I think you said a great player.

I think he's a great guy and I think that he's a terrific person, so I wish him a lot of luck.

I know some of you think this is the biggest story in the galaxy, but believe it or not, we found 26 minutes of other important news to share with you in what has been a violent week in Kansas City.

From a mass shooting downtown.

It was like at least minimum 150 gunshots, if not more, to another cop killed on the line of duty.

In came has the redistricting bug now spread to Kansas?

And how many data centers do we need?

Two new mega centers on the way on both sides of state line, and with them lots of unanswered questions.

Going to take a lot more water.

It's going to take a lot more electricity.

There are a lot of a lot of unknowns at this point.

And calling out the Missouri National Guard, not in Washington, but to help.

I see no stories.

And the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlys Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America and a 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 Haynes.

Glad to have you with us again.

As we dissect 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 is Casey was local government reporter Savannah Bates, former star reporter Dave Helling from the world of television and news is Charlie Keegan, and at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper, next Page Casey Eric Wesson.

Now crime dominating the headlines again this week, including a mass shooting downtown that kills two and injures three.

All right, next to where hordes of World Cup visitors will be flocking in just a few months.

Next to the Power Light entertainment district.

There was like probably, I'd say, about 15 people shooting.

You can hear the gunfire.

And this video shared with Fox four.

The shooting Sunday morning left dozens of bullet holes in the nearby college basketball experience.

Building a sign on the door Monday says the tourist attraction is closed until further notice.

And it was like at least minimum 150 gunshots, if not more.

I got up, went to the balcony.

I seen cars screeching out of here, cop cars pulling up ambulance.

I mean, it was insane if it was so insane.

What is the city's response?

Well, apparently a new ordinance cracking down on privately owned parking lots.

Matt Lucas now ordering the crackdown that would require fencing, enhanced lighting and surveillance cameras in service lots in the city's entertainment districts.

When a major shooting like this occurs, most of us can imagine a number of fixes being proposed.

Why this one, Eric?

because you had a lot of attention to the parking lot, parking lots downtown in the power and light district and throughout the metropolitan area have been a problem for a long time.

They just fly under the radar.

There's robbery there, car thefts, car break and sexual assault.

So this one just managed to get on the front page of the newspaper.

But is there any evidence this actually slows the sort of pace of homicides, Charlie?

Or is it just shifting crimes elsewhere?

You could say that, right.

It's almost a game of whack a mole, right?

If we eliminate the crimes from the parking lots and they'll just go somewhere else.

I think the mayor's looking for accountability, though, from these private owners and making them really kind of have a stake in the game.

We saw him do this at 35th.

The prospect to really kind of, hammering in on some like convenience stores there and trying to get them to get people from loitering on their properties.

We heard a lot from our viewers about this.

Dave Robert in Kansas City, thank you, Robert.

He writes, now we have to regulate parking lots.

What's next?

Metal detectors to park.

This is too little, too late.

Instead of talking about weaponry and 150 bullets fired near the power and light district, we're talking about putting lights in the parking lot.

That seems to be a secondary, approach to what is a bigger problem with weaponry.

And I think Charlie is exactly right.

It just squeezes it into another part of the city.

You crack down in parking lot, and it ends up in parking lot B.

It seems like a little bit of locking the barn after the horses, but Savannah, that was an important acknowledgment this week from Quinton Lucas and now he's being very clear.

We simply do not have enough police officers and we're looking at the statistics.

We are down.

There are 247 fewer officers than there were a decade ago.

Part of this parking lot ordinance is also an acknowledgment of the fact that this is what the mayor is trying to do to combat crime in a city that does not control its own police force.

And so all of these other problems, including perhaps the lack of recruitment numbers from the Kcpd, can be attributed to the fact that there's no real accountability here within the hands of the city, because they can't do anything meaningful with the police.

But we were told, Eric, you know, we're going to do a big pay bump for the police that was going to help with recruitment.

Right?

You no longer have to live in the city limits of Kansas City, Missouri.

That was going to boost the numbers.

And yet we still so far down in the number of police officers we are, and I don't think any of those Band-Aid approaches will work.

But noticeably absent we've had over the past two weekends.

Four you've killed.

Where's our chief of police?

We've got all of the the dirt bikes and all the ATVs running up and down the street.

Where is the chief of police?

And and that is alarming to have the mayor step into the role as the public relations officer for the police department, because the police department's not doing it.

It's just quickly, the recruiting problem in Kansas City for the police department is not unique to Kansas City.

