I'm calling for the General Assembly to come back to Jefferson City on Monday, June 2nd.

Missouri lawmakers forced to cancel family vacations to settle the stadium issue once and for all if they move out of our state.

The significant effect it's going to have on our state's economy is is massive.

If wealthy team owners can get big public cash, what about our big companies?

Why black and features its hand out asking Overland Park for a quarter of $1 billion to help them build its new headquarters.

Also this week, Abortion's back on hold in Missouri.

And for us, the immediate next steps are contacting patients, letting them know that appointments are not available.

Plus, seasons 52, the latest restaurant to close on the Country Club Plaza with more than 40 empty storefronts.

Where's all the big changes we were promised?

Also, this half hour, the kcpd facing a new budget crisis.

We're just going to have to make cuts.

What does that do for rising public anxiety over crime?

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. Mine and Bank of America Na 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 have you with us on our weekly journey through the impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories dissecting the headlines this half hour.

The head of the Kansas City Star editorial board of Yvette Walker and the star's chief political correspondent, Jonathan Shorman, leading the Johnson County Post, Kyle Palmer and former star, newsman and continuing editorial writer Dave Helling.

Now, I know stadium fatigue has become a diagnosable condition in Kansas City, but they really were some big developments this week in the ongoing saga over the future homes of the Chiefs and Royals.

Let's start in Missouri, where the governor has told lawmakers to cancel their family vacations and head back to Jefferson City immediately.

He's called a special session for Monday in a last ditch effort to save the team's.

I know it can be tough to move on from disagreements and failed negotiations, but we must.

I believe if Missouri does not put some sort of offer forward, I think the risk is real that they don't stay here if they move out of our state.

The significant effect it's going to have on our state's economy is is massive.

Well, governor Mike Kehoe failed to get lawmakers to support him in the last week of the regular session.

Why, Jonathan Shulman, does he think he would be more successful at the same time, he's telling them to give up their vacations with their families because he's putting some additional items on the table that didn't pass in the last week of session.

notably, he's going to allow them or he's called them to, pass, funding for some capital improvement projects across the state.

But, the House, chose not to vote on, in the final week of session, including, millions of millions of dollars for a new mental health hospital, in Kansas City.

he's also, adding in, tornado and storm relief for, severe after severe weather in Saint Louis and the eastern part of Missouri.

And there's a few other items, but he's kind of, adding some things to the table to try to to make sure the votes are there.

New science center at the University of Missouri in Columbia, a new livestock barns at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, little pockets here and there, these old bargaining chips.

Then to try and get people who would have no interest whatsoever in funding Kansas City sports team owners to say yes on this can be.

And one guess is that the governor has had private conversations with members of the Senate in the House to make sure there is some path for all of these agenda items at some level, in part because naked would be a disaster politically if Mike Keough, in his first year, calls a special session for stadium help and that collapses, his influence, then diminishes accordingly.

So you would guess that he feels there is a path and he's talked to enough people to understand that path, that they might be able to get something done.

But I would just say, opposition to stadium subsidies broadly across the country is very intense.

It's also very intense.

Nick, in Missouri, from the right.

They don't want tax subsidies going to businesses.

They'd rather put the money in their pockets and from the left who say, hey, tax subsidies for stadiums are preempting things like schools and roads.

Yeah, you put those two things together.

Getting something actually, to the governor's desk is going to be quite a challenge.

You know, our viewers seem to be very confused about a lot of the numbers relating to this.

Let's remember, the governor's plan in Missouri would provide bonds and other state aid that would pay for up to half the cost of new or improved stadiums for the Royals and Chiefs.

But Kansas is offering to cover up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums.

Now, I don't have a degree in mathematics, but why aren't the team owners leaping to say yes to this Kansas office by the number?

Isn't it more attractive?

Well, with like with you, I imagine, do I have?

Yeah, a degree.

But that does make sense.

However, I think there's a couple of things here.

There is stadium fatigue, but and at the same time, there are a lot of people who see these teams and want them to stay in Missouri.

so I don't know why they're jumping.

why they're not jumping to Kansas.

there's there's got to be a reason for that, however, and I'm sure we're going to talk about this story in a moment.

There's some new developments that make that make that a really good question.

Like why aren't we seeing that?

Yes.

Hold the front page breaking news.

Yes.

Kyle Palmer, because we are hearing because a lot of the state session in Missouri, the special session coming up Monday, that story sort of being eclipsed this week by another big development in Kansas.

In the most definitive statement to date, the Kansas City Royals acknowledge they bought the mortgage on the old sprint campus in Overland Park, now known as a superior.

