President Trump gets his way in Missouri as the governor calls back lawmakers to rewrite the state's congressional maps.

The move kicks off statewide protests.

We don't have to say no.

Also, add it to the lawmakers to do list this week, changing the rules to make it tougher to pass amendments and ballot questions.

How dare the Chiefs go head to head with us in primetime this Friday night?

Perhaps the biggest story of the week as they head to Brazil now that the new season is underway.

Can we kiss goodbye to decisions on a new stadium until after the Super Bowl in February?

The president says, get ready, we're going in and sending federal law enforcement to Chicago and Baltimore.

At last check.

Kansas City's violent crime rate is far higher than the Windy City.

Are we preparing for what some say may now be inevitable?

And could it actually help?

I enjoy having extra security.

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 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, and thank you for joining us on our weekly journey through the most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board.

The Week in Review bus with us this week from the anchor desk at KMBC nine News.

Kris Ketz tracking the region's top political stories for KC one News.

Brian Ellison leading the Kansas City Star editorial board Yvette Walker, and former star reporter and opinion writer Dave Helling.

Now, the next phase of the redistricting war has now moved to Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, calling back lawmakers this week to begin redrawing the state's congressional map on the urging of President Trump, who is seeking to score a few more Republican House seats in advance of next year's midterm elections, the responsibility of the state legislature to ensure that values of Missouri families and communities are represented in Washington, D.C., and in our state, we are here to say no.

They're trying to do is basically erase the fifth district.

And that could really hurt our democracy as well as our voice here in person.

If they thought I was going to lay down, well, some spectacular changes could be on the way.

A map widely circulated this week shows downtown Kansas City, Brookside and the Plaza all removed from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

District Cleaver, one of the only Missouri Democrats in Congress, would gain big parts of central Missouri, including Jefferson City and Lake of the Ozarks.

But Brian, if that were to hold, would that push Cleaver out of his job in Washington?

I think that's a good question, but I think it does seem likely the people who drew these districts, that, no one in Missouri seems to have seen until a couple of weeks ago probably know what they're doing in terms of math.

Remember Nick, that the state's map was already gerrymandered to a certain extent.

About 58% of voters in Missouri lean Republican, but already six out of the eight districts leaned Republican.

This would create seven districts that, that lean that way.

would it be possible for Cleaver to win?

Perhaps.

But it might involve him, kissing babies over at Lake of the Ozarks.

And it seems unlikely that that's going to be a winning strategy.

It would require a huge turnout in in Kansas City.

And I think a lot of people look at this map and say, Cleaver maybe isn't toast if this map holds, but pretty close.

That's a heavy lift for all of those GOP leaning counties that are all rural and stretch all the way to southeast of Jefferson City.

Some interesting news.

Also this week, Dave, was that Mayor Quinton Lucas looking at this, saying, quote, if this, proposed redistricting is approved, I am prepared to run for Congress.

How seriously do we take that?

Part of that is an implied threat that if you go through with this, you're going to get a decent Democrat to be, to be a candidate in the fourth district.

One assumes, in part because, as you pointed out, the fourth district, if they use the map that's now on the table, would include the corridor, the Kansas City corridor, which typically votes more Democratic than almost any other part of the city and is the turnout is huge.

And the corridor always has been, and they're loaded with money that they could give to a Democrat.

So if this map goes forward, there is a sense that, that, Mayor Lucas could then be an opponent for Mark Alford, which would be a fascinating race.

I think I'd pay money to see that race, for the house.

Let me just say also about the cleaver seed.

If they go through with this map or any new map, it does depend to a certain degree on who the opponent might be.

We have no idea who the Republican might be in that district.

Cleaver is well known outside of Kansas City.

He's a he's been in Congress now for several years, so he would have a puncher's chance.

But the whole point of going through this exercise is to try and in essence, put more Republicans in that district, than Democrats and elected a Republican.

You make it sound like this is a done deal, but there's lots of lawsuits potentially being filed here.

The NAACP even filing suit against, this map as well this week.

Absolutely.

Yeah, they did that.

They're trying to crack this area to, to, you know, minimize the Democratic vote.

There are lawsuits, being filed.

They can't always count on what you think is going to happen.

And to be fair, both parties have done gerrymandering.

I mean, if you want to look at a gerrymandered state on the Democratic side, look at the Illinois, for instance.

But, you know, in 2022, Republicans tried to do this in Missouri, and it didn't go anywhere.

