it's inauguration day and wait what's the governor of Kansas doing there first order of business for the mayor a major assault on guns is he fighting a losing battle with Missouri lawmakers plus the road to the White House finally winds its way through Kansas City also this half hour canson's head to the polls but what did they say and he was once the most powerful man in Missouri by former Governor Jay Nixon is now being accused of handing back the keys to the White House to Donald Trump 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 John H Mize and Bank of America n a co-trustees the restaurant at 1900 and by viewers like you thank you [Music] welcome I'm Nick Haynes and we are thrilled to bet to have you with us as we connect the dots on the week's most impactful and confusing local news stories rolling up their sleeves to tackle the week's headlines is former Kansas City Star reporter and opinion writer Dave helling KMBC 9 political analyst Michael Mahoney leading our Metro's newest newspaper next page KC Eric Wesson and covering the Region's top political stories for kcur news Brian Ellison it may not have all the Pomp and Circumstance all the television viewership of a presidential swearing-in but this week was Inauguration Day in Kansas City as Quinton Lucas officially launched his second and final term in office I'm Quentin Lucas hi Quentin Lucas alrighty what did we learn if anything from this week's events Brian well I think we learned uh we got a little foretaste of what we should expect in mayor Quentin Lucas's second term we saw a real strong emphasis this on this day on some of the more Progressive elements of of the mayor's agenda which by the way he he signaled that during the campaign he signaled that after election day when he highlighted that he said this was the most Progressive city council ever uh he rolled out uh gun proposals he talked about affordable housing the things that seemed to shape the campaign dialogue were part of his inauguration day I don't know if we learned anything about the prospects for success for those proposals but we certainly learned a little bit about what he's going to be talking about the gun proposals Eric was what captured most of the headlines he has one proposal that would make it illegal to provide a Magna with bullets without a parent or guardian's consent the second would make it illegal to own a device that modifies a gun so it's capable of firing multiple uh rounds with a single pull of a trigger but if those were so important to the mayor why was he doing it right now why not 6 months ago why not a year from before I think that the the public demand has been to the point now where he has to do something about it my only thing about the bullets is and that's a great concept but he would have to get the neighboring cities to go along and pass a similar ordinance if not they could go to Overland Park or go to Kansas City Kansas and buy bullets so he's going to have to get some type of partnership there isn't there is a concern though whether he can even do it at all whether Missouri lawmakers or Missouri courts would slap that down Michael yeah uh in fact he made it quite clear that he thought that he was designing these uh these two proposals to get around the pre-exemption statutes in the state of Missouri that basically say that local ordinances cannot preempt uh State ordinances we'll we'll have to see about that I inquired in the Attorney General's office uh uh twice in this this past week to find out if they had anything to say and as we tape this program um I haven't heard back the other thing quickly is I hope we get to the the housing issue which was the other big uh point of emphasis of the second term okay what did he say new uh well he says that he wants to use the the now fully funded Housing Trust Fund to provide 8 000 units of housing the interesting thing about that is what kind of housing is it going to be is it going to be is it going to be housing for uh people who are homeless is it going to be housing for the workforce I mean exactly how is this going to be split up or if it's going to be split up at all and I think that remains to be seen did you learn anything new this week Dave well no I mean housing obviously I think Transportation will be a big issue in the second term of the mayor and of course Public Safety um I think the gun proposals are largely symbolic and interesting to me is uh and I think we'll see this over the next couple of years as to whether the mayor wants to pick fights with Jefferson City over things like guns and local control that type of thing or needs Jefferson City's help on things like stadiums and World Cups and other proposals in Kansas City second terms are fascinating things in Kansas City typically Mayors do better in second terms than in first K Barnes was better in her second four years I think Emanuel Cleaver was better Dick Berkeley in his third term but Sly James struggled a little bit in his second four years so we'll see how the mayor turned time I think the difference we're seeing with mayor Lucas is the fact that he didn't really have a campaign where he had to debate and bring these things to the public and you know let us debate about him before we hear him after he's already sworn in I think that was a hindrance in his campaign as well but housing is going to be an issue that he's going to have to deal with and I think one of those things is because of KC tenants they have somebody now that they feel that they've elected to be on the city council so they can bring these issues to the Forefront the