Despite that bombshell, the royals insist they, quote, still haven't settled on a final site.

Does that sound confusing?

Why would they buy the mortgage?

Kyle Palmer on the former sprint campus if they don't have designs on building this?

Well, I think this keeps their options open.

You guys mentioned stadium fatigue.

There's less of that in Johnson County just because Johnson County has not been really at the center of these conversations about where the stadium might land.

But as you said, this is to my mind, the first public acknowledgment by the team that they're at least interested in a site in Johnson County they named area by name in their statement on Wednesday.

And so they don't own a space, but they own the loan.

So we have to think about it lot for our homes.

Yeah, sometimes our mortgages get passed off to another mortgage company.

If we stop our payments or default in our payments, then that mortgage company could come in and repossess our house.

So that's the position the Royals are in now with this area.

It could potentially smooth the way, if they do eventually get more interested in that site.

It could also be coming in a couple of days before this Missouri special session.

Just another point of leverage for the team.

Create a little bit of urgency on the Missouri side of state line.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

First, the 7050 split, in Kansas and Missouri.

Nick, one of the reasons Missouri is a bit lower is because they'll require a local public contribution to the stadiums, which bumps that number from 50 to 60 or 65 or whatever it becomes.

That's not the case in Kansas.

It's a star bond Street star bond play.

Wyandotte County isn't kicking in money or Overland Park, Johnson County, as far as we know, at least to this point.

The other thing is, the Kansas projects are, broadly speaking, more private than the Missouri projects where you would have public ownership.

One assumes a sports authority, the sort of traditional structure in Kansas.

It's more private, and therefore the interest rates are going to be just a bit higher on any borrowing for those stadiums.

So the 5070 is a little misleading.

It's a little misleading.

it's most of the people you talk to will tell you they're roughly.

But I will say though, Jonathan, I still see top legislative leaders in Kansas still saying we are optimistic we can win over one, if not both teams.

Right.

Well, they are.

Kansas is probably at the peak of their leverage right now because they have created this ticking clock on the Star Bonds proposal down to June 30th.

So every day that the Missouri legislature does not pass its own incentives package that Kansas offer, which is, you know, on the table right now, potentially looks like a more solid deal.

But the thing on one last point on the 70% is that is simply an authorization to state officials to negotiate.

Up to that point, there is no guarantee that, they would have to sign off on an agreement of up to 70%.

They could agree to 50% or something lower.

So that is the high end of the range.

Certainly it grabs a lot of headlines, but it's not a guaranteed but back on that superior campus in the mortgage, I was actually you know, I was welcomed that because I think it was the most definitive statement we've actually heard from the team since the failed vote.

I mean, that was a big, big deal.

But just as surprising to me with all of this fervor now in Missouri, the special session Monday morning, they'll get underway.

We never saw Clark Kent as part of that.

We never saw John Sherman as part of that.

There's no offer to be testifying before lawmakers to say, you know, this is why we need the money.

They're completely behind the scenes on this, and things have been behind the scenes for so long.

And that was one of the reasons why that that original vote did not pass.

People are concerned by a lack of transparency.

What does it mean?

What what if somebody's going to pay for it and what's it not going to pay for and to go back to Kansas if it is more of a private situation that might be more appealing to companies who don't want to have to deal with the public.

Yeah.

You said a few weeks ago on this show, Dave, even with the effort, the last ditch effort in Kansas, in Missouri to try and pass a plan for the stadiums that we still didn't know hardly anything about it, with very few details.

Is that still the case as we sit here today and they're coming back on Monday, the Missouri legislature meets Monday.

They still don't know whether the Chiefs want a new stadium or a refurbished Arrowhead Stadium.

We have no idea on whether the Royals want to be in downtown Kansas City, Clay County, Johnson County, out by the racetrack.

I think it's a fundamental political error for the teams to just assume that they'll ask for something and get it.

It's going to be hard enough.

Even if they did come forward, their lack of transparent money is a real problem.

Well, and the other thing that we've kind of been reduced to are reading tea leaves here.

Governor Kehoe made a comment in his press conference where he, he was asked something to the effect of, you know, is it your understanding that the teams will stay in Missouri if this legislation passes?

And he used the word?

Well, we have an agreement and then he immediately backtracked and said, well, I shouldn't probably I probably shouldn't use that word.

We have an understanding, so that kind of that is the level of, you know, trying to sift through the tea leaves that we're at right next week.

We may even hear I shouldn't have said understanding will dilute that word even further.

If sports owners, by the way, can demand big public assistance, why not our other big local companies?

