The deadliest week of the year.

One thing I can tell you for sure, it ain't over.

But are there any fixes?

The help wanted sign out for a new Jackson County prosecutor.

Big changes on the way to how you call 911 in Kansas City.

The crowds getting angrier.

I don't understand.

I guess everybody's going have to sell their houses and leave.

Line one up, 440%.

Now a new lawsuit over skyrocketing property appraisals.

But will it make any difference?

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

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

Bob and Marlese Gourley.

The Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust.

Joh H Mize and Bank of America co Trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haynes.

It has been a tumultuous week in this place we call home.

Connecting the dots on the metro's biggest local news story, KCTV 5 chief investigative reporter Angie Ricono from NBC Nightly News, Michael Mahoney from KCMO Talk Radio, Pete Mundo, and from Kansas City's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC former Call editor Eric Wesson.

How many more ways will we eloquently condemn violence and promise that change is on the way?

More news conferences this week decrying Kansas City's escalating homicide problem after another big deadly week of violence that including a mass shooting at seventh and prospect that killed three and injured six others.

Even more remarkably, it was just one of three deadly shootouts that police responded to in a three hour span on Sunday.

These are lives.

These are people.

These are families that are being touched.

We still will not pick up the phone and call and tell what you know.

One thing I can tell you for sure.

It ain't over.

It ain't over.

Kansas City is now on pace to hit 100 homicides by the end of the week.

That's a more than 30% jump on where we were last year.

If current trends continue.

Kansas City will end the year with the highest number of murders in the city's history.

All this is happening in the same week that the New York Times reports that homicides have actually fallen more than 12% in the country's biggest city.

So why isn't it happening here, Eric?

It's just a different mindset here in Kansas City.

And I think some of those other cities may have done something to help with the relationship between the community and a police department.

And one of the things that we have in the black community that's an issue is they don't want to talk to police about things because they know nothing is going to happen.

And that's a perfect example.

Why is that different than any other city, though?

Why is that different than New York?

Why is that different in Chicago or any other city?

I think one thing that they did in New York was they implemented programs that help curb violent crime.

Kansas City.

But haven't we heard Haven't we heard I mean, dozens of news conferences, it seems, over the last several years now?

Oh, we got new relationships.

We're doing new community partnerships.

We're going to be working with these agencies.

We got more money for preventative programs for crime.

Are we not seeing any evidence that any of that is working?

No, we're not.

Obviously, based on the numbers, but, you know, I sit here and I think, okay, people don't want to talk to cops, but maybe they don't want to talk to cops because they know that these criminals are back out on the streets in just a few days.

Right.

If no one's going to look out for you, if you speak, then why would you speak?

And you look at this guy that was arrested, Kevin Green.

And the reality is, two weeks prior, he gets arrested on multiple felony charges.

His bond goes from 10,000.

The judge lowers it in conjunction, theoretically, with the prosecutors office to $1,000.

He's on the streets for 100 bucks.

Why does that happen, though, Andre?

I mean, isn't that because we actually don't even have a jail currently in Kansas City?

Part of it, it's like, where do you put all of these people?

So I think there's a lot of frustration.

And we heard it from Chief Graves at the Board of Police Commissioners meeting saying in this town, people get angry and they grab a gun.

And that's a huge part of what Kansas City is dealing with, not just nonfatal shootings, but you have all these murders because we have such a culture of violence.

And when you have that violence, if you're armed with a gun, it's even more dramatic and severe.

You had a very long, extensive interview with Quinton Lucas in the past week.

Michael Mahoney.

He has his thing is always, you know, we don't have a local control of police, but is he being let off the hook by claiming that we don't have any control over crime in this community?

Yeah, he's been let off the hook on this.

What what I would look for in the immediate future is they're going to look at a program now underway in Omaha.

Omaha is almost the same size as Kansas City, but there are a lot of differences.

But Omaha has been able to reduce their violent crime substantially because they do have some level of trust between the citizens and the police.

They're doing that.

Well.

They're doing it.

They're doing that right now.

The door knocking and those kinds and the evidence.

It's working.

No, no.

And and.

And some somebody.

Might claim that it's working in certain areas.

But one thing I want to go back to what Pete said before.

I forget real quick.

One of the problems is where Kansas City is doing the same thing, the same way with the same people expecting different results.

What you're doing isn't working, so why keep throwing money at programs and situations that aren't working?

That's the problem.

Well, some people feel the next step is the ballot box.

