If you haven't already noticed, immigration has become one of the nation's most potent issues this election year.

It's also upending our local politics this week.

It's absolutely insane what they're proposing in Kansas City, basically becoming a sanctuary city, if you will, for illegal immigrants.

Is it the week of the migrant welcome or migrant walk back?

Plus, making way for Kansas City's newest entertainment district.

And they're dropping like flies.

A Kansas congressman, the latest to call it quits.

We have time to talk trash and lift up the hood on the rest of the week's big local news stories.

Straight ahead, Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, R.S.

Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley's Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, N.A.

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Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines.

And thank you for joining us on our weekly journey through the week's most impactful, confusing and befuddling local news stories.

Hopping on board the Week in Review Bus this week from KMBC nine News reporter Matt Evans tracking our region's biggest political stories for KC One news Brian Ellison at the helm of our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC Eric Wesson and Channel Nine chief political analyst Michael Mahoney.

Now, if you haven't already noticed, immigration is becoming one of the nation's most potent issues this election year.

It's also increasingly upending local politics on City Hall's agenda this week, a resolution affirming that Kansas City will not become a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.

It comes just days after my Quinton Lucas offered to bring migrants from New York City to work here.

The backlash has been swift.

Over the weekend, the presiding commissioners of Clay and Platte counties called on Lucas to withdraw his offer.

The Missouri attorney general says he'll be watching Kansas City to see if state laws are being broken.

Now, the lieutenant governor also speaking out.

It's absolutely insane what they're proposing in Kansas City, basically becoming a sanctuary city, if you will, for illegal immigrants.

Now, Mayor Lucas has since tried to clarify his statements, claiming he wasn't throwing out the welcome mat to migrants.

All but the only those with lawful work permits and those lawful ability to actually come to our community.

But this is clarification.

Come too late.

Matt Evans, you were there at the hearing this week.

What happened?

Did Kansas City welcome or walk back its commitment to migrants?

There was no walk back from Mayor Lucas at all.

In fact, he maybe doubled down even on his statements because he says his statements in the first place were never welcoming people that were undocumented or illegal.

We have all these words and we put them in a basket.

Right.

And he said in that Bloomberg interview that he would welcome people who are legal to work in Kansas City, which is already happening.

That was a very tense moment in that city council meeting over this resolution that didn't have a whole lot of weight behind it.

So they killed the measure.

They did.

And so is that the end of it as far as city hall is concerned?

It is for now.

They could always try again.

Phil Bryant, You know, we also had lawmakers threatening, you know, pulling funding from from the state towards going to Kansas City.

Did any of that happen?

Well, the threat has been made.

Just this week, the Senate Appropriations Committee considering the budget, attached amendments to almost every budget bill, saying that if Kansas City proceeds to be a sanctuary city in violation of state law, they will lose state funding.

And in fact, they'll have to pay back state funding with interest.

But here's the reality, Nick.

Kansas City is not a sanctuary city.

Nothing the mayor said suggested it would be a sanctuary city.

It's notable that the attorney general, Andrew Bailey, is running for reelection.

Lieutenant Governor Mike Lee, who you just showed, is running for election.

And it's an election year for all those state senators, too.

So I think I think there might be something more going on than an honest debate about immigration and the role of Kansas.

I will say, though, I can see why politically, yes, it is an election year, why they will get all over this issue and against the mayor.

However, wasn't he playing politics with this, too, Eric?

I mean, he is an attorney who understands the importance of precise language, and yet he was a little vague when he spoke to Bloomberg News.

He was speaking to a national audience when he started speaking.

Shouldn't he have not have been surprised by the backlash that followed riling people up on an issue that was already polarizing America?

And you have to look at what was his ultimate goal and what was his agenda in doing it.

Was it to be called to Washington, D.C. Friday to take over some department or was it a legitimate concern?

The concern that most people have about it is tomato, tomato.

Where are we talking about illegal immigrants?

Are we talking about migrants?

What exactly are we talking about?

And for people in the black communities like.

So you're inviting them to come here to take our jobs, are you?

What are you actually trying to do here?

And I think that was one of the things that was most disturbing to people about it.

And not only that, the city council put aside $1,000,000 for immigrants to come in and have hotel rooms.

You can't put people that you have in housing now.

So why would you invite some other people to come in and that you can't house as well?

And then reparations.

