We're back.

So help me God.

Have it made off the air for three weeks with our membership drive.

Buckle up for a fast paced three weeks in review for the price of one.

From new pushback on stadiums to the heart of local politics.

I don't think this is one more division that we need.

Get ready for triple the inside and three times as much head scratching local news stories.

Stay with us.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marley's Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America Na Co trustees.

The Francis Family Foundation through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haynes.

Have you missed us while we have missed you?

After an exhaustive three week fundraising drive which saw programs like Willie Nelson's 90th birthday concert in this slot, we're thrilled to be back with you, and we're going to reward you for the inconvenience of providing you with three weeks in review for the price of one, with three times the insights our Casey was Brian Ellison leading your Johnson County post?

Kyle Palmer, former star reporter and editorial writer Dave Helling.

And Casey Walz, local government reporter Savannah Hallie Bates.

Now, even though we've been off the air again since Thanksgiving, has anything really changed?

For example, did we finally solve the stadium issue?

The public pushback seems to be snowballing.

T-Mobile says it will leave the Xperia Campus in Overland Park and take its 3500 workers with them if the Royals move in.

It comes in the same week as the Lynnwood City Council comes out against the plan and the Jewish Community Centers of North America write an extensive letter to the governor opposing the move.

And let's not forget all those packed town halls in which we're told a royals bowl call could create something akin to Armageddon in Overland Park, from traffic chaos to disastrous medical consequences.

We have four hospitals within two miles of each other, menores right across the street from where they want to build a stadium.

Imagine I just told you that we're going to have so much traffic will be bottled up.

You can't move.

Imagine there's an emergency already.

Come.

I'm only the only one who's confused here.

What on earth happened to create the snowball effect?

When the royals owner, John Sherman, has said absolutely nothing.

And the mayor of Overland Park says there's been not one.

Not one formal request.

A plan for this in his city.

Well, I don't know if a formal request would come to the city anyway, since this is at the state level, you know, negotiating with both Laura Kelly and Lieutenant Governor David Holland.

But it has kind of snowballed in the last few weeks is, I think maybe it's sunk in that the possibility, the real possibility of a stadium coming to the center of suburbia and Overland Park starts to hit people who live around their businesses, nonprofits like the J start to really wrestle with the fact, and I will say, hearing these statements from T-Mobile, the the Jewish Community Centers group, the Leawood City Council, I think they're filling a vacuum, left by the team and state.

We don't know a lot about what they're even considering.

And so I think some of these messages we're hearing in the last few weeks is a is a result of the fact that people might feel frustrated about not knowing the potential details.

Brian, how much are we in the media guilty of creating this sort of fever pitch?

Because with fewer things to report, that we've leaned into this without even knowing all the details.

I hear the tone of confession in your voice.

Okay, I appreciate that.

No, I, I think the reality is that the media have not had a lot to report because the teams, the Royals and the Chiefs have been not forthcoming at all.

The public is very interested in this issue.

So I, I don't really blame the media for asking questions.

I, I do believe we've also had some reason to be thinking about that Kansas site.

Remember the Royals picked up the the an affiliate.

The Royals took up the mortgage for the space there.

There has been plenty to make the public think that this might be a possibility.

I think the real issue now is that we're heading toward that end of year deadline for, for Kansas, financial support for these projects.

And I think there's there's going to have to be answers sometime in the next few weeks for both the Royals and the Chiefs.

And it's interesting, you know, at this time, where you can barely get anyone to go to any city hall meetings, never mind a town hall of any kind.

And yet we have in cities, not even Overland Park in nearby Leawood in packed crowds coming out on this.

Yeah.

I mean, Leawood is right across the street from this, proposed stadium site.

I think that speaks to the level of anger people have in the metro of just the lack of information that this event, this is not, to Brian's point, the first end of year deadline that the Royals have faced for their stadium.

This has been many years in a row that they've been saying, well, you know, we're close to a decision.

We're still evaluating all of our best options.

