Jackson County voters finally delivered their verdict on Frank white.

Something that you might recognize.

You're out.

We look at what happens now.

Plus, the Missouri governor says yes to President Trump, ordering National Guard troops to assist Ice in a new statewide deportation program.

The decision comes just hours after the governor delivers Trump a new political map that is expected to squeeze out Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Also this half hour, how are local World Cup leaders reacting to the president's threat to move the World Cup out of cities with high crime rates?

I think it isn't safe.

We're moving to a different city.

Also, this half hour of federal government shutdown closes the Truman Library and Museum.

What other impact will it have on us right here in Kansas City?

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

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

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

It's been a monumental week, and to unpack it all for us is KMBC nine news anchor Kris Ketz from our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next Page, KC Eric Wesson tracking the region's top political stories for KC one News Brian Ellison and former star, reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling.

Now, voters finally delivered their verdict this week on Jackson County Executive Frank white, who I should point out was still sounding remarkably optimistic.

Hours before the polling stations opened.

I really believe they do have confidence in me doing this job after after ten years.

And and I feel good about the work that we've done here over the last ten years.

88%.

Yes.

11%.

No.

Well, clearly puts all elected leaders on notice that your voters are paying attention and that they have the authority and will take action to remove you if they don't perceive that you're doing the job that represents them.

Now, when the dust had settled, 85% of voters supporting White's removal from office, Gallup.

Does this set a new definition of the term political landslide?

Eric?

Yeah, pretty much it does.

That was.

Will you excuse are you expecting that or were you actually thinking this was going to be a mailed by tonight?

That would have us until two in the morning?

You were probably thinking 75%.

Maybe not.

Yeah, I was thinking around the 70 somewhere, but not anything so overwhelming.

But I think more importantly, because people wanted accountability, especially with the taxes, because he you couldn't hold Gail McCann accountable because she was appointed.

So the next person that you can hold accountable was Frank white.

He didn't go to meetings.

I listened to the fairly lame excuses that him and Megan Marshall made about him not having to be at the meetings, but people elected you to do a job.

They want to see you do the job.

If he sat there at the legislative meetings and cleaned out his emails on his cell phone, or played tic tac toe with his cell, that would have been better than not showing up at all.

You know, there's just such not a good look.

It's a bad look that I, I guess I'm it's a mystery to me that Frank and the people around him didn't get that right.

Right now, a familiar face, by the way, has been picked, at least temporarily, to fill white shoes.

Kay Barnes will be the new interim Jackson County Executive for the time being.

The former mayor is now 87 years old.

Why would fans even want this gig at this point, Dave?

And what does she bring to what is now one of the most chaotic moments in Jackson County politics?

I'm not sure.

I think she, would take this position as an out of some sense of civic responsibility, you know, to pour, pour oil on the troubled waters that is the Jackson County Courthouse.

She won't be there for long, up to 30 days, but more likely two, maybe three weeks, giving the legislature some time to pick the person who will serve out the remainder of Frank White's term.

And why her?

Though Mark Funkhouser might have been perfectly happy to come back.

And I will say this, this is the 90s are back.

Okay.

I, I was surprised to hear of my colleagues may or may not have, some sense of this from their reporting, but, you know, Sly James was also available, and Sly would be known in the courthouse, and but they went for for, former Mayor Barnes as a as as a way to calm everything down, I believe, which is actually a wise choice.

And then give everybody some breathing room to pick someone who will serve next year.

Now, just quickly, there isn't a lot of time.

I mean, the particularly with the stadium negotiations, the end of the year is something of a deadline for some decisions to be made.

And so even two weeks can be, problematic, for anybody who takes that, let's remember that, cake.

Barnes was the person who helped bring Sprint Center to Kansas City, and at that time, hopes of an NBA team couldn't she seal a deal with the teams, even if she's there in a very short period of time?

Or is that beyond her temporary duties?

I think it was very unlikely that this is anything more than a caretaker.

term for a few weeks.

Having said that, I think that's not inconsequential, that she does bring this sort of steady hand, this perception of stability, and also the fact that she has not been involved in the political machinations of Jackson County over the past year as it has grown increasingly more turbulent.

She has not been on that scene.

