We start the first full week of a brand new year under a foot of snow.

We have a report card on Kansas City's Snowmageddon, plus a slew of new laws.

Squeak the start of 2025.

We have what you need to know.

And state lawmakers are back and the government says goodbye.

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 Gourle at Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, a co trustees, the Francis Family Foundation through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines.

Glad to have you with us.

On the first week in review of this brand spanking new year, we're tracking the week's top headlines, plus some of the stories you might have missed while fixated on gift giving and celebrating over the holiday.

Our guest this week taken down the tinsel and are ready to roll up their sleeves and make sense of what's been happening.

Lisa Rodriguez is news director, at KCUR News.

Former star, reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling is also on the Weekend Review bus with us this week, alongside Eric Wesson from Next Page KC, and tracking the region's top political stories for KCUR Brian Ellison.

Now, this week we were dealing with the aftermath of storm again, which pretty much shut down the metro from schools to cases airport.

There's been lots of griping on social media about Unplowed streets and in some cases, total unpreparedness in some cities.

But overall, how would Kansas City and grade our city's response to what is being called the biggest snowstorm in a generation?

Eric.

a c a c minus.

Well, how can that be when we have the mayor and the city manager saying they're patting themselves on the back to say this is the best they've ever done?

Yeah.

And I, you know, I always wonder about, you know, what measuring stick that they used to come up with those things.

This morning I spent 20 minutes on my street.

I couldn't go up the hill or back down the hill until I dug my truck out.

So, you know, some of the things, the main thoroughfares are great.

Smooth sailing the side streets and there a lot of side streets.

And I think people would be more receptive of it if they would say, hey, we're doing the best we can.

Kansas City usually gets 1 or 2in of snow.

We got a foot of snow work with us rather than go on TV and say, hey, this.

We're responding better than we have in the history of Kansas City.

While the mayor often says, you know, Kansas City can walk and chew gum at the same time.

That is not the case when it comes to snow removal and trash collection, because Kansas City was one of those cities this week canceling entirely trash collection at the beginning of the week, certainly.

And lots of Kansas City and myself included, have many bags of trash now piled on the curb and have been there for a week.

Now, I would I would disagree a little bit with with Eric.

I'd be a little more generous to the city than a C minus, because I do think that we had those main thoroughfares plowed, pretty early and even my side street on the first day was plowed.

Now we can't get to everyone.

And certainly I think maybe the city manager has been far too effusive in declaring us fully back to normal 36 hours afterwards.

But the trash thing is, you know, the city uses the same workers to pick up trash than to plow the streets, so they cannot do both at the same time.

And I do wonder, when is my trash ever going to be picked up, especially with more snow.

coming to Kansas City this week?

Right.

I've still got the New Year's Eve party trash out there.

Hold on.

The the reality, I think, is that what has been different this time is that the city leaders who you mentioned, the mayor, the city manager, have been much more visible.

Now, that may be a negative, that they're out there running a publicity operation or maybe a positive because people feel like they're being communicated with.

They've been naming this as a priority.

that does seem to be different than in the past.

I think most residents believe that plowing operations are happening, but I think a lot of people are expressing the frustration that Eric did that they don't seem to be happening where I live, faring worst.

On a Kansas City Star report card, Dave Helling was Wyandotte County, which, quote, a day after the storm, had still yet to clear even one residential street.

But is that also a result of what the voters say they wanted?

And that was they wanted their property taxes frozen.

They were complaining about that.

And Wyandotte County did that, which means there are fewer workers today and less money available for these kind of basic services.

And we haven't really talked about this around this table, but there is a cost to a foot of snow in material and over time, equipment.

The old rule of Thumb Lake used to be that it would be about $1 million per inch of snow in additional costs, where you get a foot of snow, that's $12 million.

But that was 30 years ago.

My guess is this one is going to cost metro wide, $3,540 million and combined cost.

That's a lot of money for taxpayers to chew for an event that doesn't occur that often.

And without putting too fine of a point on it, we're seeing this played out in California with the fires as well.

You could prevent those fires.

You could plow every street in Kansas City, but the cost would be prohibitive to the public and to homeowners and others.

So there's always a public risk versus reward risk management effort here.

And I think on that basis, a good C, a, B minus locally is probably going Eric.

And and one of the things that and I agree with Dave about the cost.

But one of the things that I noticed was the F-150 pickup trucks for that amount of snow, you need a lot heavier truck than that.