And people are getting mad.

They want to know how it might affect their neighborhoods, where it might go, and to get actual agreements and answers from the team in the meantime.

And yet, we still didn't see John Sherman at any point.

No comments whatsoever.

No.

And we still don't know, whether he or anyone connected with the royals or for that matter, the Chiefs will make a decision or an announcement before the end of the year.

The Kansas Legislative Coordinating Committee will meet on Monday at 10 a.m., and the assumption is that some sort of, discussion will ensue.

Whether there's a final decision or not is not clear.

I do think the noise in Johnson County, Nick reflects a feeling and understanding that, for better or worse, that site it remains high up in the wish list of the royals that it isn't going away.

That's why I think Kyle's right.

And my colleagues are all right, that people around that neighborhood are starting to say, wait, this could actually happen and happen quickly.

Now, let me just suggest, probably in the neighborhood there are 1 or 2 lawyers, and my guess is that 1 or 2 lawyers might, decide that this is a project that they can forestall by going to court.

And I'm not sure the royals or for that matter, the Chiefs.

But certainly the Royals understand how this process could be dragged out, dramatically.

If they go to the Johnson County side.

And so, maybe that calculation is, you know, before them now, and we'll know something more next week.

Kyle, can you clarify for us?

I mean, do we know even if the plan was supposed to be on top of the Assyria campus next to where they would be building the stadium all around the Asbury Park campus?

We don't know anything.

Okay, I will say that site.

It might surprise some people who drive by there every day and have gotten used to seeing it.

That site is pretty big.

It would accommodate a professional sports stadium.

I would say rather easily.

And another attractive part to that site for the Royals is the parking is already in place from the old sprint campus, the current T-Mobile campus.

And so there are a lot of concerns about traffic.

I will also note that the Star Bond bill that passed last year to kind of open up financing for this on the Kansas side also does require infrastructural improvements to be made.

So I think coming along with any stadium deal would have to be some sort of improvements to Nol 119th I for 35.

But I was looking back, though, at when sprint owned that campus at the height of sprint, they were 18,500 employees on contractors on that site.

And one of our baseball fan producers got me the figures for the Royals this year, and there were some days they were hitting 12,000 and change for their attendance.

And so why could it accommodate the traffic then when sprint was there at its height, but not for baseball fans who said the difference between people in suits on the difference.

People wearing sports jersey.

Well, they're coming with this and with the same, but also the whole entertainment district that presumably was built around this.

And so I think, again, some of the fears we're hearing are people they just don't know what's coming.

And I think we like a a longer and more in-depth public discussion about what the impacts are going to be there.

If it does.

Have a good sense at all of how the district would be drawn in that area in terms of generating revenue for the for the bonds, how much the teams are willing to contribute.

We don't know that at all.

What's your annual debt service?

What's the cost of the facility?

What will the infrastructure improvements, look like, including not just streets, by the way, but sewers and run off and all of the other things.

When you build a major facility like that, none of those questions seem answered.

And that's, again, we're back to where we started.

Right?

This is the problem is that no site plan has been filed, no concrete proposals.

We're right back to the April of last year vote that the Royals and Chiefs lost in Jackson County.

Part of the problem, everyone agrees, was a lack of information, a lack of advance notice and a lack of clarity about the full implications and, perhaps that lesson has not yet been laid just quickly.

We haven't even talked about the Chiefs and whatever the Chiefs might do, and we may find out on Monday that the Chiefs, are going to the legends area.

How's that going to work?

What is the finance going look like.

To the fact that the Chiefs had a crumbling season?

Make any difference to that?

Well, obviously.

The thing is we've talked about a little bit here is I do think both teams, see Kansas as attractive, in part because they would not face a public vote or likely not face a public vote.

If you go to Missouri, the state law requires a local contribution, either from North Kansas City, Jackson County or Kansas City, Missouri.

That will also almost certainly mean some sort of vote, maybe as early as April.

And I think both teams realize this is not a good time to be asking taxes.

