on death row now, but going forward, that's a clear difference between the two.

The botched execution in Tennessee may bring new focus to that of the issue in Kansas.

And on that, we will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of channel 41's Charlie Keegan and Eric Wesson from next page, KC from KCUR News Brian Ellison and Mr 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.