(upbeat music) - [Nick] A week into a new mask mandate, but was it compliance or defiance?

- I don't think I know where to go to have a mask and not have a mask.

- I think there's a lot of confusion all around.

- [Nick] More businesses now forcing you to be vaccinated or leave.

- We feel like it's the right thing to do to protect our staff.

- [Nick] And what about those lawsuits?

- I wouldn't be doing my job as the state's attorney general if I wasn't there trying to protect people's liberty.

- This is about getting clicks.

This is about getting attention.

It is not about saving lives.

- [Nick] Plus what about those elections?

The newcomers topping the insiders in those big races for mayor of Overland Park and Wyandotte County.

Is big change on the way?

Also this half hour, did we just kick the can down the road on evictions?

And just as Missouri is about to blow out 200 candles next week as it marks its bicentennial, history suffering a big blow in Kansas City.

- [Announcer] Week in Review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust.

John H. Mize and Bank of America N.A.

Co-Trustees.

And by viewers like you, thank you.

- Hello everyone, I'm Nick Haines and we are grateful to have you with us on our weekly journey through the most impactful, confusing, and befuddling stories right here in our Metro.

And we are joined by Wall, Mahoney, Rodriguez and Helling.

It's not the name of a new law firm, they are the journalists who are rolling up their sleeves this week to dissect out top headlines.

From the anchor desk at 41 Action News, reporter Dia Wall.

From KMBC 9 News chief political reporter Micheal Mahoney.

From our NPR affiliate KCUR Lisa Rodriguez.

And from the pages of your Kansas City Star, Dave Helling.

Now starting on Monday, more areas of our Metro will come under a mask mandate, but just because you have one, do people follow it?

We're a week now into Kansas City's mask mandate where city officials shutting down businesses, Dia Wall, were people being called out to remove unmasked patrons?

- So yes and no.

I think it depends on the attitude of the business owners, right?

This is really an individual thing, which is I think part of what has contributed to the problem, it's been piecemeal.

Hopefully people take the recommendation, but we know how recommendations go.

- Is anyone really enforcing it, Micheal?

- Yeah, some folks are, there are a number of businesses that have or are still considering requiring some sort of vaccination proof or at the very least a negative COVID test within 24, perhaps 48 hours.

Hamburger Mary's did it, got a lot of publicity about that.

They also own a bar called Woody's, they're doing the same thing.

The ship down in the West bottom of Kansas City Improv Club.

I would not be surprised to see some others.

- As Micheal mentioned again, we've got these businesses like Hamburger Mary's, there's also the Kansas City Improv Company that are raising the stakes further, requiring you to get that vaccination before you can even step through their doors.

Did they stand to actually get help for that or did that hurt their business this week, Lisa?

- I think in the case of the bars that have already announced, they do serve many of them such targeted audiences that I don't know that we've seen them suffer yet, although their social media posts have gotten some heated reaction as any decisions like this get from both sides, but the perk there and the strategy that these businesses are taking is that under Kansas City's mask order, if you can prove that everyone inside a building is vaccinated, the masks can come off.

And so this is the way that they can get around that mask order, have masks off, and not have to reduce capacity to 50%, which is a bigger blow to business.

- And these are more of the exception rather than the rule at this point.

These are a very small range of businesses, Dave, that are doing this.

I've been surprised there haven't been more, but is that because we have the attorney general in Missouri threatening lawsuits and taking people to court?

And now we even have a special session being called by some senators, including from this area for the governor to have an extraordinary special session to block businesses from requiring vaccinations again.

- Yeah, Nick, to say that the atmosphere around masks and vaccination is confusing is to understate the case by a factor of about 100.

So many different jurisdictions involved, we should note that Jackson County executive Frank White has instituted a mask requirement, attorney general Eric Schmitt as you know has filed suit against Kansas City's ordinance.

But so far as I know has not yet filed a temporary restraining order motion that would make that effective immediately.

Your viewers should know the statutory environment for all of this has changed too, legislatures in Kansas and Missouri have changed the laws as to whether or not emergencies can be declared and how and whether masks can be required.

And some of that is subject to court challenge as you know, in Johnson County, for example, there's a legal challenge to this idea that residents can go in and get mask orders lifted.

So it's just really chaos out there and it's hard for most people to know how to proceed.

- And is that why, Dia, that you have a big city like New York City becoming the largest city in America to say no, you have to have a vaccine to be able to go to a restaurant, to go to a performance, to go to the gym, and yet we don't see that here at this point.