And that might also explain why there's a lot more anger on the Kansas side, because if this actually does happen, they won't have a say in it at that point, unlike what happened on the Missouri side last year with the stadium election, it was a good news, bad news week for the Country Club Plaza and its new owners.

The good news?

The City Planning Commission just greenlighted their audacious new plan to build a string of high rise towers and more than 700 apartments around the historic shopping district.

And to add to the audacious ness, by the way, they're asked to pay zero property taxes for the next 30 years to fund it.

They say without it, the plaza may not survive.

The bad news is that the plaza is set to lose one of its longest and biggest tenants, as the city of Leawood this week approves $152 million incentive plan to lure Lockton Insurance to a new headquarters site next to Leeward City Park.

Lockton, which is the world's largest private insurance brokerage firm, has been on the plaza since 1966.

Whether it's talking about professional sports teams or big businesses, everyone is always coming at us.

So Collingwood doesn't want baseball fans anywhere near them.

But the welcome mat is out for insurance brokers.

Well, they really did roll out the red carpet for this one.

This is the first ever tax increment financing deal that Linwood has approved.

We've never done it before.

We've never done it before, according to city officials.

And then on top of that, they've approved a 1.5% special sales tax as part of a community improvement district.

And so this is then really gunning for Lockton.

The interesting part of this deal is these incentives are contingent on locked in or a locked in affiliate, signing the lease at that site off the state line will by the end of next year.

So this really is for Lockton.

The whole point of the high rise on the tower is to get more feet on the plaza, going to restaurants, going to shops, going to experience.

Is that what would the removal of Lockton, which is really the largest client they have there?

What difference would that make to the Plaza?

I mean, that would be another big blow to the Plaza.

They've lost multiple tenants over the years and this is sort of one of their anchor business tenants as well.

It's a long time Plaza, you know, dweller.

And so I think that would deal a blow to the new developers who have not yet changed any part of the plaza.

That's part of the anger about this high rise plan.

And also the tax abatements, neither of which have quite begun.

The tax abatements would go through the Port Authority of Kansas City, which has very little oversight.

Kansas City Public Schools parents came to that first meeting where they weren't even discussed.

It was just recently proposed and talked at length about how damaging that would be to schools, to libraries, to, you know, people who to agencies who rely on this tax money, especially to give these incentives at a time when nothing's been changed.

And so the Port Authority seems to be reconsidering or at least reconfiguring what those abatements might look like or what those incentives might look like.

And the high rises is something else, because city council wants, you know, to help save the plaza.

There needs to be some sort of increased density there, more foot traffic.

The developers have talked about pedestrianize in some streets and making it more habitable for people, habitable for people.

But, but people who live in the Plaza Bowl, that sort of central part of the plaza, do not want to see it changed.

And so there's a sort of tension there as well.

And it seems like the money has become the big issue.

We've heard it from a lot of viewers about this, including poll, who said, you know, the Plaza Disney owned has made a big deal of saying they were going to do.

They bought it for a bargain basement price, and they were doing it without public incentives.

They're not asking for any help.

But now all of a sudden, they want all of this money, is this bait and switch.

And if that's the case, his view is they should sell the plaza.

If they can't make it work without that public cash.

Well, I think a lot of people do feel the way Paul does that there has been some sort of bait and switch.

The new owners came in with a lot of promises about the changes to the kinds of businesses that would be at the Plaza, but instead the results, and a lot of people point to is that the businesses have closed, and there's a lot of vacant space on the plaza.

If it's one thing, if they aren't delivering on the promises that people understood them to be making, but now if they're going to actually make it worse in people's minds, if they're going to add these high rises that people say they don't want, not to mention take away potential tax money from public schools.

Boy, I think a lot of folks are going to they're they're already disappointed it's going to move toward rage.

But is there anything that the city won't do to try and keep these plaza owners happy, that somehow there's the view that if, you know, if this doesn't happen, the whole thing will shut down?

Well, right.