the other thing that Dave brought up here about the relationship between uh Quentin Lucas and Jeff's uh Jeff City is going to be really interesting because uh Kansas City is clearly going to ask for money uh for uh for the for the World Cup they've already got some the the last for more there's going to be Stadium issue funding on this and then uh watch it on the other side of the state line or on the other side of the State uh the mayor of uh St Louis uh they just passed a uh a law over there requiring people to have a permit for concealed carry inside of the city of St Louis that'll be another area that I suspect that I suspect that uh Jefferson City is going to push back on let's see how they handle all this down in Jeff City something else that was interesting this week is Quinton Lucas confused what city he is in Brian how come Kansas Governor Laura Kelly was speaking at the inauguration I'm on the city council he has shown both the willingness willingness for tackling tough issues head on and doing so with the maturity that far exceeds his mere 38 years isn't it a little odd that the governor of Missouri was nowhere to be seen But the governor of another state Brian was making a keynote speech at the mayor's inauguration I don't know how odd it is under these circumstances I have to say I I don't have any reporting on this I don't know if Governor Parson was invited and declined maybe someone else knows that but I will say it would have been very awkward for him to be there everything that mayor Lucas proposed are things that would put him very much at odds with not only Governor Parson but the Republican leadership of the state level Nick that I think the second four years of Mayor Lucas will also be determined we need to keep this in mind by events Beyond his control who would have predicted covet in his first four years and yet he had to deal with covet within the first few months how about the Royals leaving Kansas City for North Kansas City some people will blame him for that that's not really under his control crime remains an indirect responsibility of the mayor we need to pay attention to the things he can't uh keep his thumb on as well as the things he can but some things he can keep his thumb on is that city manager we know this week that the city manager made a comment about the Royals going to North Kansas City why would you want him to leave your area uh and then he's got a uh he's got a rough road with the minority Community civil rights leaders uh big businesses with the city managers in the black community so one of the things he's going to have to do is reel in the city manager and kind of get him on board with his agenda because he's taken a lot of hits for him I know that but it seems like they have a love fest with one another that doesn't seem to be any hint any longer that he we're going to see the Brian Platt being shown the door anytime soon Michael no I don't uh I don't think so we'll we'll have to see the other the the other thing about this just to go back to why Laura Kelly was there for a second Quentin Lucas and Laura Kelly are the two leading Democrats in this region pretty yeah pretty much and that's that explains her Presence at the inauguration now as Kansas City was swearing in its new leaders voters in Kansas were heading to the polls last year at this time kansans were showing up in historic numbers to vote on a Statewide abortion Amendment there was nothing as attention grabbing on the ballot this time around but there were dozens of council and School Board seats up for grabs now it's hard to do justice to literally dozens of races but Brian now that the results are in was there any notable Trend that shocked and surprised on Election Day I think shock and surprise would be very strong language but I do think there were some things that that gave us some indicators of what's going to be significant not only in Johnson County but really throughout the region I would point in particular Nick to that Prairie Village race there was a count award three seat uh which was settled 443 to 361 uh Lori Sharp the the stop rezoning candidate the one who is opposed to creating more affordable housing situations in Prairie Village versus uh Bonnie limber the incumbent who has supported efforts to diversify the the housing opportunities in Prairie Village I think that conflict Nick is very telling I think it's the kind of thing that we're going to see repeated again and again not only in other municipalities in Johnson County but throughout the region and at this point at least in that particular ward of Prairie Village it looks like the stop rezoning effort had the edge some people mocked the turnout in the recent Kansas City elections uh Eric where there was only 13 percent of eligible voters went in the polls what are we to make of the fact that turnout was 10 percent in Johnson County according to the Shawnee Mission post and just six percent in Wyandotte County according to the wyando county election office who knew it was an election going on I think a lot of people didn't know there was an election going on you didn't see a lot of yard signs you didn't see commercials on TV you didn't see ads in newspapers so I think a lot of people didn't know an election was going on and what the real issues are in those those certain areas it was a little hot too though well August elections I mean Municipal elections are always a challenge in odd numbers odd numbered years where you don't have bigger state and federal races on the ballot so that's always a bit of a concern you know we have I've said this