After last week's special on book bands and cancel culture.

We are back in the studio with our reporters.

Get ready for a fast paced journey through the week's most impactful, confusing and befuddling local news stories.

Weekend Review is straight ahead.

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Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

There is so much going on in the city we call home.

We can easily fill it out at this hour, but in less time than it takes to deliver a pizza.

We're going to bring you as many stories as we can from both sides of state line.

Rolling up their sleeves to dissect the week's headlines, KMBC nine chief political analyst Michael Mahoney from KCMO Talk Radio, Pete Mundo, always on Call with the Kansas City Call newspaper, Eric Wesson, and from our local NPR affiliate KCUR news director Lisa Rodriguez.

Lisa, by the way, I did see that NPR became the first major news organization to abandon Twitter after being slapped with the label of state affiliated media, something that goes to Chinese and Russian broadcasters.

What about Casey?

While we all want to know, are you still on Twitter?

I am still on Twitter.

Lisa Rodriguez is still on Twitter.

Anyone who works at KCRW is welcome to do on Twitter what they like.

It's not for me to decide it.

My life does not revolve around Twitter.

And do I agree with decisions that the company's been making or that label for NPR?

No.

And scores of listeners say they're never going to tune in ever again because of that label.

Crickets.

Okay.

All righty.

Well, there are the easy headlines that we can discuss on this program, like teen violence causing changes to who can now go to worlds of fun.

And then there are those tougher stories, including what could be one of the most contentious issues in Kansas City over the next year.

This Wednesday was the deadline for the city to form a new May oral reparations commission to compensate black Kansas City and for slavery and the historic enforcement of segregation.

Yet the deadline for forming that commission passed this week with not a word.

What happened, Eric?

Has the issue simply become too much of a hot potato?

Well, the mayor was supposed to appoint a commission, but for some reason it got delayed.

It could have been that they didn't figure in the spring break and that gave him an extra week.

But it is going to be difficult to appoint that commission in finding people that can put personal feelings aside just to decide what's in the best interests of not only the citizens of Kansas City, but those who have suffered as a result of discrimination.

You think this would be a huge deal, Pete, but I've been at the least four city council forums for this upcoming election I hosted.

Many of them never heard one word about reparations.

Is this considered a little bit too contentious an issue to talk before the election?

Well, I think the people in charge want to kind of do this without a ton of fanfare and attention.

That's part of it.

The mayor said on my show Thursday that he technically has another week or so to officially name this commission, and he does not want a commission of individuals who want to do what San Francisco's reparations commission put out there, which was, you know, $5 million checks to people.

So that's got to be a hard group to try to find a reasonable group of people trying to put something together.

And apparently he's still searching.

I think even after, though, the forming of a commission, they've got a year to come up with recommendations and it doesn't have to be actually giving money to people.

It doesn't I mean, some some municipalities have gone that option, too, to cut checks for people.

Some have said let's put it toward housing if people want to if if wealth is generated by homeownership and land ownership, then maybe you put it towards that, making it easier to to buy a home.

I think all of these options are under consideration in Kansas City.

Obviously, we have no idea what anyone's thinking because we don't know who's on the commission.

I'd be surprised if if Kansas City were to go the route of cutting direct checks.

But but there are lots of different ways to go about reparations, and there's not a lot of agreement on what is the right way and what is enough.

And that's actually what Evanston, Illinois, which was the first city in America to provide public public help to those who are considered victims of slavery.

$20,000 for home repairs, for a down payment on a house paid for out of a marijuana local sales tax.

But, Michael, my issue is I'm thinking of we have in Kansas, in Missouri right now, lawmakers trying to block universal TS, for instance, and, you know, having any diversity statements.

Can you imagine lawmakers in Missouri now saying we're going to block cities from providing reparations to their black residents?

Yes, I can.

I can see moves in both Kansas and Missouri, Missouri in particular, to do that in the few comments that the mayor has made kind of reference like Lisa was talking about, it's mayors.

They indicated it would be reparations and of an investment nature rather than cutting somebody a check.

I think it would be some pushback if he tried to do it that way, because we hear these things about investment in communities.

And then when you look through all of the red tape and the paperwork, there hasn't been has been money pinched off here that went there that was supposed to go there and those kind of things.

And you can only point to PIAC and how the park system is run.