Well, and the question, of course, is for Paul or anyone else is, to whom when you sell the plaza, I mean, that it's been for sale or on the block for some time.

And if the these ideas are defeated, the feeling is, there's not a clear path to something to replace it other than slow, steady decline.

And that's, I think, the background noise, if you will, to this project.

And I think that's part of the reason why the Plaza developers feel so comfortable in asking for these abatements is what other option do you have this you know, public officials have touted the plaza for years as the crown jewel of Kansas City.

And to just let it slip into decline, into further decline is sort of not an option.

Kansas City World Cup organizers are now dialing up the fan count after FIFA releases team matchups showing Argentina and the Netherlands playing in Kansas City next year.

Both countries apparently have fervent fan bases that are willing to travel anywhere in the world to see their national team play.

We're already projecting more fans coming to Kansas City than L.A., which is hosting the U.S.

team.

Some people skeptical already of the 650,000 out-of-state visitors being forecast, how much higher do they think this is really going to go?

Savannah.

I think, you know, residents here are inherently skeptical of any event like this.

And so maybe people are saying, well, who's really going to come here?

But I think it is prudent to to plan for, for the most amount of people that might come because we're in the center of the country because maybe, you know, people are expecting it could be a little bit cheaper to come here versus games in other areas.

You know, we might we may see this big flood of fans and people are still wondering how will the city deal with traffic, how will the city deal with short term rentals, with hotels, and with transportation to and from the games?

The KC 2026, the group that is planning Kansas City's games, has said that they've contracted about 215 charter busses so far to go between, you know, different locations that don't already have bus stops around the metro.

They are already planning for more busses.

Residents in Johnson County, blocking hotels from having any of these fans.

They're worried about the traffic.

But always worried about the traffic in Johnson.

Okay, well, you know, we talking about the royals and kind of how all of a sudden things have kind of cropped up and people start to take the prospect seriously.

I think that might also be said for the World Cup too.

And maybe it hasn't really hit people yet that this is coming.

And I think the next milestone to watch for is finding out what teams are going to be staying in the area for their base camp, because being in the middle of the country, there is a lot of, I think, reasonable speculation to think that a very big team, a top team that expects to go far in the tournament, wants to base their camp in the middle so that they can have easy jumping off point.

So you might see in England or you might see a Germany land here.

And once that happens and we know what countries fans are coming here, that might make it more real for people and it might make them start preparing more.

And what about this new Trump administration plan to require all overseas visitors to be subject to a five year social media review?

Brian, to gain entry?

In other words, as part of their visa applications, they have to share their email accounts and all social media handles.

I think we have yet to see exactly what the implementation of a plan like that would look like.

Certainly I think, the Trump administration has indicated that it's trying to be accommodating of the international travelers who are coming for the World Cup.

I think this would be, quite a, quite a burden for a lot of folks and might, further cause a downturn in those who actually show up.

You're suggesting that President Trump's approach to visitors might hinder some travel is very well taken, and we've talked about it on the show before.

If you're in Argentina and can watch it on television and you feel like you need to provide five years of your digital life to the United States, you might decide just to stay home.

Now is Kansas City's World Cup games are also now competing with the Royal Wedding, Harper's Bazaar to People magazine, now reporting that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift will tie the knot on June 13th.

That's the first weekend of the World Cup.

Well, 13 this Taylor Swift's lucky number.

So there are only so many options to choose from.

That's the date that.

They didn't have to compete with our games here.

I think Taylor Swift is in a class of her own, and I don't think she was too concerned about the World Cup games going on.

And they're not getting married in Kansas City.

They're getting married in Rhode Island.

I assume they're not expecting as many fans to attend.

They were going to get married in Johnson County, but they were too worried about the traffic pile.

Right.

And the park lights are a mess.

That and then, of course, there's I mean, only Nick and I got invitations, of course, to the wedding, but but I don't think it affects that many people who will be at the wedding already.