I mean, there are shortages in virtually every metropolitan area in America.

And for the same reason, people don't want to be police officers at any price.

It's dangerous, difficult.

You're subject to enormous criticism, sometimes second guessing, of decisions made in the field.

I'm I'm not sure some more often warranted.

And that's the whole point, because you are given enormous power as a police officer.

And that's why second guessing is important.

but the idea that somehow you can just give everybody a bump or let them live in Lee's Summit, and that's going to solve your problem was always a nonstarter.

you know, we spent 25% of every dollar collected in Kansas City on the police department, and it still doesn't appear to be.

But even if you doubled officer pay, would local police departments still struggle to recruit in a climate in which police are roundly criticized and abused?

Events in Kansas City, Kansas, this week put many of those concerns in stark relief, as a second law enforcement officer was killed on the job.

In the last month, a 26 year old hunter, Simon sick, was hit and killed by a fleeing suspect in a stolen car.

Didn't notice Charlie and the reporting on this.

The man charged in the officer's death had 14 arrests on his record, including multiple instances of fleeing police and reckless driving.

The very incident that caused the death.

Right.

You see the kind of criminal history and it's easy to say, man, this guy should have been locked up behind bars for, years and years and never have been in the position to be able to do this.

And, we've been learning even more recently that there's been some changes to bail bond systems in Kansas, where he was, you know, failed to appear in some of these cases.

And still was out on, on, on bond.

And it really makes you scratch your head on the, on the system.

And that's put a more pressure.

Also, on the Wyandotte County prosecutor as to why this occurred this way, when there were opportunities to intervene in advance of this.

Right.

And of course, that's one element not only in Kansas City, Kansas, but in Jackson County.

There's been criticism for years that charges have not been filed where they're warranted.

Prosecutors are always in that situation.

It's a very complex problem with lots of moving parts.

Simple answers are not available.

If simple answers would have solved this problem, we would have reached them decades ago.

Instead, it takes improvements with prosecution, better policing, better trained police officers.

and then the community has to buy in, it to say, look, this violence is not acceptable.

And then weaponry is at the root of everything, Eric.

And then if you keep them locked up, then you got the jail overcrowding problem that comes up, and everybody's complaining about people being stacked on top of each other on jails.

And in the case of Kansas City, there is no jail.

So you have to send people out.

So it's, it's a no win situation.

And we are learning that jail is not coming anytime soon, is it?

No.

Yeah.

The city, is working on building that permanent jail, but that takes years.

It hasn't approved a study to look into a temporary jail as well.

But it doesn't look like that's coming anytime soon either.

Again, quickly, Nick, I saw some, members of the council suggesting that the lack of a city jail contributed to this problem with the parking lot.

That's just ridiculous.

I mean, it's just, you know, the city jail has for decades been a place to put people who don't cut their grass.

I mean, it's not where you put violent people.

Those people go to the Jackson County Jail or if convicted, to the Missouri penitentiary.

That's where you need to focus some of the attention, and not so much on the lack of a city facility.

Now we're still waiting to hear from Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe about whether he'll bring back lawmakers for a special session to redraw the state's congressional map.

President Trump reportedly wants Missouri to change its political boundaries to squeeze out Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who's a Democrat, but hold the front page then and now reports that Kansas may be considering a similar move and yet another quest to unseat Sharice Davids, the only Democrat in the state's congressional delegation.

Democrats are already ringing the alarm bells.

How can you gerrymander something that is already so insanely gerrymandered?

How much more gerrymandered could it possibly get?

Didn't they already do that once?

And David's just won reelection with actually an even greater margin that you before Charlie?

She sure did.

Yes, Chris Davids won in 2020 by 10% and then 12% in 2022 after they changed her district and got rid of a lot of the Democratic Wyandotte County from her.

So what's going on here, Dave?

Some are suggesting actually they're not looking necessarily to make a big change to the maps.

This is about Tim Masterson, who is the Kansas Senate leader, looking in a very crowded primary for governor, which he's running for to get Trump's endorsement.

Yeah, but whether that happens or not is unclear.

But there is a political motive to this in Kansas, as there is in Missouri.

I mean, the base is clamoring for rigging the maps as much as possible.

In the Kansas case, it's very difficult because Johnson County has changed so dramatically from a reliably Republican county to one that supports Democrats.

And if you split Johnson County, which is really the only way to threaten Sharice Davids, you have to put those votes in some other place, which means the first district is at risk.

