So it's finally happening.

They are erasing Emanuel Cleaver from Congress.

I don't think we're pushing them out.

I think we're trying to provide the representation that more adequately reflects the voters in the state of Missouri, and that is conservative representation.

As Missouri redraws its congressional map.

We look at what happens now.

I want to push Matt Quinton Lucas into a new campaign for Congress.

Also this week, World Cup tickets finally for sale.

But amid the excitement, new concerns that Kansas City is hosting eight Band Aid games and no excuse absentee voting begins Tuesday in the big Frank wide recall election.

We pick apart its impact and implications and consider who's likely to fill his shoes if he's forced out on Election Day.

Those 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 Marlese Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize, and Bank of America Na ho.

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, and glad to have you with us on our journey through the week's most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Week in review.

Best with us this week tracking the region's news from behind a microphone at KCMO Talk Radio 95.7 FM, Pete Mundo from the KCUR newsroom, Brian Ellison and news director Lisa Rodriguez.

And at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper, Next Page, KC Eric Wesson.

Now remember that time when the only thing our local media was talking about was stadiums?

Well, now it's maps.

As we record our program this week, Missouri lawmakers getting ready to send to the governor's desk a new congressional map that would make it tougher for Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to win reelection.

President Donald J. Trump has, in fact, asked Missouri to consider redistricting.

And thank God he has.

It is about Donald Trump trying to keep control of the House.

He's bullied Texas and now he's trying to bully us.

They are erasing Emanuel Cleaver from Congress.

I don't think we're pushing him out.

I think we're trying to provide the representation that more adequately reflects the voters in the state of Missouri.

And that is conservative representation is very clear in article three, section ten, that we may alter districts as we desire or at any point.

That's what it says.

It makes no sense.

This is based purely on politics and division.

Well, some of our viewers asking this week, why didn't Missouri's Democratic lawmakers just escape to other states like they did in Texas recently to block the vote?

Would that have made any difference?

Lisa, I don't know that it would have been ultimately in Texas.

It didn't end up changing the outcome either.

So it perhaps delayed the outcome.

It perhaps got a lot of attention to the issue, but I don't think that this sort of move or stunt would have worked in Missouri either.

And, you know, really no Democratic effort to get any Democratic led cause, across the finish line, in the legislature at all has had really any chance of success.

We're accustomed to having very big issues in this community.

Take an absolute a lifetime to ever get done.

Think the stadiums, the airport, it all lingered on for a long time.

I'm astonished how quickly all of this happened, but I'm also was astonished to say after Texas, why, with all of those states, did Missouri go second?

Why were we at that top of the list there?

Well, my my best guess on that is that they saw a seat that was easily able to be picked up.

And I think Indiana may be on that shortlist as well for Republicans.

So I think this did come from D.C. it is very clearly and obviously gerrymandering.

But they're looking at it and they're saying what's good for the goose may be good for the gander.

When you look at the way some of the blue states are shaken up, but you can't deny what it is.

But it also is going to happen whether Democrats want it to or not.

It's going to get done.

If the governor signs this, as is expected, Brian, is that the end of this?

This is what's going to happen next year, or could there be changes made?

There are a couple of ways that Democrats or opponents of this map are hoping that changes are made.

There is, of course, a legal challenge.

There's has been a suggestion that the the changes to the map, particularly around the Saint Louis area, might violate the Voting Rights Act.

Courts would have to uphold that.

That hasn't gone very well for, for Democrats.

There also is another effort, Nick and that's to have, signatures gathered, to turn this into a referendum that the voters would have to make a decision about, that has happened in Missouri before, not that long ago, when the state passed a right to work measure and unions gathered signatures, put it on the ballot, voters agreed.

there is really the very strong possibility that you could see a signature drive that might then delay this map from taking effect until after the 2026 election.

It's not about 100,000 signatures.

You'd need that.

That's is not easier said than done.

It is easier said than done.

And usually for petitions that go to the people, they have many, many more months than the 90 days that's required for this one.

However, it has been done before in recent memory now under this updated political map.

By the way, a lot of Kansas City is from downtown to the Plaza to Brookside.

Would find themselves in a completely new district, the one represented by former TV news anchor, now fourth district Republican Congressman Mark Olson.

That includes Mayor Quinton Lucas, prompting him to declare he's ready to run for Congress in that district.

How would that work when he resigned the mayor's office?

His term doesn't end until 2027, though.

We're going to be picking a new mayor sooner than we thought.

Eric.