So on some serious topics, the campaign to strike down Missouri's new congressional map has admitted 300,000 signatures, nearly three three times the normal amount required by law.

So what happens now?

Is the state now going to schedule a yes or no referendum election on the new map that squeezes out Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver?

Well, we have to wait and see.

There is still a lot to determine.

That's still not resolved either.

Well, no, far from it.

It seems there's at least a half dozen court cases that that whose outcomes could determine some aspect of this.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in Missouri says he will begin the process of certifying signatures, though not all of them, the ones that came in before a certain date, he says he will not count.

They may still have enough signatures, but that count could.

Go six eight.

Weeks could.

In fact, he says, go into July.

He said he may not certify that for a ballot before July.

Which of course is after the filing period, which he says would require the state to use the the new the newly adopted districts that might be struck down if this goes on.

The ballot, that was getting confusing.

But I have to remind people, of course, half our audience lives in Kansas.

I know they didn't have a special session.

They have been talking about reigniting that issue again.

When lawmakers come back in just a couple of weeks, really in Topeka, is that going to happen there?

I would expect it to come up.

And we have both Time Masters and President of the Senate who is running for governor, as well as Dan Hawkins, leader of the House, have said it's a priority for them, whether they have the votes to override what most certainly will be a veto from Governor Laura Kelly if they do draw new maps, remains very, I think, a long shot from what I've heard from local legislators in Johnson County.

Bear in mind you're going to have to put a lot of Johnson County Republicans on the record of voting for a map that would divide up Johnson County, and redistricting remains deeply unpopular in Johnson County.

And so they might have voted for the petition to at least have the conversation.

But I don't think you'd have as many vote for the actual new map.

Okay, is this a joke?

They calling it jacks it in a little more than two weeks, state lawmakers head back to work on one of the bills that has been filed in Missouri is a measure splitting Kansas City from Jackson County.

Could be coming if some lawmakers have their way.

Voters would decide if Kansas City and Jackson County should be separated because the system.

Is not serving the.

People the way it needs to be.

It's a broken system, time that people are talking about border war divisions, and you have all the divisions in America.

I don't think this is one more division that we need.

Right.

Savannah, how seriously are we to take this?

Anybody can file a bill.

Is it going anywhere?

But, you know, many of the bills that are pre filed in the Missouri legislature, legislature do not make it into the session.

And so this could very well be one of them.

I think this is the latest in a saga of Jackson County especially people in eastern Jackson County, being frustrated with their own government in the Jackson County legislature.

And also, you know, eastern Jackson County is very Republican.

Kansas City leans Democratic.

And so, there is some tension there.

However, I think people, many people in Jackson County do realize how much the county relies on the city for their everyday services, for, stability.

Really?

I didn't quite understand exactly why they wanted to do this, but I have been looking it up, and I see the Saint Louis, the city of Saint Louis, completely separate from Saint Louis County.

They operate separately, Baltimore, the same way.

You know, Saint Louis City is actually considered a county for, under Missouri state law.

Before I left the store, I actually started working on a story about, some people, pushing for a combination of Kansas City and Jackson County, at least south of the river, much like the unified government in Kansas City, Kansas, because of potential duplication of services.

And this debate is always confused, Nick, because Kansas City is actually in three counties and because it's in three counties, it makes administration of certain laws, much more difficult.

We have four election boards involved in local elections Jackson County, Clay County, Platte County and Kansas City, Missouri.

That makes election night tabulation even more difficult.

If this were to happen, what would it do?

Brian?

How would that make life easier?

We don't know.

It would trigger a transition committee is what this bill says, which would have to work out the details, to, to to Dave's point, I think the details would be extraordinarily complicated.

And to Savannah's point, who 95% of the bills that are pre filed never see the light of day.

A lot of them never even get a committee hearing.

I don't think there's any reason to take this one too seriously as.

We've absolutely resolved nothing on this program whatsoever.

Could there at least be some hope at the end to say, finally, could there be a resolution for Kansas City's most famous hole in the ground?