Maybe the second district, which has a first term member in it.

So it's it's complicated.

In Missouri, it's very complicated in Kansas.

Now, President Trump hasn't yet asked the Missouri National Guard to help with his crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., but he has now asked the governor to deploy State Guard troops to assist in immigration enforcement.

The Missouri Guard would help transport and process detainees in Ice custody, including fingerprinting, DNA swabbing and photographing new arrivals.

It comes as the president is also talking about mobilizing National Guard troops beyond Washington to Chicago, Baltimore and beyond.

In light of the current wave of violence in Kansas City, is it plausible, Savannah for Kansas City to be next on the list?

And is the mayor worried about that?

I think it's plausible that the president could try to send it to any major U.S. city that has a crime problem.

Kansas City is high on that list.

The rights that he has to do so are very different from what he's done in DC.

and it would also be a tricky political game because, again, Kansas City does not have control of its police force.

It cannot directly target the supposed crime problem like other major cities can.

And, you would be targeting then a Republican governor instead of a Democratic mayor.

Is this just one of these scare headlines that we in the media love to bring out there, to get people all alarmed?

Or does it have some sense of concern among elected leaders in Kansas City?

Well, I think there is some sense of concern.

I this week I attended a town hall meeting with Mark Alford, and people in the crowd brought that up to him.

They said, hey, is the president going to send troops to Kansas City?

And Mark all for who's a Republican who agrees with pretty much everything that Donald Trump does, so that even there that he doesn't support bring a National Guard to cities unless the governor asks for them.

So he kind of left himself an out there.

Again, this is another topic we've heard a lot from our viewers about.

Bill this week writes to us.

Trump sent in federal agents to help combat crime in Kansas City in his first term.

Thanks for reminding us of that, bill.

Did it help but have a long term impact?

Eric no, it didn't.

And he just I think the FBI just sent some other people in not too long ago, and it hasn't had any significant impact on prosecuting cases, doing the things that people thought that they were going to do.

It hasn't done a whole lot.

And never forget the Missouri legislature passed a law that was signed that prohibited local law enforcement from working with federal officers on gun related investigations.

And, by the way, guns were involved in almost all of these shootings.

Okay.

So, so right, so, so the idea that on the one hand, you can say no, you can't cooperate with the local people.

But by the way, we're going to send the the National Guard under federal order into a city like Kansas City.

Seems contradictory.

And I think people would understand that.

Now we're good in the media, of course, about talking about problems, less so in reporting more positive news trends.

How about this one?

Has the Kansas City School District done what many thought was unthinkable?

They have surpassed 16,000 students.

The highest enrollment in a decade is it finally time to say this district, so often maligned, has turned itself around, or is it still on our city's critical watch list?

Eric, I think Doctor Collier and her staff and the teachers and principals, I think they've turned it around.

They got tremendous support with the bond levy that they just got passed to build new schools.

if you go in the classroom, you actually see learning taking place and not the kids run in the classroom.

So I think they've they've turned the corner.

There have been barrels of ink spilled.

Absolutely over, not just the problems in the schools, but the property tax problem in Jackson County and in Kansas City.

But the results of the bond issue, which Eric talked about, and the support generally for the school levy, which is higher than almost all school levies in the state, suggests that the people of Kansas City are willing to pay a little bit more money out of their pockets in order to get better education.

And I think we're seeing the fruits of that now.

Here's another story that's turning negative headlines on the head.

Remember all those protests over the mass firing of IRS workers downtown?

Yes, it's true.

More than a thousand people apparently have been laid off or pushed out by President Trump since he took office.

But our own channel 41 is Charlie Keegan.

There's an interesting story this week about how they know coming back after all the headlines and angry protests, they're being rehired.

Right?

So we heard from the union representative here in the local chapter who said that some people who got those layoff letters earlier in the year are now having them rescinded, and the IRS wants them.

So why is that?

Well, according to an organization called Government Executive, a publication that covers federal government, they got Ahold of an IRS email.

That's what the IRS has now noticed and identified potential gaps in, in its coverage and all the work it needs to do, and it needs some more bodies in the building.

So you can't really slimmed down government that much than they know.

Not when you're collecting taxes.

I mean, you need someone to take a look at the returns.

It's a very hard to process as many returns as are generated in our country.

And this is something that those employees that were laid off or pushed out by the Trump administration said and warned about in the spring when this happened, was that you can't lay off these knowledgeable employees who specialize in tax returns and audits and all of the things that the IRS needs to do.

during the peak season, and now they're gone and they can't achieve that.