One of Kansas City's largest engineering firms, now wants more than a quarter of $1 billion from Overland Park to demolish and then rebuild its headquarters and create a new retail, office and hotel and hotel complex with a mammoth new public park.

Is taking, a property like Black and Veatch, which is a building surrounded by parking lots.

and, transforming that into a more mixed use community.

That's what we think the next generation of workers is really looking for.

But given how quickly companies shut down moving just a handful of years after getting big taxpayer subsidies, why is the news reporting on this filled with upbeat, positive reviews from the mayor and City council?

Kyle.

Well, the current mayor and Overland Park City Council for years have been pretty bullish on this idea of using public taxpayer dollars to incentivize private development.

They see it as a way to take I mean, we just saw the quotes there.

but they would see is maybe more of bond or static properties and make them into something more so they don't see this as just a, a newer, bigger office complex for this one private company, but see it as a much bigger retail residential complex.

There's going to be a public park in there as well.

But I will say, coincidentally or not, the same week the Black and Veatch unveiled this proposal before the City council, a former city council member who was a very vocal opponent of public tax incentives, filed to challenge Mayor Kurt Skoog.

and so that's fair is fair.

Sorry.

So he'll be running again.

I don't know if there'll be another person file to make it a primary.

So there have been sections of Overland Park very much opposed to these types of development in the past.

This is going to be one of the biggest projects, redevelopment projects in overland Park history.

Incentive package.

Black and peach is asking for roughly $280 million for the sense of geography.

This is really just a stone's throw from the former sprint campus to Hagley Oak.

Probably stand on the corner of one and 19th and all, and hit it to the Black and Veatch campus.

Black of each is incredibly successful company.

They're involved in so many projects around the world.

I mean, so they've got plenty of resources.

Why can't they do it themselves?

And particularly they're at a time when there's so much office space all around the metro that is completely vacant.

Is Overland Park just worried they would leave if they say no?

I think that there must be a risk.

There must be a worry that they're going to leave.

But that hasn't been said.

And in that little quote we heard from one of the city council members, this is the future of what workers want.

And you see it on the West Coast, the big companies that they have, these campuses where you have parks and all of these other recreational facilities and things all around the workplace.

Yeah.

And I mean, this has been I think, years in the making trying to remake this college quarter, which has, I guess, have had the reputation, right, for leaving kind of a more staid, leafy office park area with a lot of parking lots.

They do want to remake that to more walkable.

And the council member that we heard the quote from, Julie Christian is, is one of the leading proponents on the council of making Overland Park more walkable, more bike and pedestrian friendly.

That's probably his motivation.

When you offer incentives based on these kinds of promises.

Look at the Cerner campus.

We're on the old Bannister Mall or really out by the speedway.

Cerner promised the moon for incentives and did nothing.

Sprint no longer exists as a company.

you know, 25 years after Overland Park gave away all those tax incentives for that campus.

So it it's it can be a mixed blessing.

And we need to pay attention to that.

And we'll see how it plays out in the municipal elections.

I would would assume that people opposed to this or skeptical of it will point to a project closer to home.

That's brokerage.

I mean, that was another $200 million incentive package that passed in 2019, really is still not been a lot of substantive work done on that site yet.

And so I think people would point to even that project as being a cautionary tale.

We got a lot of other headlines we wanted to dissect.

Did you see this one coming?

Abortion back on hold in Missouri, Planned Parenthood is canceling all abortion appointments in Kansas City as a surprise new ruling from the Missouri Supreme Court blocks the procedure when for us, the immediate next steps are contacting patients, letting them know that appointments are not available.

Now, I thought Missouri voters approved a woman's right to an abortion back in November.

Why did the state's highest court say that doesn't count this week?

That that's a very good question.

And, you know, it's we often we often cry about the fact that there's a low voter turnout.

You know, voters are going to say, why am I going to come out and stand and vote if no one is going to take my vote seriously?

And so we have to realize that if if this means that voters are going to feel like it, my vote doesn't count.

I think that's frightening and dangerous for the future.

Is this just a technical legal ruling that is going to, you know, even by the time this show is will have already changed?

Or does this really have a significant impact on that constitutional amendment three that was passed by voters in November?

Well, certainly not by the time this airs or Friday, rather, but I think there's some expectation within the coming months that this could eventually be reversed.

Essentially, the issue is the Missouri Supreme Court, which did not rule on the merits of abortion rights.

They said that, judges along in Jackson County had basically used an incorrect standard to, when she was evaluating whether to, enjoin or block these, existing abortion restrictions.