And I think just going over the streets, putting the blade down and moving snow, it really wasn't effective because what you wind up doing is packing it down even more.

And then they put that blue stuff on top of it is not getting enough temperature adjustment.

So it's just sitting there.

We had that blue stuff sitting in our culvert sack.

It's been there since two and it doesn't elaborate on what what Eric is saying.

You could go out and buy 20 big trucks with big blades and then it doesn't snow.

And but then it doesn't snow and people will say, what did you spend all that money on trucks you didn't even need?

So it's always a very difficult balancing act.

And one of the reasons, Nick, you see the mayor and the city manager on television is because they understand snow removal is largely a public relations effort and not necessarily a factual effort, because your own experience will vary, as they say in the medical ads.

Yeah, I think we need to also keep in perspective, Nick, that this was a record snowfall, that you can't be prepared for this every year without wasting resources, because this isn't going to have a record in our lifetimes.

But I still think it was Nick March.

I got it right here.

March 23rd, 2012, when they were digging out from 16in of snow in December.

That I do, that would have been a young chap.

Now, sometimes what doesn't happen can be the more interesting story.

Over the holiday, outgoing Missouri Governor Mike Parson releases Eric de Vulcan here.

The only Kansas City police officer convicted in the killing of a black man.

There were concerns.

If that were to happen, it could lead to mass protests, community unrest and even violence.

Guess what, Duval County?

I went home for Christmas and the response was barely a whimper.

Why, Eric?

Because the governor released him when it was called.

No protests take place.

So this has happened in May or June.

We've had a very different result.

It had a different result, I think.

And in addition to that, he did it during the Christmas weekend and people were out, you know, focused on Christmas things.

I think the civil rights organizations sent their letters of of objection to it.

But I thought, at least, you know, a street light would get broken or there would be some type of.

Yeah, but even this week, though, we have Emanuel Cleaver, we have those civil, civil rights leaders in Kansas City, some of the biggest names coming together for a major news conference in this on zoom.

Lisa, I mean, that's really in your face, truly.

I've been thinking.

I mean, I've been thinking about protests and activism, a lot lately, especially following the second election of Trump as president.

And I do believe we're in kind of a new era of activism where people really got burnt out from 2016 through 2020, and they were out in the streets and we saw this big surge in protest.

And then Donald Trump gets elected again.

And I feel like there has been kind of a step back, a step back to self-care, particularly in communities of color.

That all right, we did all of this and we've come out with the same outcome.

Now it's time to take care of ourselves, time to have a moment of introspection.

So I do think even if it had happened in the summer, we may have seen protests, but I think they would have been a lot different and we may not have.

I'm really interested to see how that plays out in the rest of this year.

Did Mike Parson give a gift, though, to the new governor coming in on Monday?

Mike, he jokes now that he doesn't have to handle that issue when he takes office in that first week.

He may have.

In fact, one of the things that Mike Kehoe said, though, shortly after his election, is that if Mike Parson didn't pardon him or commute his sentence, he was going to once he took office.

So I'm not sure that Kehoe gained a lot from that.

I mean, I think another reason there weren't any more protests.

Nick, is that no one was surprised.

Mike Parson has been telegraphing that he was going to do this with kind of a wink and a nod, that he hadn't made a decision yet for about the last 18 months.

He also commuted the sentence.

He didn't pardon Duvall Kinnear, which is an important distinction.

It's not just a legalism in, in essence said, okay, you've been punished enough when you commute a sentence as opposed to a pardon, which would excuse his behavior.

And I think that did help some people sort of deal with it.

Now, what we have to pay attention to, though, Nick, in my view, is the future.

What happens when the next incident involving a Kansas City police officer and a person of color takes place in May or June or July?

Will the pent up frustration and anger over Duvall, Kinnear then redouble itself when the temperatures are a little more moderate is something you really have to pay attention to.

in part because I think there's a feeling that police officers can now approach the community with impunity in some ways, and that that's a dangerous, dangerous situation.

Now, Missouri's governor, Mike Parson, promised a Chiefs and Royals stadium plan before he left office, while he's now on his last day, and he's departing without one.

What happened to all those promises and assurances that Parson would strike a deal with the teams before he handed over the keys to the governor's mansion to his successor, did well in the first case, Mike Parson, or any governor acting by himself or herself, can't give the chiefs or royals anything.