You only gave 300,000 and that was a wrestling match to get that for reparations.

But you got $1,000,000 in your left pocket that you can do for immigrants was while the mayor may not be guilty currently of breaking any state laws, could he be charged, though, with poking the bear by polarizing, getting involved in a polarizing issue, which he knew must create a lot of aggravation and animosity and anger in Kansas City?

I mean, he's got a lot of other things on his plate from the stadiums to homicides.

Why get involved in this issue in the first place?

It's a good question, but I don't think the bear poking was exclusive to Mayor Lucas.

I think some of that was being done down in Jefferson City and by, as we discussed earlier, folks that I have have a political agenda because they're running for office this year.

But to Eric's point, and what was also said said here, Missouri does not allow Kansas City to be a sanctuary city.

The the threat of the fines, I think, is is a bit more the window dressing.

But, you know why?

Why borrow trouble?

I think one of the things, though, to think about is that one person's poking the bear or causing political division is another person's starting an important conversation about a topic that matters.

I think it's not new for Mayor Lucas to believe that cities and how they deal with immigration is an issue that should be talked about.

And that's why those issues are already before the city Council, why the creation of the the officers to deal with immigrants in the community.

I don't think this is completely new.

Maybe he knew what he was doing.

Maybe he was trying to stir something.

But but I don't think he's really broken a whole lot of new ground with his comments.

It's the political reaction that's new.

And I will say, though, Matt, what surprised me, given how polarizing the issue of immigration is all across the country, I was expecting city hall at that hearing to be absolutely jam packed.

But when we saw the video, it was a pretty empty chamber.

Yeah, but there were people that were very vocal in that chamber.

Seven people testified in favor of this resolution, which would affirm Kansas City would not become sanctuary city.

And we even saw as the council committee was trying to have debate people in the audience try to disrupt that debate.

And in fact, Mayor Lucas, even at one point threatened to shut the whole thing down, clear the chamber if you can't let people on the council talk.

So it did get really heated there over this resolution.

And ultimately the people there who were there to testify left disappointed.

But that resolution, as the mayor mentioned, didn't really do a whole lot.

Right.

So the reason that he wanted to lay it aside off docket is because he said that we're not breaking the law.

We don't need to pass a resolution every time we don't break a law.

So this is this is not needed.

But one of the things that I kind of thought about in the back of my mind and one of my colleagues, one of my readers, Kyle, and said, well, if it was if it wasn't an agenda associated with it, why didn't he just call the mayor of New York and the mayor of Denver and talk to them off line rather than run to the press with a story?

Then he knows that's going to make national headlines because it's dealing with and he wasn't speaking to the Kansas City Star or Casey Wian, KMBC.

He was talking to Bloomberg News in New York City.

He was looking for that big audience.

By the way, in addition to that migrant question City hall was set to take up red light cameras this week.

Remember them?

More than a decade after Kansas City suspended the camera program over legal concerns, City Hall has finally found a workaround thanks to new facial recognition technology, MEC Lucas says the cameras are needed to help combat a wave of traffic fatalities.

But the measure was stripped from the agenda at the last moment.

What happened back?

Did the Mayor have a change of heart on that?

I think he wants to see what happens in Saint Louis too.

So we saw the board of Aldermen in Saint Louis passed these new red light cameras.

Right.

The mayor has not yet approved it to go officially into implementation yet.

So I think maybe Mayor Lucas wants to see what happens in Saint Louis.

There needs to be a lot more groundwork as well to what these cameras are going to be like.

If you read the ordinance, it includes things like artificial intelligence.

Yeah.

As you remember, the thing with the red lights before it would capture the plate but not the person.

There's all sorts of civil rights questions in these.

So I think that Mayor Lucas wants to find a solution to what we have seen this year, which has been extra extraordinary high traffic fatalities in Kansas City.

But in addition to the safety issue, though, they were bringing in a lot a big chunk of change.

Eric, I think it was $2 million a year with those 29 cameras.

Yes, but he's saying that the money will go back into the red light camera system.

People are driving faster.

You don't have enough police on the street to give people speeding tickets.

But and one of the things that I found interesting was the fatalities in the intersections.

But what happened and what data do they have this say that people that slam on the brakes at the last minute and then somebody runs into the back of them, was there an uptick in those kind because I know 63 in prospect, you would see a lot of that at the corner where people would slam on their brakes and stop and the people behind and run into the back.