on this program for many years we have a lot of elections in our area it seems like every 90 days someone else has asked to go to the polls that's a a big ask for busy people in many communities and at a time when media have not have reduced their resources for covering local elections it's very hard for people to feel like they're making an informed decision and where many media have also put up paywall so you have to pay for that coverage making it harder for you to gain access to that now the road to the White House is finally winding its way through Kansas City Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will be here next week the Florida governor is hosting a big donor event on Tuesday he'll be in Wichita the day before the VIP fundraiser isn't cheap to attend how about thirteen thousand dollars a couple is this trip though just about collecting checks and boosting his flagging campaign War chest Michael or is there there more to this campaign stop in Kansas City so far it looks like it's mainly a fundraiser as we taped this broadcast uh there are no uh public events set there's no opportunity that I know of right now for reporters to meet uh with uh Rhonda Santos it used to be the reporters were welcome to a degree at fundraisers that's not the case anymore uh in fact the location of this uh fundraiser was not disclosed uh until you ponied up the uh the money for it forget about it reporters how about the rest of us do we also get the opportunity there's no chance whatsoever to even see him while he's in Kansas City unless you're probably on the route of his small motorcade when he's in town probably not does he feel Dave that he has a chance of unseating uh Donald Trump at least in the polls here in Kansas and Missouri as a result of his presence here we're far far from that I mean he trails in virtually every poll uh in the country in Iowa where the Republicans will hold a caucus next year he's he's badly behind Donald Trump at least at this point so it's primarily about raising money Mike points out something very important though candidates at that level have decided for one reason or another to ignore media and really any public interaction that is not scripted uh that that's not Ron DeSantis fault that trend has been coming for many many years but it's reaching its apex now you just don't get a chance to see these people except in places that they can tightly control what goes on I I agree that this particular trip is primarily about fundraising but I would to answer your question Nick about whether there's some chance for Iran DeSantis in a Kansas or in a Missouri I think there might be when when the polls are put name your favorite candidate we know that Donald Trump is Far and Away the leader but when you when they start asking head-to-head questions the last poll in Kansas admittedly was back in February but but that when you ask Trump or DeSantis Trump or Pompeo it's very competitive and I think we have no idea what will happen over the next year just to be clear I think Brian's right we have miles to go before we sleep I mean the president of the United States is in the dock you know as a criminal defendant so that could change the outcome as well to Sanders is working on his message other Republicans May surface making any prediction now as a Fool's game unless you're in the states of New Hampshire or Iowa on the on the Republican side it's hard to take much of uh it's hard to take many of these polls seriously right now they're they're primarily name identification now it's a little different in Iowa and New Hampshire because they've got active campaigns underway on the Republican side up there and and then on the Democrats with RFK uh junior to to some degree uh but right now this is all Name ID he was once the most powerful man in Missouri but he's been out of office for the better part of six years now former Missouri governor Jay Nixon is making a big comeback the longtime Democrat has just taken one of the top leadership roles in No Labels that's the political outfit launching an increasingly contentious effort to field a moderate third-party presidential ticket why is the staunch Democrat from Missouri now going to work for an organization some critics claim Dave will only have the effect of handing over the keys to the White House to Donald Trump I don't know I mean I think there is some there are some people in the political universe who believe that a third party option is an important thing if you're looking at Joe Biden against Donald Trump in 2024 and no labels is uh uh apparently plowing the ground for that um you know I think there there is a lot of concern that a third party candidacy with granted uh a lot of ballot access could really tilt the difference in this race but I'm not sure that's true I mean we all wrong our hands here and in other places over Greg Orman against Kris kobach and and um Laura Kelly the first time and it turned out to not have that much of an impact on how that race uh ended up so I'm not sure I think people more particularly for the president do understand it's usually a binary choice so I'm not quite as upset about Jay Nixon being involved as maybe some others are a couple things to remember number one uh What uh Nixon's role is in No Label is is ballot access he's going to be the director of ballot Integrity it sounds impressive yeah it does and then the the other thing to remember about this is that no labels has not committed to running a ticket yet they they're going to get they don't they don't have a preference at this point uh and they they say that