So I think he would have some pushback if he said, well, we're going to invest more money in the black community.

She's been on the job now for three months.

But what has the new Kansas City police chief, Stacy Graves, actually done?

Did she make her biggest decision this week after public backlash?

She has announced the department is relaunching its missing persons unit, which was disbanded last year by her predecessor, Mike Rex Smith, rather, who said he needed the detectives to work on explosion of new homicide cases.

But it was a decision that caused division in the black community where there have been long standing complaints.

The police have been insufficiently responsive to families who report missing relatives.

In fact, just last month, the KC did not alert the public about two missing black teenage is both later found dead.

Is this the most visible move yet from New Kansas City Police Chief Stacy Graves?

I think it very well may be.

I think if if Chief Graves wants to demonstrate, wants to rebuild trust with community, something that we know is well-established, has been lost, then then she needs to show that the department is listening to the community and then taking action and responding.

So at least on a symbolic level, I do think it is a huge, huge step for Chief Graves.

What does this do, though, to homicide rates, Eric?

If you're taking eight or seven detectives and a supervisor, many of them are already working those homicide cases.

And as we sit around this table right now, we are now on track to have the most deadliest year in Kansas City history when it comes to two murders.

Isn't that just going to make that more difficult.

Then to make that more difficult?

And that'll still affect the black community because that's where most of your homicides are taking place.

I had a lady call me this week in tears because she's still trying to find out who killed her son two years ago.

And if the police department are talking about there, don't have enough manpower for things that need to be done, how do you justify taking that many officers out and where do you get them from?

And how do you recruit other detectives and other officers to go in and look at these unsolved homicides?

What was the Matt Lucas, his response to crime this week?

He is coasting to reelection.

Kate Chastain just got 20% against him in the recent election.

Is did he make that a priority?

It looks like he's acknowledged it.

I mean, this is a mayor who promised to get homicides under 100 and on his watch, you've had a record setting numbers, so he's acknowledged it.

It's not going to impact his ability to get reelected.

But the broader point here remains the fact whether you move eight from here to there, you've got a department that's down 3 to 400 cops and they've got to fill those roles.

It's very difficult to hire for a retail clerk right now, Never mind a job that's not paying a lot that you put in your life on the line for.

So that's the broader problem.

And this is kind of shifting things around and we'll see what difference it makes.

There was another interesting twist to the crime issue this week is Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters.

Baker acknowledged that due to crowding at the jail, judges are now releasing some accused felons because there are simply no beds available.

Meanwhile, seven months after groundbreaking on a new jail to solve that problem, Jackson County has put the project on hold amid soaring construction costs.

The Kansas City Star report claims the county executive Frank White, wants to now revisit the design and build something smaller because the county doesn't have the money.

The new airport got built on budget and actually ahead of time.

What's gone so terribly wrong here, Eric.

The cost of materials and the delay and in which they have been going through the process and not locking in the people at the airport edge more, they locked in their construction material costs.

At the beginning, they didn't do that at the county, so maybe they should have brought age more in or Clark to come in and negotiate the contract for those with the jail.

But building a smaller jail is not going to solve your problem.

It would be cheaper, but you still have people out.

To you buy that too?

Pete I do to a degree, but what I find interesting is, you know, I asked the mayor about this on Thursday, and he alluded to the fact that he'd be willing to work with the county on a jail.

He's waiting for a phone call.

So it seems like everyone's kind of pointing fingers, saying, you're responsible, you're responsible, you call me, you call me.

Well, you know, we're sitting here now with a project that's being delayed months.

We're also looking at Jackson County, where property appraisals have gone up 30%.

Could what would those voters think if they were asked to to pony up a little bit more money to make this jail work?

Michael?

I don't think it would fly with the voters right now.

Jackson County voters in particular are still still stinging and sore about the property appraisal process from a few years ago.

Any sort of property tax increase like this would be a hard sell to the voters and there would be a great deal of frustration because this this work over a new county jail has been on a merry go round for a couple of years now, and this only adds to the complications of it.

And remember, the city has to build the jail.

They can keep exporting people to smaller places in Missouri and around this area.

They can't keep doing that.

So they're going to have to build a jail cell to Pete's point, the mayor needs to pick up the phone and call somebody as well instead of waiting for a phone call because he's going to build a jail.

And I mean a name.