- You know, there's not really an appetite for that here.

New York's a totally different place than Kansas City.

And I think for folks here, they value the freedom, that's the number one thing that we keep hearing.

But I will say I actually shared the story from New York online, and the overwhelming response was yes, do it.

I think the people in our community who have gone out and gotten their vaccines, who have adhered to all of these mandates and regulations all in an effort, I feel like I should remind people to stop a global pandemic, to stop a global pandemic.

Feel like the effort that they've put in is being undermined by the folks in our community who don't want a vaccine, who don't want to wear the masks.

The only other thing I would add in that regard, you asked whether these businesses are going to be hurt by this, Hamburger Mary's and Woody's, book solid.

- Regardless of what you think about the vaccination, whether you should be wearing masks or not, individual companies and entities are now making their own decisions, Lisa, I see that not only is the Truman Library closed for a second week because of the uptake in COVID cases, we have the American Royal postponing rodeos now as a result of the increasing COVID cases.

And the Mayor this week also announcing that there is a very large convention coming to Kansas City and they're now considering pulling out because of the uptick in cases when they've got delegates coming in from 45 other states.

- I think a lot of groups are looking out for this, but I will say, I think locally, we may begin to see more venues, more live music venues, particularly, issuing these kinds of vaccine mandates so that they can continue to have their events.

I think it does take a little bit longer for a concert venue to do that because they've got to go through bands and bookers and everything.

But I do think that despite the lack of support for vaccines across the board, I do think more individual entities will start to take this route.

- And we see that push again, Dia Wall, about getting more people vaccinated.

I did notice that in a county fair in just outside of St. Louis and St. Charles County, they were there for two days at the county fair, the health department, zero people signed up for the vaccine, and locally, I saw in your station, a concert over the weekend for a rap artist just outside the Liberty Memorial.

And they're only eight people signed up and they were there all day trying to get people signed up for this with thousands of folks there.

- Darn it, Nick Haines, I thought I was going to get you to say Gucci Mane on Week in Review.

Yeah, eight people.

Eight people.

- The Center for Disease Control really shot themselves in the foot because they have been waffling and moving on their guidance and recommendations.

It happened here as well, two weeks ago, Mayor Lucas went on Face the Nation and said, "I don't see the need for mask mandates in Kansas City."

By the end of that week, he'd done a 180 on that.

That really, A, confuses people and think it irritates them as well.

- It was election day in Kansas this week and were you surprised by the results?

Political newcomers topping the insiders in those big races for Mayor of Overland Park and Wyandotte County.

Let's start in Wyandotte County where it couldn't have felt good to be Mayor David Alvey on election night.

He comes in second in the mayoral primary to someone who's never run for elected office before, the former deputy police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, Tyrone Garner.

What did voters there tell us about how they view life under the leadership of David Alvey, Dave Helling?

- Well, I think the news as you point out, Nick, is not good for the incumbent mayor.

I mean, when you're the incumbent getting less than 50% is always a problem.

In this case, two out of three voters in the primary said they wanted someone other than the guy who owns the office.

Now that again is not particularly good news for Alvey, however, it is now a two-person race, an either/or choice.

So he's certainly not out of it, but he's not in the strongest position going against Ty Garner.

The other wildcard, really, Nick, and one to keep an eye on is Wyandotte County has never elected a black mayor.

And so, you know, whether that plays any role whatsoever, positive or negative in this race will be something we'll want to keep an eye on in November.

- But somebody has to go first, Lisa, don't they?

- Right, right, somebody has to go first and in KCK, it wasn't the first, but it was the first in a long time that they selected a black police chief there as well.

So I do think that Ty Garner has momentum leading into the November election.

And also you note that the differences, the vote difference between the two candidates was not huge.

- And it was about just 600 folks that he won by or had more votes because, David, I'll be still going through to the full election, of course, Micheal Mahoney.

- The VP utility bills was an issue in this race.

Immigration was an issue to some degree in the race as well.

And just the sense of change.

And so the Mayor is going to have his work cut out for him, despite being the incumbent.

- Another outsider also topped the primary for Mayor in Overland Park, Mike Czinege had never run for office before.

He's a former senior executive at AMC movie theater chain.

What message did voters send in the Overland Park Mayor's race, Dave?

- Czinege made opposition to excessive developer incentives as a central part of his campaign.

And that has some residents in Overland Park amongst some voters.