And I think probably for a couple of reasons, I think there was a fear that in a wave election splitting up the fifth three ways might go against the Republicans.

And I also think, too, that there was a sense that, the margins in Congress would not be what they are now.

So I don't think there was a sense of urgency in 22 like there is now.

Maybe Chris Cass mentions Illinois, but you look at other states, including Massachusetts, where more than 1 in 3 voters in Massachusetts voted for Donald Trump in the last election.

Yet every single one of the state's congressional districts are controlled by Democrats.

Gerrymandering is not unique to Missouri, and it's not unique to Republicans.

I think what is unusual in this case is that we're talking about a midterm, redrawing of the districts that is in response to, to a belief that a party is going to lose votes in an upcoming election.

And it's a it's an effort to to buffet against that.

But the supreme Court has given a lot of leeway to states to do this.

And is that why, for instance, even in Kansas, we have the city of Lawrence, which is viewed as one of the most progressive parts of the state in this in the western Kansas, with all of the Wyandotte County and Goodland.

I mean, you know, explain what the community of interest is between, Quinn Darrow and Goodland and you've, you've, you know, made headlines.

But remember, gerrymandering is named after a political figure of the 18th century.

So the idea that this is something new or hasn't happened before, is just simply false.

And the house, the U.S. House now, which is two or 3 or 4 votes between Republicans and Democrats, roughly reflects, I think, the 50 over 50 nature of the country.

And so you see this happening in Missouri and we pay attention.

Kansas may be on the agenda, although it is gerrymandered, just like Missouri.

and this jostling.

And when it's over, we may not have many changes at all now, but wait, there is more.

Mike Kehoe isn't just pushing lawmakers to change the state's political maps.

As mentioned, he's urged Missouri legislators to use this special session to reform Missouri's initiative petition process.

In other words, to make it harder for citizens and groups to add issue questions to the ballot.

What's being proposed by, well, we don't know all of the details.

The legislation, the the files, the bills that were first filed on the opening day.

The session didn't contain all of the details.

But what the governor said in his proclamation is that he'd like to see it be required that any statewide ballot measure passed by citizen Initiative not only have a majority of voters supporting it, but a majority of voters in every one of the state's congressional districts.

And that's actually the most extreme version of that proposal that has that has been discussed.

Previously.

It was maybe three quarters of the districts.

When you think about things we voted on before, like marijuana, for instance, or Medicaid expansion, would those have passed if it was that threshold was required to get it passed in every single or of abortion rights, increasing the minimum wage?

And the answer is no.

very few policies, except for the very most non-controversial bipartisan, could pass under a structure like.

So what does this do to what is set to be a next year's abortion rights Amendment on the Missouri ballot?

Well, I know that a lot of people who are who've been working hard for that, really exhaled, you know, when when they when they when they heard what was happening.

Listen, if the redistricting happens, you can make the argument that that alone would affect what votes would happen toward, you know, toward voter initiative.

He didn't need to go this far to make it such a restrict.

I mean, and indeed, if it's passed to make it such a restrictive, bill the way it is now, I mean, really, can you expect that statewide and each district agree?

I mean, that's that's a that's a heavy lift.

Well, if you're talking about restrictions, couldn't you say that Kansas is very, very strict because they don't allow it at all.

At least Missouri allows citizens and groups to do this.

The initiative and petition process was born in the early 1900s out of frustration with governments starting in California and sort of swept across the country, including Missouri and now in Missouri.

The right to change the constitution or statute by petition is, protected in the Constitution.

That's important to know, because if any change comes out of this special session, it would still have to go to voters.

It would almost certainly go.

They can't decide this.

Well, not they can't change the threshold in the Constitution without a vote of the people.

Interestingly, of course, if you ask them, hey, would you still have the same standard of every district voting for this change next year?

Oh no, no, no, it would still be a simple majority going forward.

So I've said this before.

My 30,000ft view here is that people typically don't take very kindly to other people telling them that they're wrong or that they know more.

now, in the past, there's never really been political consequences to pay for something like this.

And I think the Republican thinking is that in 26, there probably won't be either.

And I'm not sure that they're wrong.

The interesting thing is that I think we have the potential for the spectacle.

Yes, on the same ballot, this proposal to roll back abortion rights out of the state constitution, which would only require, of course, the simple majority that is required now and in the same ballot.

This effort to increase the threshold for future change.