The job that they were set out to do, this is a sort of, you know, their prophecy being fulfilled.

So perhaps this week we should look for the federal government to bring back all the money to public broadcasting and say, oh, God, we really needed it after all.

Okay, I'm not holding my breath on that one.

All right.

In other news, this week is this number 24, 25, 27.

We can't build enough houses in Kansas City.

But if you want to build a data center, our cities are laying out the red carpet.

Did you see?

There are now plans for at least two more mammoth data centers.

The Port Authority unveiling plans for a $100 billion data center.

I didn't read that incorrectly.

100 billion in the Northland and DeSoto, considering up to 50 billion in incentives for a mammoth data center next to the equally mammoth new Panasonic plant that just opened in Johnson County.

All of this happening just as critics raise the alarm bells over what these new data centers mean for your electricity bills.

Your concern right now, you know, just with the infrastructure that a project like this is going to take, you know, it's going to take a lot more water, it's going to take a lot more electricity.

There are a lot of a lot of unknowns at this point.

Now, some stories claim everyone's rates will go up as data centers guzzle up power.

But is there any evidence that's actually true?

Yeah, there's nationwide evidence that in different cities, the power and utility boards have had to raise rates for everyone to account for the extra energy and water that these data centers take in.

And in Kansas City, it's an interesting case because the port Authority, has the authority to issue these bonds and these tax incentives, too often mysterious and not publicly accountable projects, that are kept under wraps until they're started, that are using taxpayer money, in a process that's not as accountable as something that would go through city Hall.

Yeah.

It's interesting.

You know, it is so big.

We and we don't understand enough about to think about what even goes on in these places.

Isn't that correct, Charlie?

I think so.

I think that's part of the problem.

It's hard to explain the public benefit.

Yeah.

For the people who it was, tax dollars are getting used or, you know, or taken advantage of in some of these cases because, yeah, no, the data centers are not generating any sales tax.

It comes back to the local government to pay.

They only hire about 100 people, right?

Yeah.

And then they create a lot of noise, use a lot of water, a lot electric.

So what is the attraction then?

What is the attraction to cities for doing this?

I think that it's 21st century technology and you do add some jobs and construction jobs are important.

Kansas City, Kansas, by the way, is also considering data center right next to the speedway.

It isn't just about electric rates, though.

It's also about electric generation and the need for power companies to build new power plants or provide some sort of electricity for all of these, data centers.

By the way, in some of the reporting on this, one of my favorite lines was about the new speedway, related data center.

They want to put out there.

It would it would take up as much energy, much electricity as every home in Wyandotte County.

That's it's astonishing.

It is kind of astonishing.

Now, it was announced this week that the Chiefs will wear patches on their jerseys with the logo for Burns and McDonnell as part of a big new partnership.

Some wondering is it just advertising, or is it a sign that the Kansas City Powerhouse engineering firm is readying itself to build the Chiefs new stadium?

Idle rumor, Charlie, or a telltale sign about what's happening behind the scenes here?

I'm trying not to read too much.

Okay.

All right.

I think Burns and Mack would be involved in any big construction project in Kansas City, whether they sponsor the the team or not.

I talked to somebody close to the process this week, though, who is convinced the Chiefs are just going to rehab Arrowhead Stadium.

It's cheaper, it's quicker, it's better.

And what you said last week they were going to I'm just telling you what I'm told, okay?

I'm just a reporter here.

Okay.

Thank you.

And, that's what I was told.

And that there waiting for the election on Frank white to clear the decks and maybe deal with a new county executive in terms of putting something on the ballot.

That's why my buddy Eric may have a different intelligence, but that's what I was told this week.

So I just hope they get something done so we can talk about some more different subject.

So yeah.

Well, in fact, all of these stories we've discussed, of course, are totally insignificant to the biggest news story of the week.

The big engagement announcement.

You said a great player.

I think he's a great guy and I think that she's a terrific person, so I wish them a lot of love.

In fact, met Quinn to Lucas, declaring the wedding between the Chiefs Travis Kelce and global singing superstar Taylor Swift this week.

He says it will be bigger than the royal wedding between Charles and Diana.

Really, that's that was a global TV audience.

Out of 750 million people across 74 countries.

Does that wedding top that?

I mean, I don't think you can doubt at all the amount of Swifties, and Kansas City Chiefs fans that would tune in to this wedding, the world over.