So they've sent that back down to her to kind of reevaluate, based on this new standard or the standard that they say is correct.

And so that will probably take some time.

There could be additional briefing, there could be additional hearings, but that process will start to play out and obviously, this is not the end of the abortion issue in Missouri anyway, because we know it's going to be back on the ballot next year, right.

Next year, unless, Governor Kehoe calls us, special election for for sooner.

But but right now, it will be on November 2026.

Now, Kyle, in some respects, you could say abortion will also be on the ballot in Kansas next year.

At the same time, Missouri is voting because as voters are being asked to shake up the state Supreme Court by directly electing justices at the ballot box, is the court's decisions on abortion.

What are the primary motivations to make that change?

I think that along with education funding, as well as being a thorn in the side of the legislature the last decade or so, but I think abortion rights supporters, we can expect them to really, make that issue next year about abortion.

It proved to be very effective messaging in 2022 and the value them both amendment that went down pretty handily in Kansas statewide, but especially in Johnson County.

so I think if abortion rights supporters are wise, they would tie this judicial election issue to the idea of abortion to try to turn out people in what will be August 2026, Kansas voters will also be picking a new governor governor next year, which could bring also a lot of national attention on this issue.

When Wisconsin was voting on, you know, electing Supreme Court justices in that state, more than $100 million of cash flow down, including about 30 million from Elon Musk.

And the evidence, Jonathan, we're seeing campaigning already happening on this issue.

not right now.

Okay.

I, I, we haven't really seen, organized, public campaign effort.

I am sure those discussions are happening.

behind the scenes more sorry about.

And I just like to say really quickly, what essentially is coming down to as a technicality is affecting women's lives.

Women as a have they they're canceling appointments.

They're having to decide what they're going to do.

are they going to go elsewhere?

Will Kansas see any of this?

And so I think that that this is a bigger issue, and it's a very human issue.

More pain on the country.

Club Plaza is one of its longest serving restaurants, shuts its doors for good seasons 52.

We've been open nearly 15 years.

There are now 48 empty retail spaces in the shopping district, according to a new Kansas City Star story, which means 30% of the plaza is empty and ouch.

The store report says it's a number likely more than during the Great Depression.

What happened to all the talk of progress and bigger, more exciting brands coming to Kansas City under this new ownership and ownership group from Texas?

Still a lot of talk.

And in fact, the story in the story was excellent.

I recommend it to to, your viewers and readers, the people representing the new company said, hey, be patient.

We're still working on this.

We've still got some ideas.

And we have major infrastructure problems which appear to be worse than we originally understood, particularly in terms of plumbing and drainage, which you can expect because that's a very old part of the city or an older part of the city.

So I think we just have to be patient.

I'm not sure what other reaction you could have.

I mean, you you could panic.

I think, though, last year I think there was the suppression.

We're going to see all these different retailers, legacy productions we've never seen before in Kansas City.

And all we've seen is one place after another leave.

Yeah.

I think it was a bad impression.

I believe that the folks involved in it and not just the buyers, but the politicians, were a little bit more optimistic than perhaps they should.

They should be.

Okay.

Well, Kyle, I mean, Oak Park Mall was always viewed as the most thriving mall in our metropolitan area.

Did they see, like, 30% vacancy rates there?

well, no, I mean, recent reports in recent years have shown that their, occupancy rates are pretty much close to 100%.

I mean, I think a story that epitomizes the contrast we're talking about is remember when the the Plaza tried to woo Nordstrom.

Yeah.

Away from Oak Park Mall Nordstrom declined that Nordstrom's is still an anchor tenant in Overland Park as well as Dillard's in Macy's.

In some respects Oak Park Mall is a throwback to those mall glory days of the 80s and 90s, but also with a little bit of updates.

They have some, you know, an adult arcade called District Eat and Play.

They have a Lego store.

So I mean, in terms of talking about enclosed malls, I know some people still have their druthers about that particular type of retail, but in terms of that, that mall aspect, I mean, Oak Park Mall is still a relatively thriving venue for sure.

It certainly couldn't have helped avert that.

This week, we had police shut off Mill Creek Park, which was right next to the plaza there with the big plaza fountain.

And the horses are a deadly shooting there.

I mean, isn't public anxiety of a crime also playing a role here?

I think I think you're right about that.

And, you know, crime and violence in public spaces, this has been an issue for a long time.

I think that people have been concerned about that.

I remember even when I lived here, a long time ago, questions of, of of young people being out too late and what to do about that.

Safety continues to be a real issue and lost on many people.

Maybe this week.