Because if the threshold changes before the abortion vote, then the abortion vote would have to meet the higher threshold and almost certainly fail.

So there are some timing issues involved.

And this will take place in August.

Right.

Which means that you might or you might move the vote on the petition changes to November of 2026.

And it would be, as Brian suggests, on the same day, if it was in August, it would be the same time the Kansas voters will be deciding whether they should directly elect their judges.

Judges?

Exactly right.

By the way, if you live in Kansas, you're not being spared the drumbeat for redistricting also getting louder in the Sunflower State this week.

Now, former Governor Jeff Colyer, who is running to succeed Laura Kelly, is demanding the state rewrite its political maps.

Does he really think that's going to happen, or is he just trying to grab the attention of the president so Trump will endorse him in his crowded Republican field for Kansas Governor Brian, it seems unlikely to me that the caller seriously believes that the gerrymander can be accomplished.

That would actually break up the the what?

What little Democratic blue, hub there is in Kansas.

It's already broken up between three districts.

If you consider Lawrence and Wyandotte County and Johnson County to be that area, to break it up further into four districts, I the tendrils of such a map would be, I think, untenable even for, Trump influenced Republicans to present with a straight face.

I think this is an attempt by doctor failure to try to stand out from the crowd in what is already a crowded.

And it got even more crowded this week with a nature a businessman and Joseph County also getting in the race.

I think there's like 12 or 13 people now in that race.

So whether it works or not and and just briefly, keep in mind that whatever map comes out of Kansas or Missouri, you still races are still candidates against candidates, and you have to know who's running in these districts to make a firm judgment.

the Republicans have thrown, great candidates against Sharice Davids, and she has won by a bigger margin every time.

So the idea that some Republican will come out of nowhere, even with a new map and defeat her, is problematic, or arguably problematic.

So keep in mind that it's only part of the story.

When you look at the map.

We can talk about all these topics, but we have to acknowledge that the chiefs are the biggest thing people are talking about this week, but it's a real shame that their first game of the season in Brazil is going to take a major ratings dip, as it's up against our program tonight.

Sorry.

Come on, come on, Patrick.

Thing for me Bob, I know fans are happy to see them back, but now that the Chiefs are going to be busy, hopefully until the Super Bowl in February, does that mean that any stadium decision is now postponed until then?

That.

Well, we were just talking about this before, you know, we've got till the end of the year to hear something.

but they keep saying that they kick the can down the road, they change the goalposts, they change the deadline and will be back into another date.

It certainly certainly seems that way.

And I can't say the same thing, Brian, by saying, well, we're now in this major playoff push, we have a time to focus on these things until way after October.

I would not say that, John Sherman and his team are, are so completely consumed by the, hopes that the Royals might claim that last wildcard spot, that they couldn't be addressing these stadium questions.

as far as we know, those conversations continue behind the scenes.

But as we've talked about on this program many times, there's been no public indication of what the progress might be.

Now, speaking of sports, one of college football's most storied rivalries is finally making its long awaited return this week.

For the first time in 14 years, the border war between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri is back.

The Tigers and the Jayhawks will meet in an official football matchup in Columbia on Saturday.

Now, it's easy to point out the tensions and rivalries between the two states, but there's never any place where that long held animosity is thawing.

Or are we about to launch the biggest border war of all, a Kansas raid on Missouri sports stadiums?

Chris, it's you know what?

It's who we are.

It's been like that.

It's not going to change.

It's certainly not going to change in our lifetimes.

The border war, the the the animosity.

If you will.

I don't see that changing.

I was I was at Dick's Sporting Goods that clearance hoodies and my son went to K-State.

They had these K-State ones dirt cheap.

And I was looking at the woman behind me.

I can say, yeah, picking the wrong one.

I ignored her completely.

I wasn't going to give her the energy.

And then she came back and said, well, at least you're not picking Missouri.

Yeah, and I've lived in both states.

Listen, I live for 30 years on the Missouri side, live in Kansas now.

So I don't I don't have a I don't have one.

I'm a dog in this one.

But it's who we are, you know.

Yeah, it is who we are.

It's been a cycle.

We did cooperate on various things.

We cooperated on Union Station, we collaborated on the World Cup bid.

But there's always been a cycle and there's always been a, an effort to, to raid the border and steal those businesses across.

You know, when you talk about the Union Station, next year will be 30 years since that what we called the Bi-State vote here in Kansas City.