And look at is Troy Solti, who of course, was the city manager and now the county administrator.

He knows both parties very well and could help solve this.

Prepare to bring your patience if you commute downtown.

The NFL draft is still two weeks away, but prep work on the huge event is already causing traffic headaches.

A more than mile long stretch of Main Street has now been shut down in both directions from roughly the Federal Reserve Bank to 20th Street in the crossroads.

Several side streets along the route have also been closed, including the Connector road in front of Union Station.

A massive stage is now going up right outside the building.

And in another sign of the disruption to come, Kansas City public schools have decided to cancel in-person classes while the draft is in town.

Is traffic lights really going to be that bad?

We have to cancel school.

I mean, I think traffic has already been been snarled a bit downtown with all this construction.

But if if these promises that 2 to 300000 people will flood to Kansas City during that weekend, traffic will be a nightmare.

Is that enough to move classes fully online?

The Kansas City public Schools has now pivoted and is able to do that.

And so I don't know really if it's enough to cancel schools, but I do expect it'll be a nightmare.

Perhaps we need to be all going down to our basements, Pete, during this whole period of time, if we don't go into the draft and just you know, you've got working parents in this town who now it's difficult enough raising kids, going to work to work in families or single working parents as well.

And now you've got to figure out what to do with your kids for a couple of days when let's be honest, we're talking about maybe at what, one or two mile square mile radius here that's going to be really impacted.

And the entire school system is shutting down because of this.

I mean, this is not putting the parents, the kids or the families first.

And it's going to inconvenience a lot of people in town.

And there's really been no pushback on it.

But they are going virtual, though, right?

They are going virtual.

And I have no idea why they decided, unless their point is that it would be difficult for school busses to get through that area if they had those routes.

But I don't understand why they're closed either.

But hey, the kids will get an opportunity to be at home.

When it's going to be harder to run busses, it's going to run busses, even the streetcar, the north, not even the Union Station.

Stop that.

That's not going to be running during the whole point of the drop.

What else might be disrupted during those few days coming up starting April 27th?

Michael, I, I personally remain skeptical of whether or not the crowd estimates are going to be what they are.

And to 300,000 people coming to Kansas City for a year, for three days.

We'll see 18th and Vine is getting a makeover.

Yeah, that's one of the things that we can look forward to with the NFL draft their watch windows.

They're doing awnings.

They're painting, trim, sweeping the sidewalk.

I'm loving it.

And just last thing, the superintendent said that this is about student safety.

Let's let's cut the nonsense.

There's nothing about this that as students safety first, kids out of school with now 6 hours on their hands to mess around and try to get down to the draft is much less safe than having them in the classroom.

Where parents might be taking their kids to the NFL experience, too.

That's something that the kids only get to do once in a lifetime.

So they do their virtual work and then the parents and they come down to the NFL experience.

That would be a once in a lifetime thing.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is in the spotlight this week as more transgender restriction bills land on her desk from restricting bathrooms to banning doctors from performing gender affirming medical procedures on minors.

But getting just as much attention is this man.

He is Kansas state lawmaker Marvin Robinson from Wyandotte County, and he's been facing death threats and calls to resign after becoming the lone Democrat to cast his vote to overturn Governor Kelly's veto of a transgender sports ban.

He's been told he's putting the lives of trans kids at risk.

And because of him, trans athletes in Kansas will no longer be eligible to compete in girls all women's sports starting this fall.

One of my.

Colleagues, she told me I should just go.

Die.

You need to be the head.

And I.

Was just sickened because it reminded me when I was on active duty and people used.

To take the noose and put them in my work area.

Now, that's an audio clip from Representative Robinson when he appeared on your program.

Pete, when cultural issues have increasingly been the biggest dividing line between Democrats and Republicans, why did this Democrat decide to buck his party on that?

Well, he thought he was agreeing with Governor Kelly on this issue, interestingly enough, because Laura Kelly was running during a reelection campaign commercials that said, of course, men should not compete against women.

So he voted what he thought was theoretically with Governor Kelly and turns out she was not too happy with him.

A lot of people mentioning the fact that why are Democrats doing this?

But Republicans do the same thing, don't they?

Liz Cheney, for example, is as an example in Washington where when she started speaking out against President Trump and the assault on the Capitol, the effort was made to exile her from the party and strip her of all of her leadership roles.