But city hall slamming their brakes on it this week, but not the end of that issue either.

Right.

So it was held, but it's still going to be on the docket so they could do whatever.

Also important to note, these are speeding cameras as well, not just red light cameras.

So it's changing technology Now, while many big local issues remain up in the air from what happens to the stadiums to effects to the crime problem, can we remove at least one issue from our to do list as a long simmering dispute over trash finally being resolved?

Missouri lawmakers sent to the governor's desk this week a bill blocking a controversial landfill proposed in south Kansas City.

The bill would give communities within a mile of the proposed landfill the power to veto it.

The current buffer is half a mile, which gives surrounding cities little sway over the project.

Brian, Is that the end of the matter or is this move the landfill debate just someplace else?

Now?

I am sure we will be having this debate again.

I think one of the things that this whole kerfuffle illustrates, Nick, is that that the ongoing debate over what should be the role between state government and local governments continues in Missouri.

And here is a case where lawmakers largely from outside Kansas City, approved a law that dealt pretty exclusively on where Kansas City could put its landfill.

Now, in this case, it's to the benefit or the desires of some of the surrounding municipalities, But still, the local control question comes up again.

Now, what do you think about schools going to a four day week?

Independence is currently the largest school district in our area, giving staff and students Mondays off in an effort to help retain and recruit teachers.

But could school leaders be forced to abandon the scheduling experiment as part of a bill sitting on Governor Mike Parson's desk this week?

If Parson signs the measure into law, school districts would need advance approval from voters to shrink down to a four day week that includes districts like independence that have already made the change.

If it was up to voters in the first place, Eric, would it have passed in independence and independence?

I believe it would have due to the teacher shortage.

And independence is kind of a different part of the state of Missouri, and I believe that they support their school district in the decisions that they're making.

And I think it's a pretty good decision so far because I haven't heard a lot of pushback about the way that the programs run.

And it seems to be running pretty slow.

If it was working so well, why aren't we seeing all these other school districts in our area putting their hands up and saying, let's do that, too, because it's just the first year and then letting them be the crash dummy?

Okay.

Yeah.

Michael I think if it goes to a vote in the various school districts around the state, it would have difficulty passing because there are a lot of working parents and it's, you know, Mondays and Fridays, those are still work days for a lot of folks and there's a burden to find childcare for it.

Now, Governor Mike Parson is going to be busy over the next few days saying lots of bills from killing that Kansas City landfill, requiring elections for full days, school weeks, and a headline grabbing bill to strip Planned Parenthood of all funding.

What does that mean?

How much money were they getting?

And is this enough to force Planned Parenthood to close its doors in Missouri?

It is probably not.

And in fact, Planned Parenthood has issued a statement after that.

That bill was passed that said they intend to continue operating.

But but the reality is that they are providing a great deal of largely Medicaid funded coverage, not abortions for low income folks in Missouri.

The experience of people who need this medical care is going to be affected if this legislation passed.

And all of this against the backdrop of an effort to place an abortion rights amendment on the ballot and they have to collect the signatures in the next week or so to get enough of those to actually place it on the ballot in November.

Yeah, the deadline is May 5th.

Now, just weeks after voters rejected a new ballpark and entertainment district for the Kansas City Royals, another entertainment district is getting ready to break ground, this time on Kansas City's riverfront.

The ownership group behind the KC current Women's soccer team unveiling $800 million ball, restaurant and retail district right next to that new stadium.

Its backers claim it'll be a world class destination on par with the best waterfront redevelopment projects anywhere in the country.

If there were concerns that a planned royal's entertainment district would put the power in Lake District, what does this do, Matt?

Well, I think they're targeting maybe different demographics, right?

So the people that you might see at a power and light district might not be the same folks you see at a riverfront district.

So where the power light district, very bar heavy.

Right.

We're going to see retail, you're going to see apartments, you're going to see a whole host of different things down to that riverfront area.

So I think maybe they're hoping that it's far enough away a little bit different that it won't be stealing people necessarily from other.

We just came from an election where people are many voters were upset about the idea of giving tax breaks or giving tax funding to billionaire owners.

The KC Current has some very wealthy folks who are part of the ownership group, including Patrick Mahomes, his wife.

Will the public be expected to actually pay for this or is this strictly private funded?

It's mostly private funding now.

It is not 100% private funding.