It's hard to believe it's been three decades, but is it conceivable that Kansas and Missouri could vote again on a bi state tax for something of a collective, asset for our community?

Wow.

That's that's a really hard question.

that's why you're the leader of the Know Kansas City style.

Oh my goodness.

I at this moment, I cannot think of something.

if we're if we're not going to come together over our beloved sports teams, if we're not going to come together over that, then what?

Could we come together over?

How about busses?

They said they can't fund the busses, which is kind of remarkable for the city of the size.

They say that needs regional funding for a bus tax be a potential, two.

It might be, but it would not be a bi state tax, which is limited to only to certain things that you can do with it, including a streetcar expansion on the Kansas.

But you could but you couldn't use the bi state tax as the mechanism to pay for it.

That's not prohibited under the law.

you can do it for sports stadiums, and that law still exists.

You can use it for the arts.

And remember, that was on the ballot by state, too.

It failed.

It failed in Johnson County.

It failed in large part because there were kind of because there were concerns about the, where the money would go for the arts programs.

I don't think it's inconceivable that, the metro area could work together on some initiative, including busses, in the future, if the Chiefs, Royals or both go to Kansas, the that will set back relations for decades.

and by the way, if you're Mike Kehoe and you lose both the Chiefs and the Royals and you crack Jackson County with the House map, you you might consider not coming to Kansas for the in your in your 30,000ft view like Chris Katz had earlier.

can you visualize anything, any combination that might work as a bi state issue that voters on both sides of state line would say, you know what?

We will support that.

You know, I agree with Dave, that I think transportation is is the kind of, thing that might support it, but I but of course, there are the limitations of the tax, I think, addressing common problems that are recognized across state lines.

Maybe maybe it's affordable housing, maybe it's, transportation.

I think those are the areas where there's the potential for cooperation, but we're sort of living in an anti-tax mood in general.

So the the thought of a tax passing on either side of the state line is a heavy lift passing on both over something that that everyone agrees is necessary seems even less.

Well, then mass transit is a hard sell.

It's a tough sell, particularly in downtown.

Back in, I would think it would need to be.

Not that I'm hoping for anything like this, but it would need to be something catastrophic.

It would need to be something that would happen that would affect both states.

That had to be taken care of.

Maybe it's again, I want to say what it could be, but, you know, but maybe it's it's highway related.

Maybe it's something like that, but would have to be a catastrophic thing.

I found the catastrophic thing for you.

It is the former Mission Mall site on Shawnee Mission crossing the, longest, a hole in the ground in the entire metropolitan area.

It is now an emergency status event.

Let's let's work on that.

Perhaps.

Perhaps it's the chiefs of the royals moving there now.

The number of cities that President Trump is now threatening to send federal forces has now grown.

In addition to fighting crime in Chicago and Baltimore, the president is now publicly adding New Orleans to the list.

We talked about this last week that it was just a philosophical question.

Now, the push seems to be officially on.

Is Kansas City next on the list, after all, proportionate to population.

We actually, had a higher number of violent crimes than Chicago.

I don't know that Kansas City is next on the list, but you have to believe that Kansas City is on the list, that's for sure.

I think this is also to I think it is still has to be demonstrated to me that having National Guard troops on the streets of Washington, DC, has made that much of a tangible positive difference.

But I do think that the appearance of that probably for a lot of people, makes them feel a little bit safer, even though there's nothing to prove.

Well, that is actually there's a CBS report I saw this week.

We actually have an excerpt here, which actually looks this was some of the reaction from people in Washington since Trump's takeover of some of the crime forces there.

Our neighborhood has been the target of a lot of crime.

Like, we know a lot of people who, you know, personally undergone violent carjacking muggings.

I enjoy having extra security.

I think it's a good thing.

I mean, you want to feel safe when you're out and about, especially females.

So some people see a benefit in that.

you know, we talked about this, earlier at the star.

And the question is, because our police are not locally controlled.

you know, again, what would Trump believe is the problem here?

You know, he's he I guess the question is, why is he doing it?

And is he doing it just for safety, or is he doing it for other reasons?

If we don't have an issue with, with democratic control, let's just say over our, our police department and crime issues here, then what's the problem?

Even even earlier this year, there were some Brookside residents, on a Fox four news report that claimed that they wanted they wanted the National Guard troops on the on the streets during this crime wave.