And that and that happened.

And Kansas Democrats want to do the same thing here with Representative Robinson.

I don't know that they'll they'll do that.

They need every vote they can in the legislature when the Kansas lawmakers return late, late this month.

So we'll see if they follow through on that, on the promise.

But, I mean, you know, this is another example.

You know, we've got a more vivid example down in the state of Tennessee where they threw out a couple of lawmakers who are now who now been reinstated.

But this is not good government by any stretch by anybody.

None of this is healthy government.

Michael's right.

And I think whether it's, you know, the Liz Cheney example or the Marvin Robinson example, there's a lot of grifting, I would say, across the board.

And I think that when people in their own party are willing to stand up against their party instead of throwing them out, you know, debating them on the issues at hand is the proper way to do this.

Some people think that we're looking at the wrong end of the telescope in stories like this one, Lisa, that when we point out about bullying of one lawmaker who was feeling harassed by his some of some of his own colleagues, what about those who are being terrorized every single day because they don't feel comfortable in their own bodies every time they go to school Every day?

Right.

I think I think you're right.

I think there is maybe some some attention that is that is misdirected here, which is that there are a such a small group of people that this type of legislation affects, that that we have spent so much time and so much oxygen debating over in the state house.

And on this issue, I do believe that that Representative Robinson wasn't wasn't fully informed about exactly what this does and instead cast a vote based on reactions from advocates or some sort of emotional reaction to the pushback he was getting from either side.

That's not good lawmaking either.

And so I do think we need to look at the broader picture here.

We need to look at what are actually the actual priorities of citizens across Kansas and not the interests of on on societal on these, you know, social issues that that are coming from, you know, big dark money groups that are funding lawmakers.

And looking at the broader impact, this transgender sports ban in Kansas would go into effect in July one.

But a lot of things can happen before then that were going to be threatened.

Court challenges, that's happening for states that have already had similar laws.

And I see that Joe Biden, the president, is now looking at a federal rule that would use Title nine to expand that sexual discrimination against in schools where you get government funding, that he would try and block it at the federal level.

We'll see how that goes.

There's a lot of pushback.

I'm just amazed why of all the things and I understand this is an important issue to people, but with all the things going on, why this is such a focus on lawmakers, we've got kids getting killed in classrooms.

We've got the price of gas going through the roof again.

And it's like a debate over this.

And we've been talking about this for a year now, maybe even two years.

So can we, you know, lawmakers move on to something that affects everybody?

It's just something that affects a small group of people.

Yeah.

Yeah, but but the answer to that, Erick, is Republicans in Missouri, in Kansas, you know, in a variety of other states, believe this to be a wedge issue, that they can continue to advocate and push forward.

And that is going to be something that they can campaign on in 2024.

There are people all across the board that are that are uncomfortable with this whole debate.

And they think that they found an issue that will work for Republican candidates next year.

And it's not just, of course, in Kansas, Missouri, lawmakers as they were winding down their session looking to pass exactly the same laws with a more favorable governor than in the state of Kansas.

By the way, Missouri lawmakers heading for home next month.

And it looks like one big casualty of that session will be sports betting.

For the sixth year in a row, lawmakers are deadlocked in giving Missourians the right to wager on their favorite sports team.

Kansas lawmakers legalized sports betting last year.

Why is it so difficult for them?

Missouri counterparts to do the same thing, Pete?

Well, you have one in particular, state Senator, but a couple of them, if you want to lump them in this one.

But Denny Hoskins out of Warrensburg is really the guy who's filibustering this and this thing more or less single handedly tied to these video lottery terminals that you'll see in truck stops and some gas stations and whatnot.

And he wants to kind of loop that into the broader issue of sports betting and it's not getting through.

And so he's now filibustered a clean sports betting bill.

And as a result, you know, we're going to be sitting here for another year and Missourians are going to be driving to Kansas to place their bets, then going back to Missouri to smoke their pot.

Now, there is been more agreement, by the way, on another big issue of the session inching towards the governor's desk this week is a measure eliminating the state sales tax on diapers and feminine hygiene products.

Who says lawmakers don't care about your needs, but stop the presses to get the votes necessary to pass.

The measure also wipes out state taxes on the purchase of guns and ammunition.

So is it true that if Governor Mike Parson signs this, Lisa, Missouri will be the only state in the nation that taxes food but not firearms?