I mean, you need the legislature and other parts of government to sort of coalesce around a plan which, as we sit here today, still doesn't exist, that we know that as we record is broken, we are told the royals are moving closer to a naming a potential stadium ride in their site, some idea that they're still very interested in a Kansas side.

And of course, the Chiefs have talked a lot about building near the Speedway and over by the legends.

But again, we don't have anything concrete.

The important thing to keep in mind, Nick, is that the the ball is moving and, and the legislatures are gathering.

You have a new governor in Missouri.

The clock is ticking on the star bonds in Kansas for the Chiefs.

That expires in June of 2025, so something new will have to be drawn up if they can't reach agreement between now and the end of the session.

So the pot is a boil, as they say.

sadly, the public still lacks a good understanding of what either Tom team wants to do, but they haven't been they haven't been involved.

I think we're fooling ourselves if we think that the public is going to get a lot of information about the steel before it is struck, I think if the owners of the Chiefs and the Royals learned one thing from the April vote, it's that building public support is a whole different game than making a deal with developers.

And so and so I think I think all of these pieces are going to be in place or very nearly in place by the time we ever hear what the decision is.

Now.

Missouri lawmakers headed back to Jefferson City this week as they started the 2020 fifth legislative session.

They're working soon with a new governor.

Mike Keough will be officially sworn in Monday.

The governor elect is promising to roll out a plan to reduce crime the moment his hand comes off the inauguration.

Bible.

Lisa, what does that mean for Kansas City?

Well, I think what it doesn't mean is that Kansas City is going to make any progress on regaining local control of police.

Now, that is not a surprise that we've been talking about that for months here.

But, but Governor Kehoe has made very clear he wants state control of the Saint Louis Police Department.

They only got local control back in 2012 or in 2013 after a 2012 vote.

So I don't think any progress is going to be made locally on this.

Despite a reduction in homicides in Kansas City.

Lisa mentions the homicides.

Actually, they dipped 20% at the end of last year.

that Kansas City got the full credit for that.

I don't think they can because you're shootings went up.

I think what you had happen and I've talked to people in in various positions with this is the response was better at the hospitals.

So when they got people there they could, you know, treat them better and quicker.

And a lot of shooters just didn't shoot that well.

Let's also not forget that before the microphones were even turned off at that press conference celebrating the reduction in homicides, we had six homicides in the first three days of the new year.

you know, you ask, what what is in this plan from governor elect Kehoe?

Lisa shared one thing that's not in the plan.

Another thing that's not in the plan is going to be any restrictions on Missouri's, widely recognized as very lenient gun laws.

those are all off the table.

what might be on the on the, on the agenda could be, as the governor elect has said, more support for police, more support for prosecutors.

We don't really know what that means.

If I mentioned that lawmakers are back in Jefferson City, complete this sentence for me, the big issue we should be watching out for in Jefferson City this session is blank.

Two things.

First, there will be some effort to, take a look at amendment three again and prop a the minimum wage.

certainly the amendment three was the abortion.

Yes.

Which passed, and then prop eight, which passed by a bigger margin, again, which provides for sick leave and, a higher minimum wage.

I think there is will be some effort to repeal or alter that and then take a look at amendment three.

But the biggest thing is taxes, and you can hear it already.

There will be an effort in Missouri to go to a zero income tax rate over time.

And that's an extraordinary, as we know from the Kansas experience, an extraordinary debate.

And I think that will be front and center for most of the lawmakers.

This year.

Well, the minimum wage, though, Bryan, that went just went up.

So it's already in effect.

It just went up to 1375.

Can lawmakers now remove that increase?

They can.

It's a statute, change that the voters approve, not a constitutional change.

So, just as with, say, the puppy mill, proposition, a few years ago, the voters passed one thing.

The legislators then voted to undo it.

they probably won't do that.

It passed, but 57%, support.

However, there is a lot of talk about ways to reduce its impact.

Perhaps it should only apply to employers with 50 or more employees.

Perhaps it should only apply to employees over the age of 21, and there are dozens of bills that would affect the outcome of this proposition in various ways.

So if they did that, they can then say this keeping spirit with the voters, but just without killing it.

Yeah, they could do that.

It would be a little bit different than up North and Platte County, where their legislature decided, you know what, 30% of the people voted.

We're speaking for the 70% that didn't vote.

So we're going to repeal what they did for help mental health with young people.

What's the issue you're watching out for in Jefferson City this year?