So the way this is going to work and there will be an election very soon to create what's called a PID port improvement district that's likely going to come up in June, where people who live in the riverfront right now will vote on it.

That would include sales tax that would accrue include property taxes as well to fund what will be the public parts of this of this thing about the sidewalks.

You're you're thinking about the public meeting areas, that sort of thing.

So there will be some public dollars in this.

Exactly how much?

We're still not sure.

There are also some tax incentives in that port improvement district.

But as far as dollars going directly into things like those apartments, it doesn't seem like there's going to be a ton, at least upfront.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the big difference between this and the controversy around the stadium downtown is that nothing's being demolished, or at least not very much is being demolished for this development.

They're building on grass, they're building on empty space that has been sitting there unutilized.

I think this is going to be a pretty popular plan.

And and even it's interesting, the voting by the port, the port district, that's such a there's the population of that district is very small right now.

That's right.

So I think it's likely to pass.

I did like, though, some of the comments I saw on the story and that was, Oh, where do you park?

Which is the classic story which we also had with the Royals ballpark.

Right.

They are planning parking structures.

Okay.

However, big asterisk next to that.

They don't want people to park there.

They want this to be a walkable district.

They're going to have the streetcar coming through soon.

There's going to be public transit available to go down there.

So what what people the Port Authority and the current told me on Monday was we don't necessarily want a ton of people parking down here.

This is not going to be like the plaza.

It's going to be a plaza that's more geared toward pedestrians.

And now over on the other side of state line this week, another big project opening its doors on the site of the ill fated QE2, the Bond water park in Kansas City, Kansas.

It is now a mecca for youth sports.

The indoor sports arena called Home Field is funded by local incentives and state style bonds.

The same funding source, by the way, Kansas would use to bring the Royals or Chiefs over to Kansas.

But hold the front page.

Governor Laura Kelly now making it official.

She has made it clear she has no plans to try to recruit the teams to Kansas, claiming it's in the best interest to stay where they are.

Is that the best news?

Michael Mahoney, The mayor, Quinton Lucas, and Jackson County executive Frank White got this week.

It's one of those will see because there are still efforts underway in the legislature, which is now back in session for the veto session to put together a package to present to the chiefs.

And sometimes they're talking about western Wyandotte County and talking specifically about the chiefs that that that's the target of that.

But will we'll see the idea of of something related to the chiefs in western Wyandotte County is not completely off the table.

I don't think it's got a road to hoe here but Kansas has got a healthy rainy day fund.

They've got a huge budget surplus and they've got a little bit of money in there in their gaming fund for stadiums.

We'll see where it goes.

But the fact that the governor is saying he's saying I'm not going to be pushing this is is consequential.

But three weeks after the failed stadium vote, are we any the wiser as we sit here today as to what happens next?

No, not really.

It's my understanding that the Chiefs will be here through the World Cup and after that, all bets are off.

And I think they just gave Andy Reid and the management team kind tracks that will expire in 2030 when their lease expires.

So I don't think there's no concrete evidence that they're going to stay.

Yeah, I think I think if Kansas is going to make a play for the Chiefs or the Royals, that's going to happen closer to the end of their lease at the Truman Sports complex, which is after Governor Laura Kelly has left office, I think the likelihood of the chiefs staying at the sports complex at Arrowhead is much higher than whatever happens with the royals, much higher.

Now, what's that big line forming in Kansas?

It's all those men and women who looked in the mirror this week and saw the state's newest member of Congress looking back at them.

It follows a stunning announcement from Republican Congressman Jacob Turner, who after just two terms in Washington, is calling it quits, claiming Congress has taken a toll.

In a new statement, La Turner, who represents most of eastern Kansas, including big parts of Wyandotte County, says he now wants to spend more time with his family, look for lots of big names to declare their interest in the race this week.

Among them, former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who lost to Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor's race.

But Michael is Latina at just 36, a little too young to be so jaded with Washington.

Is there more to the story as to why he's leaving?

Yeah, there's more to the story.

Being a congressman used to be a pretty cushy job.

It now is sort of dreadful work if you're anything other than an absolute rock solid Democrat or Republican, for instance, somebody like Lynn Turner is on a plane twice a week to and fro from Washington.

When he gets in Washington, he's part of a very divided government.