And of course he campaigned as a Republican, some people voted on a partisan basis, even though legally it's not a partisan race or a partisan primary, they did so anyway.

So really, you have the same sort of dynamic that you have in Wyandotte County, a newcomer versus for all practical purposes an incumbent Curt Skoog, the other one who made it to the final is again, for practical purposes, the incumbent in this race, and we'll see whether it's changed or more of the same at Overland Park district and Wyandotte County.

- And Czinege was the only Republican candidate in that race.

In a primary way, you don't get a huge number of people voting.

And so that would have favored Republicans who outnumbered Democrats in that district, right?

- The turnout in Overland Park was not bad at all for a primary in August.

And then the other thing, there is an advantage when you put a partisan label on a candidate just because it ratifies to some voters what that candidate's world view is, or their view towards government.

And that's what happened here, in fact, the Johnson County Republican party, right after the primary also came out and was on social media saying, Czinege is our guy here.

He was the Republican in this race.

Overland Park has got lots of Republicans in it.

- We should point out that Curt Skoog did get endorsed by Ed Eilert, who of course is a Republican, and by the incumbent Carl Gerlach in this race.

So again, he is sort of the, for lack of a better term, the status quo, that keep growing Overland Park, the Overland Park nice if you will, against an outsider populist with some strong Republican support.

Jeff (indistinct) endorsed him.

So it'll be a fascinating race to watch, there's no question about it, to see which way Overland Park goes in 2021.

- Now this program is also about tipping you off to other important political developments that could be quickly impacting you and your family.

While many people may think it's a dry topic, redistricting is finally happening.

Starting on Monday the Kansas legislature hosting more than a dozen town halls to get your take on how our political maps should be drawn.

They're going to do it all in five days which means by Saturday, they're going to be done listening to you.

Earlier, we heard one big goal is to rejig the map so Republicans can oust Sharice Davids from her Congressional seat.

- It gives us four Republican congressmen, that takes out Sharice Davids up in the third.

We can do that.

I guarantee you we can draw four Republican congressional maps.

- That's former Senate president, Susan Wagle, while she's not in power anymore, but is that still the plan, Lisa?

- Oh, I think that is still the plan for Republicans in Kansas moving forward and they haven't been shy about it.

What strikes me about these redistricting meetings happening all in one week starting Monday is that we don't have the census numbers back yet.

So we really, it raises a lot of questions to be gathering public input on this before you have the information in hand and it calls into question what the purpose of these meetings truly are, I think.

I think voters deserve to be equipped with that information as lawmakers do as they're getting feedback.

And so I think that's the most interesting detail here.

- By the way, each of these town halls are about 75 minutes in length, and there's going to be two near us, one at the Matt Ross Community Center in Overland Park, that's at 1:45 PM on Thursday.

That's a friendly time for the public, and at 6 PM there's a second town hall at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

But it's really interesting, we got this choice to do it, but what can you actually tell them, Micheal?

I mean, what do I get to say at these meetings that is in any way going to convince people to change these maps?

- You get an opportunity to basically say, make sure that I and my fellow like-thinkers are represented.

And just for context, that Susan Wagle clip that we just played a couple of minutes ago, that is from last summer.

So that's how long this idea of putting a target on Sharice Davids' back as a Democrat in Kansas has been around.

- But Dia, this is also happening on the Missouri side and I know there's an effort to also try and work some of the boundaries with the manual cleaver, for instance, but when people hear that term of redistricting and sort of yawn when they hear it, but this has a lot of consequences.

- A lot of consequences, it determines who you elect to represent you at every level.

And so it is important, it only happens every 10 years.

The thing that I would offer in addition to what Lisa and Micheal already have said is that there's a variation in how much appetite politicians and political parties have for risk.

There've been some folks in DC who have already come out and said, look, don't get too cute.

Let's not try to push it too hard because a lot of times these maps will be under litigation for years and years and years.

And oftentimes, if you push your gerrymandering too far, the very boundaries you drew will be rolled back, and then the courts will get to decide.

- So the concentration so far, the headlines have been about the Sharice Davids seat, what else is at stake here, Dave?

- Well, of course the legislature has to redraw state senate districts and state representative districts.

And that's where the real work is sometimes takes place out of the public eye, Nick.

The second thing to keep in mind, you asked, Mike, what you might say in one of these hearings, the first thing you'd probably say in Kansas is don't put Wyandotte County in the first district, which is one of the ideas that's floating around to in essence put Wyandotte County in Kansas City, Kansas in the same district with Russell, Kansas.