Lisa, I think I think what we've discussed before, taxes, I think there may also be an effort to to limit property tax increases as well.

That's another issue on the Kansas side that lawmakers will be focusing on as well.

And I think on the abortion terms similar to what we're talking about a little bit on minimum wage is I think lawmakers will be looking at we do have this constitutional amendment.

How can we lessen the impact of it in other ways?

And some of that involves giving definitions for what is fetal viability, what who is a medical provider?

And I think that is those are the angles that the Republicans will take to lessen the impact of that.

And I think it does open up a different debate, which is our politics is defining medical terms for us.

And I think that's what advocates would push back on.

By the way, it's going to be a hot topic, expanding charter schools and Kansas City and Saint Louis because they have.

And I think that's going to be a real serious debate.

And that's going to be a real series.

And Republicans are better numbers now to get those things passed.

By the way, Kansas lawmakers are still on vacation.

They won't return to Topeka until Monday.

Dave, complete this sentence.

The big issue we need to be watching out for in Kansas is blank property tax reform or tax reform of some, at some level, I think there will be a lot of butting of heads between Governor Laura Kelly and lawmakers over how much the state can afford to cut taxes or provide, relief.

So I think that'll be front and center for the Kansas Legislature, as well as abortion at the edges.

That's always an issue.

And in, in Topeka and then gubernatorial politics have already raised their ugly head is Scott Schwab has announced that he's running for governor in 2026.

So, I think you'll see a lot of posturing and pulling.

And yeah, many people may miss that because, you know, while many of us are still tonight putting the last election behind us, but as the governor's race officially got underway this week, two years before voters go to the polls, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab announcing he's seeking the Republican nomination.

Why so early?

Isn't that election in 2026 point it is.

I think there's a couple of reasons.

there will probably be several other candidates, one of those who is widely expected to announce a Senate president, Tim Masterson, he hasn't announced yet this week on Casey.

You are he made a point of saying that, it's too early to talk about that.

He doesn't want it to be a distraction.

But of course, you can almost hear him winking over the radio, because of course, it's going to be a distraction.

And, and and with him as Senate president calling the shots, setting the legislative agenda, putting himself in direct conflict with Governor Laura Kelly throughout the session, he will have the headlines unless, Scott Schwab, throws his hat in the ring and can start to make headlines as a challenging, as another candidate for that Republican Schwab as his longtime state lawmaker, he has been in, you know, the top elections official.

He made national news when his son died in the shooting on water park, on the water slide, that which ultimately ended up closing that water park.

Is he the favorite at this point in time?

I wouldn't call him the favorite.

I think he is the probably will be the most moderate person in the Republican field.

If if the parameters of the field, as we now understand it, hold, the other name to watch out for.

By the way, is Kris Kobach.

Whether he decides he wants to run again for governor in Kansas, it's an open seat.

The Democratic challenger is not clear.

It could be Dave Toland.

It could be, other lieutenant, the lieutenant governor who?

He's not exactly a household name.

so I think everyone is sort of elbowing for position.

Scott Schwab needs to raise a lot of money.

That's why he announced, we woke up this week to a slew of new laws on the books in Kansas and Missouri.

I mentioned the minimum wage increase now in effect in Missouri, but did you know that you will now be busted for even holding your phone while driving?

The so-called Hands-Free law just kicked in, making it a criminal offense to text, call, record a video, and even hold a phone while driving?

What's the punishment?

How about $150 fine with stricter penalties for repeat offenders?

Handsfree methods like Bluetooth and voice commands are still allowed.

Did we see police pulling folks over for that this week, or were they too fixated still on fixing wrecks from the big snow?

I think probably the snow delayed some enforcement of that, but I can tell you I have been tempted to pick up my phone while driving and thought I can't afford $150 fine on first offense and put it down so perhaps it is having effect, at least on those of us who have reported on that.

I thought it was just texting, but you know, not even holding the phone itself is a violation.

And a lot of people do lives and they drive and talk at the same time, but it's a secondary thing.

They have to stop you from something else and then come up and say, hey, you were texting while you were driving.

All right, now, if you live in Kansas, by the way, check your grocery store estate starting now.

You'll no longer pay state sales tax on groceries.

the food tax has been totally eliminated after a multi-year phase out.

But as Kansas officials pat themselves on the back for saving you money on your food, you're about to be socked with new fees on everything else you buy.