Democrats and Republicans don't socialize with one another, and Democrats and Republicans who are members of Congress often have to trek over to the Republican headquarters or the Democratic headquarters in D.C., sit in a little cubicle for hours on end, dialing for dollars, literally dialing for four for money.

So so the idea of being a member of Congress, while it's distinctive and has this distinction, is not a fun job right now.

And that and so I, I take him at his word that, you know, he's got a young family.

He would like to see them grow up.

What I find interesting about this story is that he did it so late.

I mean, we're going to be voting in in August, probably just a few months.

I mean, it doesn't give much chance for other people to get involved.

And if you're going to do it that late and if it's such a miserable job, Eric should we be worried?

Emanuel Cleaver will say, you know, I've had enough, shall we say, David?

Sam Graves perhaps.

You know, I know that Congressman Cleaver is hanging in there because he believes that he's doing things to help the district, but he, too, does, flying back and forth.

And he's a little bit different because he'll have to fly back and do a funeral for one of his church members or somebody that's prominent in the community and then fly back.

And, you know, Congress is an absolute circus.

So I don't blame him at all for why he was the 51st member of Congress in the House and Senate to say, you know, I'm not going to run for reelection this year.

Right.

I mean, I agree with Michael that it's not a fun job anymore.

And if you think it's not fun to be part of the divided Republican majority in the House, the very real possibility that he would become part of a Republican minority in the House is probably enough to drive him out completely.

Are there only tips as to who may now get in this race?

Like just just this today, the Derek Schmidt who ran for governor in Kansas against Delores Kelley, Laura Kelly and lost that race, announced that he is going to seek the Republican nomination for that seat with his name ID with his ability to raise money.

I suspect that he may be projected as the front runner for this race, but there are going to be others that take a hard look at it as well, because open seats to Congress don't come up that often.

Now, 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?

Kansas lawmakers returned to Topeka for the veto session.

At stake, most of their work over the last 90 days as Governor, Kelly takes her veto pen to most of their work.

The chiefs make Andy Reid the NFL's highest paid coach.

And what about all that talk of retirement?

Reid extending his contract to 2029 notorious pharmacy killer Robert Courtney to be released.

He will serve the remainder of his sentence.

And a home confinement.

Patrick Mahomes lands on the cover of Time magazine in its 100 Most Influential People of 2024 edition.

For all those wanting the sports star to weigh in on everything from guns to politics, he's keeping out of it, too, telling the magazine it's not his place to tell us.

And change in the air at Arrowhead Stadium.

The seats already being taken out to prepare for the world Cup in 2026 already.

Matt Evans, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Yeah, I think it is interesting because we are really close to the world Cup.

We're closer than a lot of people realize.

Part of that current development, they want to have it done the first phase by 2026.

That is extremely aggressive construction schedule on top of several other projects that also want to be done by the World Cup.

We still have to work through hotels.

Transportation A lot is on the to do list and we are running out of time, but it always seems so far away and it's really around the corner.

It is absolutely great.

Brian The initiative petition bill that was that we've been talking about many times on the program, passing the House, but with the so-called ballot Candy, with the language that makes voters think they're voting on whether only citizens can vote in elections when that's already the case, that is what pass that's different than what the Senate has already passed.

It's going to go back to the Senate the last weeks of session.

As we know, the last few years have been a bit of a circus.

It is possible that this one might not make the ballot.

We'll have to wait and see.

Eric Seven homicides of youth under the age of 17.

And where is the chief of police to step forward and assure the public that her staff and her officers are working diligently toward getting those things solved and making the community safer?

In light of those huge raises, they are received, we keep talking about this.

This is an ongoing issue, constant on this program.

But do you see any fix?

Yeah, I do.

I see a fix being leadership within the police department, within the city council and peoples in a neighborhood, their community in the households, those people standing up, being parents and taking care of what's going on in their communities.

Mychal Bell, Laura Kelly.

Veto of the tax bill this week is a bold move, especially considering the fact that it was 119 to nothing in the House and it was veto proof in the Senate.

I look for one of the early things in this veto session to be a serious effort to override her veto.

That's why we didn't talk a lot about it on the program this week, because it's all happening this weekend and will continue through the beginning of next week.

We'll track that again next week.

And on that, we will say a week has been reviewed courtesy of KMBC nine News reporter Matt Evans and Eric Wesson.

From next page, KC Channel nine political analyst Michael Mahoney.

And from KC ONE news Brian Ellison.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.