And that will draw some attention and some criticism, but it may be one of the ways Republicans could threaten the Davids' seat if in essence they split Wyandotte County and Johnson County.

That's the thing to watch for in the weeks ahead.

- Call it counter-programming, but while many Kansas Citians will be headed to Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday to see Garth Brooks in concert, leading Democrats in our region will be heading to The Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs for a major address by former Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.

While some were viewing the speech as a signal he might jump into the race next year for the US Senate, spoiler alert, those hopes have now been dashed.

Nixon has popped the balloon.

He says he's going to continue practicing law instead.

His decision now leaves Democrats with no political heavy-weight in their quest to pick up the Senate seat now being vacated by retiring Missouri Republican Roy Blunt.

So what happens now, Lisa?

And will Quinton Lucas now enter the race?

- I know Mike's eager to chime in here.

I don't think that Mayor Lucas is jumping into the race yet.

I think that there is a lot of work to do in Kansas City and he teased about it earlier, but I think that at this point he has made enough comments that indicate he's not leaning toward running, although he's come short of giving us an absolute no or yes.

- On this show, a few weeks ago in fact, when he was on, he said he's not interested right now, "but if no other major Democrat gets into this race, I will ask my new wife for forgiveness and I will run," Dia, but you don't see the evidence of that?

- Absolutely not.

That man's got a new baby, all kinds of problems in Kansas City.

And to be fair, I'm just going to address the elephant in the room.

He's like a young millennial-ish black male running a major city in the state of Missouri.

Jay Nixon would have a much better shot to win that seat.

You got to think about Roy Blunt to Quinton Lucas, that's a hard turn.

And so I don't say that to disparage Mr. Lucas as a political candidate, but I do think Jay Nixon, the Democrats were hoping, praying, promising their next firstborn for that one.

- So what happens now then, Mike?

- Democrats take a look around with the three candidates that they have right now that almost nobody outside of a political business knows.

I want to ratify Dia's point here about the fact that a black democratic Senate candidate in the state of Missouri in the current environment wouldn't have a chance.

Lucas saying his organization and cleverly get this trial balloon afloat.

There's no chance that will happen.

And the other thing that is off the boards now that Nixon has decided that he's taking a pass on the race is the interest of national Democrats on trying to flip the Missouri seat has just gone to the bottom of the ocean.

- Micheal says that some of the Democrats already in the race are not known outside of the smaller narrow world of politics in Jefferson City, Dave Helling, but in the sense of when you look over to the Kansas side, Laura Kelly was a state Senator from Topeka.

She wasn't lighting the world on fire at that moment in time, yet she is now the governor of Kansas.

- That's exactly right.

And the Democrats will nominate someone and that someone will be known by the end of the race, but not nearly enough known probably to take on any of the major contenders on the Republican side.

Unless it's Eric Greitens and then the Democrats will have some figuring to do, but let me just quickly say Republicans have an interesting story in the Senate race as well.

Billy Long, the Congressman from Southwest Missouri is now in the race.

There's a lot of talk that Jason Smith might get in, Vicky Hartzler is in, that's three members of Congress, all of whom will be leaving open seats if they go ahead and file for this race against Eric Schmidt and some others.

It's getting very crowded, that A, makes it more likely that Greitens could be the nominee, but B, it also will increase the pressure for the field to narrow, and for some of the members who have already announced they're getting in to get out later this year.

- Housing advocates in Kansas City were fearing an eviction disaster this week after a federal eviction moratorium ended over the weekend.

- Evictions are an act of violence!

Evictions are an act of violence!

- Tenants' rights activists claimed hundreds of Kansas Citians could be forced out of their homes.

In a social media post, Mayor Quinton Lucas says the number was likely to be higher topping 1,000 people.

Then at the last minute a breakthrough, the CDC announcing a new moratorium for the next three months in counties experiencing substantial or high levels of COVID-19 spread.

So does that mean there are no evictions anymore in Kansas City?

- Throughout this eviction moratorium, evictions have been allowed to proceed in certain scenarios.

There are plenty of other reasons landlords can find to evict people besides non-payment of rent, which was the only thing that was covered under the CDC's existing eviction moratorium.

There was also a lot of legwork for tenants to do to fill out the forms required, to make sure they had a landlord that would work with them on it.

It was a burdensome process.