No, I think that the last period from when he got sworn in to, when he actually becomes an associate, he's serving until August 2027.

It would be January.

So they would at least be about six months there, that he would still be man.

Yeah, he could drag that six months and then turn it over to Rainier Park Show who's the mayor pro tem to fill in the rest of his term.

But it's a couple of things.

Earlier, with the lawsuits, the National Baptist Convention is here in town, and yesterday they held a press conference, and the president of the organization hinted at them filing a lawsuit on behalf of Congressman Cleaver as well.

You got the NAACP with a lawsuit.

Cleaver more than likely would file one on his behalf.

So they might be fighting lawsuit for about, 6 or 7 months for that.

But hasn't the Supreme Court showed a incredible tolerance for allowing states to decide these issues?

Absolutely.

And one more note on on, Mayor Lucas, he does have an opportunity here, to run, in, run for Congress, not run against Cleaver and not challenge Cleaver seat.

It's a tough district to to win.

Should he do it.

But if he loses, he can finish out his term as mayor.

He only needs to resign that position if he wins that for congressional, how would a match up between a mark Orford, who is a very popular TV meteorologist and come on here in town and Quinton Lucas work out?

Pete.

Well, it's still a heavy Republican district, so it's often won like by 70% of the votes.

Yes, and often won a lot.

But even the new district is going to be in double digits more or less from what I'm hearing.

So Quinton Lucas would have a major uphill battle.

I don't think he could pull it off in this cycle because, well, you would have Mark Alford, who would hang the issue of crime all over them on this issue here in Kansas City.

And, you know, we've talked about that off the air, and now we're talking about it on the air.

But that's what would happen to them.

But a lot can happen in a year.

Right.

Well a lot can happen in a year.

I think that's probably what it would take for, Quinton Lucas to beat it.

Mark Alford is something unexpected that's happened in Missouri and Kansas congressional races in recent memory.

a big mistake by Mark Alford.

Something happening in his life.

A major blue wave of unprecedented proportions.

There are probably ways you could sketch out a Quinton Lucas victory, but I think there's no doubt that it would be an uphill battle for exactly the reasons Pete said.

This district is not being drawn to be a 5050 toss up.

This district is being drawn to be strongly pro Republican.

they thought Cherise Davis was dead too, but she wound up with a ground game and wound up winning in that district, even though they were district did that in Kansas.

But let me ask you, you know, we keep hearing about that, Pete, that, you know, Kansas is considering it.

We have all the candidates running for governor.

Was this just idle chatter or are we moving further towards doing that in the state of Kansas?

Well, I think for now it's just idle chatter and it's good politics going into an election year where everyone and their mother wants to be governor of that state right now.

So that's what it seems to be going on there.

And plus, Sharice Davids keeps winning by larger margins.

so to her credit, she keeps building on her victories.

The other issue for Kent Lucas, he's not Sharice Davids from the standpoint of he's not the incumbent and he's got a track record that can really hurt him in deep red parts of that district right now.

Just in fact checking they're actually only 193 people running for Republican governor in the state of Kansas.

Not everyone and their mother.

But anyway, at the same time, Missouri lawmakers are slicing and dicing the congressional map.

They're also performing surgery on the process for approving issue questions on the Missouri ballot.

At that special session in Jefferson City this week, lawmakers have crafted a constitutional amendment to raise the bar for passing citizen initiated measures like legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, or approving abortion rights instead of a simple majority to pass.

They would also now have to be approved by voters in every one of the state's eight congressional districts, one of the governor and lawmakers and happy about in the current system.

Lisa, will they argue that it is too easy?

It has become too easy to change the Constitution of Missouri, but also the this is the mechanism by which many of the most progressive causes, by any cause championed by Democrats, has been able to become law is through this initiative petition process.

It's how we saw marijuana legalization, a change to the Constitution, to, enshrine a right to abortion, Medicaid expansion, all of these other things.

It is interesting, though, that they would like this measure, this initiative, petition reform measure to pass under the lower threshold for, for passing amendments, and interestingly, that they would likely put their own measure to, anti-abortion measure on the ballot, also under a lower threshold.

And further interesting is that the the proposal is only that citizen driven, petition driven changes to the state constitution would require this higher threshold that has to be approved in every congressional district, the legislature itself, which for the foreseeable future is likely to be dominated by Republicans, would be able to place measures on the ballot that only require a simple majority across the state to paint a.

Politically, though, these ballot questions and not conveniently clear cut politically, there are often times, for instance, like legalizing marijuana, and many Republicans would support that.