maybe down the road they'll make a decision on that well it's getting pretty late to do that and and it's late to start uh start trying to gain ballot access so so we'll we'll see on this and then the other thing is everybody uh keeps talking about uh um the impact on the Biden Camp campaign there are also some Republicans moderate Republicans that uh are wondering uh whether whether or not a moderate ticket with a moderate Republican on it could take uh votes away from Trump were you surprised that Jay Nixon would get engaged as a longtime Democrat in the No Labels organization yeah I was surprised when I saw that and read that I thought that he was you know pretty much the behind the scenes leader of the party uh for the Democratic party but evidently I was wrong with that assumption as far as directing people on what to do because he's been there and he's won those elections several elections so I thought he was the man to go to well the the the problem with that uh is the fact that he had a reputation when he was the head the head of the democratic party not only as a moderate but uh but not had a reputation as a democratic Missouri Democratic party Builder he's someone that would help other Democrats and he caught lots of heat from his own party because of that so so far no labels Brian has qualified for the 2020 full presidential ballot in five states Kansas and Missouri are not among them would we though do you think have an opportunity in Kansas and Missouri to have a chance to vote for No Labels or is there an effort to stop them from being on the ballot where we live uh I I don't think anyone is organized particularly well for or against the the reality though and uh to Echo what others have said Nick is that I this is a two-party system we may or may not like that but systemically the way things are set up it's very hard for a middle of the road candidate to make any Headway that has an impact on it now there may be another local connection to No Labels The Washington Post says former Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo has been floated as part of a No Labels presidential ticket the point paper points out he has upped his criticisms of trump lately and has met with the group now he's already turned down a chance to run as a republican for the presidency what about Pompeo was a no labels candidate I think Mike Pompeo as the No Labels candidate would ensure that no Democrats would be peeled away from Biden's votes that might be the the only way that it is effective at preventing a trump re-election if that is the goal remember we went through this with Ross Perot in 1992 and he eventually did get ballot access in most places it cost a lot of money and that's really what no labels is looking at is money in Missouri for example four parties are guaranteed a ballot spot Republicans Democrats Libertarians and the Constitution party whatever that turns out to be so there are mechanisms to get people on but as Mike points out you got to start that effort pretty quickly you can't wait until August of next year to try and get on the November ballot but although President Biden is the Democratic leader as far as the presidency goes they're going to have to do something to inspire their base if not then the No Labels or no anybody would come in and slip in and do something with the vote split the vote up but they're going to have to do something and the Missouri especially who's the leader in the Democratic party in Missouri where are they speaking out against what are they doing you know it's it's really a sad situation for Democrats and even as Republicans and being blacks in a Republican party you got somebody on the ticket that says slavery was a good thing so what do you do with that and you can make make a case right now I'm not sure everybody agrees with you can make a case right now that the state of Missouri is more is redder than the state of Kansas and more and more Republican than that and and this would be one of the last places that uh uh some sort of embryonic ballot access initiative would take place in addition to wanting to let you know what's happening in Kansas City we want to save you money on this program if you've got kids or grand kids to look after remember this weekend is a back to school tax holiday through the closer business on Sunday you'll pay no state sales tax in Missouri on everything from backpacks laptops and children's clothes but wait there's more did you see that this is going to be a back to school tax holiday on steroids for the very first time a new state law blocks local cities from charging taxes during the weekend so depending on where you live that could be like a 10 to 11 saving here absolutely uh even when you know because I have to buy school supplies and stuff for my kids but even at that when they say it's no tax if you go to some of the malls they still charge you a local tax board so I applaud the opportunity to not have to pay any tax at all I'm sure though city leaders in Kansas City Lee Summit and all of these other places are glum though over the news because they're going to get less cash out of this Nick I thought you were saying there would be no sales tax on steroids which seemed like a really good deal uh no I I actually agree Nick I think city leaders are the ones who should be concerned however according to the state's financial analysis when this bill was passed four hundred sixty five thousand dollars that's the total cost to all cities and municipalities across the state that's not really a very significant amount of money when you deviate them