Is that the most exciting, apparently, restaurant coming to Kansas City for Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce is not being built on the plaza at all but downtown.

So a missed opportunity there.

But amid anxiety of a crime that talks about it, the Kansas City police chief this week announces that cuts are on the way.

That's because they've already blown through the money.

They set aside to settle lawsuits against the department.

How about blowing the budget by nearly $15 million?

That's about 5% of the department's entire budget.

We're just going to have to make cuts.

This is what you do.

You know, you come across some of these situations.

You know, this last lawsuit was was large and it was something that, had occurred decades ago.

But, you know, this is something that the police department unfortunately experiences.

So what does this mean for residents and business owners?

Dave Helling, who are already upset about how police are slow to respond to crimes.

My guess is they'll try and cut on overtime.

They'll drive the cars a little bit longer than they normally do.

and remember, $18 million is a little misleading, and my colleagues might correct me if I'm wrong, but part of that is the Ricky Kid settlement, which is paid out over a number of years, not all in one year.

But the mayor did ask recently for a help from my Cheo, the governor of Missouri, saying, can you help the police department with all of this?

He did call himself when he was running for office as the law and order candidate, and he is not going to be part of this special session to money to bail out the police department in Kansas City.

No doubt about now, I do see, by the way, Kyle, you know, there's also going to be a public safety tax in Jackson and Johnson County.

that just added to the ballot.

I mean, is there anxiety of a crime there too?

Now?

No, this is more about this is a budget issue.

this is a current quarter cent sales tax that's been on the books since 2016, originally imposed to help fund a new county courthouse and county medical examiner building.

Those buildings have been built, but now commissioners want to extend us another ten years because they see it as a consistent, sure source of funding for a growing county, public safety typically being one of the most sought after or well-reviewed items by county residents.

And quietly, county officials are starting to sound the alarm about, Johnson County's budget situation.

With a growing population, uncertain, state and federal revenues, leveling off property tax revenues.

And so they see this, public safety sales tax as a way to at least secure a little bit of money for the next ten years.

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?

Funeral services for Sarah Milgrom, the young Johnson County woman gunned down outside the Jewish Museum in Washington as Tornado Alley shifted to Missouri.

The Show Me state, now leading the nation in tornadoes this year is Kansas City about to become just one huge data center, the unified government now getting ready to ink a deal on a $12 billion mega data center next to the Kansas Speedway and Kansas City, marks Memorial Day with multiple events, including a celebration at the station with the Kansas City Symphony event.

Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Slightly.

So let's talk about Memorial Day for me.

I have to talk about Patriot Front.

We had a large group of all right, some people would say white supremacists marching through Kansas City, and no one seemed to know anything about it.

No one seem to know where they came from or the fact that they were even there.

And then, the police, a lot of people were questioning the police.

Why didn't you do something about it?

Well, they were on the sidewalk.

They weren't on the sidewalk.

But the mayor said, you know, we can't curtail people's free speech, right?

Absolutely.

And I do believe in that.

However, there are certain, things that you have to do and that is getting permissions and various things like that.

I think if there is a loophole about being on the sidewalk or not, I think that's something that we really need to take a look at.

Oh, I would say this is a national story with local implications, which is, a federal court ruling that most of President Trump's, tariffs, were basically illegal this week.

that's going to probably, a lot of local businesses are going to be pleased with that, especially if that, decision is held up by the Supreme Court.

Kyle.

you mentioned it, but, I think worth underscoring again, the death of Sarah Milgrom hit a lot of people in Johnson County very hard.

She grew up in Prairie Village, went to Shawnee Mission East High School, by all accounts, a smart, talented young woman who was very passionate about the cause of peace building in the Middle East.

At her funeral in Overland Park on Tuesday.

People we talked to, her father, family, teachers she had in high school, Jewish leaders from Overland Park, as well as later when she went to K, you just talked glowingly about her, her passion for for wanting to solve issues between Israelis and Palestinians.

And so just a terrible tragedy that her life ended in such a, a frankly politicized and violent way.

Dave Helling, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly helped break ground on a cancer center at the University of Kansas Hospital or medical center or whatever they're calling themselves this week.

And, that's good news for the region.

What surprised me about that, though, is a $450 million cancer center, 60 something million coming from the federal government.

At the time, we told that all of this money for research from the government, federal government is drying up.

Elon Musk has decided to leave government.

So I think we can all take a deep breath now on that stuff.

And on that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Star editorial board chief of Ed Walker and Kyle Palmer of the Johnson County Post, the star's chief political correspondent Jonathan Shulman, 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.