And I think that is definitely to the county's advantage over this next month of jockeying for the longer term replacement position tonight, before we move on from Frank White's defeat, which was, monumental in every way.

we ought to stop and think a little bit about the, comment you had from Sean Smith.

They are saying that people are angry at everybody, and that, I think, came through clearly now, Frank White didn't go to meetings.

I'm not sure if he had gone to every meeting.

The outcome would have been appreciably different.

The anger over appraisals in Jackson County is also monumental, and he acted as if it was a fly he needed to brush off his shoulder.

You know, his political skills were non-existent and he had no natural constituency.

It wasn't as if he could summon the Frank white machine to get out the vote.

On recall day, he had to rely on his personality and his name and his history.

And in the end, it was virtually work.

And he never, you know, he never got out in front of this, this, this as this dumpster fire, really at the very end when he appeared on every single TV station and it was over.

Yeah, yeah.

And and a lot of people that I talked to a church in calling the paper fussing and complaining, they all had the same comment.

They've seen him more now since the recall process, that they've seen him throughout his entire time.

Just just before the election, he did plead to the Missouri Court of Appeals to say this was an unlawful election.

They batted that out of the way.

The election took place.

Does he have any more legal maneuvers up his sleeve to try and circumvent this election?

No, because the Missouri Supreme Court, they refuse.

They turned down the, read a search jury.

So he's just, you know, packing boxes.

Now, I don't think he has a legal and legal grounds, and he ought to resign now.

I mean, that what it is he's gone.

So he's still in the office, and he could be until meeting with people.

Yeah, because the election hasn't been certified.

It won't be until next week.

So he's still in the office.

And let's just for a minute, do a thought experiment.

What if the court did throw out the results?

Would you want to sit in his chair knowing that 85% of the people in the county voted you out?

I mean, the message could not have been clearer.

Frank White, it is time to go.

And I think he would do something to save a little bit of his reputation if he were to say in this week or early next, you know what?

The voters have spoken another couple of days isn't going to make a difference.

Quinton Lucas offered some complimentary remarks about the, the Jackson County Executive after the results of the election, and he wished white well on the next phase of his journey.

What is the next phase of his journey, Eric?

I think back in his office, I don't know.

He could be running for Congress, Brian.

I mean, he you know, Catherine Shields, the former Jackson County executive, ended up on the city council.

If only that redistricting plan had gotten through.

But no, I, I think I think this is probably the last political chapter for Frank white.

I think he he still is a beloved figure in terms of his, his baseball history.

I think he could make a name for himself doing charitable appearances in town, but I think his political career is over.

By the way, skip the, observation that Quinton Lucas might be a candidate for county executive.

His term ends as mayor.

There's a lot of chatter about him running for the House, but he would be a viable candidate for county executive next year.

And so, his involvement in saying goodbye to Frank white might tell us something, and he could run for the job without having to give up his.

Correct.

Although he's got to give it up anyway in 2027.

So it would be a logical next step.

And he could be.

There is no term limit for county executive.

So he could be county executive for 25 years.

And how many times have I said that in this you shouldn't.

But there were some other women that, were named, were in the hat to take the position that Kay Barnes took.

I just think they just didn't want to be a part of it.

And Kay, you know, does have some relationship in the community.

So I think that she was okay.

But the final take home is for the next few days.

Jackson County Executive Frank white is still the man in charge of Jackson County.

Believe it or not, there are other news stories.

Many of Kansas City's 30,000 federal workers could find themselves furloughed without pay this week, as the federal government shuts down for the first time since 2018.

That shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest in history.

Early reports suggested that benefits would be delayed, air traffic disrupted, national parks shuttered, and federal food inspections halted.

None of that has happened quite yet.

In fact, other than the closure of the Truman Museum in independence, are we noticing any change here in Kansas City?

Chris?

Nothing significant right now other than what you what you pointed out.

But I do think over time and I have a feeling at the risk of being wrong and God knows I've been wrong before, but I have a feeling this one's going to last a while.

And I think, you talked to a lot of federal employees and aside from just being furloughed, I think there is a greater concern that they're going to be laid off, that the president and the administration will follow through with some of those threats later on.

What's interesting about that, though, Chris, is that it sounds like the president intends to use that as sort of a weapon to attack Democratic states.

And this might be one of the rare occasions where Kansas City does not suffer because of its position with the, with the Trump administration, because Missouri is such a, solidly red state.