up among all the municipalities uh and if it if it helps some families if it helps some consumers I doubt anyone's going to complain about that I really wanted to use some of the marijuana tax money I was really expected to also be able to say you can also do this in Kansas because there were plenty of Articles over the last several months of Governor Laura Kelly talking about this even having a longer sales tax holiday in Kansas it had never happened no it it never got out of the legislature at the beginning of the session I went back and reviewed some of this stuff and you're right there were all these uh articles that says you know a sales tax holiday for the school uh season in August looks very promising it looks like it's going to happen this time and then it just uh fritted away it just did in their uh in the legislature's ability to balance everything that they they had during this session it fell through the cracks so if you live in Kansas you're going to have to drive on over to Missouri to take advantage of this just go ahead and do that that's the discussion we've been having for some time about sales tax avoidance the problem in Kansas is that Republicans consistently put all their tax measures in one big Bill rather than vote on things separately because they think if you can put the sweetener on in in a bill on sales tax you can get corporate tax cuts and for whatever reason Laura Kelly has not gone along with that now when you put a program like this together every week you can't get to every big story grabbing the headlines what was the big local story we missed not again nearly 100 000 cancer syrians lose power after another form whips through the Metro it was once one of Kansas City's only Fortune 500 companies now it's out of business around 30 000 workers at Yellow Freight now looking for jobs the trucking company was headquartered in Overland Park Until moving to Nashville last year Missouri carries out its fifth execution in eight months only Texas has executed more inmates this year and the numbers are now in nearly 60 000 Jackson County homeowners have appealed their property assessments as the official deadline closes that's 17 of every house in the county that is literally off the charts compared to what's happening in other parts of the Metro May Quinta Lucas caused the issue a crisis that could lead to mass defaults we do not want thousands more properties being abandoned in Kansas City and in Jackson County and it may not be the same as Taylor Swift but the summer of Mega concerts continues as British singing sensation Ed Sheeran plays Arrowhead this weekend alrighty Michael Mahoney did you pick one of those stories of something completely different I picked something uh something else the news last week that uh this past week that um the state of Missouri is now going to tackle the problem of uh upgrading and improving some of the railroad crossings especially the on the unguarded ones and there are hundreds if not thousands of them in the State uh just along the passenger routes in Missouri not counting the the freight routes it's something that a was a an offshoot of the fatal crash in Mendon uh from last last year the report on that also came out uh this past week talking about uh the problems with that specific uh Crossing so that that's mine the idea of upgrading and improving the safety of railroad costs Eric I picked two the hot dog fest Negro Leagues baseball Museum hot dog fest is this weekend my second one was Jane Brown she was the former housing director for Kansas City she filed a EEOC complaint and she is a alleging sex and age discrimination and being forced to retire when she wasn't ready and that's another in Kansas City Missouri Kansas City Missouri that's another lawsuit that taxpayers will probably be settling Brian I picked a a sad story Nick Mizell law the 19 year old student at Mid-America Nazarene University football player who we learned died we learned last Sunday that he died practicing for football a heat related injury significant Nick I think because it's not the first time we heard five years ago the Garden City Community College football player Fort Scott Community College a couple of years ago this seems to be a recurring situation in Kansas what is it about the way football practice is happening or perhaps Rising temperatures this is something the state may need to address just quickly oversight from the state of Kansas for these schools as well I'll mention this Nick there is some discussion do you remember all the times we talked about the strata office building downtown in Kansas City and all the incentives well apparently that was never built and apparently there's a movement out of transfer those rights to the cordish company which may try to develop downtown Cornish continues to be interested in housing downtown turning downtown into more housing and entertainment than Office Buildings and for the first time in history more office buildings are being torn down than being built in this nation the changing nature of downtowns is an important story we need to pay attention and on that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey was Brian Ellison and Channel 9's Michael Mahoney from next page KC Eric Wesson and former star reporter Dave helling before we leave you dig out the tissue box there will be no show next week as we head into our summer membership Drive I Know It's upsetting but as our Trucking friends like to say we'll see you on the flip side until then I'm Nick Haines from all of us at Kansas City PBS be well keep calm and carry on foreign