In fact, there's a new group just being formed called Sensible Missouri.

They're launching an initiative petition to give counties the right to enact their own firearms regulations.

There's a lot of signatures still to collect to make this happen.

Pete But does that have a shot if that was put on the ballot box of passing or is Missouri so focused on the Second Amendment, they would never let that happen?

Well, it depends on the language.

Like a lot of these ballot issues.

Right.

How is it written?

Does it trick the voter into thinking some, you know, thinking the language is something it's not?

I don't think it would stand a chance because they've already got the Second Amendment Protection Act on the books.

It would face an enormous amount of legal challenges.

So I don't see how it could ever get to that point where Jackson County or Kansas City could write their own gun laws.

But, you know, the ballot initiative process is easy in Missouri.

So I'm not going to say it's impossible.

But don't you think if that was put on the ballot, it would pass, Michael?

No, not at all.

Not in Missouri.

We get beat like a drum if we do have a presence in parts of Saint Louis, it would have residents and residents in parts of Kansas City and perhaps the caller suburbs there, but not in our state.

What would you would you feel the same way then, about a push actually by the Kansas City Star editorial board to make Quinton Lucas start an initiative effort in Missouri to provide local control?

The police in Kansas City, if that were put on the ballot box statewide, would that pass?

Oh, I don't think so.

And, you know, because it's got to the state of Missouri is pro-police, You know, they got away with it in Saint Louis, but now they're trying to reverse it.

And Erick's right.

Missourians approved local returning local control of Saint Louis.

Saint Louis has probably more serious violent crime problems than than Kansas City.

Local control is not a panacea for this.

So Saint Louis has got as many homicide problems as Kansas City.

Like they've had.

Like when you talk about people getting out of jail and then committing other problems, they've had just some incredible examples in Saint Louis.

So I don't know if the push right now would pass.

How many ambitious Kansas City fans looked in the mirror this week and saw the next Jackson County prosecutor looking back at them?

In case you missed it, Jean Peters Baker has announced she will not seek reelection after 12 years on the job.

She has served longer than any other Jackson County prosecutor in modern history.

The time away from family, the loss of anonymity, the time spent pondering death threats.

And the hardest of all is caring the toll of violence.

Baker departs not only with the highest number of homicides in history, but just as she wages a political fight with Governor Mike Parson amid claims he plans to pardon the first Kansas City cop convicted of killing a black man, the governor blasted Baker for playing politics.

Is that why she's now getting out of the kitchen and exiting the office she has held for so long?

Well, there are a lot of victims in the story of Jean Peters Baker's tenure, and she is not one of them, despite what you would see there.

She's getting out, I believe, by the way, the timing was good, considering this was, what, a week and a half ago preceding all this violence.

I think she's getting out because she knows it is time to which rarely politicians do.

So I give her that much credit.

But I think she's also realized that she would face a real challenge next year.

She didn't really have a huge challenge in that reelect in 2020.

It wasn't a great candidate that was up against her.

There will be a big push to get a real solid pro law enforcement candidate who's actually going to crack down on some of the violent criminals that are walking the streets in this town.

That pro law enforcement candidate the just described is going to have to be a Democrat.

Yeah, because it is it is Jackson County.

I always see an explosion of campaign announcements.

This is exactly.

I want the job.

No, not not, not yet.

And you won't for a while.

People are just now making the assessments.

Can I do what?

Can I raise the money?

All that sort of stuff.

I would look for a couple of the senior prosecutors in her office to perhaps take a serious look.

Could former city Councilwoman Alicia Kennedy, who waged a strong run for Kansas City mayor in 2019, rather be a likely candidate?

Hasn't she already worked as an assistant prosecutor in Baker's office?

Her name is popping up quite a few places.

She did run a statewide campaign.

She lost, but she had a good showing in that.

I don't know if a pro law enforcement or law person would work because you can't arrest and lock your way up out of the problem.

Kansas City in the Jackson County area, we've got a mental health issue going on that nobody wants to really talk about, kind of sweep under the rug, but whoever it would be would have to be somebody that would address mental health issues in this county.

Pete gave a portrait of Jean Peters Baker that he provided there.

But hasn't she done some positive things as she has?

And it is a very tough job that she's doing.

The good news for whoever takes over is that she is a well staffed office.

They don't have a ton of openings like what you see in Saint Louis.

So the office is not in chaos.

But I do think there are people questioning why she is leaving.

It has been a tough road for her.