And it might be that, federal workers in our region end up not being targeted, Missouri and Kansas, for that matter.

But the fear is out there.

It is.

Yeah.

And it can't be a quick solution because the House is out of session, in fact, not returning it at least until Monday.

Well, unless the Senate just picks up the already passed House bill and approves it, and then this this crisis would be over, let's be sure, though, that in the middle of, our discussion of not being really a visible problem, that we think a little bit about the federal employees and selves, who the essential ones have to go without a paycheck and work without a check.

That could be a problem if this goes on for a couple of weeks.

They have mortgages and rent and other things to pay.

there may be layoffs offs, as my colleagues have suggested.

That would be even a bigger problem.

and, you know, the the distrust of the government system just grows whenever you have a shutdown like this.

People are already angry.

They're going to be angrier now that, this impasse is here and it may affect us because we won't get any more federal dollars.

Oh, it's already happened, so we don't have to worry about that one.

At least not now.

Leaders of Kansas City's World Cup never know what to expect next.

They just got a new reason to panic after President Trump just announced he will move World Cup games from host cities if the city is deemed too dangerous or unsafe.

If I think it isn't safe, we're moving into a different city.

Absolutely.

We'll take the world if I think it's not.

It's actually a very fair question.

If I think it's not safe, we're going to move it out of that city.

Gulp.

Should Kansas City be worried, Chris, especially after national reports claim Kansas City is one of just six major cities where homicides are rising, bucking a national trend of falling violent crime.

I think like anything else, we don't know what we don't know.

And if you're part of the Kansas City World Cup organizing committee, at least the public signal that's being sent is that everything's going to be okay, that FIFA has more control over this than perhaps the white House.

We'll see.

with this white House, you never know.

But I have to think that privately.

they're worried about that.

They're worried about funding.

They're they're worried about an awful lot of things.

There's an awful lot of time between now and next.

Even if it's just talk, though.

Eric, does this force local officials to try and redouble their efforts on the crime issue and at least be seen to be doing more?

Yes.

And, I think that with the governor, engaging the National Guard, they said they're doing clerical work.

I wouldn't be surprised if, as a gesture of trying to do something with crime, they sent the National Guard to Kansas City.

But I think that FIFA has a lot more control over it than the president has, as Chris said.

But also the hunt family, the high family was very instrumental in bringing the World Cup here.

you have them making substantial donations to the Republican Party and Harrison Buckner, the chiefs field goal kicker, was at the white House.

He's a part of some team that the president has put together for, for athletes.

So I think Kansas City is safe right now.

Okay.

Well, you mentioned the National Guard.

Did you see this one coming?

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe just said yes to the Trump administration authorizing the calling up of the state National Guard to work with Ice agents on a comprehensive new statewide deportation program.

What will the state's National Guard troops do, Brian?

Then do you know where they will go?

Well, what we have been told is that they will function in mostly clerical responsibilities, administrative things, desk jobs, more or less working on logistics, perhaps.

I don't think we know exactly where they'll be stationed, but the governor has been very clear that those troops will remain under his control, even though they're being called up by the federal government.

The sign up, though, is for a year.

So, that's a lot of time for orders to change.

It also takes us, as you've mentioned, into the World Cup, season.

Yeah, yeah.

Deportations in Missouri are not the issue that they are in some other states.

The, amount of illegal immigration into the state of Missouri is just not as high as it is.

And, say, Kansas, for example, where, the, you know, meatpacking plants use a lot of immigrant labor or have in the past.

So a lot of this continues to be performative.

you know, we were just talking about, the World Cup and what the president might do about maybe sending troops or helping in Kansas City.

The fact is, the governor runs the Kansas City Police Department.

It would be more embarrassing to him in some ways than it would be to the mayor if this continues.

So, I think a lot of this is performance.

It's just performance.

It's for the headlines and for the, TV news report.

It isn't for the substance of the problem in the state.

Now, in a week in which National Guard troops finally arrived on the ground in Memphis as part of a Trump administration crime crackdown, and the president says Portland is next, Missouri U.S.

Senator Eric Schmidt is questioning whether a similar deployment might help Kansas City.

Schmidt teased that possibility during a Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill this week.

The numbers don't lie.