Those who supported Donald Trump for president would also be behind that.

So what would this measure do if there was a constitutional amendment?

Would that have an uphill climb if it was to change the way and make it more difficult to put ballot questions on the ballot as well?

I think for Missouri Republicans, many would say they did a poor job on actually advancing their own policies over the last few years, and they've gotten steamrolled on some of these issues on the ballot, and they've been trying to get initiative petition reform done for years.

It was part of the gubernatorial race a couple of years back, and they haven't succeeded.

So they've got this momentum now.

They're trying to jam it through and get it done right now, and they're probably going to have success just because of the forward momentum and the continuity the party has in place, which it didn't have the last couple of, legislative session.

The, Republicans are complaining about dark money being in the races.

That's how these initiative petitions get funded to run.

And also, language on the ballots is confusing.

If this measure moves forward, the language on which they use to eliminate, referendums is going to be very confusing, and people are not really going to know how to vote on them.

Well, this happened fast.

No excuse.

Absentee voting begins Tuesday in the big Frank white recall election I can think of dozens of times we've talked about recall efforts of local leaders over the years, from Mayor Funkhouser to Quinton Lucas.

Even the current mayor of Prairie Village has had nine recall efforts launched against him.

Yet they never go anywhere.

So this is kind of rare.

Lisa.

It is rare for for an election like this to actually happen versus kind of talk about it to fizzle out.

So I think that that Frank white is is at great risk here.

He appeared on Kcrw recently saying that he plans to win this recall election.

He plans to survive the recall election.

He also interestingly said, that if he does win, there's he doesn't there.

He doesn't see any changes any way he would do his job differently to work better with the legislature.

It was a really striking moment to hear on up to date that moment of if and if, even if I survive this, I wouldn't change anything.

One of the biggest questions people have is they don't know who was going to replace him.

Some people we've seen say they not going to vote until they know clear cut who will be the next Jackson County executive.

So how is that going to work if he is ousted on September 30th, what happens then, Brian?

so as soon as the election is certified, the, the county legislature chair will actually appoint a very temporary, executive committee.

Could he appoint himself?

That's the Ron McGee drama.

He could appoint himself to that role.

There's nothing in the charter that says he can't, but he couldn't serve for more than 30 days.

And if the legislature can't agree with a majority on who to replace him within 30 days, a judge actually decide, okay, put us out of our put us out of our misery.

Eric, who is going to be the next Jackson County Executive then, if Frank white is ousted on September 30th, whoever, Chief Justice Kevin Harold appoints.

That's who's going to be because you don't you don't think the legislature will have enough votes to uphold?

I think anybody can get to five.

I don't think Darren McGee, if that's what he goes for, he gets to five.

And I don't think that fill a voter gets to five with the current legislature that they have.

So it's going to be up to Kevin Harrell.

He is the judge that would make that appointment.

But what we do know is it has to be a Democrat.

The the charter requires it, a Democrat to be replaced by a Democrat, someone of the same party.

Now, can we count out legislative money, Abarca, for filling white shoes now that he has had three female employees this week of Jackson County government send cease and desist letters against him, alleging he created a hostile work environment.

You may remember in May, he was accused of battery at battery against his wife during a domestic dispute that he pleaded not guilty for.

But does that count him out for the big job?

Pete?

Yeah, he's not getting that.

I mean, many a basket policy wise, he's a broken clock.

He's just right twice a day by accident.

But on this one, he's probably the most visible member of the legislature.

Most people could name them.

He desperately wants it.

But this thing reeks of politics.

He has been going after Gayle McCann baity, the assessor who's one of the women in this lawsuit, has filed it, and they've set this whole thing up so that when Frank gets recalled and they lose their jobs, there's a lawsuit to probably file on the back end.

That would be my prediction on this.

Okay, Lisa, any thoughts on who the next Jackson County executive could be?

I am not confident enough to put out.

You don't even need to because Frank white says he's going to win, so it really doesn't matter.

But if he does win, is it how challenging is it going to be to get things done in Jackson County and what do the stadiums, leaders do at the Chiefs and Royals at that point to do a betting right at this moment in time, that he's not going to be there to negotiate with over the next few weeks, they'll come back to the table, especially the Chiefs.

And I don't think that the next Antrim County Executive is even on the legislature.

I think they're going to have to go outside and get someone else to come in.

But, could that be Eric Wesson, the head of Next Page KC, our newest newspaper, long time Jackson County resident?

Absolutely not.