The issue of the pardon is still coming up on even though now Mike Parson says no, he's not looking currently at pardoning Eric Dvorkin here, who was convicted of killing Cameron.

LAMB Now, the Missouri attorney general has moved forward and said that he would like to see that conviction overturned or have a brand new trial in that case.

But does he have any jurisdiction over that whatsoever?

Michael Mahoney, isn't that a judge's decision?

What does the attorney general have to say about that?

And is it just political posturing?

Well, in in broad terms, the attorney general can enter a case like this.

But in almost all the cases in Missouri, an attorney general will come in and uphold a conviction.

This case, he's looking to reverse or set aside a conviction.

He's got, you know, a couple of novel elements inside of his pleading to the appeals court for that.

Number one, he challenged the whole idea of a gun being planted on Mr. LAMB.

And when this case was at trial, it was not a jury verdict.

It was a verdict by the judge involved.

And that makes it a much, much more different sort of case.

I remember you last week saying, though, if that conviction was overturned, it would be batten down the hatches time, Eric.

Yeah, it would be for a number of reasons.

I'm not saying that they're going to tear up the city or burn up the plaza or anything, but it is going to be a situation where you call into question what the politics are.

For example, has been already brought up that the AFP might have gotten to him, the Attorney general, and said, you know, we're not going to support you in your reelection bid in 18 months, we're going to support somebody else because you look like yourself on a police officer that did something wrong.

So I think it's one of those things about politicking.

The civil rights organizations have already been in Jeff City expressing their concern as well.

They say when you call 911, every second counts.

Unfortunately, if you're in Kansas City, you're likely to be placed on hold.

The guy beaten up recently in the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium was on hold for about 4 minutes waiting for someone to answer.

Currently, the average wait time before a dispatch for answers is one minute.

Even though the industry standard is for 90% of calls to be picked up within 15 seconds, the city is now promising.

Change proposed is a new system in which you won't speak directly to a dispatcher.

Instead, you'll be greeted by a digital voice that will prompt you to push one to contact police, two for fire or three for EMS before being sent through.

Are we just increasing the response times by asking callers to make them go through even more steps before they can speak to a human who can help the man?

Three other cities are doing this and you know, they keep waiting and waiting and trying to figure out if they can solve staffing, which they haven't been able to.

So the mayor's wanting to try something different.

This isn't a new concept, but we have a regional 911 system.

And it used to be that everyone, everyone like Overland Park related, they'd all have to switch to this, but now they can just do Kansas City.

They have the technology where they would only change it for Kansas City and they're hoping that that would at least start getting people rooted a little quicker on this.

And there's evidence that it does make that system smoother.

Yes.

And I think we're seeing a huge push because the mayor, his own mother, had a medical issue and the sister calls 911 and she's placed on hold for almost 5 minutes.

So we're seeing these really extreme examples of what's taking place.

I mean, like the guy at Arrowhead, you know, fortunately.

But, you know, when we call an airline what we call a bank, sometimes when you call in one of these big companies for a return on an item, for instance, we don't we hate those automatic voices that you never get that human being.

And do we want to use that for 911?

I can't stand them.

And then the question comes up when I push one for the fire department or the police department here it goes.

When you get to them, they put you on hold.

So that's an extended whole time that you have.

But what I was laughing at was because it happened to the mayor, then that was an issue.

We got to do something about this because it happened to his mother.

I had a guy come in the call office when I worked there back in December.

He was frostbitten.

He was using a cigaret lighter to about to warm the bottom of his feet.

I called 911.

I was on hold for like 15 minutes before somebody finally.

That was okay.

But is is the phone system the problem or is it?

I thought there was a lack of dispatchers.

They couldn't find people to do that job.

I think that's the one of the cardinal problems here is that it's a tough job.

It the mayor wants to raise their pay.

But but it's a tough, difficult, stressful job.

But one way out of it is, is to improve staffing.

No question.

Clark County just increased its 911 dispatcher salaries by a few thousand dollars.

So everyone's dealing with the same problem.

Got to get the salaries up.

I mean, it's a tough, thankless job.

So it's got to be done, though.

It takes a lot for people to get off their sofas in order to attend a local council meeting or an issue forum.

Even last week's election seemed like too much trouble.

87% of residents stayed home.

So what are we to make of standing room only?

Crowds of over a thousand at the Jackson County courthouse and at several events around town this week, there might not have been pitchforks, but people are still angry over their property appraisal notices.