We're experiencing a very small number of Brookside residents.

Sounds good about it on Facebook, but I but I will say that the an important distinction between Chicago, and and Kansas City or between, Baltimore and Kansas City is that those are blue cities.

But in, in blue states, you were not faced with the prospect of a Republican governor having to, watch as their National Guard troops were were federalized and taken under the control of Washington.

I that is a more significant step.

I'm not saying it's one that the Trump administration wouldn't take, but what I think we're seeing in is, as much as we're seeing an effort to control violent crime, is an effort to test the boundaries and to see how far the Trump administration's authority can be expressed at a local level.

And I think we'll see how it goes with Washington.

We'll see how it goes with Chicago and Baltimore.

And that will probably determine what happens in Kansas City and a lot of other places.

You know, I'm from Chicago and I still have family there.

And yes, the crime, of course, you know, when I lived there was a long time ago.

But crime certainly has been an issue.

But I the people that I talk to do have concerns about, National Guard coming in.

it's for the people that we heard, just a minute ago.

Yes.

They may believe that it feels more safe, but is there any kind of lack of, your own personal, ability to be out and about and do things?

I mean, I think that I think that people are feeling like, okay, this is the first step.

What comes after that?

Well, we are actually going to see that regardless next year, aren't we?

We're going to have the World Cup here in town.

That requires a massive security presence, likely the national Guard will be on our streets then, including police officers from places all around the country that are going to be coming to Kansas City to help secure that event, and that in enormous cost, certainly.

And where that money is going to come from is still, a subject of some question even now.

And I will say we're now nine months away from that world Cup, and it's all coming up much faster than we might have, thought.

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 at Children's Mercy Park this week for slain Kansas City, Kansas, police officer Hunter Simon sick a wave of new local layoffs at Oracle three years after the company snapped up Hometown Shooter.

The company moved its headquarters to Nashville last year.

If you go visit is coming to town, next week won't be the time to show them our street.

Call it shutting down for a week, just ahead of its planned expansion down to the Country Club Plaza and President Trump got the first ticket to the World Cup.

Now you can get yours.

You can enter the lottery for single game tickets to every one of the matches starting Wednesday on the FIFA website already.

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

I picked one and I and I have to go with our, our, law enforcement officers, being slain in the line of duty.

It's just it's incredibly sad.

And the reaction, as you can see, was definitely, in response to that, Dave the Johnson County Commission has approved a budget for the next fiscal year that increases spending above the rate of inflation, even though the mill levy remains the same, in part because valuations have gone up so much in the county.

Property tax relief in Kansas and Missouri remains an extraordinarily explosive issue for homeowners and businesses.

Both legislatures will have to take a run next year.

It's some way of adjusting, higher appraisals because the value of homes have gone up recently.

Recalling the Jackson County executive over the property tax issue.

But at least in part one, no question.

In Wyandotte County, of course, it's the major issue in the unified government race.

How come taxes are going up so much, in Wyandotte County?

So, it is a universal concern in both states and must be addressed by the next two legislatures in both states.

Chris, the Oracle layoffs, we all knew this was going to happen when Cerner was taken over years ago.

And I can't help but think of the kind of city support that, Cerner Oracle was offered, for projects in town.

And I think it highlights also the risks that governments take when they enter into packages like this.

And not long ago, of course, Cerner was the number one largest private employer in Kansas City.

Bryan.

And speaking of governments, entering into tax incentive packages a story.

I can't believe we missed Nick because we've talked about it on this program a great deal.

The Bucky's in Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County.

it it's going to be delayed in its opening.

It's not going to open till the fall of 2027.

You'll have to wait for your 120 gas pumps and your, hundreds of new jobs in that.

Perhaps that was the crisis we were looking for earlier on that by state taxes.

We could, if with public support, we could actually bring that to fruition much earlier in time for the World Cup.

If we all got come together, you could attach it to a football stadium.

I don't, I'm not.

We will say how we can.

Speed revealed courtesy of the stars.

If Walker and from the Yankees to Channel nine on the South side here in C all news Brian Ellison that news icon Dave Helling.

Before we leave you a reminder of a big event we're hosting with the Kansas City Library of History making proportions ahead of the big Frank white recall vote, we're inviting you to join us at the Plaza Library for a frank decision.

The pros cons impact on consequences of a recall election.

We have a seat just for you.

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

You can secure your seat by RSVP at KC library.org/events.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.