I wouldn't walk into that circus with two free tickets.

Okay.

All right, now a reminder.

We're taking the Frank white recall debate on the road this Monday night.

We're bringing our cameras along with hundreds of your friends and neighbors, to the Plaza Library for a frank decision.

The pros, cons, impact, and repercussions of this rare historic vote.

Would you join us?

It's not at six Monday, and it would certainly help us if you RSVP.

If you're coming on the Casey library.org website, I look forward to shaking your hand while you're there now.

It's now September, which means it's now nine months until the World Cup gets underway and your first chance to snag tickets to all 104 matches came this week.

There's also an interesting editorial in the Kansas City Star ringing the alarm bells over what Kansas City is getting out of the deal.

It claims Kansas City is adopting one time Band-Aid fixes for hosting the games while the city is crumbling.

It points out how we're leasing busses instead of building up transit in this community and, quote, throwing money at businesses that will likely fail after a year in order to make it appear as if we're a vibrant community.

It goes on.

You cannot plaster over the blatant issues of a city and expect the world to be fooled by the faux exterior.

Ouch.

Is that an unnecessarily harsh assessment, Lisa?

Or a stark reality check on how this is all unfolding?

I think it's a really honest look at how things are unfolding in Kansas City.

We talked when the World Cup announcement came about how this opened up the possibility to really establish efficient public transit in Kansas City, how this could open the doors to building more affordable housing, real solutions to, on homelessness and and providing resources to unhoused people.

And a year out from from this event less than a year out at this point, we haven't made enough progress on any of those issues to believe progress could happen.

Now, the last World Cup in GATT, it was labeled the, the most green sustainable games in history.

The LA Olympics coming up is viewed as the coldest games you'll be able have a vehicle.

What is the legacy of these games?

Is going to be whether or not we can get people from point A to point B, I think that's going to be the most critical part of this housing, food, because people that come into those kind of places like to eat.

So I think our legacy will be how we failed in those areas.

I'm surprised you haven't got special a wrist supports on your hands this week going on the computer.

P try to get those tickets this week.

No.

Well, you told me you were hooking me up next, so I was just going to give me those front row tickets.

But, you know, this is not about the working person in Kansas City.

Let's be honest.

They're priced out.

It's very much similar to the stadium issue.

These issues don't connect with the working people in Kansas City who are getting taxed out the wazoo, especially if they're in Jackson County.

Inflation has been a nationwide issue the last few years.

They feel like they are losing touch with their city.

They've got homeless issues.

We have Break-Ins all over town.

Even if it's not violent crime, it's a problem.

And they're saying this is our priority in this city right now, at this time in Kansas City history.

It's a joke.

Does it matter, though, that the focus is on people who are coming here?

Not necessarily the community here that we are going to have all those eyeballs, and that might lead to other opportunities for Kansas City down the road.

Well, I think that's what organizers are counting on.

And if nothing else, I think what this this OP ed in the star and what other observers are noting might accomplish is sort of a right sizing of expectations around the World Cut Cup.

I think the reality is that, people who are visiting the city are still going to largely have a good impression of the city, the world watching it on television is still going to have a generally positive impression of the city.

it's going to put its name out there into the universe.

I think a lot of people will be able to point to a lot of things and say, this World Cup was a success for Kansas City, but in terms of fixing Kansas City's perennial problems, maybe it was never that realistic to expect that the World Cup was going to fix those in the first place.

And if anything, we're starting to see just how true that is.

I'm interested to see what the impact of immigration laws and rules and enforcement is going to be on this, especially given the fact you're going to have so many people coming from out of the country.

Are there going to suspend the rules or are they going to look the other way?

Are we going to have a lot of tourists that's going to come into the city?

But the president has created a good friendship with the head of the World Cup, with the head of FIFA.

so I'm sure he's going to try and, remove a lot of those stumbling blocks in time for the tournament itself.

Don't forget, it was during the president's first term that this whole thing came together for this World Cup.

So he wants it to be a success.

But whether or not it's a success in Kansas City versus, say, New York or some of the other major cities, it's just going to be based on the market and also the teams that you get.

We don't know the teams we want till December, and that plays a huge role.

And whether or not you draw the tourism dollars that everybody promises.

Yeah, I'm still counting on Wales qualifying December 5th.

Fingers crossed.

Now there are tons of stories we didn't get to that are worthy of being talked about this week, so let's see how many we can pick apart and dissect in our Big Story Miss segment of the show.

What do you think was the big local story we missed?