So no, it doesn't mean that evictions will halt in Kansas City, many are still going through, but it is something that housing advocates and tenants say is still desperately needed.

We are still seeing COVID infections spike here, which means that people's incomes are at risk.

- The city, the region, the nation for that matter, is in a pretty tight pickle when it comes to housing and especially rental housing, especially for working class folks.

And that's not going to get better, regardless, whether or not there's an eviction moratorium or not.

- Are we just kicking the can down the road then for another 90 days, Dia Wall, where we have to wrestle with this issue once again?

- Yes and no.

There's a lot of rental assistance money through some of the CARES Act funding that has not been used.

I think the thing that often happens in this conversation is the renters are then pitted against the landlords.

The overwhelming majority of these properties are owned by people like you and me, individuals.

So what happens when you have renters who for 12, 15, 18, 24 months don't pay rent.

Where does that cost come from?

- So landlords though, during this whole process, have they been getting money, Dave?

- Well, some have, and there are programs to get money to some landlords, but Dia is right.

At some point, it becomes a real pinch for the people who own these properties.

And there are stories across the nation of money sitting idle that could go to landlords that is not getting there somehow.

There just isn't a system in which tenants can live indefinitely without paying rent to the owners of their properties.

And so in a broad sense, yes, it's just kicking the can down the road.

- How often, finally, do you get to blow out 200 birthday candles on a cake?

Tuesday is the state of Missouri's 200th birthday, it's the big bicentennial when the country added a 24th star to its flag as Missouri officially became part of the United States.

But boy, our history taking a big hit this week around these parts and it's not just COVID closing the Truman Library for a second week in a row, did you see that thieves stole a 400 pound native American statue from a Kansas City park north of the river.

And if that wasn't bad enough, a big setback this week in those plans to reopen Walt Disney's former studio in Kansas City as a car plows through the building knocking out bricks, toppling scaffolding.

The former Laugh-O-Gram studio is actually just around the corner from us here, is where the famous animator produced a series of early films.

It's also where Disney got his inspiration for Mickey Mouse.

Dia, was this a wanton act of vandalism from someone with a vendetta against Disney, or someone with a few too many drinks or drugs in their system or her system?

- Probably the latter, okay?

I think somebody just was out doing a little bit too much and vandalized the property.

I mean, I don't.

- Can the same be true of someone stealing a seven foot 400 pound statue?

- Now that no, because I think if you're stealing a statue of that weight and size, first of all, you planned this, you've thought this through, where you're going to take it, how you're going to get it.

And the fact that it's a native American piece is also a little bit concerning.

- Here's the other interesting thing about that Shoko statue theft, is the fact that that piece of sculpture was one of three that were erected on top of some stones.

There's another sculpture related to that that's on the ground that probably, I mean, if you're gonna steal a statue from that place, might've been a little easier to haul off.

But yet they took the statute that they did of that native American woman up on top of the stones.

Very interesting and it's really sad.

- All this history disappearing, by the way, Lisa, when we're supposed to be celebrating the 200th birthday of Missouri, is this going to spoil your celebration party?

- I'm much less interesting than you think I am if you thought I had a big celebration party- - No champagne for 200 years or anything like that, okay.

- No, I can take this opportunity to plug a little bit.

We've been working at KCUR on a podcast about the history of Missouri foods to go along with the bicentennial.

And so I think my celebration will be checking out some of the foods that originated right here in Missouri.

I'll start with barbecue.

- I don't want to be a downer here, but I always hope that the 200th anniversary of Missouri statehood would prompt a better, bigger reflection on where the state has been and where it might be going.

It's not just about celebration, it's about understanding what the next 200 years is going to look like.

And given the state of our politics now, Nick, I must say, this was an opportunity missed.

We need to think more about what our children are going to be living in in Missouri than maybe where we have been.

- Thank you, Dave, for being a downer at the end of our program.

We really appreciate that.

As people wanted to be uplifted at they end our week watching public television, thank you.

That is our Week in Review, our thanks to our news reviewers from 41 Action News, Dia Wall and from KMBC 9 News Micheal Mahoney.

From KCUR Lisa Rodriguez, and the Star's Dave Helling.

Next week we move into our summer fundraising drive so I won't get to see your bright smiling face on the other side of the TV screen.

But as truckers like to say, we'll catch you on the flip side.

From all of us here at Kansas City PBS 10-4, oh, and keep calm and carry on.

(upbeat music)