I couldn't say for sure whether it's the only state.

What I can say is, is something that we heard in debate on this.

This I mean, too, in order to get the Democrats priorities through the diapers and the feminine hygiene products, they had to give Republicans what they wanted.

But there was one Republican that did vote against this, and he laid out this very blatant example.

Why is someone who's buying food for their family paying more in taxes than someone who's buying guns and ammunition?

It to me, it demonstrates how how out of touch some Republican lawmakers are with the needs of their broader constituents and how focused they are, as we've talked about in other issues on on issues that they think they can campaign on.

Is that because the word guns is included in the Constitution and the word food is not?

P Well, you know, I mean, the word guns get some people excited down there in Jeff City in multiple ways.

So I don't know.

I mean, it's just ridiculous.

Just put a clean bill out there on diapers and, you know, feminine hygiene products and move on.

But as always, politics plays a role.

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?

Wilson Fun Turns into Walls of Chaos.

150 teens kicked out of the park on opening weekend and a sheriff's deputy punched in the face during a mass brawl.

Is she a rabble rousing Republican or plain talking truth teller?

Fresh from a polarizing 60 Minutes interview, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor GREENE in Kansas City this weekend.

She headlines the biggest fundraising event for the Jackson County Republican Party.

New design plans released for the $200 million park slated to be built over downtown's Isaac 70 Highway, even though they still don't have all the cash, the posh still on to have it open.

By the time the World Cup comes to town.

Guess what happened 50 years ago this week?

It's an historic milestone for Kauffman Stadium, though the ballpark now in doubt as the royals pursue a new home downtown.

Welcome to our region's newest attraction, A new museum for famed Kansas aviator Amelia Earhart, now opened in her hometown of Atchison.

And remember those big painted hearts that started popping up all around town last spring?

Well, they're back.

And kickoff event for the Parade of Hearts.

Round two is this weekend at the American Royal Center.

Already Eric Wesson, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I think something completely different that's kind of flown under the radar.

Former City Councilwoman Mary Williams Neal will be laid to rest tomorrow or yeah, tomorrow.

And she was very instrumental in a lot of things that happened in the urban core of Kansas City.

So she'll be sorely missed as well Lisa.

Well, this week we saw another again, another lawsuit from tenants against a big landlord housing provider alleging that their low income housing complex was infested with rats, infested with rodents, with raw sewage, and and that the landlords didn't do anything to fix it.

This is one of the largest providers of low income housing and Section eight housing in Kansas City.

And if this is the state our poorest residents, these are the only options our poorest residents have to live under.

I think we've got to follow every development.

Michael.

I'm going to say the 50th anniversary of the opening a royal stadium to make this point that at the city council, this this past week, there was another ordinance that went through to permit a real estate agent, real estate company, to consolidate some more property on the east side of town, which is one of the more logical spots for a downtown ballpark should they go that way.

You know, when I saw that story, it also got me thinking for the first time about, boy, will there be a Kauffman Stadium if they move downtown, Would they lose that name completely?

I somehow see naming rights coming down the line.

Yeah.

Field.

Holyfield.

Pete Mundo.

Well, no one took worlds of fun, so I'll take that.

Yes.

Someone's got to take it.

What a what a terribly thought out policy.

You're going to have kids under 16 who need a chaperon, but it's only after 4:00.

So if you're in the park beforehand, how are you going to ID?

Who's 16?

Who's not 16?

How many kids per chaperon?

That has not been identified yet.

So there's amazingly more questions than answers out of this new policy.

To this point.

You don't know if the kid, the teenager was in the park at 3:00.

Now, do they have to go and have a chaperon?

Are they going to kick them out?

They'll be hiding in bushes.

That's what.

Is this really different, though, than what we saw at the zoo several years ago or what we see at malls over the years?

No, it's not really any different.

We got parents are dropping their kids off, going, doing whatever it is they're doing.

The kids are out of control.

They know the kids are out of control before they drop them off.

And this is just the consequence of that.

The difference is the pure amount of land, though, that you're going to be dealing with, trying to police at worlds of fun versus the mall and all that.

We will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCUR Lisa Rodriguez and 6 to 10 weekday mornings on KCMO talk radio Pete Mundo from the Call, Eric Wesson and Channel Nine's Michael Mahoney.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.