In the District of Columbia, there's been a reduction of 53% in homicides, 57% in robberies, 75% in carjackings.

What lessons can be learned?

sort of at scale in DC, in places like Kansas City, for example, that has a high crime rate in a in a sort of a apologist mayor and a prosecutor that doesn't want to prosecute violent criminal.

Guess what?

You can reduce crime in seven days.

That's what we saw in the district of Columbia.

we saw federal agents surge in.

We saw the National Guard, take taking posts in these neighborhoods.

And we saw a prosecutor who took all of our risk seriously.

And within the first week, there was a remarkable night and day difference and a morale boost, I'm sure, for your officers, too, right?

When there's actually a police presence and prosecutions.

Thank you.

Now, remember, this is not any old senator speaking here.

Schmidt is a close political confidante of the president.

Right?

Yeah.

I think that was a pretty remarkable display from a Missouri senator to, sort of effectively sell one of his major cities, down the river, the most populous city in the state.

I think the the fact that, the the reference was made to crime rates in Kansas City, which actually have been on the decline overall, over the last several years.

the the reference to, the prosecutor not prosecuting when there's actually a new prosecutor in office who has committed to, to more prosecutions.

it's pretty interesting.

what I don't think we know yet is what the long term impact of the those troops in Washington, DC will be.

And I think we, there would be a lot of opposition, even from many Republicans who control the government in Missouri.

If a similar move.

We we are very concerned in Kansas City about how we perceived by the rest of the country and that all of this playing out on the national stage.

But I think with Senator Smith's comments, we just saw what that narrative is going to look like.

Yes.

The governor and the state run the police board in Kansas City, Missouri, but the focus is going to be on on the mayor and the prosecutor.

If in fact, this happens one of these days, Eric, my daughter and son in law live in DC.

And one of the things that they say with the reason why crime is down is because nobody goes out, because everybody's afraid the restaurant business is suffering.

Small businesses are suffering because people are afraid to go out and interact with the National Guard.

One of the things that I thought was puzzling when watching him before the committee speaking, was that he knew where Kansas City was.

I've never seen him in any of his political campaigns coming to Kansas City.

So that was kind of interesting to me for him to be able to make a statement like that.

And the other thing to keep in mind is he was the attorney general in the state of Missouri before he was in the U.S.

Senate.

Right.

Did virtually nothing to solve the crime problem in Kansas City at that point.

So, and it cannot go unnoticed, that the mayor is African-American and the prosecutor is African-American in Kansas City.

And so, in some ways, that's an easier target for someone like Eric Schmidt.

So I think it was, as Brian suggests, really selling the city down the river instead of constructively working to solve a problem that I think we all agree, needs attention.

A private ceremony on Sunday, the Missouri governor finally signed into law a new Missouri political map that could force Kansas City Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver out of his long held seat.

Now, we've talked about this for weeks.

No one doubted that the governor would sign this.

But did we expect within hours of putting pen to paper, the Democratic National Committee would commit major cash staff on what it claims is its 41,000 volunteer team to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn the map.

Brian, I was confused by that 41,000 number.

That would mean that each of those volunteers only had to gather three signatures.

But but perhaps.

But perhaps that's what will happen.

look, there's going to be a major effort.

I think this this only confirmed what we suspected, which was that there will be a major, nationally funded effort to stop these redistricting efforts at the state level.

whether it will be effective, I think we have yet to see.

But it's certainly going to be interesting to watch.

We're not sure whether this congressional map that the legislature approved, the governor signed is even going to ever take effect.

This is kind of an inside baseball observation, but I couldn't help but notice that the private ceremony happened on a Sunday, and the announcement went out in the middle of a Chiefs game, if that is, and if that isn't taking the trash out, I don't know what is.

And the other thing I said, the same thing just briefly, is the Democrats, I think, are coming to Missouri, in part because Missouri has a referendum system for statute.

You don't have that in Kansas.

I don't think you have it in Texas.

So this may be a place for the party to make a sort of a public stand against these redistricting efforts in a way that would get national attention.

And that's why they're coming.

Can you just help us understand the if there were a referendum, when would that be?

And could the governor delay that?

So you could actually have a new sitting congressman and then this referendum vote come after that.

So we have always assumed that referendum initiative votes can only happen, at the, the regularly scheduled elections, either the primary election in August or the general election in November.