I will say it's a it's a race between who will officiate the wedding because both Mayor Lucas and Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a volunteer to do it.

Have they know I find it interesting.

You know, we already have viewers, a lot of viewers who have a lot of stadium fatigue.

They don't want to hear anything more about it.

Is this going to dominate now for the next year, this this whole story?

Yeah.

And there's going to be nothing else to talk about all football season long.

Yeah.

Every Chiefs broadcaster are going to mention the impending wedding coming up for star tight end Travis Kelsey as an excuse to get more public transit in Kansas City.

We'll just say we'll get busses to go out to the wedding and maybe Travis can concentrate on catching passes because that's what we want him.

And what I found interesting about this, we don't actually know if the wedding would even take place in Kansas.

Here's the interesting thing to me, in a sort of a semi-serious vein, is whether the couple will decide to live in Kansas City once his career is over.

There have been some social media discussion about that.

And yes, they love it here, but she can live and he can live anywhere.

Now, here's what's interesting to me quickly, Nick, she can do anything she wants to do in this world, right?

Absolutely.

Except she cannot go to the grocery store for a carton of eggs because she has surrendered her privacy to that degree.

So my guess is they will want to find a place where their privacy is protected, and they can live in a relatively normal way.

And Kansas City might fit that bill.

We'll see what up.

Leawood, Kansas could fit that bill.

Yeah, we'll also look at that already in the Kansas City Star.

I think 1 in 3 reporters already on the Taylor Swift beat.

Now, I mean 85% of the reporters will be covering that.

So we'll say today actually have a I think they do Taylor I mean, of course, we have the University of Kansas class all about the Taylor Swift effect.

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?

It feels like full, y'all.

Kansas City shattering the record books for coldest morning in August.

A wave of new laws hits the books in Missouri starting this week.

No mo tax on diapers and tampons.

A ban on child marriage takes effect for the first time.

You don't have to be 18 to marry in Missouri.

Also this week, Missouri getting rid of temporary license plates.

That means shaking up the car buying business instead of waiting 30 days to pay your sales tax.

Missouri buyers will now pay taxes immediately at the dealership, just as they do in Kansas.

And this is the week Missouri officially steps.

Workers are paid sick leave nine months after voters approved the benefit change at the ballot box.

So it's official Kris Kobach will join the crowded field wanting to be the next governor of Kansas.

He announces his reelection campaign for attorney general and half a dozen more shopping centers in Johnson County.

Ban what some claim is the newest menace on our streets.

Scooters and e-bikes.

All righty, Savannah, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I think it is the paid sick leave being rescinded.

This is something that voters overwhelmingly passed last year in November.

I went into effect in May, and workers only had about three months to accrue sick leave before the states taking it away.

the workers group, Missouri Jobs of Justice is, it did file a constitutional amendment that they're working on getting the petitions for, to bring back paid sick leave this time in a way that lawmakers can't overturn.

Eric, it was interesting.

I did that.

The tags, the temporary tags, they talk about dealers.

What happens when you buy a car from an individual because the individual is he they're going to collect the sales tax.

How is that going to go?

I want to see your undercover investigation about that in the next edition of Next page.

Casey.

Charlie, I went sports.

Rishi rice, we found out he's going to be suspended from the Chiefs for the first six games of the season, and that was kind of looming that maybe he would start the first game.

And now we have a little more clarity and see how that impacts our run for the Super Bowl again.

By the way, have you seen Eric's car?

You know he used cars or not in his future, you know, drives a very big automobile.

Monday is Monday is Labor Day.

And let's, take a moment to tip our caps to organized labor, not the political force they once were, in large part because the rank and file vote Republican in a way that they didn't say even 20, 25 years ago.

But when it comes to things like sick leave, at least for some workers and vacation organized labor was at the forefront of that.

And we should recognize that on Labor Day.

And thank you, by the way, for coming in to the station today on your e-bike day.

and that is, week in review, courtesy of Casey was about a Holly Bates and Channel 41 Charlie Keegan from next page Casey, Eric Wesson and news icon Dave Helling.

Before we leave you a save the date announcement ahead of the big Frank white vote coming up next month, we're joining the Kansas City Library to bring you a frank decision.

Jackson County's historic recall vote.

Join local leaders, political scientists, and you and hundreds of your neighbors and friends as we dissect the pros and cons impact on historic implications of this big vote, would you join us?

Monday, September 15th at six at the Plaza Library.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.