Nearly 20 years after the Mission Mall was torn down, a judge has ruled that the long sitting Mission Gateway site can finally be sold after decades of broken promises and inaction.

Already, this project keeps coming back more times than Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise.

Can we really say this is finally up for sale, and we're going to see progress coming up in this new year?

I've I've learned not to say too much about mission games.

Okay, Michael Meyers, Freddy Krueger, you know, pick your unkillable villain of choice.

I was noticing some of your b roll was 20 years old there.

Yes.

But it hasn't changed.

So it's time.

I. City officials, you know, mission doesn't have control of the site.

It's privately owned.

So there's very little the city can do.

But they did say this was a step in the right direction, this judge's ruling.

So I do think this is a pinprick of light at the end of a still very long tunnel.

But this does start the process to be able to maybe get this property in the hands of an owner or an entity that would have the financial wherewithal and the vision to do something with it, because the the entity that has owned it for most of the last two decades has given promise after promise and not come through.

Is that owner with all of that wherewithal and resources, John Sherman with the Kansas City Royals.

We know that information now.

Come on.

Okay.

All right, all right.

Okay.

All right.

Now, what do 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?

Krystal Watson officially sworn in as the new mayor of Wyandotte County.

Historically, this is one of the best days of my life.

I was after a mass terror attack on Jews in Australia, Kansas City leaders joining together to hold a menorah lighting ceremony at City Hall.

The party's over for the Chiefs.

For the first time in a decade, the team misses the playoffs.

Will you ever be the same?

Patrick Mahomes travels to Dallas for knee surgery.

The next big news story will Travis Kelce now retire?

And a final bow for Scrooge.

Gary Johnson hangs up his miserly fingerless gloves after 25 years of playing Ebenezer Scrooge in The Rex A Christmas Carol.

I could get teary.

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

I did not.

In the spirit of year end holiday cheer, I am reminding people that Kansas City is once again considering more funding for the Cata for its citywide bus service, but keep an eye out at the beginning of the year.

It could still result in more bus cuts.

Dave governor Mike Kehoe has once again, announced his support for a zero income tax in the state of Missouri, emulating in some ways the experiment in Kansas of a decade ago.

And the party this week endorsed that idea.

If there is a substantial debate on eliminating Missouri's income tax, property tax reform may have to take a backseat.

That's of particular interest in our.

Kyle Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman, announcing today that he had resigned his position as head of the elections in Johnson County.

He actually posted on social media that the Kansas Secretary of State's office had asked him to either be fired or resign, and he chose to resign.

We don't know what went into that.

We're seeking comment from the secretary of state's office.

Of course, the secretary of state, Johnson County native Scott Schwab, who is running for governor.

But elections under Fred, chairman over the last few years have run very smoothly.

Election results have come out in a timely manner.

There's been no whiff of any problem.

He succeeded Connie Schmidt, who also did a very good job.

There have been problems in the past in Johnson County elections, so we'll have to monitor this situation.

But this is is breaking at the time that we're recording this.

Bryant, you're breaking news for us as we finish our program today.

The breaking news I have to share is one you did name, which is Gary Neal Johnson.

After 25 years as Ebenezer Scrooge, I had the privilege of being there on opening night, at the end of November.

And the guy still brings humanity and, authenticity to, to a role that is so, so well established and so well known and has been played by so many people, but a whole generation of Kansas City and only know Gary Neal Johnson as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Great way to end this program.

And we can say a week has been reviewed courtesy of Brian Ellison from KC Wall and Dave Helling, local news icon Casey Wells, local government reporter Savannah Hallie Bates and Kyle Palmer without breaking news from the Johnson County Post next week, join us for our annual Year in Review edition of the program.

We're in game show style.

We look at the most memorable moments of the last year and gaze into the crystal bowl to see what we can expect together in this brand spanking new year called 2026.

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

Be well, keep Calm, Carry On and Happy Hanukkah and a merry Christmas to you.