And now there's a lawsuit to try and block them.

We apologize for those who have to stand my wind at 440%.

You don't understand.

I guess everybody's got to sell their houses and leave.

I don't want to cry because I saw a lot of senior citizens on canes and they were coming in there, their walkers, because they are so afraid of losing their homes.

Yeah, squeaky wheel gets the oil.

So that's what we're hoping to get some more.

You now, we talked about this last week and I really don't like repeating everything all over again.

But clearly, Jackson County lawmakers were worried enough about this that they hastily called a public hearing to listen to residents this week.

But other than listening, did it change anything?

I sure nothing has changed.

I mean, you've got a fundamental problem in Jackson County where they don't feel like they have a good hold on the property taxes.

Right.

So they're trying to get the assessments right, but they're making these giant changes and a lot of homeowners are questioning if they're even valid.

I mean, we're seeing report after report where people are questioning, okay, how did my house jump this much?

And in some cases it's probably justified, but in some other cases it's probably not.

Some of our viewers may be salivating this week because they heard about a class action lawsuit.

They think, oh, my goodness, I won't have to pay now.

But does that just delay the inevitable?

It will delay the inevitable, but it may give you some options for two years to kind of figure out a strategy for yourself.

So if you got your notice late in the mail by state statute, they can't change it.

Now, that's the theory of the class action lawsuit.

So we'll have to see what a judge says.

But there is a new proposal that would cap increases to 15%.

I see a number of states actually do that now, Michigan and Arkansas, for instance, you can't increase more than 5% a year.

Texas is 10%.

New Mexico, it can't go up by more than 3%.

But just because one lawmaker proposes it, what's the chance of that happening, Eric?

It depends on how they feel and on that particular day, because it's not it would be great to have a cap on it.

But in in Missouri, you've got these rotating people and rotating philosophies.

So how long would it stick and what would it wound up being?

And I think what you've got is you've got all these seniors that are saying, I could lose my house, I could be put out of my house because I can't afford the taxes.

It didn't hurt.

What certainly didn't help that this week we learned that Frank White's property values the head of Jackson County that went up to 7%.

But didn't you speak to Mayor Quinton Lucas yourself?

And he said on his it went up over 60%.

So certainly top elected leaders are seeing some pay right.

And he he said that he feels like Jackson County ought to develop a method to stagger these increases to give people an opportunity to handle a little better.

However, the problem with that is that in Missouri and in Jackson County, there's no method to do that right now.

They could implement something like that, and I'm being told that that might happen down the line, but it's not there yet.

Something new happened this week, too, though, because it's not going to get ugly because Frank White and Quinton Lucas, there's a thing going right now, in fact, of just reading about Frank White telling Quinton Lucas he is sowing confusion and mistrust on assessments.

What did Quinton Lucas do?

So terribly wrong?

Well, it makes for great talk radio, in case you're wondering.

But yeah, it is.

I mean, did you see the letter that Frank White wrote to Quinton Lucas, which talked about sowing confusion?

He laid out the measures, property value, he put in the increase in there.

He said he's in a predominantly white neighborhood.

I mean, he threw the kitchen sink at the guy, but the point being, those two guys don't like each other.

Everybody knows it.

But but that's but that's different, you know, because we've gone from the property tax assessment issue before.

This is a different this is a different trend.

This is absolutely different because before you didn't see them publicly feuding and now you see that.

And you're right, the letter they knew the letter would get out.

Right.

Somebody is going to get the letter, but it takes everything.

The announcement the other day and Frank was there one place and Gwen was at the other, and you could just see the tension when they saw each other.

They're just like, oh, but, but, but, but the bottom line, because again, this is the issue we hear about mold from our viewers that anything else?

Is there any hope on the way.

Unless you fight it?

Yeah, let's fight it.

And then also the county will have to enact the cap that that the state legislature passed.

But that won't work until 2025, assuming the county does it, which they will.

It's something Democrats and Republicans appear to agree.

All right.

The lawsuit is only for business, one for.

The homeowners to pay for all and stuff with business.

Okay, Now, I thought I might be starting the show, by the way, this week with a huge announcement from Royals owner John Sherman about his plans for a new ballpark.

He called every media company over to Kauffman Stadium for a special news conference.

But sit back down.

Is there nothing new to report you?

I didn't hear anything new for all the build up.

Did we learn anything this week, Michael?

Yeah, I think on his Thursday news conference, at least several nuggets came out.