In fact, the governor could call a special election, but would have to do so at great expense, and it seems very unlikely that would happen.

So if this gets pushed off to as late as the August election, that would seem to kill the possibility of a new map, for this round of elections.

one of the things that I have in the paper this week was an article that deals with whether or not they start gathering the signatures to early because they already started gathering the signatures.

And the question is whether they knew that the governor was going to sign in and start getting the signatures, or whether it was legal for them to do that.

So I guess a decision will be made.

The attorney general for Missouri is questioning whether it was too early for them to get the signatures.

So I think this is going to be playing out for a while 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?

Kansas City turns pink as Travel Road becomes the hottest celeb in Kansas City.

From back to back sellout shows to new rules and splashy vinyl streetcar racks so companies can't force you to get a vaccine shot.

After all, the Kansas Supreme Court sided with a Leawood woman who lost a job offer after she refused a Covid jab.

The court says the law needs to protect religious beliefs.

This is a bad look.

Just before the grand opening, construction workers on the new streetcar extension claiming racial discrimination.

Black workers say they were called monkeys and forced to endure menacing comments about nooses and lynchings.

The Major League Baseball playoffs now underway, but Royals fans have to defer that dream of winning another World Series, at least until next year.

It's only 175 days till opening day.

Mark your calendar March 26th is the earliest start in franchise history.

After months of delays and false starts, work finally begins on Kansas City's first buc-ee's.

But be patient.

The location next to the Kansas Speedway won't open until 2027, though it's unclear why it takes two years to build a glorified gas station.

And speaking of delays, yet another delay for the Rock Island Bridge project.

A September opening canceled.

Now a shooting for the middle of 2026.

All righty.

Those are the headlines we didn't get to.

Did you pick one of those as the story with Miss Brian on something completely different?

Well, I picked one of those because it needs a little more attention okay.

And that is it's a it's a casual reference to the feminine on that is chapel Ruins visit to Kansas City.

She is the biggest thing in town there right now.

She's a super graphic, ultra modern girl.

And she is turning gentleman this entire city into a pink pony club and I what I what I think you don't realize, Nick, is just how hot to go this city is for Chapel Road.

You're going to see it at these two concerts Friday and Saturday night at the World War One museum.

But good luck to you if you're trying to get around on Uber or in your car while that's happening.

We're not exactly her target demographic, but not okay.

Well, actually, Eric, you could be, you will be going to the concert.

I'm assuming then.

Can't wait to be front row.

And I have absolutely no idea who she is.

Okay, but I chose Bucky's.

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I drove down to Springfield.

We drove all the way down to Springfield just to see what the hoopla was.

And it's really nice for a gas station.

They have the great.

They have great sandwiches.

beaver nuggets.

You can watch them being made.

They were all uniform and collected.

But hey, that story that they say about the restrooms is true.

It was not one piece of paper, a towel, anything on the floor and the restroom.

All right.

Saint Louis aviation officials this week announced, nonstop service from Lambert Saint Louis International Airport to Heathrow in London.

four times a week.

The city has been working for about a decade for this kind of service.

It's a $4.5 million commitment over three years.

This is the kind of international service that the aviation department in Kansas City, Missouri and the people of Casey.

I have been working years on and will continue to work on ahead of the World Cup.

You know, it's interesting we have two and a half years since the single terminal here opened, and we still don't have a single direct flight to Europe.

Right.

All right, Dave, two things.

First of all, for all the chaperoned a discussion.

Mrs.. the future Mrs.. Travis Kelsey is releasing an album.

Yes.

over the weekend and that is going to draw a little bit of attention to her and to the Kansas City area as well.

And then the other interesting story on the list is, another Democrat has entered the race for the U.S.

Senate from Kansas, Kristy Davis.

Marshall against Roger Marshall.

The anti-incumbent trend, coupled with the real crunch in farm country, which has been caused by the tariffs from the Trump administration, may make that a closer race than we now expect.

I'm impressed.

Dave knows that Taylor Swift's coming out with a new album.

Well, he is part of that, target audience.

Swift.

so we appreciate that.

And on that, we will say a week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey was Brian Ellison and KMBC nine news anchor Chris Katz from the helm of next page Casey, Eric Wesson and news icon Dave Helling.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.