It's a week of big closings as pinstripe shuts its doors in Overland Park.

It was the biggest anchor tenant of the Prairie Fire development.

Creighton brewing also closes after 11 years.

It's the fourth metro area brewery to go belly up this year.

The Kansas City Fire Chief calls it quits.

Does anyone care?

When I started doing this job, who led the fire department was a massive story.

Is it now met with a collective shrug.

You know what also used to be a big deal?

Remembering 911 now Overland Park, one of the few places holding ceremonies for what was the deadliest terror attack on American soil.

General Motors says it's delaying the return of workers at its Fairfax plant in KKR, amid a softening of electric vehicle sales.

Government subsidies for buying EVs expire at the end of the month.

The new Mahomes Kelsey Steakhouse opens Wednesday at.

The.

Food better be amazing.

Has there ever been more relentless coverage of a local restaurant opening?

I'm getting ready for the big lighting ceremony Thursday for the tower above our heads, but it's really.

The Kctv five tower is being relit as a massive illuminated art installation ahead of the World Cup, and it's the week of the big wedding.

No, not that one.

This one.

Kansas City funnyman Eric Stonestreet tying the knot with a pediatric nurse he met during a big, slick event at Children's Mercy Hospital.

Okay, little as I know you were at Eric Stonestreet wedding, and I know you got the reservations there at the Mahomes Kelsey restaurant, but now you big story or something else.

I'm always in high demand at these events.

Okay, I actually I actually picked something else, in earlier this summer, in July, an inmate at the Wyandotte County Detention Center, died after an altercation with, law enforcement there.

Late last week.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation ruled it a homicide.

And Kcrw, accessed an autopsy report this week that showed that he died after a sheriff's officer knelt on his back.

just another really troubling example.

A lot of questions to be asked about why an inmate was being treated in this way.

What kind of altercation would have, necessitated such a forceful response?

but I think a lot of questions to be answered there and significant that this was ruled a homicide, with with law enforcement involved.

Eric, I chose one and another one.

I chose Mike Hendricks retiring from the star.

Yes, that gets me down.

And knowing, like, maybe for people that actually work at the store.

Now, when I started, there were about 15.

So, congratulations to him on his retirement.

The other one was the Kansas City Fire Department, the fire chief retiring the fire department has been a mess that people have looked the other way for quite some time.

So I hope whoever steps in there really cleans it up, because it's costing taxpayers a lot of it didn't get a huge amount of attention.

But I look back on our archives for the show, and when the last, fire chief resigned, we had it was like a seven minute segment on the show.

Now it becomes with a bit more of a collective shrug rather than a big in-depth investigation.

Pete, I'll go with, pinstripes closing, mostly because there's another example of star bonds bombing out.

And, you know, I would hate to bring that up ahead of a maybe big star bond decision in the state of Kansas.

But it once again goes to show you they're nice in theory, but you have to figure out a way to generate the the income and the revenue to pay off these bonds.

And when you're talking about $2 billion baseball stadiums and $4 billion football stadiums, boy, that is a that is a tough nut to crack and absolutely no way to pay it off.

And certainly and and it was the anchor tenant.

So I mean that is something they really couldn't afford to lose in that development.

Prairie fire that Brian.

Well, and along the same lines, you mentioned the Crane Brewing Company closing, but but a number of local restaurants, a number of local breweries, a number of small businesses have publicly closed their doors, not because business was terrible, but because it wasn't enough.

They weren't able to get by, because they're concerned about the impact of tariffs, because they just don't want to deal with the stress and the regulations anymore.

There are a whole lot of, things that are changing the face of business in Kansas City.

And this is happening just as as we've discussed.

The World Cup is coming to town.

I am wondering if post-Covid, maybe we're seeing kind of a recalibration of what are the the business needs, what is the economic development reality in the city?

It's part of the narrative of almost every municipality around here, and almost every leader that we are a growing, thriving, metropolitan area.

Is that happening down at the local level that was the fourth brewery this year that is closed in our metropolitan area.

And I know we talked about tariffs and the economy, but is it our young people, our young viewers?

Yes.

You watching who have decided to move to hard seltzers instead of beer on that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey.

Was Brian Ellison and Eric Wesson from next page.

Casey leading the newsroom at Casey on 89.3 FM, Lisa Rodriguez and further up the dial at 95.7 FM, you'll find Pete Mundo weekdays from 6 to 10 on KCMO Talk Radio.

And I'm Nick Haynes.

You will find me here next week from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm, carry on.