Number one, he would like to have a of a site picked either in Clay County or in Jackson County by the end of the summer and put this question of a $0.03 extension on the Jackson County ballot in April.

All that is new and and hard information.

But he also says that they've got polling that suggests that this this would succeed in Jackson County and in Clay County.

And he also said that the offer that's new, that in Clay County is a is being treated as a serious offer and not a flirtation.

But I thought this would be the end to our purgatory this week.

That did not happen.

It did not happen.

But I do think the end of summer is an interesting timeline.

I think originally a couple of weeks ago they said the end of the year.

Now Sherman saying the end of the summer, they hope to have that that decision narrowed down.

And you know what?

It's anybody's guess.

But as people up north have told me, they have two folks that are helping their cause a lot, Quinton Lucas and Frank White.

They are genuinely helping Clay County in this bid, and they firmly believe that they are two of their greatest assets right now.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm serious.

What do you what do you make of what Mike Mahoney said, that John Sherman thinks that they have they have, based on public opinion polling, there's enough support to make this happen.

I think there is.

And and I'm just saying this anecdotally, I haven't done any official polling, but from what I hear and we have a lot of listeners up in Clay County, they want to stick it to Jackson County and Kansas City, even if it costs them money with taxes.

That's that.

That's what they they say that now they'll tell that tell that to you on your show, Pete And I'm I'm and I'm sure they do when the rubber hits the road and they're asked for a sales tax.

I'm I'm not convinced of that And I also think that it's going to be a tough ask in Jackson County as well, because a lot of people believe that the ballpark is in very, very good shape, even though the the royals say it's an aging building, it's got some mechanical and structural problems.

And then the other thing that we haven't talked about is that the royals are a miserable baseball team right now.

They're the second worst team in the in Major League Baseball.

And that accounts for something.

I mean, people want to be able to support a winner.

They are the royals front office are tying the new ballpark to improve finances for better players.

But we'll see.

Right now what people are seeing on the field is not very good baseball and that's a factor.

All righty.

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?

Barring a judge's ruling, the region's first transgender restrictions go into effect this weekend in Kansas from using the bathroom, playing in sports to bans on changing driver's licenses.

Many businesses and local governments still confused over how they will comply with the new law.

A year after Kansans voted down the value them, both amendment, the state now reporting a 57% rise in abortions.

Most of the surge coming from women out of state.

The biggest numbers coming from Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Nearly three months after being shot in the head after ringing the wrong doorbell, Rafael agrees to his first sit down interview with Good Morning America.

What will you do with $100 million?

The Sunderland Foundation giving a record amount of cash to CU Medical Center to create a new cancer center.

And that was fast tickets for the upcoming Chiefs game in Germany go on sale this week.

They sell out in 15 minutes.

The only thing left to say is look, Don, that's apparently the German word for touchdown.

London.

London.

Pete, what was your story?

Well, I can I go back to the royals for a quick second?

Okay.

Just real fast.

I just want to add to the conversation and simply say my final point is that I'll tie it to the Chiefs for the last thought.

If the chiefs stay in Jackson County and the royals were to go up north, the Chiefs would could get a 3% extension of the sales tax and get the money.

The royals were previously supposed to get 350 million.

It could work for the region and it could work for all of Kansas City at large.

Michael.

The senate bill 180 over over in kansas that the transgender law.

This is going to set up a major court fight, i think, between chris kovac's office as attorney general and the kelly administration.

Angie, I don't think we missed the story.

I think 911 is the biggest thing taking place in Kansas City right now because it affects so many people.

If you're calling because your house is on fire, a medical emergency.

I think fixing 911 affects so many people and it's huge.

Erik Shake Shack on the plaza.

A white couple sent me a letter to the editor and they said that they they were in the store on this particular day that the black youth came in and she said that they racially profiled those kids because those kids weren't doing anything.

They weren't obnoxious.

They were dressed appropriately, They were good kids.

So they might have overreacted.

And now, of course, they're closing in the evenings, the dining room, you cannot go there in the evening anymore because they viewed it as unruly teens.

And that was unfair, in your judgment?

Yes.

And and the customer who was there, his judgment.

All right.

We'll be continuing to watch that story.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCTV Five's Angie Ricono now and 6 to 10 weekdays on KCMO Talk radio.

Pete Mundo from Next Page, KC, Eric Wesson and KMBC nine political analyst Michael Mahoney.

And I'm Nick Hainesl From all of us here at Kansas City, PBS be well keep calm and carry on.