Effective immediately, Kansas stores can pass on all credit card transaction fees for customers.

Up until now, retailers have eaten the charge, which can be as high as 4%.

The new law requires merchants to post notice of any additional fees at the door of the business or at the cash register, so this could get ugly with customers.

We infer lots of unhappy shoppers in the next few days.

Brian, I will probably be one of them.

I you know, there are studies that show this is actually good for business, that it actually keeps costs lower because they can now they can separate out that cost of the credit card fees.

But that would not be my experience as a consumer.

As a consumer, I'm going to find this super annoying, and I think a lot of other people will take on the grocery store business, though, you know, people think they're not paying any taxes, but some people are still seeing them.

That's because local governments can still put the tax on their own.

State tax, okay.

On food, the local sales tax continues to be collected.

By the way, Kansas State sales tax on food is now higher than that in Missouri, which for many, many years was, reduced under Mel Carnahan down to a 1.225%.

There may be some discussion in Missouri of further lowering the sales tax, the state sales tax on food.

But cities collect sales taxes up the Yangyang, as we used to say.

And so you're still going to be paying 4 or 5, 6% sales taxes, even in Kansas in some places.

at the grocery store.

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?

The moving trucks have arrived as a slew of local and state leaders depart.

Office is the last day for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.

He says he will never run for elected office again.

He wanted to be governor.

Now he's a congressman.

Former Kansas Attorney General Eric Schmidt officially sworn in this week in Washington.

One of the largest art pieces at the new location, airport is decommissioned after consultants say it could injure passengers.

One shot piece has already fallen from the $1 million sculpture that dangles from the ceiling in Casey's arrival hall.

Sorry, Chiefs fans.

Despite Missouri voters approving sports betting in November, state officials say they've got a lot of work to do before you start wagering on games that are predicting the first legal bets will be allowed until summer, and Missouri's new abortion amendment is still on hold, as a judge rules that clinics must still follow dozens of state regulations.

Planned Parenthood did promise to open for abortion clinics in December.

It still hasn't happened.

The timing couldn't be worse, what with slick streets and bone chilling temperatures.

But Kansas City Restaurant Week is now underway, and you might have tossed your Christmas tree, but the new owners of the Country Club Plaza are doing their best to keep Christmas alive.

The plaza lights have been exten at least until you pick one of those stories or something completely different.

I'm still fixated on the snow, Nick.

I think another effect that we're seeing from the snow is that schools have been canceled after winter break for up to a week, many, many schools districts already announcing that all week they're not coming back until Monday.

And so I think for a lot of parents and a lot of people where their work hasn't been canceled, they've had to cash in paid time off days and, and figure out how to care for children.

Right now, when schools are closed.

So another way, we have not quite been able to get back to them.

I think you've hit on something very important.

That was probably the number one item on many of our viewers lists this week.

Brian.

Another snow story and a more tragic one.

Everett Carter, age 61, was the Jackson County Public Works employee who was killed, when the snowplow he was riding in, he got out to help, remove a vehicle.

And, was was killed in a tragic accident.

It's a reminder, Nick.

I think that we can talk about the response.

We can analyze and talk about whether the snow plow tracker was accurate, but that emergency response is real.

People doing hard and sometimes dangerous work and these kinds of storms, and the response to them, they come with a cost.

Eric, I did something different.

I believe there's going to be some friction between the city council and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department about the cost of putting a jail on the eighth floor.

And the police department, the police department, you know, they want to use some of the, public safety slush fund, I mean, sales tax, and use some of that for motorcycles and helicopters, whereas the city council wants to use it to put a jail on the eighth.

That would be a rare clash among the members of the city council.

We haven't seen many of those.

They'll keep a behind the scenes.

Okay.

I Dave to two things.

First, just a word of advice to Quinton Lucas and Brian Platt.

Start plowing the snow in front of Eric Weston's house and repairing the potholes.

and you will save yourself enormous agony on this show and others.

So that's just some advice to them.

The second thing, and a little more serious note, the American Royal, which is moving out to the legends, has updated its star bond request to $155 million.

That request, which is rather hefty to get that operation out there, may have some impact on what the legislature does about the chiefs if they decide to go to the same.

Okay.

I don't know that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCUR's Lisa Rodriguez and Eric Weston from next page KC.

KCUR”S Brian Ellison and former star reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling.

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

Be well, Keep Calm and carry on the.